Page 152 of Cathmoir's Sons

“In exchange for the bones?”

“No, I give you my crown freely, to reunite a daughter with her mother.”

A sigh gusts over my skin. “You’ve lost the woman who called you daughter?”

“Yes, in the battle against the Thunderer.”

“She died to protect you?”

“She died to protect us all. She died to save the world. All the mothers. All the daughters. All those who walk in the now. All those to come. Carrie gave her life for us. She reached back from the grave to send me here and I can think of no better way to honor her than to help you find your mother.”

Fingertips trace my face in silence. There’s a deep, rhythmic flexing in the darkness. I recognize Val’s power. She’s trying to break whatever wards Charybdis has up that are robbing me of sight and sound. Val’s hand is still clenched around mine. I can’t hear her, Jou, or Gabe, or Arch. The whole world is silent, narrowed down to the soft touch of skin in the darkness.

I squeeze Val’s hand to let her know I’m okay.

“I think I know the bones you want,” Charybdis whispers. “The tiniest bones. They were brought to me. Not claimed by wind and water. They came to me on a wave of poison, during my darkest dreams. Tiny, tiny bones. Bird bones for a bird queen. I think they’re what you seek.”

“Carrie called her Ulune’s Daughter,” I offer.

“Yes, daughter of sadness and betrayal and heartbreak. Daughter of the dark moon. A child who lived only long enough to divide lovers. To ravage a mother’s heart before she died. An entire life unlived. A baby girl’s bones. Stolen from her mother’s breast to molder here in the deeps with me. To remind me every day of the mother I’d never be, entombed here alone.” The tentacle holding my arm to my side slips downward to curl around my calf. A warm hand presses a cool bundle that feelslike a rock and collection of twigs into my palm. A ragged nail scrapes my knuckle.

“Return her to her mother,” Charybdis murmurs. That broken nail scrapes my forehead as she lifts the Crown of the North off my head. Lips brush my cheek. The hot, muscular coils constricting me fall away. “Go home, bird queen. Take your people and go. I give you all my blessing. You will not suffer from visiting the deeps today.”

“Thank you,” I say. “I give you my blessing in return, and my earnest wish that Gaia answers your call.”

A warm breeze tickles my cheeks, lifts my wet hair. “Will you find us all, bird queen? All the lost daughters of Mother Earth and Father Sea? All those despised by the Thunderer for our gentling influence on sky and storm? All those who remain. Echidna, Stheno, Euryale, Thoosa. Will you sail to the ends of the Earth and find them?”

“If you’re giving me this quest in exchange for Ulune’s Daughter, I will accept it. But I’ll decline if you permit. I’ll soon bear my own child. I owe him or her and my consorts many years of love and attention. Sailing to the ends of Earth will be challenging with a newborn.”

The breeze titters. “They’ve been lost for thousands of years. They’ll probably keep until you have time to look for them. I won’t task you with finding them. Ulune’s Daughter is yours, fairly and freely won. But if someday you find yourself bored upon your throne, the lost daughters of Gaia might appreciate being found.”

I nod into the darkness. “I’ll remember.”

“I’ll remember,” Charybdis echoes. “I’ll remember that you came not with murder on your mind but with compassion in your heart. I’ll remember that you could have fought and taken what you wanted from me but stayed your hand. I’ll remember that you gave me the crown off your brow. I’ll remember yourkindness and wisdom, bird queen. And I will be sure to tell my mother when I find her.”

“Fare thee well, daughter of Gaia,” I say, giving her the old parting, the ancient blessing.

“Fare thee well, Caileán,” she responds, the gentlest sough of a sea breeze.

I squeeze Val’s hand, hoping that gives her a little warning before I pull us into Faery. Before I can tear the aether, cool, gray light floods my vision. Blinded as much by the sudden light as by Charybdis’ unnatural darkness, I blink.

Chapter 43

Mother’s Milk

LAW

Ismell her before I see her: salt and musk, sunlight on pines, a thread of hot copper.

I whip around from where I’m standing with the timid Seer and scan the horizon.

A line of five figures appears where sand meets foam. They stumble into being as if belched forth by the sea. Their wetsuits and the demon’s horns clip the shapes of night out of the gray horizon.

I roar and rush to my mate. The human is a step behind me, flowing over the sand like a flash flood. We crush Caileán between us, protecting her with our bodies.

The human speaks before I have a chance to, while I’m still running my hands over my mate, looking for any injury.

“Baby, are you okay?” the human hisses, thin with worry. “How’d you get here? Did you decompress? What happened?”

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