Page 153 of Cathmoir's Sons

Idiot. “Are you hurt?” I ask, framing my mate’s face with a concerned palm.

Caileán tips her head back and looks up at me with tear-bright eyes. She takes a deep breath in and lets it out, connectingwith her Element. She smiles up at me tremulously, while brine that’s not of the sea cuts crystal paths down her cheeks.

“I’m okay,” she whispers. “My team?”

Her eyes slip away from my face to the people—and demon—who appeared with her. The Void Mage is still gripping Caileán’s hand.

“All okay,” the Void Mage responds.

“We should all take Luca’s decompression potion just to be safe,” Caileán murmurs.

I brush my twin’s mind to warn him. He pushes back reassurance on a warm, summer breeze.

“Luca’s standing by,” I tell Caileán as I lick tears from her cheeks. “What happened?”

Caileán drops her hand forward, looking down at the hand she holds against her stomach. Slowly, she uncurls her fingers.

A tiny skull and group of bones sit on her palm. The bones are so small, so fine, they could be bird bones ... except that the skull is unmistakably human. Well, other than the two tiny lumps of horns rising above the empty eye sockets. The bones are discolored, yellowish, all but the horns. They glow like pearls in Torre Faro’s winter light.

My breath catches. I’ve seen horns like that before.

“Caileán, where did you get those?”

“Charybdis gave them to me. I gave her my crown. She’s been blinded and trapped on the edge of Hell for three thousand years. She’s going to try to find her mother.”

More tears slip down her cheeks. Rhodes nuzzles in on his side, murmuring, “Baby, baby, it’s okay.”

I thumb her tears away gently. “Is it over?”

She nods. “This is Ulune’s Daughter. I have to return her to her mother.”

“I think I know where to find her, my love.”

After a harried half-hour where we watch the divers for any sign of the bends, pack up the Tech Mage’s equipment, and a very frustrated Fire Mage stews over the “treasure” Caileán’s recovered, we retire to Ty Olewydd.

Where we find four crows perched around the living room while my twin holds a seemingly one-sided conversation with the snowy bird on his shoulder.

The demon, who has taken possession of the sad collection of bones, throws the albino crow a very dark look before he stalks into the kitchen.

Didrane cackles as only a crow can.

The white crow remains on Luca’s shoulder as he distributes the decompression elixir to the mortal divers. Arch, to no one’s surprise, refuses to take it, even while his eyes and nose run from the proximity to the birds.

Caileán looks like she’s going to argue with him, but the team’s Seer beats her to it. “Then you need to spend a day in a decompression chamber,” Cami says, crossing her arms over her thin chest. “There’s one in Cefalù. Do you want me to call ahead to see if they have space for you?”

Arch stares at her open-mouthed. “Uh-I don’t think?—”

“You’ll need it. I’ve Seen it.”

“You have?”

Cami nods, glaring at her team leader. Daring him, I think, to challenge her vision.

Arch takes the small bottle from Luca and gulps it down.

Cami drops her arms and pats Arch on the shoulder before she follows Jou into the kitchen.

The rest of the team keep straight faces with obvious effort.

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