Page 21 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

“I can’t just leave him,” I said, aware of the way Fenrir’s feet moved. He wasn’t going anywhere fast, but he kept moving. The Morrigan, Lupa, and Ylfa surrounded us, moving in a synchronized pattern meant to keep me hidden. In this place, in this moment, I was the weak link.

Daughter of a Primordial or not. Princess of Khaos or not. The wards had taken all of that and Caldris’s magic from me as well, leaving me as defenseless as a newborn fawn in this place filled with monsters.

“He’ll be fine come morning,” Macha said, but the words didn’t reassure me.

“What does that even mean?” I whispered, my voice coming out too much like a scathing hiss. I couldn’t stand the thought of Brann hurting, of him suffering, but I’d never felt more helpless than I did in this place in spite of the swords strapped across my back.

“It means something will probably eat him tonight, but the phoenix will revive him come morning as she does all those who are punished here. It is an eternity of death and suffering,” Badb answered.

“No,” I said, swallowing back my fear. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I heard him scream and did nothing to help him. Survival or not, that would leave a stain on my soul that could never be washed clean.

“No?” Macha asked as Fenrir’s body sagged with a sigh. He knew damn well I wouldn’t leave it alone, and I felt him shift his body to head back in the direction of Brann’s continued cry for me. “You won’t survive. The phoenix will not revive you in the morning if you die. You have a physical form here as a visitor for the trials. You are not a prisoner of Tartarus.”

“Then I guess I’d better not fucking die, yeah?” I asked, grimacing as I thought of it. “I walked away before, but I cannot this time. A stranger you implied is a terrible person is one thing, but this is my fucking brother!”

“You cannot even see in the darkness,” Badb argued. I had to concede that she had a point there, but fortunately the wolves couldsee. The Morrigan could see, and while they weren’t allowed to intervene in the trials, nothing said they couldn’t protect themselves from the consequences of my stubbornness.

“Yet you called me stubborn,” Fenrir growled.

“No!” Brann cried as we came closer, and I suspected it was because he couldn’t see in the dark either.

“It’s alright,” I murmured as Fenrir stopped and stood in front of Brann. I jumped off Fenrir’s back, sliding my body next to my brother’s and searching for his hand. The ground shook beneath us, a warning of the monstrosities that were about to emerge in the night.

“Find shelter. Quickly,” he snapped, yanking his hand back in rejection. I tumbled sideways, falling over as the ground cracked beneath the stone. It split beneath my hand, darting over the surface and opening a chasm in the ground. Fire erupted from it as Fenrir grabbed me by the back of my armor, carefully snatching the fabric between his teeth and tossing me to the side.

He leapt after me, his massive body coming to stand over me as fire emerged from the gasping wound in the earth. The flames crept higher, resulting in a sudden wave of light that was so bright it blinded me. Shoving a hand to cover my eyes against the worst of it, I protected myself the best I could as I looked for the other wolves, the Morrigan,Brann.

They’d escaped the chasm, for the most part landing on the opposite side of where Fenrir had tossed me. Only Brann had come to this side, leaving most of our protection separated from us by the massive cavern that opened in the ground.

“The fire, Estrella!” Badb yelled, the words not making any sense. I might have been immune to the flames, but that didn’t mean I could use them as a weapon either. “Your blades!”

I crawled out from beneath Fenrir as he growled at the chasm, rolling to my feet and pulling my swords from their sheath in a quick, fluid motion that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with training so deep it became muscle memory. I leaned over the chasm, plunging my hands and blades into the flames that erupted.

Something began to climb out of the fire, an enormous mass of flesh and muscle that forced me to swallow. The chasm began to close the moment it ascended the gap, stepping onto the ground closer to Fenrir. He vanished into the darkness as I tried to allow my blades to burn in the flames for as long as possible, my pulse rising with every moment where it was out of sight.

The chasm closed in a ripple behind him, making me pull my blades back sharply to avoid being crushed in the process. The blades continued to burn, the flames licking along the metallic surface as if it were a tree limb for kindling, even as my hands and armor refused to catch fire, offering me the slightest bit of light as I pushed to my feet and used the light from the blades to find my way to Brann.

He crouched on the ground beside the stone, his chains clanking as he tried to make himself small. I shoved him to the side, raising one of my swords above my head and bringing it down upon the chain in a quick, swift slice. Metal clanked against metal, the chains giving beneath the sharp edge of my blade as I did it again and again, letting the fire burn through the iron in a way I never would have been able to do.

I was so close to cutting through the last of the chain when Fenrir growled and Brann cried out in pain. I jumped to my feet, positioning my blades at the ready. One remained by my waist, one rising to the level of my eye to help me see in the darkness.

Fenrir had clamped his mouth down on the creature that was even larger than him, his teeth digging into the leather-looking flesh of an arm. He tore his head from side to side, working to shred the skin and muscle of whatever he’d latched onto. Lupa and Ylfa used the closed chasm to cross the distance, launching themselves at the creature’s back. They slammed into him with all their force, knocking him forward.

I shifted my blade, allowing myself to see the creature who had crawled out of the abyss with greater clarity while the wolves occupied him.

Two angled eyes of flame existed below a strong, protruding brow. The creature had no nose or lips, only a gaping maw of razor-sharp teeth that snapped at me as I raised my blade in response. I blocked his bite at the last moment, cringing back as his teeth clamped down on it and he cut his gums as he tried to bite his way through it.

I jabbed my second sword forward while he was distracted, sinking the flaming blade into his gut. The resounding howl he gave echoed through Tartarus, a high-pitched scream that sounded wrong considering his height. I pulled back, yanking my blade free. It wasn’t fast enough as his free arm thrust forward, his fist connecting with the side of my face. Thrown to the side, I scrambled to hold onto my blades and keep them from stabbing myself as I landed on the dirt, skidding across it and feeling all the little pebbles and rocks scrape the skin of my cheek. Heat bloomed beneath where he’dstruck me, the distinct memory of bruising forcing me to shift my jaw from side to side as I got to my feet.

My face throbbed as it swelled, my lip already feeling too large for my face.

I raced forward as Fenrir fought to climb the creature with teeth and claws. I lunged forward, racing toward them as Ylfa and Lupa jumped back.

I threw myself to the ground as he reached for me, his arms grasping thin air as I turned to my back and skidded across the dirt, keeping my blades tucked in close as I slid between his feet. I spread my blades as I passed through, cutting the sinew at the backs of his knees and watching as he stumbled forward.

His knees struck dirt, making him short enough for Fenrir to get closer to his throat, but not close enough. He sprawled on the dirt, rolling onto his back as Fenrir lunged.

The creature caught Fenrir by the jaw, grasping his top and bottom teeth in enormous hands. Fenrir yelped as he fought to free himself, forcing me to my feet as I raced toward the creature holding him captive.

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