Page 3 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

“I almost had you,” I said, the manic sound of my own voice shocking even me. The laughter was hysterical, unhinged as the bloodlust of being separated from my mate so violently rode my body and threatened to take everything from me. “And we both know you brought enough witnesses for the Tithe, that your entire Kingdom will know it soon enough. They’ll know just how close you were to death. What do you think they’ll do with that knowledge?”

She shrugged, pursing her lips as she glanced toward the very witnesses she’d brought to display her strength—the same ones who had nearly watched herfall.“Almost does not accomplish much in the end, does it?” Mab asked, forcing her face back to the carefullycontrolled mask that she needed more than ever. The weakness couldn’t be seen as lasting, not if she wanted to maintain control over Alfheimr in the same way she always had. “I should hope everyone watching will remember your punishment when I come to the dungeon to tear the meat from your bones and hang the ribbons of it in my throne room. I should hope they will be smart enough to avoid such a fate.”

“Ialmosthad you. When it was just me, with my mate as far away as she could possibly be. How long do you think you’ll continue to breathe when she returns?” I asked, holding her stare with my own as her men forced me away. They shoved and kicked at my feet, making me walk toward the halls that would lead back into the palace and then to the dungeon that I’d become just as comfortable in as my own room.

My laughter echoed through the halls as we left, and I hoped the sound would haunt the Queen of Air and Darkness when she fell asleep that night.

My cell was exactly the same as I remembered it as I paced back and forth. It was still too short, leaving me with no choice but to bend over so that my head did not touch the bars at the top of the cell, but I could not simply sit and wait, not with the excess energy driven by my anger and Estrella’s residual magic flooding through me. The same creaking of iron as the guards closed it. The same tang of metal and blood in the air. The same dampness to every breath with the steady stream of water that drained through the dungeon at the center of the walkway between cells. My wrists burned with the pain from the iron shackles her guards had placed on me before dragging me here, keeping me weakened enough to supervise my journey to the dungeons.

The hewn stone had worn away because of the constant flow of water in the center, only a single lantern lighting the space and the torture instruments hanging on the walls. The weapons were rusted over and covered in dried blood, any and all attempts to clean them long since forgotten. It was the slightly curved blade that drew my attention the most, the knowledge of Mab’s threat to tear my flesh from my bones sitting fresh in my mind.

That knife was her favored tool when she wanted to make an example of her victim.

Lozu and Monos lingered in the cell across the hall that had once been where my mate slept, and I never thought I’d see the day when I wished for her to return to it. I would have taken her imprisonment here with me over her banishment to Tartarus any day.

I missed her already, and didn’t understand how I was supposed to survive thirteen days without her at my side under good circumstances. In the worst-case scenario, it was very possible that my mate would never return. That the sight of her vanishing into the waters of the cove would be the last time I ever saw her. It was an emptiness sitting in my gut, a hollow, yawning ache that couldn’t be ignored.

We’d been so close to completing our bond, so close to her being entirely mine, and nothing would stop me from completing it the moment she returned from Tartarus. The white-hot rage of her being lost to me still simmered in my blood. Seeing the moment of fear on Mab’s face had reminded me of something that I’d long ago forgotten.

I was one of the strongest Gods to live. I’d brought entire cities to their knees and commanded armies at Mab’s behest, but I’d forgotten what I was capable of when I acted of my own free will.

Maybe I’d never really known it in the first place—too afraid to reach my own potential because of what that would mean if it wasn’t enough to overcome her. If I embraced my full power and could not win against her, what kind of weapon would I become in her hands?

But now there could be no question left. If Estrella returned, we would be enough.

And we would make Mab tremble on her knees before us.

“Where is your mate?” Monos asked, drifting from the cell she called home and coming into mine. Lozu followed behind her, somewhat reluctantly, but even the grumpy man had formed an attachment to Estrella. She collected allies with every step she took, distributing kindnesses that nobody else seemed willing to give.

“Mab sent her to Tartarus,” I explained, knowing they’d been in these cells long enough to have experienced the way Mab often gave prisoners a choice: life in the cells or a quest to Tartarus.

Monos’s face dropped, that ever present, hollow sort of smile fading from her expression. “All is truly lost then,” she said, glancing toward Lozu and hanging her head as if she hadn’t just insinuated that my mate wouldn’t be coming home. At some point, they’d hung their hopes on a girl who was centuries younger than they were… The irony wasn’t lost on me.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snapped, a growl rumbling up my throat. Monos jumped back, and the motion of the woman who had otherwise found comfort in my presence settled me some. The beast in me prowled beneath the surface, not wanting to frighten the Selkie, but he missed his mate just as much as I did. He would not tolerate anyone doubting her or the sacrifice she’d made to save me.

She’d had no choice, I knew that. So why was I so fucking furious with her for making the choice I would have made if our roles had been reversed?

“As long as she’s still breathing, Estrella will do whatever it takes to come back to us. If you doubt that, then you doubt her, and you aren’t worthy of the loyalty she would show you.”

Monos nodded slowly, her smile returning. But there was something particularly placating in it, as if I was losing my shit, and I could no longer tell reality from fantasy.

Maybe she was right, but it would do nothing to stop me from believing I’d see her again soon.

“Okay, Caldris,” Monos said, bowing her head forward in a slow display of reverence.

“So what are you going to do to help her when she does?” I asked, raising a brow to keep from punching something. The ghosts wouldn’t be the appropriate target for my rage, and the only other items within my cell were made of iron and would cause far more damage than I needed to suffer through when Mab was likely to take out her anger on me all on her own.

Monos and Lozu exchanged a glance, and the gnome nodded before he spoke.

“We’ll rally the Lliadhe to fight, should the Princess return,” he said, nodding his head supportively in spite of the doubt in those words.

“When she returns,” I corrected, lowering my bent-over body to sit in my cell.

“When she returns,” Monos agreed.

“Why would the Lliadhe help? They’ve never concerned themselves with the politics of the Sidhe before?” In all my centuries of life, I’d never seen them even bother to follow the gossip of the Sidhe beyond passing curiosity. While we were all Fae, the lines had long since been drawn between our two classes. It was past time for the lines to be removed, for us to move together into the future in a united front.

“What difference has it made in the past? One Sidhe treats us nodifferently than another. We are merely servants and entertainment to most; the nobles are the worst,” Lozu answered, moving to the corner of the cell to pick through any flesh that might have remained from an occupant who stayed here after my last trip to the dungeon.

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