Page 54 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

It walked up behind me, and I spun with my sword in hand. Tawny eyes met mine, its massive head only a breath away as I held its gaze in a silent warning. I raised my sword, pressing it to the underside of his neck. He raised it to allow me better access, allowing me to saw off a chunk of hair from his mane.

His purr echoed through the space, igniting one in my own chest as he rubbed the side of his face against mine.

Moving past him, I ignored the sounds of his feast as his teeth met flesh. I ignored Melinoe’s screams, feeling nothing as I made my way to stand on the sands before the obelisk.

I stood before the Primordials waiting on the dais at the top, glaring up at them and holding my father’s gaze. His mouth spread into a wide smile as amusement lit up his eyes.

“What am I to do with you, daughter?” he asked, watching as I tossed the collection of hair onto the sands before me in an offering. “Never before has someone taken their power back from Tartarus in the middle of the trials.”

I shrugged my shoulders, shoving my sword back into the scabbard behind my back. “Good,” I said, smiling up at the man I refused to think of as my father. He might have given me my magic, but every other trace of him within me had to be gone after centuries of rebirth. “I would so hate to be predictable.”

His smile widened, a laugh bubbling up his throat as those around him stared at him in shock. I gave a mock bow, grinning slightly when he returned it with a flourish.

“Until the next river, Khaos,” I said, using his name instead of the word he thought he deserved and the respect that went with it.

“You can avoid calling me father all you want, Estrella, but you are more my daughter on this day than you ever have been before,” he said, and my smile faltered at the words. They were an echo of the fear I felt, a reminder that the creature I’d embraced was probably the part of me that came from him. “Until the next river.”

The water came down, sucking me into the vortex of green. Pain and sorrow struck through me, forcing me into a pit of anguish even as the waters thrashed me in all directions.

THIRTY-FOUR

CALDRIS

I sat, sinking my hands in the sand at my sides. There’d been no sign of Estrella since she plunged into the river while I watched, sinking beneath the green surface of the water. I watched it relentlessly, running a hand through Fenrir’s, Lupa’s, and Ylfa’s fur as they took turns trying to comfort me, while simultaneously restraining me from wandering into the depths of the river I would not survive. The ferryman lingered on his boat, hesitant to leave until he knew Estrella was alright. I was grateful for the diligence, knowing he would take me to the Void himself if she didn’t emerge.

But I felt nothing of her, no symptom of her death.

I knew in my heart I would know the moment she was gone. I would feel her soul leave this world, knowing it had taken the better part of me with it.

I didn’t want to live without her, and for that, I needed to be the one to die first. I needed to never be forced to experience a single moment without her here with me.

Fenrir nudged my arm with his snout more forcefully, making me turn my stare away from the river. I jolted to my feet, seeing the spin of gold light from within the white lines of my Fae Marks.

“Caldris,” Medusa said, closing the distance as I rose. She wrapped her hands around my arm, turning it in the light to watch the delicate shine of gold. It was just the faintest hint of a sparkle, barely noticeable if Fenrir hadn’t sensed it. The Goddesses who had introduced themselves as the Morrigan stepped closer to join us at the edge of the river.

Medusa and I watched in fascination as the faint golden light spread through the winding marks of my tattoo, filling every last space that had once been white and gleaming like the golden city of Ineburn. “What’s happening?” I asked, remembering the way the last time my marks had turned gold, I’d consumed Estrella’s blood.

But it had been days since I’d fed from her, and the sudden influx of power didn’t make sense.

“She took her power back,” Medusa said, her disbelieving grin spreading across her face as she tipped her head to the sky and laughed. The Morrigan sisters studied one another, their mouths open in shock as they too studied my arms.

“What do you mean she took itback?” I asked, staring at the three birdlike women. They shuffled their feet uncomfortably, until finally the one with the black hair opened her mouth and answered me.

“All who enter the Trials of the Five Rivers must willingly offer their magic to Tartarus for safekeeping until they’ve completed the tasks set before them,” she said, her chin rising in defiance.

“You mean to tell me,” I said, pausing as my hands clenched into fists. Medusa gentled her arm on mine, the touch turning to something reassuring instead of urgent. “That my mate has been forced to surviveTartarusand fuck knows what kind oftrialsas a human?”

“You would be wise to remember your mate was raised as a human. She is no stranger to functioning without magic,” the red-eyed Morrigan answered. As if the fact that Estrella had been forced to suffer through a human existence for all this time somehow justified doing it to her again, but in a place that could kill her at any moment.

I didn’t want to consider what manner of creatures hunted under the cover of darkness in a place like this.

“What could possibly be achieved by taking away her magic? What can she prove that way?” I asked, pulling my arm back from Medusa.

“Estrella has been chosen for a fate that you cannot even begin toimagine. There is more to her future than simply having the power to do as she pleases. She must prove herself to have inner strength as much as outer strength. She must prove that she is kind, but fair, that she cannot be controlled by the human sensibilities that are undoubtedly a part of her given her upbringing,” Medusa answered, her voice quiet. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but he needs Estrella to prove who sheis.Not the strength of her magic.”

I paused, studying her as my brow furrowed. “Who ishe?” I asked, staring back over the water.

“He is the origin of everything and nothing all at the same time. He is the here and now, as well as everything that came before,” she said, her words somehow making no sense even though I understood them perfectly. My throat closed, fear of the finality of the words that would relieve any doubt I’d had as to what Estrella could become. “And if he is everything that has already been, she is what has yet to come.”

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