Page 6 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

Nemain scowled down at the wolves as they pushed her to the side to circle me, heaving a sigh. “We cannot keep the Cwn Annwn from entering Tartarus. As part of the Wild Hunt, they are welcome to pass through the gates as they please. But they will not be permitted to interfere with the trials that await you,” she said, tugging on my hand. I heaved a sigh of relief, the knowledge that I wouldn’t be alone in this journey settling some of my nerves—I’d have them to look out for me at least. Nemain guided me through Cerberus’slegs, stepping beneath his towering body to emerge from between his front and back legs.

The gates waited at the top of the stairs, standing wide open as the Cwn Annwn raced forward and sprinted through the doors into the fiery abyss. The Morrigan guided me forward, their touch firm as they took my hands in theirs once more and we began to ascend the steps.

I counted them as I walked, taking each step slowly as I tried to prolong the inevitable torment that surely waited for me within the prison. The gateway was veiled, that same shimmering white fabric floating through the air. I knew enough from my time in Mistfell to understand that it was the magic of a boundary, that it was not actually a transparent linen, but the mist that wafted off of it did nothing to calm me as I considered what may wait for me on the other side.

Four dozen steps separated me from the place where I would die, but I couldn’t stop my feet from moving. I couldn’t stop the way my heart throbbed in my chest, the snake wrapped around there squeezing as if it felt the world shift beneath my feet. I thought of Caldris on the beach, of what I’d undoubtedly left him to deal with in the aftermath of our rebellion.

I couldn’t decide if I was truly the one to be punished, or if he would take the worst of it in my absence.

I didn’t look back as I crossed the threshold, the shimmering haze surrounding me as the Morrigan guided me into the gateway. Magic pressed against my skin, swirling against me as if it wanted to draw my own to the surface. I stepped into the unknown, the hazy bubble popping as it allowed me to slip through. The gates closed slowly behind me, sealing me into the prison that I knew I would never leave.

FOUR

CALDRIS

The cell door creaked open in the early hours of morning the next day, bringing with it the sound of screaming from the throne room. I raised my head from where I’d laid it upon the stone, peeking at the door. Shock thrummed through me in a gentle, pulsing wave the moment my stare met Opal’s, one of Mab’s most loyal members of her court. She stepped back, lowering her gaze to the floor as she returned the keys to the hook on the wall. I pushed to sit slowly, not daring to move too quickly.

For the violence I’d shown in my attempt to kill Mab, I should have been locked in my cell for the duration of Estrella’s trip to Tartarus.

“What are you doing?” I asked, pressing my hand to the stone beneath me. It was cold to the touch, the temperatures this far below the surface plummeting to near icy depths. Even though I was distantly aware of the cold because of the iron surrounding me and suppressing the part of me that craved the winter, it failedto affect me the way it might have some of the others when confronted with it.

Getting to my feet slowly, I made my way to the cell door and wrapped my hand around the bar, pushing it open. My skin boiled beneath the iron, splitting and bubbling as the door opened farther and the female Fae took a step back, nearly stumbling over her own legs in her haste to put distance between us. She was loyal to Mab, though one of her less enthusiastic supporters when it came to some of the more distasteful commands she gave.

She did her duty to her Queen, but she didn’t enjoy it the way Octavian had.

“I need your help,” she said, glancing toward the dungeon door. She’d closed it behind her, sealing us into the room, but the door did not lock from the inside.

“Why would I do anything to help you?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. Her pale silver eyes shone with tears as she dropped her gaze to my arms, to the harshness in them as I prepared to snap her neck. Ridding the world of all of Mab’s children would never be the wrong thing, even if I suffered the consequences of it. For now, Mab needed me alive, and that provided me with some assurance to my survival.

I took a single step forward. Opal dropped back, placing her spine against the stone wall beside the dungeon door. The emerald ends of her hair swayed with the movement, the silver roots shining in the dim firelight overhead.

“You don’t understand. She’s out of control,” she said, her words hurried. She had the rare sprinkle of freckles across her cheeks, inherited from her half-nymph mother once upon a time.

“She’s always been out of control,” I snapped, thrusting my arms out in frustration.

“She’s killingus,” she said, her voice a quiet whisper as she stressed the words. “I’ve only ever seen this kind of rage when a Fae loses their mate forever after centuries together. She’s unhinged.”

“So I’m supposed to care that she’s suddenly killing the people who deserve it?” I asked, scoffing as I glanced toward the dungeon door and the potential escape. After centuries of killing innocents—at least her rage was finally pointed in the right direction. If there was any chance I could make it out undetected, find my way to the cove, then maybe I could enter Tartarus only a day behind Estrella.

I could find her. I could help her.

Opal swallowed, squeezing her eyes closed as she let out a heavybreath. “No, but you’re supposed to care about all the others she’s killing along with us. If she doesn’t stop, there will beno one left!No Sidhe. No Lliadhe.”

The reminder of the Fae that Estrella had protected at the expense of her own pain sent a pang of guilt through me. She would hate me if I left them to suffer to make my way to her, and she would have done everything she could to help them.

My nostrils flared in irritation as I grasped the handle on the dungeon door and pulled it open. “What is it you think I can do to help them? Mab killedmeyesterday,” I said, my huff of laughter echoing off the stone walls. It was only my mate’s blood that had brought me back from the brink of death, making sure I lived to watch her enslaved to the woman I hated with everything I was.

“She’s different with you,” Opal said, taking a step toward me. Her hand came down on my forearm, a familiar touch she hadn’t earned the right to. I snarled and flinched away, refusing the contact with any but my mate. It was only the softened look in her silver gaze that kept me from cutting that hand from her body for daring to touch me when I did not permit it. “You don’t see it, but we do. She’s… softer somehow. Still Mab, but not quite the same as she is with us. You’re her favorite. You remind her of her husband.”

“The husband that she slaughtered in cold blood in front of me?” I asked, stepping through the dungeon door. The sound of screams vibrated off the stone walls even this far into the depths of the hillside, sending a chill up my spine. “I could practically taste her affection even then.”

Even still, my feet hurried up the stone steps toward the throne room. Screaming like that, in a Kingdom that was dominated by pain and suffering, I didn’t want to think of the horrors being committed.

“No!” a shrill female voice screamed, the sound sinking deep into my bones. It was too reminiscent of the howl I’d felt leave my body in the moments before Estrella’s death at the Veil.

Understanding struck me like a lightning bolt to the chest, driving me forward quicker than ever. “I told you she’s out of control!” Opal snapped, following at my heels like the good little follower she was.

“You didn’t tell me she was killing the humans!” I said, refusing to look back at her. Leave it to her to only care about what affected her and those she cared about.

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