Page 95 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

The answer would change everything.

Medusa raised her chin, her green eyes shining bright. It wasn’t tears that made them seem to sparkle, but the hidden sheen of gold within the green. Serpentine, they slithered through the grass of that stare as she watched me.

“All cycles have an end,” she said, her bottom lip trembling slightly as she moved to approach the steps. She stopped just before them, reaching out with a hand to touch her palm to the center of my chest. Even in the armor I wore that covered my skin, I felt something move within me in response, a golden thread writhing overher skin in response. I yanked at the collar of my armor, tugging it away from my chest as Caldris fought to untie it to give me the space I needed to maneuver. Something played beneath my skin, a thin line of gold that was so like the threads I’d touched on so many occasions. But where those had all been straight and smooth, this was a knotted bundle at the center of my chest just above my heart. It was not connected to the thread of my life that I could see swaying in the wind if I focused, but something else entirely. “All things must die, Estrella. All lives must end.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, my voice a deep rasp. Caldris pressed tighter, and I knew that he’d understood the words I couldn’t seem to grasp. I wasn’t sure if it was because I didn’twantto understand yet, or if I was missing information that would somehow prove to be vital.

“You will in time. It is your destiny to end the cycle that has existed since the dawn of creation. It is your destiny to remake the world as you see fit and begin anew. It is your destiny to destroy us all, so that we can be reborn from the ashes of your wrath,” she said, making me furrow my brow. She made me sound like a monster, like a villain meant to do the very thing I wanted to condemn. Her earlier words repeated in the back of my mind, the comfort she’d given me in my moments where I’d feared how the world would see me.

Every hero is a villain of someone else’s story.

“You, my love, are the Tempest of the Fates. You were born to shift the balance of power, for you carry a piece of the Fates inside you that can never be carved out,” she said, pulling her hand away from that knot all over again. I felt the tangle inside me now, felt the well of power brighten now that it had been recognized. Now that I saw it, I could not imagine how I’d ever missed it before.

“How?” I asked, touching my hand to my chest to soothe the ache it left behind.

“They told me it was the only way I would ever have the child I so desperately wanted. It was the only way to fortify you and I so that you could survive pregnancy. They placed the knot within my womb and sent your father and I into that very temple,” she said, nodding her head to the place where I knew Caldris and I had to go. “The place that was your beginning and when the time comes, this will be your end as well.”

She turned her back on us finally, running her hand through Ylfa’s fur as the wolves sat on guard at the bottom of the steps, watching over the entrance to the place that I knew I needed to go. I didn’t wantto, didn’t want to face whatever waited for me within, yet Caldris tied my armor and took my hand, guiding me toward the temple at last.

No more hiding.

No more secrets.

These were the days where I uncovered the truth of my creation, where my destiny laid itself bare at last, and I couldn’t have been more fucking terrified.

His hand was heavy in mine as he guided me up the steps, pausing at the top to look down at me from his place beside me. “You can do this alone, if that is what you wish,” he said. Even though I knew it pained him to make such an offer when all he wanted was to remain at my side, his love pouring down the bond in such deep waves I thought I might choke.

I wasn’t ready for this. Wasn’t ready to know the truth. The thought of facing that alone was too great a burden, so I tightened my grip on his hand and took the first step.

My palm touched the heavy doors crafted from molten rock, a circle at the center glowing with gold at the moment of contact. They spread open before me, creaking with their weight as I stared into the darkened temple. There was no light to be found within, no sun to be had as night descended on the village at my back. It came with a swift, heavy darkness that seemed impossible, and I took in a deep breath of air that I held in my lungs until they burned. With a sigh, I took the first step and crested the threshold of the temple, dragging Caldris behind me.

It was a darkness without stars within, a night so true I couldn’t see anything.

Then myviniculumpulsed with golden light, traveling from my hand and to my arm and shoulder in a wave that then flowed into Caldris. There was a thud somewhere in front of us, a noise that made me believe we were not alone in this strange place. A creak of something that seemed to be everywhere at once, the noise permeating the darkness as I spun in place.

Another thud from somewhere behind me, the click of a locking mechanism snapping into position as the doors sealed shut.

Trapping us inside.

SIXTY-ONE

ESTRELLA

The world plunged into absolute darkness, the likes of which I’d never known. I gripped Caldris tighter, clinging to the one lifeline I had when it felt like I was suspended within nothing. Words rippled across my skin, a voice I couldn’t account for whispering through the breeze that stole through the entryway.

“From chaos, she was born.”

The voice was soft and feminine, gentle and haunting. Gooseflesh rose on my skin, raising the hair on the back of my neck. I wished more than anything that I could see. Wished that I could find the person responsible for the voice, but I somehow knew it wasn’t a tangible person.

“And in chaos, she will reign.”

It was my mate’s turn to shudder, the words so similar to the refrain that we had adopted asours, as a statement of our love. Never had either of us considered that it might be part of a bigger riddle, a piece to fit into the puzzle of my existence. “Until chaos reigns,” hemuttered in my head, and I felt the weight of his gaze on my profile. I couldn’t stand to turn to look at him, couldn’t handle the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see him in this darkness, that the black ink of night stole everything from the world and plunged it into a void of nothingness.

Even with his hand in mine, in this place, in this time, I was alone with only his voice inside my head to ground me and keep me floating into the darkness.

“Welcome home, Tempest of Fate. We have waited eons for you.”

A torch lit on the wall beside me, one matching on the opposite wall beside Caldris. The fire pulsed, casting his face with golden light that made him look starkly beautiful. He shimmered like a statue in the sun, hisviniculumresponding to mine. In a synchronized wave, torches lit on the wall one by one creating a path down the narrow entry. In the distance, the hall opened into an enormous, cavernous room that was filled with light. There was no denying the impulse to make my way there, to follow the guide that had been set out for us. Caldris squeezed my hand reassuringly as we took our first step as one, moving together as a unit. My steps were slow, cautious, and uneasy as we made our way toward the truth waiting for me in that room.

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