Page 35 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

Nila turned to theacalica, nodding her head in encouragement. “Tell the others. They can relay the message to those who are free to find the flowers.”

The Lliadhe faerie fled the bedroom, leaving Nila and I alone. Her eyes were sad, her features expressing every bit of worry she felt for my mate. “She’ll come back,” I said, attempting to keep my voice strong. My mate collected people, collected the souls of those who earned kindness and had been denied it by those who would force them into submission.

The Lliadhe saw something of themselves in Estrella. They saw a woman the world had been determined to make small, standing up to her oppressors even if it meant carrying the weight of her punishments.

“How do you know she’ll be back? How do you know she’ll survive this?” Nila asked, her voice barely a whisper. She looked to the door, and it struck me that Nila had taken the duty of keeping their hope alive. She’d been forced to remain strong for the others, but in this moment, she knew she could be vulnerable.

She knew I missed more than what the Llaidhe saw as their savior. I missed the woman I loved.

“Because she would never allow anything to force her to leave us to suffer. She would never leave this world knowing there are people who need her help,” I said, taking a step toward Nila. I didn’t touch her, and she didn’t dare to cross the gap between us either.

“She would never leaveyouhere without her,” Nila said, a small smile appearing on her face.

“She would never leave me. She’ll do whatever it takes to survive,” I agreed, allowing the confidence of those words to sink deep inside me. Estrella was distant, the bond pulled taut between us and leaving me at the fringes of her emotions. I couldn’t make them out, but I still felt closer to her than I had in those moments after she discovered my true identity.

Then I’d had to wonder if my mate would ever forgive me, accept me,chooseme. Now I was settled in the knowledge that she would choose me every day for the rest of her life, doing whatever it took to return to my side.

That was love. It was the undeniable bond between us that even she couldn’t deny any longer.

It was what had driven her to forgive my deception in the first place.

“They need her to come back. She gave them hope,” Nila said, looking toward the empty doorway as if she expected another Lliadhe to appear at any moment. She rubbed her hands over her face, wiping away any traces of emotion and donning the mask she must have worn to keep them all going.

“These are offerings,” I said, my voice quiet as I studied the flowers on the table.

“They don’t have much,” Nila said, explaining the lack of gold that the humans had once left in the temples of the Gods they worshipped.

Estrella wouldn’t have wanted gold or coin anyway. Those things meant nothing to her but suffering.

“But they give what they can,” I said, smiling as I thought of a young Estrella who might have done the same in a different life.

“The humans have their Gods,” Nila said, even now with the knowledge that they’d chosen The Father and The Mother over the Fae Gods of Old, they still made offerings to the beings they believed would bring them eternal peace. “Now the Lliadhe have theirs.”

“They’ll die before she returns,” I said, glancing down to the flowers.

“And every day, they will bring more. Maybe she can feel it, feel our belief. The Fae Gods were said to be stronger when the humansbelieved. Maybe she will be, too,” Nila said, studying my face for any sign that it might have been true.

It was so long ago, I didn’t know when I’d settled into my life ofservitude to a Queen I hated. Once, I’d been strong enough to oppose her in my own way, but it wasn’t until Estrella that I felt like I could rid us of her in truth.

“Maybe she will,” I said, agreeing with Nila’s belief. Even if it didn’t help Estrella, it helped those she’d been forced to leave behind.

It would help the army she had at her disposal when she returned.

“What if Mab sees them? Aren’t you afraid of the consequences for you?” I asked. Given that Nila had been tasked with caring for Estrella and her rooms during her time at Tar Mesa, she would be the first suspect on Mab’s warpath if the time came.

“Then let her see,” Nila said with a shrug that felt so defeated compared to the hopeful woman I’d witnessed at Estrella’s side. “But she has no reason to come to this part of the castle now.”

“And what of her spies?” I asked, glancing back to the open door. The others who had come and gone from this space did so hurriedly, but Nila was willful enough to know there was no point to her hiding this with the location being what it was.

“None are willing to stand before her long enough to report what we’ve done anymore. They’re too busy hiding from her wrath, and I must admit that has brought us some freedom to move throughout the castle. Mab’s real power has always been her far reach and the eyes she has everywhere. Without that outright loyalty, she’s weakened herself slightly at least,” Nila said, returning to fussing over the contents of the room. She’d clearly taken to keeping the space perfect for Estrella, for when she returned, but she was riddled with anxious energy in a way that felt unnatural.

She stopped, sighing and forcing herself to be still as she finally looked at me. Her smile was hesitant. “Is there anything else we can do?” Nila asked, studying my face.

“I need to leave Tar Mesa,” I said, watching her eyes widen. To not be here when Estrella returned was unthinkable to both of us, but I would need to do it to be there for her while she was gone. “I have a way to sneak into Tartarus, but it will require me to soul-walk for a time. The ritual is risky without a witch at my side, and I haven’t seen Imelda since that day at the cove.” Worry laced my words as I spoke them, and Nila’s pinched brow was all I needed to know that she had not either.

“The Wild Hunt is here,” Nila said, reaching out to grasp my arm in shock. She jolted back immediately, turning for the door. “They’vebrought more of the human mates to the dungeons below. If you hurry, you may catch them before they leave.”

Holt would need to disobey his Queen to play the song that could pull my soul from my body in the night, but he could do it.

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