Page 34 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

She would never reach me before they devoured me.

Even if she had,thiswas not something I could overcome. It was not something the Cwn Annwn and I could fight at once.

This was the end.

The creatures came forward until I could make out every line of fur on their skin, only slowing when a group of basilisks slithered over the ground. They moved as one unit, all six of them coming to rest in front of me. The creatures charging me tried to stop, their feet and paws skidding over the ground.

The basilisks rose up onto their tails, their bodies leaving the ground as they shifted into somethingelse.What had once been a single tail split into two legs, the scales fading off in favor of scaled armor and boots. The figures of six women came into being, from their feet up to their heads. The hair on their heads writhed, moving as if it was alive as it came into view and the scales of the basilisks fell to the earth.

“Do not look, Neamhai,” Fenrir said, using that name once again. “Just to be safe.”

Celestial one.

One by one, the creatures froze in place, expressions of terror trapped on their faces. Starting from the area surrounding their eyes, skin cracked and fur hardened.

The creatures turned to stone, blending in with the red earth below their feet. Plants lingered in the distance, offering a bright pop of green to an otherwise monochromatic landscape.

The creatures became statues, unmoving and part of the earth. The sheer number of them when they were stone took my breath away, but I couldn’t stop to think about what the implication of that meant as the phoenix finally flew overhead.

His call echoed through me, making me gasp as the wound in my stomach gushed with blood anew. The skin warmed but didn’t heal, but Fenrir pushed to his feet with a whimper. His gaze was cast toward the ground, his stare not meeting the basilisks as his back healed.

I kept my gaze firmly rooted to the ground, wincing when one of the women stepped around me. Her boots filled my vision, the scales on her pants intricate and fascinating. She touched a finger beneath my chin, grasping me there and applying pressure to raise my head.

I closed my eyes as she moved my head to face her, squeezing them closed in desperation. What had been the point in saving me if she wanted to turn me to stone?

“Open your eyes, Little Serpent,” she said, the voice low and melodic. Something in that voice called to me, making me want to obey her. I wrinkled my nose, keeping my eyes closed out of spite. “You have nothing to fear from usss.”

I believed her. Believed the honesty in her voice.

“Estrella…”Fenrir warned, the irritated sound of him in my head doing nothing to dissuade me.

The woman pressed two firm hands into my wound, her touch cold compared to the flaming heat of the wound. I screamed out as I tried to shove her back, but she held firm. My eyes flew open and found the eyes of a snake within the face of a beautiful woman. A Gorgon, I realized, my gaze darting over the snakes slithering around her head. They reached toward me, lingering close to my face as if scenting me. She accepted a scrap of cloth from one of the others, wrapping it tightly around my waist into a bandage to help contain my bleeding.

“Welcome home, Estrella Barlowe,” the woman said, and I felt Fenrir’s sigh of relief at my back. Lupa and Ylfa nuzzled my side, keeping their gaze averted as I stared into the eyes of the Gorgon woman.

But I didn’t turn to stone.

I turned to Fenrir, my mind dancing with questions. He’d suspected I would turn to stone like the others, so why hadn’t I?

“You can never be too cautious, Neamhai.”

TWENTY-TWO

CALDRIS

I stepped into the abandoned hallway outside Estrella’s rooms. Nila lingered in the room, tending to the space as if Estrella would return at any moment and require her services.

The table was covered in wildflowers, a slow procession of Lliadhe making their way in and out of the room in silence in direct opposition to Mab. I imagined she hadn’t wandered into this part of the palace, hadn’t had any reason to with Estrella gone from it, but if she ever did, she’d be furious to find the quiet rebellion in support of my mate.

“What’s going on?” I asked, clearing my throat. Nila and the wide-eyedacalicaEstrella had drawn into her dance in the throne room looked up from where they worked to carefully arrange the display. Theacalica’s fingers were long and spindly, her teeth razor-sharp as she turned her stare to me.

“Does she have a favorite flower?” Nila asked, glancing around at what remained on the table. Her energy was nervous, her movementfrenzied as she tried to straighten them as if it wasn’t likely to take Estrella days to return yet.

I ran through the possibilities in my mind, examining the memory of the flowers we’d passed in our journeys. There were few options with the approach of winter upon us, most of the true flowers had died already. But there was one memory, a drawing in a book during our stay with the Resistance that she’d run her fingers over, pausing to study it.

I imagined she’d never seen it before, the trees responsible not likely to be favored in a village designed for growing crops to feed Nothrek.

“Night Blossoms,” I said, referring to the flowers that budded on the Loreth trees in the peak of summer. They existed only at the fringes of the Summer Court where it touched Spring and Autumn, favoring sticky, balmy nights. The flowers emerged from their buds beneath the light of the full moon, their petals the deepest purple of the midnight sky.

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