Page 42 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

“It’s not the same,” she said, shaking her head. “Everyone knows he has no love for his other children. They were created purely out of a need to populate the realm at a time when there weren’t many living souls, when he was still bleeding from the betrayal of his first wife. But you were conceived in love, Estrella. Our intention was always to raise you ourselves, but after I got pregnant, he became moreparanoid than ever. Mab was seeking out her other siblings and killing them, collecting the heads of the Gods as trophies. He fell asleep seeing that fate for you every night, and we knew it was only a matter of time before the rumor of your birth reached her and she sent an assassin to kill you in your crib.”

“So you sent me away,” I said, resisting the burn of tears in my throat.

Whoever Khaos might have been to me, whatever kind of father he’d intended to be, there was little evidence that the man Medusa spoke of still existed. If that had been true to begin with, was it still true now? Or had the years I’d lived and grown without them to raise me hardened him?

“He loved you enough to give you up,” Medusa said, her voice sad. “As did I.”

“He might have loved me then, but no father would put the daughter he loved through these trials. He wouldn’t force me to be human while I endure—”

“There are rules that even he cannot break, Estrella. If he intervenes in your trials, he forfeits them for you. Why do you think I’m here?” Medusa asked, cocking her head to the side. “It is not a coincidence that we knew you would be in danger and came to you. It is a long journey from the Cradle. We traveled all night to get to you in time because he warned me you were in trouble.”

TWENTY-SIX

CALDRIS

The current swept me up, cradling me as it thrashed me back and forth in the darkness. I became weightless entirely, feeling as if pieces of my soul might be lost to the river.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the river finally spit me out.

I sucked back a deep breath, letting it fill my lungs as water splashed around me. I fell through the air, lost in a waterfall as it poured me into a pool below. The crash of my spirit against the surface filled my ears, and then fluid quickly filled them soon after as I plunged beneath the surface.

Struggling to swim in the strength of the current, I fought to raise my head above the surface and took what breaths I could manage in the moments I won.

The area surrounding me was black, completely devoid of all things living and dead. Nothing existed but for that darkness, not even the twinkle of starlight to ease my passage as I plummetedbelow the surface of the pool. It sucked me down into its depths, pulling me deep enough that I could no longer see the surface. In a moment, the current slowed, and I found myself trapped in darkness, not knowing which way was up any longer.

This current was slow, an easy movement that felt deceptively calm compared to the raging river that had carried me here. The River of Life held me in a cool embrace, and I might have given into the temptation to stay if it hadn’t been for the figure that drifted over the top of me.

His body was stretched out longer than was normal, as if someone had drawn and quartered him in life and his soul wore the signs of it. He opened his eyes, blinking down at me with a haunting red stare before he reached for me.

His nails were overgrown, sharp and curved as they grasped the wisps of my clothing, tugging at my tunic to pull me closer as I drifted through the water. I touched two hands to his chest, shoving myself back just as he opened his mouth to reveal three rows of jagged teeth. They spun in a circle within him, threatening to pull me in from the current it created.

He released me as I gave him a full shove, swimming for the surface of the water frantically as a golden light shone through. I passed by countless others of those creatures, wincing as they reached for me and turned their long, stretched bodies to follow after me.

I swam with all the strength in my soul, hating the fact that I did not possess the same magic as a soul as I had as a Fae. In death, we were all the same.

In this space between life and death, I might as well have been human.

Fuck.

I struck the top of the water, flinching back when it refused to release me. As if a glass barrier existed between me and the dark void above, I banged my fists against it.

Hoping the ferryman would hear me, hoping they would follow through on his promise to pull me from the river.

Clawed hands wrapped around my ankle, threatening to pull me farther beneath the surface as I struggled. I swam, attempting to resist that pull but losing momentum with every second that passed.

A skull popped through the surface, pushing through the barrier that reminded me of the softness of spring moss. I wrapped a hand around the staff attached to that skull, tugging on it to let the wielder know that I’d grabbed ahold.

The ferryman pulled me out, draping me across the corner of their boat. The wood dug into my ribs as I fell in, releasing their staff when they tugged it away from me.

They used it to beat at the head of the creature who held tight to my ankle, using me to pull himself from the river. They didn’t stop until the being’s head was a mass of blood and gore, his brain exposed on the side.

He slunk back into the water as the springy barrier reappeared, leaving the ferryman to turn their attention to me.

“You’re early,” they grunted, using their skull-topped oar to resume rowing. They continued down the river, leaving me to stare over the edge of the boat at the sheer number of souls trapped within.

The Void left no ability to discern how long we traveled before we reached the entrance to Tartarus, leaving me to sit in silence. “Thank you… for coming for me,” I said, swallowing my pride to thank the being who had given me my only chance at reaching Estrella.

“We didn’t do it for you, God of the Dead,” the ferryman said, golden eyes flashing in defiance.

---