Page 60 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

It crossed over the stone snake with teeth still sunk into my skin, draping itself over my neck. She was larger than the one who had helped me with the sword in Mistfell, larger than the one Medusa had given me. Not so large that I wouldn’t be able to bear her weight, but large enough to be intimidating all the same.

I met her shining golden gaze, feeling a familiarity staring back at me. If the white snake was Medusa’s counterpart, then this one was mine. She pressed the side of her face into mine, leaving me to lean my head to the side and return the moment of affection.

The white snake nodded, lowering itself down and maneuvering its body. It rose us up, bringing me to the clay on the other side of the cove so that I could step out. I was still nude, walking up onto the bank a few paces before I turned to look back. The white snake sunk into the cove once again, the smaller snakes spreading out andbeginning the process of vacating the cove to go back to wherever they’d come from.

“Do you have a name?” I asked, raising a finger for the snake draped across my shoulders. I held her gaze, wondering if I would ever be able to understand her in the same way I could speak to Fenrir. “How about Amethyst?”

She huffed, air puffing out of her nostrils as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling. I chuckled, smiling down at her. “Okay, so not Amethyst. What about Vox?” She shook her head. “Gwen? Belladonna?” I asked as I crested the top of the hill and looked down into the room in front of me. It immediately reminded me of the way Byron had murdered his wife, slowly poisoning her without anyone suspecting him of it. Sneaky and insidious.

Unsuspecting.

“Belladonna suits her,” Medusa said, staring up at me as I glanced around the cavern in awe.

Holy fucking Hel.

THIRTY-EIGHT

ESTRELLA

The shimmering lights of the cove waters glistened off the crystals that filled the chamber. Bioluminescence illuminated what should have been a dark, dreary place—so separated from the light of the surface. The crystals shone from within, a low, pulsating light that was in tune with the rhythm of my heart in a way that erased any doubt.

In another life, in other circumstances, this would have been my home.

The thought was sobering, taking away a little of the overwhelming joy the prospect of uniting with Caldris gave me. What would a life in a place like this have been like? The beauty here couldn’t drown out the horror outside of these caverns.

But Tartarus lacked one thing in particular that I wouldn’t have given up for anything.

My mate.

I made my way down the embankment to approach Medusawhere she waited with a group of three other Gorgon women. I tried not to allow myself to be bothered by my own nudity, drawing comfort from where Belladonna had perched herself across my shoulders comfortably. Her weight felt like it belonged there, like she had always been a part of my body when she was as new to me as the cove that surrounded me.

Medusa had changed out of the armor she’d worn previously, donning a simple white gown that draped over her shoulders and cut low in the front. A strap wound around her waist, the fabric woven into a braid that held the loosely flowing skirt tight at the smallest part of her body. The other Gorgons wore similar gowns, their arms covered in bioluminescent shimmers that clung to their sepia skin.

They looked so much like Medusa that I felt the stall of my heart in my chest, somehow knowing that these women were family to her… family to me by extension.

There’d been a life here that I’d never been a part of. A family unit that I’d been deprived of.

Time I could never get back.

The cove was stunning, with a waterfall at the back corner of the room. The water plunged into a pool below, the sound of rushing water filling the small space. Somehow, it wasn’t as loud as I thought it should have been, offering a simple kind of peace to the humming of my mind and the thoughts that constantly plagued me.

“Step into the waters, Estrella,” Medusa said, nodding her head over to the cove itself. I stepped past the three Gorgon women watching me, both simultaneously wishing I knew their names and needing nothing more than to continue on. Whatever this tradition was, whatever else was needed to prepare me, I wanted to be with Caldris once again.

I wanted to feel his heart beat in time with mine, and I wanted to feel complete for the first time in my life. Coming here, to this place so filled with the things I’d missed out on in my life on the other side of the Veil, reminded me of everything I’d lost.

I wanted to think of everything I could have now. The love that waited for me.

My toes touched the warm, balmy waters of the cove first. The water spread along my skin, coating me in warmth that was all-consuming. I felt it sink inside of me, warming me through the barrier of my skin. Belladonna shifted on my shoulders as I stepped deeper, drawn into the water until I lowered to my shoulders.

“You must pass beneath the falls,” one of the Gorgon women saidwith a gentle smile. “Cleanse yourself of everything that came before this day and the handfasting that awaits you. You must go to one another as you are, not as the world would have you be.”

I moved deeper into the cove as Belladonna lifted from my shoulders, twisting through the water at her leisure. My hands moved just beneath the surface as the water grew too deep for me to stand, my feet kicking as I moved slowly to the falls. I paused just before passing beneath it, drawing in deep breaths of air.

The moment I swam beneath the fall, the pressure of it beat against the top of my head. Pain blossomed there, any breath I’d attempted to store being stolen from my lungs as it pushed me beneath the surface. I hurried to kick myself forward, seeking an out in desperation. I swam until my feet could brush the silt below me, pushing myself to stand and breaking through the surface as I flung my hair back and water splashed out of my face.

It dripped down me, leaving me to stare at my bare skin that was covered in the same sparkle the Gorgon women had donned. I raised my hands above the surface, splaying my fingers and watching the turquoise and purple lights glisten as I moved. Medusa stepped into the shallow waters, uncaring for the way the water drenched her dress. She bent low, holding out a hand that Belladonna approached without hesitation. The purple snake nuzzled into Medusa’s hand, the moment of affection beautiful in the uniqueness of it.

Here, the snakes and the serpents were not feared, but existed happily alongside the Gorgons. In Mistfell, they’d been killed if they were discovered in the gardens. Long before I’d understoodwhy, I’d snuck them into my pocket when I discovered them, setting them free in the forest later after I’d finished harvesting.

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