Page 88 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

My palm sank into the rock, fingers splaying across the surface as a current snatched me up, sweeping me away from it all.

I tumbled into icy waters, the temperature difference cooling my burns. My entire being throbbed as it healed, the cold putting my system into something of a shock. I trembled, my entire body shaking as I spun in a circle in that current, tossing head over feet and lost to it completely.

When I fell to the ground finally, the river spitting me out ontored sands beneath me, I felt like I could barely move. I wanted to cease to exist, the agony in my form making me lie limply for a minute as I fought to look around the place I had landed.

I knew I was not safe. I knew that this trial would not wait for me to recover, but I couldn’t bring myself to move.

A rush of wind hit the side of my face, capturing my attention as a great bird eclipsed the sun. I rolled to the side just in time to evade the mouth that opened wide enough to tear my head from my body, forcing myself to my feet. My hand perched on the ground supportively as I squatted, my gaze traveling up the winged creature from the cliffs beside the river. A giant winged serpent with four legs, I recognized it from the books I’d explored as a child. It was one of the myths Nothrek had no qualms sharing about Alfheimr, a monster straight from anyone’s nightmares.

Each of the hydra’s three heads watched me as it opened its mouth and roared its fury, making me move slowly as I stood to full height. I fought to keep my movements cautious, not to alarm the beast with any sudden threats as I reached behind my head to grab my swords. The creature lunged anyway, forcing me to pull them free with more speed. I swung them in an arc, narrowly missing the beast as I dove sideways. The gaping hole of its mouth stunk of rotting meat as it grazed by my head, the second mouth heading for me the moment I dodged. I struck with brutal efficiency, curving both blades inward in a calculated strike.

Each highly sharpened blade cut through the creature’s neck, slicing a narrow piece from the center of its throat as they ran parallel to one another and emerged out opposite ends as my arms crossed. Ducking out of the way the moment the head rolled to the ground, I recentered myself and turned back to face the beast once more as I readied my stance and brought my swords back to their natural position at my sides.

The hydra floundered for a moment, a deep, rumbling roar coming from one of the mouths that still waited for me. Blood bubbled from the gaping wound where the third head had been, dripping like acid down its scales as something moved within the neck. My horror knew no end as the scales regrew, extending the neck from the place where I had cut it. But instead of simply regrowing the head I’d already disposed of, the neck grew longer, diverging into two paths where there should have been one. It was a slow, meticulous growth that I could do nothing but watch as each scale appeared, the top ofthe neck curving as the bones and flesh sprouted to form two new heads.

“Fuck,” I muttered, dodging when one of the new heads lunged for me. The ferocity in the movement was all revenge, all hatred and anger. Before the creature had simply wanted to eat me, but now as it chased me around the arena, I knew the matter had become deeply fucking personal. A tail whipped into the side of my ribs, knocking me sideways as the bones shattered. One of my swords flung from my hand, skittering across the mix of sand and rocks to land at the hydra’s feet. The monster stepped on it with a massive taloned paw, scowling down at me with too-intelligent eyes.

I adjusted my grip on the only sword that I still held in my hands, considering my options as I worked to evade the next strike. I was too slow, leaving me with only one choice.

I ducked beneath the creature’s mouth, grasping the hilt of my remaining sword in both hands as I slid beneath the hydra’s belly. I stabbed at the scales there, desperately trying to penetrate what I had hoped would be soft underbelly. The sword bounced off, the vibrations of the impact rattling my wrists and arms and making them ache. The hydra moved its massive body, huge feet coming for me as I scrambled to get out from beneath it.

It knocked into me with the side of one of its necks, curving and colliding with itself as I tried to race out of its grasp. There was no freedom, no vulnerability to be found as I turned to face the thing. I released my sword that would prove useless to me, letting it fall to the ground as I focused in on the power at my disposal. Without my magic in this trial, I’d have been dead on sight. I wouldn’t have stood a chance, and the injustice of that knowledge fueled the fire of rage in my belly.

For all the Fates claimed they had plans for me, those plans seemed to involve my death more often than not.

I screamed at the beast, matching the roar it emitted as it moved. It was too fast for its size, seemingly an impossible feat as it raced to cross the distance between us. The threads slipping off of it felt too hot to touch, burning my palms and as hard as rock as I grasped them in my hands, the sizzle of my flesh distracting me from my purpose.

When the first head came too close, I wrapped the threads of its own life around it, holding it still and squeezing with all my might to hold it against all the odds. The threads tore at my palms, drawing an anguished scream from me as it sank into my burning flesh, cuttingthrough muscle and bone alike. I did the same with the next head that came for me, wrapping it up in the threads and holding it still. Pinned between the two heads, I waited for the others to maneuver toward me, holding my position until the last possible moment. Only when I held the red-eyed stare and watched flames gather in the depths of the third’s throat did I finally release them, moving with all the speed in my legs to duck beneath them andrun.

Fire followed in my wake, a trail of flames that caught each of the two heads I’d held prisoner, engulfing them as they screamed in pain. The hydra writhed in pain as its own fire sank into its open mouths, traveling down its throats, distracted by the death I hoped would be permanent. I watched from the corner of my eye, waiting for the two heads that burned to regrow.

The hydra was weakened by the loss, stumbling sideways as it fought to regain its balance. As it looked for how to continue forward with the stumps that did not seem to heal. The flames eventually died out, instead burning like embers that spread down to the hydra’s chest. I suspected I could wait for it to continue spreading, but there was no telling how much damage the hydra could do while I waited for that. Using the distraction to my advantage, I searched for my blades. The sword I found gleamed in the red sand, the metal red and overheated from the fire it had been caught in. I swallowed as I glanced down at my already burning palms, at the mess that had once been my hands.

Pushing through that pain, I raced toward the hydra, grabbing the sword up off the ground as I went. The pain was immediate, an agony I could not tolerate spreading up my arm. The flames engulfed me, giving me mere moments to react. With a single sweep of my sword in a wide arch, I severed the two remaining heads from the creature. Touching the blade to the top of the wound, I forced it down into the sizzling flesh with both hands, cauterizing the wound and hoping that it would be enough.

I did the same with the second, dropping the sword and stumbling to fall onto my back on the sand. The flames left me, myviniculumglowing with gold as it fought to fix the damage to my body. Skin slowly reknitted, covering the flesh that made us all. My body felt weak and drained, but I used the last of my energy to raise my head and stare at the hydra, watching for any signs of life. It remained still on the ground, the embers spreading through its body until it turned to dust and bone, a breeze catching it and spreading ashes on the wind.

I sighed, dropping back down to the ground beneath me. Relief was immediate.

As was the exhaustion that tore me into the depths of sleep, the vague foggy vision of a man stepping up beside me. His golden eyes gleamed as he smiled down at me, telling me to rest now as he gathered some of the ashes from the hydra into a vial.

Using the last of my energy, I let my eyes drift closed as I raised a hand, the sight a gruesome mix of flesh and bone, of skin and muscle.

I gave Khaos the finger as I fell into darkness.

FIFTY-SIX

CALDRIS

Estrella did not emerge from that river. There had been so much pain in the moments before our bond went dark, absolute agony and burning. The very idea that the Fates and Primordials had decided to subject her to something that would bring her this much suffering made me murderous.

What purpose could there be in this? What could she possibly prove by surviving pain the likes of which no creature should ever feel?

How could her own fucking father decide that this was what was right for his daughter?

She was his own flesh and blood, the one child he had supposedly borne with the woman he loved.

I paced at the riverbank, having descended the narrow path the moment Estrella dove into the river. The skulls and bones crushed beneath my feet as I moved, the crunch and snap of them drawing a wince from Nemain with every step. In her inability to speak, sheseemed far more greatly affected by the noises around her, as if her own forced silence amplified all else. “She should be back by now,” I hissed, turning to Medusa with a glare.

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