Page 97 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

I would miss it in the battles ahead, the comfort of it having all but convinced me of my immortality. I felt like I could do anything with that armor, but even my swords had been stripped from me for this.

There were no weapons allowed in the Temple of the Fates, the Morrigan claimed, offering me a quiet reassurance that I would receive both my armor and my weapons when the time was right. Thatthey would always be there for me when I needed them most, but the battles were won and this was my reward.

So why did it feel like my death sentence instead?

We scaled the hilltop, making our way through the garden of boulders that seemed to litter the path. The slope was steep, the path uneven beneath my bare feet. There was nothing to protect me from the sharp edges and dirt at my feet, making my skin ache and throb with each step, but the walk was blissfully short before we reached the bottom of the temple. The entrance was guarded by two figures to either side of the door, statues that I couldn’t help but see differently after the night before. I was all too aware of the magic that existed here, of the potential for them to move and harm and hurt. The Morrigan lingered at the back of our group, and I turned to face them. They’d already told me that they would not be joining me in the temple, and as Nemain raised the bag with the items I’d collected in my trials, I took it. Slinging it over my shoulder, I pulled the silent woman into a fierce hug, hating all that she’d lost because of me. Badb and Macha were next, all three of the sisters clearly uncomfortable with the physical affection that I forced on them. I didn’t know if I’d see them again, or if this was my final moment with the guides that had been all I’d had for a time. Since Medusa had joined our group of travelers, they’d become more quiet and distant than they’d been prior to her appearance. Part of me wondered what may have come if Medusa hadn’t joined, or if there was perhaps bad blood between my mother and the three Goddesses of the Morrigan.

When I pulled back from Badb, she surprised me by touching a gentle hand to the side of my neck, cupping me there in a move that felt like it was meant to bolster my resolve. I knew that they knew enough about what was going to happen to know I needed it, to know that the contact would be welcome as I fought to suppress all thoughts Caldris might overhear. Whatever the Fates had done to protect this, I couldn’t know.

I only knew that if he’d heard the words the statue had spoken in my ear the night before, if he’d heard even the echo of them in my memory, he’d be doing everything he could to drag me from this place kicking and screaming. He’d never allow me to make it to the temple doors, and yet here I stood, with him a quiet sentry at my side, fully prepared to step into the temple alongside me.

“It has been a pleasure to know you in this life, Estrella Barlowe,” Badb said, her voice choked with emotion that felt strange in herethereal tone. She was always tinged with a bit of darkness, a deep and smoky voice that conveyed absolute strength.

“It has truly been our honor to know this version of you before the Cradle changes you,” Macha reiterated, stepping back and taking Badb along with her. The three of them moved to stand beside Nemain, pausing briefly before they looked toward the sky and blended into their singular raven. They took off in flight, their form quickly disappearing into the light in the distance as they curved through the air above the temple.

Medusa stood at the doorway when I turned to face the temple finally, the gleaming white marble taking my breath away. It was the same as the temple that had been dedicated to me somehow, but the sheer size of it was so enormous I thought I might lose my ability to breathe standing before it. Never had anything else made me feel so insignificant and small in the face of it.

She was the first to make her way through the entry, waiting for me on the other side. I saw it for the deception it was, for the manipulation to convince my mate and Brann where they followed at my back. The simple act would make them think that they too could pass through the entry, when I knew it would be the opposite. I didn’t know how, but I knew that this was the moment when we separated. I felt it in my bones and in my blood. I couldn’t afford to turn to look at Caldris, knowing that he would see the devastation on my face even if he couldn’t hear it in my thoughts. I pressed forward, the fabric of my golden dress skimming the dirt beneath me as I crossed between the two statues on either side. Their swords were crossed peacefully, guarding the place that didn’t belong to the people who wanted entry. The cruelty of having sanctuary exist right in front of you and being unable to reach it was not lost on me, and I hated that for the people in the encampment.

I stepped forward, crossing through the entryway. My skin tingled as the barrier felt me, the air heavy at the point where the temple met Tartarus. I forced myself through, not giving it any hesitation so that Caldris’s ever-watchful stare could fixate on my reaction. When I made it through, I turned to stare at him on the other side. He was faded from view, clouded by mist as he stepped up. While I could still make out his features, the separation between the interior and the exterior of the temple was plain to see from this side.

He took a step, attempting to enter the temple only to spring back from the soft surface he met. He bounced back with a look of shockon his handsome face. “Estrella,” he whispered, a question in the name. His brow furrowed with agony as he searched my face, and I felt the wall the Fates had placed within me fall away.

It crumbled like stone, allowing him to finally see the truth of what I’d known. It let him feel the fate pressing down on me, the truth of what would become of me here.

That I’d known he wouldn’t be able to come and gone anyway.

“Estrella!” he shouted, raising a fist and pounding at the boundary. His hand bounced back, the gelatinous surface repelling him with as much force as he gave. “No,” he pleaded in my head, flinching away as Brann attempted to pull him back from the temple.

A woman from the encampment stepped up, her face shrouded in a white cloak. She waited behind my mate, silent and peaceful as he stared at me with those begging eyes.

I held a hand up to the boundary, pressing against the surface that was hardening with every moment that passed. Stone spread from the bottom, climbing up to seal the doorway off.

“I love you,” I whispered, hoping he could hear the words on the other side. I could say it in our bond, but I wanted him to hear it in my voice. I wanted him to know in case I never saw him again.

His hand touched the boundary, pressing against mine through the barrier between us. “Don’t you dare,” he said, shaking his head as he looked down at the stone. The panic that filled his face would haunt me for the rest of my days, haunt me in whatever afterlife I found.

“I need you to say the words. I need to hear them one last time.”

His face twisted with pain, with rage so full that I couldn’t imagine ever being leveled with that hatred. Even in this, his anger was not with me. “I love you, my star,” he said, holding my stare as the stone came up and cut the connection of our hands, one step closer to taking him from me.

“I’ll see that he gets back to the land of the living, Tempest,” the Priestess said, her words a reassurance in the background.

“Do not let Mab see you,” Medusa said, her words an order as she spoke them behind me. Caldris never took his eyes from me but I knew he heard the order, watched his cheek twitch. “Gather forces quietly and be ready for Estrella to return. She will have need of them when she’s completed her final trial.”

The words were a shock to me, having thought that the final river was my last trial. It was a secret I knew had been kept from me intentionally, the one I wasn’t likely to walk away from.

I couldn’t stop to process, couldn’t look at anything but him as the stone came up between Caldris and I, stealing his face from my view completely.

The bond went silent as the stone filled the doorway, trapping me in the Temple of the Fates.

There would be no escape now that I had entered.

The only way out was through.

SIXTY-THREE

ESTRELLA

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