Page 23 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
On the other side, there are countless threads of different lengths, each one twinkling with lights of shifting colors. There are a few scattered throughout that are solid black or blue or gray or purple or gold, but most are multicolored and shimmering. There’s a constant shearing, snipping sound. Every so often, one of the multicolored strands brightens at the end of its string and disappears.
The final rings on the wall click into place and a gentle breeze stirs the strings of light, pulling some of them back so that I can just make out a figure in the distance. Someone sitting. I can’t see a face or clothing or what they’re doing. But I hear a woman’s voice.
Leucosia Anthemoessatum.
Rakbu mitusitum.
Eteru sut.
A metallicshingfills the cavern as the rings slide back into place, closing the woman and the threads from my view. The whisper ribbon fades from my arm. The ticking has stopped and the rings on the wall don’t move, but the glyphs still shed their dim light. I’m left with the gentle hum emanating from the tourmaline sphere in my palms and more questions than answers.
I press my fingers to my mark and close my eyes, trying to reach for Ashen, but there’s nothing there. I can’t feel his emotions beneath my skin or his presence in my veins. I swallow a knot of worry about what that could mean, running over the same thoughts that have plagued me every hour I’ve spent trapped in here. If he’s dead I’d be dead, right? What if he’s in another realm? What if he’s hurt? Unconscious? In a coma?What if what if what if.
I let go of a long sigh and open my eyes, my fingers drifting up to Ediye’s pendant as I stare at the silent wall.
Ninmen Eslal, I whisper.
I sit utterly still for a long while, straining to hear anything at all. But nothing comes. No crackling of Ediye’s power. No glittering black orb. Just the gentle lapping of the black water against the cavern entrance, which feels like a soothing balm in the absence of the incessant ticking of the rings.
I turn to the mouth of the cave with the tourmaline sphere in my hand. I guess I’ll have to swim for it. I don’t know how I’m going to manage to hang on to this thing if Hooktopus decides to take me for another ride. I have an innate sense that I need to keep hold of this gem, no matter what. So, I’ll do my best or die trying.
I’m about to step into the curtain of water when a wind picks up, sweeping my heartbeat away with it. A sound like a popping, spitting fire fills the space behind me. I set the sphere down at my feet and turn so slowly, hoping with desperation that it’s not an illusion of my sleepless mind.
It’s an orb of stars, glittering and falling across black space.
“Bella! Where the hell have you been, loca?” Ediye says as she steps through the black sphere. Her wide smile is brilliant white against her midnight skin. Her eyes shine with unshed tears.
I cackle a laugh, my own tears burning in my eyes. “Oh shut the fuck up,” I say, and then I run into her arms.
I crash into the best friend I’ve ever known and a relief like no other washes over me. We wrap one another in a tight embrace, swaying as we laugh and cry. We ask questions and don’t really answer them.Where have you been? What happened?And we pour our hearts into the empty cavern.I missed you so much. I’ve been so worried. I love you.
We stay locked in our hug until Ediye’s warm sage scent burns in my throat. It’s as though she can sense the fiery pain of vampiric hunger. She releases me just enough to lower a backpack from her shoulder, pulling a bag of blood from several bunched up inside.
“You are a fucking gem,” I say as venom coats my mouth. And I know who it’s from as soon as it nears my lips. I know without even tasting it. That wave of relief turns into a sea. I know he’s alive. “Ashen’s blood,” I whisper.
“He’s been stockpiling, just in case,” Ediye replies as I gulp down the contents of the bag, sighing as it tingles and fizzes down my throat. “I just happened to be leavingBit Akalumwhen I felt your call. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed what I could from the fridge. I figured you might be in need. Do I know my vampire, or do I know my vampire?”
“You so do,” I say with gratitude, wiping away tears. I drain the contents and pass back the empty blood bag and then the tourmaline stone from the floor for safekeeping in her backpack before engulfing Ediye in another embrace. When we finally separate, she casts her eyes across the cavern, taking in the details.
“Where are we?”
I rub my hands together, give them a clap, and clear my throat.
Ediye groans and rolls her eyes. “Oh Christ.”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“I can see that,” she says as she levels me with a flat glare, but her smile still kicks up one side of her lips.
“Ediye, listen to me…”
“God no.”
“The human world, it’s a mess...”
“Just don’t.”
“Life under the sea is shitter than anything they got up there...”
