Page 2 of Across an Endless Sea

“He is Elatha’s heir, but there are others who could step into Caedmon’s shoes,” Danu admits, interrupting my musings. “You’ve met one already.”

The Fomorian who killed me. The female who wanted to kill my brother. Whomight stillhave killed my brother if he doesn’t manage to fight his way back to life.

“If Caedmon dies, Praedra’s path turns darker than his can ever be,” Danu mutters, almost to herself. “Their fates are intertwined so closely…”

So, killing Caed won’t achieve anything. I’m glad, yet terrified at the same time, because it means that the path ahead of me is infinitely harder than just giving up and dying. If killing Caed isn’t the answer, then bringing him to our side is the only remaining option.

I’m not sure how to do that, but Danu believes I can.

Steeling myself, because I know what comes next, I give her my answer. “I choose to go back.”

Danu’s approval presses through the darkness like a kiss. “You are stronger than you know, daughter mine. You have strengths you cannot yet see, and I am proud of you.”

The darkness bursts open, eclipsed by a blinding white light that sears me from the inside out. When I open my eyes again, I have a second to take in the craggy stone ceiling above me before it hits.

I don’t know why I expected returning to my body would be any less painful the second time. Perhaps I naïvely hoped that my pain tolerance might’ve grown in the days since I was last reborn.

I was wrong.

The fire-tipped needles return with a vengeance. Consuming. Stripping me raw.

My poor body struggles at first. Screams shred my throat, and my spine cracks with the force of my thrashing. I try everything. Counting through it. Breathing.

Nothing works.

Every heartbeat drives the agony from my chest out to my fingertips and toes, and by the time the pulses start to slow and lose their intensity, I’m almost unconscious.

The water of the sacred pool laps at my bare skin, keeping me awake, and once again Ifeelthe cave urging me to get up. To leave.

Eventually, it’s so persistent that I blink open my eyes and stare blankly at the dripping walls around me.

Right, time to swim.

I’ve done this before. The water will help me. All I have to do is keep moving.

All the encouragement in the world can’t make my body feel any lighter, but experience makes the swim more bearable. I know there’s a ledge beneath the glowing water, so I don’t fall like I did during my first rebirth. I use smaller strokes to propel myself towards the exit, taking advantage of the added buoyancy the pool gives me instead of wasting energy trying to swim properly.

That means I have more energy when it comes to dragging myself over the edge on the opposite side.

I suck in a deep breath and slowly force myself to my feet. I’m unsteady, but I don’t have to waste time searching for the narrow exit, because I already know where it is.

Is this my trials making me stronger? I don’t feel strong. In fact, I’m struggling to feel anything at all. Numbness engulfs me as I push myself through the tiny opening, and I ignore the way the stone scrapes at my unprotected skin. This time, my exit requires more climbing than before, and when I break the surface, I realise why.

I scrabble up a loose gravel and dirt incline and emerge from a hole in the earth beneath a large rocky outcrop on a hill. Last time, my guides told me that the cave would always release me somewhere in Elfhame, but I’m still too unfamiliar with my court to figure out exactly where I am. To add to my growing list of problems, it’s also raining. Perfect. The rock-strewn moor is drenched, and the water pelts my bare skin as I shiver and try to get my bearings. Behind me, the cave entrance is gone. The soggy, moss-covered rocks must have shifted to cover it, or perhaps Danu.

At least I don’t have the added strain of reconnecting the land to the Goddess this time. I don’t think I could take it.

“Step one, glamour,” I whisper to myself, swiping a wet lock of my own hair out of my face. “Step two, guides. Step three, Guards.”

I may be exhausted, but at least I have a plan, which is more than I had last time. I don’t waste much time with the glamour, given that it’s only there to protect my modesty and won’t do a thing to keep me dry. A simple shift dress that covers the essentials is all I really have the energy for, anyway.

Step two. “Mab?” I call.

I don’t summon the other two. Titania’s kindness might break me, and last time, Maeve’s bluntness nearly drove me insane. Right now, I need a level, calm head to help me plan out my next move.

“I’m here.” I sigh in relief as the redhead appears beside me. “What do you need?”

She’s stoic and completely non-judgemental as she stands beside me, the beads on the end of her long braids tinkling against her armour as she shifts.

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