Page 52 of Fractured Souls
Which is why I gave my men no warning before swinging over the railing and plunging into the water. A smile pressed onto my face, knowing they would get grumpy about it, as I resurfaced and looked up towards the edge of the vessel.
“Little lamb,” Draven rumbled, his eyes narrowing on my growing smile.
“I couldn’t help it,” I offered with amusement. “Just ask Zander. It was an uncontrollable siren urge.”
Zander chuckled but didn’t back me up. What hediddo, though, was kick off his shoes and jump in himself, making me almost giddy with excitement. He surfaced and swam towards me, and Draven grumbled something about not wanting to get in the water—which of course led to my brilliant suggestion.
“Then fly.”
Rhett and Cash were getting into the water as well, while Adriel, Desmond, Draven, and even Dean were still safely onboard the boat. I made a pleased noise, my siren loving that Rhett and Cash joined us.
“Humans,” Draven replied.
“Aren’t looking,” Adriel said, and in a snap he disappeared. I turned towards the shore of the island about ten feet away, Adriel completely dry and looking smug as fuck. His hands were in his pockets, and the smirk he flashed towards the others was pretty fucking funny—until Desmond appeared right by his side.
Except for the captain, there were no humans around, and he wasn’t looking at the moment. I had no idea why he thought we were going here—maybe to explore like some typical tourists—but hopefully we had a good explanation for why we didn’t need a pickup. If we were being real, they had probably paid him enough to not ask a lot of questions…especially since he was literally dropping us off at an uninhabited island under cover of darkness.
Yeah, that was exactly what they had done.
“It’s not that impressive,” Desmond mused, making me actually laugh.
“Princess.” Adriel narrowed his eyes, making me laugh even more.
“Fuck it.” Draven took off from the boat and soared towards the shore. I looked back at Dean, who looked like he was officially deciding to get in. I knew Dean didn’t mind the water, but I also knew he didn’t love it—he wasn’t a fan of getting his clothes wet. Luckily, Adriel and Desmond had transported our luggage to the shore, nice and dry. Although it probably wasn’t worth changing yet.
“Come on,” I sang happily before diving back under. The water turned shallow fairly quickly, and within a few feet, I was standing and trudging to shore in wet clothes but feeling relatively good. The sensation of the salt water against my skin was amazing, and I felt my siren practically buzzing with excitement beneath my skin.
As I stepped onto the island, I immediately felt a stronger pull to the portal than ever before, my gaze scanning the lush landscape.
“You feel it?” Zander asked, his voice warm and rough.
I nodded, but instead of trying to explain the sensation to them, I decided to trust my gut and began to walk down a strip of beach that laid below the cliffside, the soft sand still mostly covered in ankle-deep water because of the tide—although I could tell that it was dropping with each hour passing.
Pressing myself against the rough stone wall of the cliffside, I continued to walk around, the water nearly knee high as I finally reached where the land indented, revealing several caves.
I knew which cave was the correct one before any of them had to take a guess. I pointed ahead towards a dark gaping cave that had been hidden from view…and was half filled with water.
“Hate to say it, but swimming isn’t going to be an option this time around.” I turned towards the others, most of them eyeing the cave speculatively. I knew it wasn’t because they were worried about getting wet, though.
“I don’t like the idea of going in there without knowing how far the portal is,” Cash rumbled.
“Maybe a few of us should scout it out first,” Dean agreed.
“I think it’ll be fine,” I said and looked towards Zander, who nodded though his gaze held a bit of caution. Steeling myself, I walked to the mouth of the cave and was unsurprised when half of my men went ahead of me, the water reaching mid chest on them. Which meant I had to actually swim, my feet not touching the bottom without my head being submerged.
I could sense the worry of my men through our bond as we traveled further into the cold, dark cave, the light so limited that Adriel had to form what appeared to be a mini star in order to light our path. It, of course, completely distracted me, my pace slowing as I took in the features of the cave. Nothing seemed to grow or live on the surface, but in the water I could sense—probably through my magic—fish swimming past us, in and out of the cave and back into the ocean.
I felt like we were traveling for some time before we entered into a new cavern—now this was a sight.The crystal lined archway that led into the cavern prefaced what was to come as the land rose just slightly higher, allowing me to stand and walk forward into the space. Crystals sprouted from every surface, clusters covering the walls and pillars, opalescent prisms stretching down from the ceiling.
That wasn’t the focal point of the room though. No, that was a carved crystalline archway that contained a beautiful watery blue glow.The portal.
“I swear these portals get more interesting the more places we go,” I mumbled as Dean appeared behind me, wrapping a hand around my waist. “Do we know where this spits out, exactly?”
“No,” Desmond admitted.
“Sweet,” I murmured and then walked forward—or tried to. “Dean.” I turned into him. “Come on, we have to do this.”
Dean’s eyes darkened. “I have no doubt that we need to do this, I just don’t want you going first.”
