My eyes adjust to the near-pitch-black cavern and I tell him. The only light comes from the hole so far overhead, such a small break in the thick rock surrounding us. I swim to a small alcove and ease around a boulder raised out of the underground loch. The crack in the wall on this side of the loch is dark; for all I know it leads deeper into an underground cave system. It looks dangerous, and too tight for Kiaran to fit through.
My hands trail along the slippery walls. No way to climb up, anyway. And despite the sections of smooth rock within the loch, there are no other tunnels—at least, none above water.
No way out.
Hesitantly, I look over at Kiaran. Should I tell him that? His eyes are closed, as if he were lulled by the sound of my voice. “Keep talking. Just for a few more minutes.”
“What should I say?”
“Anything.” His voice is raw. “Anything. Tell me another story.”
I force out a breath and say the first thing that comes to mind. “The faery king and the girl used to train in the earliest hours of the morning,” I say, keeping my tone soft, steady. “They sparred until the predawn light came up over the North Sea. On rare mornings when the sky was clear of rain clouds, the girl would look over at the king just as the first rays shone through the buildings and bathed the city in a beautiful, golden glow.
“Because, you see, that was when the king tipped his head back and closed his eyes and the girl allowed herself, for those brief moments, to think about things she could never admit to him aloud. Like how with each passing day, she hated him less and less. Until the morning came when she watched him greet the sun and knew she didn’t hate him at all, not anymore. She understood then that one day, she would be there when the sun rose over the sea, and she’d look at him, and realize she loved him.”
I almost say it. The words are on my lips and the darkness seems to hold its breath, waiting, waiting for me to say them.
I love you, I love you, I love you.
Then I hear something. A breath next to my ear, almost inaudible. I jerk my head to the side and Kiaran looks over, about to speak.
I press a finger to my mouth, listening hard. “Shh.”
A whisper, faint—as if it were coming from far away. I whirl sharply, but there’s nothing there. Did I imagine it? Am I going mad?
No, there it is again. A voice so low that I can’t make out the words, spoken in an unfamiliar tongue.
I turn again, my hand reaching out, but there’s nothing but air. “MacKay,” I say warningly. “Did you—”
Kiaran is at my side in an instant, his shoulder against mine. He swears, low and foul. “I don’t know.”
There’s another murmur to my left, quiet and dark, and I press closer to Kiaran. “I definitely heard that,” he says.
We both listen again, but the cave is silent. Too silent. There is no soft tap tap tap of dripping water or anything to indicate we’re in a cave at all. It’s as if we’ve been dashed into space, drifting in a desolate lake with no light or sound—nothing but our breathing.
And something else. Someone in the cave that I can’t see, watching us from the shadows. Someone that most certainly can see us. My senses might be enhanced now, but I’m still human. My body has its limitations. And Kiaran’s powers are bound.
We’re both vulnerable. Both mortal. Both almost human.
There’s a small splash behind us. Someone is moving through the water. A whisper to my left, then a sudden searing pain across my cheek. I cry out, more out of shock than pain, and press my palm to my skin.
It comes away wet with blood.
CHAPTER 28
DON’T MOVE.” Kiaran’s voice is low, ragged. He makes a sound in his throat, something like a growl. I tense. He smells my blood.
“Breathe,” I say sharply. “Goddamn it, just breathe.” I grasp his arm and pull us through the water until there’s a boulder at our backs and we’re tucked away in the alcove.
Only a minute. If the Morrigan is going to attack, we only have a minute.
“Any ideas?” When he doesn’t respond, I bunch his shirt in a fist and force him to look at me. “Don’t make me smack some sense into you, Kiaran MacKay. Ideas. Now.”
Kiaran’s eyes focus on mine and he breathes through his mouth, his features strained. “The Morrigan was known for her ability to mentally influence other fae. She could break into their minds, make them do whatever she wanted.” I nod. Keep going. Keep talking. “If the Cailleach destroyed her body, maybe she can only manipulate our surroundings or take the form of other fae.”
The Morrigan will do whatever it takes to break out of there. She’s going to decide which of us are the pawns, and which one of us is the key.
Which are we?
“If she’s taking another form, then what faeries live in the water? Who also like the dark? Faeries who—”
“Are you going to keep listing?”
“I’ll keep listing if you don’t give me a bloody answer. Think!”
A whisper to my left, mocking laughter. A laugh right behind me. I whirl. She’s circling, a predator ready to leap. “MacKay—”
I cry out as the Morrigan slashes at my arm. This time it hurts worse, as if the faery used a red-hot knife. I shove away from Kiaran before he can smell the blood. I scan the water, but I see nothing. I hear nothing. My powers are beckoning, tempting, but if I use them, I risk blacking out again.
No way out. Nowhere to go.
“MacKay,” I say, somewhat desperately. “Her form?”
Something is moving through the water; I can’t even see impressions anymore. It’s as if the darkness is thickening, the cave misting over. The air turns hot and humid.
Kiaran inhales sharply and I know the Morrigan must have struck him. “Water-horse.” The suggestion of a fae form falls from his lips with contempt, like he’s saying something foul. He continues listing: “Fuath. Fideal. Afanc—”
I yelp in pain as claws drag across my back, deep and sharp. The Morrigan’s whisper at my ear again: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a human.”
I swing my arm out in an attack, catching strands of long hair that dissipate like smoke. There’s a flash of her bright sapphire eyes before the Morrigan tears away into the shadows. Her laughter spreads around me in a rush of sudden cold that breaks through the humidity of the cave.
“She’s a faery form with claws and long hair,” I tell Kiaran. “She just evaporated into the damn shadows and—”
Kiaran’s head snaps toward me in the dark. “What did you just say?”
“—I’m going to kill her—”
“She evaporated into the shadows?” Before I can even blink, Kiaran seizes my wrist. “We’re getting out of here. Now.”
“MacKay, I already told you. There’s no way out.”
His answer is spoken through gritted teeth. “Then I’ll shove you through that small tunnel if I have to.”
Kiaran is pulling me so forcefully to the other side of the loch that I have to swim or end up with a mouthful of cave water. “Wait—”
The Morrigan rips me out of Kiaran’s grasp and throws me violently across the water. I hit the surface, only inches away from smacking into the cave wall. I emerge, gasping for breath.
“Kam!” Kiaran dives for me, his strokes fast.