17 Imogen #2
I made my way back down the stairs, despondent.
I stared out at the lagoon through the open front doors.
The Eleuthios was barely visible through the shifting mist, but there was no missing the wall of black clouds that sat on the horizon behind it.
Wind screamed through the doors, pushing against the front of me.
There would be no leaving this place until that coming storm passed.
I whirled, ready to continue searching until I found Agatha or collapsed trying, but stopped when I noticed a dark shape in the mist of the back garden. Tall, and lanky, and slightly stooped. I knew it could not be him, but for a moment, I saw Nemea.
Every muscle in my body tightened. Every nerve screamed for me to move.
To run. But I only stood there letting my mind fill in the missing pieces of the obscure form, showing me Nemea’s gait, making me hear the particular rhythm of his steps.
The figure kept coming through the mist, until my eyes finally showed me the truth.
Lachlan stood on the threshold. He looked like he’d been carved out, sword point hanging dejectedly toward the ground.
I let out a shaking breath, trying to banish the fear that clogged my throat. I was beginning to wear too thin. “What did you find?”
“There’s nothing out there.” His voice was shattered. “The footprints and wheel marks led me to where they turned to head back toward the lagoon. I searched all the surrounding buildings too.” He glanced up the stairs I’d just come down. “Nothing up there either?”
I shook my head. “But it’s too early to give up.” Nausea curled through me. “I thought Eusia’s pool might have been built above the ground, like a large tub, but…”
The vision of Ligea and Eusia as very young women flashed into my mind. The hole dug into the earth. The spell to pull water up into it. “We need to look low.”
And so we did. All four of us searched for hidden chambers, for hatches in the floors, inside and out of the keep, for so long that the tallowy light began to go amber and the storm clouds that had been far off were upon us.
Still, we found nothing. Once every room and corner had been inspected, we all gathered in the center hall once more.
The storm gusts swirled through the doors, whipping Halla’s now filthy gown around her ankles.
She remained quiet, only shaking her head to confirm that she’d found nothing at all.
I only believed her because I’d checked every room she had, just to be sure.
Theodore’s concern for Lachlan was unmistakable. Lachlan had descended into an awful melancholy, his optimism grinding down and bleak lines etching his face.
I knew his pain. “Lach—” I reached for him, but he pushed past me for the keep’s front doors and sat on the front steps, attention on the coming storm. To see him stop moving… to see him give up… split my heart in two.
Theodore followed after him as lightning flashed bright white. Thunder rocked the building’s stones. Halla yelped and wound her way into the protection of the hall of the lower eastern wing, leaving me alone.
And now I truly was. Alone. For so long I’d staved it off, but it had finally found me.
Losing Agatha sent pain cutting through me like a heated knife.
My eyes blurred. Another boom of thunder, another flash of blinding lightning.
It lit every shadow of the center hall, letting me see the whole room in glowing white.
Shock rocked through me. I wiped at my eyes, making sure that I’d seen clearly.
I’d thought the curving wall beneath the stairs had held the outline of a very small door.
I couldn’t see it at all now in the low amber light, only the mortar lines of the stacked stones.
I walked toward it, the sound of pelting rain filling my ears.
Set my hands to where I’d seen the shape, and then I pushed.
With a low groan, the stone facade gave way.
A wall of black greeted me. Cautiously, I stepped through and was welcomed by the very distant scent of seawater.
It wasn’t like the blighted water of the lagoon—this was pure, untainted sea.
My heart lept into my sternum. I started moving, hands up before me, even as the darkness of the hallway grew oppressive.
The scent of salt water grew so thick that I could taste it.
My palms hit a stone wall, the impact rocking through my shoulders.
I ran my hand over the rough stones until I felt an edge, then metal, then wood—another door.
I could just see a thin line of dim light shining through its seams.
My breathing hissed in my ears. “Agatha?”
I shook the handle. When I pushed, the door didn’t give. I rammed my shoulder hard into the iron sash. I tried again, sending a shot of pain through me. With a growl, I lifted the door latch with all my strength, then threw all my weight into the door once more.
It flung wide. I tumbled to my knees onto a stunning mosaic of blues, blacks, and golds.
I stared at them, disoriented. The tiles might as well have been jewels for how they sparkled across the entire room.
They covered the walls, the floor, the uneven ceiling.
Stormy light fought through a trio of tall and narrow windows.
And in the very center of the room sat a small, round pool, filled with clear, glittering seawater.
The fine hairs on my arms rose to stand on end.
Slowly, I came to my feet, never taking my eyes from the water.
None of my visions had taken me to a chamber like this, lucent and serene.
I stepped closer to the pool, breathing in the peaceful air of the chamber.
The walls seemed to leak a charged sense of safety, like it was alive with some power.
It didn’t feel like Eusia’s malignant, oily influence. This place and the power that infused it felt bright, weightless, potent. It felt like the sea and the air as they were meant to be. Vathia Aithier, I thought. I could see straight to the bottom of the pool.
No Agatha. No Eusia.
Despite the beauty of the place, numbness besieged me. Silent tears rolled down my cheeks as I crouched beside the water and dipped my fingers in. It was cool, sending a spark of energy rushing up my arm and deep through my chest.
I wondered if this was what she’d felt like—my mother.
I was suddenly desperate for a reprieve from the taint of Eusia, and the misery of missing Agatha. I wanted to feel as light as the air in this grotto. I slipped off my boots. I peeled the damp trousers from my body and undid the binding I wore, tossing it to the tiles.
The water soothed as it climbed up by body. More than wondering if this was what my mother’s presence had felt like, I wondered if this was what I might feel like, if I could ever sever myself from Eusia.
Incandescent. Divine.
I fell under the surface, needing to be swallowed up by it, reveling in the momentary weightlessness. Time morphed and stretched as I floated. I wasn’t sure how long I’d hung there before I felt a boom of thunder rock through my chest. Reluctantly, I broke through the surface, and froze.
Theodore stood in the grotto door.
Wavering light swayed over his restive body. His every muscle was drawn. Our gazes held.
He stepped inside. “Immy?” His low voice bounded around the tile.
A painful surge of feeling filled me. My throat grew tight from trapped tears. “I think… I think she’s gone.”
He gave a quick, devastated nod. “I’m so sorry, darling.” Neither of us moved as we beheld each other. He swallowed hard, and when he finally spoke again it was in a strained rasp. “Tell me to leave.”
My heart roared, pumping liquid heat through my body.
I floated quietly, watching the heavy rise and fall of his chest. The space between us felt as fragile as the thinnest, finest crystal, poised to shatter from a too-heavy breath.
I waited for the vicious hunger I usually felt when I was around him to seize me.
But it never came. This time, I could feel my own want, the soft, warm desire for his lips and hands and consoling adoration.
I saw no flashes of blood, no ribbons of flesh.
“Stay,” I said in a begging whisper.
His gaze darkened as he shut the door firmly and dropped the metal lock into place.