Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
LYRA
Black water thrashed around me, the ravenous waves pulling me under.
My lungs burned. My limbs flailed. And still I could not escape the claws of that wretched sea.
A strong hand gripped my arm, tugging me from the cold abyss. My face stung as it broke the surface, and I choked to clear my airways.
A steely gray sky stretched overhead, dark waves churning in every direction. I still clutched the Death Bringer’s hands, which made it hard to paddle. My legs worked in a frantic rhythm, my muscles burning as I fought the ravenous pull of the sea.
Teeth chattering, I looked over to find Adriel bobbing beside me. Sorsha’s head broke the surface a second later, but it quickly dipped back under.
Adriel cursed and dove beneath the waves, re-emerging with the spluttering princess. Our waterlogged dresses were too heavy, and the raging sea of the in-between was determined to steal us for its own.
Thunder boomed in the distance, great forks of lightning spearing through the sky as the tumultuous sea spilled over the horizon. The air crackled with electricity, and my lungs filled with the scent of salt and rot.
Casting around, I spotted the outline of a rocky beach. An inhospitable rocky beach, but land nonetheless.
Fighting the pull of exhaustion, I wrenched myself through the water and started to kick toward the shoreline. Water seeped into my mouth as I flailed in the waves, but I spit it out and transferred Morta’s hands to one arm so I could paddle with the other.
My toes brushed a layer of silt and rock, and I pulled myself onto the miserable beach. Adriel followed close behind me, dragging Sorsha in her waterlogged gown and dumping her on the sand.
A chill wrapped around me, and I started to shiver. My ruined dress was completely soaked, clinging to my chilled skin. My vision wavered as my teeth cracked together, the wind tugging at my hair and clothes and stealing the warmth from my limbs.
“You’ve lost too much blood,” Adriel grumbled.
“I’ll be fine,” I managed, clutching the hands tighter to my chest.
He shook his head, reaching into his jacket pocket and withdrawing a small leather pouch. He produced a glass vial no bigger than my finger that was filled with dried leaves. Uncorking the vial, he tipped a leaf out onto his palm, pinching it between his fingers and offering it to me.
“What is that?” I asked, leaning forward to examine the shriveled leaf.
“An herb to help you replenish the blood you’ve lost.”
At his words, a memory surfaced. I’d been injured in the Quarter, and Kaden had offered me a tea made with such an herb. At the time, I hadn’t trusted him enough to drink it, but I knew the royal guard didn’t intend to poison me.
Taking the leaf between my thumb and forefinger, I popped it into my mouth and chewed. It was so bitter I thought the back of my tongue might shrivel up like a raisin, but thankfully, the herb dissolved within seconds.
“We’ll have to stay here until you’ve regained your strength,” he said, casting around at the desolate beach.
“Stay here?” I croaked, panic and disbelief ripping through my voice.
He nodded. “There is a portal to the Otherworld in the Tower of Souls. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. I don’t know anyone who’s actually been inside, and I’m not going to attempt it when you can hardly walk.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but I knew he was right. When Kaden and I had infiltrated the Watchman’s stronghold to retrieve Mankara’s text, Kaden had been poisoned, and we’d both nearly died as the Watchmen’s prisoners.
“There’s a structure further inland,” said Sorsha, face pale as she squinted through the gloom.
Indeed, a dark shape that resembled a building jutted through the fog.
Adriel nodded and strode toward the shelter as Sorsha helped me to my feet. My head swam from blood loss, but at least the drugging effect of Mirabella’s venom was fading.
We had to walk only fifty paces or so before a dilapidated wooden structure came into view. To call it a hut would’ve been too generous. Light leaked through wide gaps in the rotten planks, and the thatched roof was half caved in.
Adriel’s shoulders bunched as he pushed the door open, peering inside to check that the building was deserted before letting us pass.
The hut smelled of mildew and rotten fish. The floor was little more than packed sand, and the only furniture was a broken wooden frame that might have once been a bed. A weathered crate in one corner was filled with empty glass jars and tattered sacks, but any provisions were long gone.
Despite its lack of creature comforts, the structure blocked the worst of the wind. Exhausted from our short walk up the beach, I sank down along the wall and pulled my knees tight to my chest.
“I’ll be back shortly,” Adriel murmured, turning toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Sorsha demanded.
“To find some proper clothes and weapons. We won’t survive here with nothing but the clothes on our backs and a couple of daggers between us.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic. The sheaths strapped to my thighs were empty apart from the one that held my witchwood blade, and my body shook from the cold.
My sodden dress offered no protection from the elements, and I didn’t want to face any of the monsters here dressed like a vampire’s next meal.
A knot of unease coiled in my chest, but I bit back my protest as Adriel let himself out of the hut and disappeared.
Puttering around the dilapidated shack, Sorsha found a discarded scrap of canvas and busied herself with fashioning a crude sort of bag for the Death Bringer’s hands. She tied it off with a length of rope that could function as a strap and handed it to me.
Flashing a tired smile, I patted the sand beside me. Sorsha settled on the floor of the hut, gown pooling around her.
For several minutes, the only noise was the rough sea breeze whistling through the cracks and the occasional shriek in the distance. It didn’t sound animal or even human, and the unearthly noise set me on edge.
Sliding the ripped fabric of my dress up my thigh, I unsheathed my dagger and laid it across my knees.
At least we wouldn’t be completely defenseless if whatever creature was making those sounds came skulking by.
Although, until Adriel’s herbs did their work, I had little confidence in my ability to fend off the sort of monsters that resided in the in-between.
I must have drifted off despite my nerves, because when I next opened my eyes, I was alone in the hut.
Startled, I got to my feet and went to the door, brushing wet sand from my dress.
I wasn’t foolish enough to call out for Sorsha. Not with those otherworldly shrieks still punctuating the air. I’d half-expected to find her and Adriel talking outside our shelter, but there was no sign of either of them.
Unnerved, I lurched toward the misty shoreline, following the sound of crashing waves. Perhaps Sorsha had gone to look for a boat. I could think of no other reason for her to wander this far from the hut.
Relief coursed through me as a figure took shape, though it was quickly doused when I realized the person in question was too tall to be the princess.
The male sat with his back to me, staring out across the churning sea toward where it spilled over the horizon. Gleaming ebony hair whipped in the breeze, and my heart lodged in my throat as I drank in the sight of his familiar frame.
“Kaden?” I rasped.
It was difficult to even form the syllables, almost as if my body resisted speaking the name to protect me from disappointment.
He had to be an illusion — some trick of this place.
But the male turned at the sound of my voice, and the warmth that spilled from his stormy gray eyes nearly brought me to my knees.
My mate was on his feet before I could move, closing the distance between us. His hands were cold as they brushed my cheeks, and as his smoky cedar-and-night scent wrapped around me, a quivering sob tore from my throat.
“It’s you,” I gasped, elation warring with my stubborn disbelief. “But how . . .”
Kaden shook his head, eyes shining with joy. “I don’t know.”
A horrible thought occurred to me then, chilling me to the bone. “You’re not . . . Oh, gods. Are you dead?”
“I don’t think so,” he murmured, though a faint line creased his brows. “Strange things happen in the in-between. It’s a place where physical distance doesn’t seem to matter as much.”
But I found I didn’t care how he was there — only that he was. His chest was warm and solid beneath my palm, and I could feel the steady thump of his heart.
Not dead, then.
“I’m sorry,” I rasped, pressing my forehead against his chest and breathing in his familiar, masculine scent. “I am so sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Kaden murmured, tucking an errant strand of hair behind my ear.
“Morta’s hands,” I choked. “They were at Mirabella’s all along. I should’ve remembered —”
“Stop,” he whispered, running his thumb over my quivering bottom lip. “I don’t know how much time we have.”
“W-what do you mean?”
Kaden jerked his head around as if he were being followed, but all I saw was the thrashing sea.
“You’re not really here.” The realization felt like a knife to the gut, and my knees nearly gave way.
Kaden shook his head, frowning slightly as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips.
Tears burned my throat as devastation clawed its way up my chest. He felt so real — his flesh warm and inviting, muscles tightening beneath my touch. His spicy charred-cedar scent wrapped around me, and his kiss tasted like mint and smoke.
But this wasn’t real. At least, he wasn’t here. I was in the in-between, and Kaden was locked in some cell in Dorthus.
Desperation tore through me as I clung to his damp shirt, as if I could physically tug him through space and time to bring him to this beach.
Then I heard it — someone calling my name.
“Sorsha,” I murmured. “She’s looking for me.”
Kaden nodded, but the look of grief that stole across his face made my stomach plummet. Wherever he was, whatever he was enduring, there was a part of him that thought this might be the last time he saw me.
“What are they doing to you?” I whispered, not sure I even wanted to know.
He shook his head. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
But there was a hardness to his features that made my heart stutter.
“We’re coming for you,” I promised him.
“Lyra—”
“Just hold on a bit longer,” I pleaded, my desperation mounting as I sensed our time drawing to a close.
“You don’t understand,” he growled softly, rough hands cradling my face. “You can’t come for me. That’s what he’s counting on.”
“Well, I figured we’d lost the element of surprise.”
“Stay away, Lyra. Forget about me. My father, he . . .” Kaden’s eyes darkened. “All he wants is you.”
I opened my mouth to tell him he didn’t know me at all if he thought I’d abandon him to Semphrys. But that far-off voice was growing more insistent. I could feel it tugging me back to the present, away from Kaden, no matter how hard I clutched him to me.
I awoke with a start against the damp wall of the sea hut just as the door slammed. It took a moment for my vision to adjust to the low light . . . and to realize where I was.
Tears pricked at my eyes as my fists clenched on empty air.
Kaden was gone. Or perhaps he’d never been here at all, though he’d felt too real to have been a dream.
“Put these on,” said Adriel gruffly, tossing me a heap of fabric. “You’re hypothermic.”
Still shaken from my hallucination, I reached for the bundle at my feet. My hands were numb, and I dropped it twice before peeling the fabric apart.
There was a pair of woolen trousers at least two sizes too big, a stained linen shirt, and a pair of boots that looked as though they’d been gnawed by rodents. There was also a leather belt, a worn bandolier, and a couple of rusted short swords.
The clothes smelled like someone had died in them. Someone probably had. But they were better than the ripped evening gown I wore, even if the stench turned my stomach.
“You all right?” Adriel asked, looking me up and down. I noticed he’d traded his formal tunic and trousers for clothes of a similar style to mine, and he had several more weapons tucked under his arm.
I swallowed, though it did nothing to clear the stubborn lump in my throat. “I . . . had a dream.” I shook my head. “Or maybe it wasn’t. I don’t know.”
The royal guard stiffened, a muscle flexing in his jaw as he waited for me to continue.
“I saw Kaden. He told me . . .” I shuddered. “He told me not to come.”
“I’d expect he’d say that,” Adriel grumbled, tossing a second bundle at Sorsha. “Martyr that he is.”
“You think it was real?”
Adriel shrugged. “Hard to say with the in-between being a fold in the veil between realms. And since the two of you are mates . . .” He trailed off. “It doesn’t seem impossible.”
Hope tingled in my chest at the knowledge that it might really have been him, but it was quickly overtaken by horror.
What were they doing to Kaden that had him so afraid? What was so bad that he’d beg me to stay away?
I shoved my worries aside. I couldn’t think about that now. Not if I was to survive the Tower of Souls and travel back to the Otherworld to rescue him from Dorthus.
Fear was a luxury I could not afford.