Chapter 55 #3
That much was clear from the look of utter loathing etched across his face, one I hadn't seen since the night he'd tried to murder Aedric and I'd stepped between them.
The pain in my chest bloomed before I could stop it. Then, mercifully, anger swallowed it whole.
The distance between us vanished beneath swift, determined strides. I reached the well, sank both hands into the waiting bucket, and cupped the thick, dark blood between my palms. I barely registered its warmth, nor its metallic scent or viscous feel.
I didn't hesitate. I drank.
The coppery taste of it flooded my mouth, sliding down my throat in a single, decisive swallow.
I glared up at him, blood dripping from my chin, my hatred eclipsing even his.
Fuck you.
For the space of a heartbeat, something almost hurt flashed through his eyes, like a glimpse of moonlight through black ice.
Agony ripped through me so suddenly I didn't even have time to cry out. A searing pain erupted beneath my breastbone, like an invisible hand seizing my very heartstrings and ripping them from my chest.
I doubled over, my fingers slipping in the blood smeared across the stone lip. I slipped and fell to my knees, the incoming tide now a torrent around me, sweeping into the cave like a vengeful god.
Rìan cried out beside me.
As quickly as it had come, the pain receded, leaving behind an emptiness deep in my bones that was almost more terrible than pain. An absence of presence. Of light. Of life.
Across the chamber, which might as well have been across continents—across worlds—we locked gazes.
Then the tide hit.
It slammed into me, knocking me sideways and dragging me beneath the surface.
I kicked and thrashed as the current seized me, hurling me one way and then another.
Terror closed around my throat as I clawed for the surface, but there was only sweeping black water.
My shoulder struck the wall. I scrabbled for purchase, my nails tearing against the rock until white-hot pain shot through my fingertips.
Something caught the back of my collar.
Rìan pulled me from the water in a single brutal yank. I burst to the surface, coughing and spluttering as he fought the current, forcing us toward the passage leading from the cave. His grip bit into my arm as he half dragged, half shoved me through, bracing himself against the unending surge.
The cave was filling rapidly now. Water climbed past my chest, roaring with the fury of a living thing, as though the ocean itself meant to punish us for what we'd done. It was too strong for us to wade through.
Rìan paused, his gaze darting over the walls before settling on something beyond me.
Before I could protest, he caught my waist and heaved me upward onto a narrow shelf of rock jutting from the cave wall.
My boots slipped on the slick stone, but I caught myself with both hands, my fingers digging into ancient grooves carved by centuries of water flowing in and out of the passage.
Rìan lifted himself up after me in one smooth motion, water crashing against the wall where we'd been standing only moments before.
"Move."
I already was.
Adrenaline thundered through my veins as I pressed myself against the wall and inched sideways.
The ledge was barely wide enough for my foot, my stomach scraping against the unforgiving stone with every step.
Jagged ridges bit into my palms each time I reached for another handhold, flaying my already torn fingertips.
I focused on the next foothold, then the next.
Wind raced through the passage from the cave entrance, and I fixed my gaze on the narrow slit in the rock, like a weeping wound.
The current raged beneath us, already risen to the soles of our shoes.
"Up," Rìan barked.
I reached for a higher ledge and climbed. The crown of my head brushed the ceiling, leaving me wedged between unyielding rock above and punishing sea below.
The passage opened little by little until the roar of the surf gave way to the crash of open waves.
Moonlight.
I almost sobbed at the sight of it.
The cave mouth yawned before us. Spray burst where the sea hurled itself against the rocks, scattering in silver shards like broken glass beneath the night sky. I climbed from the shelter of the cave and swung onto a narrow outcropping. Rìan emerged behind me.
For a long moment, we remained crouched there, drenched and breathing hard, neither of us willing to move.
Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the sea quieted. The waves swallowed the cave entrance whole, the fury ebbing from them as though the ocean had finally fed its hunger.
How long had we been inside? There had still been daylight when we’d entered. Now the world lay beneath a blanket of stars.
Rìan finally stood and without a word, gestured for me to keep moving.
Together we edged along the weathered cliff face until the ledge widened enough to allow a careful descent. Handhold by handhold, foothold by foothold, we climbed down toward the beach, leaving the second Gate—and another shredded piece of our bond—behind.