Chapter 47
“My darling,” a voice murmured, pulling Will from a deep sleep.
Moonlight flooded the library, long trails of smoke rising from the burned-down candles, while the fire was little more than embers beneath the ash.
Elodie slept beside him on the sofa, her lips pursed in a slight pout.
Eric lay stretched out beside the sofa, the head of one of his dogs resting on his stomach, the blue encyclopedia of angels he had fallen asleep over lying across his chest.
“My most beautiful one.”
Hearing the Albatross’s voice tonight went deeper, reaching the locked corners of his childhood, and the taste of salt and fish settled on his tongue.
He would have liked to be angry with the monster that had deceived him and stained his innocence, but he could also see the creature in its chains.
Trapped for centuries, battered by wind and sea, he could understand its desperation.
His own memories of hanging helplessly in the vampires’ grasp were still too fresh.
Carefully, he slipped free of Elodie’s arms and rested her head on a pillow. She murmured his name but immediately curled up again. Could the others even wake while he wandered through this world between dream and reality?
His bare feet moved softly across the floorboards; he did not bother putting on shoes.
The door swung open, and the empty corridors of the castle drifted past him.
Snow blew in through the windows and gathered in high drifts in the corners of the rooms, ice crystals glittering in the air.
Will followed the voice of his god, the being whose pulse beat beside his own heart.
He stepped through a small door into the snow-covered garden. Only then did he realize how quiet it was. The wind had died down, so that scattered snowflakes drifted lazily from the black sky, lit by the crescent moon above the sea.
Somewhere in the depths of his awareness, Will felt the ice beneath his bare feet.
Still, he kept walking along the snow-crusted outer wall, past bundled rosebushes and statues sunk into winter sleep, until he reached a semicircular balcony that jutted out over the cliffs.
Below him, the sea roared, breaking against the rocks and licking up toward the balustrade.
Will stopped, the breeze catching his hair. “Albatross!”
The sea sighed and smacked below him, the waves answering in their eternal pounding and roar, until one rose higher and higher and finally broke against the seawall. White spray burst into the night sky, catching the moonlight for a moment.
Within the wave, where moon and sea met, the Albatross appeared.
Hauntingly beautiful, its claws touched the ground, and the remnants of its wings folded around Will.
It was even more beautiful and terrible than it had been in his childhood, so free on this night of demons.
His second heart beat faster, vibrating with longing through every vein.
Bony fingers stroked Will’s cheek, and the skull bent toward him.
“You came,” the god murmured.
“You called.”
A hum vibrated through its bony chest. “You remember. It is fascinating what your little minds can forget when they are frightened badly enough.”
Will bit his lip and looked up into the silver eyes, into the empty sockets, into the face, into the monster’s skull. “I did that to you.” Carefully, he raised a hand and stroked the bone, though beneath his fingers he felt plumage yielding to his touch.
“You freed me. I still feel your little teeth against my bones. I will bear their marks forever.” Claws settled around Will’s narrow waist and drew him closer.
Just as he saw the god and the skeleton before him, a large belly now curved there as well, stretching Will’s skin to its limit.
“Star above a stormy sea. To watch you wield my magic, small as your attempts have been so far, is fascinating. There is so much more inside you…”
“Will you help me?” Will asked, letting his hand move over the monster, over what his eyes saw and what his heart saw. With the other, he reached for his belly, but this time not from pain or desperation.
“Do you no longer fear me?”
“No. You are only a creature beyond good and evil, and I have seen true monsters. Help me protect my friends from one of them—from the Red King of Bloodgrove.”
Wind rose, and cold bit into Will’s cheeks.
“It is wise of you to want to protect them from him. Pain and power have twisted him. He is a captive beast like me, but for him, any salvation comes too late.” The Albatross’s empty gaze turned toward the mountains, and the remnants of its wings lifted as though it wished to catch the wind in them and fly away.
“So you know him.”
“Once, long ago. Long before you humans made the world your own. He was beautiful. But my darling, I do not know whether I can protect you from him.” Its tongue slid out and stroked Will’s cheek before curling around his throat.
“If you die, I can’t save you and we will become sea foam and stardust once more. ”
“You said the curse of Bloodgrove keeps him trapped as well.”
“It was made for him. It is his prison.”
“You had the sea. He has this city.”
“Only a small, bitter taste of the thing we long for. The one who imprisoned us knew how to torment an eternal soul.”
Will looked out over the sea, the horizon blurring beneath the next approaching snowstorm, the world cast in mercury and lead.
What kind of man would he have become if he had never found the Albatross, never been given its magic?
He was good at what he did. He needed nothing supernatural for that, and yet…
His fingers slid over the curve of his belly, where he felt the cold sea and a second heart beating.
The Albatross wrapped its tail around Will’s legs and lifted him onto the balustrade. “My most beautiful one, salt of my sea, come with me. Let me show you the wonders of our magic. The night is still young.”
“Will!” Eric’s voice tore him away from the sight and touch of the god.
Startled, he turned and felt the Albatross calling the sea behind him. It beckoned to him, inviting him to fall into the god’s arms. Instinctively, he reached for the Albatross’s claw, not wanting to let it go, while at the same time knowing there would be no coming back.
A wave rose, and the wind whipped its spray into the air where the water hurled itself against the rocks with the full force of the ocean. Will let go of the Albatross.
“My pearl of the deep,” he heard the god’s voice say, but then it vanished with the wave as it collapsed back into the sea.
Clouds moved across the moon, and Will was left alone.
Eric hurried through the garden, his coat drawn tightly around him.
“Will, what are you doing out here?” Eric’s shocked expression finally ripped Will completely from the dream—if it had even been a dream. Who was to say that on a night when demons and spirits danced across the land, the gods could not reach through the veil as well?
Eric was beside him the next moment and lifted him from the balustrade. Will cursed when he stepped into the snow and the ice burned against his skin like fire. The only warmth was Eric, who pulled him closer still, his gaze fixed over Will’s shoulder on the balustrade and the sea beyond it.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, forcing Will to look at him. In the gathering storm, silver hair whipped wildly around them.
How was he supposed to tell him how empty he suddenly felt? How lonely his heart beat inside his chest? How much he missed being filled with the god’s terrible love?
Only slowly did the danger sink in. Eric had come out into the night of demons, when even the most powerful mages locked themselves away, and had found him somewhere between dream and reality.
Pressed close together, they made their way back into the house, but Will remained silent.