Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
QUINN
I take Abby by the hand and lead her through the tunnels, up that Gods awful staircase, and through the ruins until we make it to the beach. I haven’t told her where we’re going yet because I don’t want her to talk me out of it. Not that she would, but I might talk myself out of it.
A quick glance up to the sun tells me we should have enough time to make it before nightfall, but only if we leave right now.
“No training today, sir ?” a mocking voice calls out to me. Just what I need. I don’t stop to acknowledge the small group of sirens. Most have been willing participants in training, but others… Well, they’ve been less willing.
“Consider yourselves lucky. Lessons resume tomorrow.”
The tallest of them blocks my path. I let go of Abby’s hand in case I need it because I am not in the mood for this. The taste of that Guardian’s blood still coats my tongue and his scream still rings in my ears. The only thing keeping me calm right now is the possibility that Evan was sending me a message through him. I need to get to that cave, and if this man doesn’t get the fuck out of my way, he’s not going to like what happens.
“You took off pretty fast last night and made quite the scene.”
“Your point?” I ask through gritted teeth. The wolf is still strong in me.
Calm down.
The man shrugs and gestures to one of the other two smirking bastards. “You know, Tate here is an influencer.” I didn’t know, but right now I don’t give a shit. “He can manifest a person’s greatest fears. Do you want to see?”
“How ‘bout it, Prince?” the man I can only assume is Tate jeers.
I step around the living roadblock. “No thanks. I prefer to keep my fears to myself.”
The larger man grabs hold of my wrist. “I thought we were allies. Fear may be weakness, but should we not know where the kinks in our allies’ armour is?”
“Another time.”
Before I can pull out of his grasp, I feel Tate’s influence wash over me. It’s like ice in my veins, beginning at the back of my neck before spreading down my spine and limbs like wet snow raining down on my skin. My vision blurs and when I blink, bright sunlight is replaced by fog. Swirls of shadow and mist envelop me, threatening to steal away my very soul.
Somewhere in the distance, a wraith screams.
Laughter replaces the thrumming of my heart as the vision dissipates. I nearly stumble as I struggle to pull in a breath of air that doesn’t smell like decay. A hand claps my shoulder. “A fear of death is commendable. By the way you ran out last night, I was expecting something more entertaining.”
He has no idea. What they believe is the fear of death is nothing but my fear of the veil and the wraiths’ promise that comes with it. That said, I’m almost surprised I didn’t see myself. Or rather, the monster I once was. And that’s just it. Perhaps we really aren’t one and the same. I bit that Guardian. I infected him with the very curse that almost destroyed me. And yet, I’m still me.
Abby pushes into him before I can respond. “Do you want to see my fear? It’s that I’m going to stab you if you don’t back the fuck off.”
I know she doesn’t mean it, but Gods, is she ever convincing? The siren’s smirk disappears and the three of them move aside, all the while mumbling about which of us is crazier.
When we’re far enough away, I let out a laugh that is far more at ease than it should be. “You’re vicious when you want to be.”
She smiles sweetly, allowing the statement to hang in the air between us. Vicious is not a word I thought I would ever use to describe her, but I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m the one who taught her to kill.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Her question brings me out of the memory of that bastard who nearly killed her. I’d never been so angry. I’d never wanted so much make a death last so that I could savour in every last second of it, but even then, Abby showed mercy. I may have turned her into a killer, but her heart didn’t blacken.
I sigh, blowing away the memory. “We’re going to the cave of faces.” At least convincing her I haven’t lost my mind will distract me from what’ll be waiting for us when we return to Lunae in the morning. For all I know, the Guardian is already dead.
Her brows crease, and then her eyes widen as realization hits. “You think Ty meant that cave?”
Ty .
I don’t want to think of him as anything other than a Guardian because I don’t want yet another person’s blood on my hands. Or claws, I guess. Too many people have been killed by the monster, and if he dies, this will be the first killed by me . Every life I’ve ever taken had a purpose. This death would be for nothing.
I shrug to hide my shudder. “Do you know of any other caves that fit the description? Even if that’s not what he was talking about, we need to be sure.” I need to be sure. And more than that, I know my brother. He was always quick to get to the point. I can’t even count how many times he interrupted my day to deliver a message with as few words as possible. It was never, ‘Our father wants to see you in the dungeon so he can train you.’ It was, ‘Father’ and ‘Dungeon.’ And then if I was lucky, he’d add an, ‘I’m sorry.’ Though that was only when the bruises still hadn’t faded from the last time he sent Evan after me.
“Why would Ty hallucinate about that? He’s never been to Marein, let alone outside of Lunae.”
I stop walking so she’s forced to meet my gaze. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I don’t think he was hallucinating.”
Her expression barely changes, but I don’t miss the slight crease of her brow. “Okay?”
I know she’s waiting for an answer, but I almost can’t speak the words I know in my heart to be true. “I think… I think he was seeing Evan.”
“Why would he see Evan?” At least she’s not outright calling me mad.
“Whenever I see Evan in the veil, I can’t hear him. The first time, I thought he was trying to tell me something. If the fever brings people to the brink of death, maybe they can hear the dead.”
“Okay…” she says again, but it’s more hesitant this time. “And you think if the message was important enough, he would find a way to get it to you.”
“You think I’m stubborn, but you haven’t met my brother. He’d find a way.” A shard of ice pierces into my heart at the thought of her never being able to meet him. Not really. Seeing him in the veil is one thing, but Evan is dead. Our relationship may have been complicated, but I respected him more than anyone.
“I believe you,” she says, like she knew I needed to hear her say it. “But there’s just one thing that’s still bothering me.”
I laugh. “Just one?”
Her answering smile is brighter than the sun drawing ever nearer to the horizon, but it dims as quickly as it appeared. “How would Evan know about the cave? I know he lived among the sirens for a few years, but he was a child. Did he even remember his life here?” She gestures towards the waves.
“I honestly don’t know if he remembered. He never mentioned it, but I suspect our father told him not to. As for how he knew about the cave and what I hope we’ll find there… Who knows what he’s seen from the veil?”
We walk the rest of the way in silence. Her hand is warm in mine and it gives me the strength I need to keep moving. Each step we take brings us one step closer to the truth—or to disappointment. Abby is the first to speak when we’re face to face with the carving of my mother. She looks the exact same as the last time we were here, but the kindness I’d thought I’d seen in her stone eyes has been replaced with something else. As I stare into them now, all I see are the secrets she kept from me and the secret she might keep now.
“We’re here,” she says, and there’s an uneasiness to her voice.
“We’re here.” I touch a hand to my mother’s face and drag my fingers along the rough stone. I don’t know what I was expecting, but nothing happens.
“Quinn,” Abby says my name after a long moment of silence. I know what she’s thinking, but I don’t want her to say.
“Don’t. Just keep looking.” There has to be something here. There has to be.
“I know you want to believe we were sent here for a reason, but—”
“Please, Abby. We have to find the archive. It has to be here.”
She blows out a breath and lays her hand flat against mine over the rock wall. “This is the archive. This wall. These faces. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing here that we didn’t already know.”
My heart sinks at the realization that she could be right. After all, an archive is nothing but a historical record. This wall depicts Marein’s royal line as far back as to the first known queen and is therefore an archive in itself. But Evan wouldn’t have sent us here unless there was something we still needed to find, and the only clue he gave us was…
Mother .
I study her, looking for anything that doesn’t match my memory. Her hair is shorter than I remember her liking it, but the style is the same. Her face is younger, her eyes are brighter. But this is a depiction of how she would have looked when she lived here. Her clothing is different, but it fits in with the flowing robes that all the others on the wall wear. There’s not a single thing different about her.
That is, until my gaze falls upon her hand.
She wears the same ring she always wore, but that’s what’s different here. Aurelia’s words come flooding back to me.
The trouble with your mother started with a ring.
“I found it!” I sputter.
“Found what?” Abby’s gaze follows mine and then her eyes go wide. “Sirens don’t wear rings.”
My lips spread into a grin. “Sirens don’t wear rings.” I repeat her words before touching a finger to the stone ring. It feels loose under my touch and, with just a bit more pressure, something clicks into place.
The earth around us trembles as water in the tunnel behind us sloshes. I should be terrified the roof is about to collapse, but I’m too fucking happy for that. Too relieved that I wasn’t wrong. That there really was something here and answers are mere moments away. “Thank you, Evan.” My words are lost to the rumble of stone as the wall to our left cracks and then slides upwards in the same manner as many of the doors in Marein’s underwater city.
When the shaking finally ceases and the waters calm, Abby and I step into the dimly lit chamber. It smells of dust and salt and the answers to all our problems because sitting on the large table in the back of the room is a single tome displayed on a bookstand.