Sea Fae Trilogy

by C. N. Crawford

  Without warning, all the mirth left her face, and her features contorted with rage. “Don’t you get it? You don’t make the rules anymore, King Salem. You’re in my realm. The one you created for me when you locked me here.”

  I shook my head. “Oh, my wife, I didn’t create it. That would be beyond my skills. You have my mother to thank for that. She trapped you here for my sake. I’d say it was only fair, don’t you? A curse for a curse. The only terrible thing was that I couldn’t get to you here. I couldn’t end your life. I suppose, in a way, my mother kept you safe here. Perhaps you should get down on your knees and thank her.”

  “Safe.” Beira hugged herself, shivering. Now, her expression was haunted. “First, you cast me off as a wife. I’m not sure if you know what it’s like to be cast out like that. Abandoned. It was like my chest was carved out. I was an outcast, wandering among the cursed. The sound of derision rang in my ears wherever I went.”

  “Oh, yes, Beira. I’m quite familiar with that feeling.”

  “I wanted you to feel what I felt,” she said. “I wanted you to live outside the boundaries of civilization, among the animals. Reviled, like I was. I wanted to turn you into the most loathsome, most hated creature who ever existed. And how did I do, Lucifer?”

  “You did a bang-up job, Beira. The only thing of significance you ever achieved, I’d wager.”

  “And then I found myself trapped here.” Her teeth began chattering. “And the cold was infinite. And there was nothing here for me but the silence and the leanhaum-shee. And they can’t love, or speak!” She started to transform before me, growing taller, her eyes sliding together. “And that’s what made it so cold here—being cut off from love.” She towered over me now. “The isolation gives you frostbite, cutting swaths through your flesh right down to your bones. Until you become a monster. That’s what loneliness does to you!”

  Not all problems could be solved with fire, and this was one of them. “Do you really want me to feel sorry for you, Beira? You cursed me to burn people in caves!”

  She shook her head, and I stared in disgust as her bloodshot eye blinked. Her lips and fingernails took on the purplish hue of death. “And look what happened to me.”

  Salem

  I kept my mask of calm, but panic was inflaming my mind. Could I still charm her? If I had to live in this frozen hell world with this hag to set Aenor free, so be it.

  “You’re lonely here,” I said. “I could stay here with you. I’d make better company intact. Who better to provide you warmth than me?”

  She grinned, exposing her long yellow teeth. Was this actually working?

  “We’ll make a home,” I went on. “You and I.”

  She rubbed her long fingers together. “No. But I like that you’re begging for me. Your bride again. Our time is done. You may go free; that is your prize. You may return to the heavens. First, kill your mate.” Her voice was now a creaking rasp. “Penance.”

  Fuck. “Let her go.”

  “No, she must die,” she croaked. “You’d only abandon me again if I fell for your trickery. Leave me cold. My feet will bleed… I will walk alone on the frozen earth. You should have loved me then, you wretch. I was your one true love!”

  Had she always been this demented? I suspected she had. I held my hands out in a calming gesture. The thought of staying with Beira forever made me want to die, quite frankly, but I’d do whatever I had to if it meant she’d leave Aenor alone. “Just let her go, and you can feel my warmth—”

  Beira’s teeth grew longer, yellower, and she started to speak in my mind. You love her. She must die. You will never be free until you feel my torment. The isolation warped me. The loneliness… When I crush the pieces of you into the earth of my home, you will feel my pain. Her voice was a deep whisper in my skull. I will walk on the fragments of your body, and you will have only one thing to think about. The memory of me killing Aenor while you watched. You could kill her fast, you know. But when I do it, I will make it hurt. I will draw it out. You will remember her screams for eternity.

  Panic stole my breath. I was losing her, losing control. Did she really have Aenor already?

  The vision of the cave started to fade around us, giving way to stone walls frosted with snow and ice, lit with a dull silver glow. I was in her home now, chest pierced with iron spikes, a collar around my neck. My hands were bound behind me, clamped to the wall.

  The world seemed to tilt under me as I realized I could smell Aenor. She was here with me. I wanted to move my eyes to search the room, but my head was frozen, bent, eyes on the ground.

  I tried to summon my magic, and I found it rising sluggishly under the primordial ice. It was there, but encased as I was, I didn’t think I could modulate it. I felt like it was trapped under the ice, like a volcanic eruption ready to blow. It would be a fireball or nothing.

  From where I knelt, trapped, I could now see Aenor’s knees shifting into view, the hem of her dress. She was trying to get to me, while Beira’s broken-bell laughter echoed off the walls.

  I shifted my gaze a little to the left and saw what Aenor might be heading for. An iron skeleton key dangled from the wall above me, a silver ribbon looped through it.

  I heard Beira’s voice in my mind, a throaty whisper. Why don’t you just grab the key?

  More laughter trembled over the stones. She knew neither of us could get to it. Aenor looked like she could hardly move, and she’d have to melt all the ice before she could even unlock me.

  Then Beira’s voice again: You could free yourself with your fire. So easy to free yourself with the fire.

  Aaah… and this was where the real genius of her plan came into effect. With this primordial ice encasing me, the fire would build up under the surface. With enough heat, with enough fiery rage, I could let it explode out of me all at once. It would be an apocalyptic storm of fire.

  And Beira was right: I could set myself free that way. I could run, try to find the portal Aenor had come through. All I had to do was unleash flames hot enough to melt the iron and ice, and I’d be out of here. The type of volcanic heat I’d used to turn brains to glass.

  I’d have the pleasure of burning Beira with it, too. She wouldn’t die—I was sure her magic would revive her—but she’d burn, and I’d have a chance to escape.

  This was what Beira wanted me to choose. Because if I did that—if I chose to save my own life—I’d be slaughtering my mate as well. Incinerating her.

  I glanced at Aenor’s legs as she struggled to move closer, inching along the wall toward me. One of her shoulders rubbed against the icy stones, and she shifted her hips to get to me, trying to propel herself forward. I wondered what was shackling her.

  It took me a moment to see the ice around her ankles. She was lurching ever so slowly forward, trying to get to me, to the key.

  Beira laughed with delight. The rage inside me started to bubble and simmer. Lyr must have set this up. He’d opened the portal.

  I stared with dread at the veins of magic in Aenor’s skin. They strained for her heart. I wanted to speak to her, but even if I could move the muscles in my jaw, what would I tell her?

  The panic in my mind was so intense that I couldn’t think straight. I hadn’t felt this sort of fear since the day I’d fallen—the darkness, plunging through the air, unmoored.

  Her eyes were wide, gleaming. Her knees bled on the ground, probably from her skin sticking to the ice-slicked earth. She shivered, her lips blue.

  Think, Salem, think.

  She had such a look of determination on her face—her brow furrowed, gaze locked on the key—that I thought she might have a plan, one I hadn’t yet fathomed. If she could somehow manage to unlock me, I’d rip Beira’s head off so fast that the witch wouldn’t have time to scream. We’d be at the portal within moments.

  If Aenor could manage it—with her mouth, maybe—if she could warm the ice enough that it melted…

  But why would Beira stand by while that happened?

  Aenor
reached the key. She strained her neck, trying to reach it, and opened her mouth to try to pull it down with her teeth. Her tongue shot out, curling around the ribbon—

  That was when Beira ripped the key off the wall and flung it across her house. She unleashed a demented cackle that made me feel like I was losing my mind.

  Aenor was catching her breath, and her eyes shone in the dim light. A single tear slid down her cheek, then froze where it was. I needed to warm her.

  The inside of my mind was a rage-fueled hell. I was flames charring flesh. I was the ashy bones of my enemies. I was the wrath of a god. And yet all I could do without exploding completely was to melt the ice off the tip of one finger.

  Beira’s voice rang in my mind. I promised I’d kill Aenor slowly. Over months.

  The ice cracked as I forced my eyes to look at Beira, finding that her blue lips flapped around soundlessly, like the convulsions of a dying person.

  But she won’t last that long, will she? she shrieked in my head. She’s already half-dead, little wretch.

  Still, I will make sure this hurts both of you.

  Aenor

  Even though he was encased in ice, even though the key was gone, I still had to get to Salem. When your mate is near, you crawl to them in your time of need.

  I was so cold that I could hardly move. I must have frostbite over every inch of me. I didn’t know why Salem wasn’t using his heat to melt the ice, but there was obviously something stopping him.

  I stole a glance down at my body, finding the dark magic spiraling under my skin, moving for my heart. Rotten… that’s what this was. I was rotten from the inside out. My father had been a psycho, and my mother had never trusted me, because I was rotten like an old fruit—

  I gritted my teeth, furious at the realization that Beira was infecting my thoughts. She wanted me to die like she’d lived: pierced by self-hatred.

  I craned my head to glance back at her. She was dangling the key from her bony finger. “Failure,” she croaked. “Punishment.”

  Her large eye blinked, and she spoke in my mind. You could have healed yourself, if only the people loved you. A leader grows strong from the sacrifices of her people. No one would sacrifice to you, rotten one. Wretched one. You deserve nothing, corrupted as you are.

  She tossed the key out the door, then rubbed her hands together with glee.

  And why wouldn’t I hate myself? A violent streak a mile thick, my soul festering inside like a blighted potato—

  Her spell over me was twisting my thoughts again. But that was it, wasn’t it? The reason Mama never trusted me… because I had my dad’s tainted blood—

  A little sound stopped my thoughts. Then another. A rhythmic noise hammering the ice. Faint, so faint I could barely hear it over my breath. I looked down to see that one of Salem’s fingers had thawed the ice, and water dripped off it.

  Even frozen, I sensed he was urging me closer.

  So, something was stopping him from using his magic, but what if…

  What if he could still channel it? All he needed was a tiny point of contact between us.

  I shifted, just another inch, and his fingertip touched my thigh. And from that tiny touch, I felt his warmth pouring into me. It moved up my thigh, snaking up my hips, my stomach, and pouring into my chest like a warm drink.

  And with it, all those thoughts Beira had instilled in me started to soften. I saw myself as Salem did—not as broken or rotten. Not as violent and warped. I was a survivor, a protector. I saw myself standing before a city, a crown on my head and my kingdom spread out behind me.

  I tuned out Beira’s wild laughter, but I kept my awkward pose, the defeated slump of my shoulders. I couldn’t let her know anything was changing.

  Salem’s magic was pouring faster into my chest now, and I breathed in the scent of pomegranates and smoke. Along with his magic, I had a few glimpses of some of his memories…

  Walking barefoot from his cave, sitting on a beach to watch the rising sun with a hot cup of tea. The morning song of wrens and blackbirds.

  I met his gaze, and fire flickered in his eyes.

  I was the warmth of the sun now—and flames licked my ribs, filling me with his strength. I had enough power in me to explode.

  I flashed him a small smile, and then loosed the inferno.

  The ice melted off Salem, off me, turning to steam in the air. He was still bound by iron, but my hands were free, and I felt strong now. Beira was screaming, and I whirled to find her trying to beat out the flames on her hair and dress. A burst of icy magic from her body snuffed them out.

  I snatched the old knife from one of the alcoves.

  With strength pulsing through my muscles, I slammed Beira back against the stone wall, one elbow in her chest. I drew the blade so deep across her throat that I was sure I cut through to her spine.

  There was no spray of blood, just a thin trickle of blue. With a gaping eye, she slid to the ground, clutching her neck.

  I kept the knife on me and rushed out the door, into the cold air, searching the snowy earth for the key. Coming outside from the darkness, the snow seemed blinding, and it took my eyes a few moments to adjust. Then I saw it—the little indentation in the snow. I snatched the key.

  But when I turned back toward the house, the door had sealed over with stone. My legs shook, and I ran for it. I pressed my hands against the frigid walls, looking for an opening, a door.

  Just rock. Fucking rock sealed shut. It was just a cobbled expanse, already covered with frost and snow.

  My breath caught in my lungs, and panic rang in my mind like a demented bell. This world seemed to respond to Beira’s needs—just like Mag Mell responded to Salem’s. Her world, her rules.

  When I pressed my ear to the stone, I could hear a high-pitched groaning noise. Beira’s voice. Not dead yet.

  I tucked the key into my dress pocket.

  So, she’d survived that. She was something beyond a normal fae now, turned into a frightful goddess by eons of misery. I needed to get in there before she started torturing Salem, or ripping him into tiny pieces, or whatever the hells she had planned.

  My mind was ablaze. This was his wife. This monster who spoke in people’s minds.

  Poor choice, Salem.

  I pressed my hands against the stone and let the flames pour from my chest, down my arms and fingertips. It was exhilarating, holding his magic in my body. I was a temporary keeper of this warmth.

  The rocks started to glow red, melting a little bit, and I heard Beira’s screams from inside. I’d bake her alive, melt the rock, and get to Salem.

  I felt something shift in the stone and thought maybe it was melting. But no—when my eyes flicked to the right, I saw the door gape open in the stone wall. I braced myself, knife in hand again. With a blast of icy air, the Queen of Misery stomped outside with nothing to show of my attack besides a nasty scar. Fury twisted her face.

  I threw the knife for her throat. It hit its mark, jutting out of her neck—but it hardly slowed her down this time. She pulled it out and tossed it into the whiteness far beyond me.

  I cocked my head. I’d be using Salem’s magic to fight her, then.

  My fingers twitched, blazing with fire. Beira lunged for me, and I loosed a burst of flames. Her clothes lit up the air, and she screamed, but the fire was out within moments.

  Ice spread over my skin. Gods, the cold was eating at my flesh again. Before my muscles seized up completely, I shifted and landed a punch in her stomach. Ideally, I would have gone for the neck or the head, but she was so freaking tall that the stomach was all I could manage.

  Doubling over, she roared, then shot up again. Another burst of fire from me. For a moment, I smelled singed flesh and hair, her skin blistering—but then her icy hands were around my throat, squeezing. She lifted me into the air, tilting her head while I choked.

  I heard her voice again as she grinned up at me. But Salem needs to watch you die. You stole my husband. My one true love. We made his head nod;
he agreed. It was legal. I followed the rules; you did not. There’s a name for women like you.

  Her bloodshot eye blinked at me. She was crushing my windpipe, the pain so blinding that I struggled to summon more fire.

  My legs flailed, and I kicked her hard in the chest. Then I loosed the flames.

  My heat scorched her, and she dropped me into the snow. I gasped for breath, my throat making a deep rasping sound. As I scrambled to stand again, her foot came down on the back of my head, and pain shot through my skull. My face slammed into the snow—I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move with her foot pressing me down.

  She was crushing my skull…

  Her laughter rang out, muffled. With my face smashed down, I dimly heard her speak in her halting, grating voice. “I gave you… a fake… key.” She was literally cackling.

  Oh, you absolute bitch.

  Reaching behind my head, I gripped her icy calf, roasting her skin with my hands. She yelped, stumbling away. I only managed to roll over again, gasping for breath, before she was on me again like a freaking avalanche. Her claws wrapped around my throat, and her screeching voice was enough to shake the snow from the trees.

  My throat closed up, frost spreading over my skin and freezing my muscles until I couldn’t call up the fire.

  My vision was darkening, the world cast in shadow—

  A long shadow over us, looming over us. A deep voice…

  Beira’s hair fell in my face, but when her head jerked to the side, I saw the silhouette of someone standing over her. Pale hair caught in the wind, blue eyes like shards of winter ice.

  Lyr.

  He raised his sword, the blade gleaming in the bright light.

  My heart skipped a beat. I scrambled to call forth more flames, but Beira’s ice was eating through my body, and she still had the tight grip on my throat.

  Lyr was going to deliver the final blow. Kill me.

  His deep voice pierced the haze in my mind. “You lied to me.”

  Was he talking to me?