A siren war pack, hunting for food.
His heart pounding, Gabriel closed the distance. Raphael, his spear in his hand and surrounded by his ever-present entourage of siren warriors, gaped at Gabriel. “You’re back. But when?” His gaze flicked down to the glowing green gem. His jaw dropped open wider. “And is that…”
“I’ll trade the Legacy Stone for your spear.”
Raphael’s eyes widened. “What?”
Gabriel cut off Raphael’s questions. He was running out of time. “The sacred place is beneath the heart of the fallen statue in the ocean, twenty leagues northeast of our colony.”
“I know that statue,” Raphael confirmed. “I know where it is.”
“Take the stone. Return it to its sacred place. If all goes well, the power unleashed will heal our oceans.”
“But...this honor...you’re our clan chief,” Raphael stuttered. “You found the stone and the sacred place. The statue is only fifty leagues from here—”
Gabriel shook his head sharply. “There is something else I must do. Take the stone. Claim the honor. All I want is your spear.”
Raphael blinked, then joy spread over his face.
“Gladly.” He handed over his spear as Gabriel set the Legacy Stone in the palm of his hand.
“Go, Raphael.” Gabriel managed a tight smile. “Go save our people.”
Raphael’s eyes were still wide with wonder, his hands cupped around the Legacy Stone, when Gabriel turned away.
Gabriel darted through the water, pushing with all his strength for the greatest possible speed. He did not look back at the Legacy Stone. He did not regret the honor and glory he had bestowed on Raphael, his greatest rival for the position of clan chief.
He had far more important things on his mind.
In fact, just one far more important thing on his mind.
Kerina.
Chapter 22
Tears brimming in her eyes, Kerina sprinted down the tunnel, skidding around the tight corners. She squeezed past the stack of stones that hid the entrance to that concealed section of the cavern, but in her haste, she scraped her skin against the jagged edges of the rocks.
The sunburst of pain blasted through the cobwebs of grief, of shock, of loss.
Gabriel was gone.
And she had personally sent him on his way.
I chose this. But in that moment, there was no joy, no pride in having made the right decision.
She pressed her hand against the deep cut on her thigh. Her hand came away dripping with blood. Pain pulsed along the length of her leg. Hobbling upright, she took a step forward, but her leg crumpled beneath her weight. She staggered against the stone stack.
It shifted almost infinitesimally sideways. Kerina held her breath. No, no. Please don’t...
She crouched, trying to inch away from the stones without jostling them further, but the stones slanted more alarmingly, shifting as she moved away, until several stones rested entirely on her body. Individually they were not large, but as a whole, they were heavy, pressing against her right arm and her rib cage.
She was stuck.
Her chest heaved, her breath quickening into panic. Her glance flicked across the deepening shadows of the cave. A low sound rolled through the maze of cavern—half-snore, half-grunt—like a man on the verge of waking. Fear curdled in her stomach.
When Tua woke, he would realize the Legacy Stone was gone. But if he realized she was gone, too… Gabriel would have no chance of getting that stone back to his people before he was found.
She needed to get back to Tua before he woke. Distract him from realizing the stone was missing. It was the only way she could help Gabriel get a headstart.
Everything she had done, everything she had sacrificed, to save Gabriel and his people would have been for nothing if she did not get back to Tua...
Her shoulders tensed as her cold fingers folded into fists. One big lunge, then run for it. Ready…
No, no no. Not ready...
She wasn’t ready. What the hell had she been thinking, pretending to be a mage, thinking that a deadly search for the Legacy Stone would be a better alternative than living in her village? Being Anja’s slave hadn’t been so bad, had it? So what if that was all her life would have been?
But then she would never have met Gabriel. Never experienced joy. Or love.
However short-lived.
Maybe it balanced out, but it would mean nothing if Gabriel died. If Gabriel failed.
She ground her teeth. The fight wasn’t done.
I am not done.
The weight of the stones was almost crushing. Kerina drew as deep a breath as she could manage. Now!
She lunged forward, and the stack of stones smashed to the ground. The impact rolled through the caves like thunder, the rumbles echoing endlessly in the twisting warren. One of the largest stones, precariously balanced at the top of the stack, struck her heel, wrenching a scream from her.
Whitehot shards of agony flashed through her mind and body. Her thoughts blanked out for precious seconds before she regained enough wit, enough awareness to stagger to her feet. The pain shooting through her legs made balance unreliable and speed impossible, but she hastened, as best as she could, through the tunnel back to Tua’s cave.
Her breath caught as she reached the cave entrance. Tua, his eyes still closed, had rolled onto his side. His brow suddenly furrowed into layered lines. His nose twitched from side to side, like a hound who had scented blood.
Blood!
Kerina ripped off the edge of her skirt and pressed it to her thigh. She needed water to clean the wound, then if she could dress the injury with herbs, the smell of calendula would likely conceal the scent of blood. Her hands trembling, she sluiced water from the pool in the corner of the cave over her thigh. Blood, thinned by water, ran down the length of her leg to drip onto the ground. Still shaking, as much from the shock of pain as from heightened nerves, she continued pouring water over the deep cut. She winced as she parted the wound carefully. It was so deep she could almost see the white of bone.
She would have to make sure she cleaned it out all the way in there or it would become infected.
She turned back to the pool, and in the concentric circles of ripples in the water, looming above her slight form, was the heaving monstrous bulk of Tua.
She yelped and twisted around, falling back on her buttocks. The hem of her skirt bared her hips.
Tua leered, his eyes fixed on the prize between her legs. “Tried to escape, did you? There are only two ways out of here. One is guarded by our faithful children, and other is a three-hundred-foot plunge to death. There is no place to run, Kerana, no place to hide.” His yellow, slitted eyes gleamed. “Unless of course, you did it to excite me, to heighten the pleasure of your surrender.”
Beneath his loincloth, his sexual organ swelled as he inhaled deeply of the blood-scented air.
He reached toward her, and Kerina flinched. Tua laughed, the spread of his lips displaying his teeth, the edges sharpened to points. “Do you remember our first time together? How you fought? How you cried? How you bled?” His hands flexed, fingers curling like talons. “This will be just like that night. Your precious siren will enjoy watching, don’t you agree?”
Revulsion coiled into a hard knot in her chest, but willpower kept her steady as his hand landed on her head and tugged through her hair. The yanking motion was nothing compared to the pain stabbing along the length of her leg, but it was so far from the hesitant and almost reverent way Gabriel had touched her hair that the difference rushed tears into Kerina’s eyes.
“Shall we invite him here?” Tua taunted. His hand tightened around her hair and pulled her to her feet.
“No, please, don’t,” Kerina pleaded. “Leave Gabriel out of this. I’ll do whatever you want. Just...not him.”
“There is no red-blooded male alive who will not appreciate the sight of a naked woman, especially one who is wet and spread for her man. Have all those years in t
he water thinned and chilled the sirens’ blood?” Tua mocked. “Perhaps if he begs prettily enough, I’ll let him lick the taste of our juices clean from your body when I’m done with you.” He strode toward the cave exit, pulling Kerina with him. She stumbled, screaming as her injured leg gave way beneath her, and he jerked to a stop.
Kerina’s breath heaved. Grateful for the momentary reprieve, for the unexpected kindness, she looked up, then froze when she saw Tua’s gaze fixed on a spot on the rock wall.
On an empty spot once graced by the serene green glow of the Legacy Stone.
Tua’s fist clenched tightly, yanking her head back. “You stole. From me.” His eyes widened until he looked utterly incredulous. “From me!” His voice vibrated between a shocked question and a deafening roar of fury. “Where is it? You cannot have hidden it anywhere I could not find it. Give it back to me!”
“It’s gone,” Kerina sobbed. She tried to tug her hair free from his merciless grasp, but he was far stronger and infinitely angrier.
“Gone? Where? Did you give it to the siren? Where is he?” He shook her until her teeth rattled in her head, then flung her across the cave.
Her back struck the wall, and she tumbled to the ground. Her vision flashed in dazzling hues, the outline of objects quavering as if made of water.
Tua’s voice boomed in her head, roiling in endless echoes. “Where is my magic stone? Where is the siren?”
Kerina glared up at Tua’s hazy outline. “Gabriel’s returned to the ocean! He’s beyond your reach. He’s taking the Legacy Stone back to the holy place. He’ll heal the ocean, and you can’t stop him!”
Tua’s slack jaw focused into an evil glint. “Can’t stop him? What is the Legacy Stone or the oceans to me? Nothing. I was here before the star split the earth, and I will be here long after the earth turns to dust and the oceans to desert. You think it’s riches I crave? Shiny stones?” He shook his head. “No. I crave whatever it is that men—and sirens—most desire. Many desire treasure, so I take it from them. Many cherish their lives, so I kill them. But not your siren.” His laughter pierced Kerina with the precision of a spear. “He cares not for treasure or his own life, and yet I have already taken that which he most desires.”
The demon paused for an endless, silent moment. His smile, if it had not been so laden with malice, might almost have been indulgent.
“Didn’t you know, Kerana? It’s you. He desires you.” Tua’s mocking laughter pounded like rocks against her skull. “Do you not find it ironic that you gave him both treasure and his life, and withheld from him that which he craved most?”
“I knew you’d never let him leave if I escaped with him.”
Tua waved his hand dismissively. “I will find the siren. There is nowhere he can hide where I will not find him. I will seize the stone from its sacred place, and the terrors of the deep will rise once more. Then I will have what he desires and what his people desire.” His lips pressed against his teeth in a fang-baring smile. “Don’t you see? Calamity may come from the stars, but evil—true evil—has always existed here, as ancient as the earth itself. When life ends, it will not be because the universe cursed us, but because we cursed ourselves.” He strode up to her. His hand closed around her throat, cutting off air from her lungs. “Do you finally understand, Kerana?”
She tried to pull his hands away from her throat. Her legs kicked weakly against nothing as he lifted her off the ground. Her vision, which already trembled in uncertain hues, melted into puddles of color.
As the colors faded into deepening shades of grey, as the last gasp of air wheezed out of her lungs, she asked, “Understand...what?”
“That the universe...that fate...did not damn you. You damned yourself when you valued that siren’s life and his people over the love I offered you.”
Tua’s words garbled into an incomprehensible echo. Kerina’s thoughts were fading into silence when Tua suddenly dropped her. The pain of smashing into the ground jolted awareness back into her. Air rushed into her lungs, pushing away the fog from her thoughts and the glare from her vision.
Tua’s howls of pain rumbled through the cavern, like waves crashing, one upon the other. Kerina blinked, staring in disbelief at the point of a spear protruding from Tua’s chest. The demon flailed, staggering sideways against the cave wall.
Only then did Kerina see Gabriel standing tall behind Tua. Gabriel’s face was grim, his eyes flinty. The muscles of his lean body were taut, prepared for battle.
Kerina gaped. Shock, fury, and hope swamped her. Gabriel had returned.
To her.
For her.
What the hell was he thinking?
Chapter 23
He had almost been too late.
The surge of relief wasn’t enough to shatter the icy chill of fear that had numbed Gabriel’s limbs as he had scaled the sheer rocky cliff, from the ocean back to the entrance of Tua’s cave. It did little to slow his rapid heartbeat, or the powerful kick of adrenaline, as he sprinted through the caves, skidding around the blind corners.
His breath had caught, his mind blanking with terror when he heard Tua’s voice roaring, the echo rumbling through the caves.
But if Tua was angry, it almost certainly meant that Kerina was still alive.
She had a talent for it. No one else could shock Gabriel the way Kerina could. She pushed me off the cliff! He still couldn’t wrap his mind around what she had done even though he knew exactly why she had done it. No other woman would have thought of it, let alone done it.
Only Kerina.
And as Tua stumbled sideways with the spear stuck in his back, Gabriel realized that Kerina had paid for her courage, her boldness. She leaned against the wall, her ankle swollen, her leg bleeding. She was slack-jawed, but her shock passed in an instant, and her eyes narrowed in her familiar “What on earth do you think you’re doing?” expression.
“Getting you out of here,” Gabriel answered her unasked question.
He grabbed her around the waist and supported her weight as he rushed her past Tua, who was still howling, his hands clawing against his back, trying to reach for the spear Gabriel had stabbed into him.
Half-carrying, half-dragging Kerina, Gabriel retraced his steps through the cavern. Every passing moment shrank the headstart they had on Tua. Every passing moment increased the likelihood that she...he...they...would never escape.
“Where is it?” Kerina demanded, her voice breathless with pain.
Gabriel clenched his teeth against the matching stab in his heart. Tua had struck Kerina, hurt her, and Gabriel hadn’t been able to protect her.
Before he could answer, she asked again, “Where is the Legacy Stone?”
“Safe.”
“You restored it to the sacred place?” she asked, stumbling beside him as he hurried her through the twisting turns back to the cave opening overlooking the ocean.
The fresh air, scented with the salt of the sea, brushed against his skin as they emerged into the final cave that opened out into a sheer drop into the ocean below. “No, I didn’t.”
“What?” Kerina jerked to a stop and wrenched herself out of his arms. “You were supposed to…” Her voice rose. “I gave it to you! Why didn’t you?”
Gabriel glanced at the open cliff, a mere two feet away from them. “I’m getting you out of here.”
“I can’t leave. If I leave, Tua will too, and he’ll go after the Legacy Stone. It will be all for nothing! Why didn’t you put it back in the sacred place? You were supposed to put it back.” Her voice shattered. “You weren’t supposed to come back for me. You weren’t supposed to get hurt, or killed.”
Gabriel winced, all too aware of the deep ache in his chest that not even the healing embrace of the ocean had fully whisked away. “I know I got hurt, but I’m still working on getting killed. I’m not there yet.”
The low rumble of a growl escalated into an ear-shattering howl.
Gabriel and Kerina spun around.
Tua’s bulk f
illed the entire cave entrance. He had abandoned all pretense at a human appearance. His pasty white skin was splotchy with warts. Fur sprouted over his shoulders and extended in a broad furrow down his back. He raised his hand and aimed one of his knobby fingers at Gabriel’s chest. His talons were each as long as Gabriel’s forearm.
“You’re not dead yet, but I will remedy it.”
Spittle dribbled from Tua’s deformed lips, his fangs too large for his mouth to close. His upper lip tugged into a grotesque smile. With a glint in his slitted eyes, he charged.
Gabriel pushed Kerina away from him, and crouched low, his shoulders hunched against Tua’s attack.
The demon barreled into him, sending both of them tumbling over the ledge.
The impact punched the air out of Gabriel’s lungs. His vision flashed white, then black.
Time blurred, blended into an endless, terrifying moment. Vertigo yanked at him until his stomach churned and his head spun.
Kerina’s scream tore him out of that dark void. Gabriel blinked hard, the blackness at the edges peeling back into hazy shapes. Tua’s face loomed right over him. The demon’s saliva dripped on his face, burning into his skin like acid, but for the first time, Gabriel recognized the expression on Tua’s face.
Fear.
Gabriel glanced over his shoulder. Below him, waves crashed on the jagged teeth of rocks, before bursting into sprays of sea foam.
He and Tua were both falling.
And he had a heartbeat before he ran out of time...
Training and instinct flung Gabriel into action. He grabbed Tua’s shoulders and flipped backward in mid-air to land on Tua’s back. He seized the spear still protruding from the monster’s back. As Tua smashed, face first, into the rocks, Gabriel used the momentum to hurl himself forward, yanking the spear out.
Tua screamed, though Gabriel did not know whether it was from crashing onto the granite rocks or from the bloody gash the spear ripped through his back as Gabriel pulled it out.
Gabriel twisted, arcing through the air to slice cleanly into the water. The waves foamed over the rocks, over the motionless heap of Tua’s body, and washed back into the ocean, stained crimson with Tua’s blood.
Mage’s Legacy: Cursed Seas Page 18
