Ice filled my veins, and my resolve faltered.
“Besides.” His eyes dimmed. “It’s probably already too late.”
Fear hovered on the edges of my consciousness, rational fear that existed to protect me, to remind me I was there to save my world—the Yav world—and dying that night would not achieve that. But there was no denying the swell of heat inside me that screamed at me to act. To lead. Was this a part of her? Of Morrigan? Or was it me?
I stared up into Veles’s face, reminding myself that although his words were harsh, they were practical. They were the words of a guide intent on keeping us alive. But at the same time, a life was at stake, and what kind of person would I be if I simply walked away?
“It will be dangerous, Veles. I know. But so has everything we’ve done so far. If we pick who lives and dies, then we’re no better than the monster we’ve come here to vanquish. We have to try.” I turned to Raven before Veles could use more words to convince me I was mistaken. “The lake?”
His jaw flexed in indecision, but the lapse was momentary, and the next second he was nodding in acquiescence.
He was my Raven, and he served me.
The thought was sudden and unlike me.
“I’ll be back for you, my friend.” The Raven straightened and scanned the terrain. “This way.”
He set off, and Veles and I followed. We moved fast through the trees.
“This is madness,” Veles said. “Three against goodness knows how many…”
I shot him a sly smile. “Is the god of death afraid?”
He growled. “Not for myself. Never for myself. Never for anyone. Not until you.”
“I can handle myself, Veles. You should know that by now.” My words came out harsher than intended. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“No. You’re right. I need to stop underestimating you. You are more than just a mortal, Wynter. I’ve seen you slay a pack of silver wolves. I know what you can do.”
The chilled breeze cut across my cheeks as the cover of the trees fell away. Sparse shrubbery sprang up around us, and then we were trudging on icy, flat lands—a bog rendered firm by the winter queen’s frost. The lake lay beyond the stiff white reeds, smooth, serene, and glacial.
“There!” The Raven pointed and then leapt up into the air.
His body shifted, and he rose as a huge bird and swooped across the frozen lake toward the figures marching across it, carrying the unmoving form of a griffin. The griffin was smaller than the one in the clearing, and from the looks of it, unconscious.
Veles and I broke into a run.
“Stop!” I waved my bone dagger, and it elongated. “Stop now.”
Several undines at the back of the procession turned to face us. They looked like miniature humans dressed in flowing shimmery garments that reflected the frozen lake. Their faces were pale ovals. Their eyes were huge black holes. They opened their mouths and screamed—black tongues writhed in gaping mouths—and then they charged us.
The Raven swooped down to attack the troop carrying Mirage. He’d have to fend for himself because Veles and I were surrounded. The undines were indeed small in stature, but they had the advantage of speed, numbers, and incredibly sharp teeth. My bone dagger was now a bone sword, and my body reacted to the attack on autopilot as if I’d been doing this forever. But unlike the last time, I wasn’t a watcher inside my own body. This time, I wasn’t a passenger as the power inside me, Morrigan’s power, took over. This time, it was my hand that gripped the dagger, it was my arm that jabbed and swung the weapon. The dagger slashed. Blood splattered. Screams tore the air, and my laughter echoed in the frozen night.
Veles was a lethal shadow at my side, his furs whipping through the air as he attacked the undines with tooth and claw. I cut a path through the throng, leaving broken bodies in my wake, ignoring the scratch and slice of their fingers and mouths on any part of my exposed skin.
Up ahead, Raven was fighting alone. The undines had abandoned the griffin on the ice in order to defend themselves. The Raven moved lightning quick. Feathers and beak one moment and claw and fist the next. His dagger flashed intermittently as he fought, sending blood trails skidding across the ice.
The world was a cacophony of death and destruction, and yet they kept coming, as if they were endless, as if they were multiplying faster than we could cut them down. I swept into the fray, slicing a path through the critters to skid to a halt at the Raven’s side.
“Get her off the ice.” I smashed an undine in the face with the butt of my bone sword and stabbed another through the eye. “Now.”
The Raven didn’t argue. He gathered up Mirage’s body while I beat off the undines, trying to stop him from getting away with her. They were slowing down in their attack now. Maybe this was it. Maybe it was over?
The Raven broke through the crowd of undines, carrying Mirage.
He was safe.
Veles looked up from a sea of blood to lock gazes with me across the ice, and triumph blossomed in my chest.
The god of death had delivered.
The undines surrounding me halted their attack and froze in place. Their dark eyes fixed on my face as if seeing me for the first time, and then they opened their mouths, and Oblivion’s voice poured out.
“I see you. I see you, Wynter.”
There was a snap and a crack behind me.
“Wynter!” Veles broke into a run toward me. His face a mask of horror. His attention fixed over my shoulder.
And then I felt it, hot breath on my neck. The world fell into slow motion as I spun to face the thing behind me. A flash of lidless, white eyes, the curl of a rubbery gray mouth, and then tentacle-like fingers were rushing toward my face. My scream was cut short as suckers slurped at my flesh, and then the ice swallowed me.
Chapter Three
VELES
“NO!” I dive for the hole in the ice, but it closes up as if it were never there. “No!” My fists are ineffectual against the barrier. I stab at the frozen lake with my dagger to no avail. “Help me!”
The Raven stands a few feet away, his mouth open in shock, his eyes wide, and then he is by my side, clawing at the ice.
“Wynter. Wynter, oh, gods.”
This isn’t working. She’s been under for too long. No. Wait. Think. Kelpies. What about kelpies? I tap the butt of my dagger against my forehead. I know about this world, about its creatures. I was a frequent visitor once, and those memories have been settling into my mind ever since my meeting with the Dagda.
Kelpies hoard food.
They hoard it live.
The suckers on the kelpies’ fingers will provide oxygen to allow her to breathe. The contact will infuse her body with warmth, enough to withstand the icy water. She is alive, or will be for a little while. It depends on how hungry they are. We’d taken the griffin from them, so …
I turn to the Raven. “We need to break the ice so I can swim down and find her.”
The Raven sits back, chest heaving. “You can’t. You’ll die.”
The fool. I’m the god of death. I can’t die, I’m invulnerable, I’m … no longer a god. Fuck.
My chest is tight, my breath coming shallow. “What do we do? Raven, what do we do?”
He shakes his head slowly, his gaze on the ice. “I…I don’t know.”
Chapter Four
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t … and then my lungs were filled with air even though my mouth and nose were covered by the suckers. One moment, the world was wet and dark with ice tearing at my skin. The next moment, the cutting chill melted into gentle heat. White eyes filled my vision, and then we were hurtling down, down into darkness and death.
I needed to fight, to thrash, but my limbs refused to cooperate with my brain’s commands. The thing, the kelpie that had me, was in control. It was feeding me air. It was heating me, and it was lulling my body into compliance. I wanted to close my eyes, but my lids were frozen open. The water coated my eyeballs and stole my vision with the pric
k of a thousand needles.
How deep had we swum? How much deeper did this lake go? Oh, gods. I was a limp ragdoll being dragged down, down, down until there was no longer an up. Until the Raven and Veles were out of reach.
This was death.
This was nothingness, because even if I did manage to get free, I’d freeze before I could reach the surface. The kelpie was keeping me alive. Why? The answer was a horrific realization that turned my insides to liquid. It liked live prey.
It wanted to devour me while I was conscious.
Panic surged through me, but the only movement that my body managed was a twitch of my fingers. And then a ripple was passing over my skin. The water rushed away from me as if sucked by an invisible force, and my body made contact with something firm. I blinked.
Blinked.
My eyes were working again. Air on my skin, not water. Except the water was above me, held at bay by some invisible force.
The kelpie’s face hovered over mine. Its lids peeled down in a slow blink, and when it opened its eyes, the white orbs were interrupted by startling blue irises. The face shifted and morphed into harsh predatory features.
“I’m going to release you now,” he said in a guttural voice. “If you scream, I will tear out your throat.”
My gaze fell to his mouth—to the razors that jutted out of his gums to give his threat credence.
He pushed my head back against the ground and then peeled his tentacled hand off my face. My lungs revolted for a second, and a gagging fit gripped my airways and throat. My eyes burned as I stared up at him. He looked down on me impassively, and then the burn vanished, and I swallowed cool air.
“Get up,” he ordered.
I pulled myself to my feet and staggered away from him. The terrain was sandy and rocky. Caverns rose up behind him. It was an underwater haven for the kelpies where the lake couldn’t intrude.
A high-pitched wail ripped the air.
The kelpie who’d abducted me from the surface of the lake smirked. “It’s feeding time.”
Oh, God.
He reached for me, and I slashed at him with my bone dagger. But it was merely a shard of bone now. Not a sword. Not a real weapon.
He looked down at it and then burst into raucous laughter.
The power inside me retaliated with a surge of heat to my limbs that had me rushing him. Our bodies met with a muted thud, and then he was on the ground, and I was on top. Not laughing now, are you? I brought the bone shard down hard, aiming for his neck, but he twisted, and the bone embedded itself into his shoulder.
His cry was an inhuman shrill vibration. No. I had to stop him. Had to shut him up. I yanked out the bone and brought it up high, ready for another stab, but he was ready for me.
His hand clamped around my throat and squeezed hard. Hard enough to cut off my breath. Hard enough to make the world go momentarily black, and then it was me on my back and him straddling me.
Black blood oozed out of the wound I’d made in his shoulder.
The taint.
Black veins crawled up his face.
The taint.
“Hungry.” His mouth opened impossibly wide.
He was going to eat me. He was going to—
His maw rushed toward my face, and then he was gone. Another figure stood over me. Huge and bulky with obsidian eyes and long, flowing emerald locks. He strode around my body without giving me a second glance, and then there was a thud followed by a grunt of pain.
“You ever try anything like that again, and it’ll be your head on a platter,” the newcomer said.
I slowly pulled myself to my feet. This kelpie looked untainted. He looked normal. He looked—
He swung round to face me. “You smell off.” He stepped closer and inhaled. “Bad. You smell bad.”
His lip curled. “What the fuck did you bring, Jarper?”
“Food,” the fallen kelpie said. “Hungry.”
“Yes, aren’t we all. Aren’t we all.”
“Nadine promised food. She promised food, Parel.”
Parel scratched at his hand, and I glanced down to see the black veins pulsing there. He was tainted. Did he realize?
“Your hand.” I pointed.
He looked at it. “What about it?”
“The black veins?”
He sneered. “Are you blind as well as bad smelling?”
Blind? Couldn’t he see the veins?
“Your friend is bleeding …” I pointed again. “Black blood.”
He frowned and looked to Jarper and then back to me. “You waste my time, bad smelling food.” He grabbed my arm. “You’ll go in storage until we get desperate. Nadine will have only the best because she provides us with only the best.”
Nadine? Who was this Nadine? But he was hauling me across the sand like I was made of feathers.
“No. Look, just let me go. You need to let me go. You’re sick. You’re infected. You can’t see it but you—"
His hand connected with my face and the world spun, and then I was hanging over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes while my brain struggled to right itself from the blow.
* * *
The darkness was lit by luminescent fungi that clung to the rock in neat clumps. I wasn’t alone. There was another creature in the chamber. No chains. No restraints because there was no way out of the cavern. Thick bars blocked our exit, and even if we did get out, where would we run to? We were beneath a frozen lake.
I scanned the other occupant of the room. A small, wizened man sat opposite me with bright blue eyes and a mouth twisted in bitterness. His sapphire eyes were assessing, intelligent, and too young for a face so aged.
“You’re not one o’ us,” he said. “And yet you are.” He leaned forward. “What are ye?”
He wasn’t one of them, so as far as I was concerned, we were on the same side. “I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”
“A trade?” He looked speculative. “Very well.”
“I’m human.”
His brows shot up. “Oh, dear. Well, that is unfortunate for ye. Humans don’t do well in Faerie. Never have, never will. Although, there aren’t many o’ you left in these ere lands.”
“My turn. Who is Nadine?”
His nostrils flared. “A crazy bitch, that’s what she is.”
I shot him a stern look.
He sighed. “The undine mother. The flower from which all the seedlings are born.”
“And why are the kelpies doing what she says?”
He wagged his finger. “My turn.”
Crud. I nodded. “Go on.”
“What are you doing in Faerie?”
A prickle of unease skittered up my spine.
He studied me carefully. “Ye don’t have to answer, but then neither do I.”
If I was going to have any hope of escape, I needed answers. “I came to find the winter king.”
Short, sweet, and a genuine answer.
His mouth pursed, and it was obvious he wanted to probe as to why, but that was another question. “My turn. Why are the kelpies doing what Nadine wants?”
“Because she has them in her power. They don’t see it, though.” He stopped and stared at me eagerly.
He wanted me to probe, to ask what kind of power, but it was obvious. It was the taint. It had to be. Like Rayne, the undine mother must be one of Oblivion’s eyes and ears, and the kelpies were her minions. That was how it operated. It found hooks, and it spread from there.
Rayne and undine, and who else would we come across? My pulse skipped. Above, on the ice, Oblivion had seen me. It had spoken to me using the undines’ collective mouths. Did it know I was here? Did it know a kelpie had dragged me down below the water?
No. If it knew, I wouldn’t be in storage. But it was only a matter of time until it realized I was here, and that it had me in its grasp. Oblivion was vast, it was ancient, but even it had to have its limits. Even if its grip was widespread. Even if its influence lay over the land and its creatures li
ke a smothering blanket, its sentience couldn’t be in several places at once … could it?
I needed to get out of here.
“There is no escape,” the little man said, as if reading my thoughts. “You know that, don’t you?”
“I have to try.” I stood and approached the bars. Solid metal. Immovable. “Someone will come, and when they do, we can overpower them.”
“We?”
I turned on him. “You want to stay here and be eaten?” I held up my bone shard and snapped my wrist, determination blooming in my chest. The dagger elongated into a sword. “I’m not prepared to be anything’s dinner.”
His eyes widened, and he scrambled to his feet. “You have a weapon.”
“Yes, and I know how to use it.”
The fools had neglected to take it from me. Just a bone to them. A shard of bone. Thank God it hadn’t shown its true potential out there on the sand.
He nodded as if considering the new development. “Kelpies are strong. They heal fast. You might hurt one, kill it even, but there are several ready to take its place. You won’t be able to fight them all, and even if you do somehow manage to cut a path through them, there is no way to the surface that doesn’t involve freezing to death.”
“Lie,” a soft voice said from the shadows.
The man started. “Shit balls. Where? How did ye get in here? I’d have sensed another creature.”
“Not if you couldn’t elicit any desire from it.” The female voice was soft and raspy. “Yes. I know what you are, gancanagh. I know what you want from this human woman, and I won’t let you take it.”
The shadows parted, and a slender, pale-faced woman with silver, ropy hair crawled out into the light.
Crawled.
Oh, God.
Her eyes were slanted and pale, her lips so thin they were mere slivers of skin on her face, and where her nose should be there were only two neatly sliced nostrils which opened and closed with each breath she took. She scuttled forward a little more, and a fist squeezed my lungs because unlike the man, this fey was not humanoid. Her body was twisted, so her head hung low, and her back rose up in a bulbous torso sprouting slender, translucent limbs that pulsed with an inner silver light.
Fate’s Destiny: Heart of Darkness Book 3 Page 2
