AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A funny look crossed Rainn’s face. “Have you sat on the High Throne?” he asked, strangled.
“Oh yes.” My eyes flicked to his. “It's taken my blood and cast me across the water. I sat on the throne for years because my uncle could or would not.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” he asked, reaching forward and placing a hand on my shoulder. My skin prickled with gooseflesh that had nothing to do with the chill in the air.
“Because I’m about to do something foolish, and I don’t think I will survive it,” I told him, my smile a grimace.
“Maeve…” Rainn warned.
I gave him a silly look to break the tension and nudged him with my shoulder. The two of us side-by-side, on the edge of the cliff. “I have to go back to the Twilight Lake, Rainn,” I told him. “I don’t want to. But I have to.”
“You don’thaveto do anything,” he reminded me. “We could go across the Dark Sea together. We could run away from it all.”
“What about the others?” I asked, licking my bottom lip. “Tormalugh, Shay, Cormac… they’re your brothers. Your allies. You can’t leave them behind to fight a bloody war.”
“Fuck the war,” he growled, his hand reaching out to cup my face. “It’s been too long. Too much blood. The first good thing in my life almost slipped through my fingers because of what this war had turned me into.”
“Rainn…” I whispered as he tilted my chin to draw my face closer to his.
“I know I have asked this of you before, but will you forgive me one day, Maeve?” Rainn asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Rainn nodded as if he had expected my answer. When he pulled his hand away from my face, I felt the absence of his touch like a physical blow.
I stood up, brushing the sand and dead leaves from my butt. Rainn remained seated, watching as I padded to the cliff's edge.
I had been careful with my choice, cataloging the sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliffs. I took a deep breath, and without waiting for another moment, I gathered my courage and raced for the edge.
Rainn screamed my name.
It was the last thing I heard before the water swallowed me whole.
I always forgot how my body craved the water until I was submerged in it.
I felt my gills emerge on my throat, followed by my Undine adornments, pearls, and scales erupting on my body like waking up from a dream.
I kicked out, swimming towards the middle of the Dark Sea and the Kraken’s territory.
I didn’t know if it would work, but I had to try.
Whatever happened, I knew that I couldn’t face my uncle, or Cormac, without magic. They would slit my throat and turn me to foam before I could draw a blade.
Behind me, Rainn dropped into the sea. His rage a bitter patina on the water.
I didn’t bother to acknowledge the Selkie as I kept swimming.
He caught up quickly, proving how fast his creed could swim, even in his non-animal form.
“You could have warned me that you would do that,” Rainn griped.
“I live to keep you on your toes,” I bit back dryly.
Rainn regarded me with a new found respect. “I truly believe that,” he told me, gesturing over his shoulder. “How long do you plan to swim for before we go back to the cradle?”
I bit my bottom lip. “For a bit,” I hedged.
Rainn grunted, indicating that he had heard me. He didn’t argue as we approached the end of the cove, where the two cliffs jutted into the water on either side of us, the water crashing against the rocks as we swam from safety into the deep and unknown dark sea.
