by River Starr
The footfalls sounded closer. The guards were just around the corner now.
“Titus—” A searing pain in my neck cut off my words, so brilliantly filled with agony that my knees buckled and slammed against the ground. I cried out and curled into a ball, trying to escape the pain rooting me in place.
Some words were shouted over the chaos, words I couldn’t make out in my current state. Hands yanked me from the floor and roughly tugged me along the hallway. I was carried between two guards, my legs dragging behind me. Titus roared and then cried out himself as sounds of a beating filled my ears. That was the last I heard of Titus before I was led to a different circle of runes and teleported to a new area of the prison.
Through tear-filled eyes and burning pain from the tracker rune tattoo, I watched as a door with no window swam into view. The guards threw me inside and I teetered forward, falling onto my knees once more, then forward yet again onto my face. Pain burst along my nose and jaw. At least the sea stone below me was cool and reassuring. Even as I sifted into unconsciousness.
When I came back to consciousness it wasn’t with a gasp of relieved air like normal, but with a sinking feeling that we’d fucked up. Miscalculated. Something. Because the room I was now in was dark, freezing cold, and felt endless and small at the same time.
Eos, did you do something? Not that she could hear me right now. I wondered if she had surfaced after the guards had reclaimed Titus and me.
I slowly stood and blindly searched the room for any sign of a window or door and found nothing but pitch black darkness. Feeling my way to a wall, I slid down it and wrapped my arms around my knees. A chill settled in around me I just knew I wouldn’t be able to shake.
With a sinking feeling, I realized where I must be. Solitary confinement, at the very bottom of the prison where they didn’t bother trying to heat it, and certainly didn’t care who froze to death down here. I guessed I sort of assumed we’d end up down here for the stunt we had pulled, but thinking about solitary confinement and being imprisoned in it were two totally different things.
My body shuddered, shivering endlessly. I rubbed the spot on my neck holding both the tracking tattoo and the imprint of Dax’s bite. Everything from the moment my sister had received that death curse had led to this imprisonment and now solitary confinement. And nothing had been better for it. She was still death cursed and dying, and I would never be getting out of here.
“H-How the hell are you going to g-get yourself out of this one?” I asked myself.
The only thing I dared to hope for was that we’d be let out soon—ideally before the two-day date we had set to escape—and that Titus had looked at the circle long enough to remember it and draw the circle for Dax.
I exhaled heavily and watched in the darkness as a plume of my breath sifted upward into the air. My teeth froze as I breathed in the cold. I hugged myself tighter. Shit. This had to be worth it. It had to be.
“I don’t know about that, Nyx.”
I froze. “Who’s there?” The voice sounded close, and without being able to see in the dark, to see if they were friend or foe, fear swept through me.
“What? You don’t recognize me? I’m offended.”
My brow furrowed. “S-Shit. Eos? How?” How was this even possible? We’d talked once before, but that had been in the twilight of sleep. I was wide awake right now and so very, very sobered by today’s course of events.
“Funny you should ask that. I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”
The darkness seemed to come alive at her words, shuddering with breath and movement. If it was possible, shadows blacker than darkness slid across the stone floor toward me. I backpedaled against the wall as an oppressive, dreadful feeling swept over the room like a tidal wave.
“What is that?”
The blackness slipped over my feet with a clicking noise along the ground. It slithered up my legs and onto my torso, leaving behind a warm feeling that both heated me back up while also making me nauseous. I turned and gagged, dry-heaving next to me.
“I should have warned you about that.”
When I looked back to where the darkened shadows had come from, tiny white fragments were now left in its wake. I reached for one cautiously, unable to identify what they were from so far away. As soon as my fingertips touched the white substance, I realized I was touching bone.
I yanked back my hand and hugged myself once more. “Eos, what the hell is going on?”
“I thought it was time we should have a chat, and so did He.”
“He who?” And how could Eos even make this happen? Last I knew, she was locked inside my body, another soul trapped. The two of us were one. Except when unconsciousness struck.
From the darkness crawled more black tendrils. The same I’d seen before on Zavian, and then again along the ocean floor during our second trial. And also in my nightmares.
The Deep One. The knowledge hit me with enough surety that I sucked in a lungful of cold air and prayed to the old fae gods.
A tsking sound filled my mind. “Now, now. That’s not going to work. Luckily for you, the Deep One won’t hurt you because of me.”
“That makes no sense.”
The tendrils reached closer as if they were searching along the ground like an octopus’s tentacles. A warm sensation slipped over me once more, along with flashes of people being swallowed and eaten by dark shadows. Former victims of the Deep One—they had to be.
“How are you talking to me?” I asked her.
“The Deep One’s immortal power is allowing it, just as it is allowing you to live and manipulating the situation to set this desire into motion. If other inmates had done what you just tried, they’d certainly be food for this ancient being. You should thank its generosity. And your lover’s persuasion to keep you alive.”
“No, what I need to do is get the hell out of this prison.” I scrambled into a standing position and pressed myself back against the wall. Despite warming waves of magic coming from the Deep One keeping me from freezing to death in solitary, dread chilled me to the bone. “You’re supposed to be a fairy tale.”
“And twin-souls are supposed to be all but myth, yet here we are.”
“I didn’t ask for that.”
“Neither did I. You did, however, miscalculate what you hoped that necromancy ritual would do.”
“Why did you kill those sea fae nobles?” I figured there was no more point wasting time on pleasantries. I wanted to know more about Eos and why she’d done what she’d done—and what her plan was now.
“Because they were in the way of my throne.”
“Your throne?”
“That family was second-in-line. It is only unfortunate circumstance we couldn’t continue the slaughter inside the queen’s chambers. Unfortunately, your body is frail and was injured.”
Rage filled my chest. “Yes, because you got us injured! How is any of that my fault?”
“Because your ritual called myself from the lands of beyond, and now I get to exact my revenge through use of your body, Nyx. When you go dark, I come out to play. In time, you’ll enjoy some benefits of being a full-blooded fae, such as a much longer lifespan. That is the tradeoff.”
“Fuck you,” I cursed into the darkness. “This is my body, my life you’re playing with.”
The inky blackness shuddered and advanced. Creeping tendrils clasped around my ankle and yanked me off-balance. I slammed into the sea stone floor and pain burst across my shoulder and side with fresh agony.
“Be careful with how you talk to an Atlantean heir, Nyx. The Deep One may yet decide to devour us both for it.”
My mouth slid open. “Atlantean heir?” Everyone these days claimed to be an Atlantean heir. That was how the queen had become queen decades ago and held her position throughout decades of strife with the other Fae courts.
“I am the true heir. I am the only surviving member of the royal family, thanks to you. When you called my soul and gave it a home inside yours, you r
eclaimed my birthright. And together, we’ll destroy Alexandria, sink it, and raise the old city in its stead.”
“You’re insane.” That was my only response to what Eos had just told me. If she really was a direct heir of Atlantis, a member of the old royal family then… Eos was centuries old, maybe older. “How did your soul get so separated? Why were you in limbo until I came along?”
“When the city was attacked that final night, an evil darkness ripped my soul from my body. I was made to watch as my family fell, and then my city. And now I’m forced to witness the inside of a prison meant to disrespect the sea court that came before.”
An unstoppable anger built with me. It took me too long to realize it was Eos’s.
“That sucks,” I said. “About your soul. But I have no interest in helping you rule the court. I just want to save my sister.”
“We could save her together.”
“No offense, but since you’ve used my body to do whatever and whomever you wanted, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t need to believe me. You just need to understand that my power grows the longer we’re in proximity to the old city. One day, I will be able to shut you out, Nyx. As you do me.”
I gulped. No. No! This was my body and my life. “Haven’t I already paid for your actions enough? I’m in prison while my sister is dying!”
My voice echoed across the walls, as if the room suddenly wasn’t filled with the presence of a creature as old as time itself. Its tendrils wrapped around my ankle tighter even now.
“You will help me because you hate the sea court as much as I do. I’ve felt your disgust and anger at their ways. They’ve taken what was and twisted it into a sadistic, stoic society built on the things that create evil in this world.”
I rolled into a sitting position and sat cross-legged on the floor. The tendrils around my ankle shifted to follow. “Well, the joke’s on you because I can’t do anything from inside here.”
“Help is coming. The Deep One has summoned the faithful. Those who realize the error of the sea court’s ways. Those who will help us restore what once was.”
“You sound pretentious as hell, you know that?” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to be so flippant, but it probably had something to do with the fact that Eos needed me. Or she at least needed my body, to which I was still currently attached.
“Your Zavian is a true heir as well, although I doubt he knows it. Such things are only spoken of in whispers inside throne rooms.” Her voice warmed, growing more persuasive. “He’d make a fine king beside us. You could still have your mate, and I’ll have my revenge.”
Holy shit. Zavian was an heir? A true Atlantean heir? Although so many claimed to be in order to obtain and keep nobility status, I had always assumed very few actually were. And if Zavian didn’t know for himself, what would he think to know the truth?
That must have been why Eos had killed Zavian’s brothers. With them out of the way, Zavian was one step closer to the throne.
And so was she. Assuming she couldn’t just take the throne by force without killing them. I doubted she could do that while inhabiting a half-blood fae like me.
“In case you haven’t noticed, Zavian hates you for what you did,” I said.
“Then let’s make him not hate us anymore, shall we?”
“Doubt that’s possible.” Especially since he’d apparently taken a guard position here in order to watch me rot for life. Of course, that had been before we’d discovered we were mates.
Suddenly, the room filled with shadows of the blacker darkness. I was blind but also immediately deaf, despondent, and alone. Like I’d been dropped into not just a dark, small cell at the bottom of the ocean but also tossed into the vacuum of space without a way home. I couldn’t see them, but I felt the tendrils trace over my body, wrapping around me with their cold little fingers and constricting me but also pulling me apart at the same time. The sensation made no sense. I must have been going mad already, my mind lost.
“When the faithful come, assist them.” Eos’s words sifted through the darkness with confidence and poise. “We can escape this prison and retake the old city. And kill them all. Or…”
Her voice trailed off as a lighthearted laugh filled my ears, familiar and shocking all the same.
Cyra.
It was Cyra’s laugh.
A hopeful feeling surged in my chest, followed immediately by an overwhelming sense of protection. I had to find my sister in this darkness and save her from it.
“Cyra!” I called. She sounded close, as if she were in the room with me. But my voice didn’t carry, as if the inky darkness was swallowing me.
For a moment, Cyra’s form appeared before me from the shadows. All pale and sickly, a wicked brand on the back of her hand. The death curse.
An illusion. It had to be.
I watched as her form withered away to nothing, piece by piece, and then crumbled to a fine dust that blew away in an unfelt wind. Over and over again, I watched this happen until my tears ran dry and my throat was raw. Even when I shut my eyes, I saw her death. And the sea court’s. And the nobles’, the ones whom Eos had killed. I felt my hands shove the iron blades into their hearts. I felt as their heartbeats raced from pain and fear, and then slowly, melodically, stopped beating as life drained from them.
There was no way to know how long this torture went on for, but the only sane thoughts I remembered having as the tendrils ripped my mind apart while constricting it together was that the Deep One was real.
The Deep One answered to Eos.
And the Deep One was proving just how in control it really was.
I believed it. I surrendered to it, heart and mind and soul. I prayed for it to end this mental torture, for my tears to return only to dry again. For my stomach to stop convulsing and dry-heaving. For it to stop showing me so much death and misery and destruction.
This torture was endless. As eternal as the Deep One.
19
Nyx
Time no longer had meaning. All that existed was darkness and tears and never-ending images of horror and death. By the time the door to this solitary confinement cell opened again, I’d forgotten where I was entirely.
Light poured in, illuminating the four walls of the cell. I covered my eyes with my arm. In the short flash of light before closing them, I noticed the room was significantly smaller than it had appeared in the dark. I wiped my wet cheeks on the sleeve of that same arm and coiled into a smaller ball to protect myself. If this was the Deep One coming for me for real, then let it have me. The last few hours—days, weeks maybe—had felt like an eternity.
Footfalls echoed in a pattern I recognized, although they were hardly reassuring. A shadow loomed overhead.
“Get up. You’re to return to your cell now.”
Zavian. His voice should have instilled fear and obedience after what happened outside the infirmary, but instead it was a balm against my frayed soul and tormented mind. I breathed a sigh of relief as my mate came to rescue me from the darkness.
I didn’t move quick enough for him. Zavian gripped my arm and pulled me from the floor to a standing position. “I said, get up.” His words weren’t loud or shouted, but monotone and firm.
I blinked away the fantasy of my mate in shining armor and lifted my tear-filled gaze to his. “Get the hell off of me.”
Surprise flashed across his beautiful cerulean eyes, his face not framed today by his white-blond hair. Instead, his hair been pulled back into an elaborate braid.
“What’s wrong?” he asked coolly.
I scoffed. “I was thrown into solitary confinement.”
That barely scratched the surface of my problems, but unless Zavian knew about the Deep One haunting and terrorizing people inside said solitary confinement, rather than just eating inmates when given the chance, there wasn’t a point in telling him. Or in opening myself up to that sort of scrutiny from my captor, even if that captor was my mate.
>
“You deserved it for what you and your unit did,” Zavian responded without missing a beat. His iron grip on my arm remained, as if he didn’t want me escaping—or he was afraid I’d break apart before him. I couldn’t blame him for how I must have looked, all tear-stained and puffy-eyed from crying. “You attacked several guards. I can only imagine what the two of you were trying to attempt.”
“You should have killed us then. Fed us to the Deep One just like all the other dissenters you warn us about.”
His eyes widened a fraction. “Maybe I should have.”
“Why did you save me?” I asked. “With the eel. Another few minutes, and I’d have been dead and no longer bothering you.”
Zavian swallowed hard. His lips parted a fraction, as if he were going to speak or was pulling in a steadying breath. For a few moments, only silence sifted between us, filling the space our magnetic pull left open. With his lips parted like that, his breath fluttering my eyelashes, his firm, warm grip on my arm, all I wanted to do in that moment was wrap myself around him and kiss him. We were alone down here.
Unless the Deep One was watching.
A flash of my sister disintegrating in front of me ran through my mind in that very moment. I startled and blinked, trying to back up a step. Zavian’s grip held me in place. New tears welled up in my eyes. Even after all those hours, I’d not grown desensitized to those images. Each and every loop of them felt new and raw.
Zavian let go of me then and brought his hand up between us, inches from my face. For a moment, I was sure he’d brush away the newly fallen tears as they slid down my flushed face. What a mess I must have looked like right now, with puffy red, terrified eyes, my breath running ragged both from what I’d just lived through as well as Zavian’s very presence. His eyes, his voice, his magic—everything about Zavian took my breath away.
When the silence between us had grown too heavy and awkward, I affixed my stare back on him. “You didn’t answer my question. Why did you save me?”