In the Wake of the Ruined (The Siren Mage, #2)(57)

Despite the way my power still roiled and filled the whole of me, clinging to them somehow helped to harness it, to construct it a limit and make it heed my will with a new ease. I could feel my skin again, could feel the slide of the warm water against it as I dived toward Lachlan. Somehow, through homing in on them, I found myself again.

Then I was upon it. I sensed, rather than saw, the undulating outline of the monster. I reached out and felt its rubbery flesh. The bond I shared with Eusia would not let me rip my talons through it like I wished to, but I searched for my tie to it as I swam around its massive folds and coils, looking for where it held Lachlan. The tapping of his heart was coming slower and slower.

I commanded the thing to release him when I finally felt the hard edge of his armor. He was wrapped in one of the immense ropes of intestine, over which suction cups and scales had grown. I yanked on it, trying to loosen it from around Lachlan’s shoulders, waiting for Halla to complete the spell. Time was slipping. Lachlan’s head was pressed against the fleshy coil. I took it in my hands and blew a breath of air into his mouth.

It was slow to obey but finally the monster unspooled itself, letting Lachlan’s armor-heavy body sink lower. I strained through the water once more, reaching for him while forcing a current to raise him up, when I felt a stinging against my skin. A faint tightening through my muscles. For a moment, the strange sensation made my power falter.

The monster had sunk below us when I’d commanded it to release Lachlan, but I sensed it go suddenly still. That unfamiliar ache crescendoed, just as I felt those long tentacles fling wide and go stiff, as if with rigor. I gritted teeth as my power guided Lachlan toward the surface, but I could hardly feel his heart now.

My own had grown erratic.

Halla had completed the spell, I’d felt it, but the monster below me was not dead. It had merely slunk to the seabed as if chastised.

I broke the surface of the water beside the boat and swiped at the slimy wetness over my eyes and face. Theodore had already heaved Lachlan into the boat and quickly sprawled him across its small hull. He went to work straightaway. Removing Lachlan’s armor, rolling him, compressing his chest to rid it of water, but my gaze was set on Halla.

She was balled up at the bow, arms around her knees, paying for the spell she’d just performed. She pressed her forehead into the wood, her breaths coming heavy and loud. Tears poured from her red-rimmed eyes, and they were locked on me.

I lifted myself over the lip of the boat. “You lied.” I grabbed the dagger, then took her white hair in my fist. Mucky water dripped across her snowy gown as I pressed the blade to her throat. “You said you’d help. You said you wanted to ensure that no one else was harmed by Eusia and your mother.” I’d felt the potency of that spell through the water. I knew it had been performed correctly—it was her intention that had faltered. “If your intention had been true, the spell would have worked.”

Halla swallowed against the blade’s edge. “I tried.” Her voice was still spell-roughened, harsh and crackling. “I meant what I said, but I… I cannot bring myself to kill her.” More tears poured from Halla’s bloodshot eyes. “I thought perhaps I could… but I find it is not in my heart. I’m sorry.”

Behind me, I heard Lachlan hack and pull in gasping breaths. I ripped the dagger I held away from Halla’s throat and let it clatter to the hull.

The launch was almost to the shore. Theodore had Lachlan breathing well but still held a reviving hand to the middle of his back.

We looked to one another. He seemed fractured and terrified, his mouth grimly set.

“Heartbreaking, isn’t it,” I said, sounding utterly hopeless. The launch scraped against the sand. “To have the spell, and no one to cast it.”





17


Imogen


Before us, up the pale purple-hued beach, sat Raidne Keep. My mother’s old home. The thick mist that hung over the water choked the land too, but the wind swirled it, letting me glimpse the gnarled shapes of bare trees, clusters of hollowed-out and fallen buildings, and empty rolling fields.

The blight had stolen even the memory of Anthemoessa’s beauty. There was no telling what it had once been.

Lachlan still lay in the hull at my feet, regaining his strength, as Theodore dragged the launch farther onto the sand. When he let go, those capable hands of his trembled.

Gods, I wanted to go to him, to soothe and hold him, but instead I watched a shaky Halla rise from her spot in the boat and reach out for him to help her to the sand. He did, then once she was on her own two feet, Theodore hung his head and started down the beach.

Halla took a step toward him. “Your Majesty, are you well—”

“Leave him,” I said, letting my possessiveness and concern make the words harsh. I set my boots on the sand. “Let him have a moment.”

Halla shot me an imperious look, but she stayed put. I expected she was too afraid to defy me.

In the boat, Lachlan rose slowly to his knees. “Did the spell work?” He glanced warily at the lagoon behind us.

I glowered at Halla. “No.” She paled, then looked uncomfortably away, toward the castle ruins. I went to Lachlan and whispered. “She said it wasn’t in her heart to kill Eusia.”

Lachlan grunted and swiped a hand through his hair. Water droplets flew from the short strands. “And you’re surprised?”