“Finn!” I cupped his chin in both my hands, drawing his eyes to mine. His skin was pale, the jagged teeth of his beastly form still bared.
“Look at me.” I cradled his face, searching the depths of his fear-stricken eyes.
Finn met my gaze, brows furrowed, damp strands of dark hair clinging to his forehead as he placed his clawed hands on my shoulders. I wrapped my legs around him to keep from drifting in the swell, locking eyes with him, anchoring us both and ignoring the visions hissing around us.
Finn’s breathing began to steady as he stared back at me, his tail sweeping slowly beneath the waves. Gradually, the churning waters calmed, his claws and beastly form faded, and the visions and whispers dissolved into silence.
“Thank you,” he said with a rough laugh as I unwrapped my legs. “I’d lost myself.”
“Behind you,” I cried as a slick round rock podium rose from the water, encircled by the swirling sea.
At its center sat a chest carved from barnacle-crusted oak and inlaid with gleaming brass. It shone wetly under the shifting light now filtering through from somewhere high above.
I reached for one of the handles, but as my skin met its metal searing pain lanced up my arm. A cry tore from me as I snatched it back. Dark blisters appeared where my palm had made contact with the box.
Heart pounding, I jolted away in the water, as black rot bloomed from my fingertips and spread up my wrist. An agony like nothing I’d ever experienced before shot through me, and angry welts blistered my skin, peeling back to reveal raw flesh beneath.
“W-what’s happening to me?” I gasped, tears of pain bursting from my eyes as the disease traveled further up my arm.
“It must be cursed. You touched it, and you’re not Poseidon’s heir.” Finn’s expression was taut with fear.
“What?” That was all I could manage before I crumpled in pain. My heart rammed against my ribcage as terror curled in my gut.
The rot had made it to my shoulder and was creeping across my chest. It was going to consume me. I was going to die here, in this cave.
“Give me your hand.” Finn lunged for me in a spray of water, grabbing my cursed palm in both of his. My mouth went dry as the disease began to spread across his skin.
He screwed his eyes shut, whispering in the old tongue of the sea. “Sozo hos ti fractos.”
“Wait, no. What are you doing?” I tried to pull my arm away, but he held me tight.
His magic flared as he kept my decaying hand clasped tightly in his. I’d seen him use this same power on the injured dolphin, but this was different—this time, he was fighting a curse.
Finn grunted, buckling with pain, as the rot began to abandon my skin, and crept into his.
“No,” I yelled as Finn’s jaw clenched. The veins in his neck bulged as he took it into himself, and his arm became blistered like mine.
Fear stole the air from my chest as all the black and violet corruption bled into him, leaving my arm clear. Only then did he let go of my hand, gazing at me with the same expression he’d worn after healing the dolphin,he let his magic erupt. It poured from his palms in threads of gold, swirling around the curse and battling with it.
A strangled sound escaped me. The curse was winning. He wasn’t strong enough—
I reached for him, pulling him close despite the rot. As our eyes met, light wove through the darkness, unraveling the disease into dust, and with it, the silver cuff on Finn’s wrist cracked open.
He recoiled, his bare underarm exposed for the first time. His dark eyes darted to mine, flickering with fear. Black veins snaked their way down the underside of his wrist.
My breath faltered. “The curse is still there?”
Finn’s breathing was ragged. He shook his head. “No, it’s gone, but I didn’t mean for you to see this.”
An ominous weight settled over me. I didn’t want to accept its truth, but Finn shook off my gaze, reaching for the box. He unsheathed his dagger and raised it above the chest as he flung back the lid.
It was empty.
“Fuck,” he snapped, shaking the box before hurling it against the cave wall. It ricocheted and floated beside us in the water. “Someone got here first.”
34
Morgana
