The pain began to ebb even as the fear heightened to a terrible roar. Realization tumbled over her. This was a trick. The cursed Lorcan had come here pretending to be his old self. And now he was drinking her blood.
27
Eislyn
Eislyn fell. She plunged through the waters as if a rock had been tied around her waist, forcing her ever downward. She screamed and thrashed. Her fingers clutched at weeds that rushed by her. Despair overwhelmed her. She had come here to give herself over to the gods, and they had judged her. She would die in this place.
The ground opened up beneath her, and cool air blasted her skin. The waters vanished. Shock punching her gut, she lifted her gaze to the sky but saw nothing but a darkness so profound it took her breath away.
Another scream ripped from her throat. It echoed against the cavernous walls rushing past her. The sound pounded against her eardrums, over and over until she clamped her mouth shut.
Eislyn kept falling. Ages passed. A strange calm settled over her as she gave into the rush of the wind and the enveloping darkness. Magic pulsed in the air, and it grew stronger as she hurtled through the empty expanse.
Her feet touched ground.
She gasped as a floor appeared beneath her, a carpet of black moss. On all sides, there was nothing but darkness. But up ahead, a crystalline pool glowed from an indigo light from within. It was the only illumination in the cavern.
Her breath froze in her throat as she took an unsteady step toward it. This was the birthplace of the gods. The power here was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. It hummed a discordant tune, throbbing in time with the beat of her heart.
“Hello?” she whispered. Her voice echoed, rippling the waters she slowly approached.
“Hello, Eislyn Darragh,” a slithering voice whispered into her ear, burning with power. Terror tripped through her, and tears filled her eyes. It was a sound she wished she could scrub from her mind and never hear again.
The voice from her nightmares.
“Unseelie,” she breathed.
She shook her head and stumbled back from the pool of light. This was not the god she wanted. The god of madness and blood and death. She wanted light.
“Don’t be so scared of me.” Shadows whispered across the back of her neck. She shivered uncontrollably. “Did you not come here to seek me out?”
She squeezed her eyes tight. “No, I want to speak to the other god.”
Unseelie huffed. “You are speaking to the other god. He can hear every word you say. Seelie is here with us. We are entwined in this place. Where he goes, I follow. And vice versa.”
That was more than a little unnerving.
“If he’s here, then why doesn’t he speak to me?” Eislyn said, still shivering. Something about this place burrowed itself in her bones.
“Seelie has no voice. I speak for him.”
Eislyn sucked in a sharp breath. She gazed at the crystalline pool before her, confusion running rampant through her mind. “I don’t understand. This is the birthplace of the gods…right?”
“Our power was born in this place.”
“And you’re both here…now?”
The voice laughed. “Here and other places. Mostly minds, like yours. I remember when the Ruin attacked your mother, Eislyn Darragh. You stared into the face of the magic, and you were transformed. Your mind, as broken as it was, practically welcomed me inside.” The voice went hard. “For a time. You proved to be stronger than I thought you’d be.”
Eislyn shuddered. She whirled to stare down the tunnel behind her but found it was nothing but a wall. Tears of frustration and fear burned her eyes. She gazed up at the ceiling, hoping to find a sign of the world beyond this pit. But there was nothing. Not even the tiniest flare of light.
“You cannot leave this place until we say it is time,” Unseelie hissed. “You have come here for a reason, Eislyn Darragh. Tell us what it is.”
She pressed her lips together and turned back to the pool of light. “Why can’t Seelie talk?”
“That is none of your concern,” Unseelie whispered. “Now, tell us your request.”
Eislyn hesitated. Both gods were in this place. She could feel their power pulsing against her skin. She didn’t know how to explain how she felt it, or how she knew the truth of their presence deep in her bones. Seelie was there, but he wouldn’t talk. Why?
