Chapter 9

CHAPTER9

If it wasn’t for the whisper ribbon, I’d be finding a way to burst my own eardrums so I could get some sleep.

And yes, whisper ribbon is a technical term.

The whisper ribbon that appears once a day is the only respite I have from the constant ticking of the shifting rings. The one other sound I can focus on, if even for a few moments.

And it’s the only thing standing between me and freedom.

That and a wall.

And a seemingly cursed tourmaline stone.

And a super gross ocean.

Also a gigantic octopus thing with hook tentacles.

So, you know, not much.

…Fuck.

It’s been what, maybe six days? Seven? I’m not sure how long I was asleep for when I woke on the stone floor. Long enough for the hook marks from that tentacled motherfucker to repair in my back. I awoke healed but hungry, and then gradually more hangry, and now my stomach is probably eating nearby organs.

Also, drowning in that disgusting sea was about as awful as you can imagine.

Turns out, drowning is a very inefficient way to kill a siren-vampire-hybrid. I would have been thrilled to die and end up in the Resurrection Chamber, but that didn’t happen. It was more like perpetual near death. A lot of gagging and pain and panic and thrashing but not actual dying. The fucked-up hook octopus dragged me across the seabed for a good distance until I passed out and somehow ended up here, wherever the fuck this is. Some kind of cavern, the entrance blocked by the sea itself, as though I’m in a bubble at the bottom of the ocean. It seems Hooktopus just ditched me here and left. Thankfully, it didn’t have any hentai tendencies. Small blessings, I guess.

Since then, there’s been no food, no sleep, no worthwhile entertainment. No sense of Ashen at all in my mated mark. Not even for a moment. No Ediye, though I’ve tried and tried and tried to summon her through the pendant. The key Ashen gave me before I ran seems to have no power here, not that I know how to use it anyway. No successfully offing myself either, thanks to Ashen’s spell in Ravello, that fucker. Not for lack of trying. So it’s only been the constant tick, tick, tick of the rings on the wall as they shift. And then, once a day, as the words on the rings come closer and closer to aligning, the whisper ribbon.

And this time, I’m gonna get that fucking stone.

The first day, I tried to just go for it. I walked right up to the obsidian wall and grazed my fingertips on the tourmaline sphere and it shot me back across the cavern. Rejected. I guess technically I did sleep a little that first day, because I hit my head so hard it knocked me out.

Day two, I tried to swim out the hole. Hooktopus was having none of it and tentacled me right back in here.

In all the days since, I’ve tried pretty much everything to get myself out. I’ve hunted through the cavern for clues or hidden hatches. I’ve pushed the rings. Touched the letters. And I’ve watched, trying to learn the pattern of the rings and the meaning of the silver glyphs. The text emblazoned in each once is unfamiliar, same as the whisper ribbon that twists around me like a transparent scroll of sheet music. I can actually see the words in those last few moments, just before they slip through the narrow space that opens around the stone when the rings align. But the sound…some words sound almost like Sumerian.

And I might have figured it out.

Maybe.

If not, at least I’ll probably whack my head hard enough that I’ll get to sleep for a while.

It’s not long now. The ticking grows louder as the convergence approaches. The glyphs will start to glow brighter. And then the whisper will surface from the rings themselves and drift around the cavern like a snake of words.

And right on time, the glyphs brighten.

I stand in front of the stone, close enough to reach out and touch it. But I don’t. Not yet.

The ticking grows like a pulse, reverberating through my chest. The whispering comes from everywhere around me. It shifts and twists through the cave as though testing its boundaries. It moves like a specter. It becomes a transparent, scrolling, curving line of text and sound. I start to chant with the repeating words, even though I don’t know what they really mean.

Hursanu y aabba

Ziana y anzu

Os naru nibiru insabatu

Elu lo zaqru

Nadna lo sagzal

Mitusitum

Over and over. Louder and louder. Tick, tick, tick.

Timing is everything.

I reach out and grab the ribbon as it shoots toward the opening of light that expands around the stone. I wrap it around my hand, chanting the words that still flood the space around me as I twist the scroll up my arm like a band of cool silk. The rings shift closer to alignment.

Three.

Elu lo zaqru.

Two.

Nadna lo sagzal.

One.

Mitusitum.

I reach out and grab the stone with my bound hand and tear it free of the light.

I’m blown down with the force of it. It knocks me on my back, but I’ve got it. It’s clutched to my chest and I’m not letting it go.

I sit up as the rings shift, layering one on top of the next, from the center moving outwards. My feet are unsteady as I rise and step closer, the veil of light growing more transparent until it shimmers like a diaphanous curtain.

On the other side, there are countless threads of different lengths, each one twinkling with lights of shifting colors. There are a few scattered throughout that are solid black or blue or gray or purple or gold, but most are multicolored and shimmering. There’s a constant shearing, snipping sound. Every so often, one of the multicolored strands brightens at the end of its string and disappears.

The final rings on the wall click into place and a gentle breeze stirs the strings of light, pulling some of them back so that I can just make out a figure in the distance. Someone sitting. I can’t see a face or clothing or what they’re doing. But I hear a woman’s voice.

Leucosia Anthemoessatum.

Rakbu mitusitum.

Eteru sut.

A metallic shing fills the cavern as the rings slide back into place, closing the woman and the threads from my view. The whisper ribbon fades from my arm. The ticking has stopped and the rings on the wall don’t move, but the glyphs still shed their dim light. I’m left with the gentle hum emanating from the tourmaline sphere in my palms and more questions than answers.

I press my fingers to my mark and close my eyes, trying to reach for Ashen, but there’s nothing there. I can’t feel his emotions beneath my skin or his presence in my veins. I swallow a knot of worry about what that could mean, running over the same thoughts that have plagued me every hour I’ve spent trapped in here. If he’s dead I’d be dead, right? What if he’s in another realm? What if he’s hurt? Unconscious? In a coma? What if what if what if.

I let go of a long sigh and open my eyes, my fingers drifting up to Ediye’s pendant as I stare at the silent wall.

Ninmen Eslal, I whisper.

I sit utterly still for a long while, straining to hear anything at all. But nothing comes. No crackling of Ediye’s power. No glittering black orb. Just the gentle lapping of the black water against the cavern entrance, which feels like a soothing balm in the absence of the incessant ticking of the rings.

I turn to the mouth of the cave with the tourmaline sphere in my hand. I guess I’ll have to swim for it. I don’t know how I’m going to manage to hang on to this thing if Hooktopus decides to take me for another ride. I have an innate sense that I need to keep hold of this gem, no matter what. So, I’ll do my best or die trying.

I’m about to step into the curtain of water when a wind picks up, sweeping my heartbeat away with it. A sound like a popping, spitting fire fills the space behind me. I set the sphere down at my feet and turn so slowly, hoping with desperation that it’s not an illusion of my sleepless mind.

It’s an orb of stars, glittering and falling across black space.

“Bella! Where the hell have you been, loca?” Ediye says as she steps through the black sphere. Her wide smile is brilliant white against her midnight skin. Her eyes shine with unshed tears.

I cackle a laugh, my own tears burning in my eyes. “Oh shut the fuck up,” I say, and then I run into her arms.

I crash into the best friend I’ve ever known and a relief like no other washes over me. We wrap one another in a tight embrace, swaying as we laugh and cry. We ask questions and don’t really answer them. Where have you been? What happened? And we pour our hearts into the empty cavern. I missed you so much. I’ve been so worried. I love you.

We stay locked in our hug until Ediye’s warm sage scent burns in my throat. It’s as though she can sense the fiery pain of vampiric hunger. She releases me just enough to lower a backpack from her shoulder, pulling a bag of blood from several bunched up inside.

“You are a fucking gem,” I say as venom coats my mouth. And I know who it’s from as soon as it nears my lips. I know without even tasting it. That wave of relief turns into a sea. I know he’s alive. “Ashen’s blood,” I whisper.

“He’s been stockpiling, just in case,” Ediye replies as I gulp down the contents of the bag, sighing as it tingles and fizzes down my throat. “I just happened to be leaving Bit Akalum when I felt your call. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed what I could from the fridge. I figured you might be in need. Do I know my vampire, or do I know my vampire?”

“You so do,” I say with gratitude, wiping away tears. I drain the contents and pass back the empty blood bag and then the tourmaline stone from the floor for safekeeping in her backpack before engulfing Ediye in another embrace. When we finally separate, she casts her eyes across the cavern, taking in the details.

“Where are we?”

I rub my hands together, give them a clap, and clear my throat.

Ediye groans and rolls her eyes. “Oh Christ.”

“I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

“I can see that,” she says as she levels me with a flat glare, but her smile still kicks up one side of her lips.

“Ediye, listen to me…”

“God no.”

“The human world, it’s a mess...”

“Just don’t.”

“Life under the sea is shitter than anything they got up there...”

Ediye snorts.

“Darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, take it from me…”

“Please do not tell me Ashen dirty talks you with lyrics from The Little Mermaid.”

“No, but let me shelve that one for the future. Now listen up bitch, because here it comes. Each little clam here know how to jam here UNDER THE SEA.” I embellish that last line of my abridged song with a big wink and a dramatic set of jazz hands.

“Wow.”

“We’re under the sea.”

“I gathered.”

“But there are no jamming clams. Just a beast I’ve named Hooktopus. I can confirm that he’s decidedly less fun than musical molluscs.”

“Hooktopus?”

“A monster octosquid-type-thing with hooky tentacles,” I say as I turn to show her the shredded back of my shirt.

Ediye’s fingers touch my cool skin as she traces the lines torn through the fabric. “Jeez, Lu. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. He didn’t want to film any anime monster porn, so I lucked out, really.”

Ediye barks a laugh and pushes another bag of blood into my hands. “Hooktopussy. You could have been rich.”

“Another chance at a porn star career out the window.” We smile at one another as I take a long sip from the blood bag. “Speaking of porn stars, where’s Ashen?”

“He’s on what you might call a rampage. Something about burning the realms soul by soul until you’re given back. Bring me my wife orI will incinerate you all and make Leucosia the queen of ash. And so on.”

“Wow. Cool.”

“Yeah. I amend what I said in the dungeons about him being the worst of your man choices. You couldn’t have picked a better match if you tried. Right up your alley, babe.”

I snort a laugh. “Alley. I see what you did there.”

“I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t let him die behind Cheese Louise after all.”

“Well hot damn,” I say, brushing down the wrinkles in my torn shirt. It does a whole lot of fuck all. “Sounds like I’ve been missing out. Do you think we can sneak back so I can surprise him? Maybe spell my mark for a little while so he can’t feel me coming?”

Ediye lifts a shoulder, her expression nonchalant. “Yeah, probably. He was in the midst of a killing spree when you summoned me. I honestly doubt he’d even know if I left. He kind of had a demonic-blood-misty-smoke-rage situation going on.”

My eyebrows climb as Ediye shrugs again. She undoes the button on my shirt and looks from the mark to my eyes and back again. It’s the first time she’s actually seen it, and the sly smile on her face doesn’t really give me the warm fuzzies.

“The Scepter of Ereshkigal?” she asks.

“Appears so, yeah,” I reply. A star sparks in Ediye’s eye. Her smile grows a little more wicked. “Any theories, oh witchy one?”

“Maybe one or two.”

“Such as?”

“Meh, you know. Destiny and some shit. Rightful Queen of the Shadow Realm, bringing balance to the force.”

I snicker and Ediye’s smile grows wider as she looks closer at the gold and lapis design, the crescent moon and eight-pointed star twinkling in the dim light of the glyphs. “Bitch, please. That’s Star Wars.”

“Yeah, still. The place will definitely turn to chaos without you if Ashen is left to his own devices for much longer. So, it’s probably not that far off.” Ediye taps the mark with her delicate index finger and then grabs my shoulders, squaring me up to stand straighter. “Come on. Let’s get you back to your Reaper before he burns the realm down and makes good on his promise to make you into the ruler of a dust bowl. That doesn’t sound nearly as much fun as fucking with some demons and you can’t really do that if they’re all dead.”

“You know me so well,” I say as Ediye places her hand over my mark and starts chanting a simple spell that will veil my emotions. “So…Ashen’s still going with the wife thing, huh?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says, her eyes flicking up to mine as my mark warms beneath her palm. “And today’s not the day to bring it up. As much as I love when you mess with that man, he’s in pretty rough shape.”

I give the witch a skeptical look before glancing down at her hand. “You’re literally spelling my mark as we speak, Ediye. And now you’re telling me today is not the day to fuck with him?”

“Fucking with him to sneak up and surprise him? Sure. Arguing with him about this wife point? Hell no.” Ediye lifts her hand away, and my mark flares with warmth. “There. It will fade as soon as you touch him. Now let’s get the fuck out of dodge.”

Ediye reaches her hand to me, and I place my palm in hers. Together, we step into the darkness, leaving the silent rings behind.