Chapter 2

ChapterTwo

“Louie?”

The boy in the darkness looks so much like my foster brother, but there is something not right about him, about this place, about the feeling settling deep into my chest. I question every inch of me that thinks this is the boy I love, because it looks so much like him, but my mind is screaming at me to run. To run and never look back. Something’s not right and it’s haunting me, screaming at me, and yet I don’t move. Something’s really, really not right. A hollow, daunting feeling in my chest seems to swallow me, and all I can smell is death, ash, and dust in this place. I stare at the boy I love so much, someone who’s like a brother to me, who I promised to protect, and I see only a shadow of him. It’s like he’s here but he’s not, all at the same time. Louie turns to me. His clothes are nothing but rags falling off his shoulders, but I see a glint of gold on top of his head that shines in the darkness like a beacon.

“Hello, sister.”

The voice that speaks is Louie, but his eyes are completely black, and I stumble back, tripping on a skull and falling back into the mud, dirt, and broken bones before I instinctively start crawling backwards away from him. Fear burns in my chest as he looks down at me, stepping over the bones that crunch, breaking under his feet, and the only other sound is a distant echo of screams. My hands slip in the mud and blood, and I try not to be sick as I hold them up in front of me. “You didn’t save me, sister. You didn’t come when he dragged me into the Rift and they crowned me a king.”

“Louie,” I croak, tears burning in my eyes. The Fae Prince wasn’t lying to me; he really took Louie into the Rift, and now look at him. I know this is a dream, but in the dreams of the Rift before, this place was empty and dead, and now it feels alive. I can feel magic buzzing in the air, but it’s dark and evil, and I can’t escape. Everything that happened with the Fae Prince rushes across my mind. Him forcibly turning me into fae, telling me that children were being taken into the Rift, and all that time, he was teasing me. It was a game, fun for him, as he knew he took Louie into the Rift. “I didn’t know. He lied to me and said you were safe in the castle, and I was working on getting you out. If I knew you were in here, I’d have come. You have to know I’d have come for you.”

He looks down at me, his voice impassive and lacking basic emotion. Louie was always so happy. His every emotion was always written on his face. This… version of him is so different it hurts. “I’ll come for you, Louie. Please, just wait and I’ll come save you.”

He laughs and waves a hand behind him. I follow his direction to see twelve thrones that I’ve seen in this dream several times, but they’re not empty anymore. Now, gold-crowned children sit on them, but some of them are children and some are not. It’s like looking at a mirage. They change from children to adults and then adults to children once more.

When I look at Louie again, he flickers into an older version of himself before flickering back into a child. I freeze in shock, and I’m not sure which is real and which is not. I hope none of it’s real. I hope he really isn’t here and the prince lied to me.

The truth is… Louie is here, and I can’t get to him. He is in the Rift, whatever this place is, and he is in so much danger.

The whole time I was in the fae court, I didn’t realize the truth, and I should have known better. I was so busy, so distracted, that I didn’t see the obvious truth right in front of me. Louie was always in danger. The Rift wanted children, and I should have known Louie would be the first child offered by the prince. He knew it would rip my heart apart because I promised to look after Louie. His dad died to save me. His mum might never wake up because she saved me.

And I didn’t save their child.

I couldn’t.

But I will. I stand up to face Louie, the adult version of him. “I’ll come for you. I promise. I will not stop until I’ve saved you, Louie.”

The adult version of Louie smiles down at me. He’s as handsome as I thought he’d be when he’s older, and he could have any girl he wanted. Louie could have such a brilliant life… He will have a brilliant life. “I’m going to save you from this. Just wait for me.”

He leans down and grabs my chin roughly, his nails like daggers digging in hard enough to cut. I don’t pull away as I look into those black eyes, wishing I could see the boy who laughed every single day. “I don’t want to be saved.”

I wake up coughing—no, choking—on water. I’m underwater. It takes me a few seconds to open my eyes and realize I’m fully submerged before I panic. I fumble around in the water, looking around me, calling my power to me to help. But nothing happens. Seeing a light above the water, I use my arms and legs and swim up as fast as I can, my arm hurting with every movement, but my lungs burn with every second, and swimming isn’t my strong suit. I keep going up and up and up until I break free on the surface, gasping for air, coughing, and spluttering as I struggle to float in the moving waves. I cough a few times, wiping the salt water out of my stinging eyes.

“Where in the goddess am I?”

No one answers me, but my voice echoes, and I look up at the gigantic rock cavern I’m in the middle of. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before: smooth and jagged rock walls go high up several thousand feet, and in the walls are hundreds of tunnel entrances, some with waterfalls falling down them. Bright glowing blue water falls in spirals from the top of the dark cavern, lighting up most of the area, but I can’t see the top of the cavern or much of the edges of this place. It’s unbelievable here.

A wave crashes over my head, nearly pulling me back under, and I shiver, just now realizing how cold I am. If I don’t get out of this water, I’m going to freeze or drown. I spot a nearby row of smooth rocks, the waves crashing up the one side of them. I swim towards it, painfully slow against the waves, before I pull myself out onto the rock and lie back, shivering for a moment. I lift my sore arm, wondering what hurts, and find a new mark drawn into my skin by my wrist. It’s a pendant on a chain, wrapped around my wrist, and in the middle of the pendant is moving water, waves like the sea crashing on the inside edges of the pendant.

I rub my head, trying to remember what the hell happened after the Siren King took me from the fae court… from Emerson. He must be looking for me, and goddess help anyone who gets in his way.

But how can he find me here?

I don’t know what’s going on, but the Siren King must have put me here. There’s no other explanation for it. Taking a deep breath, I try to ground myself. If he wanted to kill me, he could have done it when he knocked me out on the other side of the portal he made. Surely, that would be far easier than just dropping me in this place. I stand up on the smooth rock, slipping for a moment, and reach for my daggers, but they’re gone and I’ve got no weapons on me whatsoever. My clothes have been changed, and now I’m no longer wearing a dress, but I’m wearing soft, dark blue leathers with strange scales all over the bust. Someone has also braided my hair and woven in what looks like tiny shells made of gold and silver.

I look down at the water, the reflection of myself, my fae ears peeking through my pink hair and my pink eyes glittering softly. I’m so lost in my thoughts I don’t take stock of where I am or even look around, and that’s my mistake. Something hard slams into me, and I’m thrown across the rocks, landing oddly on my arm, and I hear an irreparable snap. I scream in pain as I roll over and quickly scan my surroundings, seeing a monster. It looks like a large cat, but its long mane is made of pure water, and it has horns on its back like icicles going all the way down its long tail. Its fur is moving, shimmering like seaweed, but it’s all blue like the sea. The most frightening part is its teeth, all ice, sharp daggers. Its ice-blue eyes lock onto me, and there is no mistaking the hungry look in its gaze.

This isn’t the first time a monster has attempted to eat me for dinner. It roars at me as it crouches down to jump, and that’s when I know that I’ve got to run. I hastily climb to my feet, not exactly looking where I’m going, jumping over rocks to get out of the way as the creature slams into the rocks at my left and barely misses me. I keep climbing the rocks, studying the tunnels for a brief second, unable to hear anything over my heart slamming in my chest. Hope blooms as I see a smaller tunnel, small enough for me to crawl through, but there is no way that thing is getting through it. I’ve just got to get there, and it’s a good few hundred feet away.

I risk pausing to look back at the monster and see it shaking its large head and searching for me. It notices me just as I turn back, wondering if I can burn it. I run, ignoring the pain in my arm. I call for my powers, but nothing other than tiny flames flicker to my fingers. “Damn it. Being fae and having powers was meant to be useful.”

I don’t waste any time running fast to the tunnel, my breaths coming out in harsh pants, and the creature is right on my tail. It suddenly slams into me, and I twist, grabbing its mane to throw myself to the side. Its claws lash down my shoulder, cutting deep into my skin, and I can’t help the scream that rips out of my throat. With some luck, I land right next to the tunnel entrance, and I don’t blink before crawling through it.

The monster’s gigantic head slams into the bottom of the tunnel, inches away from my feet as I pull myself further in, my shoulder and arm burning with pain, blurring my vision, and a weakness claws its way into my blood. The monster claws at the entrance before letting out an ear-piercing howl of frustration before it gives up and leaves. I finally let myself collapse back into the tunnel, breathing heavily as everything blurs in front of my eyes. My fae healing might be good, but I know the cuts on my shoulder are serious, and I’m not sure my fae healing will be able to stand up to the blood loss. I’m in serious trouble. Fuck.

Hot tears fall down my cheeks, and all I can think of is Emerson, how we haven’t had any time, and if I die here… he might never find me. I can’t die here. Rubbing my face, I breathe in the smell of salt and dirt around me as I feel my blood pouring down my back and arm. I try to rip some of the leather clothing at my waist, for something to hold on the cuts, but it’s too tough for me to rip. Dammit.

I lift my head to look down the tunnel, and at the other end, I see bright light and what looks like an exit. If I just crawl through, no matter how much it hurts my arm, I might find something safe around the other side. Painfully and slowly, I manage to crawl with one arm, through my blood and the dirt on the ground, gritting my teeth with every movement.

Everything gets blurrier as I move. I’m losing too much blood and I know it. The cut’s too deep. I keep going to get to the end, thinking of Emerson, thinking of our future and my family. I have to get back to him, and I have to be alive to do that. What feels like hours later, when it likely was only minutes, I peep out the other end of the tunnel, and there is a small clearing with a glowing white waterfall coming down into the middle of the room. There are several tunnel openings in every direction on the walls, and it’s definitely not safe in there.

I just need to stay awake… just for another moment. My eyes close without my permission, and I swear I hear a voice calling my name as I pass out.