Kings and Sirens (The Blood Falls Book 2)

Leena

The one thing I noticed more than anything else was the constant drip of water. It was mostly one drip. Pretty constant. Drip, drip, drip. But occasionally one or two others would join in. Drip. Drip-Drip! Drip. The pool of water it was falling into was smaller so it had a higher pitch, making it all seem like a musician tuning up before playing a real song.

“Are we in a cave?” Kris whispered.

It was certainly dark and there was a constant chill to the air, but no wind. And the dripping sounds almost echoed, but weren’t quite loud enough for that. “I think so.”

“Why did they take us?” Rever growled. His muscles flexed as fought against the invisible bonds holding us in place. We couldn’t move or shift. Stuck. Atsila was probably losing his mind right about now.

For a second time I was the cause of his pain. I insisted he didn’t need to come with me. He wouldn’t have been able to stop this and that meant he would be stuck here with us, so he was much more useful to me out there, but he wouldn’t see it that way.

“Can you feel the Plane at all?”

Rever grunted. Kris shook his head. Rhiannon’s lips thinned.

“Rhiannon?”

Her eyes locked with mine. “A little.”

Damn, she really was powerful.

As if she heard exactly what I thought, her lips turned up in a slight smile and her cheeks reddened. “It’s distant but there. Like a warm buzz I can’t quite reach. Give me some time. I’ll get there.”

Rever grunted again. “She will indeed. Meanwhile, the three of us should leave her the fuck alone.”

“Where are they? The salishan? They brought us here, locked us down, and…where are they?”

“I imagine they’re eating some poor dead animal, like in The Empire Strikes Back,” Kris said.

I glared at him. “You are so not helpful.”

“What? Your Han Solo is totally going to find us and save us, isn’t he?”

Yes, Atsila would probably tear apart the world to find me. “Just don’t stuff me into a tauntaun.”

Kris gasped in mock horror. “And let you freeze?”

“Preferably.”

“Then Atsila would kill me for letting you die. Nope. If it comes down to tauntaun guts or death, you’re getting the warm innards of a dead beast.”

Even thinking about it was gross. “Okay, moving on. Are they tired? Sleeping? Talking it out? They’ve locked us down somehow.”

Kris spoke again. “Same thing happened to Rhysa at the House of Axl. Remember?”

“Shit. Yeah.” Lord Axl’s mistress and sister-in-law tried to poison Rhysa to death. But first they bound her magically so she couldn’t stop them.

“I’m not a fan of this kind of magic.” I liked the simpler times of just a few months ago when my biggest problems were what to wear to a ball and what the temperature was outside. Ever since Rhysa came into our lives things had quickly grown more complicated. It wasn’t her fault. It was Destiny. But she was the marker by which I measured when things changed.

A warm sensation surrounded me, then a buzzing, then suddenly I was free. Kris and Rever both blinked, wide-eyed at the change, looking down at their hands and moving just like I was. Testing our muscles and slowly searching for an invisible boundary.

“I broke the spell,” Rhiannon whispered, and I’m trying to get an idea of our location. I sent out a mayday only our family should be able to detect.”

“Hey, I didn’t get the message. Are you sure it worked?” Rever said.

“No. But you’re right next to me. It was designed to go out.”

Rever frowned and nodded. “Good point.”

“Are we still in the North?”

Rhiannon nodded slowly. “As far as I can tell, yes. Very far north. As far north as they can get, actually. We’re very near the North Pole.”

I wanted to make a joke about Santa Claus doing us a solid and helping us out with some magical reindeer, but I didn’t think the joke would land, so I kept it to myself.

“We should escape while we can. If they are sleeping or eating or whatevering, now is the time. We may not get another opportunity,” Rever said. He wasn’t quite as large as my brothers or any of the Heida. Not by a long shot, but he was muscular and had the male badass attitude down. He was grunty and growly and intimidating. So of course he wanted to attack the problem.

I looked to Rhiannon. “What do you think?” She was the only one of us who had any idea of where we were or what circumstances we might face.

“I agree with my cousin. It might be a good call or a bad one, but being aggressive and taking them by surprise is all we have.”

Maybe Wrens were more pacifist by nature because I could feel that Kris was on my side. Caution all the way. While our Gatlin cousins were ready to throw themselves into the void and see how it all worked out.

I shrugged at Kris. A mask of determination fell over his face. “Let’s go. I’ll pull up the rear.”

“I’ve got point,” Rever growled. “Don’t fucking argue, Rain. I mean it.”

Rhiannon glared at him, but nodded. We took our place in the male sandwich. Rever, me, Rhiannon, and finally Kris. Our part of the cave was damp and cold, but not entirely dark thanks to the torches that lit the way to somewhere. We were either going deeper into the belly of the beast or toward our escape. It could have been either, but Rever and Rhiannon seemed in sync on which ways to go. They didn’t say a word, but I felt the buzz of their psychic connection. The Plane was still a fuzzy blank to me. Like a television on the snowflake screen. It was there but I couldn’t tune in to the right channel.

“They’re making me feel left out,” Kris grumbled.

As I glanced back at my brother I saw Rhiannon roll her eyes. “You’re still a better mechanic than either of them.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Rever whispered.

We closed our mouths. I saw no signs of the salishan or anything else as we crept quietly along the cave walls. It was definitely a cave with the curving walls, stalactites and stalagmites, and stone everything. I began to feel some hope that we’d manage an escape when I felt a cold breeze sweep through the air.

That hope was smashed when two problems occurred at once.

We found the cave exit…and the snow storm raging outside. We weren’t dressed for it. But maybe once we were free of the cave we could shift our way back to safety.

But guarding the exit were a hoard of sleeping salishan and a rippling rift.

“Well fuck,” Rever muttered.

Some of the salishan snored softly, their twisted and deformed bodies rising and falling as they breathed. Some were curled up in balls while others lay spread out. A fire burned in the middle.

“I say we make a run for it. Deal with next steps when we get there.” Every instinct in my body screamed to get away from both the creatures and the rift that kept glimmering and glowing, lulling me back into that same sense of peace I felt when we scouted the other rift.

“One at a time or all together?” Rhiannon asked, her gaze drifting to Kris.

He answered quickly. “In pairs. Rever and Leena go first. Rhiannon and I will follow.”

“Fuck that,” Rever grunted. “Get my cousin out of here first. Leena and I will pull up the rear once you’re clear.”

“Fine by me, but keep my sister safe.”

Rever shook his head. “Just go.”

We watched them pick their way up to the cave entrance. I heard nothing as they moved like they could predict each other’s thoughts.

“They’re fucking Fated you know, right?”

I smiled at the matter of fact way Rever had about him. “I’ve noticed. Do you think they have?”

He grunted silently, his chest moving without any actual sound coming out. “Not a fucking clue. They’re still in the shellshock phase.”

Kris and Rhiannon disappeared into the white of the snowstorm. Not a single salishan had stirred.

“Ready?”

Rever nodded and waved for me to go first. I tried to move as quietly as my brother had. Rever stayed so close I could feel his body heat. It reassured me to know we were together without having to look. It was still weird not being able to sense him, but this was good enough.

The elevation climbed a good twenty feet up from where we’d waited. Undulations that were almost like steps ran across the stone surface. A few stray rocks lay here and there and a few ancient stalagmites still rose up from the ground. I was ten feet away. Five. Two.

A roar tore through the air and a massive salishan appeared beside me. I grabbed Rever’s hand and ran the last few steps. He was suddenly yanked back, my arm burning as it jerked in the socket.

I turned and watched as the salishan picked him up. I lunged for Rever’s foot, pulling as I kicked out at the creature’s knees. Behind him the rift rippled. Eyes glowed in the black and I got the impression something massive lay just beyond our reality.

The salishan lost its balance and fell toward me, pushing me out into the snow with Rever on my legs and the salishan on top of him. Rhiannon and Kris came up beside me, tossing me away, then grabbing for Rever. He slid out into the snow, so close to freedom.

And then I watched as he was yanked backward and disappeared.