Chapters (51)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Adrienne Young
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
It wasn’t my mother I’d felt at the skerry. It was midnight.
FORTY-TWO
Fable’s Skerry was like a giant sleeping in the dark.
The outline of the rock islet was barely visible against the night sky as we dropped anchor.
I could feel it, standing at the bow of the ship with the sea wind whipping around me. Fable’s Skerry didn’t have reefs to dredge, but the midnight was here. It had to be.
Maybe it was an accident that Isolde had found it in the first place. Or maybe she’d followed the gemstone’s song like a moth to flame.
I wondered how long it had taken her to realize what she’d done. What the stone was worth. How long it had taken her to decide to betray her own mother.
Saint gave me the necklace because it was a key. If I had midnight, if I knew what it felt like, then I could find it. I knew the song of the gem like I knew the rhythm of my own heartbeat. I could probably find it with my eyes closed.
West pushed my belt into my hands before he fitted his around him. I worked the buckle with quick fingers, not even bothering to check my tools. Every inch of my skin was jumping, the tingle of gooseflesh creeping up my arms.
Willa leaned over the side, looking down into the dark water. “You really think it’s down there?”
“I know it is.” I smiled.
West climbed up onto the railing, and I followed. I didn’t wait. As soon as I was standing beside him, we both jumped. The black swallowed us whole and West’s warm hand found me in the water as I kicked back up to the surface. The Marigold towered over us, the skerry at our backs.
I measured the height of it in the distance. “There.” I pointed to the higher rise of rock. “There’s a cavern near the tip of the ridge.”
West eyed it, unsure. He was probably thinking the same thing I was. That if we dove the cavern, there was no way to know where it opened or even if it opened. But Isolde had done it, so there had to be a way.
“Line!” West called up to the Marigold, and a coil of rope landed in the water a second later.
West fit it over one shoulder so it reached across his chest and back. When he started to work his lungs, I followed, pulling full breaths in and out.
In and out. In and out.
The tightness in my chest loosened with each one until my lungs felt flexible enough to hold the air I needed. I sealed my lips and nodded to West before I plunged beneath the water and kicked. The rope made him sink faster, and I swam after him, keeping my pace slow so that I didn’t tire too quickly.