If one can scramble in water, I did. Limbs all but flailing, I fought for every inch that I swam away from the creature, but it wasn’t enough. A thick tentacle whipped around my middle, squeezing down on my ribs until I heard them creak under the pressure. I couldn’t use my power on it. What the hell was I going to do?
My dagger, I still had that. Gritting my teeth, I focused on my dagger, propelling it as I’d done with the Banshee. The blade looked like a blue burning arrow shooting through the murky depths, straight into the beast’s eye.
With a burst of flame and a roar that reverberated through the water, my dagger hit home, the fire cauterizing the wound even as it burst open. The creature let go of me, writhing above me in pain.
Where had Luke gone? Had the creature grabbed him too?
There was no time to consider anything more than that. I turned back towards the dark water again, lighting an orb in front of me. I did my best not to think of the fate that waited behind me nor what had happened to Luke. My only chance lay in reaching Lir.
My orb stopped moving; at first I worried that there was another creature. But as I drew closer to the light, I realized it was illuminating a rock sitting on the bottom of the lake, covered in algae with the distinct line of a door carved into the old stone.
You can’t wait for Luke, Quinn. You must go, Cora said, her voice heavy with a sorrow I didn’t want to hear from her.
I paused and again she urged me forward. How long has it been since you last felt a quake? You must hurry.
Damn it, she was right. I laid my hand on the stone, wondering how exactly I was to get in, but I needn’t have worried. My hands moved of their own volition, tracing a pattern that lay under the algae, a perfect figure eight with a notch in the middle, the same sign Aednat had used to ward off evil. As I depressed the notch, the doorway slid open, leaving a shimmering veil between me and the inside. I pushed my orb through first and it hung suspended on the other side, seemingly unimpeded. Of course, it didn’t occur to me that there wasn’t water on the other side of the barrier. I swam through, my body falling hard onto a stone floor that was as dry as I was wet. I let out a groan and rolled to my side, then to my hands and knees.
“That was uncalled for,” I muttered.
Shaking, I stood up and looked back, putting my hand through the shimmering veil to feel the water on the other side. In the darkness I could see the creature swimming about, but no Luke. Fear clutched at me. What had happened to him? Why wasn’t he here with me?
Biting down on the bile that rose at the thought of losing Luke so soon after realizing the feelings that were between us, I forced myself away from the shimmering veil and deeper into the dusty old cavern. Cora was right, it had been a long time between earthquakes; I didn’t like it.
With a slow breath out, I lifted my hand and the orb grew brighter, pushing the shadows away. Determined to find Lir and then Luke, I jogged down the dusty tunnel, surprised that it was so dry. Even in the Labyrinth the water had been dripping and leaking through every crevice. Here, there was nothing.
If there was even the smallest amount of water, Lir could use it to escape, Cora said, answering my question without me having to ask.
My feet kicked up dust bunnies the size of my foot, but there weren’t even any critters. Empty; the whole place was completely empty. My footsteps echoed between the walls and the sound of my breathing was loud in my ears—so loud, that I didn’t hear him till he reached out and touched my hand.
“Quinn?”
I spun on the spot and found myself staring, for real this time, into Lir’s face. My father’s face. I had a sudden and overwhelming urge to cry, throw myself into his arms and demand that he fix everything, make this mess better. But I knew that was a fantasy, before it even finished forming.
“Hi,” I said.
“What are you doing here, I told you not to . . . how did you get past Morty?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“Aednat sung to it—”I said. “Morty is the water monster?” Lir nodded. I shook that off, focused on what I needed to focus on. “Luke was in the water with me, you’ve got help me find him. And then we’ve got to stop Card. You know where he is, don’t you? We have to stop him.”
Lir’s jaw clenched. “Card has gone too far. But how is it you found me?”
“First Luke,” I said taking his hand and tugging him back towards the entrance. “Then we’ll deal with Card and . . .Chaos.”
“We will?” Lir asked, his hand cool in mine. He squeezed my fingers. “Let us go get your Luke.”
We jogged back down the way I’d come. “You might know him as Lugh,” I said.