Page 109 of Soulgazer

I watch a touch helplessly as Faolan works his boots free one after the other, then ties his hair back with a leather cord. Mercifully, he keeps his trousers on—except it’s not a mercy because every pale, freckled, beautiful muscle shifts into the next as he moves, and when he stretches his arms overhead, the sleek bones of his hips glide beneath the skin in an arrowhead that—

He clears his throat and I whirl around to loosen the ties on my own shirt, then do the same for my boots. Those I drop into the bag alongside his, but I hesitate just a second before pulling my shirt free as well.

It’s different than the cabin or the cove, when my dress was still laced, body hidden below. My skin immediately breaks into gooseflesh when it meets the air, speckled with water by the next breaking of waves. The place he’s branded stings, but the salve has already repaired the worst of its damage. Still, awareness creeps across my skin, andgods. It hurts to breathe.

“Saoirse?”

Right. The magic—the gills. The crypt.

I run a finger over the long, wide strip of cloth that’s looped over each shoulder and wrapped across and beneath my breasts to secure them. It hasn’t moved, and at least that’s one thing to be grateful for, though there’s a hand’s width of soft flesh exposed above my trousers.

My face is burning hot when I turn to hand over the shirt, one arm wrapped tight over my middle. His eyes dart down as if I’ve caught him doing something wrong, and I can’t tell if I’m relieved or disappointed when they don’t return to me.

“Done.” Faolan straightens with the bag over his shoulder, and I swallow as I face the black waves. Ghostly blue flashes at the very edge of my vision, and I start to turn my head when Faolan’s hand drops to my lower back. His fingers spread wide against the bare skin. “Are you ready?”

No. I truly can’t breathe now, and I’ve no idea where to place the blame. Instead, I force my chin down in a nod, brace the balls of my feet against the rock’s edge, and jump into the sea with Faolan.

The ferrier’s tunnel is almost completely engulfed by the ocean. As we swim closer, I see most of the entrance is covered in a thick layer of barnacles, some of which have grown as big as my own head. It’s terrifying to think we’re about to go through there. Paralyzing not to know what we’ll find on the other side, if we make it at all.

Faolan’s fingers brush over my neck this time, catching on my braid before he flashes a smile and tugs the large moon crystal from his pocket, casting a purplish light between us. He ties the cord round his neck, takes my hand, and swims straight for the entrance.

Silence has never existed so completely as it does in this narrow passage of stone.

It devours us like a thing half-starved. If not for Faolan’s constant touch reminding me I am not alone here, I’m certain my body would rebel against my mind and claw its way out of the dark. Instead, we carry forward as the tunnel gets tighter around us, jagged rock growing straight out of the sculpted sides and top. One of my ancestors—or perhaps the goddess herself—carved this space from the cliff to allow our soulstones a sacred passage back to the mother sea.

Nature is simply reclaiming her stolen land.

My skull brushes against rock and I try to swim lower, but my belly meets the bottom, and the water—

Gods, the water pushes faster against my feet. It tugs Faolan ahead in a sharp move, and as the light in his hand passes through, I see with horror that three of those angry growths of stone cross over one another so the opening in the middle is barely wide enough for a person to fit. Faolan tries to catch hold, but it’s all he can do to adjust his shoulders and avoid smashing his head.

And then he’s through, the rapid stream forcing my body into the space left behind. Something goes wrong—something doesn’tfit. And the world goes black, my chest collapsing with a scream that bounces off the rock all around me, in front of me—against me.

I’m trapped.

Holy stars—I’mtrapped.

Ropes of water burn my skin now, tearing at my clothes and threatening to rip the hair from my head as my hips wedge even tighter against the rock until it digs into my skin.

Pain and fear explode in my mind and I become a wild thing without reason or thought. I lash out, twisting and crying out in streams of bubbles when the rock does break my skin, slicing the fleshy part of my hip so that the next pass of water through my mouth tastes of blood.

I’m going to die here. It was all for nothing.

Something slides against my neck, and I jerk away, only for a pair of steady hands to catch the back of my head before it can break against stone.

Faolan.

I’d weep if I could, but instead I force my body to go still as his hands travel down my throat, my torso, all the way to my hips, which he takes in hand and pushes back. One gentle twist and my body flies through the narrow opening into his, both of us spinning and grasping for something to hold on to, until the tunnel abruptly ends, spitting us into a pool of water too deep for my feet to touch the bottom. I barely have time to orient myself when Faolan catches my waist, dragging us both to the surface.

The first breath stings, sending vibrations to the deepest places within me. The second releases in a near shout of relief.

I’m alive.Weare alive.

“Are you—all right?”

“Aye.” I twist to catch sight of Faolan as he hauls me to the pool’s edge. “What about…”

His face is bathed in a gentle blue-tinged light emanating from the walls. They’re covered in long strands of living algae cultivated for whole lifetimes to grow up and cross over along the ceiling.Gods.I forgot how large this cavern was—said to be the home of Goddess Eabha herself, when it first appeared centuries ago.

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