It wasn’t like the blighted water of the lagoon—this was pure, untainted sea. My heart lept into my sternum. I started moving,hands up before me, even as the darkness of the hallway grew oppressive. The scent of salt water grew so thick that I could taste it. My palms hit a stone wall, the impact rocking through my shoulders. I ran my hand over the rough stones until I felt an edge, then metal, then wood—another door. I could just see a thin line of dim light shining through its seams.
My breathing hissed in my ears. “Agatha?”
I shook the handle. When I pushed, the door didn’t give. I rammed my shoulder hard into the iron sash. I tried again, sending a shot of pain through me. With a growl, I lifted the door latch with all my strength, then threw all my weight into the door once more.
It flung wide. I tumbled to my knees onto a stunning mosaic of blues, blacks, and golds. I stared at them, disoriented. The tiles might as well have been jewels for how they sparkled across the entire room. They covered the walls, the floor, the uneven ceiling. Stormy light fought through a trio of tall and narrow windows. And in the very center of the room sat a small, round pool, filled with clear, glittering seawater.
The fine hairs on my arms rose to stand on end. Slowly, I came to my feet, never taking my eyes from the water. None of my visions had taken me to a chamber like this, lucent and serene. I stepped closer to the pool, breathing in the peaceful air of the chamber. The walls seemed to leak a charged sense of safety, like it was alive with some power.
It didn’t feel like Eusia’s malignant, oily influence. This place and the power that infused it felt bright, weightless, potent. It felt like the sea and the air as they were meant to be.Vathia Aithier,I thought. I could see straight to the bottom of the pool.
No Agatha. No Eusia.
Despite the beauty of the place, numbness besieged me. Silent tears rolled down my cheeks as I crouched beside the water and dipped my fingers in. It was cool, sending a spark of energy rushing up my arm and deep through my chest.
I wondered if this was what she’d felt like—my mother.
I was suddenly desperate for a reprieve from the taint of Eusia, and the misery of missing Agatha. I wanted to feel as light as the air in this grotto. I slipped off my boots. I peeled the damp trousers from my body and undid the binding I wore, tossing it to the tiles.
The water soothed as it climbed up by body. More than wondering if this was what my mother’s presence had felt like, I wondered if this was whatImight feel like, if I could ever sever myself from Eusia.
Incandescent.Divine.
I fell under the surface, needing to be swallowed up by it, reveling in the momentary weightlessness. Time morphed and stretched as I floated. I wasn’t sure how long I’d hung there before I felt a boom of thunder rock through my chest. Reluctantly, I broke through the surface, and froze.
Theodore stood in the grotto door.
Wavering light swayed over his restive body. His every muscle was drawn. Our gazes held.
He stepped inside. “Immy?” His low voice bounded around the tile.
A painful surge of feeling filled me. My throat grew tight from trapped tears. “I think… I think she’s gone.”
He gave a quick, devastated nod. “I’m so sorry, darling.” Neither of us moved as we beheld each other. He swallowed hard, and when he finally spoke again it was in a strained rasp. “Tell me to leave.”
My heart roared, pumping liquid heat through my body. I floated quietly, watching the heavy rise and fall of his chest. The spacebetween us felt as fragile as the thinnest, finest crystal, poised to shatter from a too-heavy breath. I waited for the vicious hunger I usually felt when I was around him to seize me. But it never came. This time, I could feel myownwant, the soft, warm desire for his lips and hands and consoling adoration. I saw no flashes of blood, no ribbons of flesh.
“Stay,” I said in a begging whisper.
His gaze darkened as he shut the door firmly and dropped the metal lock into place.
18
Imogen
Theodore gazed down at me with fervent eyes. For a long moment, all I could do was marvel at him. The exquisite lines of his body, the possessive way the light reflected off the water and fluttered over the whole of him.
His head tilted to the side, a lock of dark hair tumbling over his brow as he did. “I needed to see that you were well.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t. And I was tired of striving to do what was right, only to have my heart continually shattered. “Come in with me.”
We both knew the danger waiting for us at the other end of this burning fuse. We both knew we shouldn’t. It was clear in the way we held still. Rain assailed the narrow windows. Another flash of lightning, another shattering boom of thunder.
When my vision cleared, I saw Theodore’s fingers working open the buttons of his shirt. It whispered to the tile at his feet. His firm chest and stomach flexed as he stepped out of his boots and his gaze remained fused with mine as he undid his trousers. When his clothes were in a heap beside his shirt, he strode toward me—devoid of any fear—and stepped into the pool.
He was wondrous. The way the muscles in his legs flexed, the smooth divot on the side of his buttock, the hard angles and planes, and the smattering of dark hair that ran down his lower stomach. He settled himself onto the tiled ledge that rimmed the pool, water rising to his mid-chest. Tension crackled against my wet skin. My hair rippled over the pool’s surface, and he reached out to take a wet lock of it between his fingers.
“I’m…” I stopped and pulled in a breath.
