Lunelle could hardly force it from her tongue, but she’d spent all night trying to think of ways around it.
Short of committing murder, her hands were tied—and it had taken Lura a considerable length of time to talk her out of that one. She was losing herself, her mind falling into shambles by the second. She’d been reckless, she’d been foolish, and now everyone would pay the price.
Or, she could suffer, and protect them all.
“Lura!”
The maiden came rushing from the next room over, her lips drawn into a tight line after hearing Lunelle’s declaration to the queen.
“I need another pomegranate.”
“What?” Lura asked.
Lunelle pulled her long waves into a tight knot at the back of her neck and slipped into a pair of pants, discarding her morning dress.
“I need a pomegranate—I need to have a word with a goddess.”
“Lunelle—”
“I know what I’m doing,” Lunelle hissed, a tone that Lura had come to anticipate more and more over the last few weeks. Lunelle could practically hear the strings snapping within her ribs.
Lura darted out of the room as Lunelle stuffed the smallest piece of stibnite in her pocket, just for good measure. The energy sparked to life within it, giving her the courage to move. Lura returned with a plump pomegranate and Lunelle’s cloak, watching her carefully as she tucked the fruit under her arm.
“I will be back by dinner,” Lunelle said as she brushed past Lura and into the hallway, moving swiftly through the courtiers meandering in the garden.
Her chest lurched as she dove into the next hall and around the corner, passing the Mercurians. She knew he felt her rush by, too.
She broke into a jog at the bottom of the endless stairs into the catacombs, avoiding eye contact with anyone who wandered through the underground halls. She pulled her hood lower, making quick work of the tunnels and pathway through the city.
She never once stopped to reassess her plan, if one could call it that.
For the first time in her entire life, she was letting her heart drive her forward, letting it push her up the cracked steps into the glowing Plutonian Sun setting now over the horizon. The cliffs were sparsely populated, a few Plutonians with their fair blue complexions walking along the edges, wondering just how far the fall was.
She paid them no mind as she strolled along the edge closest to the sandy steps, holding her pomegranate in one hand and her crystal in another. She wasn’t sure exactly how she spiraled to Proserpina the first time, but Lunelle tried to hold her in her mind—the flowing rose curls, her tan fingers.
Her eyes fell over the cliff’s edge, watching the black waters beneath churn inward.
When she’d come before, she carried a curiosity within her. A little glimmer of hope that maybe,maybeshe’d see something reflected back in those angry waves that might soothe her.
This evening, though, she carried a bitter heart steeped in the rage of a thousand eldest daughters. Proserpina had not helped her before, and perhaps it was because she had not been clear enough, but now she was desperate, and desperation could breed either clarity or chaos.
She prayed for the former.
Perhaps it would be a relief, she thought to herself, edging closer to the crumbling rock bordering the wild sea.Perhaps it would be a better fate to fall into the watery grave and never resurface.
Lunelle leaned out over the cliff, her heart dropping into her stomach at the thought of it. She sat, folding her legs beneath her as she let the lullaby of the sea crashing against the rocks below hypnotize her.
Perhaps, she thought again,it was my fear of jumping that prevented Proserpina from granting my wish in the first place.
She considered it as she closed her eyes, the sweet relief death might be. Did Tethers follow you into the Court Below? Would the ache ever release?
Would she be damning him to a lifetime of sunken ribs and stilted breaths—never able to breathe through the crushing surf of her?
Ah, there, it was at that thought the dragging began. That tug on the back of her Soul collapsed her inward. She gave herself over to it, letting it sever her from this world and push her into the next.
Her Soul tumbled, falling for much longer than she’d expected, the air around her chilling as she crashed through the surface of another realm. Her lungs filled with frigid smoke—no—water.
She was drowning.
