Deep Betrayal Page 0,83

hear what he thought was there, and at the same time, so desperately did not. It was all so jumbled in my mind. If I could hear a space of silence amid the roar, it would bring me one step closer to believing. But if Maighdean Mara was real, that meant facing a monster. On the other hand, if there was no gap in the watery curtain, if there was no Maighdean Mara, the monster I needed to face was more terrifying to imagine. The ancient mermaid might kill my body, but knowing my father was a murderer would kill my soul. My heart crumpled in on itself, and I nearly sobbed at the thought.

But then I heard it.

Like a hiccup.

As if Copper Falls was catching its breath, before crying aloud itself. The sound—or rather the absence of sound—was gone before my mind registered it, but I knew it as certainly as if it had lasted a full second.

My body must have reacted, because Calder asked, “Did you hear it?” His voice was both amazed and terrified.

I didn’t answer him, listening for it again. I counted in my head so I could pace it. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi.… I got to twelve, and this time tried to determine its exact location. But it was too quick.

I counted to twelve again. The third time, I picked up the source, low and to the left, behind an enormous black boulder.

I raised one shaking hand and pointed.

“You’re sure?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Make sure,” he said. “I’ve got one shot at this.”

I could see what he meant. Anything that got caught in the turbulence would be battered and beaten against the razor-sharp rocks, and the gap was so quick—a fraction of a second—there was no room for error. “How do you get in?” I asked.

“I need to make a beeline for the gap. If I hit it at the right moment, I should get sucked in behind the falls.”

“And if you don’t hit it?”

“Seriously, Lily, you should go.”

“I’m not going to leave you.”

“You think it’s by that boulder?” He didn’t look convinced. “I’ll have to be quick.”

“Positive,” I said.

His breath came out slowly against the back of my neck. “Good girl.” He took off his watch and handed it to me. “Take this and go back to shore. Give me an hour. If I’m not back by then, well …”

I strapped on the watch and Calder left me, diving down deep. I watched for some sign of him—a splash, a flash of arm, but I heard the gasp of air and never saw him again.

Panicked, I counted in my head and timed my dive, swimming as fast as I could for the boulder, praying I could hit the spot right as my internal timer hit the twelve-second mark.

It couldn’t have been more than twenty feet deep here—nothing compared to the depths we’d dived to before—but the velocity of the falls churned the lake into a watery nightmare. It pounded at my temples and bellowed in my ears. The currents pulled me toward the boulder’s center, tossing and pinning me down.

The force of the falls pressed me to the rocky lake bottom. My fingertips met the boulder. Twelve, I thought. I waited for that infinitesimal vacuum of sound and air. When I heard the gasp, the falls parted and sucked me through.

31

LAIR AND LIAR

I was inside the cave behind the falls. I whispered Calder’s name, but only the walls whispered back. Dank and rough, as if carved by a giant pickax, the rock walls seeped to the point of dripping in the small puddles around my feet. The aroma of rotted fish coated my mouth and a coppery tang settled behind my teeth. Pinprick beams of light crisscrossed through the cavern where moles had burrowed through the surrounding ground, finding weak spots in the rock. Their toothpick bones crunched under my bare feet.

I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but there was nothing to see. Whispering Calder’s name again, I felt him reach for my hand and pull me to his side. He shook his head in apparent exasperation, but he didn’t scold me. He couldn’t have believed I would let him go in alone.

Neither of us dared to speak too loudly or too much. This was hallowed ground. Had any human being come so far before? As far as I could tell, there were no large bones on the floor.

“We should have brought her an offering,” whispered Calder. “How stupid