it, standing at the bow of the ship with the sea wind whipping around me. Fable’s Skerry didn’t have reefs to dredge, but the midnight was here. It had to be.
Maybe it was an accident that Isolde had found it in the first place. Or maybe she’d followed the gemstone’s song like a moth to flame.
I wondered how long it had taken her to realize what she’d done. What the stone was worth. How long it had taken her to decide to betray her own mother.
Saint gave me the necklace because it was a key. If I had midnight, if I knew what it felt like, then I could find it. I knew the song of the gem like I knew the rhythm of my own heartbeat. I could probably find it with my eyes closed.
West pushed my belt into my hands before he fitted his around him. I worked the buckle with quick fingers, not even bothering to check my tools. Every inch of my skin was jumping, the tingle of gooseflesh creeping up my arms.
Willa leaned over the side, looking down into the dark water. “You really think it’s down there?”
“I know it is.” I smiled.
West climbed up onto the railing, and I followed. I didn’t wait. As soon as I was standing beside him, we both jumped. The black swallowed us whole and West’s warm hand found me in the water as I kicked back up to the surface. The Marigold towered over us, the skerry at our backs.
I measured the height of it in the distance. “There.” I pointed to the higher rise of rock. “There’s a cavern near the tip of the ridge.”
West eyed it, unsure. He was probably thinking the same thing I was. That if we dove the cavern, there was no way to know where it opened or even if it opened. But Isolde had done it, so there had to be a way.
“Line!” West called up to the Marigold, and a coil of rope landed in the water a second later.
West fit it over one shoulder so it reached across his chest and back. When he started to work his lungs, I followed, pulling full breaths in and out.
In and out. In and out.
The tightness in my chest loosened with each one until my lungs felt flexible enough to hold the air I needed. I sealed my lips and nodded to West before I plunged beneath the water and kicked. The rope made him sink faster, and I swam after him, keeping my pace slow so that I didn’t tire too quickly.
Moonlight cascaded in beams through the water, lighting West in flashes below me as we descended. The cavern opened up before us, a huge black hole in the face of the rock. The sound of the gems radiated through the water so loud that I could feel it in my teeth. All this time, it was here. A stone’s throw from Bastian.
West took the rope from around him and handed me the end. I fit it behind a boulder, wrenching it back and forth until it was wedged so tight a firm tug couldn’t budge it. West tied the length of it around his waist, knotting it before giving me the end, and I did the same.
I squeezed his wrist when I was ready and kicked off toward the wide mouth of the cavern. As soon as we slipped inside, the darkness turned the water into ink. So black that I couldn’t even see my hands as I swam with them out before me.
The farther we went, the colder the water became. I let a few bubbles of air escape my nose and kept kicking, squinting my eyes to see, but there was no trace of light ahead.
Something sharp caught my forehead and I reached up, realizing I had hit the top of the rock. The passage was narrowing. I let go of a little more air to let myself sink and pushed away from it just as the soft burn lit in my chest. I swallowed instinctively, but the motion only fooled me into thinking I was breathing for a second and the ache reignited. When I looked back, I couldn’t see West, but his weight still pulled behind me on the rope.
I felt along the cold stone wall, listening carefully for the deep thrumming that radiated through the water. It was getting stronger. Clearer.
The acidic feeling erupting inside of me was a warning that time was almost up.