Crown of Crimson by Halle Karina

Author:Halle, Karina [Halle, Karina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Adult
Amazon: B09YGDY9QC
Goodreads: 60857498
Published: 2022-05-23T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Death

“The Crystal Caves”

There’s a lot of things that you need to worry about when you’re ruling over the land of the dead, but the one thing I haven’t worried about for centuries is my wife. I haven’t had a damn wife to be concerned over.

But now I do, and fuck if that’s not a total shame that she’s starting to occupy my thoughts at all hours of the day.

I was visiting my Shadow Self in the eastern wing of the library. I don’t know how long I’d been in there with it, getting to know the ropes again. It takes time to fully infiltrate the Shadow Self and learn how to operate it. It’s about splitting yourself in half, learning how to be two people instead of one, and there’s some trial and error along with the magic. It’s why my Shadow Self is bound to that wing for now, kept in place by wards, because I still don’t have perfect control over it yet.

Apparently I’d been in there all day, though, because I’d suddenly remembered Hanna, and when I left my Shadow Self and went to find Sarvi, the unicorn told me that Hanna hadn’t returned from Vipunen yet.

It’s not that unusual. Lovia would train all day, so did Tuonen. But I’m paranoid about Hanna and I couldn’t help but conjure up two scenarios.

One was that she’d done something stupid, like take off her mask, and Vipunen killed her. The other was that she somehow bested Vipunen or Lovia and took off again.

Sarvi immediately took flight at my command, scouring the land on the way to the cave entrance, but only found Lovia waiting outside with the horses. Apparently Hanna was still inside.

So I decided to go by the other entrance to the cavern, the tunnels that lead from Shadow’s End and follow the water way deep into the land underground until they reached the Crystal Caves. The further in you go, the harder it is to walk, until the most natural thing to do is swim.

For me, swimming is second nature. I spent as much of my youth as possible in the Great Inland Sea, swimming among the mermaids and sea monsters and with my brother Ahto, as he learned to be the God of the Oceans and Seas. For someone whose touch was considered so lethal that I was always sheathed in layers in the event that any part of my skin could kill, swimming afforded me freedom I couldn’t have on land. To be naked, to feel the water over every part of me, including my hands, it made me feel something close to happiness.

So I took off my clothes—keeping my gauntlets on, leather wrapped to my elbow—and jumped into the cold sea water. I swim faster than I can walk, and I followed the underground waterway until it came to a close in a warm, wide-open glittering pool surrounded by glowing crystals.

That’s where I found Hanna.

Naked.

On her knees.

A most spectacular sight.

Unfortunately, I realized too late that she had already had some of the water to drink.

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