Shadows Awoken (Beshadowed, #3) by Selina A. Fenech

Author:Selina A. Fenech
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal romance, urban fantasy, lovecraftian, monster hunters, mermaid, shifter, vampire, werewolf
Publisher: Fairies and Fantasy Pty Ltd
Published: 2021-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Water weighed Everly’s clothes down as she trudged upward.

The stairs curved out of sight, toward a blue glow that ebbed softly like the sun shining through water. The dragon stirred weakly inside Everly, and its need for the light above them seeped through her being. She struggled to tell where the soul-eater’s wants ended and her desire to be whole again began.

Everly trailed her fingers along damp stone walls covered in green algae. The walls seemed to hum and pulse beneath her fingertips in time with the blue glow that illuminated the stairwell.

My love flows as deep as the ocean’s black heart,

It beats in the night, it beats in the night.

The song was well and truly stuck in her head. It had always seemed so innocent when she was a kid, almost romantic. But now, the lyrics made her shiver.

As they ascended, the complete lack of sea life down in the cave became an abundance of creatures moving around them. Small crabs skittered, snails climbed the walls, a brightly patterned baby octopus glided away to hide.

Finally, the stairwell curved one more time, and they spilled out into the ground floor of the lighthouse.

“Imagine that,” Denny boasted. “We never would have found our way in if not for me.”

Nobody bothered replying to his ego.

“Keep quiet,” Callan ordered in a whisper. “We know we aren’t alone in here.”

The blue glow lit the entire space, making Everly feel like they were underwater. She tucked her flashlight away in a pocket and padded softly over slick, wet floors carpeted in ribbon seaweed. A third of the room was overtaken by the same coral and crystalline growths that had obscured the front door. An old-fashioned piano sagged against one section of wall, pouring water from its keys like a fountain, while more living coral grew out of its boxy top, covered in a horde of fingernail-sized crabs. The ceiling dripped constantly.

No mermaids, strange men, or zombies appeared. Rylan waved them over to the curving stairwell that hugged the inside of the round wall.

“Up we go,” Harper whispered cheerfully, linking her arm through Everly’s.

Everly replied with a weak smile, grateful to have someone to lean on as the upward hike continued. Barely any warmth had returned to her body after the swim and her entire skeleton rattled with uncontrollable shivering.

Despite the bizarre angle that the lighthouse appeared to have from the outside, the interior thankfully seemed to be flat and level. Halfway to the first landing, they passed a square frame on the wall.

Everly paused with her foot on the next step, her gaze sweeping across the portrait. The walls were covered in barnacles and creeping seaweed, but the portrait looked as clean and bright as the day it was painted. It depicted a young woman close to Everly’s age with huge sad eyes and a strangely off-putting smile that didn’t seem to fit on her face. She sat on a velvet chair, water puddled around her, and a mermaid tail curved around one claw-foot leg.

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