“If all goes well? Are you out of your mind? That’s rape!” I was breathing hard, anxiety and urgency battling for control of my body. “We have to get her out of there!”
Luke stood, his face a drawn with anger. “We can’t!” he shouted, his power filling the room; the air thickening until I was pushed to my knees. “It is done and there is no undoing it Quinn. There will be no more talk of rescue.”
“Not to mention ta bounty on your head, if you were to step into ta Fomorii kingdom, eh Luke?” Bres said, drawing out each syllable.
Luke glared at Bres. “Yes—that would be a problem, if we were going after them. But we aren’t. You don’t have bounty on your head; would you like to tell Quinn why?”
Bres shrugged, his lips quirking over some joke I didn’t get. “It don’t be bothering me none. You see Quinn, I don’t have a bounty ‘cause I be half Fomorii.”
10
I couldn’t sleep after I’d kicked the two boys out; I found myself pacing the room in the semi-darkness.
Balor had Ashling; Bres was half Fomorii which made me wonder how I could trust him. What if he was a double agent? Would he try and kill me for Balor? I crossed and uncrossed my arms several times, agitated and scared. Luke wouldn’t help me rescue Ashling, of that I had no doubt. The minutes were ticking by, the seconds rushing past me. How long would Ashling have before Balor took her to his bed? What if her temper flared and he decided that her beauty was not worth the trouble?
“Ashling, just play along a little while,” I whispered into the night air.
Midnight tomorrow. That wasn’t enough time. For some reason I did not doubt Balor’s words. As crazy as the events were, I knew that they were truly happening and they felt like a chess game to me. But I didn’t know all the players or what they were capable of, and I was a single pawn left facing the entire board on my own.
I shook my head. “You will not give up Quinn,” I said. “Ashling and Mom are depending on you.”
An overwhelming desire to leave the room and get some fresh air washed through me. I scooped my knife up off the bedside table, and the bone handle warmed in my hand. I tucked it into the waistband of my shorts, flipping my shirt over it to hide the blade. I peeked out the door but neither Bres nor Luke stood guard, though I had no doubt they’d be close by. Moving at a jog I ran out of the room and down the stairs in bare feet. There was something—or someone—calling me, enticing me to come outside. I didn’t feel coerced, only curious and somewhat excited.
Halfway down the stairs the ground swayed and shook; the chandeliers clanged above my head. I cried out as I was flung against the stairway’s guardrails. The quake lasted longer this time, nearly a full minute. And when it left so did the power.
Through the semi darkness I ran out through the front doors and onto one of the wooden pathways, one that took me deeper into the coastal rainforest. The further away I got the more my feet slowed, my mind doing all the racing I needed. Still the pull was there, attached somewhere around my belly button, gently guiding me forward. I wasn’t afraid; I didn’t think the Fomorii had it in them to be that gentle. I was deep into the forest when the pulling suddenly stopped, but I kept walking; the night air soothing me.
I pulled the blade out and rolled it in my fingers. “And what is it about you?” I placed it on the ground and walked a few feet away. I put all my will into wanting it in my hands but nothing happened. It lay in the moonlight, the gleam of ivory bone easily visible against the wooden path.
“Trying to get a blade to Jump is hard.”
I spun, my fingers reaching for my knife, circling around the handle as it appeared in my hand.
“Ha. Impressive. I shouldn’t be surprised, not with your bloodlines.” The voice was coming from my left and I turned to face it.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my eyes searching out the speaker.
“Blade Jumping is an old trick. Not one that many use because it takes years of practice. But that’s a family weapon, isn’t it?” The voice asked. There was a slight tremor to the voice, a faint accent if I listened hard. But it wasn’t Irish like Bres’—it was something else, something older.
“Yes, my Grandpa gave it to me. It was his,” I said, shifting my feet and trying to determine if this person was going to be a threat or not.
“The knife knows it belongs to you. It is, in a sense, bound to you. When you have need of it, and call for it, the knife will jump to your hand, no matter the distance between you and it. Very important when you face your enemies to have at least one weapon that is bound to you in this way.”
A couple strolled towards me, giggling and laughing, their arms woven around each other. Was one of them the speaker?
“Ah, young love. I miss it so,” the voice said, letting out a long sigh.
I stared at the couple but they didn’t react to the voice, not even a giggle. They sashayed past me, and I tucked my knife behind my back, giving them a false smile and a nod of my head.
“Oh, they can’t hear me pet. Only you can hear me. Only those whose fae blood runs strong through them can hear the voice of an old goddess like me.” She gave a low laugh that turned into an odd giggle.
I brought the knife back out in front of me.“Are you with Balor?” I asked.
The voice let out a violent hiss and the bushes rustled. “That old bastard. Never! I’m here to help you. Luke and Bres, they make good guards with all their muscle and ego. But they won’t guide you. You need a mentor.” The bushes rustled again and I took a step backwards. Then I screeched as a five-foot-long, brilliantly blue snake slithered out of the ferns. Now I knew why the voice sounded so familiar. It was the snake from my dream. I had been hoping that particular detail had been wrong.
“Oh hush yourself. It’s a body that is easy for me to take. My old bones don’t pain me when I’m in my snake form,” she said. I stared down at her, not sure what to do. The blue of her scales was nearly neon it was so bright with the tip of her tail, and head, a vibrant red to offset it. Not exactly subtle, but identical to what I remembered from my dream. Did that mean that Luke had been in my dream as well? I recalled the hands stroking my forehead, holding me tight, and a delicious shiver ran through me.
“Come on now, pick me up. I’m not slithering after you all night. And if I’m right you’ve got a deadline to meet, don’t you?” she said.
I swallowed hard. Snakes were not on my list of favourite pets, and I wasn’t interested in getting bit. But what choice did I have? I needed help, and the two men assigned to me were far from forthcoming in that department.
Bending slowly I put out my hand, holding my breath and biting my tongue. She slithered up to me and made her way up my arm, draping herself over my shoulders as if she’d done it a thousand times. If she was such an old goddess, perhaps she had. I held very still; the cool dry feel of her belly not unpleasant, but still somewhat unnerving.
“You can call me Cora,” she said, her tongue slipping out to taste the air.
I stared at her mouth. “I can’t see your mouth move when you talk,” I said.
Cora’s tongue slipped out again. “It’s a projection of my thoughts into auditory tones. I don’t need vocal chords to speak.”
I nodded, as if that made all the sense in the world. “How are you going to help me?”
“Tell me of the deadline. What has happened to bring you here?” she asked.
I started down the path. “I have until midnight tomorrow—today I guess—to leave these lands or Balor is going to kill me. He said he would consider it an attack on him if I stayed.”
Cora’s body tightened around my neck and I took a shallow breath. Had I upset her?
“Balor was always one for theatrics. If he tried to kill you his own son would stand in his way before letting that happen. Balor, for all his tyranny, loves his children.” She let out a long sigh and I stepped off the path, my bare feet sinking in the thick moss that covered the forest floor. A sense of the surreal filled my brain and my body, as fear rose within me. Ashling and Mom were depending on me and how I played this chess game out.
“Wait. You said Balor’s son would stand in his way.” I thought of the violet eyes on both men, Bres’ confession of his Fomorii blood and the twinkle in his eye when he told me about it.
“Bres is Balor’s son?”
Cora let out a long sigh. “Yes, though you must not hold it against him. Bres renounced his father. It’s why he’s here helping Luke, though they don’t like one another.” Her tongue flicked out tasting the air. “Bres is a man of his word; you can trust him, and he will protect you at all costs.”
I mulled over this new piece of information. Bres, though he’d been gruff with me at first, hadn’t hurt me. I couldn’t put the father and son into the same category.
“Luke said that Bres was Tuatha? Like him and me. How can that be if Balor is his father?” I asked.
“Sit yourself down. We will discuss what needs to be done and what needs to be known.” Cora wrapped herself around me, her tail tucking underneath her coils, making me a perfect serpent necklace.
With great care I slid my back down the trunk of a tree, planting my butt in the soft ground.
“Luke was correct. Both boys are half Fomorii, half Tuatha. It is what you choose that defines which race you will take after. They have both renounced the darkness within themselves and have pledged to help defeat Balor and the Fomorii. That is enough. But remember, the darkness will always call to them; it is seductive in its own way.” I thought about what Balor had said, how we make our own choices, to change our own destiny.
Her coils tightened and then relaxed, her red head lifting out in front of me so that she could turn and look me in the eye. “Now, on to what you must know; what needs to be spoken to you that the others will not. The Barrier will only be the first of the challenges you face. I will help you pass it; you need to rescue your sister.”