My eyes flicked back and forth between the two trees. “And I have to choose what? The one that I think the Cauldron is in?’
“No, you have to choose the one that you believe yourself to be. If you choose correctly, the Cauldron will wait for you on the other side. If you choose incorrectly, you will die,” she said.
Bres touched my forearm, the heat from his fingers made me jerk away from him. “That is why I should go, Quinn. I know what I am. I am one of the dark fae; there is no question.”
I shook my head, “No, that’s not true. I know you.” Even as the words slipped past my lips, the truth of them hit me. I knew him as if I’d known him my whole life. He was no dark fae, no matter that we were at times on opposite sides. Even if the bugger did Charm me.
Reaching out, I touched his hand, tentatively at first. “This is something I have to do. It is not on your shoulders. It isn’t your fault that Luke is hurt so badly.”
“If I go first, and fail, you still have a chance. You are the one ta prophecy speaks of, and if it’s right, you are ta only one who can save us from Chaos.” He brushed his fingers along my jaw, his eyes softening. “I’m doing this for you, Quinn. I’m sorry,” he said as his hand dropped. I didn’t understand what he was about, not until it was already happening. He grabbed my hand, and then spun me around. Pushing me, he sent me into the deeper water, and I tripped over a submerged log, my body getting sucked under by the swamp. Fighting to reach the surface, I pushed off the mushy bottom.
“Bres!” I screamed, as I broke the water’s surface, already knowing that I was too late. A flash of light and the dark gateway swallowed him whole. Damn him and his heroics!
I struggled forward, tangling once more in unseen roots under the mud slurry of water. Fianna stepped in front of me. “Give him a chance to be your hero, Quinn. It’s what all men want.”
She came to my side and helped me to my feet. The water and muck clung to me as if it were a second skin. “I’ve yet to decide if you are twice blessed or twice cursed,” she said.
Wiping my face, flicking the mud off my fingers I shivered. “What do you mean?”
“To be loved by not one, but two men of strength and heart. It is a blessing to have one, but two? I’m not so sure I’d want that even for myself.” She stared at me, then cocked her head to one side, so like her little sister it gave me a chill.
“He doesn’t love me. He Charmed me,” I said. The words sounded hollow even to my own ears.
Fianna laughed. “Bres is many things: warrior, guide, teacher, Fomorii and Tuatha. But even I know he is not a Charmer. It is the one thing that wasn’t passed on to him by his father. Bres can’t Charm It isn’t one of his abilities.”
I tried to tell you.
The water dripped off the tip of my nose and chin; I was too stunned to even try to wipe it away. My brain couldn’t handle this new information. No, I wasn’t being honest. It was my heart that was struggling with it, not my mind.
“Come, let us stand on higher ground while we wait.” Fianna led the way to a tree that was downed in some long ago windstorm, but it was not submerged as so many of the others were. Climbing up, I stood with one hand braced on a branch that jutted up to the sky.
“The Cauldron will test him, to see if he is worthy to bring it back to the realm of the humans. It has not ventured out for many, many years,” she said.
I glanced over at her, the white dress dry and unmarked as if we hadn’t just sloshed through miles of swamp. “You say that like it’s alive.”
Fianna didn’t look over at me, but continued to stare at the two gateways.“It is. Like all objects of power, it lives and has a will of its own. Even Excalibur carried with it consciousness. It is how Arthur did so well in battle.” She said this as if everyone knew what she was talking about.
“How will we know if Bres . . .” I wanted to say lived or died, but I couldn’t. I had a hard enough time thinking about Luke dying. I wasn’t sure I could handle the thought of losing them both.
“One hour. If at the end of that time he has not emerged, it will then be your choice. I would ask you for the sake of our world to not go through with this.” Now she did look at me, her brown eyes wide with her pleading. “You are our one chance at ending Chaos’ reign before it begins in earnest. In that, Bres was correct. You must believe me when I say that these two men of yours, no matter their love for you, are not worth throwing the world away for.”
“I need Luke, I need him at my side if I’m to face down Chaos. It says so in the prophecy, and more than that, I feel it. Here.” I put my hand over my heart. “I will do whatever it takes to save him, even if that means putting my own life in danger.”
“And if you put the world at risk?”
I gripped a branch, the flaking bark crunching under my fingers. “If I need Luke to save the world, then I need to save him first. Period.”
Silence reigned between us for some time after that.
A thought had been rolling around inside my brain, ever since I’d faced down Aednat, and I broke the uneasy silence by changing the subject. “How could you face your sister knowing that you’d have to kill her?”
She let out a sigh.
“We were not always enemies. I loved her more than anyone —would have died for her even.”
The words were so like my own when I spoke of Ashling I wanted to put my hands to my ears and tell her to stop, but I had to hear this. I needed to if I was going to face Ashling, even if it was just her body and no longer her heart and soul.
Fianna swirled her hand over the swampy water and a foggy image rose up: a miniature picture of Aednat and Fianna. They were holding hands, walking along, smiling at one another.
“Aednat was seduced long ago by Chaos. Long before Balor ever came to her with a plan to release the demon. Chaos will always seek out those who are afraid, those who seek to control the world around them. Aednat was one of those. I begged her not to listen.”
The foggy image shifted and the two girls broke apart; Aednat lashed out at Fianna and then disappeared. Waving her hand over the picture, the queen wiped it away in a swirl of mist.
“I couldn’t save her, Quinn. Chaos poisoned Aednat’s mind, and I couldn’t stop it.” Her voice dropped low, a tear slipped from her eye. “If I could have changed things, I would have, but Aednat . . .”
The screech of an owl broke through Fianna’s remembrances. We both turned towards the huge bird that sat across from us on a large deadfall.
“Bres does not have much more time,” Fianna said.
I shivered, my skin rising in goose bumps all over my arms. “What happens if I go in now?”
“I do not know,” she said, her face not giving me even a flicker of emotion. “I doubt anything good.”
Fantastic.
I rubbed my arms. “I can’t wait any longer.”
She bowed her head, her shoulders slumping. “I will not stop you. I believe you are the Chosen one, and as such, you must be free to do as you see fit.”
What did I say to that? I didn’t want to tell her I didn’t care, didn’t want to say that the world could go to hell. Ashling was gone, Luke was dying, and I would lose Bres if I didn’t act now. The only one who would maybe miss me if I didn’t make it back was Lir.
Leaping off the high ground, I sloshed my way towards the two gateways. The one filled with light almost vibrated with energy. It drew me, like a child to a shiny object. I found my hands reaching towards that gateway before I could stop myself.
Clenching my fingers I pulled back, and faced the dark gateway. There was nothing particularly evil about it, more an absence of light than anything.
“One last piece of advice, Quinn.”
I turned to look back at Fianna.
“Do not lie. Be honest not only with those you meet, but with yourself and your own heart. Show them the respect they deserve.”
As if it heard her words, my heart thumped painfully in my chest. I thought of Bres in there, fighting for me; fighting for Luke. He and Luke did not like each other, barely tolerated one another when they were working together, with reason it seemed, and yet for me, he would save his rival. Two quick strides, and I was standing directly in front of the darkened archway. The green leaves of the arbutus tree were incredibly vibrant against the black trunk. With one finger, I traced the leaf closet to me, the foliage shuddering under my fingertip.
A rush of air poured out of the gateway, the smell of the ocean heavy within it. Clenching my hands at my sides, I stepped through the arch, and found myself plunged into a raging ocean, the black of night surrounding me.
5
I didn’t fight the waves, just let them pull me where they wanted and within minutes I was thrown by a huge wave up onto a rock-strewn beach, my body hitting it hard. For a brief second, I struggled to get my wind back, and with a gasp, finally drew air.
Blinking, I took me a moment to see the dark shapes surrounding me. The helicopter pilot who’d died trying to fly us off the island, the Banshees I’d killed, the Fomorii I’d killed, and Aednat, her eyes narrowing as she stared at me. Slowly, I stood. None of them moved towards me and I didn’t really know what to do.
“Why are you all here?” I asked, fearing I might already know the answer.
Aednat laughed. “You killed us, so now you must face your deeds, dark Fae.”
My jaw clenched and I gave a nod. “As much as I wish it weren’t true, I’d do it all again, if I had to.”
The rat-faced Banshee, who’d poisoned me and killed Cora, stepped forward. “Truly?”
“Yes.”
Each of them stepped forward, one at a time, and I had to face them. The wounds I’d inflicted were still on their bodies, the blood still dripped. The Fomorii were the most numerous, thirteen in all. I didn’t realize I’d ended so many lives.
Aednat tipped her chin up and looked down her nose at me. “You killed us all. Now feel the pain of our deaths as if they were your own.”