Rise of the Sons

by JD MITCHELL

  The sudden urge to correct him overcame Ali. They assassinated Dother.

  She didn’t know how to feel about it. Relief? Guilt? The Sons wanted her dead, but she wasn’t prepared for this either. Ali looked to the others for a clue of how to react. Jessica’s face was taut, while Red watched the remaining live-feeds stone-faced.

  The motorcyclists exited the tunnels, made a few quick turns, and fled the scene. People on-site scattered in multiple directions hardly noticing the motorcyclists. Instead, they scurried around like ants in the chaos of a tense situation.

  “Scrub all images of our team,” Aengus said to the Fae in the corner. He picked up what looked like a satellite radio and spoke into it. “Find out if the other Sons left.”

  A faint reply in the affirmative crackled back, and the line went silent.

  Red rubbed his brow. “Aengus, you’re already on thin ice with the Tuatha de Danann. They would have understood it we made it look like an accident, but we just demolished a tunnel.”

  “They aren’t here to decide,” Aengus replied. “Eliminating Dother is worth the damage.”

  Jessica grasped Ali’s arm sounding panicked. “I shouldn’t have let you see this.”

  Ali was about to protest, but Jessica shook her head.

  “Never mention tonight. Do you understand why?”

  Ali did.

  They witnessed multiple crimes. Definitely human violations, and from the sounds of it, the TDD wouldn’t have a favorable view either.

  “Leigh,” Jessica said. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him closer to her. “Listen carefully.” She looked pointedly at him. “Take Ali back to our room. If anyone asks, you were asleep. Got it?”

  Leigh looked over his shoulder at Red who silently gripped the back of a chair.

  “I got it,” Leigh nodded and looked at Ali. “Come on.”

  The two of them snuck through the maze of hallways unseen. Ali didn’t dare speak a word until their room was in sight.

  “Did we do something awful?” Ali whispered.

  “No,” Leigh said. “Aengus made a tough decision.”

  She nodded, but her anxiety increased as the weight of the situation settled on her. “Do you think the humans will find Dother’s body?”

  Leigh shrugged. “With any luck.”

  “What?” Ali asked confused.

  Leigh paused just outside their room. “If they find Dother’s body it will look like he did it. Maybe the Tuatha de Danann can spin it.”

  Ali hadn’t considered what an opportunity Dother had given Aengus. With one action Dother allowed himself to be killed and act as a scapegoat.

  ***

  Dub invaded Ali’s dreams that night. As usual, he didn’t mutter a word. He watched from the shadows, moving between her thoughts like the chapters of a novel. When her dreams shifted to Dother standing in the tunnels, Ali studied Dub’s face to see if he knew what happened, but his blue eyes faded before the explosion.

  She woke to dim sunlight pouring into her room. Her first reaction was to tell someone. However, Jessica was gone. She looked for Leigh next, but his bed was empty. Even Sawyer was missing.

  Panic grew until she spotted a Fae man patrolling the hallways. He was various shades of blue and sported the dark uniform of the army.

  “Where is everyone?” Ali asked running toward him.

  The Fae eyed her like he assessed her threat level. “I have orders that Aengus isn’t to be disturbed.”

  She didn’t care. “I need to speak with Aengus. I saw Dub.”

  “Where?” The soldier stiffened.

  “In my dream,” Ali said.

  The soldier’s brow arched.

  “You don’t understand, I see Dub in my dreams when something bad happens,” Ali explained.

  The soldier stared at her. Ali imagined he debated if she was a lunatic.

  A flash of long red hair grabbed her attention.

  “Leanan!” Ali yelled, slipping around the soldier.

  Upon seeing her approach, Leanan gave a tired smile.

  “I saw Dub,” Ali blurted.

  Leanan’s smile faded.

  The soldier materialized at Ali’s side. “I’ll escort her to breakfast.”

  Leanan shook her head. “No. Please resume your patrol.”

  He frowned but backed away before disappearing into a side corridor. Ali eyed him, wanting to tell him something to the effect of that’s right, my opinion matters. But she settled on glaring after him.

  Leanan shifted her weight and pushed her hair behind her shoulders. Her eyes were bloodshot, otherwise she looked perfect. Ali wondered if Leanan had slept. The drive back to the palace must have been long. “Are you sure he wasn’t just a figment of your dream?”

  Ali stopped to consider the distinction. “Is there a way to tell?”

  Leanan bit her lip. “Yes, but admittedly it’s difficult.”

  “Dub lurked in the shadows like always,” Ali said. “Do you think it means anything?”

  “I don’t know,” Leanan said. Then she forced a meek smile. “No. Aengus can’t find Dain or Dub.” Leanan placed her hands on Ali’s shoulders. “It worked.”

  Ali was uncertain. “Will you tell Aengus anyway?”

  Leanan nodded. “I will. In the meantime, go eat.”

  Resigned, Ali trudged toward breakfast. She wasn’t hungry, but she was too amped and had nowhere else to go. Hopefully Leigh was demolishing a stack of pancakes and she could pick his brain. She wanted Leanan to be right, but Dub’s eyes haunted her thoughts.

  Sixteen

  Breakfast was a lonely affair. Except for Sawyer, the rest of the group was nowhere in sight. Unsure of what to do, she went to practice. Sawyer tagged along and chatted her ear off with every thought that entered his brain. He seemed to like her. She wondered if her cute, new shadow would be an amusing distraction or if he would become an annoyance.

  “How old are you anyway?” Ali asked Sawyer as they walked across the training ground.

  He sat down on a bench and kicked his feet back and forth. “Eight.”

  Sawyer was too young to get tangled in this mess. Not that she harbored any delusions of involving him, but she pried into his family history during their walk and discovered he knew none of his relatives. A similarity they shared.

  “Can I train with you?” he asked. Kicking his feet again, he launched a dirt clod through the air like a crop duster.

  The question threw Ali off guard. “Do you have abilities?”

  He nodded.

  “I thought magic manifested later on, like puberty?” Ali asked.

  Shrugging, he cast his eyes back to the ground.

  “What can you do?” Ali asked, feeling inadequate. Yesterday one of the clay men exploded, and she’d done a celebratory dance. Now she wondered if she was behind the learning curve.

  His blue eyes probed the training facility before settling on the dusty weapons hanging along the far wall. Unlike Ali, he didn’t even raise a hand. The assortment of spears, knives, and axes shook against their supports, then flew off the wall. They sailed across the training area, impaling the stone wall on the other side.

  Malvina walked onto the training ground as the last weapon pierced stone. She groaned and pulled an axe out of the wall. “Use control young Bé Chuille. Respect the faculty.”

  “Sorry.” Sawyer averted his eyes.

  Sawyer impressed Ali. Leigh had conjured solas but hadn’t moved objects.

  Ali turned to Malvina. “Can you teach me how to levitate objects like Sawyer?”

  Malvina pulled out a spear, scrutinized it, and then dropped it into the dirt with a frown. “In time.”

  Turning her back on Malvina, she faced Sawyer and mouthed the question: Show me later?

  Sawyer flashed his crooked baby teeth.

  Leigh entered the facility.

  “There you are!” Ali said with relief.

  “I was with Red,” His eyes probed the weapons Malvina removed from the stone wa
ll. “What happened?”

  “Sawyer can levitate objects,” Ali said gesturing to the child with her thumb.

  Leigh let out a low whistle in approval. Sawyer beamed. If Malvina wasn’t glowering, Ali was certain Sawyer would’ve put on a demonstration for Leigh. Malvina’s reprimands aside, she was happy the incident brought a smile to Sawyer’s face. The poor kid had enough on his plate with his father missing.

  “What else can you do?” Leigh asked.

  Sawyer’s eyes brightened. “Lots of things.”

  “None of which you’ll practice without proper supervision,” Malvina scolded.

  Ali frowned, but Malvina was having none of it today. Maybe she heard the news about the Sons’ disappearance, and it squashed her combat fantasies.

  “I guess we should train,” Ali said to Leigh. “These clay men won’t explode by themselves.”

  Leigh nodded but leaned in so close she smelled toothpaste on his breath. “Aengus is confident they’re gone. The Fae scouts can’t find a trace of Dain or Dub.”

  “Really?” The tension left her shoulders as the idea took root. Leanan might be right, they were due for a break. “Did Aengus mention what I saw?”

  Leigh opened his mouth to speak, but Sawyer cut in.

  “What’s going on?” Sawyer asked.

  Leigh exchanged a glance with Ali then smiled. “We’re excited to see what you can do.” He gestured to the training grounds. “Come on, show me.”

  Sawyer jumped off the bench, his eyes lit with excitement. “There are so many things I want to try!” He circled Leigh like an excited puppy.

  “Catch up after training?” Leigh asked.

  “Yeah,” Ali said.

  The three of them trained the next two hours, each working on a different skill. A few times Ali tried to get Leigh alone to tell him about Dub, but she had the hardest time shaking Sawyer. He stuck to Leigh like gum on hair. She decided their conversation could wait. Dub was gone, so what did her dream matter?

  Instead of dwelling on the events of the previous night, Ali focused on shattering the clay men. It kept her mind off Dother, whose body was buried under silt, murky water, and rubble. A fate she almost shared. Ali shivered remembering the kelpie.

  Thwack! Thwack!

  On the far side of the training area, Leigh demolished a series of clay dolls that sprouted eagle-type wings. His accuracy had improved considerably in the few short days since they arrived. Soil rained around him as clay exploded above him in a series of brown fireworks.

  Malvina set Sawyer to the task of controlling the objects he levitated. At first Ali thought it was a punishment akin to writing I will not misbehave on the chalkboard over and over; however, Malvina was right. Sawyer had limited control. Still, he was eight, and miles ahead of Ali.

  Around noon, the lanky teenager from the previous night joined them. It was the first time she saw him outside the dining hall. He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed. Ali’s first impressions didn’t mesh with the guy she saw today. In the dining room she took him for gangly, but his build was similar to a baseball player. Lean with slight definition, but not overly muscular. He was taller than Ali, but nowhere near Leigh’s height. Small bandages covered the cut across his forehead, but otherwise he seemed fine. With his face no longer covered in dirt, she found his wavy brown hair and green eyes gorgeous. Which was a problem. Ali didn’t need distractions. Even with the Sons gone.

  After a few minutes, Leigh stopped training and called over to him. “Hey man, do you want to join us?”

  The teenager uncrossed his arms and scrutinized Leigh. Shoulders back, he walked onto the dirt floor.

  Malvina took this gesture as permission to attack. Before Ali had a grasp on what was happening, four clay men sprung from the earth at Malvina’s command. The movement was so sudden it appeared as though the clay men had been running at full speed for a few meters already.

  The teenager thrust his arms forward, and the earth rose to meet each clay men, spearing them though their cores. They crumbled.

  Malvina didn’t wait for him to recover; six clay figures rose from the rubble. Three flanked him on either side. He cast the first three into the opposite wall using gaoth like Ali practiced. He kicked the fourth clay in the chest, sending it stumbling to the ground. Turning his back to it, he decimated the other two by throwing a large solas. They exploded on impact.

  In a quick motion, he lunged on top of the remaining clay man which was sprawled on the floor. His palm slammed into the statue’s chest before it exploded under a ball of light. Malvina didn’t conjure any further surprises. Instead, she nodded with approval.

  This guy has skills.

  Ali stared as he picked himself off the ground and brushed off his clothes. He shrugged at Leigh but didn’t smile. Ali swooned at his brooding disposition. It amped up his hotness factor to ten.

  Terrible idea Ali. Don’t crush on this guy.

  Leigh grinned. “Yes, but can you do it while they fly?” He extended his hand. “I’m Leigh.”

  He met Leigh’s smile reluctantly, then took Leigh’s hand and shook. “Nash.”

  “Well,” Leigh said. “Train often? You put us to shame.”

  Tension fell from Nash’s face. “Daily.”

  Ali wondered why Nash was so standoffish. Whatever the reason, it didn’t faze Leigh.

  “Guess I need to step it up,” Leigh said. “Feel like training?”

  Nash gazed at Ali, a gleam in his eye. Her stomach filled with butterflies. He gave her a half smile. “Why not?”

  Leigh raised an eyebrow at Ali, his expression souring. She blushed and looked away.

  The next couple of hours Ali caught Nash glancing her direction. He watched as she knocked over one clay doll after another. At first, he unnerved her, but she grew accustomed to his watchful eye and performed better. Nash’s presence even had an effect of Leigh, who trained harder than ever resulting in profuse sweating.

  When they left training that evening Nash caught up with Ali in the hallway. Her nerves cranked up to eleven the moment he appeared at her side. She glanced a few feet ahead of her to see Sawyer was explaining the plot of a comic book to Leigh. Inhaling, she slowed her pace to put distance between them.

  “You looked good out there,” he said. His Irish accent was much thicker than Sawyer’s.

  Ali found herself at a loss for the English language and mumbled. “Thanks.”

  “I’m Nash,” he said sticking his hands in his pockets.

  “Ali.”

  She walked in silence next to him, annoyed at how her brain suddenly went blank. Here she was acting awkward as hell all because he was incredibly attractive. Surely, she wasn’t turning into one of those giggling idiots who couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation.

  “You’re American?” Nash asked.

  “Yeah. Leigh and I go to school together.”

  “Oh, you’re Leigh’s girlfriend?” Nash asked.

  “No!” Ali said quickly. “I mean,” she pointed to herself. “We’re friends I think?” She supposed the designation of a friend was right. “Leigh’s the most popular guy in school and I’m… not.”

  Annoyed at herself, she groaned internally. What was she doing establishing her schools social order and then putting herself at the bottom? You could have pretended to be anyone dummy.

  “He is?” Nash asked sounding surprised.

  Ali gestured toward Leigh. He was a good twenty feet ahead of them now. She was confident Leigh couldn’t hear her, but she also didn’t know the way back to the room. She quickened her pace. “Leigh’s the star basketball player, he dated the hottest girl in school, and everyone loves him… so yeah.”

  “Interesting,” Nash said.

  Nash let the conversation linger on that word, obviously waiting for her to ask what he meant. Ali found it off-putting, but she took the bait to keep the conversation moving.

  “What’s interesting?”

  “Just that his family isn’t th
e most popular in our circle,” Nash said.

  Nash acted cryptic, but both Red and Leigh already mentioned it. “I don’t see why the Tuatha de Danann judge his entire family based on one dickweed ancestor.”

  Nash’s eyes widened. “He told you?”

  Ali nodded. Hopefully Leigh’s openness upped her street-cred with Nash.

  “Just be careful. In my brief interaction with him, Leigh seems cool, but his family members are a bunch of thieving drunkards.” He shrugged. “The Tuatha de Danann take lineage seriously.”

  Irritation overcame her. This was the same reasoning that kept Jessica from Red. A group of people she still hadn’t met were a bunch of snot-nosed jerks.

  “I don’t care,” Ali stated. “Family are the people who show up.”

  Nash arched an eyebrow, a smirk on his lips. “You’re offended?”

  She was, but quickly shrugged off her annoyance. “I don’t prescribe to that line of thinking.”

  “Obviously your friends are your decision.” Nash nudged her with his shoulder playfully and smiled. “I only mentioned it because you’re unaware.”

  She couldn’t help herself. His grin melted her resolve and her girly nervousness returned.

  “Will I see you at dinner?” He asked.

  “S-sure,” Ali said stumbling over the word.

  His green eyes sparkled as he spun on his heel and headed down another hallway.

  Ali practically floated the rest of the way to her room. She replayed his coy smile in her mind and felt her cheeks blush.

  “Why are you grinning?” Jessica asked when Ali pranced inside their room.

  “Nothing,” Ali blurted.

  Jessica set down the book she’d been reading. “You’re glowing.”

  She shrugged. “The new guy told a funny joke.”

  Jessica tilted her head. “Aren’t you and Leigh an item?”

  “Why do you think that?”

  Jessica swung her legs off the couch and stared at her. “You’ve been spending a lot of time together.”

  “Who else would I hang out with?” Ali asked. Of course, if Leigh hadn’t wanted Melissa, Ali might have let herself hope.

  Jessica’s nose scrunched. “I thought there was something between you.”