He fell back down on the bed and let the faery doctors finish their work. Adelina breathed a sigh of relief. He held out his hand, and she nestled in his palm while he waited to be made whole again. He vowed to take fencing lessons. Being stabbed in the chest was not on his list of things to experience twice. It hurt like hell. Meeting the Caindale banshee in person was also not on his list, even if it had been nice of her to make a special trip.
* * * *
Ryder drifted in and out of consciousness for hours, but Jack Kensington maintained a vigil at his side. He struggled with the nausea that gripped him. He knew the pain didn’t cause the roiling in his stomach. It was plain, ordinary terror. Not that knowing it made him feel any better. He could hurl until his insides were gone, and he wouldn’t feel any better.
What had those girls been thinking? What had Fiana planned in that complicated little mind of hers? What had she thought she could do against a Ganconor, and what had possessed her to think Arleigh should be a part of it? She had given Arleigh to him, damn it! Now he had to travel across more time to get her back. He didn’t know where he belonged anymore, but he couldn’t live anywhere if Arleigh wasn’t at his side.
The girls had been too quiet in the other room. As far as he knew, they hadn’t even peeked in on him once. The thought of Flynn bullying his girls into doing anything was not acceptable. He thought Flynn was probably long gone, and Arleigh, too. Ganconor or not, super powers or human, Flynn would pay. Nothing existed on earth as powerful as a pissed-off brother.
Mrs. Cullen opened the bedroom door, and three figures stood on the threshold. He raised himself up on the pillow and motioned to them. The two smaller ones flew toward him, knocking him back down to the mattress.
“Girls, girls,” Mistress Cullen said. “He has just healed. Be careful with him.”
“We’ve been waiting and waiting,” Hannah said.
“Are you better?” Corliss asked. “We were scared.”
He nodded his head and gave them a little smile. Cute as they were, talented little witches all, only one of them had the answers he needed to hear. He gestured to the shadow in the doorway. Fiana stood quietly, her hair veiling her face. He willed her to look at him. She resisted, but she finally raised her face.
“What have you been doing behind my back?” he asked.
She burst into tears and ran across the room. He pulled her against him and smoothed her hair.
“It’s not what I planned!” Fiana cried. “I don’t know how everything changed so fast. Arleigh wasn’t supposed to be part of it. I planned to send him to the ether, but he told me if I didn’t do what he wanted, he would send some thing for me, and I—”
She started to sob and buried her face in Ryder’s neck. Hannah met Ryder’s eyes over the top of Fiana’s dark head. Her gaze darted toward the window, and the color leaked from her face. He tugged her to the bed before she fainted on him. When Hannah spoke, her voice was very quiet, as though saying the word would draw unwanted attention. “Flynn threatened to send a bocan.”
He glanced between the sisters. “What the hell is a bocan, and what did he threaten to do?”
“A bocan is a gatherer,” Corliss said. “A scary gatherer.”
Fiana shuddered in his arms, and Hannah continued. “Flynn said, with Arleigh human, there was a role Fiana could fill. He wants a new Leanan sidhe.”
Ryder gently pushed Fiana away and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I am sick of this faery crap, and I am sick of his thinking he can touch anyone who belongs to me. I’m pissed now. Girls, get your boxes. If you can do magic for Flynn, you can do it for me.”
Fiana swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “What do you want us to do?”
“You’re going to send me to Ireland,” he said.
Fiana pulled back and stared at him. “I can’t do that. Flynn is there. He’ll try to kill you.”
“You’re not going to talk me out of it. I came here to be a hero, and you’re not going to stand in my way. I’ve always wanted to see Ireland.”
Fiana stammered, “But… I can’t—”
“Don’t worry,” Ryder said. “I’ll blend right in. It’s a talent of mine.”
He winked at her.
* * * *
He had never really seen witches in action. The three Caindale girls spelled ritual with a capital R. They were like cute little Druid priestesses in their capes and the dark hair flowing across their shoulders. Their little altar burst with talismans and charms, candles, and small bowls that held herbs and flowers, and disgusting concoctions he didn’t want to think of. He hoped their spell didn’t involve his drinking anything. Even the water from the James scared him. When he thought of all the bacteria that could live in an ounce of water, his stomach churned.
Dozens of candles burned, and curls of smoke hung in the air like gauzy spiderwebs. The air was so thick he couldn’t breathe. He hoped he wouldn’t have to make another appointment with the faery doctors. He felt pretty well, considering he’d been skewered the day before, but he wished they wouldn’t take such chances with his health. A man had only one set of lungs, and they had to last a lifetime. He doubted the daughters of a tobacco farmer would take that lecture very seriously.
What they did take seriously was their magic.
“When am I going to?” he asked.
“We’ll be ready in a few minutes,” Fiana said.
“No,” Ryder said. “When? What year?”
“The year of our Lord twelve hundred and thirty-five.”
“All you have to say is somewhere worse than here,” Ryder said.
“What’s wrong with here?” Hannah asked. “We were very happy here…once.”
“Oh, nothing that a little electricity, purified water, and qualified medical care wouldn’t fix.”
Corliss grinned. “We don’t know what any of that is, but it sounds nice.”
“All great things. And I’m eager to have them again.”
“So you’re going home someday?” Hannah asked. “To your own time?”
Ryder peered into a bowl of what looked to be tomato paste, but he couldn’t be sure, and he didn’t think he was that lucky. Could blood really get that thick? He stood upright.
You are going back, right, Kendall? Your life is four hundred years away. You have a job, a home, friends, sisters, waiting for you to come back.
The girls all watched him now, waiting for an answer.
What have you been thinking the last week? That you’d ride off into the sunset with a woman that’s been dead over three hundred years? Did you think these girls would be part of your life, when they exist in the future?
He felt dizzy and slumped onto a bench
“Christ,” he whispered. “I haven’t thought this through. Can I even go home?”
“You belong to that time,” Fiana said. “We can send you back.”
“And Arleigh?”
Fiana shook her head. “’Tis possible to go only backwards into what has happened, not forward into what has not yet been. Right, Hannah?”
“We think that’s how it works,” Hannah said.
“But I have to go forward to go home,” Ryder said.
“You can,” Hannah said, “because it’s your time. You can travel greater distances than we can.”
“You have traveled backwards?”
“No, silly,” Hannah said. “It takes the three of us to work the spell. We are all needed at one end of the time line. We can see into places, but we cannot visit. Otherwise, Fiana would have followed Arleigh and brought her back.”
“Leave that to me,” Ryder said. “Arleigh is my responsibility.”
“There is another Trinity there,” Fiana said, “perhaps—”
“Another Trinity?” Ryder asked.
“Aye,” Fiana said. “The First Trinity. The alpha, the beginning.”
“Sounds impressive,” Ryder said, “and very ominous. But it’s just another set of you, right?”
“Aye, b
ut Fallon is slightly controlling, and—”
“You first sisters are all that way, Fiana, thinking you know best, bossing people around, keeping secrets. You’re all stubborn, proud, arrogant, and you’re downright bullies when it comes to dealing with people.”
The other girls nodded enthusiastically, and Fiana huffed.
“I don’t need a personality analysis, Ryder. I’m trying to make you understand. Fallon can try to send Arleigh back, and we could keep you safe.”
“Not a chance,” Ryder said. “It’s time I did my own dirty work around here. I’ll take care of Flynn, and I’ll get Arleigh back. She’s mine.”
Fiana smiled an odd little smile and shook her head. She motioned her sisters toward her.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Corliss asked. “We haven’t practiced much.”
“You guys are very professional. I’m sure you’ll do fine. So what are you going to tell people while I’m gone?”
Hannah laughed. “We’ll say you went mad, and we have you locked in the barn, but no one will ask. Most people think you’re a little crazy. They’re scared of you.”
“Damn right,” Ryder said. “Do you think they’re expecting me at the other end?”
“Aye,” Fiana said. “When we push you through the rift, I suspect Fallon and her sisters will find you and pull you through. I’m concentrating on the timing. And the place, of course.”
“The timing? The place?”
“I shifted the place earlier because I didn’t want Flynn to appear in front of Fallon and her sisters.”
“Of course not,” Ryder said. “That would have been dangerous. So where did they land?”
“I’m not sure exactly,” Fiana said. “I’ve never been to Ireland.”
Ryder’s hand plunged into his hair and pulled. He might have screamed.
“So you dumped them?” Ryder cried. “In the middle of nowhere? She could have landed in a river, off a cliff, anywhere.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Fiana whispered.
“And the time?” Ryder asked. He was dangerously close to giving her a little shake. Why didn’t these girls ever talk to him about anything?
“I shifted the time stream when I sent Flynn through because I wanted Fallon and her sisters to have time to plan.”
“So how long have they been there?”
Fiana flinched. “Several months, I should think.”
“Jesus Christ! Arleigh’s been in Flynn’s hands for several months? She could be dead, she could be sick, anything could have happened to her.”
“She’s fine, Ryder,” Hannah said, “believe us. We have been scrying.” When his brows drew down, she smiled. “Looking into the fire, into the water, into the air. We can see other times and places. We’ve seen Arleigh. Flynn hasn’t been near her.”
“His wife has made Arleigh her chambermaid,” Corliss said.
“Flynn has a wife?”
“Oh, aye,” Hannah said, her voice a hushed whisper. “We think he’s had several wives. One slit her own throat because she could stand him no longer.”
“Hush, Hannah,” Fiana said. “That is rumor.”
Hannah made a face. “I can tell stories if I like. Besides, I’m sure it must be the truth. Mistress Flynn likes Arleigh and takes good care of her.”
“Great,” Ryder said. “Everyone’s taking care of my business but me. Let’s get this show on the road before I lose my nerve.”
Fiana closed the shutters and lit the remaining candles on their altar. Corliss ignited a small bowl filled with sprigs of flowers, and the lovely smell of lavender drifted through the room. Hannah took a knife from the pocket of her skirt and began to carve a pentagram onto the table surface. He saw them lay three offerings down on the table. A shard of flint. A hunk of obsidian the size of Rhode Island. A sprig of lavender. His sisters owned the same articles.
Ryder fingered the copy of Keats in the back pocket of his Levis. He wore his traveling clothes and carried his own talismans. “What do you want me to do?”
“Stand there quietly,” Fiana said, “and don’t laugh at anything.”
“I already know it’s not going to be funny,” Ryder said.
His own ragged breathing stirred the hush of the room then other sounds followed—the musical lilt of a flute, the mighty flap of a hawk’s wings, the crackling of fire licking at dry wood. It had to be his imagination, but he couldn’t be sure. The things he was sure about in the world had decreased greatly in the last few weeks.
The girls arranged themselves behind the altar, and shadows of their hoods obscured their faces. He could not see their features, only the dark hair that escaped the confines of their hoods. He thought the Caindale sisters might be gone. What possessed these girls when they delved into the forces that surrounded them?
Fiana raised one of her candles into the air.
“I am Fallon. I am Finoula. I am Faye. I am Flannery. I am Fiana. Guardians of the Fire, spirits of courage, spirits of renewal. I bring a gift, a token of my pledge. It is flint, carried across time, from my hand to my hand. What has come from the past and across the bridge of time, let it return to its place. Carry with it the man who chooses to be a champion. Blessed be the Fire.”
Hannah traced her finger across the pentagram. Ryder felt sick. How could these girls exist in every century? How was it possible for three spirits to unite over and over again? Where did that power come from?
“I am Honora. I am Hilde. I am Holloway. I am Heather. I am Hannah. Guardians of the Earth, spirits of nourishment, spirits of rebirth. I bring a gift, a token of my pledge. It is obsidian, carried across time, from my hand to my hand. What has come from the past and across the bridge of time, let it return to its place. Carry with it the man who chooses to be a champion. Blessed be the Earth.”
Corliss ran her hand through the smoke that drifted from the bowl. A dreamy smile settled on her face.
“I am Caitlyn. I am Cecily. I am Colleen. I am Casey. I am Corliss. Guardians of the Air, spirits of intellect, spirits of inspiration. I bring a gift, a token of my pledge. It is lavender, carried across time, from my hand to my hand. What has come from the past and across the bridge of time, let it return to its place. Carry with it the man who chooses to be a champion. Blessed be the Air.”
Ryder’s legs wobbled, and a dizziness swamped his head. He focused on the girls’ words, trying to remember the names. Fallon. Honora. Caitlyn. Fiana picked up a cup.
“Guardians of the Water, spirits of emotions, spirits of dream. We bring a gift, a token of our pledge. It is our life force, carried across time, from our hands to our hands. What has come from the past and across the bridge of time, let it return to its place. Carry with it the man who chooses to be a champion. Blessed be the Water.”
The girls took a sip of water and then, with a sigh, he reached out for the cup Fiana held toward him. James water hadn’t killed him yet. What was a little water when there were so many other interesting ways to die spread across time? He downed the rest of the water in the cup and put it back down on the altar. He gave them a little smile.
“I can guess this part,” he said.
The girls smiled back as he disappeared from the room.
Chapter 34
They had called her Arleigh Donovan for months now. It didn’t matter. She could not remember her real name or where she had come from. She could not remember if she had family or a home. The only thing she remembered from this place was standing beneath a cold rain while a man ranted toward the sky like a madman. And she remembered following him because she had no choice.
She had hoped for an opportunity to escape, but they walked for hours, bent double against the sheets of icy rain. They had finally arrived at a small village, if indeed it could be called that—four small cottages, perched on a barren field, a barn, and a garden that struggled to survive in the cold, hard land. The tenants had nothing of value, but Lord Cardew had taken what he wanted. He confiscated their only horse, provisio
ns and extra clothing. He did not care if they needed the clothing nor that their food stuffs were dangerously low in the early spring. What he wanted, he took.
No chance for escape existed. Other than the tenant farmers who had followed his directives with lowered heads and a great deal of groveling, they had met no others on their journey. Even if they had, no one would have interfered with Lord Cardew. He was an object of fear, and there would be no safe harbor if Cardew had chosen to hunt for her.
She rode in front of him across the bare back of the horse, cold and wet, shaking and coughing. She had lain against him for warmth and had allowed his arms to slide around her because she could not control her shivering and feared she would fall from the animal. They did not speak and paused only once in the day to eat.
Cardew stayed in a foul mood the entire journey. He muttered curses under his breath, spoke of killing and maiming, bloodshed and revenge. He prattled on about witches and curses, spells and faeries. She thought he must be quite mad, but if a madman offered the only protection she had in this godless environment, she would accept it. Arleigh let his words and curses lull her to sleep. She lay against his chest and stole what heat she could from his loathsome body.
They passed fields in preparation for cultivation, outbuildings in need of repair after a hard winter, and malnourished cattle and sickly sheep grazing in the grasslands around the estate. They finally reached the outlands of his manor proper. Cardew Castle loomed in the distance, a dark gray monstrosity perched on the highest land in the valley. Its tall spires rose into the gloomy sky, and the battlements looked like craggy mountaintops that spiked through the cold air.
She expected the worst. She did not remember how she came to be in the company of Lord Cardew, but the fact that she didn’t implied something she might best let be forgotten. A man did not purchase a woman for the simple pleasure of her company, and he did not drag her halfway across Ireland on horseback to be a scullery maid or serf in his fields.
His looks were pleasing, his body imposing, but she knew the moment he moved toward her that she would cease to remember even the name he had given her. His eyes frightened her, and a need rose there she knew she could not meet.
Carlton, Amber - Trinity Magic (Siren Publishing Romance) Page 35
