Soul Keeper

by Kate Keir

  She placed her hand gently on my forearm. “We will, I swear. But just for tonight, would you please ignore the desire to go to check on them. Take yourself to your room and get some rest. I imagine you are as worn out as I am after recent events.”

  “I will. I promise.” I meant it.

  We both made our way to the staircase.

  “Goodnight, Pen.”

  “Goodnight, Flora.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Flora?”

  Did someone call my name?

  “Flora?”

  That time I definitely heard someone calling me. I groaned in my sleep and tried to snuggle deeper into the bed. I was way too exhausted for a trip to the Endwood tonight. If I ignore Sluag, perhaps he’ll give up.

  “Flora?” The voice had gotten more urgent, and it was accompanied by a hand shaking my shoulder to rouse me.

  It dawned on me the owner of the voice was actually here in my room with me. I panicked and sat bolt upright as I cried out, “Sluag.”

  A finger pressed gently against my lips. “Shh, it’s not Sluag. It’s me, Flor.”

  As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I took in Finlay’s shape. He had a huge purple-yellow bruise on his right cheek and a bandage on his arm, stained by spots of blood that had seeped through the white material.

  “Finlay, are you okay? What are you doing here?”

  “I need to ask you something, Flor, and you have to answer me with complete honesty, or this won’t work. Can you do that?”

  I had managed to wake myself up a little now. I considered his request for a moment before nodding.

  “Do you trust me?” He stared into my eyes as he asked his question. There was no guile and no deception, just the bright blue windows into my best friend’s soul.

  “Completely,” I whispered.

  He smiled. “Then get dressed and come with me?”

  I hesitated for a moment, remembering back to Pen’s warning.

  He reached out and gently touched my cheek. “Flor?”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Finlay. But Pen was pretty angry tonight.” I felt guilty.

  “If I don’t take you and show you this, Pen will be even more furious with me. You have to know, Flor. You all do.”

  Curiosity stirred me. Biting my lower lip, I made my decision. “Okay.”

  I climbed out of bed and grabbed some jeans and a long-sleeved, blue top from my wardrobe before heading into the bathroom to get dressed.

  When I came back into the bedroom, Finlay was on his feet and waiting by the door. I pulled on my boots and followed him into the hallway.

  He handed me a warm winter coat, which made me pause in surprise. But he offered me no explanation; instead, he held a finger to his lips, indicating we should be quiet. I gave an involuntary shiver as I wondered why he didn’t want the others to hear us, but I quickly shrugged it off. He must have his reasons.

  As soon as we were outside, Finlay signalled to me we should go to the Everwood. I barely even had to try before I found myself standing in the familiar landscape. But I gasped as I realised that something was drastically wrong.

  I had come to expect the windless, temperature-free climate of the Everwood. Every time I had visited it, there had been no change in the atmosphere, ever since the very first time. There should be no heat or no cold here. I didn’t expect any moisture in the air, or any kind of breeze.

  That was why I was so shocked to find it was snowing and so cold I could barely breathe.

  “Finlay, what’s wrong here?” I faced him through the falling flakes as I pulled on the coat I carried in my arms.

  “This is the next part of understanding the Everwood, Flor. This place can warn you of coming danger in its own way.”

  It clearly hadn’t been snowing for very long. There was only a thin layer of powder on the ground, and the drifts that nestled against the base of the trees were still only very small. “What does the snow mean?”

  “I’m so sorry, Flor. I don’t know how to tell you this so it doesn’t hurt you. Lyall is with Sluag right now. He’s in the Endwood discussing the terms of your death. The snow signifies the betrayal of a Soul Keeper.”

  “No,” I whispered.

  Finlay closed the distance between us in two strides and wrapped his arms around me in his familiar bear hug.

  “I’m so sorry, Flor,” he whispered against my hair.

  “He wouldn’t do it, Finlay. You’re wrong.” I tried to pull away from his embrace, but he held me firm.

  “I’ve been watching him for weeks now, Flor. Sluag was using me as a scapegoat, all this time. He pushed the focus on me, claiming that I would betray you. All along Lyall was conspiring with him to hand you over to be sacrificed.”

  A sob hitched at the back of my throat. “Finlay, you have to be wrong. He wouldn’t.”

  He finally released me, taking a step back. His white hair and pale skin were highlighted by the falling snow. He had never looked more beautiful or more unearthly than in that moment.

  “Why do you think he tried to kill me earlier, Flor? If you and Pen hadn’t of walked in, I don’t think he would have stopped until my heart did.”

  Everything Finlay said made complete sense to me, but my heart wouldn’t believe that Lyall could betray—not just me, but all of the other Dion too.

  “Lyall was on the west coast with Pen. He would have told Sluag where they were so he could send his Draugur to attack. Sluag wouldn’t have had to break into my mind for the information.” I was confident in my reasoning.

  Finlay snorted. “That would have been too obvious and too easy to trace back to Lyall. They’re both smarter than that, Flor. He’s keeping us all on side until he finds the right moment to deliver you to Sluag.”

  With every word, my doubt grew like a ball of poison in my stomach. I couldn’t believe that Lyall had used my growing feelings for him to manipulate me like this. I started to march through the snow, blinking back tears that ran in trails of warmth down my ice-cold cheeks.

  “Flora, where are you going?” Finlay yelled. I heard him jogging through the snow behind me.

  “I have to see,” I said softly.

  He grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face him. His eyes shone with unshed tears. “I can’t let you go to the Endwood, Flor. He’ll kill you and it will all have been for nothing.”

  “Finlay, you can’t bring me here and tell me that, then expect me to go back to bed and sleep it off.” I shook my arm free of his hand and started to walk again.

  He kept pace alongside me, our breath coming out in white clouds in the freezing air. “I will not let you step over that border, Flora.”

  I gritted my teeth against the cold. “I’m not going over the border. I’m going to the border. I have to try and see him. Perhaps it’s just a mistake, Finlay.”

  His eyes darkened. “I don’t think so, Flor.”

  “But what if it is. What if the Draugur have taken him? He might need our help.”

  “I wonder if you would have been so quick to jump to my defence, if it was the other way around?” he murmured.

  “Of course, I would.” I was hurt by his words. But that could wait until I knew Lyall was safe.

  As we progressed along the path I had used when I last made my pilgrimage to the border with the Endwood, I was surprised to see a barricade forming up ahead. It seemed as though every pure soul in the Everwood had come together to create a huge colourful wall that stretched right across the path I needed to take to get to my destination.

  When I drew level with the bright patchwork of souls, I paused before them. Concentrating on pulling every single soul into a silver net, I spoke to them as one inside my head.

  I know you are only trying to keep me safe. But, please let me past. I have to know the truth.

  One tiny pink soul detached from the others and floated toward me through the falling snow. It came closer and closer until my eyes crossed when I stared at the tiny lightning bo
lts contained within its core. The soul didn’t stop coming toward me until it was lightly resting against my forehead.

  Instantaneously, I could hear its voice inside my mind. The little soul was shouting as loudly as it possibly could, and it was repeating the same warning over and over again.

  Don’t trust him. He is a betrayer!

  I shook my head and pulled back from the little light. “I’m sorry, little one, but I have to see it for myself before I can believe that.”

  The light paled briefly before darting back to join the main group, which still blocked my path. Overwhelmed by frustration, I tried to reason with the determined souls one last time.

  Let me past or I will make you do it.

  The souls stood resolute. The single word that hummed from them in unison was, traitor.

  Raising my hand, I spoke aloud in the way I usually reserved for rogues.

  “Begone.”

  My voice rang through the wood. As it echoed back through the trees, the souls burst apart like an exploding firework and raced through the snowflakes, melting into the surrounding landscape until they had all completely disappeared.

  “They will find it hard to forgive you for that.” Finlay followed me down the now clear path.

  I ignored him. We had reached the border between my kingdom and Sluag’s. Weaving through the thinning trees and brown grass, I made sure to stop before the place Lyall had claimed was the true border and not at the more obvious line which I had originally assumed was the point I should not cross.

  Finlay, however, kept walking until he stood with his back to me and his toes almost touching the charred and blackened ground of the Endwood. I cringed. He obviously didn’t know the border was misleading.

  “Finlay, you have to come back. Lyall told me the border is here.” I dragged my toe through the dirt and snow, creating a faint line that he couldn’t see. “The Endwood has bled into the Everwood over the years. You’re in danger.”

  He didn’t turn around or react in any way to my worried voice. It was as though he could no longer hear me.

  “Finlay?” I cried.

  Nothing.

  Frantically, I looked around me. There was no sign of any movement—no Draugur and no Sluag. Taking a deep breath, I stepped over the border and ran quickly toward Finlay. I grabbed his arm and pulled him around so he was facing me. I was a little surprised to notice that he had his phone in his hand.

  “Flora,” he whispered before suddenly leaning down and crushing his lips against mine.

  I pushed my hands against his chest, trying to tell him that now really wasn’t the time for kissing.

  Then as suddenly as he had kissed me, he released me, making me take an involuntary step backward.

  It took a moment to register the cold fingers that snaked around each of my arms. I craned my neck back to look behind me, until I met the vacant eyes of two ghoulish Draugur who had tight hold of me, one on either side.

  How could I have been so stupid?

  I looked desperately back toward Finlay. There were no Draugur holding his arms. He had taken a few steps back from me, and his eyes had become hard and cold.

  “Finlay,” I whispered.

  The dark figure of Sluag emerged from the darkness behind Finlay. I was about to shout and warn him, until I saw the monster rest a scaly hand on my best friend’s shoulder. It was an almost fatherly gesture, and it made me feel sick with fear.

  Sluag’s voice was triumphant. “Ahh, Finlay. Well done, well done indeed. You have delivered my gift exactly as promised.”

  Chapter Thirty

  My legs buckled. If I hadn’t been held up by the two Draugur, I would have ended up on my knees in the blackened grass by now. I vaguely realised it wasn’t snowing here in the Endwood. Tears ran down my face as I looked from Sluag back to Finlay.

  “Finlay, what have you done?”

  He refused to meet my eyes; instead, he turned and took several steps away from both me and Sluag. He turned his back on me and the Everwood, moving deeper into the Endwood, I noticed.

  Sluag delighted in answering my question on Finlay’s behalf. “He has given me the Soul Keeper, just as he swore he would.” He gave Finlay a respectful nod. “I especially like the part where you encouraged her to cross the border by telling her not to do it. You know her stubborn nature very well indeed, traitor.”

  He walked toward me, his fire-pit eyes flamed even brighter in real life. Or was it just because he was so delighted by Finlay’s betrayal?

  Sluag wrapped his long, bony fingers around my chin, and I stared at his face through my tears. “I did try and tell you, Flora. More than once, I recall.”

  I hissed in a breath and tried to turn away, but he held my face firmly.

  “I told you that he”—he gestured extravagantly in the direction of the pale-haired boy who now refused to look at me,—“would be the chink in your armour. Your downfall.”

  “Why?” My question came out so quietly I knew Finlay wouldn’t be able to hear me.

  “Why?” Sluag let go of my face and laughed as he began to pace up and down in his usual way.

  “Oh, Little Dreamer, you know the answer to that question. He did it for power. Just as I will sacrifice you to acquire my own power over the mortal world. Finlay is going to rule by my side. I strongly suspect that if we use your blood correctly, we can make him immortal.”

  He raised his arms above his head in one of the dramatic gestures to which I had become accustomed. “We will finally leave this place, and The Host of the Unforgiven Dead and his Little Traitor will rule for a thousand years together.”

  In that moment, I realised I was going to die, and it was going to happen sooner rather than later. Yet, the agony of Finlay’s betrayal ran so deep inside me I found it hard to care about the loss of my own life.

  “I’m still not scared of you, Sluag.” I lifted my head to stare at him defiantly.

  “Let’s hear you say that when you’re choking on your own blood, Little Dreamer.”

  He made eye contact with the Draugur who had hold of me. “Bring her, now.”

  They started to drag me deeper into the darkness. Sluag followed after us and called back over his shoulder to Finlay.

  “Come, betrayer. I know we were going to wait until the morning to make the sacrifice, but I feel the need to move things along a little quicker. The Soul Keeper dies tonight.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Finlay’s jaw twitch at that.

  I tried once more to get through to the boy who was once my whole world. “Finlay, all of the things you said to me. You told me to trust you. You asked me to love you. You care too much to let me die here.”

  For the first time, Finlay looked at me, and I would have sworn in court he had tears in his eyes as he spoke. “I told you what you needed to hear, so I could persuade you to follow me to your sacrifice when it mattered.” He laughed bitterly. “You rejected me, Flor. Now it’s my turn to reject you.”

  If his initial betrayal had been a knife to my heart, then those words were the twist of the hand that would seal my fate.

  A sudden shriek in the sky made me look up, and my heart lifted slightly as I saw an eagle and a raven soar through the trees above our heads. Freya and Artair.

  I looked around me frantically, wondering if the others were here too.

  “We seem to have company,” Sluag hissed.

  As he spoke, another twenty of his Draugur stepped forward, emerging from their hiding places within the blackened tree line.

  I growled in frustration and struggled against the death-grip of the Draugur.

  “You didn’t think I had failed to cover every eventuality did you, Little Dreamer?” Sluag laughed through his hideous teeth.

  After that, everything happened fast. The eagle and the raven both dived down in perfect unison, attacking the eyes of the Draugur who had their cold hands clamped around my arms.

  With a loud snarl, a flash of black plunged headlong i
nto the newly emerged group of Draugur, letting me know that Lyall was here too. I felt a stab of fear. He can’t fight them all?

  Under the onslaught of the two huge birds, both of the Draugur dropped my arms at the same time, and I looked quickly around me, not sure what to do. I saw Pen standing behind the border, still just within the bounds of the Everwood. She held a large bow and was accurately firing arrows into the Draugur that were trying to attack Lyall.

  Mara ran down the brown grassy slope and crossed over into the Endwood, without hesitation. She carried a short sword and used it to gracefully slice through the neck of the first Draugur who tried to break her charge.

  Seeing me, Mara called out, “Flora, to me?”

  I stared at the scene that was unfolding around me in bewilderment. I watched as Sluag removed himself neatly from the fighting. He walked up a set of black obsidian steps which led to a raised dais, set back into the trees. He stood tall, watching everything that was unfolding within his kingdom, but well out of harm’s way. He was still grinning.

  We can’t kill you, and yet you’re still a coward who won’t even fight?

  My eyes danced across the battle until they found Finlay. He was making his way through the fighting, avoiding the skirmishes that broke out around him. I watched him skirt the bloody fight between Lyall and a Draugur, unable to comprehend how he could leave Lyall to face the attack alone after so many years spent as his friend.

  A loud screech told me Artair and Freya were still conducting their aerial attacks on the monsters of this hell.

  “Flora?” Mara called out to me again. She sounded more desperate this time.

  I turned to see her trying to battle three Draugur in her quest to reach me. I ran in her direction and howled Pen’s name over the clamour of the fighting.

  Pen turned in time to see Mara almost overwhelmed and quickly fired arrows into two of the Draugur. As I reached Mara, I lifted a rock from the ground and brought it down hard on the skull of her third attacker.

  We both ran, side by side across the clearing to help Lyall, who was surrounded by Draugur. Passing a fallen ghoul, I noticed a sharp sword glinting in its hand. Without slowing, I leant down and swiped the blade, relieved to feel it was light in my hand.