The Cursed: Book Three in The Tainted Series

by Anna Hill

  The boys groaned and rolled their eyes but began walking out of the room toward the kitchen, followed closely by Faolan and then Rebecca.

  As they entered the hallway, however, instead of turning right toward the kitchen like the rest, Rebecca went left, heading out to the main entrance of the house.

  “And where do you think you’re going?”

  Faolan’s hard voice brought Rebecca to an immediate halt. “Out. I need some fresh air.” Rebecca continued to face away from Faolan as she spoke, refusing to look back at her.

  “You’ll return for dinner.” This was a command, not a question.

  “I will,” Rebecca whispered before continuing toward the front door.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Aileen!” Rebecca called out into the darkening forest. “Aileen! Where are you? We need to talk!”

  She turned left and continued up the gently sloping hill, the frost-covered forest floor crunching beneath her every step. As warm as the days had become, the nights were still below freezing, turning the day’s snowmelt into a thick layer of ice that blanketed the ground. “Aileen! I know you’re here!”

  “You shouldn’t be shouting.” Aileen’s slender form materialized from behind a tree to Rebecca’s right.

  “If you had responded right away, I wouldn’t have had to.” Indignant, Rebecca glared at her mother. Even in the sparse light that fell from the crescent moon and through the trees, her mother was striking.

  Aileen held her slim figure rigid as she watched Rebecca, unsure of what to expect from her daughter’s surprise summoning. She had hoped that while she’d been away, Rebecca would have found some healing, would have begun to recover. But the anger was still there, burning behind her daughter’s beautiful eyes. “You called out for Aileen. Does this mean you’ll no longer be calling me your mother?”

  “I don’t see why I should call you something that you’ve never been.”

  Aileen’s strength cracked momentarily, Rebecca’s cruel words cutting her far deeper than any blade could. Catching herself, she quickly buried the sorrow that had punctured her heart. Her daughter was suffering in a way that she could never understand. She could only hope that, in time, these wounds and the distance that was growing between them would heal.

  It was only a brief slip, a flash of immense pain across her mother’s typically stern features, but Rebecca had seen it. She waited for the guilt for what she’d said to weigh in her stomach, but none came. Though she tried to tell herself she didn’t want to hurt her mother, deep down she knew she’d meant what she said. She’d wanted her mother to feel pain.

  “Why have you come looking for me?” Aileen’s face grew even more severe than usual.

  “Where is my father?”

  Aileen shook her head slowly. “Rebecca, I know you’re going through a tough time right now, but--”

  “Where is he? I need to know!”

  “No, you don’t. Besides, I don’t know where he is.”

  She was lying. Though her voice had remained even and her face expressionless, Aileen’s eyes gave away the truth. Rebecca was ready to use her ability, to force her mother to tell her the truth. But as she prepared to do so, the dangerous power began building within her chest, feeding upon the anger that coursed through her. She could feel the terrifying strength intensifying in her mind and, with it, the yearning to unleash it, to finally allow her Feiceann instincts to consume her.

  Her mind burning within her skull, Rebecca stumbled back and swiftly brought her hands up to her head. Scrunching her eyes shut and pressing heavily on her pounding temples, she worked desperately to push the sensation away. The urges were growing stronger, harder to control, harder to ignore. She needed to clear her thoughts, to free herself, to regain control over her mind.

  “Rebecca,” her mother whispered into the darkness. Her voice was laced with alarm, and yet Aileen made no attempt to move closer to her daughter. She was afraid, not for herself, but for Rebecca, for the demons her daughter was facing. “Rebecca, you have to stay calm. You have to fight against this.”

  “I know!” Rebecca yelled, her words echoing in the stillness of the woods. “I know,” her voice fell to a whisper as she sat down on the fallen tree behind her. “I’m trying to fight it. I have been this whole time, but I can’t do it alone.”

  “You’re not alone. You have Liam.”

  “He can’t help me; he’s tried. He’s done more than anyone else has for me, but it’s not helping.” Rebecca looked up at her mother, noticing that she hadn’t made any effort to bridge the gap between them. “I need family. I need someone who can make me feel safe, who can protect me. I need my father.”

  “You’re being ridiculous.” Anger lit up Aileen’s features. “That man doesn’t even know you exist. What could he possibly do for you that any of us couldn’t? What could he do that I can’t?”

  Rebecca wanted to scream that her mother had done nothing to help her and that, if anything, she’d made it worse. She could see the fear in her mother’s eyes, fear for her--fear of her. It nearly broke Rebecca to see that even the crew trusted her more than her own mother did. Her whole life, Rebecca had dreamed of meeting this woman. But now, she was beginning to wish that she never had.

  “I think he knows I exist,” Rebecca mumbled instead, pushing away the rage that boiled inside of her.

  “How? That’s simply not possible.” Aileen was pleading with Rebecca now, desperately trying to make her daughter understand that she wasn’t thinking straight.

  “I’ve spoken with him, through my dreams. I can hear him at night, every night, calling out to me. He’s asking me to find him so that he can help me.”

  “Feiceann can’t communicate through their dreams. It isn’t possible.”

  “It is! I’ve done it!” Rebecca’s fury flashed. She was tired of hearing her mother speak to her as if she was mentally unstable. “I know it. I’m sure of it.”

  Aileen lowered her gaze to the forest floor, allowing a moment of silence so they could collect themselves. Finally, she glanced back up, her mournful gaze locking with Rebecca’s desperate one. “I don’t know where your father is. I cannot help you.”

  Then, without another word, Aileen disappeared.

  Rebecca could feel her mother’s presence the instant she became invisible. She tracked Aileen’s slow, steady movements as she made her way off into the dark woods. A sudden urge to rush forward flared up in Rebecca, beseeching her to force her mother to be visible and tell her where to find her father. But fear held her still. She couldn’t allow her anger to get the better of her. If she did, if she unleashed her Feiceann side, she would be finished, the darkness would destroy her.

  After nearly a half hour of sitting alone in the freezing forest, Rebecca rose from the fallen tree and headed back toward the house. If her mother wouldn’t help her, she would find another way to locate her father.

  Chapter Twelve

  Rebecca dropped her head into her hands, exhaling heavily in aggravation. How could searching on Google be so complicated? Why were so many biologists named Charley?

  “You OK?”

  Rebecca raised her head only long enough to see Fina walk into the room before dropping it heavily back into her hands. “No,” she groaned, slumping forward dramatically onto the desk. “No, I’m not.”

  She heard Fina pull a chair closer to the desk and take a seat. Rebecca looked up, exasperated. “I’ve been searching all over the internet for almost a week now, and you know what I’ve learned?” Fina shook her head, a soft smile parting her lips. “All I’ve learned is that people are weird and that the internet is a very scary place.”

  Fina snorted with laughter. “I could have told you that.”

  Rebecca leaned back in her chair, dropping her arms down dejectedly at her sides. When she hadn’t been training with the boys over the last week, she’d been staring at the computer, desperately searching for any possible information she could find about her father. But with only h
is first name, a basic idea of his field of study, and a general sense of where he’d studied for his doctorate, she’d had little to no luck. At first, she’d been so sure she could locate him. But the more she searched, the more she realized how little she knew about the man.

  “What exactly are you searching for?”

  Rebecca paused, unsure of whether to answer truthfully or not. She’d been keeping her work a secret from the rest of the house. If she was really going to leave them to find her father, then it was better if they didn’t know what she was up to. But, after so much failure, she longed to tell someone, to be able to confide her frustration in anyone.

  “I’m looking for my father,” Rebecca explained, waiting for shock to register on Fina’s face. But none came. Instead, her features softened, a hint of sadness darkening her eyes.

  “Are you sure you want to find him?” Fina tentatively queried. “Are you sure you want to know the truth?”

  “Yes,” Rebecca fervently answered. “I need to find him--I have to.”

  Fina stared at her a moment, her brows tightening, as if she were deciding whether or not to say something. Finally, she sighed heavily. “I felt the same way. I thought I needed to know about my parents.”

  Rebecca leaned forward, her mouth falling wide with shock. “You--you found your parents?”

  Fina’s face hardened as she continued, “Breaden used to tell me what he remembered about them.” Rebecca flinched slightly at the sound of Breaden’s name. Fina kept speaking, however, either ignoring Rebecca’s reaction or oblivious to it. “They’d all lived happily together until he was about two. But after I was born, the Aillil found my parents and took us away from them. There was always a part of me that worried Breaden blamed me for us losing them.”

  She paused, biting her lip. After a moment, she took a deep breath and continued, “He was so young when they’d all been together, but somehow he’d remembered so much about our parents, especially our mother. Her name was Anna. He used to tell me about her smile, her smooth, dark skin, about her bright, intelligent eyes, and gentle, joyful laugh. She was a nurse and she’d worked at a hospital in a small town in Washington. That’s where they’d hid until the Aillil found them.”

  Fina paused for a moment, gathering herself before she could resume. “When my brother died, my world shattered into pieces. I’d never had parents, but I’d also never been alone. Breaden had been my rock, my everything. I didn’t think I could face life without him.”

  Rebecca wanted to apologize, to beg Fina’s forgiveness for her part in what had happened to Breaden. She would never be able to rid herself of the guilt that dwelt at the bottom of her heart.

  Seeing the remorse in her friend’s face, Fina reached out a hand and grabbed onto Rebecca’s arm. “I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty; please don’t take it that way. I know what happened that day. I never have, nor will I ever, blame you for his death. I hope you know that.”

  Rebecca nodded slowly, though her stomach was still clenched in a tight, painful knot.

  “With Breaden gone, I decided the only way to make myself feel whole again would be to find my family, to reunite us,” Fina said, bringing her hand back into her lap. “Using everything he’d ever told me about our parents, I began desperately searching for my mother. Breaden had occasionally described his memories of where they’d lived. It was a small town, near the base of a giant mountain. I narrowed my search down to towns surrounding Mount Rainier and began searching through every hospital directory I could find, hoping that some woman who was listed might be my mother.

  “I searched for weeks, tirelessly. I covered up my sorrow for my brother’s death with my quest, using it to push away all the pain that racked my heart. But I found nothing, not a single nurse who fit my mother’s description. I had almost given up when I accidently clicked on a hospital’s fundraising page--”

  Fina stopped, her hands were shaking visibly in her lap and it was clear she was barely holding herself together. But she pushed on, almost as if she’d needed to share this story and tell someone what she’d been through. “There she was; my mother. I knew from the instant I saw her picture that it was her. A warm, loving smile lit up a face that looked so much like Breaden’s and mine that there was no doubting our relation. Only her eyes were different, their color a deep, dark brown, almost black. I scrolled down the page and read ‘The Anna Martin Foundation: Providing Help to Victims of Domestic Abuse.’”

  “What?” Rebecca gasped.

  “She was murdered, and her kids were reported stolen. The police blamed her husband, but they never caught him.”

  “You mean, your father killed her?”

  Fina shook her head slowly, her gaze falling to the floor, “She was found with her neck snapped.”

  “The Aillil--”

  A tear ran down Fina’s cheek, dropping into her lap. “They’ve taken everything from me. They murdered my entire family.” She brought her eyes up to meet Rebecca’s, a sudden fierceness burning within them. “I’m going to make the Aillil pay for what they’ve done. I’ll do whatever it takes to stop them, to prevent them from doing this to anyone else. It’s what we were meant to do, I know it. It’s why we’ve all found each other. It’s why you’re here. With you, we can finally stop the Aillil army, we can put an end to their hate and butchery once and for all.”

  Rebecca apprehensively recoiled in her chair, her heart growing cold with fear. She wanted to speak, to tell Fina the truth, to tell her that she wasn’t their savior. She couldn’t help anyone, not even herself. But no words came, only a rising panic that was slowly paralyzing her.

  Fina stood, wiping away a final tear, her cheeks red with anger. “Take it from me, looking for your father is a waste of time. If the Aillil haven’t already killed him, they will if you go to him. You need to be here, fighting for our side.”

  Without another word, Fina pivoted and exited the room, closing the door behind her.

  After a long moment of traumatized silence, Rebecca fell forward, dropping her head into her hands once again. She could feel her body shaking, her breath short and labored as terror spread throughout her. She wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t--couldn’t--kill again, not even to save the Truaillithe.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Come in,” Neala called. She was agitated, her attention focused on the report that lay on her desk. More nonsense. Her sister had been spotted somewhere in Northern California. The week before, she’d been seen in Idaho, and, before that, Montana. Aileen was toying with them. She was hiding her daughter.

  “Commander?” the young general inquired as he waited on the far side of the room.

  Neala finally looked up from the report, angrily pushing it aside. “What?”

  The fresh-faced soldier stiffened at her outburst. The Commander’s volatile temper was well known throughout the army, but this was his first time experiencing it first-hand. This exchange was clearly going to be every bit as unpleasant as he’d been warned. “My apologies, Commander,” he stated as he snapped to attention.

  Neala reclined in her chair, rubbing her temple as she glared up at him. “It’s fine,” she whispered irritably and signaled for him to continue.

  “My unit has been charged with searching for the fugitive and his captive. We’ve thoroughly scanned the northwest corridor but have yet to locate any sign of them.”

  “Is there a point to this intrusion, or are you solely here to waste my time?” She didn’t have time to waste on this crap. She’d been tracking her sister for over a month now, certain that it was their best chance of finding the girl, especially now that the Elites were all…gone. But tracking Aileen was proving to be nothing more than a wild goose chase. They still had no results, and the King was growing restless. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold him off before he began chasing after the girl himself.

  “Commander,” the young general’s gaze grew grave. “I’ve come--personally--to report directly to you as I believ
e this information is of the utmost importance.”

  “Out with it,” Neala barked, rapidly reaching the limit of her patience.

  The general flinched involuntarily, chiding himself immediately for doing so. He couldn’t allow his Commander to think him weak. He’d only just been raised to the post of general and was hoping that this was his chance to prove himself as a strong and pivotal member of her army. “Yes--well--in our search of the coastal area of Southern Washington we came upon the region’s stone circle. I’ve been to it before, when I was young--younger--with my family. I remember how it looked then. It was different this time. The center stone was moved, it had been flipped over, and the ground beneath it disturbed.”

  Neala’s blood instantly ran cold, panic flooding her body. “The center stone was flipped?”

  “Yes.” Sensing his Commander’s alarm, the young general quickly continued, “It looked as if it had happened at least a month ago, if not earlier. I came here as soon as I saw it. I haven’t spoken of it to anyone outside of my unit. I wasn’t sure if it was anything you--”

  “Stop talking!” Naela furiously ordered, causing the general to yet again involuntarily flinch.

  The room fell into a tense silence as Neala tried to come to grips with what she’d just learned. A stone…the Unworthy brats were trying to find a stone? But why? It was nothing more than a fable, a story told to children to make them fear the Feiceann. And yet, what if it were true? What if there was a stone and the vile girl was able to use it?

  Neala could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, feel the sweat collecting in her palms. She clenched her eyes shut, regulating her racing thoughts. It couldn’t be her sister or the traitor. No Aillil would be so foolish as to attempt to find a stone. They would know the repercussions, the horrible implications of joining a Feiceann with a stone. Then, who? How could a Truaillithe possibly have known of the stones? Who would be so reckless as to--