by Linsey Hall
“Why would Romans want a Celtic army?” I asked.
“The Fomorian’s would know that, not I.”
If I made it out of here alive, that would be my next stop. “Can you tell me where to find them?”
“I imagine that your Undercover Protectorate would have some ideas. But you will need your magic first.”
I looked down at my transparent body. “And a body.”
She smiled. “That, we can accommodate. The Celtic soul is immortal. It is why you still walk despite the fact that your body has died.”
“It has to help that I’m technically in the afterlife, right?”
“Indeed, it does. You will get your body back when you pass through the trials, which I have no doubt you will. Those same trials will also link your torc to your soul.”
The necklace that Sulis had mentioned.
Boudica held out her hand, and a heavy golden necklace appeared. It was shaped like a C and very stiff, with an open space in the middle of one side. Ornate swirls twined around it.
“This is an ancient Celtic form of ceremonial jewelry that is normally worn by leaders.”
My gaze travelled to the torc around her neck. It was heavy and strong, glowing golden in the light of the fire.
“The torc will allow you to understand and utilize the gifts that the gods bestow upon you. Once you wear it, they will begin to grant you their magic.”
“I just have to pass through the trials.”
“Precisely. Which I have no doubt you will do.” She held out the torc, shaking it slightly to make her intentions clear.
I stepped forward quickly and grabbed the torc, my ghostly hand not stopping me from holding it. Power zinged up my arm as my fingertips closed around the gold. I inspected it. The swirls of metal were actually part of a dragon. It twined around the necklace, looking fierce.
“This is amazing.”
“Put it on.”
I slipped the torc around my neck. Magic zipped through me as it settled heavily against me. Though I was in my ghost form and couldn’t touch anything else, this didn’t care about such silly rules. It felt like it would stick with me no matter what. I reached up to touch it. The torc was smooth and cool beneath my fingertips.
Then it began to heat.
My eyes flashed to Boudica. “What’s—”
Pain flared, bright and brief. It was gone a second later. So was the torc. The golden necklace no longer rested heavily around my neck. But the skin around my neck felt different. Almost like it vibrated with magic.
“It’s become part of you,” Boudica said. “That way, you’ll never lose your gifts. Or your ability to use them.”
That sounded pretty good, actually. And I definitely felt different. Like something inside of me had calmed down. Before this, my magic had been a crazy carnival and most of the carnies had been asleep on the job. Now, it was orderly and precise. I bet if I tried, I could use any of my magic now without issue.
Boudica held out her hand again, and a tiny torc rested there. “Your familiar has earned one as well.”
Muffin meowed and sauntered forward. He sat regally on his butt—don’t ask how it was possible, but he managed it—and stared up at her with his wrinkled face. She placed the torc around his neck, and he purred.
Briefly, it glowed bright, then it disappeared into him as well. A golden tattoo traced over his shoulders, looking like the twisted torc.
“Cool,” I said. “What does—”
Wings sprouted off Muffin’s back, little silver things that sparkled in the firelight. He jumped, surprised, and looked back.
I’d once imagined him with wings, and here he was. My winged, hairless, magical Cat Sìth. What a weird life I led.
Princess Snowflake III sniffed him suspiciously, while Bojangles licked his butt in the corner, oblivious to all that was going on around him.
Muffin took a running start, sprinting across the small roundhouse. He crouched low on his powerful hind legs and took off, little wings carrying him into the air.
They didn’t take him far—only a few feet—but when he landed, he looked very pleased with himself.
“Well done,” I said. “And you’ll probably get even better.”
Boudica shot me a look that suggested this was as good as it was going to get, but Muffin looked so pleased with himself and his little wings that it didn’t matter.
Boudica looked at Princess Snowflake III. “And you as well.”
Princess strolled forward and sat, preening as Boudica put the torc around her neck. As soon as it disappeared, Princess shot a blast of fire from her mouth. She looked pleased with herself after that.
Boudica gestured to Bojangles, who looked around like who, me?
“Yes, you small strange cat.”
Bojangles gamboled forward, then rolled over onto his back right in front of her.
“I’m not sure that’s how it’s supposed to be done, Bojangles,” I said.
“It’s fine.” Boudica slipped a tiny torc around his neck. A moment later, he disappeared.
“Oh, that’s gonna be dangerous,” I muttered.
A moment later, Bojangles appeared on the other side of the room.
Muffin purred with delight. We’ll be able to steal everything.
I sighed but didn’t correct him. Not like I could control him anyway. I looked at Boudica. “The gods really trust me with their magic?”
She nodded. “They do. You were born worthy, Ana. Your soul was a beacon for the gods, making it clear that you would do the right thing with your powers. They cannot walk the earth anymore, helping those in need. But you can. And you’ve proven yourself willing throughout your life. Brave and selfless, kind and generous. It is you who are worthy of their magic. Now that you have the torc, you’ll be able to use what they give you.” Her face turned grim. “And I think you may need it. I couldn’t stop The Three who came here earlier, but someone must. Their magic is dark, and their intentions darker. I think they are tied to you somehow. Your fate meshed with theirs.”
“This was meant to be,” I said. “The Celts fought the Romans in ancient times, and I’m meant to do it again.”
“Aye, I think that’s right.” Intensity gleamed in her eyes, almost vicious. “You must win. Beat them, Ana. For all of us.”
Flashes of history passed through my mind, memories of reading about Boudica. Her daughters had been killed in a Roman attack, and she’d picked up the sword to rouse the Celts in a revolt against the invaders from the south. She’d nearly won, too.
But she hadn’t. She’d died a tragic death instead.
Of course she wanted vengeance on the Romans.
“I’ll stop them,” I said. “Whatever they want, they won’t get it.”
She nodded, satisfied. “Good. Now there’s one more thing. You will leave here and pass through the trials to get your body back. I don’t know what they will be, but they’ll be linked to you somehow. And not easy.”
“I can do it.”
She grinned. “I like confidence in a person.”
I saluted. “I got it in spades.”
I might not have always been confident in my magic—having defensive magic in an offensive world had sucked—but I was confident in my ability to suck it up and do what was necessary. To keep pushing and trying until the job was done. Plans A, B, and C would get me there eventually.
“Best of luck to you, Ana,” Boudica said. “I think you’re going to need it.”
9
Boudica disappeared, and I turned, ready to face whatever the trials were.
When the flame burst to life around me, I stumbled back, shocked. But the flames rolled toward me, fiercely hot.
Frantic, I looked around for the cats. “Run!”
They arched their backs and hissed at the flame. I turned back to it. The flickering orange tongues of heat had crept closer. The burning was so intense that it made my eyes water. I stepped back, away from it.
Muffin meowed. I wouldn
’t do that if I were you.
Fear flowed through me as I turned.
More flame.
So much flame.
So much heat.
My skin began to burn, so hot that it would have melted if I’d been more than a ghost. I might not have had a real body, but apparently my nerve endings still worked just fine.
The flame was nearly to me now, only a few feet away on all sides. The burning increased, so powerful I could have fallen over.
What am I supposed to do?!
There was no way out. Just a world of fiery death.
I sucked in a deep breath and stiffened my spine. My knees were about to go out from under me, so it was no easy task, but I managed. The air in my lungs was so hot, I almost couldn’t bear it.
We had to get out of here. I had to get my cats out of here. They were hissing, and pissed as hell. Even Bojangles was paying attention to his surroundings.
The heat was so bad that it felt like it reached inside me, burning muscle and bone. It was one with me, so ferocious that it filled me up, making me feel like the fire itself.
My collarbones burned, my shoulders lighting up with pain. The area around my lower neck hurt the worst by far. Then it didn’t.
The torc?
Use it, a voice whispered. The flame is yours.
I jerked. Whoa.
Was this magic mine?
Could it be?
Through the horrible pain, I tried to focus on the fire. Tried to feel for a core of magic that I could manipulate and use. If I wanted to get out of this, I would have to bend this flame to my will.
The fire danced around me at first, alighting on me only to cause pain. I sucked in a deep breath and focused. It wasn’t hard to imagine why I wanted to use this magic. I really didn’t want to burn to death.
Finally, I caught the tail end of it. The fire that had begun to flicker within my belly was mine. I commanded it, driving it away. Visions of the flame sweeping away from me flashed in my mind, and the fire obeyed. It rushed backward, leaving me and the cats standing and panting. The pain faded.
Took you long enough.
I looked at Muffin.
His annoyed green eyes met mine. Almost singed my new wings. He fluttered the little things.
Princess Snowflake III just hissed at me, clearly having forgotten that I’d just saved her life. Ah, well, I was more comfortable with her ire anyway.
Bojangles had somehow managed to capture a little ball of flame and was now playing with it. The glow of fire lit up his eyes as he tossed it back and forth between his paws.
I left him to it and stepped forward, determined to get these trials over with. I was still a ghost, so there was clearly more to go through.
The round house had burned down, revealing the silver trees that filled the sacred grove. It was so calm and pretty that when a massive wind rushed through and picked me up, it took half a second to process what was happening.
By then, the wind had swept me up above the trees. Far below, the cats stared up at me, shock on their little faces.
Hang on! I’m coming! Muffin leapt off the ground, his little wings carrying him slowly up toward me. He huffed and puffed to get higher, and in the meantime, the wind tossed me around like a rag doll, dropping me and picking me back up again. My heart leapt into my throat and my extremities went numb. I nearly slammed into the trees twice, and I knew without a doubt that if I did, I’d be dead.
Trial failed, body gone.
Forever.
Muffin huffed his way to me, flying slightly above me and grabbing the back of my jacket with his claws. I could almost hear his little wings fluttering frantically.
Got you!
I dipped again on a current, not quite as quickly as before. Muffin was buying me some time and a bit of stability, but the little cat couldn’t carry someone as big as me.
The wind tossed us around as Muffin tried to keep me aloft.
You better think of something quick! You weigh as much as a prize tuna!
“Always with the tuna.”
Always.
I sucked in a deep breath and focused on the wind that tossed me around. If this was anything like the fire, it could be part of me. I could control it.
The wind itself was cold and sharp, a contrast to the flame that would have melted me like an old tire if I’d had a body. It flowed around me, even through me, in my transparent form.
I grabbed onto it, feeling it like a physical thing in my hands. It was more than just particles of oxygen and nitrogen, it was mine.
Magic flowed through me, starting at my torc, and the wind began to obey my commands. It stopped tossing me around, and instead, it allowed me to slowly lower myself to the ground.
I was nearly there when the wind disappeared entirely, and I splashed into water. The liquid closed around me, cold and wet. Shock lanced me as I kicked for the surface. I broke through, struggling and spitting.
Desperate, I sucked in a lungful of air and kicked, trying to keep my head above water. The cats were nowhere to be seen, and I prayed they weren’t part of this trial.
A huge wave crashed down over me, pushing me deeper into this new sea. The water thrashed around me, pushing me deeper and deeper.
It was cold and dark all around, threatening to crush me in the darkness. My lungs burned and my mind screamed.
Trapped.
I struggled for the surface but made no progress. Panic threatened to overwhelm me, dragging me down into a pit of despair.
I fought it with everything I had.
And then I didn’t.
Maybe I shouldn’t fight it. It wasn’t doing me any good or getting me anywhere. Maybe the water was part of me.
On instinct, I opened my mouth and sucked in. Water flowed into my mouth, my lungs. But it didn’t hurt.
Far from it.
Strength and energy filled me. The water around me became a friend. Or at least something that wasn’t out to hurt me.
I kicked upward, easily finding my way to the surface. My head broke through, and I sucked in air, then commanded the water to disappear.
It did, dropping me into the dirt.
The cats appeared around me.
Muffin gave me an unimpressed look. You look rough. You see any tuna?
“No tuna. And I feel rough. But apparently I’m a mermaid.” Or the closest thing to it.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Something soft hit me on the head. I looked up. A dark splotch in the air was headed right for me. A millisecond later, a clod of dirt hit me in the face.
Sputtering, I backed up, shaking the dirt away. More began to fall, hitting the top of my head and piling around me. Bojangles chased it, but the other cats hissed, trying to avoid the dirt.
You better do something about this!
It was already up around my waist. Shit.
More fell, faster and faster. It would bury me alive, and somehow I knew that there was no way I’d be able to breathe in dirt.
Forever.
No thanks.
I sucked in a deep breath and called upon my magic. My neck burned, right where the torc had absorbed into me. A moment later, I swore I could feel the dirt around me. Like it was an extension of me.
I commanded it to stop, visualizing the sky becoming clear again. Magic flowed through me, out into the world, wrapping around the dirt and commanding it to halt.
A moment later, the sky cleared. No more dirt.
Next to me, Muffin was buried up to his neck. So were Princess Snowflake III and Bojangles. They must have had to scramble to stay above the dirt as it fell.
They looked at me, clearly annoyed.
About time.
I scrambled out of the dirt pile that had formed around me, reaching down and pulling out the cats one by one. Snowflake was the biggest mess, her white fur a total disaster. She hissed at me.
“Sorry, sorry.”
I turned to figure out what the hell would come next, and I spotted
Lachlan. The dirt had disappeared, and so had the sacred grove. I stood at the edge of the river where I’d left him. The land around him was torn up, as if he’d been battling centipedes for hours, their thrashing limbs tearing up the grass and dirt.
But there were no more monsters, and he looked fine.
Shock and relief flashed across his face. I felt the same, deep in my bones.
“Thank fates,” he said.
My boat pressed up against the shore, and he tugged me into his arms, hugging me tight.
I startled.
Hugging me.
I had a body again.
I whooped and hugged him back, gratitude flowing through me.
Lachlan pulled back and looked at me, his dark eyes concerned. “Are you all right?”
“Definitely. It was a bit touch-and-go for a moment there, but I’m doing good now. I got my powers. Or at least, some of them.”
He grinned, and kissed me hard and fast. “Well done.”
“But how are you? How many centipede monsters were there?”
“Couple dozen. They were meant to stop you.”
“But you stopped them. Thank you.”
“Any time.” He pressed another kiss, this one to to my forehead.
“We need to get back to the Protectorate. I’ve got info we need to hunt down. I know where we need to go next.”
He kissed me on the forehead. “I can only imagine that it will be dangerous.”
“Oh, you’re imagining right.”
It wasn’t hard to get back to the Protectorate. As if Otherworld had realized that I’d accomplished my goal already, it had spit us out pretty much immediately, and we found ourselves standing on the lawn in front of the castle. One second we were in Otherworld, the next, we were in Scotland.
The sun was dipping behind the horizon and the night air growing chilly. I’d lost all track of time in Otherworld, but it was evening here.
Immediately, I pressed my fingertips to my comms charm. “Bree? Rowan? Where are you?”
Bree’s voice filtered through. “We’re at the Whisky and Warlock. Jude’s here too. Most people, really.”
“We’ll be right there.” My stomach rumbled as loud as a truck, no doubt at the thought of the meat pie that the pub served. I was famished.
