The air I’d been holding in my burning lungs whooshed out in relief. “Oh my God that was terrifying.”
Lochlan’s eyes were still scanning the water’s edge as he grabbed my hand and hauled me beyond the tree line. He dragged me behind him until the lake could no longer be seen behind us. “What the hell was that?” he barked quietly at me as we continued at a quick pace.
I yanked my hand from his but continued walking alongside him. “Why are you asking me? I have no idea!” I hissed back.
He grunted and neither one of us spoke again until we reached the edge of the Wild. If the Wild was withered compared to the Seelie kingdom, the Shadow Lands were positively desolate. Looking across the border, it appeared as if someone had used a black and white filter on half of a picture—one side green and alive, the other half a lifeless landscape painted in shades of grey.
Where multiple suns shone in the Wild, the Shadow Land bore only a series of moons casting a luminescent glow over the landscape. The few trees that grew there seemed to produce leaves already dried up and cracking. The grasses were brown and brittle and the dirt beneath eroded and hard. I thought of the old western movies my dad used to watch and in my head I could hear the classic showdown melody and pictured a tumbleweed rolling through an empty town.
“How are these two places next to each other and yet so different?”
“The legends say that millions of years Faery and the Shadow Lands were separate and collided such that the two were inextricably joined. Like the fabric of two dimensions sewn together—the time and space around each remained separate but inhabitants could pass between the two. Eventually those who lived on Shadow Lands became known as the Shadow Fae, although they were not originally Fae. The two races rarely mingle because only the very daring Fae venture into Shadow Lands and few Shadow creatures will risk the exposure to sunlight elsewhere.”
Lochlan pulled out his knife and tipped his head toward a cluster of trees before walking in that direction. Just on the other side was a small ramshackle structure—it appeared sturdier than a hut but calling it a cabin would have been generous. As we approached Lochlan sheathed his knife and called out, “Fenodree, we’ve come for your help.”
Silence followed—no birds chirping, no rustling leaves, just silence.
“You have wasted your time,” said a low voice, void of emotion.
“Morgan of the Lake has returned and is threatening war. We need your help or thousands may be killed.” Lochlan tried again to plead with the disembodied voice.
I closed my eyes and listened to the shadows. In this new dark land, I discovered that I had a virtual map of my entire surroundings in my head. Like a bat using sonar to guide it in flight, my shadow voices outlined the terrain. Turning as I opened my eyes, I found where the man stood back to our right behind a tree.
When my eyes found his he cocked his head and stepped forward. “Your man already made your arguments and they mean nothing to me,” he spat out, his anger spiking. “Why would I want to help a queen who killed my wife and exiled me to this wasteland?”
I stepped toward him and hoped that I wasn’t making a huge mistake by jumping in. “You aren’t helping her, you’re helping me and all the humans who would be killed if Morgan succeeds in releasing the Unseelie on Earth,” I offered softly. “I am…was a human woman, like your wife, and only recently been transitioned into a Fae. I’m trying to survive in this Fae world and keep them from taking over Earth. I need someone with knowledge of the Shadow Fae to help me learn my powers. Please, help me.” If he didn’t agree to teach me, I didn’t know how else I would learn my magic—our time was running out.
One slow step at a time he advanced toward me until he stood directly in front of me. He had long dark hair and was painfully thin but his blue eyes bore an edge that spoke to his internal strength. His wife had been killed and he had been cast out of his home, made to live in this miserable land. Yet he had found the will to keep going. His clothes were nothing but dirty rags and long greasy black hair hung down his back.
“What do you mean when you say you’re becoming Fae?”
“When I was a little girl, I was given this necklace.” I pulled out the pendant from beneath my shirt and turned it over to show him the back. “It contains the combined essence of both a dark and a light Fae. Wearing the necklace for over twenty years has changed my fundamental makeup—I now possess magic. However, this combination of powers has never been achieved before so my abilities are different from other Fae. We think they may be more similar to the Shadow Fae than the Seelie and I need someone who is familiar with their powers to help me master my own abilities.”
“How did you come into the possession of this amulet?”
“Merlin.”
Fenodree lifted his head in understanding. He then glanced over at Lochlan before briefly touching the pendant with curiosity. He drew his hand back and met my eyes for a long moment before he spoke softly. “If I do this, it would not be for anyone but you.” His eyes roamed over my face and I could hear a hint of a rumble come from Lochlan’s chest. In my mind I yelled at him to keep his caveman issues to himself. “What powers have you exhibited so far?”
“Some common powers like unlocking a door but I’ve also been able to become invisible in daylight, I can control smoke, and I’ve put darkness into a Red Cap and killed him.”
He took a step back and I held my breath, anxiously awaiting what he would say. “These powers are definitely unusual, but the magic of the Shadow Court is quite varied. You say Merlin used the essence of a Shadow Fae as the source of your magic—it would help immensely if we knew exactly what creature was used.”
I offered him a genuine smile as I let out a sigh. He was going to help me. Maybe, just maybe I would be able to do this task Merlin had charged me with. “Thank you, Fenodree.” I was not normally a hugger, but I was so relieved that I had to refrain from throwing my arms around him. I didn’t, mostly because I didn’t know the man, but also because he stunk to high heaven.
“Let us get you both settled inside—the cabin was not built to hold three but it will have to do,” he grumbled as we followed him inside. His accent sounded Old English and he spoke formally, without the use of slang or contractions. All together the effect was very aristocratic. The juxtaposition of his courtly dialect and his impoverished conditions was unsettling and further evidenced just how much his punishment had cost him.
The wood structure he called home was comprised of a single room that appeared to be exclusively used for sleeping and storing his supplies. We set our bags down in a corner opposite from Fenodree's straw mattress and Lochlan extracted our blankets.
Fenodree squinted toward me, eyes on my necklace. “I believe that I know what we can do to learn the source of your dark magic, come with me.” He led us to the remains of a small cooking fire where we sat down in the dirt. “Take off the necklace.”
“I can’t, it doesn’t come off,” I said apologetically.
He looked up from where he had been searching in a small pouch and grunted. “Of course you cannot remove it. I believe I am going to regret agreeing to this.”
I didn’t respond to his comment, instead my eyes sought out Lochlan, who looked like he was holding in a laugh. My eyes narrowed at him and a single corner of his mouth raised as he leaned back on his hands. I rolled my eyes at my two companions as Fenodree lifted a pinch of ash from the fire.
“Around here it can be essential to know who and what is out hunting. I developed a spell to show me what nasties might be near—I think that the same spell should work to detect what creature inhabits your amulet.”
He stirred together his concoction with a mortar and pestle while whispering words over the mixture. His finger swiped up a dollop and his other hand lifted my necklace. He rubbed his finger down the stone pendant in a single line and then waited. I could barely see the pendant down below my chin, but I was able to see when sparks started bursting from the stone. The substance h
e had wiped on the necklace burned up into a thick smoke that took the form of a horned creature.
Fenodree inhaled a deep breath and stared intently at the shape. “The Nuckalavee,” he said warily.
“Are you sure this is accurate?” asked Lochlan in a hard tone.
“How do you think I’ve survived out here all these years?” snapped Fenodree.
“What’s a nooka-lavee?” I asked the men.
“It is a being so malevolent and dangerous that it is believed that even the mention of its name brings bad luck. There are tales of its immense dark magic—just sensing its presence would be enough to frighten away a lesser creature,” Fenodree explained as he began to clean out the mortar.
My eyes caught Lochlan’s as I thought of our encounter with the Lambton Worm—had it sensed the Nuckalavee and given us a wide berth? Was that why it had left us alone? “What powers does the Nuckalavee have?”
“I can only tell you what is rumored, as I have never had the misfortune to cross paths with one, nor do I know anyone who has. I would dare not ask what Merlin had done to acquire the essence of such a creature.” He paused and we all contemplated his point. “The Nuckalavee is renowned for its rare ability to create hellfire. It is also known to manipulate dreams, giving its prey nightmares to feed upon its fear and turmoil. It is rumored to enslave its victims in their own nightmares indefinitely, feeding off them until they die.”
At the mention of manipulating dreams my eyes met Lochlan’s. Heat flared in his gaze as we were both taken back to the brief window of pleasure we had shared when I had pulled him into my dream. I cleared my throat and turned back to Fenodree. “I have nightmares of a shadow man who haunts me in my sleep—could that be the Nuckalavee sending me those dreams?”
He cocked his head in though, eyes narrowed. “They are not exactly shaped like men, but that does not necessarily rule it out. It would not surprise me if his essence is powerful enough to have a sentience. That essence may be tiny, but it sounds like perhaps it is still trying to feed itself from your fear.”
“Is there a way to stop it?”
Fenodree shook his head. “You could perhaps learn to keep it contained, but not disable it entirely. Not as long as you wear the necklace. The two of you are connected, there is no getting around that until the bond is severed.”
I nodded in defeat. The queen had talked about my transition to becoming Fae as if it were a process with a clear beginning and end. Hopefully I would get to a point when the necklace was no longer necessary and I could be free of my haunting shadow man.
We spent the few remaining daylight hours showing Fenodree what little we knew about my powers and then we shared a little of our backgrounds over dinner. Lochlan offered to start doing the hunting while Fenodree trained me. Then we laid out a plan for the coming days.
The dim light of day began to wane and Fenodree stood. “We need to get inside now, this place is not safe in the darkness of night.”
Unease pricked along my skin as I followed his lead, scanning the horizon for unwanted visitors. “Will the walls of the cabin be enough to keep us safe?”
“While I am not proud to admit it, I have utilized black magic to craft wards around the premise. It was the only way to keep out all that might come after me, but only inside my ward will we be protected from the creatures that stir in the dark.”
I figured if he had lasted this long we were probably safe, but my nerves were on edge, and I wondered how I would be able to sleep. However, like the night before, Lochlan pulled me into his chest. Cradled in his arms on our pallet of blankets I quickly relaxed into his warmth.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had nightmares?” His words next to my ear were hardly a whisper, sending a shiver down my spine as his breath traced across my cheek.
Not wanting to bother Fenodree, I turned around to face Lochlan and discovered that the position was even more intimate with our faces nearly touching. “I’ve had them since I was little and had always assumed they were just a part of life. They’d stopped for many years and only came back once I moved to Belfast. Not until I figured out my necklace was magic did I suspect the dreams meant anything.”
“I suppose there was nothing I could have done but I would have liked to have known.”
His words were gruff, but surprisingly sweet, and I gave in to my urge to lift my head and placed a kiss on his stubbled chin.
“You’re timing is impeccable, little one,” he whispered wryly before tucking my head into his chest and pulling me snuggly against him. Cocooned in his woodsy scent, I settled into a deep and dreamless sleep.
16
Over the next two weeks I worked relentlessly with my magic while also training with Lochlan twice daily to keep my combat skills sharp. Lochlan would hunt during the middle of the day while I worked on my magic by repeating tasks for Fenodree over and over with varying degrees of success until I began to flinch at the word ‘again.’
We started my education by learning to locate my power within me and pull it to the surface when I wanted to use it. What I came to discover was that I could differentiate between the two separate types of power within me. When Lochlan had tried back on Earth to teach me to trace and use light magic, he had explained that it was like an energy buzzing in my body, just waiting for me to channel it, and that was the case for the light magic. However, the dark magic was less responsive to my requests and more reactionary. I almost had to unlock it from where it hid within me before I could gather its menacing energy.
Once I learned to identify the magic, I had to learn to call it forth. When I had tried to make myself invisible back in my apartment bedroom, I had only envisioned the results and had not summoned the power. Focusing my intentions was an important element, but without the power, there was no magic. This process alone took me days to accomplish.
There wasn’t one specific muscle to flex—it was more like gathering the energy throughout my body and focusing it on whatever task I needed. However there was a complicating factor to my magic. The two forces acted like Italian dressing—I could shake it up as much as I wanted but the oil would always ball up and keep itself separate from the vinegar. Similarly, my dark and light magic each felt like the forces had protective coatings keeping them from ever fully uniting into one substance. Instead of simply summoning the magic, I also had to determine how much of each power was necessary and coax the proper proportions. Like pulling apart the multicolored strands of a rope, fibers of one color would be left on the others regardless of how carefully you attempt to separate them. As far as I could tell, the two powers were impossible to separate entirely.
Once I could summon the power inside me, I had to learn to direct the magic to do my bidding. We started working with the elements since it was supposed to be the most basic form of magic. My power was linked to air, which had been evident when each time I would power up the air around me would swirl and come to life. I practiced intentionally moving the air and then being able to gather my power without moving the air at all—which turned out to be substantially harder. The use of my magic stirred the air as if it was a byproduct of the summoning of my power, and it was hard to separate the two.
Along the same lines I was able to further my ability to control smoke, which was essentially the same as moving air but the particulate in the air gave me more to work with. I discovered that I could compact the smoke into a shield, similar to what I had seen Lochlan use against the Lambton Worm.
Oddly enough, once I learned to power up and practiced controlling the wind and smoke, making myself invisible was fairly simple. The best part of the process was showing off to Lochlan when he would return from an afternoon of hunting. Although I found that I had to be extremely careful surprising him when I was invisible—the first time he came close to taking off my head. I would make the wind blow leaves onto his head or make my arm invisible to steal food off his plate. I was endlessly tickled with my antics and I gave credit to Lochlan for enduring my pranks go
od naturedly, mostly.
I knew that the Seelie could manipulate memories, like Lochlan had done with Fergus before our trip. The Shadow Fae, on the other hand, had powers to send images to a person’s subconscious, often using them to create nightmares. We discussed my ability to pull Lochlan into a dream and dubbed the power ‘dream walking’—actively participating in a dream as if I was awake. The best part was that I could do this even when awake—a form of active daydream.
After much trial and error, we came to the conclusion that the ability required an element of proximity—either an intimacy with the other person or a geographic proximity. I couldn’t simply pull someone into a dream that I hadn’t met or someone that I knew who was far away from me, but the closer my ties to the person, the farther I could be from them geographically and still pull them into a dream.
Because of these limitations, my only practice options were Lochlan and Fenodree. When I practiced with Lochlan I never kept us in the dream for long because I didn’t trust myself to behave. We were rarely alone and our time together had been wearing down my defenses so the brief interludes we had together when dream walking were rife with temptation. Had I given in to my desires, I didn’t know if we would end up moaning or what Fenodree might see from his perspective.
Between my sparring sessions with Lochlan and the mental strain of using my magic all day, by night I was utterly exhausted—I hardly said a word before I passed out cold each night in Lochlan’s arms. I had wondered if being so near the heart of dark magic would trigger my nightmares but was surprised to find I didn’t have a single one. I mentioned the fact to Fenodree and explained about the incense my mother had used when I was growing up. After learning I could control smoke, I wondered if the smoke itself had acted as some kind of shield keeping the Nuckalavee from bothering me. He wasn’t sure about the incense, but it was most likely the wards around his cabin and my own powers growing that were keeping the Nuckalavee from exerting itself. It wasn’t a guarantee that I wouldn’t have any more nightmares, but it was a step in the right direction.
Twilight Siege: A Dark Fantasy Novel (The Fae Games Book 2) Page 17
