by Helen Harper
“Not any more. I’m not part of the pack, remember?” I couldn’t resist taunting him.
“Of course you’re not. That’s why you’re out there on your own without a friend in the world.”
I balled my fists up. The wanker. Irritated heat flashed up through my veins. “Now you know who this is, can you put Julia back on the phone? We have some catching up to do.” I was impressed at how even my voice managed to sound.
“Actually, no, Mack, I don’t think I will do that. It’s 5 o’clock in the morning. My pack need their sleep. Don’t call here again.”
“Anton, wait, I…”
He hung up the phone. I cursed loudly, causing several of the solstice hippies to glance over in my direction. The yellow windbreaker guy was staring at me. I dug into my jeans pocket and pulled out a crumpled note, passing it over to him with his phone.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“Any time, flower. Did you find your sister?”
I ignored him, aware that I was being rude but unable to muster up the energy to care, and walked back towards the back of the cairn, then paused suddenly and turned round.
“What’s the Gaelic for open?”
“Huh?” He looked baffled.
“The Gaelic for…” I gave up. “Never mind,” and turned back towards the stones. These so-called druids were just here for show, it would be stupid to think that they’d actually know anything about the real history and culture of the place. Let’s face it, Yellow Anorak had a state of the art mobile phone and probably a job in the city. I doubted he really knew anything even remotely helpful about the reality of the Cairns or the culture behind them.
“Hey!” he shouted from behind me.
I ignored him and kept walking.
“It’s oscail.”
I paused and turned back. He was holding his phone aloft and beaming. Of course, a state of the art mobile phone would be able to access the internet, even here in the middle of nowhere. I felt immediately guilty for dismissing him so readily and for, again, being so quick to judge. The kindness of strangers… I smiled my thanks at him and jogged back, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
“Thank you,” I said softly. “You might have just saved my life.” He gave me a lazy salute back, before settling down onto his previous spot on the ground. I smiled gratefully at him again, and then headed back to the stones.
When I got back to the edge of the cairn, I began feeling around with my fingers to see if I could find the rune. Many of the stones were covered in a soft moss, and the shrouded darkness at the back of the passageway made it difficult to really see anything. I felt me way along each stone, fingertips brushing against the surfaces, trying to feel for anything that might suggest a marking. Tracing round the edges, and feeling nothing, I could my frustration rising yet again. I took a deep breath. I HAD to get a grip of myself. I took a step back and inadvertently knocked over yet another flickering tea candle. Bending down to pick it back up, something caught the edge of my eye. I knelt down and reached over, carefully brushing the edges of the dark green moss aside. There was a rune after all!
I closed my eyes and touched it gently with the tip of my index finger, hoping I’d be able to recognise it so I could have some clue about where the portal would lead. Having advance knowledge would be helpful. It was one of the more obscure ones, however, and my weak knowledge of Otherworld languages wasn’t enough to help me translate it. I supposed it didn’t matter. Dawn was approaching and if I didn’t try something soon, then it wouldn’t be long before the long arm of the law – magical or otherwise – caught up with me. I took a deep breath and pressed the palms of both my hands against the cool rock and whispered, “Oscail.”
For a horrifying moment, nothing seemed to happen. Dread filled me; all this risk-taking: running around the freezing Scottish countryside, getting Julia and Johannes into trouble, all of it, had been pointless. A silent wail built up inside my chest. Maybe it was too late, the moment of the Winter Solstice was too far past, or the power of the portal was just too diminished. I sank down, defeated, my fingers falling away from the stones, and then, without warning, the air around me started to crackle and shimmer. The pit of my stomach was hit with a familiar wave of nausea and I was falling, falling through the ground.
Chapter Fourteen
I had absolutely no way of knowing what to expect when I emerged on the other side of the portal. As I’d previously experienced when I’d entered Iabartu’s demesne, the journey made me ill and, despite my best intentions of trying to be prepared to meet any nasties headlong when I arrived, I instead was on my hands and knees puking up bile. It reminded me of how long it had been since I’d eaten a decent meal.
Once I’d finished eking out the last of the contents of my stomach, I staggered up and looked around, ready to pull out the few weapons I had if I needed to. But there wasn’t much to see. The air was considerably warmer than it had been at the Clava Cairns, but the buzz of voices and the crackle from the fires had disappeared. The whole place was eerily silent. I tried to peer into the dark gloom, but could see little. Fortunately there seemed to be no signs of life, which meant that I was probably safe for the time being. I looked behind to check out the gateway from where I’d arrived and realised that there was just a vast empty space of darkness. Errr….what I clearly hadn’t considered was an escape route. I might be safe from the police and the spells of the mages here, but I hadn’t considered what on earth I was going to do to get myself back to my own plane so I could start sorting things out. That had been stupid. I had no idea where I was, no idea how to leave and no idea about how to sort out all the messes that I’d created.
I took a few steps forward and felt a wave of dizziness overcome me. The night’s proclivities were starting to catch up with me. Stumbling forward in the darkness, I reached out and felt a stone wall ahead of me, not unlike the edges of the cairns that I’d just left behind. I sank against the wall and rested my head against it, briefly closing my eyes. I’d just rest for a few moments, I decided, and then I’d find somewhere safe to settle down for a few hours and catch up on some sleep before I worked out what to do next. Before I knew it, however, I was fast asleep.
I dreamt I was in a great hall, not unlike the vestibule back at the keep in Cornwall. Julia and John were both there, staring at me with unhappiness in their eyes.
“You’ve messed everything up, Mack.”
I stared at them both mutely.
“You could have lived out your days in peace and quiet in Inverness, but instead you got that little old lady into trouble. You involved the mages and you destroyed her shop, and now you’re on the run.”
“What are you going to do?” Tom’s face swam before my eyes. He was bouncing a ball of green flame from one hand to the other, then he threw it over my shoulder. I turned round to follow it and saw Trekkie, who was now sporting a pair of Vulcan type ears and carrying Mrs Alcoon in a fireman’s lift over his shoulder. I tried to step forward, to get her away from him, but my path was blocked by Maggie.
“Don’t you dare touch her!” she hissed at me. “You are evil, you’re a daemon! Stay away!”
Maggie made the sign of the evil eye with her hands and I felt struck with a bolt of pain, making me stagger backwards and into something solid. Steel arms circled round me and I couldn’t move. Warm breath caressed against my ear.
“You’re human. Do you know what we do to humans, kitten?”
I struggled to get away, but I couldn’t move. Anton came up and jabbed me in the chest, laughing.
“You’re going to pay now, you ape.”
I lashed out with my foot, trying to kick him, but Trekkie pointed at me and a bolt of blue light hit my leg, transforming it into a dead weight. He cackled in laughter. Corrigan’s arms tightened round me until I was gasping for air. He was squeezing tighter and tighter, all the while whispering into my ear about the punishment he was going to wreak on everyone I’d ever come into contact with. I couldn’t breathe and little li
ghts started to dance in front of my eyes. I tried to scream for help, but nothing came out of my mouth and I was feeling fainter and fainter. Something grabbed hold of my arm and started to shake it. It was the cat that I’d tripped over in the street. Its teeth had latched onto my flesh and were burrowing their way through. Blood starting to seep through my skin, making the cat’s fur catch alight, but it kept on shaking and shaking and….
I woke up. A figure wearing a brimmed hat was standing over me, clutching my arm and shaking me awake. Solus.
“How…? What…?” I stuttered, wrenching my arm away from him.
“How did I find you?” he inquired, moving his face close to mine. “What do I want? Why that’s easy, spitfire. I am Fae. Did you really think that I wouldn’t be able to follow you here? And as for what I want, well I think you know the answer to that.” His teeth gleamed in the darkness. “You owe me an answer.”
I pushed myself up to my feet and folded my arms. “Solus, I promised you, didn’t I? You’ll get your answers. Just right now help me out a bit. Where exactly am I?”
He took off his hat with one swift smooth movement and flicked his blond hair to the side, snorting. “That one’s easy, my little chinchilla.”
“Chinchilla? Fuck off, Fae.”
“Actually, I think it fits rather well.” He reached out and tried to chuck me under the chin but I dodged away and glared at him.
Solus laughed. “Chinchilla are quiet, shy and highly strung creatures. Attributes that seem to fit you particularly well.”
“Fuck you.” I kicked out at him but this time it was his turn to dodge.
“Then tell me what you’re doing here, Mackenzie.” He drawled out my name with emphasis.
“What do you mean? I’m making sure the mages don’t catch me so I’ve got time to sort out what I can do to save Mrs Alcoon and sort out this fucking mess.”
“No,” Solus said softly. “You’re hiding. You’re scared. You’ve decided that instead of standing up for yourself and sorting this out, you’re going to run away and hide.”
Anger flooded through me. “I’m being sensible! Letting the ministry get hold of me, or the police for that matter, would not help anyone. This was the only solution.”
“Bullshit. Instead of fighting, you’re hiding. You could have taken those mages on. Do you know that the Pack, the whole Pack, not just your little friends in Cornwall, are spinning tales of you as some kind of superhero? A shifter who despite being a mere werehamster will fight tooth and nail to save the meek.” He straightened out the lapels of his shirt. “There are rumours that you left the Pack and turned rogue in order to patrol the cities at night, hunting down unwary Otherworld monsters; tracking down members of Iabartu’s family to wreak your vengeance upon them. You’ve become the Batman of the were world. They say that even the Lord Alpha is afraid of you.”
I was momentarily taken aback.
“That’s right,” he continued. “Surprising, isn’t it? Because instead of being some dark avenger keeping the Pack safe in their beds at night, you’re cowering in some long forgotten dark plane, too scared to face the music.”
Flames curled at my toes and fingertips.
“Ooooh, does the truth hurt?” Solus taunted.
I shot a punch out, aiming for his solar plexus. I missed.
“You can’t even land a hit on one little fairy, can you?”
I growled at him and tried again. I missed, again. “I’ve hit you before, Solus.”
He blew air out of his lips dismissively. “You got lucky. How lucky are going to get now by hiding away from all your problems?”
I side-stepped round him and feinted left, before swinging round a kick and catching him satisfyingly on the back of his leg. “Hah! Got you!” I spat.
Solus folded his arms. “But I’m not trying to get you. It would be a different story if I was. Then you’d be running away, trying to find the nearest hole to crawl into, afraid that I might hurt you…”
I launched myself at him, knocking him over. My legs straddled his torso and I started raining punches down onto his body. Reaching back into my ponytail I yanked out one of the silver needles, even though I knew it would do little lasting damage to the Fae, and jabbed it in his direction. He grabbed hold of my wrist and twisted till I dropped it, and laughed in my face.
Blood thundered in my ears and hot fire took over my body. Without even really being aware of it, I summoned up the green flames at my fingertips and shot them out at him. The smell of burning hair hit the atmosphere and his eyes widened infinitesimally.
“Am I hiding now, you fuck? Watch me incinerate you.” I sent out another bolt of flame and then I was falling forward into nothing. He’d performed some kind of sneaky Fae transportation trick. “Oh yeah?” I shouted out into the darkness. “Who’s the one who’s hiding now? Who’s the one who’s running away? Bring it on, Solus, I’m not afraid of you.”
“No, you’re not,” he said softly from behind me.
I spun round and prepared to attack him again, but he held up his hands in submission. I paused for a moment and glared at him with every ounce of malevolence that I could muster.
“You’re afraid of yourself, aren’t you, Mackenzie?”
I hissed at him and took a step forward, still on the attack.
Solus continued. “That’s a neat trick with that fire, darling. And yet I have never sensed a mage’s flicker in you before. I don’t sense it now. Neither have I ever seen a mage manage green fire before either.” His eyes gleamed in the darkness. “You could have taken on that bear in Cornwall, and you know it. I’ve done a little digging and I know that you could have bested him in a fight. That you already had bested him in a fight in fact. You could have been alpha right now, not him.”
“One slight problem there, Einstein, I’m not a shifter.”
He shrugged. “Semantics. The rest of the Cornish pack would have supported you and kept your secret. Instead you chose to run.”
“I did what I had to do.” I kept the flames on my fingers at a steady flicker, ready to attack him again at the slightest opportunity. The flames inside me, however, boiled with an intense ferocity.
“When I transported you to Corrigan’s lair, your first instinct was to run. You could have taken him on too. You might not have been sure of the win, but it would have been close.” Solus gazed at me assessingly. “That human, the annoying one?”
“I take it you mean Derek?” I inquired through gritted teeth.
He waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Whatever his nomenclature is. You could have – should have – destroyed him. And yet you didn’t.”
“Perhaps I just happen to have some morals, Solus. I’m not a soul-sucking Fae out for only myself.”
“Morals? If you had morals you’d have done something to stop him from pestering any other girls in the future. But you didn’t. Because you were afraid of what you’d actually end up doing. The same with those two wizards. I didn’t see what happened but I can guess. You could have put the two of them down then and there. Solved the problem with the Ministry in one fell swoop. But you didn’t. You’re scared, Mackenzie. And not of shifters or of mages or even of me. You’re afraid of yourself.”
I stared at him, nonplussed. Solus gracefully lowered himself to the ground and crossed his legs into the lotus position. He patted a spot on the ground in front of him and gestured at me to join him.
“What?” I asked. “You want to partake in some friendly yoga?”
“No, Mackenzie. You are going to keep your promise and you’re going to tell me what you really are and what you’re so afraid of.”
“Is Mrs Alcoon safe?”
“Tucked up safe and sound, snoozing away where no-one can touch her.” The look in his eyes was serious. “I promise.”
I stayed standing for another heartbeat and then joined him on the ground, crossing my legs. Taking a deep breath, I forced the heat inside me to dissipate away. It would do me no good now. I looked
into Solus’ eyes without blinking. In for a penny, in for a pound.
“I’m one eight Draco Wyr.”
If I’d expected an immediate reaction, I didn’t get one. Solus stared back at me implacably.
“My mother left me at the pack in Cornwall when I was just a kid. I don’t know why. I think there had been something after us, something chasing us, and that was the only place she thought I’d be safe. Somehow she’d known John or he’d known us, I don’t know. And I grew up there with them, thinking I was human. I had a bad temper, and sometimes I got…hot inside when I got angry but I thought I was just human. They all thought I was just human. When I reached eighteen, John bit me. I wanted to be turned, to be a shifter. I wanted to be one of them. It didn’t work.”
I was silent for a few moments, remembering that terrible time. I’d been in a fever for days, twisting and turning in sweat soaked sheets, my body fighting the shifter infection. All that pain had been nothing compared to the crushing disappointment when I’d come out the other end and realised that I hadn’t changed and that I was still the same. That’d I’d never really be part of the pack no matter how much I wanted it.
“I stayed with the pack though. They were my family. John trained me to help them and I helped keep the perimeter safe. It turned out that even though I didn’t have it in me to be a shifter I still had certain skills that proved useful. I was a good tracker, and I could hunt and kill with the best of them. When there was a problem, John called on me.” I couldn’t keep the pride out of my voice at that.
“And then he was murdered. Because of me. Because somehow Iabartu found out what I was and she wanted my blood.” I shrugged. “Apparently it has some special qualities. It has healing power as well as being somehow addictive to anyone who tastes it. And it gives me power. I didn’t find any of this out until I found some papers in John’s study.” I swallowed painfully. “He’d known all along what I was but hadn’t told me. I don’t know why. But still, I went after Iabartu to kill her for what she did and I was arrogant enough to think that I had enough power to bring her down. I didn’t. Corrigan and Anton were the ones who killed her; I was just a momentary diversion.”
