by Laney McMann
“You’re hurting him!”
She ignored me, smearing a putrid green potion that resembled spoiled cottage cheese onto his neck and extinguished the smoke. Max slumped over the arm of the couch. I screamed and dropped to my knees beside him, finding him unconscious.
Without a word, Ms. MacLarnon put her vials back into their case and rose to her feet.
“Teine, our MacKenzie is not present at the moment. At least not entirely.”
I stood, stiffening at her declaration.
“If you would stand behind me, please.” She scooted me back with her outstretched arm.
I glanced at Max, heat flushing my face.
“Justice, if you would guard Teine. We don’t need any … mishaps.”
Mishaps?
I eyed Justice as he came to my side. “I can control myself.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Can you?”
I let out an over-exaggerated breath and didn’t respond.
Ms. MacLarnon sprinkled a light dust over Max’s body, and his eyes flew open.
“Who are you?” The voice that roared from his mouth was one I knew, but not his own.
I muffled my scream and backed up, hitting solid stone in the form of Justice. Blinking rapidly, I tried to make sense of the person lying in front of me. Like a camera lens refocusing itself again and again, but still getting a blurry shot, a gloating smile stretched across Max’s face, warping his features into something—someone—else.
The Leanaan Sidhe.
“I could ask you the same.” Ms. MacLarnon moved closer, a growl rumbling in her throat.
Breaths rasped from my chest in speeding huffs. Justice repositioned himself, stepping directly in front of me, impeding my line of sight. Heat welled up in waves under the surface of my skin. Pinpricks crawled down my arms and along my shoulders.
“Remove yourself from my son.” Ms. MacLarnon’s order was an uncharacteristic snarl.
Justice pushed me farther behind his back. Peering around his shoulder, I watched as Max’s lips curve upward into a twisted, wicked grin, streaks of red bleeding into his grey eyes.
“Hiding her won’t help.” The Leanaan Sidhe’s voice sounded drawn and ragged.
She’s possessing him. The bitter taste of nausea hit my tongue. I covered my mouth, my head pounding in the tightening space of my skull, control slipping from my grasp at the sound of her voice speaking through Max.
“They are coming for you, Teine, and Max is mine. You didn’t think you actually won, did you?” Max’s body moved as though desperate to get to me behind Justice, but unsure how. “It will take more than fire to keep us at bay.”
Justice grabbed my arm, holding me where I stood.
“You have more than fire to offer, don’t you, Teine?” the voice purred.
I yanked my arm away and stepped out from behind Justice, staring into red eyes, suppressing my urge to attack the being inhabiting Max’s body.
“Don’t listen to her, Layla.” Justice reached for my arm again and missed. “She’s trying to goad you into shifting.”
“T-sk, t-sk.” The Leanaan Sidhe sighed. “The Raven is born of the Underworld. My world. Didn’t anyone tell you?” A sneer spread across Max’s face. “You belong with us, Teine. Not these … what are you things?” She motioned to the gargoyles.
Max’s body writhed and kicked on the couch. “She’s … lying.” His weakened voice broke through staggered, gasping breaths, his chest heaving. “Grandmother … do something—I can’t … breathe.”
Ms. MacLarnon’s form changed instantly, hovering above the floor, her sheer wings encompassing the entire height and width of the ceiling, crowding the space with the tinkling of bells, and her cherub-like face replaced by a savage, fanged one. “Remove yourself from my boy!” Her voice gushed through the room like a strong wind, rattling the picture frames hanging crookedly on the walls.
“I can’t do that.” The Leanaan Sidhe’s voice rasped. “I have orders to follow. It’s nothing personal.”
“One more drop of potion, and you will die.” Ms. MacLarnon floated above the couch.
The impostor regained a steady breathing rhythm and flashed an evil grin. “You won’t risk killing him.” Red eyes found my gaze. “But she will. Won’t you, Teine? You will risk his life … and yours—to save him.”
I swallowed. Singeing tingles cascaded down my arms, up my back, pores opening on my skin.
“She’s goading you, Layla.” Justice moved in front of me again, and blood sped through my veins as I watched Max grip the couch with white knuckled fists, writhing and thrashing as though he was trying to lift himself up, muffled screams trying to get out.
Tristan sprang forward from behind the couch, Justice wrapped his arms around me, pinning my body against stone, and Ms. MacLarnon flung dust particles throughout the room, sprinkling down like glittered rain, and Max’s scream pierced the air.
“Tell me what to do!” I prayed he heard me.
Red streaks bled across the grey of his eyes before they closed, and a chunk of the armrest went flying off the couch, shreds of fabric and foam gripped in his fist. “I … need to … get in the … air.”
I willed myself to calm down and hear him clearly through his gasps. “I don’t understand.”
“Get me … in the air. I’ll … do … the rest.”
“I don’t know how to fly . . .” What was he talking about? “I could hurt you.”
“I’m hurting now! We don’t … have a choice. “
I shook my head. “What about Justice? Tristan? They can take you. They can fly.”
“I need you … Lay. I … need your height.” His eyes were wild with pain.
“But I don’t know how to fly!”
“You do.”
“And if I fail?”
“Then we fail … together. Then we die … together.”
My mother’s words, ‘One of you will eventually kill the other’, crashed inside my head, warmth drained from my body like it was being siphoned off, and a sharp pain stabbed at my chest.
A small, desperate smile touched the corner of Max’s mouth, his eyes welling up. “It’s just you and me, Lay. Like always.”
I swallowed. “We’re going to need to get some altitude.” Tears rolled off my face, as a crawling itch ripped across my shoulder blades, down my arms, up my back, and thick glossy feathers erupted through my pores, covering my body as if on command.
Stillness rolled through the room, and I took in all the concerned, knowing faces.
Tristan glanced at me. “We’ve got your back.” He swung the front door open.
Ms. MacLarnon nodded
I took a deep breath, lunged sideways, wrenched Max’s body off the couch in one swift, taloned swipe at his shirt, and took flight out the door.
The Leanaan Sidhe’s shrieks quaked in my ears as I soared out and away from the house.
“Keep them safe!” Ms. MacLarnon said.
Massive wingspans closed in on either side of me. The barrier line sizzled like a live wire as I approached. Breaking through with a crackle, electricity bit my sides, and sent streams of smoke trailing behind me.
I gained further height in the thinning atmosphere as I raised my chin toward the sun and flew headlong upward into the early morning sky until Ms. MacLarnon’s house became nothing more than a spec dotting the earth, hundreds of feet below.
20
“Layla, you’re going too high!” Justice flew close beside me. I paid him no attention. “We can’t protect you up here.” Still, I didn’t acknowledge him. “You’re going to suffocate Max! Go back down a few feet!”
As the Raven, I couldn’t have spoken back to him even if I’d wanted to. It took all the focus I had to keep Max’s voice in my head and not let him plummet to his death.
I’ll never let that happen, no matter what the Legend says.
Higher, I flew, until my head started to go fuzzy.
“Layla, stop!” Tristan came up behind me, terror lacing his every word
. He fell back as if he hit an invisible wall only he could see.
“A little … higher, Lay.” Max choked on his words, pain audible through gasps of breath.
“Higher?” My vision slipped in and out, cold thin air rushing in my eyes.
“Keep going.”
“What are you doing?” A woman’s terrified voice rang out over the howling wind, whistling in my ears. She squirmed, trying to shift her weight, gripped securely in my talons.
“You’re going to kill us all! That’s your plan?” she asked. “Your rescue of your beloved twin soul?” She used a lulling tone, but the fright in her words overrode her attempt at charm. “Do you hear me? Do you?” She writhed again, screaming.
I rose a few more feet in a vertical ascent, and she fell silent.
“Max?” If I flew any higher, I’d likely kill us both from lack of oxygen.
“Let me go.”
“What?” My taloned grip tightened.
“Let go, Lay.” His response was a demand.
“I can’t!”
“Let go!”
“No!”
“Do it now!”
I rolled, plummeting in a vertical dive, speeding toward earth, loosened my grasp, held my breath, and let him go.
His body careened sideways.
“Max!”
“I’m trying!” His breath stuttered as his voice faded beneath the wind in my ears.
Like two stone bullets, Tristan and Justice rushed toward me from the graying clouds, as I dove and plunged headfirst toward Max with sheer panic racing through me.
“Max!” My eyes clouded, vision slipping altogether.
His limp body hurtled out of my reach.
Justice and Tristan flew down with lightning-like speed, but I knew they’d never catch Max. I’d let him go too soon. Whatever he was trying to do, he hadn’t been ready.
One will eventually kill the other.
“Max!” The wind licked my tears away as quickly as they fell. “Answer me!” Ignoring my impaired sight, I narrowed into a downward spiral.
What have I done?
Ms. MacLarnon’s house swam into view, her neighborhood, giant oak trees, streets and cars. All moving too close, too fast.
This can’t be happening.
“No!”
I soared down as fast as I could, grabbed for Max’s body and missed.
A thousand feet from the ground.
Five hundred feet.
No time. There’s no time.
An onslaught of violent emotion overtook me, and I screamed like I’d never screamed.
The atmosphere vibrated on the rushing wind.
Feathers trembled, and receded into shrinking pores on my bare arms, returning me to human form.
Flames erupted all around me.
My legs flailed of their own accord, fanning the fire, like someone trying to swim through midair, and I let go, stopped fighting, the full force of my weight lurching toward the Earth.
Black ribbons streamed passed as if reaching for my hands. Grey ominous clouds swirled above my head and solidified. Screams echoed through the atmosphere, wind rushing by my ears as my body spun of its own accord, and my feet slammed onto the ground with paralyzing force.
Blinded by tears, I staggered, barely recognizing Benny as she stood leaning against the side of my house with her arms folded across her chest. “Since when do you remember how to traverse?”
Am I dreaming?
I took one step forward and collapsed.
21
I lie on the forest floor, my face wet with tears, close to unconsciousness. My eyelids droop, blurring the leaves, the trees, the slight crease of blue sky above my head, blending them all into a brown muddied haze.
The rustle of crunching leaves underfoot catches my attention.
It can take me, whatever it is. My reason for living is gone.
“Teine?” a child’s voice, timid and unsure, whispers from the trees. “Teine, are you okay?” Footsteps creep closer.
The faint sound of high-pitched children’s laughter floats on the wind.
“Teine?”
Through blurry vision, I try to focus on the little girl standing over me. “Cara?” Eyes full of tears, I push myself to a seated position, head spinning.
“Yes. It’s me,” she says, squatting down. “You’re crying.” She settles herself on the ground beside me. “Did something happen?” Her little face scrunches up, sadness and concern etched in the creases.
I stare back at her. “You remember me?” The strain in my voice isn’t hidden.
Her eyebrows cinch up as she stares back. “Of course.”
I take her in, bewildered, and glance around the forest. “I—”
“Let me help you.” Her hand reaches for mine, slowly pulling me to my feet. I stagger to a stand, and she lets go, hugging my waist, almost knocking me back down. “I knew you would come back. I just knew it.”
As I pat her shoulder, conflicting emotions wash over me—sorrow and disbelief, loss and shock.
The faintest whispers of laughter rustle like leaves from beyond the tree line.
“Cara, where are we?”
She tilts her head up at me. “We’re in the Otherworld, silly. Are you sure you’re okay? Mother has been so worried.” She lets go of my waist and brushes the leaves and debris off my clothes like a miniature homemaker. “There. I think I got them all off.” She beams at me through big green eyes. “Please don’t be sad. Everything will be all right.” Grabbing my hand, she pulls me forward. “Where have you been?”
I follow, unsteady. “I … I lost my way.” Unable to find my voice, I stare at my surroundings—the babbling stream rushing nearby, and the waterfall.
“You’re so silly, Teine. You know the way.”
We wind through an overgrown forest, treading on cushioned ferns and ducking underneath branching vines. Hazy patches of sunlight peek through the trees, creating kaleidoscopic patterns across leaves and branches.
“Mother, Teine’s here!” Cara calls into the woods.
The forest opens onto a vast green clearing blanketed in wild orchids, their lavender blooms strewn across a sun-drenched field. A mass of laughing children run through various gaps in the trees and gather around us, before a woman enters the clearing, parting the tide. Her long, yellow hair drapes over her shoulders, flowing down her back. A golden crown adorns her head.
With arms held out, she beckons me forward. “It has been far too long. I was concerned you might never return to us.”
“Aunt Flidais?” I fight for breath.
“Who did you expect, child?” She chuckles, pulling me into her arms. “I am so relieved to see you.”
Fresh tears roll down my face, and I smile against my will, memories flooding my mind.
Her warm embrace envelopes me as does the flowery smell of her hair. When I was a little girl, she’d been one of my favorite people. That seemed like another life, though. Someone else’s life.
How did I get here? Here with my … family? All the words die in my throat as she holds me close.
The rich fragrance of gardenias drifts in on a breeze, the aroma stabbing at my broken heart. Sorrow rushes over my body in waves, threatening to crush me, until choking sobs take over.
My aunt releases me, her narrowed eyes tracing my form. “You are not well. What has happened, child? “
The pit in my heart deepens, unable to catch my breath. “I … I tried … to … save him.”
“Save who?”
“Max … I tried … to help … but—” I shook my head. “I did something wrong. I thought … he was ready.” My weight gives way, and she catches me by the arm.
“Calm, child. It will be all right.”
Murmurs of concern reach my ears. Children’s voices. Cara’s hand slips against mine.
It wouldn’t be all right. Nothing would ever be right again. I shake my head, tears dropping off my chin. “He’s … gone.” My throat thickens, unable to swallow.
“I watched him … fall. I couldn’t save him.”
My aunt tilts her head, seeming to study me. “Save him, you say?” She smiles as a mother would when looking upon an innocent child. “Sweet niece, how did you come upon us today?”
“I … I don’t know.” I wipe my face and glance around the forest, the clearing, at my arms, my body. Whole. In one piece. No scratches, no broken bones. “I just … I—”
She lifts my chin and holds it in her hand, redirecting my gaze. “Wake, my niece, and return. MacKenzie needs you.”
“Wha—” My heart skips and lodges in my throat.
“He is in pain.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your instincts will not lead you astray.” She tucks loose strands of hair behind my ear. “A fall is not likely to kill one of our kind.”
I scrunch my eyebrows.
A slight knowing smile touches her lips. “I forget how long you have been gone from our world. You must believe, child, and listen with your heart, not with your head. MacKenzie is calling for you. Trust in me and listen.”
• • •
“Layla? Benny’s terrified voice rang out next to me. The ground shook underneath my body, flapping wings blowing a cool breeze against my face.
“Layla! Benny, what happened?” Max’s voice lashed out, trembling.
“I don’t know. Somehow, she managed to traverse back home, and then she just … collapsed here in the driveway.”
“I don’t understand. I mean … I caught her. I separated from The Leanaan Sidhe, and I saw Layla falling. I caught her, in my arms, and then she … vanished. How long has she been under?” Max asked.
“Just a minute or two, but she hasn’t gone under since …”
“Since The Fomore were calling to her. Oh, god, no, please wake up!” Max shook me by my shoulders, rolling my head from side to side. “Come on, don’t do this. Benny, open the front door. Lorelei!”
The slapping of feet on wood floors rattled my senses. “What happened? I told you. I warned you!” My mother’s exclamation couldn’t have been more terrified if she’d seen me die in Max’s arms.
He laid me down. “She was trying to save me. She collapsed in the driveway.” His voice sounded gentle.
