She breathed in Morrigan, her nose filling with the scent of roses and tea. When the two finally released each other, Morrigan walked to the table and resumed her place in front of her steaming cup. Gabrielle followed suit and sat opposite her friend and fellow traveler.
The fire crackled as the two sat in silence. Gabrielle struggled to come up with the right words, but she only wanted to look into those lavender eyes and be wrapped in the comfort of home and safety. It was Morrigan who broke the silence, a wide grin consuming her expression.
“I was wondering when I’d see you again, Gabrielle. I’ve really missed you!” The words hit Gabrielle like a train. She opened her mouth to reply but the only thing to escape was the smallest squeak. In all the time she’d known Morrigan and after everything they’d been through together, butterflies still ran rampant in Gabrielle’s stomach at the mere thought of her. Gabrielle cleared her throat and began again, pushing the words out of her mouth.
“I never thought I’d see you again. I don't know what to expect anymore. How long…” Gabrielle trailed away. She didn’t know quite how to ask her question. She never would have imagined she would be asking someone how long they’d lived. An understanding smile graced Morrigan’s cheeks.
“After you left, I remained for another twenty years or so. In the end, it was pneumonia that took me,” Morrigan explained. Gabrielle’s mouth stood agape as she imagined how Morrigan remained in France, alone, for twenty years before dying of sickness.
“Pneumonia? So, he didn’t—?” Gabrielle began, the thought of mentioning his name out loud felt wrong.
“Arawn never came back for me. I suppose I always credited this to either you doing what you did—and that somehow disrupted his power—or he let me be drawn out and die alone.” Morrigan’s eyes dropped from Gabrielle to her tea.
A sudden rage filled Gabrielle as she imagined the man that had saved her countless times, the man that had been her friend and only confidant lying ill in a bed, dying alone. She let her eyes run across the glint of silver around Morrigan’s neck, and then looked to her own bracelet.
“How long have you been here?” Gabrielle asked, unsure she wanted the answer. Morrigan waited in silence stirring her tea before she spoke.
“I woke up here, living on this plantation several months ago. The interesting part is that I have actually been living with you this entire time. Tea?” Morrigan stood and walked across the room to the kettle and brought it to the table with another cup. Morrigan smiled at Gabrielle as she poured the tea and then took her place again across the table from her.
“Of course, it wasn’t you, it was Hazel. I was starting to wonder when I would see you again. I had begun to think that this portion of the journey was going to be by myself.” Morrigan stood from her chair once again and outstretched her arms towards Gabrielle in a silent demand for a hug.
As they embraced, the sweet smell of Morrigan’s hair mixed with the aroma of the tea and comforted Gabrielle. She found herself lost in euphoria. Letting go of her friend, Gabrielle felt heat rise in her cheeks.
“So…you’re a—” Gabrielle’s voice caught as she tried to voice her question without offending or embarrassing Morrigan.
“A woman. Yes.” Morrigan finished the sentence as if she were ordering food at a restaurant.
“Is it strange?” Morrigan’s eyebrows turned inward in confusion. “To change genders between lives I mean.” Gabrielle brought her eyes to the floor and stared at her bare feet in embarrassment.
“Umm, I’m not exactly sure how common it is. I don’t find it particularly strange, being in a woman’s body. I am familiar with a woman’s form after all.” With that, Gabrielle’s eyes shot back up to Morrigan’s whose twinkled with amusement.
Gabrielle let out a thunderous laugh, much louder and more obnoxious than she’d expected. Morrigan joined in and the two stood laughing at the strangeness of the situation for a moment longer before they both returned to the table.
“You’ve lived here for a long time. What’s it like here? You say that you lived with me before I was me? Well, what was I like?” Gabrielle rambled as she tried to contain another bout of giggles. Morrigan leaned into the table as if she were about to share a secret, and in that moment she knew the cocky yet lovable Morrigan really was living inside the body of this woman.
“Alright, so we live on a plantation. A plantation that you own, actually. It’s unlike many other plantations of this time period. You and your husband don’t believe in slavery. In fact, he died fighting in the war to end the enslavement of human life.” Bitterness laced Morrigan’s words as she spat out that last sentence. “You freed all of your slaves and those that work here do so out of love for you.
“But these times are grim. We have to be careful. Especially me. I’m not really in the position where I can do what I want in this life.” Morrigan paused, looking down to her hands with such sadness that Gabrielle wanted only to take Morrigan into her arms and hold her.
“Your name before you arrived was Hazel, but as you know, the bracelet will translate everything you hear including your name.” Gabrielle gave a curt nod. Nothing mattered anymore outside of this room. She hadn’t felt so safe in a long time and she never wanted it to end. Let Arawn come. They would fight him together.
“Morrigan, you really haven't seen any signs of him?” Morrigan shifted uncomfortably in her chair and the cheerful mood in the room drastically changed.
“No, I haven’t. I’m not really sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I don't know if he can’t find us, or if he’s off plotting how to steal these souls from us. Either way, we have to be careful. We should never let our guard down and always be either together or with someone else. He failed twice now, and I don't think he wants to do that again.”
Gabrielle nodded slowly in silence. She reflexively brought her cup to her lips, but never took a sip. She sat with the cup to her mouth for a moment, and then placed it back on the table.
“Well, for now, he’s not here. So lets not dwell on it!” Morrigan said, breaking the tension that hung in the room. Gabrielle ran her finger around the edge of the cup absentmindedly as she lost herself in thoughts of Arawn and his monstrous hounds. Pulling herself from her trance, Gabrielle perked up and shook her hair out of her face.
“Tell me about, well me. What was I like? What was my life like?” Gabrielle’s eyes twinkled with the thought.
“Hazel is a kind person, keeping only freed slaves here and working her hardest to free slaves from other plantations. She and I are best friends, and have been for some time. The community was very unwelcoming of her and her husband, so she would confide in me and we grew close.”
Gabrielle pressed down feelings of jealousy threatening to plant itself in her mind. Morrigan always had friends and relationships in her journeys, while she suffered at greater lengths. Morrigan, who was completely unaware of the internal battle going on within Gabrielle, continued to speak.
“As far as other people living here, you and I live in the house. The others live in their own private quarters at the base of the fields. It has been just you and I here for some time. Cullen also lived here with us, but he went off to fight in the war—”
At the mention of her husband and the war, Gabrielle thought of the letters and her eyes dropped to the bracelet. Morrigan stopped talking and looked at Gabrielle, her eyes full of sorrow.
“So, you know then?” Morrigan asked, her tone changing drastically. Gabrielle nodded.
“We received the news just yesterday. It came with a package brought by a young soldier named Sam. He insisted it had to be him to bring it to you. Though you remained composed when you first got the package, I believe Hazel knew what it was before she even opened it. She was a strong woman and she immediately left and locked herself away in her room. I gave Sam quarters for the night. He’s asleep in the room at the top of the stairs.”
Mulling over the various ways in which this could be an elaborate trap, Gab
rielle was unconvinced by Morrigan’s assurances.
“You trust this guy? How do you know this isn't one of Arawn’s traps?” There was a level of snide frustration and sarcasm in Gabrielle’s voice. She’d always trusted Morrigan’s judgment before, but this had ‘trap’ written all over it and Gabrielle wasn't buying it.
“When you look in his eyes you can tell he doesn't have an evil bone in his body. You’ll see in the morning when you meet him.” Morrigan stood, stretching her arms up above her head in a large yawn.
“I know that neither you nor Hazel slept well, maybe you should go get some sleep and we can continue in the morning.”
A large yawn escaped Morrigan’s lips, contorting her face and stretching her mouth far wider than it should be able to expand. With one last sip of tea, Gabrielle stood and hugged her friend once more before she left the kitchen and walked back up the stairs for bed.
CHAPTER THREE
Something pulled at Gabrielle from the dark, she threw her eyes open and sat up, her head spinning from the rush of movement. Immediately, she knew something was not right. The soft bedding beneath had been replaced with cold, damp moss.
She twisted her body from side to side and surveyed her surroundings. She was in the middle of a forest. Vines strung from ancient trees and moss so thick she could hardly tell where one tree ended and the other began.
She thought back to when she’d ridden upon Fionn’s giant shoulders through the forest in her first life. It was the closest thing she could think of to compare to, but this was different, even by that standard. This place was alive.
Gabrielle mechanically rotated her head from side to side for anything she could see in the dim light of the moon overhead. This was either a dream or one of Arawn’s traps. She needed to find something she could use as a weapon just in case. As her eyes adjusted, the stars and moon lit the world around her. She was sitting underneath a giant tree, the roots bubbling up over the earth as if it were trying to break free of its hold. Gabrielle ran her finger through the dense moss. It was velvety soft to the point of feeling unreal.
She took a deep breath and the air nearly made her cough. It was thick in her throat, like she was breathing water. Gabrielle slowed her breathing, she had no intention on falling apart now. She’d been thrown into stranger situations than this.
“Well, this is new,” she snarled, the sound of her voice breaking the deafening silence. With a grunt, she stood and brushed the dirt off her knees and back. Something was different. Gabrielle was shorter than she remembered being in the farmhouse. She looked down at her feet and hands and saw her familiar chewed fingernails and stubby toes.
“Oh my God,” she blurted, “it’s me.” Gabrielle examined her body and found the scar on her arm she’d gotten when she was ten from jumping off a tire swing and landing on the gravel. This was really her, her real body from her real life.
Her mouth hung open as she scooped up handfuls of her own hair in amazement. Looking to her feet, she spun in a quick circle admiring her own chubby little toes. The toes she had once hated so much because they weren’t elegant, but now found to be the most beautiful things she’d ever seen.
Gabrielle giggled as she spun, feeling more alive than ever before. Like she was made of electricity and had the power to do anything she could imagine.
CLICK.
Gabrielle stilled as the familiar sound sent an alarm though her body. Nothing happened. Her hand fumbled over the cool silver. She heard the sound but the cold feeling told her there was nothing to be worried about. She looked around, her body spinning as she examined the woods for any possible threat.
After a few uneventful moments, Gabrielle squeezed the soft moss between her toes, she picked a direction and started walking.
As the air caressed her cheeks and filled her lungs, the rush of life filled her and she started to sprint, jumping nimbly over low limbs and roots. The moss cushioned every step and she felt like she could run forever.
This place was amazing. There seemed to be so much life in these woods even though she couldn’t see or hear any other animals.
The trees and plant life were so much larger than the forests she’d seen that they dwarfed Gabrielle by comparison. Ever since she started this journey all she’d see was death and the life and energy in the forest caused a smile to spread across her face.
Time stopped as the stars and moon danced with her in the forest. The limbs swayed with her movement and life seemed to only exist for her. She could have been running for minutes, hours, or years. A searing sensation brought Gabrielle to her knees mid stride. Her hands met the soft earth as she fell forward and nearly collided with the base of a large tree.
She would have let out a yelp of pain if it hadn’t been for the sudden presence of voices. She clasped her hands over her mouth and slid against the side of the tree, doing her best to be lost in its shadow.
At first, the voices were difficult to hear with her heart pounding in her ears, so she crawled around the base of the tree until she could see what was going on.
She was right next to a small opening in the forest. The moon illuminated the grove and she could see five figures standing in the center.
“Arawn,” she said before she could slap her hand over her mouth. Four figures stood facing Arawn and their eyes glowed the color of fresh blood as they nodded their heads in agreement.
“We will do as you wish your eminence,” hissed one of the shadow figures. Seeing him standing before her brought goose flesh to her arms as she remembered their last encounter. His power and poised bravado could be heard, though it made no sound.
She could tell by the stances of the other four that Arawn held sway over them. A row of fang-like teeth emerged as he cast a sinister smile. That smile. So smug. So irritatingly entitled. Gabrielle had to resist the urge to run up and punch that egotistical smile right off his bony face.
“Look, I can’t touch the little bitch without the Sluagh taking my powers and for some reason beyond my understanding none of my beasts have been able to fight her. That ridiculous bracelet she wears is keeping her safe. But you, oh Carman, you’re my pretty. Little. Secret weapon…well…not so much on the pretty.” Arawn flicked a skeletal finger at the knotted figured.
“You’re a smart one Carman, you and your…” he panned his gaze across the three figures behind Carman. “Well, you’re smart anyway and I really hope you can figure out how to kill one measly little girl. What would I do without you? Oh, that’s right; I’d be one less witch to my brood.” Arawn’s snarky chuckle made Gabrielle’s skin crawl. The three smaller shadow figures shifted in their stances.
“Mother has come to help the Lord in his need. Does this not win favor? Would it not be safe to assume that a favor could be returned?” The smile on Arawn’s face shriveled into a snarl.
“I see that you presume your status to be much higher than it is. Allow me to explain to you how things work around here,” Arawn began, before turning his head and looking over his shoulder. In that instant, several large dogs emerged from the shadows behind him and progressed across the grove, stopping at his side. They snarled and growled and a shiver ran through Gabrielle as she remembered the last time she’d come in contact with Arawn’s hounds.
“Do you understand now?” The smug grin reappeared on his face making him look like a toothy shark. Arawn was fiercer than she remembered; maybe it was because he could actually hurt the shadow figures.
He couldn't hurt her, he had no dominion over the living, but he could send his monsters after her. Some sort of cosmic loophole. The Carman and the others backed away. I guess Arawn can hurt them, she thought as she wondered about the hierarchy of the underworld.
“There is no need for this. We are compliant and agreed to follow orders,” Carman hissed, the three others stepping behind her. “My sons are only full of the same anger and hatred that you sought us out for in the first place. We will serve.”
“I’ve never been one for witches, mys
elf,” Arawn continued, “you’re a plague on all you touch. I suppose, in this circumstance, that’s a good thing. But, I hope you know I don’t trust you, and if you fail me I will spend the next millennia killing you four over and over again.”
One of his hounds lowered its head and a large trail of saliva dripped from his snarling lips. “Honestly, I look forward to it.” Arawn was completely in control and his four guests knew it.
Carman turned to her three sons. Though it was dark, Gabrielle could see her twisted limbs. Her long, black fingers and arms looked like they could have been the twisted roots of an old tree.
Gabrielle thought back to the gardens in the palace of Versailles. She’d seen Carman there before, in the maze of the gardens. A shiver raced down her spine at the memory of Carman’s rotting limbs wrapping around Gabrielle’s arms and waist.
“Children, you must behave. This is no way to speak to our master, now is it? We’ve been tasked with something very important. I think it best that we reserve our emotions for the lady herself, don’t you agree?” Carman brought a twisted arm up and brushed the shoulder of one of her sons.
Arawn steeped in his own glory like an eternity of hard work was now starting to show signs of success. Gabrielle lowered herself to avoid being seen now that Carman was looking in her direction.
A chill made its way down her body. The air was suddenly cold as death. Carman steadily turned her head to the sky. Her sons mechanically followed suit. Arawn and his hounds all looked to the sky as well and stood in silence, as if they were expecting something to happen.
A distant shushing sound irritated Gabrielle’s ears. At first, she thought it was the rustling of leaves or heavy breathing, but after a couple of moments, she realized they were all sniffing the air. Gabrielle lowered herself further behind the tree trying to shrink down as small as possible.
The Gabrielle Series Boxed Set Page 29
