Before she had let her true self be known, she had acted the part of a clumsy, inept witch as a way to better protect Silver from the dangers she had faced before Samhain.
Tiernan grabbed a slice of warm pumpkin bread and Hawk scooped up a chocolate chip cookie.
As he ate the bread, Tiernan dug the piece of parchment he had found out of his pocket and handed it to Cassia.
“Where did you get this?” Her eyes widened. “I don’t recognize these runes at all.” She shuddered and goose bumps appeared on her forearms. “All I can tell is there’s something very wicked about them. This paper is shrouded in evil.”
Silver quirked an eyebrow at Tiernan. “What’s that?”
He shrugged. “I do not know.”
Cassia kept the parchment close as she drew out her black and gold rune stones. She tumbled them onto a clean portion of the counter and studied them. “The stones give no additional clues, save that we are in grave danger.”
“So what’s new?” Silver sounded flippant, but her eyes held that same dark concern that had been present ever since she saw the vision of the coming of Balor and her vision of Copper.
Cassia gave the parchment to Silver. Immediately the witch started shaking so hard the parchment trembled in her fingertips and she looked as if she might faint or throw up, or both. Tiernan would have taken her by the arm to aid her if Hawk had not already been at her side.
“This is the circle,” Silver said in a hoarse whisper. “Copper was tied down in a circle just like this when I scried with the cauldron this morning.”
Rhiannon took the parchment from Silver. The moment the witch’s hands touched the parchment her face paled as it had earlier. As she held it tighter, she said, “I get the feeling of immeasurable evil.” She inhaled and slowly let out her breath. “I see a door within a massive room. The circles are engraved into the floor with the runes scraped or carved into it.”
Tiernan studied the drawing more closely. He could easily see now that the vertical rectangle could be a door, and the circles could be on a floor before it. A look of relief swept over Rhiannon’s face when Mackenzie took it from her.
With an expression of distaste, the petite blonde set the parchment on the kitchen table, then dealt her tarot cards into a Celtic cross. Among other things, the cards revealed grave danger and battles ahead, but also that a new friend would be taking a journey and an old friend would be returning.
After everyone had the opportunity to look at and evaluate the parchment, Tiernan left the store. He stood in the store’s back parking spot and lifted his face to the sky.
At the same time, he unfolded his great brown wings from his back, he shielded himself from sight. With a simple flap of his wings, he took to the sky in search of the damnable warlocks and the Fomorii.
3
Otherworld
Present Day
* * *
It could have been days, months, years. All Copper Ashcroft knew was that she had to find her way out, her way back home. And something was telling her that it needed to be soon.
“What is wrong, witch?” Riona, the Faerie queen who was trapped with Copper, flitted around bushes that hid the Faerie mound in their Otherworld prison. “Are you homesick for this San Francisco you are always talking about?”
“Yeah. What’s new?” Copper shrugged and shifted on the smooth rock beneath the apple tree. She’d never had a melancholy personality, but a girl could only be trapped so long without getting a little tired of it.
“I miss everything—being in the shop with Silver, my classes at UC Berkeley.” She’d been in the Graduate School of Education, working on her Masters. She had a Bachelor of Arts degree and had minored in Celtic Studies. “Since I’ve been gone so long from school, I’m sure I’ve been dropped.”
Copper sighed. “And then there’s the city itself,” she continued. “The smell of the ocean, the sound of a foghorn, the clang of trolleys.”
Rock music. Dating. Restaurants. Department stores. Shopping!
And sex. Definitely sex. She’d never dated anyone seriously. She had too much fun going out with different guys and enjoying the company of her friends. But she sure liked sex.
Riona landed on Copper’s shoulder. Her perfect, naked, six-inch body was the color of cream. Her hair was long and midnight black, her eyes amethyst and her wings a pale purple. Every time she opened and closed her wings, Faerie dust glittered in the evening air and Copper caught the familiar scent of roses.
“Mostly I miss Mother, Father, and my older sister, Silver.” Copper glanced at the Faerie queen. “I’m glad to have all of you for company, but I would love to see my friends and the D’Anu Coven of witches I belonged to—even that old crotchety high priestess, Janis Arrowsmith.”
What she wouldn’t give to have Janis glaring at her right now. She swore the high priestess was always glaring. Of course, during the time Copper had been gone, a new Adept would have filled her place as one of the thirteen female and male witches that comprised the D’Anu Coven, all descendants of the Ancient Druids.
Riona crossed her dainty little legs at her knees and started swinging her foot. “It is your fault, witch, that we are all imprisoned.”
“I just don’t understand what happened,” Copper said for the millionth time. Was it really her fault? Her magic had rebounded off something—some kind of shield—and she’d sent herself into this Otherworld place.
“You are a very powerful witch,” Riona said softly, her voice like tiny bells in a gentle breeze.
Copper blinked. Riona complimenting her?
“I just know that spell would have worked if it wasn’t for that shield,” Copper said, deciding to go on. “I’m sure the warlock will be responsible for something terrible that’s going to happen. I was certain the spell would work.”
Thoughts of her sister, family, and friends being in danger and possibly being hurt or worse made Copper’s chest burn. What if something had happened and she wasn’t there to help?
Not only had she sent herself to Otherworld, but she’d ended up inside a magical shield, a bubble. It surrounded herself, a meadow with a rock wall on one side, a mini-waterfall and stream, a pine tree, and the apple tree—everything contained within the shield.
All of the creatures and beings trapped within this house-sized prison were apparently invisible to any being outside the shield who happened to be nearby. None of the beings confined with her were happy about being held hostage. They blamed it on Copper’s magic no matter what she said.
Riona patted Copper’s shoulder, her touch as soft as flower petals drifting upon her skin. “Believe it or not, I have confidence that one day you will free us all.”
Copper’s eyes widened in astonishment as the Faerie queen flitted away to return to their tiny Sidhe. It was a mound, some bushes, and a garden of assorted flowers, not farther than a stone’s throw away. Riona had never before expressed any faith in Copper. What was this little world coming to?
She looked up to the sky. It was an overcast evening with swirling dark clouds gathering overhead. Interestingly enough, they still had changes in weather, which meant that the walls couldn’t be limitless and there was no ceiling. Yet none of the Fae had been able to fly high enough to get out.
The moon went through its usual phases, too, but no matter how she tried, her moon rituals wouldn’t work and she received no visions from the ritual. She wasn’t a seer of course, but in the past the goddess had sometimes been helpful during moon rituals.
Copper decided she might as well do something active instead of moping on the rock. She stood and grabbed one of the higher branches of the apple tree, gripped its rough thickness, and started doing pull-ups. She’d kept in shape by doing pull-ups, sit-ups, arm curls with rocks, and managed other toning exercises, as well as jogging around the circumference of their prison.
She even practiced her softball pitching for amusement by throwing rocks at the shield, and sharpened her reflexes by dodging them as th
ey rebounded back at her.
While she performed her pull-ups, her mind returned to the dream she’d had last night. It had been so freaking intense.
She’d been crawling along a recently made tunnel, the smell of fresh earth confirming it was newly dug. The walls had glittered with veins of ore and an occasional gem. She had squinted. Dark shapes loomed in and out of her vision.
In her dream a sudden chill had pricked her skin with goose bumps and she’d felt an icy wash of fear.
In the next moment she had dropped. She’d plunged through the blackness, screaming—
She thought for a moment she saw a dark being as she fell, a being with fire for hair, but it was only a flash before she woke. Her breathing had been heavy, as if she’d been running the circumference of the prison.
Her heart had pounded in her ears, and she’d felt as if something horrible were going to happen. Even the thought of the dream made her stomach clench.
“Get a grip,” she mumbled as she finished the last pull- up, then got down to the grassy ground and began doing guy push-ups—using her upper body and the strength of her arms to do the push-ups as her toes dug into the grass, balancing her.
Her braid fell over her shoulder as she continued her workout. Of course, the copper color of her hair was the reason her mother had named her Copper. Moondust had named Copper’s sister Silver, after the shade of silvery-blonde hair she’d been born with.
Both were unique names that had caused a lot of teasing as the girls grew up. Neither one of them had minded—much. From a young age they had been encouraged by their mother to enjoy their differences, and that included being witches.
Copper finished her push-ups, feeling a little sweat break out on her skin. She picked up a good-sized rock, bent over, and braced her other hand on the rock beneath the tree and started working out her triceps.
She watched a pair of Faeries gathering nectar from a bright purple bloom in the waning light. Riona perched on a white flower nearby. Her arms and legs were crossed, her foot swinging as usual, her wings slowly opening and closing, while she watched the male Faeries putting the nectar into delicate bags made of leaves.
All the Faeries were tiny with perfect naked little bodies and translucent wings that released sparkling dust of different colors, depending on the Faerie.
Several Faerie children played hide-and-seek among the flowers and the trees along with Zephyr. The Faerie children’s sweet chatter sounded just like water trickling over the rocks at the spring on the other side of the meadow.
“Dammit. How did this happen?” Not for the first time she wondered why the Ancestors and the goddess allowed her and all these beings to be trapped. She switched arms to work out her other triceps.
When she finished working out her upper body, she started jogging around the confined space. She knew when she had reached a wall because it shimmered before her, taunting her. If she touched it, she would receive a shock that frizzed her hair. She wondered if it would become permanently bushy if she kept experimenting every now and again to see if the barrier would finally let her through.
She scowled at it as her bare feet pounded soft grass. “Freaking wall.”
Her frown deepened as she thought of other dreams she’d had since she’d been in Otherworld. Her dreams were actually visions. She shivered as she relived dreams of horrible misshapen demons, of her sister and Coven under attack. And dreams of that damned warlock who was the reason she was here to begin with.
The feeling of needing to get back to San Francisco and her family grew more intense every single day, and she had a difficult time keeping herself from performing her rituals frantically. She needed to be calm and controlled, but it was getting harder every day.
Most of her thoughts concerned Silver. She knew that if Silver had to use her gray magic it would be hard on her, it would take its toll. Copper so firmly believed in using gray magic that she wasn’t afraid of it. But Silver—she believed in it, but she still feared it.
Her dress rustled as she continued to jog around the meadow. The Faeries had fashioned a dress made of soft leaves and vines that never withered, never dried, and felt delicate and sensual against her skin. With every movement she made, it caressed her body.
For possibly as many days as she’d been stuck here, she wished a man had been trapped with her—not the warlock—but someone sexy, a guy who would really turn her on. With the proverbial apple tree, they’d be a regular Adam and Eve in this paradise.
Not.
What she wouldn’t give for her jeans, T-shirt, and running shoes. She usually wasn’t one for dresses, even though her preference had driven her father crazy. He thought witches should wear flowing dresses like her mother did.
Silver really drove their father nuts because she wore such short and sexy skirts along with three-inch heels. The two of them would get an earful when Copper went out on the town with her. Copper sometimes wore a killer pair of thigh-high boots, and a short and sassy skirt—it was about the only time Silver could get her to wear something other than jeans or slacks.
Of course, their father loved them no matter what. Even though he was gruff on the exterior, and had a hard time showing his emotions, Copper knew just how much he cared.
Moondust had always shown her love easily. Copper’s mother was gentle and kind—the type of person who could make you feel good with only a look, and the only person to calm their father when he was on a rant.
Copper rolled her eyes to the increasingly darkening sky, then shook her head. “There’s got to be a spell that can get me and every other living being out of here.”
She’d tried everything she could think of. Even the Faeries had attempted to help her with their magic. The Pixies, Brownies, an Undine, and Drow—they were no help at all. The Pixies preferred to tease and taunt, often stealing leaves from her vine dress when she wasn’t looking. The Brownies bit her ankles when she wasn’t careful where she stepped. The Undine preferred to keep to herself.
The Drow—bluish-skinned Dark Elves—kept trying to lure her below ground but she had no inclination to do so. The tattooed Drow king, Garran, had visited her one night—the Drow could only come out when it was dark. He’d made it clear he wanted her.
Even if he was tall and sexy—no, thanks. She wasn’t about to take the chance that Drow magic would trick her into staying below ground and cause her to want to live with the Dark Elves.
He’d smiled and winked. “One day you will come to me.”
Copper turned her thoughts away from the cocky bastard and back to her current predicament. A small spring tinkled down a rock wall several paces from the apple tree. Even though she’d been trapped, she’d been blessed with just about every convenience—if you could call them conveniences—that she needed.
Often Copper wondered why that was so. It was as if the goddess or the Ancestors had planned this, and that there was some meaning to it.
What could that possibly be? She needed to be home, needed to be near her family and friends.
The copper pentagrams at her ears swung freely as she made another jog around the meadow. When she finished her workout, her skin was warm and a light coating of sweat covered her body. She was going to have to come up with some new exercises to get a better workout.
She knelt at the spring and washed her hands in the lower basin. After she was done, she scooped sweet water from the upper basin into her mouth with her hands. It was icy cold and the best water she’d ever tasted. But she’d give anything to be back in San Francisco and drinking city water, even with all its minerals and chemicals.
She sighed and picked at one of the vines on her dress. She wanted, needed, to break through the shield and get the hell out of here. At this point she’d prefer being anywhere in Otherworld to being confined to this tiny space. Of course free, that was, not trapped. At least then she might be able to convince some being to help her get home. She’d always read that the Elves had doorways that led to Otherworlds.
Too bad the Dark Elves didn’t have any such doors available below ground. Garran had said all their doors had been blocked, so they had no means of escape, either. They continued to dig downward, supposedly to find some way to get out
Copper got to her feet and walked to what wasn’t much of a shelter in the rock, but where she curled up to sleep at night on a thick blanket of dried grass, vines, and leaves. It was much longer than her, lengthwise, and its width was more than enough to keep her out of the weather. She could also sit up with room to spare. The leaf and vine dress kept her warm and comfortable, and she was sure that it helped make the bed softer, too.
She retrieved her wand that had thankfully crossed over with her, and gripped it tight. The wand warmed in her hand as she stepped through the short grass that tickled the soles of her bare feet. Rabbits and strange creatures that looked like a cross between a ferret and a toad kept the grass shorn so that it always looked freshly mowed. The ferret-toads made a gruuupp, gruuuupp sound when they were mating. It was particularly annoying.
No fair that everyone and everything else was getting laid and she wasn’t.
Carrying her wand, Copper went to the center of the meadow, on the other side of the apple tree. Zeph zipped over to her, perched on the curve of her ear, and she felt the strength of his support.
“Have faith, little guy.” She raised her wand and the pentagram sparkled on her bracelet. “The goddess must have a plan for us, and it can’t be to stay in this place forever.”
Zeph buzzed and Copper called out a simple circle-casting spell. After it was cast, she tried a new spell, hoping this would be the one.
“In this place on this sacred ground,
Within this circle good shall be bound.
With the light of my wand this place surround,
May what is lost now be found.”
The crystal at the end of her wand glowed through the evening, a brilliant gold that glittered off the walls of their prison. The light seemed stronger than before and she felt tremors through her hand. She focused on the wand, and poured her gray magic into it. Silver wouldn’t have agreed to use it so freely.
The Seduced Page 3
