Flùranach looked alarmed, but at that moment, Munro entered with a small travelling pack slung over his shoulder.
“I really do need your assistance,” Huck told Flùranach quietly. “Your illusions may prove useful.” He added, “If you have to return to the Halls of Mist by way of German borderlands, I’ll go with you. Rory and Munro can take Demi through Caledonia.”
“You would?” she asked.
“The journey would only take a few hours. I think Munro and Rory can manage that long without me.” In truth, he didn’t like the idea of leaving Demi, but once she crossed into the Caledonian borderlands, she’d be safe.
They were all heading towards the door when Aaron entered. His eyes went immediately to Flùranach, then he shot an accusing glare at Rory. “What’s she doing here?”
Munro held up a hand. “We talked about this. She’s working with us. We’ve already located two new druids because of her.”
“She’s dangerous to any unbonded druid.” Aaron backed towards the door. “I’m out of here.”
Rory looked torn, as though he wanted to argue with Aaron but couldn’t. “You don’t have to go,” he said. “We’re leaving.” He nodded towards Huck, who touched Flùranach lightly on the arm.
“Come on,” Huck said. “It’s time.”
The four of them walked the short distance to the portal together. Munro and Rory entered first, leaving without another word.
Once the other druids had disappeared into the blue glow, Huck turned to Flùranach. “You ready?”
“Yes, my lord druid,” she said.
“You can call me Huck.” He wanted to be kind to her. Someone should. Despite anything she might’ve done, they did need her, and treating her like something they’d scraped off their shoes wouldn’t help.
She smiled but didn’t reply.
They took the same route back to the German borderlands as they had the morning before. Huck looked at her as they ran. “You’re in love with him?” he asked. He didn’t know why he asked. Their relationship wasn’t any of his business.
“Yes,” she said.
“Do you mind if I offer some advice?”
She glanced over, uncertainty playing over her pale features. Her green eyes swirled with astral magic as she considered him. “No, I do not mind.”
“Give him some room. And maybe don’t be so subservient.”
“He needs to understand that I’m not a threat.”
“You’re a threat to him simply by what you are. All the bowing and scraping makes him feel guilty. Just relax. Maybe don’t focus on him quite so hard.”
She didn’t say anything for a while. “I will try,” she finally replied. “Are you in love with the druid Demi?”
“I just met her,” he said quickly.
With a smile, Flùranach replied, “That wasn’t what I asked you.”
“I think I could be. It’s complicated. I don’t know her very well, but there’s something special about her.”
“You’re very intense,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s difficult to explain. When you looked at her, every particle in the room vibrated with your aura.”
Huck was glad the light had grown dim. His cheeks warmed. Had he been that obvious?
“Perhaps you should relax a little. Maybe don’t focus on her quite so hard.” Flùranach’s voice had a definite lilt of humour as she repeated his advice back to him. To make matters worse, Huck suspected she was right.
They didn’t talk much more on the remainder of the run, both of them lost in their thoughts. By the time they passed through the Otherworld gates and made their way to the outskirts of Amsterdam, the sky was fully dark. They danced through the shadows and sped towards Demi’s street.
Suddenly Flùranach stopped. She whipped her head around and grabbed Huck’s arm, putting her finger to her lips. They crouched in the darkness in a tight alleyway. The smell emanating from a nearby garbage bin assaulted his nose.
“What?” he whispered.
She shook her head, signalling for him not to talk. They waited long minutes in the darkness, and he itched with worry. Suddenly a cry rang out, but was quickly muffled.
“That’s Demi,” he said and stood.
Flùranach grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Be silent. I’m listening to their thoughts.”
“Who is it?”
“Faeries. At least ten. Ulrich’s men.”
“They took Demi?” Before she could answer, a second cry sounded, this time a scream. “I’m going,” he said.
He took off, and Flùranach ran beside him as he raced to Demi’s house. The street was utterly silent and unnaturally dark. The front door stood ajar. “How many are in there?” he said to Flùranach.
“I can’t tell,” she said. “The wards confuse my senses.” She glanced down the street. “But many fae went that way.”
“Let’s go after them,” he said. “They might have Demi.”
“Or she may be inside and in need of help. I will pursue the fae. I am faster without you, and you have no magic to defend or attack.”
He hated to admit she was right, but had no choice. “Go,” he said.
Without any further prompting, Flùranach sped through the flickering lamplight at the corner of the street and disappeared. Huck rushed to the open door and peered inside. With a slow movement, he budged the door all the way open. The house stood eerily silent. He glanced back towards the street, sorry that he hadn’t gone with Flùr, but he’d never be able to find her now. He sighed and stepped inside. The door banged against the doorjamb, no longer fitting properly into the squint frame.
He made his way up the stairs to the room where they’d first talked with Demi. Moving towards the window, he looked down into the street. A neighbour across the way peered through the curtains, but she quickly drew back when she saw Huck. “Shit,” Huck said, worried someone had called the police. He didn’t want to be hanging around if the cops showed up.
When he turned back to the darkened room, his perfect night vision caught a dark stain on the living room floor. He crouched beside the stain and touched it. Fresh blood. His heart tightened. Demi? But if so, where was her body? Would Ulrich have killed her and stolen her body? Maybe she’s still alive, he thought. But taking the measure of the blood on the floor, someone had bled too much to be walking around. He glanced towards the window. Either way, Ulrich had Jago. Of that he was certain.
A flash of movement came from over his left shoulder. Huck dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way to keep the knife slicing through the air from landing in his neck. When he looked up again, the figure dove at him once more. Only his Otherworldly strength prevented the woman from succeeding in her furious attack.
“Omi?” he called out.
The old woman blinked and hesitated, giving Huck the advantage. She had fury and adrenaline on her side, but he was young and much stronger. He gripped her bony wrist hard, and the knife fell to the carpet beside his ear.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said. “I came to help you.”
The old woman spat in his face but ended her struggle. “Because of you, she is gone. She and my beautiful grandson are gone.” She winced at his grip, which he warily released, pushing her gently so she had to let him up. Blood from the carpet had seeped through his shirt at his shoulder.
“Ulrich killed them?” His stomach tightened.
She shook her head. “Ulrich is dead.”
A wave of relief spread over Huck. He lowered himself into the chair, taking an involuntary glance towards the window. “Someone took them and the body? Who?”
The old woman shrugged. “His soldiers, I suppose.”
A siren sounded a few blocks away. “We need to get out of here,” Huck said. “Did you finish packing before they came?”
“We packed the most important things,” she said.
“Okay.” Huck couldn’t think. He wanted to go after Demi and Jago, but he had
no clue where to start. Besides, Flùr was on their trail. If there was any hope of finding them, Flùr would do it. “Okay,” he repeated. “We leave now. For England. The Belgian route won’t work. Flùr will get Demi and Jago and catch up with us.” He sounded surer than he felt. “They’ll be okay.”
The old woman didn’t look convinced, or like she trusted him even a little, but she stood and showed him where their bags were. She picked up a rucksack and threw it over her thin shoulders. He grabbed the larger pack as well as a small one with superheroes printed on the side and a large stuffed bear. “Huck Webster,” he said.
She eyed him for a moment. “Lisle Hartmann.”
“Let’s get out of here before the police arrive, Lisle.”
She nodded, stopping only to move the ward stone to its proper place by the front door. The gesture saddened him. The faerie she’d needed protection from was already gone.
He waited as patiently as he could manage, but urged her to hurry. A few moments later, he led the way into the darkness. By the time they reached the end of the street, the sirens had arrived at the house. Fortunately, no one paid attention to a bent old woman and a man carrying a teddy bear.
Chapter 9
As soon as Munro and Rory stepped into the Caledonian kingdom, Eilidh’s emotions rushed over Munro. She was, without a doubt, engaged in intimate and pleasurable activities. Always before, he’d fought the rare flashes of jealousy, but this time he allowed himself a moment of annoyance. She planned to marry Munro in less than a week. Would she really try to get pregnant with another man’s baby? Now, of all times?
They’d never talked about children. He’d assumed they’d have hundreds of years before they thought about babies, considering the extended lifetime provided him by their magical bond.
On the other hand, before he knew Demi had a half-fae child with Ulrich, he wasn’t certain he and Eilidh could have children together. The fae only reproduced after venturing through the Otherworld gates to make sacrifices to the Mother of the Earth. He’d never worked out what was special about those altars. Their necessity prevented the fae from cutting themselves off from the human realm and explained why the queen who controlled the most gates had the most power.
He tried to push his mistrust aside. Eilidh would have her reasons for her decisions. She wasn’t a careless or frivolous woman.
The laughter and pleasure that had rippled from his connection to Eilidh stopped abruptly. Shame suffused his thoughts at the perverse satisfaction he felt in interrupting Eilidh and Griogair’s lovemaking. I’m such a tool.
“Which way?” Rory asked as they descended from the glowing portal.
Eilidh’s bond pointed Munro somewhere east of the portal. So she wasn’t at Canton Dreich. Munro gestured towards her presence.
He stepped towards the Watchers that guarded the portal, and a quick conversation told him they wouldn’t find any major roads going that way. The shifting of the gates had added a massive new swath of land, including a major Andenan city. Munro thanked them and led Rory across the eastern plain with confidence. His bond wouldn’t steer him wrong.
“How does this new territory thing work?” Rory asked as they ran.
“I’ve wondered before what was at the edge of the kingdoms’ borders. I mean, the kingdoms don’t intersect, except at the Halls of Mist or in the human world. So how far does each kingdom go? Are they infinite? Or is there a wall? Is every kingdom an island? I really don’t know.”
“So how does the Stone add new lands? Is there like an earthquake?”
“We’ll need to ask Eilidh. Seems like everyone is happy, so I can’t imagine the shifting was violent or dangerous, but who can say with faeries,” Munro said.
Eilidh’s emotional turns flooded his mind. She had started sending him telepathic messages, beginning with, Why are you in Caledonia? She knew he couldn’t reply, so why ask? Obviously, his sudden appearance wasn’t welcome. Her essence radiated impatience with him. Of course, she’d told him she would take Griogair to the gates. Now he understood her surprise at his acceptance of her decision.
They ran on in silence until Rory interrupted his musing. “Something wrong?”
Munro grumbled to himself. He wished he had more skill at keeping his thoughts to himself. “Eilidh,” he said, hoping Rory wouldn’t ask too many questions.
“Flùr wants to bond again,” Rory spat out, sounding bitter. The resentment didn’t surprise Munro. He’d never forget the night he stopped Flùr’s attack on Rory and the guilt that still plagued him at having arrived too late. If only he’d made it to that hotel room five minutes earlier.
That she would make such a request did stun Munro. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Rory said. “She said neither of us could bond with anyone else, but we might bond with each other again.”
Munro scowled. The bond had been unnatural. Only by using her rare talent for druidic affinity had Flùranach been able to circumvent the usual magical order and seize Rory’s bond. The magical assault had been a selfish and violent act. “What did you tell her?”
“I said no.” The hesitation in Rory’s voice told Munro there was more going on. “I don’t see how I can trust her.”
The previous day, Munro had heard Rory shouting in his sleep. The terrors were nothing new, but over the past few months, his restless and haunted dreams had become less frequent. Now Munro understood why the nightmares had returned. “If she’s going to be a problem, send her back to Oszlár. She can stay with the keepers and join us when we need her. There’s no reason she has to live at the Hall.”
“We need her all the time,” Rory said. He sounded tired. “We should be searching for more druids every night. Even if she slept at the keepers’ place, I can’t avoid dealing with her.”
The decision was up to Rory, but Munro didn’t like seeing his friend so torn up like this. He didn’t respond. They started travelling over more uneven ground, and the conversation slowed as they picked their way more carefully.
After a while, Rory spoke again as though they’d never even paused. “I almost hit her last night.”
The admission made Munro falter for a second, but he recovered quickly. Where was this going? “Listen, mate,” he said, but Rory cut him off.
“I wouldn’t. She caught me off guard. I’m still so mad. I’m having trouble sorting everything out.”
“I’m sending her back to Oszlár,” Munro said. He couldn’t let Flùranach hurt Rory, but he wouldn’t stand by while Rory smacked her around, either. This situation was a disaster waiting to happen.
“When you bonded with Eilidh, did she say the words first?” Rory asked.
Munro looked at his friend. Would he actually consider bonding with Flùr? “No, I did.”
“And did the magic make you…do what she said?”
“No,” Munro said. “Nothing changed until she said the words too.”
“I guess the process works differently when you’re naturally compatible.” Rory fixed his gaze on the horizon. The huge Otherworld moon shone blue in the eastern sky. “Do you think if Flùr said the words first, I’d be safe? She couldn’t control me if she submitted before me, right?”
Munro reflected on the idea. None of them really understood the ancient bonding magic. What Flùr and Rory were considering was a perversion of the ritual. No one could predict what might happen. “I don’t know. But what if the reversal meant you had the power to control her?”
“What do you mean?” Rory asked.
“What if going through with her proposal meant she would be forced to obey you, had no choice but to agree with you, and the bond compelled her to please you? You admitted your impulse to hit her. Do you trust yourself not to abuse that power the same way she did?” This whole plan sounded like a bad idea.
“I won’t hurt her,” Rory said.
“Why are you considering this?” Munro said. “Yes, we need her. We all accept that. Well, everyone but Aaron does. But your bond isn’t required
to obtain her help.”
Rory kept silent for some time, but after a while he said, “I’ll never have what you and Eilidh do. I’ll never bond naturally. This may be my only chance to reach my potential, to live more than a natural human lifespan, to achieve the magical competency you take for granted.”
“Look,” Munro said. “You need to understand. Even my bond with Eilidh isn’t always wonderful. Having someone in your mind all the time is a pain. I sense her whims and disappointments. I accept that she has the power to end me with a simple thought. Our bond demands ultimate trust. Something deep drove us to make that commitment.”
“Are you saying you had no choice?”
“I probably had a choice in the beginning, but I didn’t understand what I was getting into. The pull was primal and nearly impossible to resist. For you and Flùr to bond again, I’m assuming she’d manipulate your magic like before to force the link.” He changed direction to lead them around a hill. Towering pine trees loomed overhead. A dense forest threatened to slow them even further.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Rory said.
“Do you think she’s manipulating you with her astral talent? She’s capable of it.”
“I don’t think so,” Rory said.
“But you aren’t certain.” Munro knew he couldn’t be positive. Humans weren’t capable of detecting fae magic, especially mental manipulations. “Huck told me what he overheard of your conversation with her.” Rory flushed, but Munro didn’t know the reaction came from anger or embarrassment. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to talk yourself into or out of bonding with her.”
“I’m not sure either,” Rory admitted. “I hate that we’re at their mercy. Sometimes I think we shouldn’t have left Caledonia. At least there, we had Eilidh’s protection.”
The same thing had crossed Munro’s mind. But the druids made the decision to leave because they needed to establish themselves and not be beholden to any one queen. They took a risk in doing so, but the Halls of Mist was sacred to the fae. No one would attack them there. “Staying with Eilidh might have been easier,” Munro said. “But we need the queens’ respect. Plus, living at the Halls of Mist, we are granted access to most kingdoms’ gates. That’ll be important as we search for druids. If the queens considered us part of Caledonia, there’s no way we’d get free rein.”
Caledonia Fae 04- Druid Lords Page 10
