Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Isabelle!” Turning, Eamon ran down the stairs, again taking them two at a time until he reached the startled witch, grabbing her by the shoulders. “That protection spell you put on the house. Tell me what it does. Does it only protect against magical force or does it keep any unauthorized person from coming inside?”

  The woman floundered for a moment, taken aback by Eamon’s intensity. “I … I … you said to protect it against magical forces! It deflects spells!”

  “It doesn’t keep people out?”

  “That’s not what you asked for!”

  Eamon released the woman, turning around and dragging his hand over his hair. “Autumn is gone. Her window is open; her bathroom looks like there was a problem there; and she’s gone. Fuck!” he shouted the curse, hitting his hand against the wall. “Fuck, Isabelle! Damn it to hell!”

  “Hey now, you can’t yell at my wife like that,” Craig said, coming in from the kitchen, his hands on his hips and his brow furrowed. “She’s working hard to help you out, and you can’t speak to her that way.”

  “I’m not yelling at her,” Eamon said, his teeth gritted. He turned around to face Craig, giving the man some respect because he knew that if he thought anyone was disrespecting Autumn, he’d be doing the same thing. “I’m not. Isabelle, I’m not angry with you. But Autumn is missing, and I need help.”

  Isabelle sniffed in response, crossing her arms over her chest and walking over to stand by Craig, who had proven to be her hero. “I just don’t know what I can do, given how little you appreciate what I’ve done so far.”

  “Isabelle.” Eamon tried to keep his voice steady and the anger out of his words. “I’m sorry I raised my voice. But you don’t seem to understand. People want to kill Autumn, and now she is missing from this house. Do you see the problem?”

  “I do,” Leah said, reminding Eamon of her presence. She had been such a silent worker the whole time that he kept forgetting she was there. But she was looking at him now with sympathy and determination. “I’ll help you. Tracking is one of the things I’m best at. Get me something of hers while I set up the spell. I’ll work as quickly as I can.”

  The relief that Eamon felt was instant but incomplete. He grabbed Leah and hugged her hard, then ran upstairs to get something that belonged to Autumn, knowing that even if Leah worked her magic as quickly as she could and found Autumn accurately, it could already be too late.

  She might be lost to him forever, and if she was, then there was no length to which he would not go to destroy everything and everyone who had played a part in taking the woman he loved from him.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Autumn

  The only sound that Autumn could hear was the slow ticking of a clock somewhere in the room, just outside of her line of vision. Tick, tick, tick, the seconds went by, and the only thing that kept Autumn somewhat sane as she sat there, frozen in place, on the bed, unable to speak or look anywhere except directly in front of her, was counting the seconds in her head. Her only other choice was to think of her children and Eamon and contemplate the reality that she might never see them again.

  She had been sitting in that room for approximately thirty-seven minutes, if her counting was accurate. That was 2,224 seconds … 2,225 … 2226 … 2227 …

  The sound of footsteps interrupted the unceasing drone of time passing, and Autumn immediately lost count, focusing every sense on determining who was walking and whether they were walking toward her.

  They were heavy footsteps, like those that might belong to the large, awkward, plain woman with the long braid and small, mean eyes. It gave Autumn a sick feeling in her stomach. The last words the woman had spoken had been a threat to end Autumn’s life in the most creative way she could imagine without using magic. Autumn had no doubt that the woman would do an excellent job of following through, if given the chance, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it as long as she was under the influence of whatever magic forced her to obey the woman’s every command.

  The door to the bedroom opened, and the woman stood there, smiling slightly. “Well, looks like I still have myself a meddlesome woman in here. That’s enough to make my whole day.”

  Autumn couldn’t speak, but there had been no directive to control the look in her eyes, and she fixed her fiercest look on the woman in front of her, refusing to appear cowed, even if that’s how she was feeling.

  “Oh, still got a little fire in you,” the woman said, walking inside and closing the door. “That’s good. That’ll make this more fun, probably. Why don’t we do this? How about…you can talk now.”

  Immediately, Autumn’s jaw loosened and all of the words she’d been holding back for the last hour came spilling out all at once. “Who the hell do you think you are? You’re not going to get away with this. You and your people—whoever you are—you’re on the wrong side, and you’re going to be taken down. You might think that you’re winning, but you’re not even close. We know what your plan is… taking over all of Boston, destroying it with this so-called magic you have.” Autumn sneered at her. “You have no idea what kind of power we have to fight back against you. Someone is going to find me here, you know. We have witches on our side too, and they’ll track me down. If I’m not alive when they get here, there’s going to be hell to pay. Did you know that I’m the only parent that two little girls have? They already lost their father, so how can you take their mother from them too? How can you sleep at night knowing that a nine-year-old and a six-year-old will be orphaned for your stupid agenda? What harm did I ever do to any of you anyway? I was just running through a forest, minding my own business! I have no idea what I even saw, and now this! You’re crazy—all of you are crazy!”

  “What you saw was a channeling ritual,” the woman said. She disappeared out the door for a moment, leaving it open, then reappeared with a chair she had procured from another room. Sitting down across from Autumn, she crossed her legs and folded her arms over her chest. “Witches and their subordinates from all over Massachusetts had arrived there that night, and they were channeling their power through the fire into a designated object that would be stored for later use. We have many of those objects, and when we’re ready, we will surround an altar with them so that stored power can help to create our ultimate spell.”

  Autumn just stared at the woman. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Why not? You’re going to be dead shortly, and I’m sure you’re curious.”

  The words chilled her, but Autumn refused to react. “What’s your name?”

  “Gayla.”

  “Are you in charge of all of this or are you just some lackey?”

  Gayla’s eyes flashed briefly, but then she smirked, as though she realized that Autumn was just trying to get under her skin. “I’m Nova’s best friend and righthand woman. Everything I’m doing is so that we can take revenge out on the society that wrecked our ancestors lives and families, and when Nova takes power, controlling people with just a flick of her hand, then I’ll have everything I’ve ever wanted because she will make sure of it.”

  “Seems risky,” Autumn pointed out. “Who’s to say that this power won’t go to Nova’s head? She could cut you out after you’ve done all the dirty work.”

  A punch of pain hit Autumn in the gut, burning through her, and she would have doubled over, had Gayla’s power afforded her the ability to move. Instead, she groaned, gritting her teeth against the pain moving through her.

  “I see I hit a nerve,” Autumn managed, her voice gritty with pain.

  “You know nothing,” Gayla said. “Nova and I have known each other for hundreds of years. Neither of us would betray the other. We’re the ones who orchestrated all of this, and it was my suggestion that she be the one pulling the strings in the end because, frankly, I have better things to do.”

  “And you think she’s a better face for the movement,” Autumn said, her voice clearer as the pain began to recede a bit. It was about to come back in full force though. �
�Given how beautiful she is, and then…you.”

  Gayla just chuckled though. “You think it bothers me that you’re saying I’m not pretty? Please. I could be pretty if I chose. Nova wasn’t born the way she looks now—she did that to herself with spells. In fact, if she hadn’t been so vain and spent so much of her magical energy on shaping how she looked, we could have already implemented the plan. I look this way because people don’t pay attention to me. I don’t like people. I don’t want to perform their song and dance, and if nobody seeks you out, then you never have to make awkward excuses to avoid them or punch them in the throat for annoying you.”

  “I don’t buy it,” Autumn said. “Everyone gets lonely.”

  “Not me.” Gayla stood up and walked closer to her. “You’re a tiny little thing, you know. No meat on your bones. No substance to you. I can’t believe anyone could ever consider you a threat. If it makes you feel better, I think you should have been left out of this whole situation. It was our underlings’ mistake, trying to threaten you into silence.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

  “You did make a nuisance of yourself afterward though,” Gayla mused. “For that, you do definitely deserve to die. Not that I needed a good reason to kill you.” Her eyes gleamed. “I’m actually fascinated about the prospect of killing someone without magic. See, if I kill you with magic, then all of the power we’re storing up gets unbalanced, because taking a life through magic upsets the natural order of things. Nova was willing to just wait and watch you—to try to scare you off. But I realized that if I just kill you without magic, we all win.”

  Bending down low, Gayla grinned into Autumn’s face. “Isn’t that good news? Everyone wins.”

  Autumn spat at the woman, the glop of saliva landing on Gayla’s cheek and sliding down to dangle off her chin.

  Without reacting, Gayla straightened back up. “That was a mistake. A very big mistake. Now I’m going to make things so very much worse for you. Stand up.”

  Immediately, Autumn was on her feet.

  “We’re going to my very favorite spot,” Gayla told her, yanking Autumn by her still-sore arm. “I’m going to make sure that killing you is something I remember forever, and I want the ambience to be just right.”

  “Eamon is going to find you, you know.”

  Gayla chuckled, shaking her head. “Oh, I hope so. I really, really do hope so.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Eamon

  Whatever protections Leah and Isabelle could give him, Eamon currently had on his person. Isabelle had been mollified by Eamon with a little help from Leah, and she had finished bestowing upon him the enchanted objects that she had worked so hard to make. He had the band around his wrist, a pendant around his neck, and his pockets filled with weapons that would give him some chance against his foes if he still couldn’t transition.

  He had alerted Ronan, Moira, Siobhan, and Kean about what was happening, and they were all on standby, ready to come to his aid as soon as he found Autumn.

  That was the part that was making him lose his mind. Battle, he could handle. The waiting while Leah tried to find Autumn was almost unbearable.

  As he sat there and watched, Leah sat on the floor, candles lit around her, precious stones forming a circle around her to give her greater power, and herbs placed at her feet. She was murmuring to herself under her breath, Autumn’s wallet in her hands. Her fingers stroked the bindings and now and then she would open the wallet, running her finger over the cards within. It was something that Autumn used all the time—something that was hers and only hers, connected directly to her name. Leah had promised that it would work better than anything else.

  And yet so much time had gone by without her saying a word other than her chants.

  “Damn it!” Leah let out the curse, dropping the wallet from her hands with a groan.

  “What?” Eamon was on his feet. “What? What happened?”

  “She’s gone.”

  Her words froze him to the floor, his heart stopping in his chest. “Don’t say that. You can’t say that. She’s not gone, Leah.”

  “Yes, she is,” Leah insisted, her tone harsh as she looked up at him. “I was so close to her. I had her within my sight. It was a house. In a neighborhood. To the north. I knew where she was, and now she’s gone.”

  “Gone…from the house?” Eamon’s words were strangled. “Or…gone? Did they…?”

  “No, they didn’t kill her,” Leah snapped, as though he should know that. “She’s moved. She’s walked away.”

  Isabelle leaned forward on the couch, raising a finger. “By the way, Leah gets very testy when she does this. It takes a lot out of her.”

  Eamon didn’t care how the woman spoke to him as long as she kept telling him that Autumn was alive. “Find her again,” he urged Leah. “You did it the first time, so do it again. Where is she going now?”

  “It doesn’t work like that,” Leah said, picking the wallet up again. “She’s moving. Moving makes it harder. All I can do is trace her energy as best I can until she stops moving again, and then I may—may—be able to hone in on her location.”

  “May?” Eamon demanded. “I thought you said this was your wheelhouse.”

  Isabelle cleared her throat for attention. “It is, but location spells are particularly difficult.”

  “Oh, so location spells are hard, but controlling someone’s actions—that’s easy.”

  “Yes,” Isabelle said, nodding firmly. “Yes. I know it may not make sense to you, but it’s about the way that our powers work. It’s all about proximity, you see. If we’re close, less energy is expended. It’s incredibly easy to control someone’s physical matter when you’re next to them, or close by. But it’s very difficult to control it when you’re far away, which is why it would be hard to control a whole stadium of people. You would need a lot—a lot—of power for that, because of how far you have to push your magical powers. With location spells, you’re very far away from the person you’re locating. That’s going to make it hard. If Autumn was here in the room, Leah could locate her very easily.”

  Eamon tried to keep the frustration off of his face and out of his voice. “Well, if she was in the room, I could locate her very easily too, Isabelle.”

  “You know what I mean.” Isabelle waved a hand dismissively. “It’s all about distance.”

  “Does that mean that if I come up against magic, I should keep as far from it as possible?” Eamon asked. “If I go head to head with these people, does moving around, bobbing and weaving, help?”

  Isabelle nodded her head. “Oh yes. Definitely. Just remember that we have a lot more control over the elements than you do. A witch doesn’t have to be close to a body of water to turn it into a tsunami, for instance. Or close to a mountain to create an avalanche.”

  “Good to know,” Eamon said, before turning his attention back to Leah. “Is she still moving?”

  Leah nodded.

  “And she’s still alive?”

  “Yes,” Leah said definitively. “I still have her energy on my radar. It’s there, and it’s not growing weaker. But it is still moving, and further and further away from me.”

  Eamon went to sit beside her. “What can I do? Tell me.”

  Surprised, Leah looked up at him. “Come closer.”

  He didn’t ask questions, doing as she directed and getting as close to her as he could without putting her directly in his lap. “What is this doing? Is this helping?”

  “Actually, yes.” She pointed across the room. “Go over there.”

  Again, he didn’t question her. Getting up, he strode over to the other side of the room before turning around and looking at Leah. “Well? Anything?”

  “She fades when you’re further away, and her signal is stronger when you’re close,” Leah said. “I’ve never seen that before. Come here and hold this wallet with me.”

  Eamon crossed back over to her, wrapping his hands around hers as Leah held the wallet and
closed her eyes, tilting her head back, her dark hair streaming down her back. They sat like that for what seemed to be hours, but was likely just minutes, and Eamon pressed the older woman’s hands hard, giving her as much of whatever magical current he possessed as possible.

  “There,” Leah whispered finally. “I see her. She’s still. She’s afraid. I can see so much more of her when you’re here. You two are connected—like one spirit living in two bodies.”

  Eamon swallowed hard, emotion rising up in him. “Yes. Yes, we are. Can you see where she is yet?”

  “I see her perfectly.” Leah opened her eyes and looked into his, and immediately Eamon’s mind was filled with an image. The shoreline was in front of him, waves breaking against the sand and rocks that formed the long stretch of beach. Behind the beach, small hills built on each other, covered in trees and a marked path for hiking, and to the left there was a pier, stretching far out into the water. He knew exactly where it was.

  “Georges Island.”

  Leah nodded. “Yes. She’s only just arrived. Go to her now.”

  He didn’t have to be told twice. Letting go of her hands, he got to his feet and took the bag that Isabelle handed to him—the one filled with objects that would help him combat the magical forces that he was sure to face when he went after her. “Thank you,” he said to all of them. “Stay here until I tell you it’s safe. You’ll all be targets now.”

  Hurrying out of the house, Eamon got into his car and started the engine, reaching for his phone as he pulled out onto the street. Ronan answered on the first ring.

  “You have her?”

  “No, but I know where she is. Meet me at Georges Island.”

  “That’s where she is?”

  “Yes. They’ve taken here there. Up in the hills. I’m driving to a place where I can transition safely, and then I’m going to fly over to her. Ronan, I don’t care who sees me.”