Bres frowned. “I’m to be protecting her as much as you are Luke.” The two men stared at each other, neither one backing down.
I waved my hand between them, catching both of their attentions. “Hello. Listen to me. The guy, whoever he is, has my sister and my mom. We have to find out who he is, where he’s got them!”
They stared at me as if I was speaking Chinese. Did they not understand how important this was?
“We know who he is Quinn, and we know where your sister and mother were taken,” Bres said. His accent seemed stronger than it had been before.
It was my turn to stare. “What?”
“That was Balor. He is the ruler of the Fomorii,” Luke said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
“He doesn’t look like the others,” I said, thinking of the bulbous eyes and slimy black skin the Fomorii I’d already met.
Bres gave me a wry smile and a wink I didn’t understand. “Ta more powerful ta Fomorii, ta more human they look.”
“We can’t go after them Quinn,” Luke said, his hands clasped loosely in his lap. “I’m sorry, but the likelihood is they’ve both been killed already.”
I was shaking my head even before he finished speaking. “No, I saw Ashling. She’s still alive. And Balor, he said she was beautiful; that he was going to keep her for his own. Does that mean what I think it does?”
Luke and Bres exchanged a look, one that tightened my heart with fear for my sister. “Tell me,” I said.
“She’ll become his mistress, if all goes well.” Bres lifted a hand to stall me but I barrelled over him, my voice hitting octaves and decibels I hadn’t known I could reach.
“If all goes well? Are you out of your mind? That’s rape!” I was breathing hard, anxiety and urgency battling for control of my body. “We have to get her out of there!”
Luke stood, his face a drawn with anger. “We can’t!” he shouted, his power filling the room; the air thickening until I was pushed to my knees. “It is done and there is no undoing it Quinn. There will be no more talk of rescue.”
“Not to mention ta bounty on your head, if you were to step into ta Fomorii kingdom, eh Luke?” Bres said, drawing out each syllable.
Luke glared at Bres. “Yes—that would be a problem, if we were going after them. But we aren’t. You don’t have bounty on your head; would you like to tell Quinn why?”
Bres shrugged, his lips quirking over some joke I didn’t get. “It don’t be bothering me none. You see Quinn, I don’t have a bounty ‘cause I be half Fomorii.”
~~
10
I couldn’t sleep after I’d kicked the two boys out; I found myself pacing the room in the semi-darkness.
Balor had Ashling; Bres was half Fomorii which made me wonder how I could trust him. What if he was a double agent? Would he try and kill me for Balor? I crossed and uncrossed my arms several times, agitated and scared. Luke wouldn’t help me rescue Ashling, of that I had no doubt. The minutes were ticking by, the seconds rushing past me. How long would Ashling have before Balor took her to his bed? What if her temper flared and he decided that her beauty was not worth the trouble?
“Ashling, just play along a little while,” I whispered into the night air.
Midnight tomorrow. That wasn’t enough time. For some reason I did not doubt Balor’s words. As crazy as the events were, I knew that they were truly happening and they felt like a chess game to me. But I didn’t know all the players or what they were capable of, and I was a single pawn left facing the entire board on my own.
I shook my head. “You will not give up Quinn,” I said. “Ashling and Mom are depending on you.”
An overwhelming desire to leave the room and get some fresh air washed through me. I scooped my knife up off the bedside table, and the bone handle warmed in my hand. I tucked it into the waistband of my shorts, flipping my shirt over it to hide the blade. I peeked out the door but neither Bres nor Luke stood guard, though I had no doubt they’d be close by. Moving at a jog I ran out of the room and down the stairs in bare feet. There was something—or someone—calling me, enticing me to come outside. I didn’t feel coerced, only curious and somewhat excited.
Halfway down the stairs the ground swayed and shook; the chandeliers clanged above my head. I cried out as I was flung against the stairway’s guardrails. The quake lasted longer this time, nearly a full minute. And when it left so did the power.
Through the semi darkness I ran out through the front doors and onto one of the wooden pathways, one that took me deeper into the coastal rainforest. The further away I got the more my feet slowed, my mind doing all the racing I needed. Still the pull was there, attached somewhere around my belly button, gently guiding me forward. I wasn’t afraid; I didn’t think the Fomorii had it in them to be that gentle. I was deep into the forest when the pulling suddenly stopped, but I kept walking; the night air soothing me.
I pulled the blade out and rolled it in my fingers. “And what is it about you?” I placed it on the ground and walked a few feet away. I put all my will into wanting it in my hands but nothing happened. It lay in the moonlight, the gleam of ivory bone easily visible against the wooden path.
“Trying to get a blade to Jump is hard.”
I spun, my fingers reaching for my knife, circling around the handle as it appeared in my hand.
“Ha. Impressive. I shouldn’t be surprised, not with your bloodlines.” The voice was coming from my left and I turned to face it.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my eyes searching out the speaker.
“Blade Jumping is an old trick. Not one that many use because it takes years of practice. But that’s a family weapon, isn’t it?” The voice asked. There was a slight tremor to the voice, a faint accent if I listened hard. But it wasn’t Irish like Bres’—it was something else, something older.
“Yes, my Grandpa gave it to me. It was his,” I said, shifting my feet and trying to determine if this person was going to be a threat or not.
“The knife knows it belongs to you. It is, in a sense, bound to you. When you have need of it, and call for it, the knife will jump to your hand, no matter the distance between you and it. Very important when you face your enemies to have at least one weapon that is bound to you in this way.”
A couple strolled towards me, giggling and laughing, their arms woven around each other. Was one of them the speaker?
“Ah, young love. I miss it so,” the voice said, letting out a long sigh.
I stared at the couple but they didn’t react to the voice, not even a giggle. They sashayed past me, and I tucked my knife behind my back, giving them a false smile and a nod of my head.
“Oh, they can’t hear me pet. Only you can hear me. Only those whose fae blood runs strong through them can hear the voice of an old goddess like me.” She gave a low laugh that turned into an odd giggle.
I brought the knife back out in front of me.“Are you with Balor?” I asked.
The voice let out a violent hiss and the bushes rustled. “That old bastard. Never! I’m here to help you. Luke and Bres, they make good guards with all their muscle and ego. But they won’t guide you. You need a mentor.” The bushes rustled again and I took a step backwards. Then I screeched as a five-foot-long, brilliantly blue snake slithered out of the ferns. Now I knew why the voice sounded so familiar. It was the snake from my dream. I had been hoping that particular detail had been wrong.
“Oh hush yourself. It’s a body that is easy for me to take. My old bones don’t pain me when I’m in my snake form,” she said. I stared down at her, not sure what to do. The blue of her scales was nearly neon it was so bright with the tip of her tail, and head, a vibrant red to offset it. Not exactly subtle, but identical to what I remembered from my dream. Did that mean that Luke had been in my dream as well? I recalled the hands stroking my forehead, holding me tight, and a delicious shiver ran through me.
“Come on now, pick me up. I’m not slithering after you all night. And if I’m right you’ve got a
deadline to meet, don’t you?” she said.
I swallowed hard. Snakes were not on my list of favourite pets, and I wasn’t interested in getting bit. But what choice did I have? I needed help, and the two men assigned to me were far from forthcoming in that department.
Bending slowly I put out my hand, holding my breath and biting my tongue. She slithered up to me and made her way up my arm, draping herself over my shoulders as if she’d done it a thousand times. If she was such an old goddess, perhaps she had. I held very still; the cool dry feel of her belly not unpleasant, but still somewhat unnerving.
“You can call me Cora,” she said, her tongue slipping out to taste the air.
I stared at her mouth. “I can’t see your mouth move when you talk,” I said.
Cora’s tongue slipped out again. “It’s a projection of my thoughts into auditory tones. I don’t need vocal chords to speak.”
I nodded, as if that made all the sense in the world. “How are you going to help me?”
“Tell me of the deadline. What has happened to bring you here?” she asked.
I started down the path. “I have until midnight tomorrow—today I guess—to leave these lands or Balor is going to kill me. He said he would consider it an attack on him if I stayed.”
Cora’s body tightened around my neck and I took a shallow breath. Had I upset her?
“Balor was always one for theatrics. If he tried to kill you his own son would stand in his way before letting that happen. Balor, for all his tyranny, loves his children.” She let out a long sigh and I stepped off the path, my bare feet sinking in the thick moss that covered the forest floor. A sense of the surreal filled my brain and my body, as fear rose within me. Ashling and Mom were depending on me and how I played this chess game out.
“Wait. You said Balor’s son would stand in his way.” I thought of the violet eyes on both men, Bres’ confession of his Fomorii blood and the twinkle in his eye when he told me about it.
“Bres is Balor’s son?”
Cora let out a long sigh. “Yes, though you must not hold it against him. Bres renounced his father. It’s why he’s here helping Luke, though they don’t like one another.” Her tongue flicked out tasting the air. “Bres is a man of his word; you can trust him, and he will protect you at all costs.”
I mulled over this new piece of information. Bres, though he’d been gruff with me at first, hadn’t hurt me. I couldn’t put the father and son into the same category.
“Luke said that Bres was Tuatha? Like him and me. How can that be if Balor is his father?” I asked.
“Sit yourself down. We will discuss what needs to be done and what needs to be known.” Cora wrapped herself around me, her tail tucking underneath her coils, making me a perfect serpent necklace.
With great care I slid my back down the trunk of a tree, planting my butt in the soft ground.
“Luke was correct. Both boys are half Fomorii, half Tuatha. It is what you choose that defines which race you will take after. They have both renounced the darkness within themselves and have pledged to help defeat Balor and the Fomorii. That is enough. But remember, the darkness will always call to them; it is seductive in its own way.” I thought about what Balor had said, how we make our own choices, to change our own destiny.
Her coils tightened and then relaxed, her red head lifting out in front of me so that she could turn and look me in the eye. “Now, on to what you must know; what needs to be spoken to you that the others will not. The Barrier will only be the first of the challenges you face. I will help you pass it; you need to rescue your sister.”
A chill swept through me, shivers of a past that resonated in my soul. Her perfect diamond- shaped head bobbed. “Yes, you should be afraid. Once you are within the Otherworld you will be forced to fight your way to your mother and sister. And that is only the beginning. The Fomorii hate the Tuatha with a rage that is not equalled anywhere in the history of this planet. They were ousted from the Emerald Isle and believe it was wrongly taken from them. Many Fomorii were killed in the battle and they have a long memory.”
“You’re going to help me rescue them?” I asked, hope stirring. I ignored the rest of what Cora was saying. I didn’t want nor need a history lesson right now.
She gave a flick of her tongue. “Both of you girls are important to bringing peace to this land—we need you both alive. Stupid Council and their belief that they know the prophecy better than I do.”
The wind blew, rustling the bushes around us, my long shirt waving in the breeze. I stared out into the forest. “Why are the Fomorii here, if it was Ireland they were ousted from? Why did they take Ashling and my mom?”
Cora let out a hiss and curled herself back around my neck, her head now underneath my braid. “I don’t know the answer to the first question. I could guess but I would not put those thoughts into words, for fear they would come true. As to why they stole the ones you love… that you must find out on your own. I’m here only to help you find the path you must walk and give you the tools you will need to fight your battles.”
I wanted to refute what was happening—to not believe in what I was seeing and feeling. Yet there was a large part of me that had to acknowledge that her words made a twisted sort of sense.
“If I am a Tuatha, then so is my mother,” I said, trying to wrap my head around all the information I was being asked to not only take in, but believe completely.
“She is only a quarter Tuatha. Your father is full-blooded Fae.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. These were just details right now—they didn’t matter in this moment, not really. It didn’t change the fact that I was going after my family.
“I have until midnight tomorrow to get to Ashling and get her out of the ocean, or wherever it is that the Fomorii took her,” I said.
“Quinn, who are you talking too?” I spun to face Luke, his brows drawn over his eyes, deepening their colour to an intensity that made my knees weak. He really was a beautiful man, despite the fact that we had started out on the wrong foot—and the small fact that he didn’t want to help me rescue my family.
“Um. I was just . . .” I waved my hands in the air, then finally pointed at Cora, who let out a long hiss.
“Good gods Corchen. Really? You weren’t to come here.” Luke’s voice and eyes softened with something akin to pity. He shook his head and again I was struck by the sadness that filled his features when he let his guard down.
“I don’t recall that, boy. Besides, it was you that wasn’t to come here to Quinn, if I recall correctly. There was no restrictions put on me.” Her coils tightened and I tensed until she relaxed. She lifted her head. “No, I think you’re just jealous. I’m going to usher her in. Not you.”
Luke strode forward and very gently pulled Cora off me. “Old lady, you are not fit for these battles anymore.”
She coiled around his wrist. “I want to help. I still have some years left Luke. Don’t turn me away from the last of my line.”
I blinked several times as her words sank in. “We’re related?” I did not fancy ending up in a snake form.
Luke took a deep breath. “Yes, she is the founder of your lineage. And you are the last of hers.”
The line of the snake. I didn’t have time to dwell on that right now.
“I will protect her with my life, you know that Luke. Then you will be able to free Bres from his bond and you will be able to do as you please, with whomever you please,” she said.
I put my hand out and took her back from Luke, doing my best not to blush under his gaze. “She can stay with me.”
His eyes widened and he lifted an eyebrow. “Fine. But it does not relieve anyone of their obligations.”
Cora tightened over my arms, locking them within her coils. A pair of handcuffs made from a serpent.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked, trying not to get panicky as her muscles tightened around my hands further.
Luke grabbed the end of Cora’s tail and began to u
nwind her. “Corchen, let her go.”
“It is her time. I must Quicken her blood now. The prophecy calls for it. It is my task as she is one of my own.”
I did not like the way this was going and I wriggled my hands, trying to get them out without hurting her.
Luke continued to unwind her body, searching for her head.
“Don’t do it Corchen. It will only heighten Balor’s resolve to kill her; let her at least speak to the Council first, I think that would be better,” he said as his hands worked at untangling her body from my arms.
“Quinn will not have a chance if her blood is not Quickened. And we both know that Balor will try to find a way to kill her no matter what.”
“Wait, what are you talking about? And, I think I’ve already . . .” I started to explain that I’d already been Quickened, by my Grandpa.
Cora didn’t answer me, at least not with words. Her bright red head appeared and before Luke could grab her she reared back, let out a hiss and struck, her fangs sinking deep into my neck. I let out a strangled cry and sank to the ground, moss cushioning my fall. Luke’s hands caught me before I hit the forest floor, lowering me into the soft moss as my world dissolved in a blaze of fire and pain.
~~
11
I writhed on the ground, every inch of my skin lit from within, nerve endings firing spasmodically throughout my whole body. What had she done to me? There was no doubt in my mind this was more than just some simple snake poison.
“Damn it Corchen, you know what will happen to her!” Luke said, somewhere close by my head.
With every beat of my heart the pain intensified, as if it originated within me and not from the venom in Cora’s fangs.
“Then you must protect her. It is what you were born for Luke. That’s why I didn’t tattle on you to the Council.” Her voice was right in my ear and I had an urge to grab her and break her snaky little neck, relative or not. But my nerve endings were white hot, screaming at me to put the fire out, and that left little room for anything but trying to hang on to consciousness.
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