by Hall, Linsey
“So Victor Orriodor didn’t manage to steal your power when you were fifteen,” Aidan said.
Memories of the nightmare I’d had of Victor Orriodor trying to steal my root power flashed in my mind.
“Why isn’t it working?” he had yelled.
The pain in my chest surged until I was certain that I was consumed by the man’s gray flame. My power was waning, struggling to stay inside of me.
But I was losing it. I could feel it being peeled away. Crushed. Immolated.
Gone.
“He failed,” I said. “I thought it had been him, but it wasn’t. Otherwise I couldn’t have given it to Del. My locket protected me, burying my power so deep inside myself that he couldn’t get it.” I remembered how the locket had cooled on my chest, providing relief from the pain of Victor trying to steal my power.
“Did you learn what your root power is?”
“No. I didn’t think of it during the nightmare.”
“But Del has it,” Aidan said. “So you’ll figure it out.”
“I don’t think she has it.” I’d had a brief flare of hope when I’d thought of that, but it had dissipated quickly. “If she had it, she’d have told me.”
But what had happened to it? I shivered. “Do you think it’s gone forever?”
“No.” The certainty in his voice made me feel a bit better. “Del’s talent is rare. I’ve never heard of a supernatural doing that before. If she can do that, anything is possible. Which means getting your magic back is possible.”
I hoped he was right. I’d wanted answers so badly, but now that I was getting them, I didn’t like what I was learning.
CHAPTER SIX
I spent the remainder of the plane ride resting, the locket gripped in my fist. It’d be less weird to wear it around my neck, but for some reason, holding it in my hand was more comfortable.
By the time we landed on the tiny airstrip at Inismor, my headache had dissipated entirely. Whatever Aidan had given me for it had been strong.
The wind was brisk and the night dark when we climbed down the steps from the plane. Moonlight shined on the land, revealing fields bisected by low stone walls. No mountains on Inismor and hardly any trees—this island was just a flat stretch of rock that jutted out from the sea.
On the tarmac, which was little more than a narrow paved road with nothing but us and the plane, Aidan glanced at his watch. “It’s after ten.”
“Where’s the car?” I asked, then laughed. “Wow, I’ve really gotten used to traveling with you, haven’t I?”
“What do you mean?”
“Normally, I’d get off the plane with all the other plebeians and shuffle my way to the bus stop or car rental desk. I’ve only been traveling with you for a little over a month, and I’m already used to seeing a luxury vehicle waiting for me when I disembark.”
He grinned. “Inismor doesn’t have any of those. And transportation is coming.”
“Well, good, because I’m spoiled and expect only the best.” I was joking, but Aidan’s nod looked serious.
I was about to tell him that I’d need to call Del and Nix to tell them what I’d learned when the clip-clop of horse’s hooves on pavement sounded. I turned to see two big horses each pulling an open wagon.
My friend were sitting in the backs of the wagons—Del, Nix, Connor, and Claire. My heart leapt, but it was followed quickly by worry. The traps pulled to a stop in front of us.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked Del and Nix. “You’re supposed to be in Magic’s Bend.”
Del hiked her thumb at Aidan. “He called us.” Said your concealment charm is really going to shit and you needed backup.”
Worry gnawed in my chest. “But you’re at risk now.”
“We were always at risk,” Nix said. “As long as Victor Orriodor is alive.”
“Maybe so.” I pointed at Connor and Claire, our two friends who owned Potions & Pastilles, followed her. “But they weren’t.”
“You think we’d leave you hanging?” Connor asked. His dark hair flopped over his brow, and his black band t-shirt blended with the night.
“We’ve had this talk before,” Claire said as she shoved her long brown hair back from her face. She was wearing black like her brother, but it was all leather. She’d come dressed in her best demon-hunting wear. “So don’t be dense. We have your back.”
I smiled. “Thanks, guys. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Demons could pop out of the air at any second and try to off you,” Claire said. “We need to be here to kick their asses.”
“Thanks.” I hugged each of them fiercely. Except for Connor, who had a full satchel hanging at his side. That would be full of potion bombs, and I didn’t want to jostle it. Him, I hugged lightly.
“So you’ve found your childhood home?” Nix asked. There was joy in her voice, but also the slightest tinge of envy. I didn’t blame her. I’d feel it, too, in her position. None of us liked not knowing our histories.
“In theory,” I said. “We know it should be, at least.”
“Then lead on.” Del gestured to the wagons.
“This is our transportation?” I asked.
“Pony traps,” Aidan said. “Inismor only has a few cars, and they’re all owned by locals.”
“But you can rent pony traps.” Nix hopped into one of the traps. “Thanks, Fergus.”
The driver nodded, then tipped his cap to Aidan.
“Seriously?” I asked. “We’re kind of in a hurry.”
“Faster than walking,” Del said as she climbed into another trap. Connor and Claire followed her in. “And I can’t transport this many people.”
That was what she thought. After my most recent vision, I’d bet there was a way.
“The island is small,” Aidan said.
The two drivers were old men with white hair and tweed caps. They looked as Irish as shamrocks. They were supernaturals of some kind, but I didn’t know which. According to what Aidan had said, there were only two hundred inhabitants on Inismor, and all were Magica or Shifter.
Aidan and I climbed into the trap with Nix.
“Did you find out why Victor Orriodor was on the stage at the memorial? Is he part of the order?” I asked.
“No,” Nix said. “We spoke to Dr. Garriso, who asked around for us, but he knew nothing. Aerdeca and Mordaca also haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“Damn,” I muttered. Whatever Victor was up to, it made my skin prickle with goosebumps.
“Where to?” Fergus asked. His Irish accent was thick.
“West side of the island,” Aidan said. “Near Dún Dúchathair. There’s a lane that leads to a house.”
“Aye, I know it.”
“Dún Dúchathair?” I asked as the trap started to move, its wheels crunching on the gravel road.
“I did some research while you were asleep,” Aidan said. “I think your family home is located near an Iron Age fort named Dún Dúchathair. The Black Fort.”
“To the Black Fort, then,” I said. That didn’t sound ominous at all.
It only took twenty minutes of bumping along a gravel road to reach the end of the lane. We’d passed by several small farms and a pub sitting in the middle of nowhere that had been bursting with light and the sound of fiddles. But by the time we reached our stopping point, we were alone in the silent, dark night.
Fergus halted the trap and said, “Here’s where I leave you. Molly can’t go any farther.”
I squinted past him, toward the sea. The moon lit a narrow lane, barely wide enough for a cart like Molly’s.
“Is it protected?” I asked.
“Aye, that it is. Good luck gettin’ past. No one’s been there in years.”
Since my parents. “Thank you.”
I swung my small duffle over my shoulder and climbed out of the cart behind Aidan. He paid the driver while I started up the lane. I couldn’t see what was at the end, though the distant sound of crashing waves suggested that we
were near the cliffs.
Goose bumps rose on my skin as I walked, my feet crunching on the gravel. I was so close to my family home, but I couldn’t decide if it felt familiar. I hated that.
The land all around was flat, covered in slabs of broken rock. Scrubby grass peeked through the stone sheets, but this was no place that a person could till a field. It was a surreal landscape.
Why had my parents lived in such a remote area?
“Cass!” Nix called. “Little help here, please!”
I turned. My friends stood in a group about twenty feet back. Aidan and Connor each held a handle of a massive cooler, and everyone else had a small duffle slung over their shoulders, but otherwise they didn’t have too much to carry.
What did they need help with?
“The barrier?” Del said. “We can’t cross it.”
“Oh!” I must have passed it and not realized. I hurried toward them.
Nix placed her hand on the invisible magical barrier. She looked like a mime.
I held out a hand to Nix, and she grasped it. I tried to pull her through, hoping that my touch would indicate to the protective spell that she was allowed to pass.
“Ow!” Nix yanked her hand from mine and jumped back. “That’s not going to work.”
“I have the penatrist charms,” Aidan said. “We can come through one at a time.”
I nodded and stepped back. Aidan dug into a pocket, then handed a charm over to Connor. They walked through the barrier without incident. Aidan set the cooler on the ground, then took the charm from Connor and handed them over to Nix and Claire. They crossed and Del joined them a moment later.
“Those are some scary charms,” Del said.
“That they are,” Aidan said. “And rare as dragons. Though we did meet a few last week.”
I thought of the tiny dragons I’d met in Switzerland last week. Fire, water, air, and stone. I’d love to see them again.
I turned and headed up the lane, not bothering to ask if everyone was ready to go. My ability to be polite had fled with the arrival of my anxiety over seeing my old home.
When it appeared ahead, a moderately-sized stone house at the edge of the cliff, my heart felt like it contracted. The door was red. Window boxes were barren, but hinted at my family’s love for gardening. I climbed up the three stone steps and touched the smooth red paint, waiting for memories to come.
None did.
When I poked around inside my head, trying to recall any, only the pain came. I winced and removed my hand from the door.
Everyone else was silent, which was damned unusual for our group. I guess they sensed this was kind of a big deal. I hated to be all dramatic about it, though. Moping and being serious would get me nowhere. If I was going to grieve for what I’d lost, it wouldn’t be now.
“I hope you brought some PBR in that cooler,” I said as I turned the doorknob. The words came out more awkwardly than I’d hoped, but they did the trick. They broke the solemnity.
“Better believe it,” Connor said. “Del and Nix said we were coming to help you on some abandoned island, and I knew I had to be prepared.”
“You’re a treasure.”
Connor was a hearth witch, his talents lying in the domestic arts. Though he did have a mean hand with potions and could whip up a deadly spell in an instant. It made him as dangerous as his Fire Mage sister, though in a subtler way.
I stepped into the front hall, which was a simple space with a wooden floor and high ceiling. A painting of cliffs was hung on the far wall, with doors bracketing either side.
We set up shop in the kitchen, a homey room with warm wooden cabinets and an old cast iron stove. Electricity no longer worked, but the rest of the house had been preserved in good condition, most likely by the protective spell. There was little dust, and everything was put away neatly.
Like my parents had just disappeared one day.
Through the faint buzzing in my head, I could hear Connor and Claire unloading the cooler with goodies they’d brought from P & P.
Nix and Del appeared on either side of me and clasped my hands.
“How’re you doing?” Del asked softly.
“All right.” I stared blindly at the black window, my throat tight with unshed tears. “My parents are dead.”
“I’m sorry,” Nix said.
“Me too,” Del said.
“That makes three of us.” I squeezed their hands. Besides Del and Nix, the closest thing I had left to living kin were the dragonets I’d met last week. “But I’ve got you guys and we’re family.”
“You do. Always,” Del said.
“I’m sorry I’ve been totally self-absorbed lately,” I said. “I know I’m lucky to be getting answers about my past. That’s more than…” I trailed off, not knowing how to finish that statement. It sounded awful.
“That’s more than what we’ve got, is what you mean,” Del said.
“Yeah. But I’ll help you find answers if you want them.”
“I do,” Del said. “But I’ve accepted that I won’t get them. Not unless they come to me.”
“Same,” Nix said. “We’ve all looked on and off in the past, but had no luck. Now they’re falling into your lap, and they’re not good.”
“No, they’re not,” I said.
They squeezed my hands.
“I learned how we lost our memories. And how I lost my power.”
“Yeah?” Intrigue colored Del’s voice.
I explained my dream, how Del’s transport power was stronger than we’d realized.
“My mother could do magic like that?” Del asked. “I could do magic like that?”
“Yeah. I guess you forgot how when we blasted all our memories away.”
“Must have been a strong spell for that to happen,” Nix said.
I remembered the blazing light and sound. “Strongest I’ve ever felt. Transporting from a waypoint without a portal is pretty insane, really.”
“Yeah,” Del said. “That’s some badass power. Maybe I do want to learn more.”
I reached for the locket around my neck, taking comfort from the metal. “At the end, when I was afraid you wouldn’t have enough power to get us out of there, I gave up my root power. I pushed it toward you.”
“What?” Del demanded. “You gave it up? What was it?”
“I don’t know what it was. I just thought of it as my power. Not what the gift actually was. But I was terrified of having to stay there. So I pushed it toward you. Then it was gone.” I tried to ignore the fear that it could be gone forever.
“I don’t feel it inside me, though,” Del said. “At least, I don’t think.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “Otherwise you would have told me. So if you don’t have it, where did it go?”
“I don’t know,” Del said.
“I don’t think I gave up mine,” Nix said. “But I have no idea.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out,” Del said. “We’ll get your power back. Then you can go back to raiding tombs and being mortal like the rest of us.”
I thought of the demons trying to drown me in the Pool of Memory. “I’m not that immortal.”
“Immortal enough,” Nix said. “I’d rather you die of old age, happily watching sitcoms with your eighty grandkids.”
I laughed. “I don’t know if that’s in my future, but it sounds traumatizing to the kids. And I was envisioning cats, anyway.”
“Yeah, you have a point.” Del tugged on my hand so that I turned to face the group. “Let’s have a beer.”
“Good idea,” I said. “We’ll eat, get a bit of rest, and get an early start to explore this place at dawn.”
Part of me wanted to do it now, but it was pitch black outside. And honestly, I needed a bit of time to decompress and get my head on straight. Being here threw my whole system out of whack, and my mind felt like it was running a million miles a minute all while standing still.
Aidan handed me a PBR and a ham sandwich, and I took the
m gratefully.
As I ate and drank in the little kitchen where I’d been raised, the sound of my friends and family filled the empty space in my heart. I still ached for what I’d lost, and still didn’t remember enough, but I was grateful for what I had.
That night, Aidan and I slept in one of the guest bedrooms. I’d made Del go upstairs and explore, finding which rooms had been my parents’ and mine so that I didn’t go into them tonight. I couldn’t face it yet, and I didn’t want to cry any more.
Despite my best intentions, I cried myself to sleep anyway. But at least Aidan was there to hold me.
“Right, folks, let’s Sherlock Holmes the hell out of this place,” I said before polishing off the last of my coffee.
As I’d hoped, I’d woken feeling a hell of a lot better. With the dawn light shining through the windows, everything looked a bit more positive. Claire and Connor had made us a quick breakfast of leftover pastries and coffee, and we were ready to start the day.
“So, what do we do?” Claire asked.
“I need to figure out what my root power was. Maybe I can get it back.”
“Both sound good.”
Yeah, at this point, I’d take either. “I know that my locket has something to do with my root power because it protected me when Victor Orriodor tried to steal my root power when I was fifteen. And the locket had a map that led me here. So, let’s look for clues. Any kind of clue.”
At this point, I wasn’t super picky. I just needed info.
“Let’s start in the house, then,” Del said. “Everyone in a different room.”
We stood and everyone slowly filed out the door. When they were all gone, Aidan grabbed my hands and met my gaze.
“You doing okay?” Concern creased his brow.
“Yeah. I am. Really. I just needed a bit of a cry to get rid of the initial shock. Now I’m good to go.”
It wouldn’t be easy to deal with it all, but I could handle it now. I wished I were the sort to immediately tough out the bad stuff, but life’s hardballs sometimes made me curl up in a ball for a little while before I could deal with them. I was a real badass underneath my hard shell, clearly.
