Tethered Souls

by Jessica McCrory

  “Oh, I’m going to catch you!” Abby circled around and waited for her sister behind one of the large trees. “Got you!” Isleen laughed hysterically as Abby grabbed her around the waist.

  “No fair! You tricked me!” She laughed.

  “Oh, dear Isleen how is it that you are so smart and yet you fall for my tricks every time.”

  Isleen’s giggles were cut off when suddenly the sky went black and the thunder began to roar overhead.

  Isleen turned to her and Abby watched in horror as that vibrant young face suddenly turned pale as death.

  “He hurt me.”

  Her words cut through Abby like a knife. “I know baby, I’m so sorry I never thought it would go that far! I never imagined he would ever cause you any harm.” She reached for Isleen, but she kept moving out of reach.

  “I never blamed you, sister. I have always known it wasn’t your fault. He is a bad man.” Her voice was more adult like now. All hints of the child were gone.

  “I swear to you, I will do everything I can to make it right. Isleen don’t go!”

  “You have to free me Aine. You must, he keeps me. It’s so dark and I can’t see anything. Please, save me.” Tears began streaming down her face. “I must go, he cannot find out I was here.” She turned and stopped when she saw the shadow of a man lurking in the dark. “Oh no. Please, I’m so sorry!” Isleen screamed and Abby rushed forward.

  “NO! Leave her alone! She’s just a child! Please don’t hurt her I will do anything!”

  Abby fell to the ground and tears began streaming down her face. She had been too late. Before her, she saw a small worn down grave marker. Her fingers brushed the cold stone and she felt a piece of herself die. “I’m so sorry.” She sobbed into her hands. “I was too late.”

  “Yes, you were.” His voice was a knife at her throat.

  Her head flew up and she stared into the eyes of her own personal demon. The shadow that had plagued her nightmares ever since she had been a small child.

  “You were too late.” He repeated. “You should have given yourself to me when you had the chance.” He spit it at her. “But instead, you gave yourself to him.”

  Abby felt hands around her throat lifting her off of the ground, but he hadn’t moved. “I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, Aine.” He chuckled. “I know that bitch of a sister of his didn’t get all of your memories, or you wouldn’t have come here, wouldn’t have fought so valiantly to get to your sister again. So tell me? If you do remember then why would you have gone to him? You should have come to me!”

  The hands tightened and she continued to fight, grabbing at something that wasn’t there.

  “My name is Abby.” She choked out.

  “Is that what you call yourself now?” He moved towards her and with her feet inches off the ground they stood face to face.

  She gasped when she saw under his hood. She had never seen his face before. Abby could tell that he had once been handsome, but his face had been contorted over the years and now he barely looked like a man. A large scar ran the length and he was blind in his right eye. His left was black and the emptiness behind it made her stomach churn.

  “You will always be Aine. You. Will. Be. Mine.” He raised his hand and she was thrown across the clearing. Fog crept over the ground and she hadn’t noticed the branches that had tightened to form a fence around them.

  “Abby!” She heard Aengus calling for her and although her vision was blurry and her chest burned, she did her best to pull herself in the direction of his voice.

  “I will come for you Aine.” He growled it from the shadows and disappeared.

  “Oh, Abby.” Aengus fell next to her. He gathered her carefully into his arms. “It will be alright, Abby. I’m so sorry.”

  He saw the bruises forming around her throat and knew that he had almost lost her. He pulled her onto Eamon with him and tethered Caley to the saddle. He needed to get to Myria as quickly as possible.

  “Quickly Eamon.” He rushed the horse and they took off into the woods. Caley kept the pace with Eamon as they all but flew through the trees.

  Abby opened her eyes and looked up at Aengus. His face was set in a tight line and the trees rushed past them, a blur in the background. Her vision began to fade and she curled into him.

  “Hang on Abby.” She heard him whisper.

  “He was there Myria.” Aengus paced the floor in front of Abby’s bed.

  “Aengus.” Myria tried to soothe him as she wiped Abby’s forehead with a damp cloth.

  “Are you not listening? He was there!”

  “I hear you Aengus, we knew he would come for her.”

  “But so soon? She nearly died Myria.”

  “I know brother.” She stood and placed her hands on his shoulders to stop his pacing. “But she didn’t. You saved her.”

  “I was almost too late.”

  “But you weren’t.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He shook her off and went back to pacing. “I could have been.”

  “Aengus,” Sheamus spoke this time. “You are the only reason she is alive. You couldn’t have stopped him from attacking her. He would have found another way to get to her. There was nothing you could have done to prevent that.”

  Aengus’s eyes squeezed shut and he took a deep breath.

  “Don’t tear yourself up Aengus. You did great today.” Sheamus patted his shoulder and then moved to put his arm around Myria. He always seemed to know when she needed someone to lean on.

  Aengus walked down the hall to his own room. Once inside he looked down at his hands. The deep cuts he had from digging at the branches were still bleeding lightly. The quick bandage Sheamus had covered them with had soaked through so he removed it carefully and went into his bathroom to wash them.

  He looked at himself in the mirror. He could see the circles under his eyes and knew that if he noticed them, Myria had to and it would only be a matter of time before she was pushing one of her teas at him. He hadn’t been sleeping for fear that Caipre would realize she had arrived and come after her. It was his worst fear, losing her again. And it had nearly come to pass today.

  The water stung his hands, but he barely noted the burn. His mind was still reeling from the day. She had taken off so fast he hadn’t been able to catch her. He remembered seeing her in the distance, entering the clearing. The branches had closed up so quickly it had practically expelled him before he had even reached the edge.

  Sheamus and Myria were right. How could he have known that Caipre would be out there, lurking? That he would somehow use her sister to draw her in. Still, he could hear her screaming, her pleading with Caipre to not hurt Isleen. Not knowing that what she was trying to prevent had already happened nearly 200 years ago. The pain in her voice still ate away at him. He slammed his fists down onto the countertop ignoring the pain.

  The bastard. How dare he. She had never loved him, never given him any reason to think she did and yet he stakes claim to her? Steals her from him in death and now when they finally had a second chance, he tries to take her again!

  Aengus could feel the anger building in his chest and knew all too well that it would consume him if he let it. It had before and the only thing that was keeping him from tearing apart every inch of the woods until he found and dispatched of the asshole was sleeping down the hall.

  Chapter Nine

  Aengus hadn’t been able to sleep. He had been too afraid that Caipre would make another move on Abby and he would be caught off guard again. He had spent all night forcing himself to stay out of the woods and the majority of his time had been spent sitting on the floor outside Abby’s door. He hadn’t even taken the time to change his clothes.

  When the sun finally came up, he had made himself get up and head downstairs. He wasn’t sure how she would handle seeing him sitting right outside of her room. He was outside in the barn when Myria found him.

  “Want a hand?” She asked knowing he would refuse her help just as he had done m
any times before. She knew that working with his hands is how he cooled his temper. It was his version of a breather.

  He shook his head as expected and went back to sawing the two-by-fours he was working with. Myria could see a frame taking shape, but she had never had his talent for imagining what something would look like when it was done. He was able to look at all the pieces in front of him and build a picture from there where, as she needed to see it drawn on paper or finished before she knew what it was going to be at its completion.

  “She will probably think it a nightmare, Aengus. She was put through the ringer today and she may not be ready to accept that it happened.”

  “What of her bruises?” He asked without looking up from his work.

  “Already fading, they should be completely gone by the time she wakes up.”

  “She’s tough you know.” It came out without him realizing it. But he decided that he truly believed it. The Aine he knew had been tough, and the Abby he just met struck him as a stronger person, probably due to the different centuries they had grown up in.

  “I know Aengus. But if she isn’t ready to accept it, we can’t push it. If we take that chance, and she isn’t ready, it could damn us all.”

  “You think I don’t know that Myria?” He snapped. He knew he was being irrational, but he was already on edge and didn’t need the consequences pointed out to him.

  She laid a hand on his arm and he felt a calm seep through him. It was one of her abilities he knew, to calm, but it still surprised him every time when the feeling washed over him. “I know you do Aengus. Better than any of us. She may just need more time.”

  He nodded and started sanding the frame.

  “There’s more.” The grim tone in her voice had Aengus stopping and staring at her. “I read her thoughts Aengus, while she was sleeping I connected myself to her and saw what happened today. He has Isleen.”

  “What do you mean? Isleen is dead. I saw it myself.” He would never be able to erase the image of how the once vibrant little girls’ body had looked when he had found her.

  She took a deep breath and he saw the tears shining in her eyes. “He has her soul.”

  Aengus felt like all the air had been sucked from his lungs. “Her soul? What the hell do you mean he has her soul? How is that even possible?” He had raised his voice and was yelling at her, he realized it and took a moment to calm himself. The tears began to stream down her face and he could have slapped himself.

  “Myria, I’m sorry I’m such an ass.” He embraced his sister and rubbed a hand on her back.

  “Aengus that poor little girl. To live eternity trapped like that. He must have used the dagger to kill her. It has to be how he trapped her soul. And now he is using her as bait. I should have grabbed the dagger from him before he ran off. How could I have let him keep it?”

  “Myria it’s not your fault, none of this is any of our faults. It’s not on anyone but Caipre. We will free her.” He held her out at arms length and looked into her eyes.

  She nodded and leaned into him. They had always been the best of friends. Even growing up, there was never any separating them. He had always been her rock and she his voice of reason.

  “Abby’s awake.” Sheamus entered the barn and looked at Myria. He could see the weight Myria carried and the sadness in her eyes. He assumed she must have relayed the information about Isleen. “I’m sorry Aengus. I know that I never knew her, but I feel pain for her soul.”

  “Thank you, Sheamus. We will free her.” There was force behind his words now. They would win. The stakes were one soul higher now.

  Abby jumped out of bed as quickly as her aching body allowed. It had to have been a dream. There was no other way to rationally explain what had happened to her. She ran to the mirror in the bathroom and let out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding in. No bruises. Surely had she actually been attacked there would be bruises! Some form of physical evidence of the assault. Therefore, it had to have been a dream.

  Oh but her entire body hurt. She could still feel the hands around her throat as she was choked. Her lungs still burned from the lack of oxygen.

  “It was just a nightmare.” She said out loud to herself. “An extremely vivid one, but still, it didn’t really happen, right?” She was so confused. The whole thing had felt so real, though, from the moment she had woken up and spotted Aengus down at the barn. The things they had talked about while they rode the horses. She could still hear the little girls screams in her head. She had known her from some of the dreams she had when she was young. In her dreams, they had been sisters and Abby had even called her that in front of her parents a time or two.

  Abby leaned in and studied her face closer in the mirror. Her eyes held tiny circles under them that showed a lack of sleep. Since by her calculations she had been sleeping for nearly two days, she could only assume they were due to the nightmare.

  Abby’s eyes began to fill. Why was she feeling so much emotion from this? The dreams had always hit her, but never this hard. The sobs came and Abby sunk to the floor. She had seen that poor little girl, lifeless in her arms. What was happening to her? She had to be losing her mind.

  The knock at her door had her standing and wiping her face. “Come, come in.” she stammered.

  “How are you?” Aengus stood in the doorway and she could see the hesitation on his face. He was wearing the same thing he had been in her nightmare. One more tally in the ‘I’m losing my mind category’ Abby thought to herself.

  “I’m alright.” She did her best to smile with her response, but she knew it came out halfhearted. I guess I’ve been asleep for a while. It seems I’m not immune to jet lag.” She watched his face, looking for any sign that she truly had been sleeping, but she found none.

  A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I guess not.” He moved further into the room and his presence made Abby’s eyes fill again. “What’s wrong?” He moved towards her and put his hands on her shoulders as Abby covered her face with her hands.

  He pulled her in and held her. His scent filled her lungs and Abby began to feel a longing. She wanted to curl into him and never let go.

  He ran his hand down her long dark hair, it felt so good to just hold her.

  She leaned back and looked up into his eyes. “I feel like I’m going crazy.”

  “Why do you feel that way?”

  “Aengus, did we go out yesterday?”

  “Why do you ask?” She saw it there in his eyes, saw the admission. The last tally she needed to know that she must be losing her damn mind. But how could it be? It didn’t make any sense! How else would she not have any bruises whatsoever? They couldn’t have healed after only a single night. It was impossible.

  “Never mind, it had to have been a nightmare.”

  He really should have let it go. Should have let her go on believing that it had all been a bad dream, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She had to know that she wasn’t crazy, had to start understanding so that she could begin to come to terms with it all, with what they were to each other. And dammit, he needed her.

  “What if it wasn’t?”

  “What?” Lost in her own thoughts, she looked back at him.

  “What if it wasn’t a nightmare?”

  “What are you saying? That somehow my own personal boogeyman who I have been dreaming of ever since I was a child is now here and is flesh and blood as is the little girl I used to pretend was my sister? It makes no sense.” She stood and began to pace. “Besides, how do you explain the fact that I have no bruises or physical evidence that I was attacked?” She tried to rationalize it all away, make herself believe as well that it hadn’t truly happened.

  “Myria is very good with herbs, she has a special tea that aids in healing.”

  She stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to laugh. To say something like ‘gotcha’ and then they could laugh it off, but he didn’t. He stared right back at her. His face looked deadly serious as he stood and walked towards th
e door.

  “Abby there are some things you are going to need to come to terms with, and soon.” He walked out the door and shut it gently behind him.

  Abby stared at the closed door for a moment. What in the world was happening to her? She had been asking that question way to often lately and it seemed as if things were only getting crazier.

  Part of her wanted to believe it had been a nightmare, needed to believe it had been a nightmare, but she couldn’t silence the voice inside of her that was telling her to wake up and see things for the way they were. So what if they didn’t make perfect sense, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck, right? That was what her mother used to say.

  She had been dreaming of Aengus for as long as she could remember, that didn’t make any logical sense, but there it was. She knew it to be a fact because he existed. He was a living, breathing person that she had never met until she arrived in Ireland two days ago. She felt an odd attachment to Myria, she couldn’t remember dreaming of her, but she knew that she had seen her somewhere.

  So is it really all that illogical to believe that what had happened to her hadn’t been a dream but rather an actual attack? Who’s to say that since Aengus is real, the little girl and her boogeyman weren’t as well? That thought sent shivers down her spine. She had felt the evil when he had spoken to her. When she had been forced to look into his face for the first time. The hatred in his voice when he had spoken of Aengus. And he had killed that little girl Isleen, she recalled. Tears threatened to spill again. So if the day had been real, if it hadn’t been a nightmare, then that meant that her own personal boogeyman was real and he was coming for her. That scared her more than anything else.

  She put her head in her hands and shook it attempting to shake away the headache that was beginning to surface. What was she going to do?

  The knock at her door had her heart racing. “Come in.” She felt guilty when the disappointment set in that it wasn’t Aengus. “Hi, Myria.”

  “How are you feeling?”