The Shadows of Dark Root (Daughters of Dark Root Book 5)

by April Aasheim

  “I better be going. Good to meet you both.” Dave shook their hands, but when he shook Eric’s, his eyes sparkled, and he held on a moment too long. “Loved that solo. You’ve got something special.”

  With that, Dave Dalton left.

  “He said I have something special. Can you believe it?” Eric slugged Paul in the arm, then whooped out loud. “Can you fucking believe it?”

  “Yeah, of course you do.” Paul clapped his brother on the back.

  After packing up their gear and collecting their pay, Paul dropped Eric off at his apartment. “Nice work, bro.”

  As he stepped out of the car, Eric swore, “By this time next year, things are going to be very different for us! Me and you bro. All the way.”

  Paul drove a few blocks, then pulled up to the curb. He pulled out the business card Dave Dalton had given to him, and called the number.

  “Jeanine? Hi, My name is Paul and Mr. Dalton asked me to call you and…”

  “Paul! Yes. David just spoke to me about you and your brother. He is very excited to have you two come up to New York. Can you leave on Friday?”

  “Uh…” Paul put his foot to the gas and pulled away. “That would be great, but I don’t think Eric can come this time. He has… obligations.”

  There was a long pause on the phone, and Paul was certain Jeanine would say that if Eric couldn’t come, neither could he. He let out a sigh of relief when she said, “Just come alone then. I’ll book your flight.”

  “Can I come sooner than Friday?” Paul asked, before he could talk himself out of it.

  “Well, Dave won’t be here until next week, but it might give us a chance to see your talents without having him breathing over your shoulder. He tends to make people nervous. Will Monday work?”

  “How about tomorrow?” Paul asked.

  “Enthusiasm! I love it. Okay then. I’ll call when I have your flight information. See you soon!”

  Paul pulled his dented Subaru onto the freeway, ignoring the accusing glares of passing drivers when his car couldn’t push past forty miles per hour. His eyes grew red and he began to cry. “I’m sorry, Eric,” he muttered under his breath.

  Paul knelt in the tall grass, cradling his face in his hands. “Oh, God,” he whimpered. “Oh, God. Oh, God!” He rocked on his heels and his eyes were red.

  I looked around frantically for Shane, hoping somehow he had been pulled in, too. Jillian had told me I’d know when someone was gone, that I would ‘feel’ it. But I didn’t feel his absence. I only saw that he was not with me. I kept staring at where the gate should be, hoping that he would come through. With every breath, my chest constricted and my heart beat quicker. Shane.

  “That was messed up,” Ruth Anne broke the silence. “Paul, you left your brother for a dumb gig?”

  “I know,” Paul sobbed, on his knees, his eyes squeezed shut, as if praying for absolution.

  “It’s okay, Paul,” Merry tried to reassure him. “You were young.”

  “He didn’t look that young,” Ruth Anne said. “Not as young as I was in mine, anyway.”

  Paul wiped his nose and found his feet. “Ruth Anne’s right. About everything.”

  Eve hadn’t yet spoken. She stood motionless while her boyfriend tried to stop his tears, not offering a single word of consolation. Finally, she walked up to him and pushed him forcefully in the chest. “You have a twin? I’ve known you three years and you’ve never once mentioned a brother, let alone a twin. Where was he when we were in Seattle last winter?”

  “Gone. He died a few months after I left.” Paul’s lips trembled and he lowered his head, his hair falling over his face as if to shield him. “O-o-overdose,” he managed to stutter. “I never even got to say goodbye before Mom spread his ashes on Puget Sound.”

  “Geez,” Ruth Anne said. “I didn’t know. Sorry, man.”

  “Not geez! Definitely not geez!” Eve faced Paul, unblinking. “Who are you?” she asked, taking a small step back and putting out her hand. “I feel like I don’t even know you.”

  My heart broke for him, even as Eve looked at him as if he were a monster. But at least she still had him. I stretched my neck again, looking around desperately for my husband. The portal was long gone.

  “Where’s Shane?” Ruth Anne finally asked, noticing we were a person short.

  I pressed my lips together, unable to explain. I pointed limply to where the gate had been. “They got him.”

  “Shane? Not Shane,” Ruth Anne said, her voice begging me to tell her I was kidding. I shook my head and told her of the swarm of shadow creatures. Then, we were all sobbing along with Paul.

  The Netherworld was taking its toll.

  “Starlight didn’t make it through either,” Merry said, drying her eyes. She sucked in a breath and straightened up. “But there are more important things right now.”

  I turned on her, my hands now fists. “You’re right we have better things to worry about than an owl! I lost my husband because of you and that owl.”

  “Try to stay calm, Mags,” Ruth Anne said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “We need to figure this out, calmly.”

  I shrugged her off. “You calm down!”

  “Maggie’s right,” Merry admitted. “If I hadn’t wanted to free those souls, and then tried to get Starlight… Oh, Maggie! What have I done?”

  “Oh, no you don’t.” I said, feeling my anger elevate further. “You don’t get to play martyr. This is your fault, end of story.” I pulled leaves from my hair, trying to think what to do next. I couldn’t lose Shane again, but I had no way to get back to him. And Montana was still out there, somewhere.

  My ankh hadn’t sparked since crossing, and without Shane I had no idea what to do or where to go. I flung my back against the nearest tree. I had hoped I could take on the Netherworld, but it was winning.

  “We should go,” Merry said, looking up.

  The sky was bland and colorless, as if it too had given up. There were tall gray rocks and sickly looking trees. All traces of the beauty of Cernunnos’ world had vanished, and I had to remind myself that all this was an illusion anyway.

  “We’re not going,” I said, stubbornly. “Not until we have Shane.”

  “He’s not coming,” Merry said gently. “Maggie…he’s….”

  “No!” I covered my ears. “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe you.”

  “Honey…”

  “Don’t honey me! This is all your fault. I never want to see you again.”

  There was a collective gasp. Even Eve’s mouth dropped open.

  “You don’t mean that, Mags,” Ruth Anne said.

  “I do!”

  Thunder rippled across the sky. Everyone looked upwards but me. Had I done that? Or was it the new landscape? There was no sign of the darkening shadow that had loomed over Cernunnos’ land, but there was a feeling of impending… something.

  “I’m so sorry, Maggie,” Merry tried again.

  I twisted the ring on my finger. It didn’t feel dead. Shane couldn’t be either.

  “Stay focused, Maggie,” Ruth Anne said, looking at my ring. “Can’t you see what this world is trying to do? The shameful memories the portals make us watch? Even the encounters with Cernunnos. This world is trying to pull us apart. It’s one of the rules of war: divide and conquer.”

  The air was chilly, and two half-moons were poised opposite one another in the sky. As my eyes adjusted to the new setting, I noticed more trees than I had first assumed, flanking us on both sides. We were on a wide path that cut through the middle. Patches of heavy fog billowed in shallow dips in the landscape. I gave an involuntary shiver as dozens of small yellow eyes blinked from the darkness beyond the fog. I focused on a single pair, daring them to challenge me.

  “What are we going to do, Maggie,” Eve asked.

  I sniffed and shook my head. “I don’t know.”

  “But Montana…” she said, quietly.

  But Montana.

  But Shane.

  I lo
oked back at the missing portal. If someone had plunged a knife and twisted it into my heart, it might have hurt less. I checked the hourglass. It was half full.

  What are we going to do, Maggie?

  I breathed deeply, trying to find calm. If Shane was alive, he would find us, even if we went on. And if he wasn’t… I refused to think of that now.

  “I don’t like the vibe here,” Merry said.

  Forward was as good a direction as any. I took one step, and then another. Slowly, I made my way, my feet iron weights. Even as I took another step, hoping it would lead me towards my son, there was unease because I was leaving Shane behind.

  The others followed, keeping their distance. They didn’t offer words of comfort anymore, probably fearing I’d snap at them. But even their silence invoked my anger. “It’s your fault,” I repeated to Merry whenever she tried to get close. The accusation made me feel stronger. More resolved.

  “Maggie, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” she said.

  “Those souls weren’t our problem. And that owl… did you think you’d bring him back to Dark Root with you?” My strides were long and purposeful now. As long as I kept moving, I felt like we were doing something. My anger combatted the gloom of this region, which was as sticky and oppressive as quicksand.

  Merry eventually grabbed me by the hand, pulling me to a halt. “Now listen, little sister. I’m sorry about Shane. I really am. I loved him too, Maggie.”

  “Don’t say loved! How dare you say loved!” Love was present. Loved was finality.

  I had lost my son, his father, and my husband - and I wasn’t sure if I’d see any of them, ever again. There was too much bottled up inside of me. Too much loss. I needed to release. I spread both hands, arcing them out to my sides, yelling at the world as I scorched the trees around us. Flames stripped their branches, blackening the trunks. The flames disappeared, replaced by drifting cinders.

  “Whoa!” Ruth Anne gawked, looking from me to the trees and back again. “Don’t fuck with Maggie.”

  “That’s right!” I challenged the Netherworld. “Don’t fuck with Maggie! I’ll burn this whole damned world to ashes before I let you take me down!”

  “Shh…” Eve said, looking around, as if my challenge might be accepted.

  “I don’t care who hears. I’m done being nice. Let it come for me.”

  “Quiet,” Paul said, holding still. “Listen.” The ground shook, enough to stir the puddles of water dotting the path. Then came the sound of thundering hooves, galloping towards us. “Get off the trail!” Paul ordered, pulling us into a clump of shrubbery.

  A monstrous black horse came charging into view, its hooves as white as its long teeth. It was nine-feet-tall from hoof to head, breathing out billows of smoke. It skidded to a halt on the trail before us, its nose down and its eyes coal-red. The steed whipped its neck around, snorting and stamping in the dirt.

  I peered through the leaves, hoping to get a better look. Riding the horse was a tall man in a long gray cloak, holding a lantern. He lifted his light and swung it in a slow arc. I held my breath, not daring to exhale.

  “What the…” Ruth Anne whispered.

  The rider pulled back his cloak. He had a jack-o’-lantern head with yellow eyes and a permanent wicked smile. His gaze and the lantern peered at the scorched trees. Was he going to find us? I tried to will my heart to stop beating, as if it might betray our location. Finally, he snapped the reins. The horse reared up and stampeded off.

  “I think I just peed my pants,” Ruth Anne said.

  “Still want to take on the Netherworld, Maggie?” Eve asked, as she crawled out from the vegetation and brushed off her blouse. “What was that thing, anyway?”

  “The Headless Horseman, I believe,” Ruth Anne said.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Eve asked. “Isn’t he from a book?”

  Paul examined the horse’s footprints, stamped into the wet earth. “Actually, he’s from a short story by Washington Irving. He wrote that the horseman lost his head from a cannonball in the Revolutionary War.”

  “Yep,” Ruth Anne agreed, grinning now that the danger had seemingly passed. “His head splattered all over the battlefield and his friends had to carry his body off without it. It’s said that he rises every Halloween to look for it, taking the heads of others to replace his own. It’s a great story, if you’re not living it.”

  Eve looked between the two of them, shook her head, then walked off. Paul eventually followed.

  “What’s Eve’s problem?” Ruth Anne asked.

  “Her boyfriend is giving you more attention than her,” Merry said matter-of-factly, as if it were obvious.

  We continued along the trail, following the horses hoof prints, listening carefully for the sound of his return. Owls occasionally screeched from the tree boughs, causing Merry to look pitifully over her shoulder in hope that one was Starlight. The two moons moved closer together as the night wore on, until they formed a single bright yellow disk, seeming near enough to lasso. The fog grew thicker as well, and bone-chillingly cold. We were down to one flashlight and could only see a few yards ahead. Paul and Eve led the way, neither speaking.

  “This place has a gothic feel to it,” Ruth Anne said, removing her Geiger counter from her pack. She handed me the flashlight as she conducted her search. After several minutes, she announced, “No radiation levels, but who knows what’s normal for the Netherworld?”

  “How big is this place?” Merry asked.

  Endless.

  As we walked, the trail transitioned into a cobblestone road. Eve’s boots clicked underfoot, ringing like horseshoes hammered on an anvil. Eventually we reached a crossroads. A sign was planted beside it, in the center of a spoked circle, like the one in Hecate’s garden. It pointed in three directions: Left, right, and forward. I stopped to feel around for the acorn in my pocket. Was I supposed to plant it here?

  “Head’s up!” Paul called out as the sky darkened two shades.

  Bats. Thousands of them. So dense that they momentarily blotted out the conjoined moons. Eve scrambled for Paul, but as soon as he took her hand, she pulled away.

  Ruth Anne crouched low and covered her head, her eyes truly terrified. “Make them go away, please!”

  As if to fulfill her wish, the bats disappeared into the night.

  “Um, I think bats are the least of our worries,” Merry said, tapping me on the shoulder. To our right, a stream of raggedy people filed out of the woods. They carried flickering torches and pitchforks.

  A woman with frazzled hair spotted us and pointed. “Witches!”

  “Burn them!” A man thumped his staff against the ground. “Burn them all!”

  They ran for us, with hobbling knees and greedy fires. We’re being chased again? Why are they even after us? I didn’t have time to ponder it. I focused, and my amber bracelet sparked, shooting a blue sphere of light around us.

  “Which way Maggie?” Merry asked, looking around anxiously.

  “We’re not running this time.”

  The horde was almost upon us, screaming obscenities.

  “You will leave us alone!” I raised my hands high. Lightning cracked across the sky. It struck a nearby tree, halving it as it fell. I snapped my wrist, as if wielding a whip, and another round of lightning sounded. “You really want to mess with a witch?”

  The ragtag mob fumbled to a halt, stepping back and lowering their torches. A few made a hasty sign of the cross.

  I opened my palm and their torches went out. And then, one by one, they all began to flee. All except a solitary woman. “You’ll burn in hell,” she promised.

  I took a step forward, sensing a familiarity about her. Leo’s mother? Before I could know for sure, she too, disappeared into the mist.

  I fell against the signpost, nearly spent.

  “How…what…how?” Ruth Anne asked.

  I looked at my offending hands, and then at my sister. “There’s so much inside of me that wants to get out.
”

  “You’re weakened now, Maggie,” Merry said. “You need to rest.”

  I looked to the horizon. There was still no sign of Eagle Mountain. And I had no idea which direction to go. It was more exhausting to make hard decisions than to set fires. “We have to keep moving,” I said, looking at the sign. There were no words, only arrows. My eyes lingered to the left for a long moment, before I spoke. “Let’s go right.”

  I looked periodically back at the two roads I hadn’t chosen, hoping I’d made the right decision. Occasionally, I peeked at my hourglass. The sand was moving quickly, and nearly half was now drained. What happens when there is no more sand?

  The cobblestone road reverted to gravel and the trees continued to watch us. Large barrel-trunked oaks that in earth time would be centuries old. Many were covered in layers of pungent dark moss, the smell wrinkling my nose.

  “I feel light-headed,” Merry said, stumbling.

  “Me too,” Ruth Anne admitted. “Maybe we still have some wine in us?”

  “No, I think…” Eve crumpled to the ground. Paul went to her, tapping her cheek, and her eyelids fluttered open. “What happened?” she asked, groggily.

  “You fainted.” Merry put her hand on Eve’s forehead. “Your energy is depleted.”

  Eve snorted as she stood up, daring her wobbly legs to defy her. “My energy is never depleted.”

  “You okay, babe?” Paul asked. Eve’s response was to glare.

  We walked on, looking and listening for horsemen and bats and witch-burning-mobs. Our shoulders slumped as the night weighed on us. “All these things were cool in the books and movies I loved,” Paul said. “I had quite the collection at one time.”

  “Paul’s always been into the dark and creepy,” Eve said.

  “Must be why he likes you,” Ruth Anne teased.

  I looked at Paul as I chewed on my lip. “You know, your subconscious may be creating this reality,” I said. “The last portal we went through affected you, and it’s your imagination we are catching glimpses of.”

  His brows pulled down over his eyes. He pressed his lips together and rubbed his hands. “Let’s just hope this is as bad as it gets,” he said. “I grew up on old horror movies. Who knows what else is trapped in my head?”