I shook it. “Is there anywhere we can get more?”
Lance inspected his empty bottle. “Seconded. A refill would be good.”
Bleddyn shook his head. “I’m afraid not. If we are victorious and free the hostages, we will find plenty of nourishment and water. Until then, there is nothing.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. What kind of shit hole is this?” Kiernan continued muttering. Bleddyn seemed taken aback, but when he opened his mouth to respond, Kiernan held up his hand. “I know, I know what kind of place this is. You got to learn what a rhetorical question is.”
I tuned out their bickering. My breathing had recovered and the pain in my feet had subsided. Just in time, because Bleddyn urged us to resume our journey.
If anything, he drove us harder than before. Something was bothering him. The lower the sun traveled along its path, the more on edge he got.
But when we arrived at the summit, I ignored his urgent pleas to hurry up, and stopped.
Behind us, the land was black as far as the eye reached. But ahead of us, there were green forests and lush foothills. In the far distance, a gleaming city dominated the horizon.
I pointed. “What is that place?”
His face darkened. “This is Emlyn, the White City surrounding the Seelie Court.”
“I thought it’s the Unseelie Court?”
Bleddyn turned away, so I couldn’t see his expression. “I will explain another time.”
Without waiting for any more questions, he jumped off the mountain ridge, his fingers blurring with speed.
“Oh, come on,” I muttered.
Taking a deep breath, I followed his example and slipped down the steep mountain flank. Next to me, Kiernan, Lance, and Julian surfed on an avalanche of rocks until we’d reached the foot of the fell.
A huge step cleared half a mile before the flood of stones had even come to a halt. Bleddyn finally threw up his hand, and we stopped next to him. The sun was halfway to the horizon, and the shadows were growing longer.
“We’ve arrived.”
31
AMBER
Before us lay a low-lying, round building. It looked familiar, like something I might have seen in a history program on TV.
Kiernan made a surprised sound. His jaw dropped, and apparently, he’d lost the power of speech.
Lance flashed his gotcha-smirk. “Hennessy. You’re catching flies.”
Instead of shooting back, the Irishman pointed at the building with a trembling finger. “It looks like Newgrange.”
None of us had ever heard that name.
His eyes sparkling with excitement, Kiernan explained. “It’s a Neolithic burial mound back in Ireland. I went on a school trip years ago.”
I didn’t quite get why he was so shocked. “Are there bodies inside? Like in the Egyptian pyramids?”
“Nothing like that. I remember it being dark. Our teacher told us that during the Winter solstice, the morning light hits the main passage. I thought it was cool.”
Bleddyn chuckled. “Leave it to the humans to claim what’s not theirs. It’s called Brú na Bóinne, and the Fae built it. To us, it’s a holy place.”
Kiernan froze in astonishment. “No way. If I told Mrs. Shaughnessy that, she’d have a stroke.”
The Fae warrior’s gaze rested on the mound. His voice had a plaintive quality, as if looking into the past. “There are many structures in the human world that are of Fae origin. Long ago, there were no written records, and after the schism, much knowledge was lost.”
He shook his head as if to rid himself of painful memories. “Or maybe it was lost on purpose. Who knows? It’s of no relevance to the presence.”
Kiernan plodded on, seemingly unaware of Bleddyn’s changing mood. “So what about Poll na Brón and all the other dolmens?”
Bleddyn’s gaze sharpened as he looked at the excited Irish man. “They’re called Portal Dolmens for a reason. Most are inactive, but some still serve as passageways.”
“And the Beehive Huts?”
Bleddyn grinned. “No, they’re yours. No Fae in their right mind would live in a drafty stone hut on the edge of the Atlantic.”
Kiernan laughed out loud, quickly smothering his chuckles by clapping a hand over his mouth. Then he slapped the warrior on the back. “You’re too much, Bleddyn.”
While the men were bantering. I’d been watching Julian. It seemed like I did that a lot these days. He was acting weird again. The blood had drained out of his face. I could have sworn he recognized the place. But how could he have?
“Hey, Julian,” I called out. “Do you know about Newgrange?”
“No,” he was quick to deny. But his eyes darted from me to the building as if he expected something terrible to happen.
Out of the blue, he said, “Don’t go in there.”
Taken aback by his vehemence, I faltered. “But that’s where the hostages are kept. Right, Bleddyn?”
The Fae acknowledged my question. “Yes. This is where the Fae and the humans obtain their stolen magic.”
Lance picked up a stick and used it to scratch a circle into the soft dirt. “Where are the exits, Bleddyn?”
The warrior crouched on the ground and marked two spots opposite each other. “There’s a single passage way with an entrance either side. Along it are several rooms. This is where the human children are kept.”
“So it’s easy to defend,” I muttered.
“But also easy to breach and to keep enemies outside as long as they don’t know we’re coming.”
“And that’s the key question. What if Hennessy”—I threw a guilty glance at Kiernan—“had time to warn them?”
Bleddyn waved away my concern. “We moved so fast, it is unlikely anybody would have outpaced us.”
Julian spoke again, louder this time. “Don’t go in there. It’s not safe.”
I turned towards him, my eyebrow raised. “We know it’s not safe. These people abducted and murdered scores of kids.”
Sarcasm dripped off my words like blood from a blade. Julian winced, and I felt like a monster. I added, “Unless you can give us a reason why you think it’s not safe.”
Then I waited for him to tell us what he knew. Instead, he dropped his head and stepped back, offering no further explanation.
Why couldn’t he just be honest? My temper boiled into a steam column, ready to erupt from my ears.
But before I could explode, demanding an answer for his weird behavior, Bleddyn said, “I must urge you to hurry. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that a warning would reach them.”
Kiernan’s mouth tightened, and his easy-going, handsome face transformed into a soldier’s hard visage. My heart skipped a beat at the profound change.
It’s your fault they have to fight, put their lives at risk. My inner voice whispered the fear I’d carried with me ever since I’d decided to rescue the victims of Farkas’s abominable plot.
Kiernan placed his hand on my arm. “Don’t even go there, acushla. If anybody is at fault, it’s Farkas, the FBMA, and all the fuckers who thought it was a good idea to go after innocent humans.”
Lance agreed grimly. “He’s right, sweetheart. I know you want to shoulder the blame, but don’t. You were right about taking the fight to them. I’m sorry I didn’t see that.”
For the first time in a long time, my lungs inflated fully, and I drew a huge breath. All the weight of my selfish decision to drag them into this dropped off me. I held out a hand to Julian, and he took it, joining our circle.
Closing my eyes, I felt the bonds connect. Four colors burned in my center. One was weak and flickering, but Macha was alive and somewhere in Faerie. After we’d freed the kids, we’d go and find him. Until then, I channeled the Soul Weave magic to send him strength and hope.
And then it was done. We stepped apart, ready for battle.
Bleddyn stooped low and silently crossed the distance between our position and the entrance of the grass-covered hill. We followed him and waited fo
r his next move.
The Fae warrior stood up and placed his hand on an ornately carved rock. The interconnecting spirals glowed red, then orange, then a bright yellow. And then the boulder disappeared, and we stared down a dark hallway, descending into the belly of the mound.
Bleddyn didn’t hesitate. He moved quickly into the structure, beckoning us to follow him.
“Here goes nothing,” I muttered. My legs were heavy from our trip, and there was a hole where my stomach used to be, but I had enough magic left to pull into my hands. If we won, there’d be plenty of food. If we lost, being hungry would be the least of my worries.
Julian brought up the rear, nervous as a cat in a rainstorm. He was muttering to himself, glaring at something above his forehead. Ignoring him had become scarily easy, and I focused all my attention ahead to where Bleddyn had reached the first door.
32
Bleddyn braced himself by closing his eyes while taking a deep breath. Then he walked forward, every inch the determined warrior, and placed his hand against the door. It swung open, and he entered with me following right behind him. He froze in place, and I plowed straight into him.
“What the— Give a girl some warning.”
The muscles in his back were hard as concrete. I stepped around him while rubbing my smarting nose. Then I also stopped dead.
I didn’t know what I’d expected, but a copy of the room where I’d found the Fae warrior wasn’t it. There was the steel torture table and the viewing gallery. The only difference was a door at the far side and some futuristic chairs around the perimeter.
“Wow,” I said. “That’s weird.”
Bleddyn stayed silent, but he placed his hand on my shoulder. It grew heavy, as if he were leaning on me. I turned to him and gasped. He was barely holding himself upright.
“What is it?” I asked.
He whispered, growing paler by the second, “This room. It is full of metals that are toxic to us. I don’t have the magic to protect me from its effect.”
“Guys, a hand,” I called out. Lance took his elbow and guided him outside. Back in the hallway, his breathing slowed down, and he recovered his strength quickly.
“Is that why you were so weak at the compound?” It would explain a lot. He’d been so frail when I’d found him. So unlike the brawny warrior I’d met at the Fae prison.
“Yes. Iron and steel will weaken, but not kill us. Unless somebody uses it to chop off my head.”
I chuckled dutifully at his pathetic attempt at humor while fighting the queasiness that had been my constant companion since we’d entered the Fae mound.
Rubbing my stomach, I grimaced. Then I said, “Wait here. I’ll check out the next room.”
“Not without me.” Kiernan threw me an exasperated look. “Can you please not rush off by yourself again?”
Yeah, I knew my men would have something to say about yesterday’s adventure. I looked at the ceiling, at the floor, anywhere but at his irritated expression.
Kiernan’s gaze softened. “I know you mean well, acushla. But can you please stop running off to do stupid stuff? I nearly had a heart attack when you were gone the other morning.”
I blinked rapidly, his concern touching me more than it should at this moment. It had been idiotic, rushing out into the grassland after Bleddyn had warned us not to. My head and shoulders drooped with the weight of my bad decision.
Kiernan pulled me against his chest so quickly, I squeaked. His lips were firm on mine, and I relaxed against him.
“All I’m saying is, please be more careful. Okay?”
I nodded, too stunned to speak. He turned me around and shoved me toward the back door on the other side of the lab. “No time like the present, right?”
Lance brought up the rear while Julian stayed with Bleddyn. As I passed the chairs, a shiver of revulsion cascaded over my skin. I stopped and rubbed my arms to dispel the uncomfortable sensation.
There was something weird about them. It wasn’t the futuristic design, the gleaming steel, or the disc that hovered above each chair. I understood people didn’t sit in them voluntarily to rest or observe. Their wrists and ankles would be restrained by metal clasps.
Deep grooves crisscrossed the floor, leading from the chairs to a central drain. I stared at it, my brain conjuring up images of blood and other bodily fluids. They were torture chairs.
Why the hell did I feel a compulsion to put my hand on one of them, after what Kiernan had just said to me? No clue. But when I did, something happened. The disk hummed, a light blinked, and a faint sucking sensation streamed through my body, focusing on my magical center. I pulled my hand away so quickly, I elbowed Lance, who’d stepped up behind me.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Something horrible. I think this is where they extract the magic.”
Kiernan had gone ahead and entered the next room. He stopped briefly, then rushed forward. “Shit. Guys, I need help.”
We followed him and found ourselves in a smaller space than the one we’d left. There were dozens of chairs placed along the walls. Most of them were empty. But one of them was occupied. A young woman sat in it. There was blood on her face where she had bitten through her lip.
She’d stopped fighting and hung limply in her restraints. Based on the bruises around her wrists and ankles, she’d put up a hell of a struggle. The ominous hum of the disk above her head put my teeth on edge.
The vibrations penetrated my bones and muscles. It felt as if it was liquefying them at the same time as it tugged on my lightning. I looked for controls to turn the devil thing off. I didn’t dare step any closer to the chair.
Farkas’s henchman had explained that separating people from their magic was like stripping the red blood cells out of their bodies. Nobody survived the procedure. This girl seemed to be at the end of the process. Her head hung heavily, her chin resting on her chest.
Kiernan shouted, “I found it.”
The humming stopped. I touched the girl’s jugular, looking for signs of life. There was a very faint heartbeat, stuttering and stopping like a broken clock.
“She’s alive. Help me.”
Lance pulled on the metal bands but couldn’t move them. Kiernan was pushing buttons, to no avail.
I took her hand. It felt clammy and cold. “Hold on. We’re getting you out of here.”
She moaned, and her eyelids fluttered. When they lifted, her gaze was so full of pain, my breath stuck in my throat.
On an exhalation, she whispered, “Thank y…”
And then she died. Just like that. One moment, her heart was beating feebly under my fingertips. The next, I kept waiting for her to inhale, but she didn’t have enough strength left.
Her chest stilled, and her lips tinged blue as I watched. I was so shocked, I couldn’t move.
Emotions were warring inside of me. Shock at her death, sorrow, but also fury, and the need to avenge her.
How many young people had gone through what she had? How many had their lives cut short because of the greed and stupidity of both Fae and humans?
I wanted to scream, wanted to level the place in my anger, but I couldn’t. Because there were others awaiting this poor girl’s fate. And it was up to us to rescue them.
I didn’t think I had enough power left inside of me. But my rage revved me up like a dynamo. White-purple lightning was crawling over every inch of my body. My eyes were sparking with hatred and my hair stood on end.
If I blew up here, if I allowed my anger to course through me unchecked, I’d likely kill the kids on the premises, as well as my men.
I vaguely heard Lance shout, “Give her space. Move away.”
I had to get myself under control. Closing my eyes, I focused on the Soul Weave. It was the one thing inside of me that kept me stable. It was the reason why we’d survived as long as we had.
I inhaled, and the colors inside of me flared. I exhaled, and they evened out. I inhaled, and the colors shimmered in a calm rhythm. Kiernan and Lance we
re breathing with me, lending me their strength and serenity.
Their solidarity was helping my control. After several long minutes, the lightning withdrew inside of me. I was still angry, but no longer in danger of smiting my surroundings.
Outside in the hallway, Julian was shouting something I couldn’t understand.
Kiernan muttered, “What now?”
When he opened the door, I heard Julian clearer. “Get away from here. I told you it wasn’t safe.”
He added some more random stuff about “demons” and “visions.”
“He’ll need professional help when we get back.”
Lance winced at my words but didn’t argue. We all knew Julian’s delusions weren’t going away. If anything, they were getting worse. He screamed again, but this time, there was also the sound of many other voices.
33
Frantically, I looked for somewhere to hide. The only place was between the last chair and the sidewall. I squashed myself into the tiny space and hunkered down.
Of course, my hiding place would only protect me if somebody stayed in the other room and only glanced into the one I was in. But that wouldn’t save my men.
Harsh voices sounded from the main lab, and then Fae warriors rushed the space we were in. Without saying a word, they pulled me up by the arms and dragged me into the hallway. The whole operation lasted less than a minute.
The guys were pushed against the wall, secured by two guards each. Kiernan had a gag in his mouth, and his eyes sparked pure fury.
Then the humans appeared. Ordinary-looking men and women, dressed in white lab coats, strode past without paying us any attention. Two orderlies pushed a wheeled stretcher into the room. They reappeared a minute later with the poor girl’s covered body strapped to the gurney.
A man in his fifties, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, stopped and conferred with the leader of the Fae troop. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, except for the last sentence.
“You know what to do.”
Second Chance Doom: a paranormal romance adventure (Second Chance Academy Book 5) Page 15
