by Kate Keir
Flora,
I reckon you and I are going to spend a lot of time arguing over the next few hours, love, and that’s not how I wanted to spend the rest of our time together.
I had this made by Eric at the library. He’s a surprisingly good silversmith. I was going to give it to you myself, but somehow time just seems to have run out.
I think Eric told you that the trees in the Everwood are called Síorraidh trees, but I don’t think he told you what the name actually means.
It means eternal, Flora.
I couldn’t really think of a better way to tell you how I feel about you, or to let you know that no matter what happens, I’ll always be with you, love.
My Soul Eternal,
Lyall
Chapter Thirty-Three
As soon as I stepped out of the terminal and into the dawn light, my eyes picked out his amber wolf orbs from across the clearing. He cocked a brow at me inquisitively, and I raised my hand with the palm toward me so he could see the silver band around my finger.
His huge smile was equal parts beautiful and soul-destroying.
I was just about to cross the clearing and go to him, when Artair spoke up. “Okay. That’s it. We’re ready to move out.”
We each collected our equipment and supplies from the pile in the centre of the clearing. Freya was handing out weapons to the loyal Draugur and giving them instructions to meet us on the other side of the loch.
We intended to take two boats across the water. There was no way we had enough room for the Draugur to join us, but they were able to get to our meeting point—around two miles south of Castle Dion—much quicker than we could on foot.
I dropped my hands to the belt around my waist, double-checking that the Síorraidh box was safe and secure. I breathed a sigh of relief when my hands found the delicately carved surface that mimicked the ring on my hand.
I wondered, not for the first time, if the box really would hold Sluag’s soul for eternity. It seemed so ordinary and much too fragile to be able to cage the soul of a monster that was thousands of years old.
Still, it was all we had. It had to be enough, or the mortal world would be overrun with evil before the week was out.
We reached the moored-up boats that bobbed expectantly on the calm waters. Lyall, Artair, and I would take one boat and Finlay, Bear, and Freya would take the other. Enid wouldn’t be joining us as she would lead the animal souls to Castle Dion separately.
Everyone took a seat in their respective vessel except Artair. He stood on the grassy shore and embraced Enid.
“Keep in touch and don’t take any risks.” Artair spoke roughly, and I knew he was thinking back to the day Mara was killed.
Enid smiled at him. “Stop worrying. I’m not the terrified little idiot who arrived here all those months ago with Flora and Lyall, Art.”
Only Enid called Artair, Art.
He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “I know, you’re bloody amazing. But, be safe, okay?”
She turned to make her way back up the bank to wave us off before heading to the Everwood. I had warned her that it wasn’t a pretty sight, and I hoped she was ready to face the desolation she would find in my kingdom. I also hoped all of her animal souls were safe and sound.
Artair jumped into our boat, and it rocked unsteadily as he untied the rope that tethered us to the land and pushed us off across the green expanse of water. I swallowed down a lump in my throat as I realised that no matter what happened now, we weren’t ever coming back to the terminal.
It wasn’t that I would miss the derelict building. The complete opposite, in fact. But, as I looked around at the faces of my Dion, I wondered for the thousandth time how many of us were going to survive until the end of today.
My eyes landed on Finlay, and I sent up a silent prayer, to no one in particular that he would keep up his end of the deal. He was the only chance we had at winning this war, and how quickly he managed to help me bring Sluag to heel could be vital in whether or not Lyall walked away from the fight.
Lyall sat opposite me in the tiny boat. He rowed slowly and I found myself almost hypnotised by the rhythm of the oars as they dipped into the water before rising in the air to scatter sparkling droplets through the misty morning air.
“Thank you,” I whispered to him.
“For what?” he teased.
I thought about my answer for a moment before finally settling on a response.
“For eternity.”
He nodded at that and continued to row sedately.
Artair’s voice grabbed our attention. “I think we’ve made the right decision to bring the boats in at a distance from Castle Dion. It should give us a chance to approach unnoticed and hopefully try and work out exactly what we’re up against.”
Lyall frowned. “Even if we do manage to spy on the castle, Sluag is expecting us. He knows we’ll be looking for weaknesses, and he’ll make sure to lay as many traps and lies as possible.”
“Not a positive perspective, Lyall,” Artair growled.
“An honest one, though, mate. He’s gained the leverage he wanted by breaking out of the Endwood so soon. He wanted to force our hand, and he’s going to make us pay for every rushed decision and every mistake.”
Artair studied the thick wall of fog as though he might somehow be able to see through it and pick out the western shore of the loch.
“Let’s hope not. Sluag’s idea of making us pay usually involves a lot of blood.”
“I’m not letting him spill another drop of our blood.” The fury in my voice made both of them turn to look at me.
“It’s a war, Flora. Blood will be spilled. It’s inevitable.” Artair spoke softly.
I bit my lip and nodded. Artair was right. I could no more promise there would be no more bloodshed than I could promise I would reach out and touch the moon.
“It’s all about that box, love.” I looked down as Lyall stopped rowing for a moment to reach out and gently nudge the Síorraidh box that hung at my waist.
“The sooner we can get Sluag out of his body, the sooner the bloodshed stops,” he finished.
“The only thing we really need to worry about, is whether or not Flora’s Draugur can hold on to the Supers long enough to get them into the spelled cells,” Artair said.
I hated how dependent on the Draugur we were. I thought again of how grateful I was that we had the animal souls as extra back-up.
“There we are,” Artair murmured. I lifted my head up to follow his gaze, and my eyes managed to pick out the faint outline of land through the mist.
A low whistle brought all of our attention to the other boat. Finlay pointed to the upcoming land and then mouthed the word, Supers.
As we turned back to look, I managed to pick out the shadowy figures of two Supers who stalked slowly back and forth along the shore. They were guarding the exact spot that we had hoped to moor the boats up on.
“Guards. Dammit, he knew we’d come by boat,” Lyall hissed under his breath as he stopped rowing.
“We’ll have to get out elsewhere,” I suggested.
“He’ll have guards posted all the way along the shore, Flora.” Artair tapped his fingers distractedly against the side of the boat.
“We can’t kill them, and we don’t have any Draugur with us to send against them. What can we do?” I asked in despair.
The other boat drifted up against ours with a gentle clunk.
“Any ideas?” Finlay asked.
“Other than waiting for Flora’s Draugur to show up? Nope, not really,” Lyall replied angrily.
As we sat and pondered our predicament, I noticed a sudden movement in the bushes behind the Super that was nearest to us. As the Draugur burst out of the foliage and attacked the guard, we started to move forward as Lyall began furiously rowing again.
The two Supers were easily subdued by the torrent of Draugur that started to stream out of hiding, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is a disaster,” Bear
shouted.
I looked at him, confused.
“They’re not exactly stealthy, Flora. If any other guards along the shore hear what’s going on, they’ll be off to let Sluag know we’re here before you can say ‘hello, would you like to sacrifice me?’”
Artair growled, “Shit, Lyall, he’s right. We need to get this finished and quickly.”
Lyall’s arms and shoulders flexed as he put every ounce of effort he had into getting us to the shore before our cover was broken.
As soon as the boats bumped against the grass, my Dion were over the side and running for the struggling Draugur. The Supers were shrieking at the top of their lungs, and I knew it was only to try to alert the other sentries.
Lyall and Artair both reached the Supers, and without hesitation, they each grabbed one of the monsters’ heads and twisted until their necks snapped with a bone-jarring crunch.
The Supers temporarily disabled bodies slumped to the ground, and I breathed out in relief.
Lyall turned to the group of loyal Draugur who were milling around sheepishly.
“That’s what you do to keep them quiet, okay? Now tie them up, attach some stones to their arms and legs, and then drop them in to the loch. It won’t kill them, but it’ll hopefully keep them quiet long enough for us to go undiscovered.”
If we haven’t been discovered already, I thought to myself.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Once the Supers had been disposed of and the boats were hauled out of the water and hidden in the thick bushes that grew next to the shore, we were ready to march on the castle.
Artair suggested we strike out inland for a mile before turning north and heading toward Castle Dion. Lyall and Finlay agreed.
“It makes sense. Sluag will expect us to follow the waterline to the castle. He probably won’t have invested as many sentries into watching the woodland,” Finlay said approvingly.
It was slow going through the tangled foliage and we were continually under threat of discovery from random Draugur but after around two hours of walking we finally spotted the towers of Castle Dion.
I wasn’t ready for the pang of homesickness that overwhelmed me as the dilapidated ramparts came into view.
“It feels so strange to look at it from this perspective,” Freya whispered.
“We aren’t getting close enough to see it in restored condition, at least not yet,” Lyall confirmed as he stared at the ruins.
“I think it feels right that it looks like this when Sluag has control of it,” I said, and they all nodded in agreement.
We had brought food and water with us and decided that now would be a good time to rest up and wait for Enid to arrive with her animal souls.
Artair had been relieved to speak with Enid on the phone when we had stopped to rest. She had reassured him all was well, and they were only a few hours away from our location. She had to lead her animal souls around the loch at the south side so it had taken them a while to catch us up.
“Once Enid gets here with the animal souls, our group will be too large to go unnoticed for long. We need to try and find out as much as we possibly can before she arrives,” Artair suggested.
“What better way to spy on a castle, than from the air?” Freya grinned.
Finlay nodded at them both. “You’re right, you two need to shift and provide us with a birds-eye view.”
Before Freya changed into her raven alter, Bear grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against him. Freya pressed her hands against his chest, blushing furiously.
“Bear, what are you doing? Let me go,” she hissed.
“Not until you promise to be careful, hotness.” He laughed, unfazed by her tantrum.
“Let me—oh, fine, fine. I promise I’ll be careful, okay?” Freya stopped struggling, and when Bear leaned down to place a gentle kiss against her lips, she leaned into him and kissed him back.
I smiled and dropped my eyes to give them some privacy. Only when I heard the shriek of a raven calling did I look up to see Freya joining Artair in the air, before they both winged their way in the direction of Castle Dion.
Be safe, both of you. I called out in my mind.
As they disappeared above the treetops, I felt a hand brush against my own. Turning, I allowed Lyall to lift my hand to his lips and place a gentle kiss against my Síorraidh ring.
“Thank you for wearing it, love,” he murmured.
I gasped in surprise as I realised he was wearing a ring that was almost identical to my own. It was a lot chunkier than mine, and it was made of a darker metal than the silver band that twisted around my own finger. But, they were unmistakably a matching pair.
I pressed my palm against his and examined both of our ringed fingers, in awe.
“You know, when I first saw that box, I panicked because I thought there was going to be an engagement ring in there,” I confessed.
He laughed softly. “Not really my style, love.”
I kept my palm pressed against his, and my lip twitched in a teasing smile. “You not the marrying kind, Mr Harris?”
His eyes darkened, and his hand curled down over mine, until our fingers were twined together.
“Your soul is bonded to mine by a link that has existed for thousands of years. I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me that I am as bound to you as I could ever possibly be, love.”
I shivered as cool, blue fire ran from his hand to mine. I looked down at our intertwined fingers and frowned.
“Lyall, are you sharing your energy with me by force?”
Stepping back from me and dropping my hand, he smiled grimly. “Just a little insurance policy, love. I didn’t trust you to keep taking the help you needed when the time came.”
My hand flew to the silver band on my hand, but he quickly laid his fingers over mine to stop me.
“It’s not the ring that lets me do it, love. I’ve been practising ever since I knew you wouldn’t be able to see it through.”
“So, you’re going to kill yourself?” I said coldly.
He smiled crookedly. “I told you before, I’m gonna save the girl and the world.”
“And what happens then, Lyall? Did you forget that because we’re bonded, I’m probably gonna either die of grief, or go completely mad if I lose you?” I snarled.
He reached forward and pressed the tip of his index finger gently against the centre of my chest.
“I know what’s in here, love. I can feel it. You’re stronger than you know and braver than you think. You’ll survive it. I know you will.”
“I think you’re forgetting one important thing,” I said.
He waited expectantly for me to continue.
“Right now, I want to survive because I have you. If you’re gone then I don’t want to survive, Lyall. I’ll let go. I won’t fight it anymore.” I folded my arms across my chest.
He shrugged. “I’ll take that chance, love. It’s still better than any of the alternatives.”
We both stood and stared defiantly at each other.
Before either of us could say anything else, Bear’s voice cut through the tension surrounding us.
“They’re back. They’re both back.”
Once Artair and Freya were back in human form, they filled us in on everything they had seen from above the castle.
“He doesn’t care.” Artair shook his head in disbelief as he spoke. “Every gate and every door is open and unguarded. He’s just waiting for us to walk right in.”
“He’s not afraid of us,” I said softly.
“Which means he thinks he’s got the upper hand,” Bear mused.
“With two hundred Supers on his side, he does have the upper hand.” Freya shrugged.
Lyall turned to Artair. “Call Enid and find out how long until she gets here.” Looking back to all of us, he continued. “If he’s expecting us, then we have no surprise element left. There’s no point in waiting any longer, as soon as Enid and the animal souls arrive, we’ll attack. We have nothing to lose.�
��
I blinked slowly. I have everything to lose.
Bear nodded grimly. “About time, it’s the waiting that puts me on edge.”
Freya stood and looked up at the sun, which was peeking through the treetops as midday quickly approached.
“Well, at least by the end of the day, we’ll finally know who’s gonna win this war.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Enid arrived forty minutes after her final conversation with Artair. The animal souls poured through the woodland and surrounded us with myriad colours. They were beautiful to look at, glistening and sparkling, almost as though they were made of ice but ice that was every single colour of the rainbow.
Enid and Artair shared a quick hug before they joined our circle. This was our final war council before we attacked. I glanced around at the faces of each of my Dion.
This is probably the last time we will all stand together.
“There’s no way of making this sound any better than it is,” Lyall admitted. “Sluag knows we’re coming, and he knows he’s better prepared than we are. Our only hope is to fight him and the Supers off for long enough that Flora can get his soul out of his body and in the box.”
I pursed my lips as Lyall spoke. He hadn’t told the other Dion he was planning on feeding me every drop of his energy until he was dead.
Finlay stood next to Lyall. “Enid, do the animal souls know how they are to be split up?”
Enid nodded. “Yes, half will be fighting the Supers and half will protect Flora and Lyall, at all costs.”
“The Draugur are all briefed to simply disarm as many Supers as possible. As soon as we win access to the cellars beneath the castle, we can start locking them away,” Artair said confidently.
Satisfied, Lyall nodded. “Then I think we’re ready to move.”
“Not quite.” I stepped into the centre of the circle, determined to voice what was on my mind.
“I still can’t help but feel as though none of you would be in this situation if it wasn’t for me.”
