Riftkeepers: Reckoning

by Carrie Whitethorne

  Up! Out! I need to get out!

  With the thought, she rose. It wasn’t graceful, but it was an upward direction, away from the churning, muddy water. Supporting each of her limbs, her masked shadow steadied her in the air and she scanned the ground. Tyrin wasted no time pulling the stream towards him and Enya. The water rushed around them and she saw Enya positioning herself at his side to help. Izak joined them as they built the waters into a spinning pool which grew to a vortex before them. As it moved, Izak fed his electric energy to their creation, adding his own power to the dangerous current.

  Suspended in its path, Charlotte considered her options.

  Burn it away? Run?

  She realised she’d waited too long as she felt the pull of the current. She turned away and dropped, her back to the oncoming, flashing tornado. She hit the ground in a crouch, her knees screaming with the impact. As she tried to escape, a foot was caught by the waterspout. It sucked her in, swallowing her entirely and soaking her through. Shielding herself, she allowed the current to take her and squeezed her eyes shut against the bright light of Izak’s electrical bolts. Feeding her fire into the waters, she concentrated on heat. It began to bubble and hiss as she burned it away, its power waning.

  As the power of the vortex died, she managed to open her eyes and assess her surroundings. Izak was closest, Callan and Blair were running directly for her, Tyrin held both children behind a shield. Drawing her dagger, she struck the ground and pulled at the earth’s power. Glancing up, Callan and Blair were only a few feet from her; she grinned. With a blast of the earth’s energy that now pulsed through her body, she knocked them back. In answer, she was pushed into the air on a column of rock, losing her grip on her dagger. Her ascent halted abruptly and the column she clung to crumbled at her fingertips. She fell, plummeting to the ground at breakneck speed, surrounded by fragmented rock. Before she could right herself, she was hit in the side by a white-hot missile, knocked away from the shattered pillar and into open air. The smell of burning hair filled the space around her and she panicked. Hands slapping at her head, she broke her concentration, failing to break her own fall. Twisting in the air, she watched the ground rise to meet her, frozen in terror as she plummeted.

  Bollocks!

  Of all the freak accidents to die in…

  Holding her breath, she willed herself to stop; to be dragged up and away from the ground that she was about to meet face first. Nothing happened. She continued to fall. Suddenly, the green grass gave way to a pool of brown. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath just before she hit the cold, churning water that had been directed to cushion her fall. She sank, the water offering gentle resistance against the speed she’d built as she fell. Unsure which way she was facing, she forced her eyes open and squinted into the murky depths as she felt a hand grip her arm and haul her up.

  Soaked, exhausted, relieved, and alive, she sprawled on her back on the grass and laughed.

  “What went wrong?” Blair asked, looking down at her.

  “Panicked,” she said, breathless. “Thank you for the landing.”

  “Zander and Enya pulled that out of the bag. Ready to go again?” he asked, offering a hand.

  Hauling herself up with Blair’s help, she said, “I need five minutes. I’ve swallowed half the cairn.”

  Callan offered her dagger and scanned her.

  “I’m okay. Just need to catch my breath. Thought I was going to land with a crunch there.”

  “I’d have caught you,” he laughed, kissing the side of her head. “Sorry I singed your hair.”

  “How badly?” she asked, pulling her long braid over her shoulder to inspect the damage. “Jesus,” she breathed, angling her dagger and slicing the plait. The severed hair came away, leaving her remaining locks hanging in damp tails at her shoulders. “Suppose that’s us even on hair burning.”

  Tyrin chuckled and nudged Izak. “You’d have been in tears.”

  Enya and Zander shifted uncomfortably at Tyrin’s side. “Sorry, Mummy,” Zander mumbled.

  “Don’t apologise. We asked you to do that and you both did brilliantly! Don’t worry about my hair. It’ll grow back. Are you ready to go again, or have you had enough?”

  They shook their heads. “Okay, you want to go and see Nana while I keep going? I won’t be that long.”

  “I’ll take them,” Callan said, taking their hands. “Here, dry off.” He placed a fire as Charlotte kissed the children goodbye and then left.

  “Can’t let that happen again, Blair,” she said, rubbing her hair dry by Callan’s fire. “How do I stop that?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t panic?”

  Scrunching her nose, she laughed. “Very helpful. Thank you.”

  “It really is a case of just not panicking, Charlotte,” Izak added. “You have the power and skill to get yourself out of almost any situation. Trust yourself. Look how far you’ve come.”

  Looking down at the severed hair she held, she sighed.

  “That was a bit drastic, wasn’t it?” Blair asked, flicking his chin at her hand.

  “Nah, it was out of hand anyway. If I can still tie it back, it’s fine. What’s next?”

  “Same again. Less plummeting from great heights, eh?” Tyrin said, nudging her with his shoulder as he passed to take position a few feet away.

  “I didn’t get myself up there, Tyrin! That was my wayward son under the influence of you lot!”

  He shrugged. “Semantics. You still plummeted.”

  Her shadow knocked him back. With a snarl, he charged, sharp water darts whizzing by her face.

  “Oooh,” Izak chuckled, backing away.

  She grinned and ran towards Tyrin, shadow and flame flowing around her.

  They collided in a tangle of limbs, his water cooling her fire, her shadow coiling around them as she knocked him to the ground. Straddling him, she grasped his wrists, forcing them back. Hair falling over her eyes, she panted, “Better?”

  Chuckling, he planted a swift kiss on the end of her nose as a blast of water projected her away. A volley of arrows merged with her flames, fizzing as she landed a short distance away. She answered, bombarding him with violet missiles as he moved to his right, using Izak as a shield. Unwittingly hitting Izak, she cringed an apology and sent a tendril of shadow to retrieve her opponent.

  “Help me then!” Tyrin growled, shoving him.

  Izak rolled his eyes and dutifully obliged. Lightning struck the ground by her feet, causing her to jump back. Frowning, she raised both hands, palms facing outward and closed her eyes. A coiling mass of violet and black formed before her and she pushed. The seemingly solid stream of shadow-fire, pointed directly at the pair, moved swiftly, seeking its target. Izak’s face slackened as he realised what she was doing and made to port away. He couldn’t move. Tyrin rushed to break away and hit her shield. Eyes darting to Blair, Izak panicked as his certain destruction collided with her invisible shield.

  Ending her onslaught, she approached. They cowered, not having realised she’d protected them.

  “Oh, get up,” she teased. “It didn’t hit you.”

  Izak scowled but it was Tyrin who spoke. “You could have killed us!”

  “Semantics.”

  His face broke in to a grin. “Touché, wicked woman!”

  “She did, however, attack and shield at the same time. That’s what we wanted,” Izak said, taking a tentative step towards a chuckling Blair. Realising her shield had been removed, he strode more confidently. “You can laugh! She left you alone.”

  “I know better than to antagonise her,” Blair stated, nodding a greeting to Callan.

  “What did I miss?” he asked, kissing Charlotte’s cheek.

  “Your lovely wife attacked us full on with shadow-fire,” Tyrin said coolly.

  “Oh. Well, don’t piss her off and she won’t do that. You look to be relatively unharmed, save for a bruised ego?”

  “Did you really think I’d hurt you though?”

  Tyrin
chuckled. “Briefly. I make a point of not working with women as a rule. You’re too unpredictable.”

  Izak raised his hands in exasperation. “See, there he goes again!”

  “Her unpredictability could well save your life,” Blair pointed out. “Don’t knock it. If her shield can take a full blast of shadow-fire like that, you can consider yourself protected.”

  Charlotte nodded once, smiling smugly, to Tyrin’s amusement. “Yeah, well, make sure I’m behind her on crunch day, eh?”

  “What’s next?” she asked, looking around the cairn.

  “I’m afraid I’m on the portal this afternoon, so I have to go,” Blair apologised. “Monday?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be here,” she smiled. “You two going, too? I’ll have half an hour throwing that bus around and go home if you are.”

  “Markus has new areas for us to search. We’ll be spending the afternoon hunting Nyja down. Sorry,” Izak said with an apologetic smile. He looked less than thrilled at the prospect.

  “Thank you for today. It’s been fun.” She winked at Tyrin who barked a laugh before he disappeared. Izak nodded and followed.

  “Don’t push yourself too hard. You’ve done an awful lot this morning,” Blair said, kissing her cheek. “I’ll see you both on Monday.” He gave Callan a clap on the shoulder and left them.

  “Sure you don’t want to just go home?”

  “There’s no one here…” she murmured, lacing her fingers through his.

  “This is a sacred site, Princess,” Callan chided, pulling her close.

  She looked around at the disturbed earth, the stream that had been rerouted countless times, and the huge bus obscuring her view to the north of the site. “Looks like one.”

  With a low chuckle, he kissed her. She groaned, lips parting slightly as he sought access and pressed her hips towards his. As he moved his mouth from hers, kissing down to the hollow of her throat, she pushed her fingers into his hair. “Okay,” she gasped as his teeth nipped at the tender skin of her collar bone.

  He met her gaze, pulling her closer, and took her home.

  Refilling their glasses, Charlotte frowned. “Two weeks?”

  “Yeah, I need to think,” Ferne sighed. “I love him, Lottie, but I’m not convinced here is right for me.”

  Charlotte nodded; she’d known it would be a massive change for Ferne. As Callan had said, she was used to being relatively settled. Ferne was nothing like her in that respect. She was never still, always out, always doing something. “What’s Dagda said?”

  “Not much. It’s like he isn’t bothered.”

  “He is bothered, Fe. He just doesn’t want you to feel you have to stay, or go, or anything. It’s all on your terms. It was always on your terms.”

  “It’s too complicated. Living apart was hell. Living together isn’t working. I don’t want to be without him. I love him. But I don’t want…I think it’s here, Lottie. It’s too quiet.”

  Charlotte gave her an understanding nod. “Yeah. Why don’t you have him stay with you for a bit? See how that works?”

  “He won’t go for that,” Ferne said, shaking her head.

  “He’d follow you to the ends of the earth, Fe. Try it. If that works, you can work around it. If you love one another, you’ll find a way, won’t you?”

  Ferne nodded and stared into her glass.

  God, I can’t imagine having had all this to deal with when I moved up here. Maybe they’re just too different? I hope not. They’ve both been so much happier since they got together.

  “Listen, whatever happens, remember he chased you. He was terrified you were going to reject him, but he did it anyway. He wants you to be happy, Fe. Help him to make you happy.”

  Draining her glass, Ferne stood up. “I’m going to go home; tell him what I need, and see where it goes. Thanks, Lottie.”

  Watching her go, Charlotte sighed.

  Callan joined her when he heard the front door close. “Okay?”

  “Yeah, just relationship drama with those two,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Ferne isn’t suited to island life at all. They need to talk it out and come to some sort of agreement. She’s suffocating here.”

  He lifted his arm, inviting her to cuddle into his chest. “They’ll figure it out.”

  “They’d better. I don’t have time to be go between for them, Callan. I have my own drama to handle.”

  “I think your drama trumps theirs by a long shot. Shall we head over to the cabin tomorrow? Come back Monday morning?”

  She smiled. “Yeah. We could have been there now if I hadn’t had Ferne sitting here moaning all night.”

  “She’s your friend, Charlotte. She needs you for things like that,” he reminded her.

  “Yeah. Well, she won’t find me in Canada,” she said, laughing.

  Twenty-three.

  Standing on the veranda with a mug of tea, she watched Enya and Zander playing on the banks of the lake. Beyond the calm expanse of water were forests of thick spruce and snow-capped mountains, all framed by a bright, blue sky.

  “Do you like it?” Callan asked from beside her.

  She smiled up at him. “It’s like something from a film. I didn’t think places like this really existed, and you’ve shown me three.”

  “Three?”

  “More! The tarn at Thundergay, Tighvein, the mountainside in Bulgaria, and here. Then there was Prague and the island. And obviously Avalon is beautiful, what I’ve seen of it. For all its cold, Houska is beautiful, too. Thank you for bringing me.”

  He smiled as she listed the places they’d visited, at the memories they evoked. “We’ll see everything there is to see, the whole world, when this is over. I promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” she warned, eyes shining as she turned back to watch the children play with their powers. “They won’t be seen, will they?”

  Callan shrugged. “I shouldn’t have thought so. I chose this place for its remote location. We’re in a protected area: no hunting, no fishing. There’s no reason for anyone to pass by.”

  “Is there a faerie population here?” she asked, gazing up at the mountain top in the distance.

  “No. This place has its own magic; its own protectors,” he said quietly. “We rarely cross paths, except in times of worldwide threat. Even then we don’t get involved with one another. The British and Irish brought their faerie legends with them when they settled, but the magic here is far more ancient than that. Than us. The original tribes of this land are the protectors here. We just visit.”

  Not looking away from the mountains, she asked, “So the legends around the world are true then?”

  “Most of them, yes. The vampires of western Europe and Russia. The tribespeople of North America and Canada. The Mayans, Incas, Egyptian, and Greek gods. The Norse gods are still around, but rarely have anything to do with us. We cross paths occasionally through our dealings with the Druids, but that’s about it.”

  “And the darker legends? What about them?”

  “You’ve met Markus,” he said. “The vampires switch from good to bad, depending which country and coven you’re dealing with. You met Meg. Witches are always delightful creatures. To be fair, there are good ones here and there. Demons are our biggest problem. All the sub races: incubi, succubi, jinn, Nickar; there are dozens and not one of them good. Ultimately, all the races fight the same war, against them.”

  “I don’t believe Markus is a dark faerie,” she scoffed.

  “No?” He raised a brow. “Markus, while not inherently evil, has been known to cause havoc. He used to invite humans into his various mounds, keep them for weeks, then send them back. The poor folk were driven mad by what they remembered.”

  “What did he do to them?” she gasped, eyes wide.

  “Nothing. They’d spend their time with him revelling at some of his parties. They’d have a wonderful time, then be kicked out to return to their mundane little lives in their quiet little villages. He never caused them harm, but he allowed
them to know of us. That was when he was younger though; before he took over Houska.”

  “That’s just mischief and no different to you visiting those villages and joining in with them though,” she countered, considering his knowledge of the settlement in Cornwall and how they’d met themselves so recently.

  “We never once revealed our true selves, Charlotte. We’ve always kept our existence secret. Even more so in recent times. Can you imagine if they knew? We’d be hunted down in the name of science, or protection of the planet, or whatever ridiculous excuse the masses would be fed. Then with none of us left, they’d be wiped out by demons.”

  She shuddered at the thought. “It all seems a bit unfair. All you do, and you have to hide from the very people you live to protect.”

  “If they wouldn’t hunt us, they’d worship us. We don’t want that either. Well, perhaps a few unsavoury do, but we’re here to do a job. The job is done. The world is kept safe from those that wish it and them harm, and life goes on.”

  “Suppose it’s my job, too, now, isn’t it?” She tried to keep the weight from her tone.

  “Yeah. You’re half Druid, so the blood tie to the role is already there.” He paused and watched the children for a moment. “The rest of your power was just bad luck.”

  Not willing to let the dark turn of conversation mark their time there, she put down her mug and nudged him playfully. “It has its advantages. Bagged me a faerie prince with it.”

  He laughed and she looked up to see his eyes dancing. “Yes, you did,” he said, taking her hand. “Come on. We have all of this to explore.” He nodded towards the distant forests and took her hand. “You never know. We might even find a bear!”

  They sat on the small pebble beach at the edge of the lake, toasting marshmallows over a fire Callan had summoned.

  “I wanted to see a bear,” Zander complained, blowing the end of his stick to cool the molten glob at its end.

  “There’s always tomorrow,” Callan said grinning and looking at Charlotte.

  “The moose was frightening enough. They’re dangerous!” she grumbled, sipping a mug of tea.