If anyone in the mortal world saw my injuries, there would be a full-out investigation and I really didn’t want anyone peeling away all the layers of whatever false story I’d have to invent. Or maybe I would be lucky and my car would be where I’d left it, unscathed and unnoticed. Lots of people used the trail, but I was hoping not too many of them would be in the mood for hiking right after the New Year. In that case, I’d only have my housemates and maybe Kelly to answer to if they’d noticed my absence at all.
With some help, I managed to stand on my own. Enorah left to find me some clothes since mine had been lost during the confusion in the cave. I was surprised when she came back with a pair of pants and a blouse. Not quite my style, but at least I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb back in the mortal world.
“We often find ourselves venturing between the worlds,” she said by way of explanation. “It’s good to be prepared.”
The Faelorehn woman acted as a living crutch, helping me out onto the porch. The first thing to hit my senses was the cool, crisp air. The freshness and magic of it poured into my lungs and filled me with an overwhelming sense of euphoria. Home, my soul seemed to cry out, we’re home.
The trees above were mostly bare for the winter, and a few patches of clean, white snow littered the ground. Up ahead, two rows of cabins similar to the one we’d just exited stood resting between the trees. At the far end, in the center of it all was a pile of massive logs, burning like great, glowing orange furnaces. Hunkered around the fire were several children of varying ages, rubbing their hands together and holding them up to the fire. It all looked so beautiful, this ancient, quiet place. Tilting my chin upward and holding my head high, I took one tentative step, Enorah by my side making sure I didn’t face-plant into the mud.
Several other Faelorehn men and women approached, all dressed in the same woodsy outfit as Enorah.
“This is Robyn Dunbarre, for those of you who do not already know. She is insisting on going home today. I would detain her, but her people are probably worried about her and they need to know that she is all right.”
Everyone milled around, some nodding somberly, others whispering to one another.
“Kiernan, Tegan and Ellon, you will come with us. She must pass through the dolmarehn on the northwest hillock.”
Three people, two young men around my age and a girl who looked no older than ten, stepped up. The two men had the good looks I was starting to recognize in all of these Otherworldly people. Kiernan had black hair and stark blue eyes, while Ellon’s hair was chestnut brown with eyes to match. Tegan was a whole other story. She was small with brilliant red hair and eyes a color I couldn’t describe. She remained quiet as we made our slow journey, but something about her made me think her soul burned as fiercely as her silence. Or maybe that was her glamour. Either way, my instincts were warning me that there was more to this little girl than met the eye. I smiled despite myself. In that aspect she reminded me of myself.
A few hours later our journey came to an end. The Otherworld, although similar in looks to some places in the mortal world, was something that couldn’t be described in words alone. One had to come here and feel it for themselves. I bit my lip, still wondering if this was all a dream from which I would soon wake. Either way, I didn’t want to leave.
When your injury is healed, you can come back. I smiled brightly at that internal thought. I could come back, couldn’t I? I was half Faelorehn, after all. And that got me thinking. If my father, or from what I had concluded based on that strange dream, my mother, was Faelorehn, where was he or she now? Did I have family here? I couldn’t wait to start looking for them but first I had to figure out how to deal with my old life. And was I willing to leave it completely behind? It’s not like I had any family to miss me in the mortal world. Again, thoughts for later, when the ordeal of the past week wore off and I could think clearly.
“We’re here,” Enorah said quietly, gesturing toward a crevasse in the low hillside.
I peered through the grey mist shrouding the place she had indicated. Ancient oaks grew on either side of the crack in the earth, their roots like knobby fingers holding the fissure open. I gave Enorah a wary glance.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go with you and make sure you make it safely to the other side.”
The Faelorehn woman took a step toward the gap in the hillside and reached out a hand. “Ready?”
Not really. “Yes,” I said with some reluctance, letting Enorah pull me up by her side. I turned toward our small party and thanked them for their help.
Kiernan and Ellon nodded, and Tegan remained still. Well, that was the easiest farewell I’d ever experienced.
“Just to warn you, passing through a dolmarehn can have a strange feeling if you’re new at it.”
The look I gave Enorah must have been one of horror because she laughed and added, “It’s not a bad feeling, just odd.”
Swallowing back my trepidation, I put my hands on my hips and boasted, “I can handle it.”
Enorah beamed. “I thought so. Now, just step forward. You’ll feel a tugging sensation, then a sense of weightlessness. Before you know it, you’ll be on the other side.”
Kicking my fear in the ribs, I followed her directions and took another step forward, sending up a silent prayer that my car (and the extra key hidden beneath the wheel well) was still where I’d left it a few days ago. Once fully inside the damp, cramped space, a strange sensation akin to the stomach-dropping effect experienced when riding on an elevator yanked my torso forward. For an undetermined amount of time, I was suspended in space, but then the clear, vibrant sound of rushing water and a veil of cool mist greeted me as my feet touched down on solid ground. Confused, I blinked my eyes, the darkness broken only by a round window of light far ahead. I stepped forward, putting my hand out to the side to steady myself. My fingers brushed against something cold, hard and slimy. Ewww! I retracted my hand and wiped it on my pants. Better on the fabric than on my fingers.
I felt Enorah’s presence solidify behind me.
“Just walk straight ahead,” she said, her voice echoing.
I nodded and made for the end of the tunnel. The sound of whooshing water had been coming from a small waterfall cascading over part of the tunnel entrance. Ah. Now that made sense. It was the dolmarehn I had driven Devlin to only a few days ago.
We stepped out into the midday light, only getting slightly soaked by the water. After we crossed the stream, it was a short walk to the road where, to my great relief, I spotted my trusty car waiting patiently for my return. As we moved closer, I noticed that my jacket and purse were still folded neatly on the hood. The memory sent chills down my spine, and I could have sworn the throbbing pain where Mikael’s knife had nearly killed me increased just a little.
Taking a deep breath, I knelt down and used my uninjured arm to reach under the wheel well. My fingers scraped away at rust before they found a familiar metal box. I pulled it free and slid it open, my nerves melting with relief.
“Yes!” I hissed. At least I wouldn’t have to walk home. “I’ll be okay, so long as my car starts,” I told Enorah.
She shook her head slowly. “Devlin made me promise to see you to your apartment and to check for faelah after you had locked yourself inside.”
I shook my head in bemusement. A week ago, I would have thrown a fit in response to his overly protective behavior. Now I was enormously grateful for it.
“All right,” I sighed as I stood up, “but you’re going to have to walk back by yourself.”
Enorah shrugged, as if walking a handful of miles was something she did every day. I almost snorted. It probably was something she did every day without a second thought.
With some reluctance, my car’s engine turned and grumbled to life. Steering proved a challenge, what with the protests coming from my left side, but I managed to make it to my street without tearing my wound open. I parked in my usual spot beside the curb, and Enorah opted to check my yard and the surroundi
ng area for any Otherworldly creepy-crawlies while I knocked on the front door of the house to see if my roommates had a spare key. Jennifer answered the door, giving me an assessing look as she stepped aside.
“Nice pants. Haven’t seen you for the past few days. Get lucky with a date?”
Thinking fast, I gave her a bashful smile and nodded.
“Way to go Robyn!” she crooned. “I don’t even want to know how you lost your key but I can only imagine.”
Oh yay! Like my less-than-stellar reputation needed to be dragged through some more mud.
Jennifer fetched me a key then bid me farewell as I made my way to the side of the house, eager to be in my familiar room. Enorah was waiting for me when I reached my door.
“All clear,” she said in a professional voice. “Now for a quick check of your apartment.”
Inside, my place looked the same as it always did. The bed was in disarray, of course, because I had expected to come right home after dropping Devlin off, and the bananas in the kitchen I had meant to dispose of last week had gone completely brown, attracting a small cloud of fruit flies. Other than that, everything looked to be unscathed.
Enorah glanced around and then wandered into the kitchen and the bathroom. She came back out into the living room and eyed the bed with an accusing stare.
“I’m assuming the bed was like this when you left the other morning?”
And darn it, if there wasn’t a trace of amusement in her voice. I gritted my teeth and fought against the blush that bloomed on my cheeks. Really, I shouldn’t be embarrassed, but Enorah was practically a stranger.
“Yes, everything is how I left it,” I managed.
Enorah gave the yard one final check outside before leaving.
“Stay safe Robyn Dunbarre and I do hope we meet again.”
“Thank you,” I said, “for everything.”
Enorah smiled. “I’ll be sending some of the older Wildren to keep an eye on your place for the next few weeks.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up a hand. “As certain as we are that Moira and Mikael are long gone, there is still a slight chance we are wrong. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you if we are. Besides, there are still the stray faelah to consider.”
Clamping my mouth shut, I gave a quick nod. She was right, of course, and blind stubbornness would not protect me should a Cumorrig or some other sinister creature show up on my lawn one evening.
Enorah turned to leave.
“And don’t forget what I told you about Devlin,” she called over her shoulder as she began her hike back to the dolmarehn.
“Like I ever could,” I murmured to myself once her tall figure had disappeared around the bend in the street, leaving me to put my fractured life back together all on my own.
-Twenty-Five-
Return
As soon as Enorah’s retreating figure was out of sight, I remembered that I was without a cell phone, having lost it somewhere in the Otherworld.
Grabbing the spare set of keys hanging in the kitchen, I burst out the door and went back upstairs to return my housemates’ set and perhaps borrow one of their phones.
Jennifer opened the door again when I knocked.
“Mind if I use your phone?” I asked, handing over the keys.
“Go right ahead. It’s in the kitchen.”
Jennifer returned to the living room to watch a movie, and I was given a modicum of privacy. I dialed the cafe, keeping my fingers crossed anyone but Moira answered. After Enorah’s speech about posting Faelorehn guards around my apartment, I was feeling a little paranoid. Taking a few minutes to come up with a story to explain my absence, I picked up the phone and dialed the number.
To my immense relief, Kelly answered on the third ring.
“The Green Tea Leaf, how can I help you?”
“Kell, it’s me, Robyn. Sorry I’ve been out of reach for the past few days, but I decided to spend part of my time off hanging out with Meghan’s family in Arroyo Grande. I managed to drop my cell phone in the sink while I was there, so I’m using my housemates’ landline right now. And to make matters worse two of Meghan’s brothers had the flu or something and gave it to me.”
I made sure to make my voice sound more gruff than usual. It wasn’t hard. All I had to do was think about how much my stab wound hurt.
“Robyn! I was wondering why you weren’t answering your phone! I called your cell the other day to see if you wanted to go shopping, but you didn’t pick up. Ugh, the flu. That’s no fun. I can cover for you tomorrow, but you might want to call Margie too. Oh, and you won’t believe it! Moira has disappeared! She didn’t show up for work yesterday, and no one seems to know where she is. Did she say anything to you? Margie is ticked and has started looking for a replacement.”
All my muscles froze. Oh, I knew exactly why she hadn’t shown up for work. She and her brother were too busy trying to sacrifice me. Snapping myself back to the present, I coughed a couple of times into my hand to keep up my whole sick act and abruptly sucked in a breath when a searing pain tore into my shoulder. Note to self: next time you decide to fake sick in order to cover up a knife wound, try to pick some other way to prove your illness that doesn’t involve tearing the injury open. Somehow, I managed to recover and return to the conversation.
“No! That’s so weird!” I wheezed, sniffling my nose for extra effect.
“Fortunately Jonathon’s offered to cover all her shifts, at least until school starts again.”
Oh good. Jonathon was okay. I wondered if Moira just up and left without saying a word to him. Probably. Oh well, he was better off without her.
“And one more thing,” Kelly dropped her voice. “I’m not sure if you heard, but if you’ve been at Meghan’s house all this time and haven’t seen the local news …”
Her voice trailed off, and dread shot through me. Something wasn’t right about her tone.
“That serial killer might have struck again.”
It took me a few moments to remember what Kelly was talking about. Oh, right, the bodies found a few months ago in the creek. And then a sickening realization flooded over me. Oh no. It had never been a serial killer who had murdered those people, but a brother and sister seeking out mortal magic.
Kelly was talking again, and it took me a moment to catch up to the conversation.
“… guy that came by on Halloween? The one who you had classes with, Evan Miller? Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, Robyn, but they found his body up in the hills in a clearing with a bunch of other people. They were all members of some cult, Nocturnal or something like that. Anyways, I guess they had been torturing local stray animals, and the police think it might have been a group suicide, but they haven’t ruled out murder yet. I’m so sorry. I know he was a friend of yours, but it sounds like he’d been hanging out with some pretty bad people.”
The air whooshed out of my lungs and my knees buckled. Fortunately, I’d been leaning against the counter so I didn’t go crashing to the floor. Oh no. Not Evan. Not like this. They had killed him. Moira and Mikael. A fragment of the conversation I’d heard in that dank cave came back to me, something Moira had said to her brother about sacrificing their slaves, and I knew for certain that the Daramorr and his sister had been responsible, not only for the Noctyrnum and Evan, but for the other strange deaths in the news as well. They had been sacrificing them in order to absorb their mortal magic. And Evan had been swept up in the middle of it. They had used him to get to me; as a shield to distract my attention away from them. And then they’d just thrown him away like garbage. As the scream of rage fought for freedom, I forced it down. No, I couldn’t lose it. Not now.
“Robyn? You okay? Hey, want me to come by later? I don’t mind risking getting sick.”
“No,” I managed to grate out. “I’ll be okay. Evan and I weren’t close, but, well, it’s just a shock is all.”
“Of course. If you need me for any reason at all don’t you dare hesitate to call, all ri
ght?”
I refused to let the anger and anguish consume me, but my throat was tight when I murmured, “Thank you.”
“All right. Don’t forget to call Margie,” she added in a more subdued tone.
Before I could let the brunt of Kelly’s news take hold, I hung up the phone and called my boss. She was all sympathy and kindness and totally bought my flu act.
“I want you to take at least the next week off to get better. No coming in to work until then, and don’t worry about us. We’ll manage, even with that other girl leaving us in the lurch.”
Replacing the cordless phone on its dock, I called out a weak thanks to Jennifer and headed back to my apartment. Halfway there, the spinning in my head and churning in my stomach magnified, and I turned to throw up in the hydrangeas. I couldn’t get Evan’s face out of my mind, the face of my friend before he had been brainwashed by the Daramorr. I needed some mindless work to do, something that might help me shut down my brain for a while. I didn’t want to think about Evan lying dead in the wilderness somewhere with the rest of the Noctyrnum, murdered and forgotten. I didn’t want to picture Mikael and Moira, alive and well, hiding in some cave in the Otherworld or somewhere beyond, biding their time before they had enough strength to hurt someone else. And I really didn’t want to think about how much I missed Devlin and how comforting his mere presence would be right now.
A surge of frustration took over, and I stomped around my apartment, picking up all the stray articles of clothing and throwing them onto the bed. I then went into the closet and dragged my hamper out with my good arm and proceeded to add to the pile. When I’d built a sizeable mountain, I peeled all the sheets off the bed and removed the pillowcases. Bracing myself for the twinge beneath my collarbone, I grabbed the whole pile and marched off to the laundry room. Nothing like keeping yourself busy with household tasks to turn your mind away from dangerous thoughts. And my thoughts were dangerous. I was upset about Evan, but more than anything I was outraged. How dare Moira and Mikael do that to him? How dare they? I wanted to rip them limb from limb, make them feel the same pain I felt. But they weren’t available at the moment, so I took my rage out on my dirty laundry.
Lorehnin: A Novel of the Otherworld Page 28
