An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  Harlie was annoying her with how closely he watched her face. “I did see a shadow you, holding a shadow necklace. But neither of us could see where you were. The others can’t hear us, but all three were disturbed by something and I think Bart called back to tell them to put on parachutes.”

  “We’re not crashing, are we?”

  “No. But we did dip a bit. That’s when we tried to pull you out, but you didn’t hear us.”

  “I did finally. I was in an odd forest. Massive, full of Hewlith trees. No, not the one in Wales. There were shapes...they were saying words.” She tried to recall what was said. The words had been in her mind, but it was as if coming back here made them vanish. Like only recalling part of a deep dream. “Damn it. I can’t find them again.” She closed her eyes and focused, but all she recalled was the howling. “Nope. But they were very upset.”

  “You couldn’t tell who they were? Where?”

  “I couldn’t even tell what they were.” Aisling described everything she’d seen, but still couldn’t recall the words. “They were angry at me. Or at the pendant.” She wanted to look at it, but didn’t think releasing the other two right now was a good idea.

  “It’s changed.” Caradoc leaned as close as he could without releasing either of them. “There is now a line of trileium? That can’t be right.”

  Harlie had been about to say something but leaned forward instead. “There’s nothing else that’s green like that—no metal. It’s not from this world.”

  “You said the pendant was pulling metals through to this world? So the pendant might have sent me on a little out of body experience to get its trileium back?” Aisling was proud her mental voice didn’t squeak. Trileium was only heard of in stories. An incredibly powerful metal that the first-comers were unable to get through the veil when they fled. It supposedly could transmute other metals, conduct spells, some even claimed it was sentient. And there was a tiny bit of it stuck on her pendant. That she couldn’t remove. Part of her wished she was back home in L.A. still being shut out of everything. Be careful what you wish for indeed.

  “I think so. Don’t pick it up, but it is touching your chest. Does anything feel different?” Harlie was doing his slow, soothing voice again. If they got out of this, she was going to point out that all it did was freak her out more.

  Aisling closed her eyes and focused on the place where the pendant touched her skin. The weight came first, it was cool now, no longer warm, but feeling more like a pendant should feel. “It feels more balanced. Not sure if that’s the right word, but it feels content.” Not a good thing that a metal that might be sentient, but it was what she felt. “Do you still think this is a ghau pendant?”

  “Yes. This makes it a more reasonable deduction in fact.” Harlie gave a tight smile but didn’t elaborate.

  “Interesting.” Caradoc scowled at the pendant but the hand he had on Harlie’s shoulder was twitching.

  “Don’t let go of each other.” Harlie squeezed their shoulders. “It could have been that the pendant was trying to do what it needed to and so acted up to make it happen. Or it could be playing games. Either way, we stay in this shield until we’ve landed.”

  “Fine, but I want to see it closely afterwards.” Caradoc kept staring at it. “Do you know what this could mean? If we can find a way to get trileium into this world? Under our control of course; it would have to be regulated carefully. The damage that could be caused by a large enough collection of it is insane. But think of the applications to technology.”

  “Seriously, Caradoc, you’re drooling.” Aisling didn’t like the look in his eyes. Especially since it pertained to something that currently only existed attached to her.

  “The pendant is a separate entity.” Harlie narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think you’d be any more successful getting the metal to cross the veil than the first comers.”

  Aisling watched Caradoc consider Harlie’s words. “Not to mention, you’d have to cross the veil from this side first. Even if it’s possibly getting thinner, that isn’t going to happen. And look what’s happened to the people who were pulled through trapped in Area 42. Those bodies in the goo don’t look like they had a good time.” She shuddered and reminded herself she couldn’t break the circle to go find an airsickness bag.

  “Bah. No sense of possibilities with you two.” Caradoc shut his eyes. “I’m going to think right now, please keep your negativity to yourselves.”

  Harlie shook his head at Caradoc, then turned to her. “I could help you relax if you’d like. This plane is incredibly fast though, we should land in Gatwick in an hour or so.”

  “No, I’d rather not risk going back wherever that was. Might have only been in my head, but it wasn’t a comforting place. I’ll just stand here and wait.”

  Harlie nodded, then shut his eyes.

  Aisling kept her eyes open but her mind as blank as possible. She noticed that the other three had moved to the chairs nearest the cockpit and were sitting. However, they all still had their life vests on and parachutes with them, and none of them looked relaxed. She had a feeling whatever happened out here when she’d been in the forest, had been more than just a dip.

  SHE’D MANAGED TO NOT think of anything for the rest of the time. Nothing like the fear of slipping through some psychic dream world to keep one focused on the present.

  Harlie waited until the plane had not only touched down, but came to a complete stop and the engines shut down before dropping the spell.

  Aisling was proud that standing still for a few hours hadn’t wiped her out. Until the spell vanished and she stumbled forward. “Damn, that thing was holding us up. Everything hurts now.”

  Reece was next to her in a moment and took her arm. “Maybe sit for a bit? It’s going to take a few minutes for Bart to clear us through. Apparently, the entire plane vanished from the air traffic control—all of them—for about ten minutes. He’s got some fancy talking to do since everyone is on edge.” The tight smile he gave her said what he wasn’t asking was if she and her brothers caused the plane to vanish. He was wondering it though.

  She returned the tight smile and let him lead her back to her chair. Telling him what had happened would make more sense when they had a clue as to what actually happened.

  Reece glanced over and noticed her necklace. “Did you know it now has something green running through it? Nice, but is it supposed to do that?”

  Aisling lifted the necklace to get a good look at it herself. The line of green counterpointed the line of gold. It was striking. She’d be more impressed if she didn’t know what that green line probably was, and if she could remove the necklace. “I think it’s changing, just some trick of our friends who put it on me. The green is new though.”

  “Ah, you just rest then. I’ll come to get all of you when we’re clear to leave.” The look on his face, and yet an even tighter smile, said he didn’t completely believe her but wasn’t going to push.

  Maeve came over and sat near her when Reece moved away. “The weird scary pendant has changed again. I’m not familiar with any metals that green color. Or did it add stone this time?”

  Reece, Bart, and Jones were at the open door where the stairs extended. They were talking to at least one other person in low, but intense voices.

  “It’s just messing around again.” Aisling dropped the pendant back under her shirt. “What happened when we were in that shield? Harlie said there was a little dip.” Aisling knew he’d lied to keep her calm, but something obviously had happened. How did they vanish from radar and all trackers for almost ten minutes? Was it related to her odd adventure?

  Maeve laughed. “If he calls us dropping like a stone for three minutes a dip, sure. Bart got us back up and we ended up being fine, but it was terrifying. You three didn’t feel it at all?”

  Aisling watched her brothers locked in their own animated conversation. “They probably did. I sort of blacked out for a bit. When I came back, the green line appeared in the necklace.”
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br />   “You might want to hide the pendant as much as you can. There are some wicked smart magic users in MI-6 and they might see things we might not want them too.” Maeve glanced down at her phone. “They haven’t called me yet, but I’m thinking they’ll pull me off here soon. Regardless of what the others are doing.”

  Harlie came over to them. “Actually, let me put a spell on the pendant, just make it look less like itself.” Aisling held it up to him. When he released it the gold and green lines were gone. He clearly didn’t like the idea of the green showing, and she couldn’t blame him.

  Aisling looked at the changes, it now looked like it did originally, but she found that her eyes slid off of it. Nice spell. Folks would avoid looking at it but if they did, it just looked like a silver pendant. She dropped the pendant into her shirt and pulled the collar up. The longer chain meant she could hide it with most shirts she owned. But she might buy a few higher neck ones just to be certain. Harlie might not be the only magic user or historian to recognize it, even with a spell on it.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “We can deplane now.” Reece and Jones came back but Bart and whoever they’d been talking to were gone.

  Maeve’s phone chirped. “Yes.” She listened for a few minutes while she gathered her things. “Understood. I’ll be at pick up.” She ended the call and slipped her phone in her back pocket. “That’s it for me for a bit. Don’t worry about finding me, I’ll find you.” She gave Aisling a nod, then left.

  “We have a nice van that will take us to our first lodging.” Reece grabbed his things. “No one is happy with our vanishing off the radar and once they realize that we actually lost power for part of that they’ll be even less happy. They are requesting that we wait a day in London while they check it out.”

  “I know we knew they might do that, but shouldn’t we go to Noth immediately? Timeliness of whatever happened and all?” Caradoc asked.

  “That would make sense,” Jones answered. “But there’s not a lot of that going on right now.”

  Once the bags were collected, they followed Reece and Jones off the plane. Bart stood at the emergency exit door glaring at the two guards standing there.

  “Come on, we need to shut this door and get out of sight.” Bart snapped as he stomped past the two guards. The guards waited until everyone was inside, then they secured the door. One stayed outside and one stayed inside.

  Bart led them down corridors that were clearly designed for airline staff and held his badge up the entire time. At first Aisling was surprised that neither of the security guards followed them, but there was more than enough down this direction to make up for it.

  A van waited at the curb, again, with another guard. This one had no visible weapons, but there was no doubting that he had them and that he was some sort of military. Bart got in on the right, Reece took the front passenger seat, and the rest funneled into the back two rows. The stealth guard loaded all of their luggage.

  With a few swear words as he adjusted to a different side of the car and road, Bart got them moving out.

  “I thought you were planning on returning to L.A. as soon as you got refueled?”

  “I had been. Before whatever dropped us out of the sky and off the world’s radars happened. They want to investigate the plane and find out what in the hell happened before I take it back up.” He sighed. “I’d like the answers to that question as well, but I want a nice stiff drink before I hear them.”

  “Where are we staying?” Not that it mattered to her right now. That spell of Harlie’s on the plane had kept her from feeling fatigue, but it was wearing off. Neither of her brothers seemed that tired, but they didn’t have the weird adventure in dreamland that she did.

  “I would have liked a nice low-level hotel. But we have an Area 42 safe house, fancy division, waiting for us.” Only Bart would grumble about a nice place to crash.

  Caradoc was silent but there was a grin on his face as they drove through London. “When this, whatever this is, is over, I might relocate my base to here. Or at least buy a flat. I forgot how much I love London.”

  “Not me.” Harlie looked miserable as he hunched in on himself. “Everything is too closed in.”

  Aisling watched the history of the place flow around them as they drove. Right now, her thoughts were on what was going on with the necklace. Along with the issues with the veil and what had almost dropped them out of the sky.

  “It will be okay, I promise.” Harlie was in the seat next to her and he turned away from the window to take her hand as if he’d seen the turmoil in her head. His dark brown eyes grew sad. “Can you ever forgive what I did to you?”

  That had not been in her thoughts. It said a lot that enough other things had shoved something that major out of her head. “It wasn’t your fault. Even as old as you are, she is far older, trickier, and stronger than you. If you hadn’t done it, she would have found someone else, or done it herself. Either would have been much worse.” She squeezed his hand.

  “Thank you. If that wasn’t what was upsetting you just now, might I ask what was?”

  “What happened for those ten minutes we were out of contact with the air traffic controllers?” She turned to the others. “And I’m not just asking Harlie—anyone can step in. And no, given what was going on at the same time, I don’t think they are going to find anything wrong with the plane.”

  The silence said way more than she would have liked. Lots of smart folks in this van and none of them felt up to making a good guess. Very not good.

  Finally, Bart coughed. “I got some more intel; we didn’t completely vanish from the screens for ten minutes. It was more like we faded out, then technically vanished completely for three minutes then faded back in. The first thought when we vanished was that a piece of building hit us.”

  “Not sure if that’s better or worse,” Aisling said. “What did you three notice while we were in our little spell capsule?”

  Reece turned back toward them. “The shielding around the three of you turned dark green. We could still see you but only barely. When the plane lost power, you three didn’t move at all. Maeve, Jones, and myself were tossed about a bit. Your spelled area stayed perfectly still.”

  Harlie nodded. “That would stand to reason. Technically we were a bit out of your reality while I had the shields up. Just enough to not be affected by the plane’s movements.”

  “What? You didn’t tell us that.” Aisling looked in the backseat to Caradoc but he looked as concerned as she felt. She knew Harlie had some odd magics, but pulling them out of reality should have been forewarned. Granted, there hadn’t been much time, but still.

  “How did I not feel that? Where the hell were we?” Caradoc might not use his magic as much as Harlie, but he was still a strong magic user. And right now, a pissed one.

  “I didn’t think it was pertinent. The pendant was acting up, so I did what I could to pull us free so we wouldn’t crash the plane. Had Aisling not been thoroughly shielded when she went on that mental trip, we would have crashed.”

  Aisling shook her head. “You still could have told us what you were actually doing. And wasn’t the spell bubble and the power from you two part of what sent me wherever I went?”

  Harlie flushed. “Possibly we contributed to whatever in your psyche sent you to that dream state.” He waved his finger. “But it would have been worse otherwise, mark my words.”

  He was too defensive to make Aisling feel better either way. He got defensive when he was seriously unsure, and it wasn’t a common experience.

  “Wait, Aisling went somewhere? I saw her right there with you two,” Reece said.

  “I had a weird dream happen when we were inside the spell. Don’t recall much beyond it was scary.” She had a feeling more of it would be coming back to her. She wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

  Caradoc leaned forward with a scowl. “And I bet once we get the data on exactly when the plane vanished, it will correlate with your adventure.”


  “How can you tell exactly when I went into that dream? It was my head after all.”

  “I can tell.” Harlie tapped the side of his head. “Once we get the data, as Caradoc said, we can see what matches.”

  Bart didn’t look away from the road, but raised his voice. “I get the not-so-subtle hints. You’ll get the data once we’re inside.” He drove up a long road to an extremely old fey neighborhood. The houses all looked like classic Victorians with an otherworldly twist. Thin turrets made of spun glass weren’t found on anything under a few hundred years old, and were uncommon as hell to start with. Spelling that much glass so it didn’t break required a serious number of heavy magic spells used just to look cool.

  The mansions in the area were huge, but the one Bart drove to was a bit smaller than most of them. Still a good three times the size of the place Reece had tried to hide her at in Gossamer Hill in L.A. The drive dipped down to an underground garage and the door shut behind them once the van was inside.

  Mage lights lit the wide garage and three dark suited agents stood waiting for them.

  Bart got out first. “Good to see you, Greely.” He shook hands with a tall, dark-skinned elf.

  “Agent Bart.” He put emphasis on the causal name and his grin was genuine. “I do hope this will be sufficient for you? Might I introduce agents Locke and Wastegirdle. We’re here to make sure no one followed you and your stay here is secure.”

  Aisling and the rest stood behind Bart as he introduced them. Then he folded his arms and scowled. “Three top-level London field agents for a few people waiting for things to clear? What’s really going on?”

  Agent Greely dropped his smile. “Might be better to discuss inside. There’s food and it’s far more comfortable.”

  Bart narrowed his eyes but motioned for everyone to follow and went for the door.

  Aisling had been raised in luxury, but this place would make her mother green with envy. Understated, and pricey as hell, elegance graced every corner including the door from the garage into the mansion.