Vyx’s face was slowly distorting into a violent rapid dog, drooling, growling, and flaring his yellow teeth.
“I, of course, am the second woman, Lainahwyn. You will always be the first in Vyx’s eyes, or as he calls you, My Love,” I said respectively, swaying my hand softly toward the demon. “Am I telling the truth so far, Lainahwyn?”
The demon steepled her slender fingers, curling a maleficent smile across her porcelain face, “Proceed…”
“You see, Lainahwyn,” I said politely with an endearing smile and a twinkle in my eye. “May I call you, Lainahwyn?”
“You may,” she said amusedly, “if I can call you, child?”
“If it pleases you,” I shrugged, not giving a rat’s arse what the demon wanted to call me.
“It does,” the demon answered delightfully.
“You see the truth is,” I continued, “Vyx here, he knew what the Dragon Scroll was all about. Didn’t you, Vyx?” I said tilting my head, batting my lashes at him as he steamed. “I had absolutely no clue what it meant, what it did, until you just mentioned it, Lainahwyn. Why would I not tell you where it was?”
“Because you’re a lying conniving wench!” hissed Vyx, “that’s why!”
“Perhaps,” I said with a slightly mocking smile, “And maybe your wanker’s just a wee bit too small.” I scrutinized him, pinching my two fingers together, leaving only about an inch of space, and thumbing my finger back at the demon. “And the new Mrs. hasn’t bothered to check?”
Vyx’s veins were popping out of his head now. “She’s lying! That’s not the damn Moon Pendant and she knows where the Dragon Scroll is!” he said seething.
“But, I,” I stated sweetly, splaying my fingers across my heart. “I always tell the truth. And the truth is…” I paused for a moment, scanning the room for my next long winded suggestion. And there it was, hanging on the wall, dangling his long lanky legs, his ears kited out like Dumbo. “I have a witness…”
Lainahwyn’s eyes were aroused suspiciously.
“Bill Gates,” I said, gesturing to Edgar’s pasty body. “On the leash over there can attest to me stealing the Moon Pendant from my lovely, yet naïve sister.”
Lainahwyn grinned brightly, rising from her throne, her long nail poking at Edgar’s temple.
“What are you doing?” I asked curiously.
Vyx sneered, “She’s tapping into his thoughts, wench. To see if you’re telling the truth.”
“Oh,” I replied, blowing out an exhausted breath, “good.”
Keep it cool, Isobel, keep it cool.
Lainahwyn’s nail pricked at the crown of Edgar’s head, a purple mist streamed into her fingernail, sliding through her body changing her eyes into a purple haze. She flashed an acid smile, withdrawing Edgar, and returning to her golden throne.
Vyx sneered at me, slamming his thick steroid shoulder against my body, muttering, “Kissing you was like licking an ashtray.”
“Proceed…” muttered Lainahwyn.
♦♦♦
Anabel
“It is time, Guardian,” muttered Leigheas, nudging me with her wrinkled hand.
I swung my legs off the couch, slipping my scuffed leather boots on, and buttoning up a long sheer shirt Blane had found for me in the castle. I knew this task entailed water and didn’t want anything weighing me down, in case I needed to swim.
Slu was hiding behind a high backed chair, a shadow cast against his face, poking his eye out to catch a glimpse of me as I fastened a thick leather belt around my waist. “I know you’re there,” I said, smirking at him, tying my hair back in a ponytail.
I caught a glimpse of his one eye, swelling with tears, his lower lip quivering.
I sat down on the edge of the couch, leaning forward. “Don’t worry,” I said tenderly. “I’m gonna be fine.”
He hopped toward me, halting just before my knees, his bristly hand brushing against my cheek. I felt his warmth.
“Rose…” he said whimpering.
“I know, Rose died from the Nuckelavee, but I won’t.”
“You’re the spittin’ image of Rose, Anabel,” Leigheas stated, her eyes sparkling in the setting sun.
“So, I’ve heard.”
“He thinks yer her, reincarnated,” Leigheas added.
I took Slu’s fuzzy hand in mine. “No, I’m not Rose,” I said assuredly. “Humans don’t reincarnate… at least I don’t think we do. We go to heaven when we die.”
“Faeries don’t,” Leigheas mentioned in a matter-of-fact tone, “we’re immortal. We are sent to either Eternity or to Häälaria. Once there, we can come back if we choose.”
“Oh?” I responded, curiously. There was so much to learn about the realm of the Fae, they all lived by different rules than man.
Leigheas hobbled over to me, her stoutly body plopping onto the couch next to me, placing her withered hand on top of mine, staring into my eyes. “You sure do look like her,” she said gruffly, pinching my chin.
I blushed. “Thank you,” I replied, “I heard she was very beautiful.”
Leigheas’s golden eyes met mine. “No one could help falling in love with Rose. She was the most beautiful of all the MacAlpin’s with her porcelain skin, wild red hair, and emerald green eyes. We were all mesmerized by her beauty inside and out.”
I gave Leigheas a half smile, but inside I cringed. Why did everyone think I was Rose? My mind shifted to Blane. Did he believe I was Rose? I inhaled deeply watching Blane enter the room, a handful of weapons attached to his back and hips.
“Time to leave, Guardian,” Blane informed me, holding out his brawny hand, and gracefully raising me to my feet.
He used to be in love with Rose. What if it wasn’t me he was in love with, what if it was really Rose? I pushed that thought out of my mind as I followed Blane down a hallway, warm torchlight splashed against its stone walls. I turned back, seeing Slu tinkling his five fingers at me, pouting heavily, cradled next to Leigheas, her eyes casting to the floor once they met mine.
Blane and I left Dunvarghan Castle behind, heading toward the unforgiving sea, heading toward the Nuckelavee.
We hiked along the rolling hills, arriving at the cusp of the seashore, strolling up and down the sand dunes, filled with squalling gulls, and seaweed covered rocks. Blane stopped on the edge of a white powdered beach and turned to me.
“The Nuckelavee cannot cross moving water,” he said, sweeping back an untamed wisp of hair behind my ear as fading light bathed his face. “He cannot cross a stream, a river, or a lake, but he thrives in the sea. If yer near the sea, you must run or swim from him as fast as you can, lass.”
“What does he look like?” I asked inquisitively.
Blane’s lids fell heavy as he suddenly crushed his arms around me, squeezing me tightly, cradling my face into his chest.
“It is too terrible to describe, Rose,” he whispered into my ear.
Rose? My heart sank.
I pushed Blane away angrily, searching his eyes, trying to find an answer to the question that’s been burning inside me. “Blane, why do you love me?” blurted out of my mouth before I had time to think. I was hoping deep in my heart, he’d say something that was uniquely me and only me, nothing of Rose.
Blane pressed his lips together, falling silent. I could tell he was back tracking in his mind.
“I haven’t really done anything special? You’ve rescued me a few times, and we’ve almost died together – but why?” I asked, backing away from him. “What is it about me that you love? Is it because I’m the Guardian?”
“No,” he replied, his eyes still not meeting mine.
“Is it because I’m beautiful?”
“You are, lass,” he smiled bashfully, quickly glancing up and then back down.
“Do I make you laugh?” I questioned, beginning the interrogation of a man that I couldn’t be with, but still needed to know the truth. “Do I remind you of someone?”
Blane shifted his weight from foot to foot, still a
verting his eyes from me.
“I see, who?”
He cleared his throat, and mumbled. “Rose.”
The palm of my hand, slapped hard across his cheek. His jaw jerked to the side, leaving a bright red mark beneath his stubble.
I didn’t know what came over me. I felt so betrayed. I knew our relationship could never be. But, it didn’t mean I didn’t fall in love with him and that he didn’t truly mean something to me. And now, it was all a big fat lie. This whole time, he thought I was, Rose, my great-Aunt, who died years ago trying to charge the Moon Pendant.
His head was lowered in defeat. “I’m sorry, lass. I will wait for you here.”
I turned away from him, wiping away my streaming tears, heading down a rocky path, heading toward the Nuckelavee, heading toward my doom.
Chapter 23
♦♦♦
Izzy
It was most definitely not the time to choke. So, I didn’t, taking an invigorating breath in. I was finally on my splendid stage, a full audience listening to my every word, each one of them eating out of the palm of my hands. Sure, of course, I had the Moon Pendant strapped around my neck, the most powerful necklace in the world known to man. Would I lie to you (wink, wink)? Well, maybe not to you, but I would to them.
This was clearly not the time to get all weirded out.
I already had Vyx pawing dust up like a brazen bull, preparing to throttle his horns into me while I danced around the stage. Edgar was hanging from the wall on the verge of peeing in his pants with no possibility of escaping. Fergus and his dad were imprisoned in the labyrinth with no chance of survival, unless I came through for them. There was an army of Màrmann huddling on the edge of the room, preparing to attack me at a moment’s notice. And let’s not forget, the all-powerful demon that in a split second could slice my neck wide open, suck out all of my blood, and call it a late night’s snack.
This was definitely not the time to get all weirded out.
This was just another day of being, Izzy MacAlpin.
I continued my dance. First, I had them rolling in their seats, begging for more, telling all of them the story of how I whacked Anabel across the back of her head. A painful look of despair crawled across her porcelain face as her head whipped around. Right after I clobbered her with the telescope and the funny thud sound her body made when she collapsed to the ground.
Lainahwyn beamed in her seat, tapping her nails excitedly against the throne’s ornately carved arm.
Vyx stared at me maliciously with a tight muscle working in his jaw.
I spun around, whipping my wild hair through the air along with my three dread-locks, stopping abruptly before, Lainahwyn. “So, there’s this game show where I come from called, Let’s Make a Deal?” I said smiling brightly.
Lainahwyn nodded for me to continue.
My eyes narrowed in on the demon. “So, what do you say, Lainahwyn? Shall we make a deal?”
Vyx stomped forward, arguing furiously. “My Love doesn’t make deals with mortals.”
I arched my brow, catching Lainahwyn’s lunar eyes. “Last time I checked, Lainahwyn could speak for herself.”
Lainahwyn leaned back into her throne, raising a single lithe finger up at me. “Enough, MacAlpin,” she said, gracefully. “What is it you desire?”
I cleared my throat and began. “I get Fergus, his dad, and,” I said nonchalantly, thumbing over toward Edgar, “throw in the geek, and I’ll give you the Moon Pendant. All yours. No strings attached. Open the Portal, ransack the world, I don’t care.”
“Oh, but you must care,” Lainahwyn said with an impish smirk.
I have to say, Lainahwyn threw me for a loop. I didn’t know what she was getting at. My eyes darted around the room, while an icy chill tingled up my back, making me very aware that the show was about to kill off their main character.
I gulped.
Lainahwyn waved her hand in the air, and with that the Màrmann began to close in on me.
Yup, I was right, the show’s finale was about to begin. Will the heroine escape? Not if she doesn’t fight as hard as hell she won’t! I pulled out my knife, preparing for the melee.
Two Màrmann approached me, one with a lazy eye and the other with a mop of gray hair on his head, both staggering forward, trying to size me up before they attacked. I thrust my knife forward three times in succession, trying to ward them off. It didn’t work. Lazy eye inched forward, cocking his head side to side, trying to get a better view of what I was doing with my stolen knife. I kicked my right boot up, doing a high-kick Radio City Rockette’s style, cracking Lazy eye’s jaw open, catapulting him high into the air until he slammed down on his back.
“If you were the Guardian,” purred Lainahwyn engagingly, as I flung my knife out, cutting Mop Head’s right ear off, just a spritz of blood squirted out as it flopped down to the floor, “you would use your powers.”
I spun around, tucking the bone knife into my belt, and then clamping my hands onto the Mop Head’s temples. “Don’t you know?” I remarked, bashing my forehead into his skull, head butting him hard, his body plummeting to the ground. “If I used my powers, it would weaken me!”
I skirted my eyes around the cave. Two more Màrmann limped forward, identical twins, both spitting images of Blane. Man, what a waste of eye candy. But, a girl has to do what a girl has to do, I told myself, and that is to kick some Màrmann butt.
“Yes,” Lainahwyn answered in a lightly mocking voice, “it is a win-win situation for me. Would you not agree?”
I quickly crouched onto the icy floor. The two Blane lookalikes advanced, muddling their caked boots straight toward me. My teeth fiddled with a piece of dead skin on my lower lip, and then just at the right time, my right foot swung out in a half circle, sweeping under the two Màrmann’s Frankenstein like feet, cutting them across their knees, knocking them down like bowling pins, falling flat on their butts.
Out of breath, I rose to my feet, taking in a deep sharp breath. Four down, about fifty more to go, I said to myself surveying the throne room, blowing away a few wisps of hair hanging on my sweaty face.
I guess Lainahwyn seemed to have enough of me kicking arse and nodded to, Vyx, still hiding on the sidelines.
Vyx barreled across the room, clamping onto my neck firmly, popping off a button from my sleek shirt, revealing the Moon Pendant underneath. His beady black eyes narrowed in on the dull Moon Pendant, not even a twinkle shimmered in its stones.
So, I lied. It wasn’t the real Moon Pendant.
Sue me!
“It’s a fake!” he hollered over his shoulder to Lainahwyn.
“The child has fooled us!” Lainahwyn erupted, standing on her cloven feet, her eyes ablaze in anger. “No time for the Dragon Scroll. We must stop the Guardian before she finishes her charge.” Her boiling eyes flashed at Vyx. “Take care of her.”
A satisfied grin inched across Vyx’s blotchy red face, my feet still flapping in the air as his fat fingers applied more pressure onto my delicate neck. “My pleasure,” he purred, “My Love.”
Lainahwyn and her army of Màrmann scampered out of her cold lair, off to destroy Anabel and Blane. Inside, I was secretly hoping that I had given them enough time to get passed the Nuckelavee. See, I’m not such a meany after all.
Vyx hoisted me above his head. I could see the veins bulging out of his thick neck as he grinned cheekily. He didn’t waste much time in finishing me off for good and bashed my spine against the clammy stone wall. I let out a light squeal, having the wind knocked out of my lungs. Vyx held me there for a moment and then released me, letting my limp body slide down damp wall as he strutted away.
I let out a weak breath, lying on the floor, wishing I hadn’t smoked as many cigarettes in the past. Maybe I’d have a better lung capacity? I lay there wheezing, straining, and gasping for a mouthful of oxygen.
My eyes skidded along the dingy floor, spotting Vyx’s Timberland boots walking toward me. I waited and waited, taking in a labored breath,
listening to the rubber soles of his boots stomping toward me. I bided my time, and just when he was close enough I swung my leg out, clipping him in the back of his heels, his body cart wheeling through the air like an acrobat, crashing down onto his shoulder.
I let out a soft chuckle. You definitely don’t see that every day.
Vyx scurried to his feet, clenching my shirt, hoisting me up from my collar, his right hand locked around my bruised neck, his fingers crushing against my wind pipe. I gasped for air, flailing my fingers at Vyx’s face, trying to stop him from cutting off my air supply.
“I have,” I let out a faint raspy voice, gulping for air, “what you need.”
“It’s a little too late for bargaining,” he sneered, pinching harder into my neck.
My eyes grew heavy. A cloudy mist of darkness surrounded me as I choked.
Then, it all went black.
Vyx hurled my body across the room, thrashing me down to the ground, his Timberland boots planted firmly on my skull as he crushed the weight of his body into my head.
“This is mine,” Vyx grumbled, snatching out the bone blade from my belt and sliding it back into his boot. He leaned into me, whispering into my ear, “I should’ve delayed my little shove, wench. Then, you wouldn’t ‘ev had any time to react and you’d be already dead.”
I could feel Vyx staring down at me, a mischievous smile plastered on his repulsive face.
“This is for kicking me in the balls, wench,” scoffed Vyx, walloping me in gut with the tip of his boot.
I cringed inside, moaning, unable to fight back, just like Fergus taught me.
My blouse billowed up from the kick, exposing my latest tattoo, the markings of the Dragon Scroll, etched into my skin just before I had hopped the plane to Scotland.
“So that’s where you hid it,” grunted Vyx, yanking my shirt up, revealing the full picture, his calloused fingers stroking across my left torso, gliding over the strange symbol swirling around a double-winged dragon.
“My Love will be elated,” he said pleased, writing down the spell that would bypass the Moon Pendant’s power and open the MääGord standing stone’s Portal.
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