Netherworld, Book 1 of the Hallowed Realms Trilogy

by Amy Miles

  I waved her off and opened the fridge, pulling out a cold bite of leftover roast. My stomach thundered at the tease of food. Ma swooped over and started to make me a plate, never stopping with her questions of my whereabouts.

  “You’d better be answering me ’cause I’m not letting up until I know where the devil you’ve been all this time,” she warned. She waved a wooden spoon at me in a menacing way. “I almost called Interpol to go looking for ya!”

  “I’m trying to find Seamus,” I said, ripping off a hunk of bread and shoving it in my mouth.

  “Seamus? What’s the matter with him?”

  I shook my head. It wasn’t like I could tell her the truth: some massive black beast tried to eat him and now I didn’t know where he was. She’d lock me up for sure, right beside Ms. Daly.

  “I think he may have a fight with his da. A big one. I went over this morn and his da said he’d been kicked out.”

  Ma sat down beside me at the table, her hand covering her mouth.

  “Oh, that’s horrible news. Well, have you looked—”

  “I’ve looked everywhere, Ma. I don’t know where he could be, but I have a bad feeling. A real bad feeling.” My eyes glossed over a bit wondering if there was any truth to that statement. The last time I had seen him he was writhing in pain unlike anything I’d ever witnessed before. What if he was dead? What if they all were?

  No. They weren’t dead. I would know it. Somehow I would know it. They were missing. That was all. And I was going to find them.

  Ma pushed out from the table and went over to the phone.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “We need to have a search party for him. The poor boy could be hurt somewhere and the temperature will drop in a few hours.”

  I stood up and hung up the phone for her.

  “No. Let me try to find him first. He’s not gonna be right in the head now. Besides, Interpol can’t do anything till he’s been missing for forty-eight hours, anyway. You know Seamus. He’s likely gone off to be alone someplace. That’s what he does when he gets upset. Remember when we were lads and he got cross at me?”

  She smiled softly. “Aye. He always ended up on the back stoop. Like you would never think to find him there? But you always did, even if ya pretended to hunt for him for a while so he’d cool off.”

  I rubbed Ma’s shoulders as she remembered simpler days. “Let me get my energy back, grab a torch and some extra batteries, and if I can’t find him by morning, then we’ll call for help. Okay?”

  The look on her face conveyed that she was not at all happy about this plan. “At least let me look with ya,” she pleaded.

  “Ma, if I do find him, he’s not gonna wanna face me, let alone my ma,” I said, coming up with the lie on the spot. “I have to approach him in just the right way.”

  She glanced down at her gold watch Da had given to her on their twentieth anniversary. I knew she couldn’t afford to take more time off. She’d taken off so much with Alana’s illness and funeral. They had been kind to let her off as much as they did, but even Ma knew to ask for more now would be pushing it.

  “Fine then. You have one day. If he’s not back by the morning, I’m calling, you hear?”

  “Aye. Agreed.” I gave her a nod of understanding. I pulled her in for a hug, but she pushed out of it to tell me something.

  “Devlin, when you find him, you bring him back here,” she said. “We’ve got an extra room now. You tell him he’ll always have a home here.”

  I knew how hard it must have been for her to offer up Alana’s room. She hadn’t been in it since her death, and if Seamus came to stay with us, she’d force herself to go in and change the linens. She’d be reminded of her daughter’s passing yet again, but she offered it anyway. Even though we had been estranged for a time, Seamus was still family.

  “You’re amazing, Ma. And I love ya.” I gave her a gentle squeeze and she laughed in my arms. It felt good to hear her laugh again.

  After that, she filled my belly and a sack full of food, bottled waters, and a sweatshirt for Seamus, should I find him. I told her I was going to be looking around town for the most part. I didn’t want her knowing that I’d be in the thick of the woods in the approaching nightfall. Some things were better left unsaid when it came to mothers.

  When I got back to the cemetery, I wanted to begin again with a renewed sense of hope. Perhaps I had missed something because I was tired or hungry earlier. I had a full belly and a clear mind, yet I was still no closer to finding out what really happened after I hit my head.

  Think, Devlin. He’s not dead because I would have found his body, right?

  That was when I noticed something on the ground that I had thought was dead leaves but now thanks to the shifting of the sun, I could see that it was actually blood.

  “Seamus,” I whispered. A flash of him screaming in pain crossed my mind. Was I too late? Had that thing killed him?

  My feet walked painfully slow over to where the blood had begun to seep into ground around it. I knelt down and was about to touch it when I noticed the black ooze steaming slightly on the earth beside me. I bent my head lower to look at it more closely. The slimy substance was dark and thick. Almost like melted tar. It was burning through the ground it surrounded.

  Whatever that stuff was, it was clear to me that it wasn’t normal. In fact, it looked like the same stuff that had been all over Taryn when I discovered her at the hospital. I took a step back. Come to think of it, the ooze had the same colour of Seamus’s arm after that thing attacked him.

  That thing had come this way. It released some sort of toxin. Taryn would have known that. She’d lived through an attack from that thing and yet she went after it knowing full well what it could do.

  Where had she come from? It was like she materialized out of thin air. Though she looked different, I knew exactly who she was.

  Gone was the long silver dress she had worn the other times I’d seen her and in its place was the sexiest outfit I’d ever laid eyes on. Last night, she had on this skimpy leather halter top that made her breasts look as though they would fall out. It only came to her navel, showing off a trim and toned stomach. But it was the tiny leather skirt that nearly had me panting. Long, lean legs that stretched on for days. Even with the scars that covered her body, she was the epitome of desire.

  I was just about to fall into a nice daydream when I heard a noise behind me. My muscles tensed as I balled my fists and spun around, ready for anything other than what I saw.

  “Taryn?”

  She stood in front of me wearing a delicate teal gown that, though down to her ankles, hugged every one of her lush curves. My mouth actually watered looking at her.

  “Good Lord. That might be the sexiest dress I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

  Her face blushed as did mine when I realised I’d said that out loud.

  “Sorry. That was highly inappropriate,” I bumbled. “True, but inappropriate.” I shook my head a few times to clear it. “Where have you been? Where’s Seamus? What was that thing? What the bloody hell happened last night?”

  She raised her hand to halt my barrage of questions. “I know you want answers, but I canna stay long.” Her entire posture was on edge as her eyes scanned the horizon.

  “How is he?”

  “Seamus, is it?” Her cool blue eyes drifted back to me and her posture relaxed a fraction. “He’s safe.”

  “Safe isn’t good enough. I want to know what happened to him. I want to know where he is!”

  She took a step forward and leered at me with her eyes, signaling me to keep my voice down. There was no one here. I didn’t understand the concern.

  “I canna tell you where he is. Just trust that he is being cared for. By morning, I’ll have the medicines needed to help him.” Her eyes scanned our surroundings again.

  “What does that mean?” I asked, feeling exasperated. She wasn’t giving me any useful information. “I want to see him. I need to see that he’s okay for mys
elf.”

  She shook her head. Her face had grown stern. “No. That is not possible. You’re not allowed to go where he is. It’s not safe for ya.”

  “Well, if it’s not safe for me how is it safe for him?”

  She held her hand out to stop me. “It’s not, alright?”

  I could see she was getting frustrated too.

  “If he had been left here, he would have died. Of that I have no doubt.” Her eyes stayed on mine to try and drive that point home. “The beast that attacked him, the Lorcan, its claws are deadly. It poisons flesh. If it gets into the bloodstream...if it finds its way to the heart, then there’s nothing either of us could have done.”

  “We could have taken him to the hospital,” I said, still not understanding where Seamus was at the moment or even where she had come from. I had searched these woods all day and there wasn’t a trace of life anywhere. She wasn’t making any sense.

  Taryn shook her head. “He would have died for sure in your hospitals. They don’t have the herbs needed to stop the spread of this kind of poison.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “But your hospitals do? Taryn. A hospital is a hospital, Taryn. They have the same medicines.”

  She made a face in apparent frustration. “We don’t have hospitals where I’m from. We have healers. Wise men and women trained in the ancient art of healing and herbs. My friend, Tris, the girl who was with me, her ma was a healer. She knows how to help him. She is tending to Seamus’ wounds until I can get him something stronger.”

  “Wait…does that mean he’s still in danger?” From the expression on her face, I could tell things were not good.

  “Tris has stopped the spread for now, but only time will tell,” she confessed. “He’s being cared at Tris’ house. Illegally, I might add. If anyone knew I had brought a human into our realm…”

  I looked up at her choice of words. This wasn’t the first time she’d use it.

  “A human…? As opposed to?”

  “I’ve already said too much.” Her face hardened. “Nothin’ I say will make any sense. Ya just need to trust me. Can ya do that?”

  “No. I’m sorry, but I bloody well can’t. You’ve taken my mate to a stranger’s house. You tell me he’s been poisoned but no hospital can save him, and you’re hinting to me that ya aren’t even human and you expect me to just trust that?”

  “She’s not a stranger, she’s my best mate and the best option yours has. I don’t bloody care if you don’t trust me or pick apart the words I use. I only came back to let you know Seamus is being cared for. I see now I shouldn’t have bothered.” There was a fire in her tone that had me backing off in an instant.

  “Don’t go. Please. I’m sorry,” I said. “You have to understand how confusing all of this is to me.”

  She clenched her jaw a few times as though to release the pressure building inside.

  “I canna tell you more about Seamus.”

  I decided to let the matter drop. For now.

  “Fine. What about you, then?”

  My question seemed to take her off guard.

  “What about me?”

  I took a step closer. “Were you hurt?” My hand encircled her wrist, turning her arm over ever so gently to look for newly blackened flesh.

  She stiffened at the sudden shift in my proximity. I heard her intake of breath before she swallowed and pulled herself out of my grasp. “I’m fine.”

  My focus drifted to the blackened scars on her face. I could tell she felt embarrassed by them from the way she kept the left side of her face from me. She had no idea how stunning they made her look. They didn’t detract from her beauty. Quite the opposite, they enhanced it. It was as though her face was meant to have those marks. I had a sudden urge to press my lips against the dark lines that lived by her eye. What might her skin feel like under my lips?

  “I have to go,” she said, pulling me back from my fantasy. “No one knows I’ve left and they will be quite cross if they find out I ditched the ball.” She looked down at her gown. My eyes went with hers.

  “There’s a tear in your dress,” I said, pointing to a rip that went right up her side. The tear ended at her upper thigh. For no good reason, I got defensive.

  “Yes. I may have had a wee disagreement with our prince.”

  “A disagreement?” I asked carefully. “With a prince?” She was talking nonsense again. There were no princes in our area. Was she lying? Or worse? Was she losing her mind like Ms. Daly? Was I?

  “Aye. My ma will not think kindly of that one if she finds out.” She looked over her shoulder again like she was preparing to leave.

  “Wait. You’re trying to tell me that you had a fight with a prince? Like with swords and stuff?”

  She shrugged. “It was really nothing more than a tussle.”

  “A tussle?”

  She straightened her posture. “We had a difference of opinion.”

  An irrational wave of jealousy swept over me.

  “Did he hurt you?” My tone was suddenly quite deadly.

  “Quite the opposite.” She smirked. “In case ya hadn’t noticed, I can hold my own.”

  “That you can.” There was so much more to this woman than she was letting on.

  “Anyway,” she said, her head dipping low as though to hide a blush. “I thought you were owed an update on your friend. Come morning, if all goes according to plan, he should be right as rain again. Tris will see to it. She seems quite taken with him. I wouldn’t worry about a thing.”

  She turned to leave, but I took hold of her arm.

  “No. You don’t get to leave again.”

  Her eyes grew wide at the sudden challenge. “Excuse me? I’ll leave whenever I want to,” she said, but she didn’t pull herself out of my grasp. Something I suspected she could have done easily.

  I released my hold on her.

  “I just mean....there’s so much you haven’t told me.”

  She let out a breath, seeming to waver about how much she should reveal.

  “I deserve the truth, Taryn. I don’t understand any of what’s going on. I’ve seen what I can only describe as a monster. You’ve abducted my mate and won’t tell me where he is and now tell me you’re a having tussle with some prince, when you and I both know Ireland doesn’t have a prince. You can’t leave without giving me some explanation. To do that would be cruel, and I don’t take ya for a cruel person.”

  The hard lines of her face softened.

  Her gaze lowered. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.”

  I took a step forward and lifted her chin up with my hand. Her eyes locked onto mine. “Try me.”

  “What do you want to know?” she asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper. There was no denying we had a connection. I could feel her spirit connecting with my own in a way I had never experienced before. Still, there was something very different about the two of us. That gave me the first question I wanted to be answered.

  I had a million questions, but one burned brighter than all the others.

  “What are you?”

  There was a shift in her features. Gone was the softness from before. In its place was the warrior. She turned away from me and faced the woods from where she had magically appeared.

  “I’m not sure I take your meaning.”

  “Aye, you do. I have no way of proving it, Taryn, but you are not from Ireland. You look like me...flesh and bone, but are ya? I’ve seen things that don’t make sense. Wounds that bleed black...beasts that tower over a full grown man, and a creature so stunning it couldn’t possibly be of this earth.”

  At that she turned around to look me in the eye.

  “To tell you what I am would be committing treason...I would be punished. Thrown in the dungeons, or worse.”

  “Dungeons? I don’t understand. What dungeon?” This only confirmed my suspicions. I knew this part of Moneyglass well and there were no castles here, let alone any building that might hold a dungeon.

  She threw her
hands up into the air. “Oh, what does it matter? They could hang me for what I’ve done already.”

  “Hang you? Taryn, what’s going on? Are you in trouble?” My protective instincts curled my hands into fists.

  Her eyes flicked down at my hands for a moment then back at me.

  “Okay. Here’s the truth. Believe it or don’t, but I’ll only tell you this once, so listen well.”

  I nodded in understanding, ready to believe anything she told me. No matter how preposterous.

  She took a breath. “I’m a banshee.” She lifted her hands upwards as though that should explain it all. “Not the screaming, wailing, ghost thing you humans have concocted, but the real thing.”

  “A banshee?” I repeated, wanting really hard to believe her but at the same time knowing how insane that was.

  She sighed and sat down on a fallen headstone. “I am a guide from this world to the next. My job is to help those who have passed over and guide them to the Isle of Glass, a place you lot tend to refer to as Heaven.”

  I took a seat beside her, watching her face as she spoke. It was clear she was telling the truth. Or at least the truth as she knew it.

  “Where I live, there are monsters,” she continued, “like the one you saw. Up until recently, however, they were caged by the walls of Hollow Earth. Our reapers could control them until we got our new king.”

  “And what’s a reaper?” I asked, not wanting to interrupt her but also wanting to understand.

  “They are specially trained warriors. It is only the reapers who are permitted to carry a dagger like this.” She pushed the fabric of her dress up to reveal that icy blue blade tucked neatly inside a leather strap located high against her inner thigh. “Only this blade can pierce the hide of a Lorcan.”

  “How did you—”

  “Get ahold of one?” she asked. “My cousin is a reaper. He knew the dangers. He trained me in secret.”

  She began to pace as I tried to process what she was saying. “Something is wrong. Terribly wrong. The Lorcan are breaching their walls. They’re attacking banshees and reapers alike. And now they’re going after the humans? This is unheard of. They seem to be getting stronger, too. Evolving somehow and our bloody king doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary! He’s doing nothing to stop these attacks. So I’m out here every day tryin’ to hunt down and kill as many of these bastards as I can without gettin’ myself eaten or hung by my king for trying to fight them off!”