Sword of Light (The Four Keys Book 1)

by J. C. Lucas

  I was immediately on alert.

  He held his hand up, shaking his head, signaling for her to stop talking. She promptly bowed her head and turned to a cabinet, opening it and pulling out something that looked like black rope.

  “Don't just stand there. Tie her hands up so we can be on our way!” Jasper paced back and forth in front of me, agitated and impatient.

  Luna lightly brought my hands behind me, looping the rope around them. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as the rope she had let go of tightened on its own around my wrists so securely that I could feel it biting into my skin as if it had teeth. Warmth oozed down my hands.

  I breathed through the pain. I knew I had to, or Jasper would most likely go ballistic. The sooner we were on our way, the faster this torture would end.

  Jasper saw that I was all taken care of, and we said our goodbyes to Sola as Jasper took flight. Luna wrapped her arms around me, taking off after him. We soared through the trees and up through the hole in the cave’s roof. The air outside was crisp, and I shivered as the wind hit my bare legs. Jasper glanced back to make sure we were following as he darted in and out of the tall trees. The moon was the only light as we flew.

  This time was not as fun as the first time had been. My wrists were burning behind me, the cold seeped into my bones, and I was dreading whatever we were flying into. I wanted to ask Luna so many questions, but it scared me that Jasper might overhear us.

  As we glided closer to a field, I heard voices below us, and I strained to see who it was. We flew straight over the opening in the forest, and then I saw them.

  It’s the guys!

  I didn’t think first but yelled as emphatically as I could. “Guys! I’m here! Look up! Please help me!”

  No one looked up, and Luna clapped her hand over my mouth, keeping me from screaming out again. I looked up to see Jasper tearing through the sky toward us, fury in his eyes.

  “You witch!! Shut up! You will ruin it for us all. They can’t hear you, anyway! Your voice is too small, and we are too high up. Freya will owe me big after this. You’re way more trouble than I could have expected. We are almost there. Now behave yourself, or you won’t appreciate the consequences.” He snarled as he swung back to continue the journey.

  My heart thumped unevenly, and I felt ill, knowing my friends were down there. I knew in my bones that they would have done anything they could to help me if they had only heard me.

  Wait! Charlie!!

  Charlie was supposed to scout and let the group know if anything was approaching them. Could he have seen us and alerted the rest of the guys? Oh, please, please let him have done so! I held on to that hope as we began to descend lower into the forest, and I could see the roof of a cottage below us, gray smoke curling out of the chimney.

  As we flew closer, the home got bigger. Jasper darted into a window that had been left cracked open, and I remembered that we were smaller, the size of dragonflies. I had to figure out a way to get bigger, or I would never be able to get away.

  Luna and I followed through the window into a dank, cold room. The furniture lay broken inside, layers of dust covered every surface. We continued through a busted door into a hallway littered with dirt and leaves. Closed doors lined the hall. Something about this place seemed familiar somehow.

  A glow flickered from a larger room ahead, and Jasper zipped around the corner impatiently. “Why are you going so slow, Luna? We don’t have all day!” he hissed.

  Luna didn’t increase her speed as he turned back to the room, and I worked on gathering my courage, reminding myself that I had powers—at least I thought I still did. Luna grasped one of my hands and placed a tiny ball into it, curling my fingers around it, and whispered into my ear.

  “When your hands are free, you must eat it at once. It will reverse the spell so that you can go back to normal size. Remember, not all of us are like Jasper.”

  We rounded the corner into a dimly lit room on the heels of her last words.

  A few candles flickered on nearby tables, and a crackling fire put out a peaty smell. In front of the fire stood a woman with her back to us. Her black hair curled down her back, and she wore a long black dress. I sensed power emanating from her all the way across the room, and I was vaguely aware of others standing in the shadows watching.

  It was Freya.

  “I’ve been waiting for you, Andie.” She casually turned around. She was the same crazy woman from the diner. Only now, her eyes glowed with amber light, and evil almost dripped from her skin.

  She motioned for Luna to bring me closer as Jasper landed on her shoulder, smug and self-righteous. Freya scrutinized me as Luna held me, and the sheer size of her in front of us overwhelmed me.

  “Jasper, I commend you for your efforts. You will be repaid handsomely for your loyalty to our cause. Take her bindings off. She is no threat to me like this, and the Fomori won’t be able to keep her in one piece if they continue to smell her blood.” She grinned like something was funny, and Jasper joined in.

  Fury welled up inside my chest, and I wished with all my might that I was my average size so that I could scratch the hateful smile off her face. I wouldn’t stand a chance, though, if the Fomori were here with her. It didn’t surprise me since she was working with them. All of Hunter’s stories of his childhood came surging into my thoughts, making my blood boil further.

  Luna uttered a few words I couldn’t understand, and the bindings loosened and dropped to the floor. Stretching my arms out beside me, I eased the stiffness that had set in while they were tied up. I kept my hands fisted so that the ball Luna gave me didn’t fall out. I needed it, and soon.

  Luna sat me down smoothly on the floor and then immediately flew behind me. Freya and Jasper were too busy arguing about his reward to pay any attention to my actions, so I promptly popped the ball into my mouth and swallowed. A bitter taste filled my mouth, like pickles and oranges mixed together, and pressure began building. I hoped the antidote didn’t cause me to get ill as I had before. I didn’t have time for it, and I’d never get out of this place if it did.

  Energy pulsed around me, and Freya snapped her head around in my direction as my joints popped. I was growing fast. There was some pain, but nothing like I had dreaded. Luna screeched a spell behind me, and the bag with my suit landed at my side. It had been enlarged as well. I sensed the Fomori coming out of their hiding spots while Freya lunged for me. My body was almost its normal size, and the tunic I had been wearing had long since been reduced to tatters.

  Turning, I ran naked back down the hall we had come from, flinging my suit free from the bag as I ran. I knew I didn’t have time to stop and put it on. The last door in the hall loomed in front of me, and I flung myself through it, slamming it behind me as I chanted.

  Where there were clothes, now there are none.

  Place this suit on me, my will be done.

  I put every flickering bit of energy into the words, and within moments the purple suit hugged my body again. I didn’t have time to celebrate this win as I heard footsteps marching down the hall.

  Looking up to take in the room and search for a way out, I was immediately hit with a rotten egg stench, and my mouth opened in horror. The vision from my dream. Body parts scattered around the room. Blood and gore splashed the walls. My eyes searched out the corners for the horned creature. There was no one there. Relief overcame me while the door flung open, urging me out of a frozen stupor.

  My heart stopped cold when my legs wouldn’t move, no matter how much I willed them to.

  “It seems that Andie needs to be shown a lesson.” Freya’s voice dripped with anger and excitement. “I think she needs to understand what her people are up against, and what happens when someone thinks that they can beat me. I’d like to see how she feels about our friends. Then she might tell us where the treasures are.”

  Some magical force compelled me to look at Freya standing in the doorway. She motioned to the shadows in the hall behind her, and two hellish creatu
res stepped out of the darkness as she moved to the side.

  My heart pounded so powerfully that I heard it in my ears, and I bit my tongue to keep from yelling in horror. Both creatures looked exactly like the one that had been waiting in the corner of the bloody room in my dream. Evil grins spread across their grotesque faces as they drifted closer, smelling the air, and I suppose my blood.

  “Don’t be rude. Say hello to my friends, you impertinent child!” Freya laughed evilly as she studied the fear in my eyes. I stuttered but couldn’t seem to form words. “No? Well, don’t worry. They’ll hear you scream soon enough.”

  Turning back toward the hall as if she had no interest in me anymore, she waved her arms into the air and the Fomori were on me in the next instant.

  I must not scream. I must not scream!

  The mantra went through my mind over and over as they walked behind me. They licked the blood off my wrists, and the sickening feeling soon turned to scalding as one bit into the already open wound to widen the sore. I squeezed my eyes shut, biting the inside of my cheek until blood welled.

  Suddenly the two stopped laving at my skin and walked around in front of me, mirroring each other’s steps. They looked me up and down, both holding small knives that looked like scalpels. Neither said a word, which was frightening because they didn’t give away what was coming.

  Freya still faced the dark hall; I didn’t think she had moved an inch. Both Fomori reached out, cutting into my feet. Small cuts that weren’t deep, but enough to cause dark red blood to well. Over and over they made these cuts on every part of my exposed body. In between cutting, they would lick the blood, and guttural noises from them soon echoed in the room as they grew into a frenzy. My body was on fire from all the little cuts, and even though blood was not pouring from me, I worried about blood loss, and that they would soon tear me apart.

  At some point, I managed to distance myself from what was happening, focusing on my friends and their faces in my mind. That was until the monsters started cutting my face, and the pain was finally too much to bear. I let myself slip into oblivion.

  Sometime later, I awoke on the dirty wood floor. Body parts and blood surrounded me, and I fought to keep the bile down. My head swam from the blood I had lost, but I tried to focus on every part of the room. Where were they? Was this a trick?

  Raised voices came from another part of the house. Jasper was screaming Luna’s name. Did she help get them away from me? I could only guess that she did, but I didn’t want it to be in vain.

  Spotting a window across the room, and with no thought but getting out, I barreled toward it, flinging my body through as hard as I could. Glass shattered around me, and slivers stuck to my skin as I tumbled to the ground outside. Tucking my head into my arms to protect it as best I could from the hard fall, I rolled.

  Shouting sounded from the edge of the forest, and Freya roared from inside the house. I didn’t want to witness her anger again. Cuts all over my body were nothing compared to what I knew she could have the Fomori do. Rolling to my feet, I ran toward the voices near the trees, praying it wasn’t more Fomori.

  “Andie!” a voice called out, and Killian rushed out of the trees with Hunter, Teagan, and Emric hot on his heels.

  “We don’t have time. We have to get out of here now. Freya and Fomori are in there. Oh my God! Luna is in there too! We have to get her—she saved my life!” I panted, realizing that the fairy could be in danger. Turning back to run toward the house, a small hand smacked me in the forehead.

  “I’m just fine, thank you. But you won’t be if we don't hurry! I can’t promise I can save you again. Come on!”

  Chapter Fourteen

  We tore through the trees, pushing branches out of the way and leaping over logs and small boulders. My breath came fast and heavy. Fear consumed me. Emric ran beside me as the others ran ahead, his tail bouncing as he ran.

  “Emric, where’s Charlie?” I gasped as my chest burned from the exertion. I never said I was a runner, and nothing could prove it more than how I felt right now.

  “He is leading your arch-nemesis on a wild goose chase back there.” He chuckled. “We’ll be long gone before they figure out that they’re not actually chasing you.”

  Genius. Charlie is pure genius!

  “Remind me to get him some bird treats, or whatever it is that he loves to eat. He’s simply brilliant.” I chuckled at the picture of Freya running after the wrong Andie.

  It felt as if we were running for hours. I was exhausted, but I would push myself as much as I possibly could to get far away from the evil I had witnessed. I still didn’t know who the victims of the Fomori back in that house were, but the picture of that room was seared into my mind, making me shudder.

  The trees began to thin out, and I noticed something etched onto several of the tree trunks that we passed by. Paying closer attention, I saw that it was the symbol of the treasures. I couldn’t take my eyes off them, shocked that this was another one of my dream scenes, except nothing was hot on my heels. Aine was right; I had been foreseeing the future.

  “Oomph!”

  I bounced to the ground, landing hard on my butt, my teeth jarred from the impact. Dazed, I looked up to see Hunter staring down at me with a searing look. I stared back, suddenly shy due to the way we had parted before. I wasn’t sure if he was still angry with me or not.

  I could see Teagan and Killian behind him, watching us. Teagan looked uncomfortable, and Killian looked bored while Luna found a spot on his head to perch.

  “You just can’t help running into me, can you, short stack?”

  Hunter smirked, but his eyes showed relief as he reached down to pull me up from the ground, straight into his arms. He wrapped me in a tight hug, and his heart thumped rapidly in his chest. He smelled of wood smoke and cedarwood. Pushing his face into my hair, he took a deep breath in.

  “Don’t leave us again, Andie. We were so worried,” he said quietly, but I could hear his voice tremble before he abruptly sat me back from him. Teagan and Killian came over, and each gave me a careful hug, smiling and asking if I was okay.

  “Yes, I’m so much better now. The only real damage I sustained were the cuts from the glass in the window, these cuts on my face, and this...” I held out my wrists that were still slightly oozing blood from the binds that had cut into me.

  In the background, Luna explained to Killian about the magical rope and how she had to bind me, while Teagan looked the sore spots over. Killian peppered her with questions, his favorite thing to do, yet she didn’t seem to mind at all and animatedly explained all that had happened.

  “Okay, Andie, we’re going to heal them, but I’m afraid it’s still going to leave a scar.”

  “It’s okay, Teagan. I’ll use any scars I get as reminders that next time I need to fight harder and be stronger. ”He nodded and gently laid his palms over the striations, whispering a spell that caused his hands to glow. Heat flowed into my wrists, and I watched in fascination as my skin knitted itself back together slowly. When he was done, all that remained was a slightly raised pink line that went around each wrist.

  “Look, I’ve got permanent bracelets!” I joked. They all just shook their heads and turned away to get their packs to head back out. Emric chuckled as he rubbed against my leg.

  At least he thought I was funny.

  Looking back down at the lines on my wrists, I noticed a soft green glow coming from the dragonfly that circled my forearm. Excitement bubbled in my chest at the sight.

  “Uh, guys, does this mean what I think it does?” I showed them my bracelet, and Luna flew off Killian’s head to see it better.

  “Wow! I’ve only seen one of those once before, and it was owned by Coeus. Please tell me—did he give that to you?” She seemed thrilled by the thought, and I verified that he had, explaining how it was supposed to light up brighter the closer we got to the first Key.

  She sighed in relief. “That bracelet does more than you know. You are very lucky to have it
. We are very lucky that you do.”

  “Wait a second, Luna... You know Coeus?”

  Her bright green eyes lost some of their sparkle, and she looked down at her clasped hands, fidgeting and nodding.

  “I do. My mother and I both do. We are his descendants. I know when you look at me now, you only see a fairy. But once, we were like you, not tiny and winged. A spell was placed upon us, much like the one that was forced on you by the candlewig flower. Except ours has no antidote that we know of. You may have noticed slight differences between us and the other fairies. We were sold to Jasper, and he’s been using us to gather more slaves, much the same way you were taken. Most of the fairies you saw working for him were once like you. They were lured to the cave and changed forever. It’s all part of Freya and the Fomori’s plan to try and grow their army. My mother and I began our plot to escape when we heard the plans for you. Mother made the antidote, and we knew I would need to be the one to get you away from Freya’s clutches.”

  My mind whirled with what she was saying. “But Luna, who did that to you, and why?”

  “It was Asteria. She is the daughter of Coeus, the Goddess of Falling Stars and Necromancy. She thought that my mother and I were trying to take her favored place in her father’s eyes. Never would we have wanted that or done that. We were only friends of his, nothing more, nothing less. But Asteria went mad with jealousy and twisted everything in her mind. Where once she was good, she soon turned to evil. She made it her mission to strip us from his life, and she succeeded.”

  I watched in silence as she took off toward the trees, obviously wanting to be alone. I vowed to myself that I would try to find a way to help her and her mother, as they had helped me. It might not be anytime soon, but I would add it to my list of to-dos.

  Turning to face the rest of the group, I wiped my sweaty hands on my suit. When I did, I felt a lump in one of the many pockets that lined my legs. I didn’t remember putting anything in it, though. Worried about what I might find, I gingerly opened it and reached my hand in. Knitted fabric brushed my fingers, and I pulled out my beanie. How had I forgotten about it? I then realized that I hadn’t worn it since we had crossed through the first portal. With everything going on, I hadn’t even given it a thought. Elation at something familiar spread through me, and I slapped it on my head, tugging it down over my ears.