by N M Thorn
“It’s just a guess,” he said, pointing at the picture of Eve. “This woman could be the one who attacked the Wardens’ Church. I hope I’m wrong, but if she’s the one who has Tessa, it’s a big problem.” He told Missi everything he knew about Eve.
For a moment Missi stared at the screen, furrowing her brow. “Can you walk me through all that?” she asked, waving her hand at the photo.
Gunz explained to her every card and every photo on the wall, their connections and when the event took place. He told her about the involvement of the Russian mobster and his daughter’s disappearance. Missi listened to him carefully and when he finished, she remained silent for a few minutes.
“I believe you’re in danger, Mr. Burns,” she said finally. “Whoever this Eve is, she’s after you. I have no idea why she would need a Fire Salamander, you’re by far not the most powerful player in this city, but there is a chance that Tessa and this Russian girl are nothing more than bait in her trap for you.”
“For me?” asked Gunz, incredulously. “Are you sure Tessa is bait for me and not for Aidan McGrath? Aidan is a lot more powerful than I am, and he’s in love with Tessa. It would make more sense that by abducting Tessa, she was setting a trap for Aidan McGrath.”
“Possibly,” said Missi, but there was no assurance in her voice. “Here is what we’re going to do. You’re going to go and talk to Aidan. Whether we’re right or wrong about Eve setting a trap for him, he must know about it.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and snapped a quick picture of Eve. “I’m going to get back to the Wardens and see if they can give me any lore on this woman. Give me your phone number. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”
Gunz took her phone and entered his number into her contact list. As Missi took the phone from his hand, the room slowly started to spin around him. For a moment, everything became a continuous blur. He grunted and grabbed Missi’s arm to stop himself from falling. He bent forward, trying to catch his breath. The dizziness got replaced by a nagging, pulling headache, and he let go of Missi, pressing his hands to his temples.
“Zane, are you okay?” asked Missi, true concern shadowing her features.
“Yes,” replied Gunz, his voice strained, “but I need to go. Now.”
“Go where?”
“Aidan McGrath is summoning me, and his summoning call is more demanding than any summoning spell I have ever experienced,” explained Gunz.
“Zane, he may already know about Tessa’s disappearance,” said Missi urgently. “If you learn anything new, find me at Missi’s Kitchen.”
Gunz nodded at her and unfolded the fiery curtain of his portal.
Chapter 32
~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~
Gunz walked out of his portal and found himself in the middle of a spacious bedroom. The king-size bed was in disarray and Aidan McGrath was sitting on it hiding his face in his hands, his shoulders slumped. The nagging pull of Aidan’s summoning spell dissipated, leaving just a light headache behind and Gunz finally was able to breathe freely.
“Master McGrath, you called?” asked Gunz.
Aidan slowly raised his face, meeting Gunz’s gaze and Gunz shuddered from the haunted expression in his blue eyes. His face was bloodless and a deep wrinkle that wasn’t there before was etched between his eyebrows.
“Aidan, are you okay?” asked Gunz, taking a step forward.
“Do not move,” said Aidan, rising. He walked heavily and halted a step away from Gunz. For a moment, his eyes darted to the window and a torturously wistful smile changed his face.
“What’s going on, Aidan?”
Gunz took a step forward and ran into an invisible wall. A blazing white circle of light surrounded him, and a powerful shock ripped through his body, throwing him away from the wall. He hit the floor hard and his body arched as the secondary shock made his every muscle spasm. For a moment he blacked out. When he surfaced back, he saw Aidan standing over him, just outside the white circle.
“I told you not to move.” He sighed, shaking his head, staring somewhere over Gunz’s shoulder.
“Listen to him, boss.” Gunz heard Mishka’s crying voice in his head. “You can’t break free. This circle on the floor is the God’s Snare. Even gods can’t break through it. You’ll just hurt yourself. And what’s even worse—you’ll hurt your loyal wyvern.”
Gunz slowly pushed himself up, rising to his feet. He glanced at his watch and noticed that the second hand stopped moving. The watch seemed to be broken. He closed his eyes for a moment and pressed his jaws together as his stomach twisted. The rage slowly bottled up in him, and the fire ignited at the bottom of his eyes before he could suppress it. Aidan finally looked at him and sighed again.
“Why don’t you sit down, Zane,” said Aidan quietly.
“Why?”
Aidan didn’t answer but walked away and sat back down on his bed, hiding his face in his hands again. Gunz followed his every move with his eyes, patiently waiting for him to get back and start talking. Finally, Aidan got up and approached the circle again.
“Because in a minute, I am going to block your magic and drain your fire energy, Zane,” said Aidan, his quiet voice infused with pain. He tensed his shoulders, and the line between his eyebrows grew deeper. “You’ll feel weak and dizzy, and I don’t want you to fall. Sit down. Please.”
“Why, Aidan?”
“I hope you weren’t considering me your enemy, Zane,” growled Aidan, squeezing his fists so tight that the slithering blue veins popped up on his hands. “They say that the betrayal never comes from your enemies. And I’m about to betray you in the worst possible way.”
Gunz sat down on the floor and shook his head. His recent conversation with Missi flashed in his mind. Missi was right—Eve was using Tessa, but not as bait. She was using her as collateral to blackmail Aidan. She probably told him that she had Tessa and now she had him by the balls.
“So, Eve is forcing you to do her bidding, I guess,” he said, a humorless smirk curving his lips.
“She has Tessa, Zane,” muttered Aidan. “I’m sorry. I offered her my life in exchange for Tessa’s… But it’s not my life she wants. It’s yours. What did you expect me to do?”
“I expected you to stand and fight, Aidan, and not roll over like a little scared puppy,” barked Gunz, outraged that he had capitulated so easily. “Fight Aidan, and I will stand and fight by your side. We’ll get Tessa back. Together we can beat Eve!”
“Stand and fight?” Aidan laughed, a cold, gut-wrenching sound that didn’t sound like human laughter. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You don’t know what she’s capable of doing!”
“And you know? How—”
“Because she was my stepmother!” yelled Aidan. His eyes were blazing with a brilliant white light, his face contorted with rage and pain. “She was my stepmother and she put me and my siblings through nine hundred years of hell. Do you understand, Salamander?”
“I understand!” shouted Gunz. “You had your evil stepmother giving you a Cinderella moment. Well, nine hundred years of Cinderella moments. But it’s still not a reason to give in to her now! You are not a little boy anymore.”
“No, you don’t understand!” growled Aidan, punching the air, his fury setting his body ablaze with white light. “After torturing us for nine hundred years, she killed us all. I can’t let her do something like this to Tessa.”
“She killed you? Then how are you still alive then?” asked Gunz, taken aback by the amount of pure torment in Aidan’s voice.
Aidan turned away and walked to a small table by the window. He took a pitcher with water and poured some in a glass. Without taking his eyes off the ocean view, he downed the water and turned back to Gunz.
“It’s a long story,” he said, his voice hoarse.
Gunz spread his arms. “Doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere—God’s Snare and all. May as well tell me your story.”
Aidan pulled a chair closer to the circle and sat down. “
You sound so calm,” he said, rubbing the back side of his hand with his thumb and Gunz noticed that his hands were slightly shaking. “If you’re not afraid of what Eve may do to you, you should be.”
“And how is being afraid going to help me?” asked Gunz lifting his shoulders in a half shrug. “No, Aidan, I’m not afraid of what Eve may do to me. I’m more concerned with why she wants me. Just earlier today, someone told me that I’m by far not the most powerful player here. So, why would she want me?”
“I have no idea.” Aidan shook his head. “But I hope you agree that I can’t leave Tessa in her hands. Tessa is… She gave me my life back, Zane, and she doesn’t even know it. I love her. And I owe her.”
Gunz chuckled mirthlessly. He couldn’t believe that mighty Aidan McGrath, the man whom Eve herself wanted out of her way because she was afraid of him, was so broken and scared. He wasn’t just scared—he was petrified. And while Gunz understood that Aidan wasn’t afraid for himself, but for Tessa, he still had a hard time accepting that the fear was forcing this powerful man to act against his own beliefs, against his code of honor. He still believed that Aidan was a man of honor and his present despondent behavior was sending chills down Gunz’s spine.
“Aidan, can I ask you a small favor?” asked Gunz. Aidan nodded. Gunz took his broken watch off and showed it to him. “Can you take my watch outside the circle?”
Aidan’s eyes widened, but as surprised as he looked, he didn’t ask any questions. Silently, he put his hand through the circle and took the watch from Gunz’s hand, bringing it outside the God’s Snare.
“Mishka, leave,” said Gunz quietly. “Go home, save yourself.”
With a light pop, the wyvern materialized in the room, hissing at Aidan angrily and spitting fireballs in his face. Gunz smirked watching Aidan wrapping his arms around his head to protect his face from the wyvern’s attacks.
“Mishka, stop. It’s an order,” said Gunz firmly. “Please leave, my friend. I’ll summon you when it’s safe for you to come back. I promise.”
“But, boss,” objected Mishka, nervously flapping his golden wings, “Kal is not going to be pleased with me. I’m supposed to be your bodyguard.”
“You can guard my body later,” said Gunz, realizing that he would miss his annoying little companion, “when it’s safer for you. And please do not bring Kal here. I need to sort this mess out myself. Go now. I’ll be all right.”
“As you wish, boss,” muttered Mishka and disappeared from the room, showering Aidan with a fountain of small flames and sparks on his way out.
“You carry a wyvern in your watch?” muttered Aidan, sitting back down and patting his shirt to get rid of the small flames.
“Yeah, I wanted a puppy, but my Father got me a mini-dragon instead,” replied Gunz snidely. “I don’t want my wyvern to get hurt when you start wielding your magic to disable me.”
At the mention of Kal’s name, Gunz wondered if he could summon his mentor even though he was locked inside the magic circle. He sent some fire toward his hand and a playful flame ignited in his palm. Aidan whispered something and touched the circle on the floor. The flame flickered and got extinguished.
“Don’t,” said Aidan quietly. “You can’t summon Kal. He won’t hear you through the God’s Snare. No one can help you now. And if you try to fight me, I’ll drain your magic to the point where you won’t be able to move. I don’t want to hurt you more than I have to. But I want you to know that you’re no match for me, Fire Salamander.”
Gunz smirked and folded his arms over his bent knees. “I figured that you were some kind of mighty power,” he said, a layer of sarcasm surfacing in his voice. “Kal refused to tell me what you are. He believed that you would do it at your own volition. But you always thought I was beneath you, I guess.”
“That’s not true, Zane,” objected Aidan and then repeated, averting his eyes, “Not true at all. I never thought you were beneath me. I was jealous and now I am deeply ashamed of it. I wish we could start over, and betraying you kills me inside…” His voice trailed away. He got up and walked back to the window.
“So, what are you, Aidan? Some kind of ancient Wizard or Sorcerer? Why does everyone speak of you in a whisper?”
Aidan turned around, his eyes and his whole body emitting a brilliant white light.
“Because I’m a god.”
Chapter 33
~ Aidan ~
Aidan was expecting some kind of reaction from Zane—astonishment, fear, even mockery, but his complete calmness was a little unnerving.
“A god,” repeated Zane, his face reflecting no emotions. “Which pantheon? Irish, I assume?”
“Irish? No, not Irish,” mumbled Aidan. “Welsh… What’s the difference?”
“Just curious,” replied Zane with a light shrug. “How is a dude with an Irish name and an Irish accent end up in Welsh pantheon?”
Aidan sat down on the chair in front of the circle, stretching his long legs in front of him. He never told his story to anyone. Even his loyal friends, Uri, Sven and Angel, never knew all the details of his life. He told them what they needed to know, but none of them ever asked him any questions. It could be that their powers were allowing them to know certain things without asking. For the first time in his very long life, someone was asking questions about his past and he wasn’t sure he was ready to answer all those questions.
“Listen, Aidan, if you don’t want to tell me about yourself, you don’t have to,” said Zane. He lay down on the floor inside the circle and put his arms under his head. “I’m your prisoner and you’re about to deliver me, powerless and weakened, to a monster that scares a god. It would be nice to know at least something about mommy dearest before you dump me there at her disposal.”
His words made Aidan cringe inwardly. He turned away, unable to face this man who was thousands of years younger than him and hundred times stronger. He caught himself thinking how much he was admiring this young Fire Salamander and if the situation was different, he wouldn’t mind calling him his friend. Aidan sighed, shame and remorse twisting his insides.
“I’ll tell you,” he said quietly, staring down at his hands. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. But please, let me do it at my own pace.”
“Take your time,” replied Zane lightly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“How well do you know Irish and Welsh legends?” asked Aidan.
Zane turned his head to the side, giving him an arched stare. “I know a little. Whatever I learned in school.”
“Okay, if I tell you that my real name is Aodh mac Lir, would it tell you anything?”
“Aodh mac Lir,” repeated Zane, furrowing his brow, like he was trying to remember something. “Aodh, the son of Lir. Son of Lir? No, really?” He sat up, staring at him in wonderment. “Are you referring to that sad Irish legend, the Fate of the Children of Lir?”
“Yes,” replied Aidan, “I was one of four children of Lir. How well do you know this legend?”
Zane shook his head. “Not well, just a general scope. I remember that Lir had four kids and his second wife cursed them, turning them into birds, swans I think, for nine hundred years. And I recall that after the curse was broken, all of them turned back into people, but aged instantly and died. Is that what happened to you?” Aidan nodded silently. “Then how did you become a Welsh deity?”
“Well, that’s a good question,” said Aidan. He chuckled bitterly, the painful memories of his past life flashing in front of his eyes. “The legend is missing some important moments and even though it has three different endings, none of them tell the whole story. So, I am going to fill in the blanks and tell you the true ending of this legend. But before I start, tell me, do you know who Gwyn ap Nudd is?”
“Gwyn ap Nudd… yes, he is a Welsh deity, right? The King of Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. No wait, he is not a god though, if I recall it right. He is a fae, the Lord of the Wild Hunt or something like that,” said Zane, staring at Aidan quizzically. “Normally, I wo
uld say that you can’t trust any fae, but in the case of Gwyn ap Nudd, I would make an exception. I think he is one of the good guys. He helped my friends a while ago. And Kal considers him his brother, which is quite unusual for him.”
“Gods, fae—you’ll do well not to trust any of them. Wicked and unpredictable, going from hot to cold in a heartbeat. Anyway, you got that right. But Gwyn is different. He is one of the best people I’ve ever met. And you’re also right about him not being a god,” confirmed Aidan. “But when I saw him for the first time, he was still a god. The first time I met Gwyn ap Nudd was at the time when my stepmother placed her curse on my siblings and me. He was trying to stop her, but he was outside of his domain and he had no power over her.
“I remember what I said to my stepmother that moment. But the truth is, every single word I said was meant for Gwyn up Nudd, not for her. I told him that I would pray to him every moment of my existence, begging him that one day he will help me get my vengeance. And I swore that I would not rest in this world or the Otherworld until I have it. And he heard me, Zane, and he nodded to me before he left the side of the lake.
“And here is the main hole in the legend the way it is told today. According to my evil stepmother’s curse, we were supposed to spend three hundred years at the Loch Dairbhreach, another three hundred years by the stormy Sruth na Maoile, and the last three hundred years at the Iorras Domhnann.
“And that’s exactly what happened. But after the first three hundred years, when we were flying to the Sruth na Maoile, a terrible storm divided us. I got separated from my siblings and I couldn’t find my way back in the midst of the raging sea. The legend states that the three swans arrived at stormy Sruth na Maoile, but the fourth swan showed up a few days later. And none of the scholars who study Irish folklore knew what happened to this one swan and how he survived the storm.
