Crimson Secrets

by Garnet Davenport

  I came back out of the closet. “I don’t blame you. But I want you to keep in mind that today is not about me, it’s about Tommy. Okay?”

  He looked me in the eyes. “Of course.”

  I walked over to the bedpost and held on while I slipped the shoes on my feet. “Good.” I sighed and started walking to the door. Declan followed quickly behind me, and then as we passed Duncan’s room he opened the door to join us. Duncan looked very handsome. He was wearing black dress pants, black collar shirt with a black tie. They looked like my bodyguards as we walked down the hall to the stairs, one on either side of me as we walked the staircase down to the foyer. Julius was at the bottom and scowled when he saw us walking down together. Matt and Angelica were already downstairs.

  “Shay, I am sorry for your loss. Tommy was a friend to me and he will be missed by the entire region.” Angelica spoke just as elegantly as ever, but they were the first words she had actually spoken to me in years that didn’t sound aggressive.

  Matt leaned in and gave me a hug. “You look great.” I looked in the other direction as I heard the door open by a servant and Edness Callamore walked into the room. She walked up to me. “My dear, your parents are already here, and we are ready to begin. This will be a traditional mac tire burial to honor his service to our territory.”

  I looked past her and saw my parents holding onto each other in front of the coffin, my mom could barely hold it together and my dad wasn’t doing much better. I didn’t put much faith into my parents being in mourning. I believed that they were one of the major conspirators in these events. I walked away from Edness Callamore with Declan and Duncan following close. As I got closer to my parents my dad turned around still holding my mother. It made me angry to see how much they cared, knowing they probably knew that Edness Callamore had to kill Tommy.

  I turned away from the open coffin to sit. I could see Tommy’s face just over the edge of the coffin. I turned away from it slowly to make sure I didn’t cause attention to myself. I did not want anyone to worry about me; this was about Tommy. Julius walked up to the podium that was to the left in the room and I focused on him.

  They had dressed up the room to fit the need. I guess they do have to do this a lot. Julius gathered everyone’s attention and spoke. “Thomas James Evans was a member of my personal guard for the last two years. I was able to get to know him during this time and see what an intelligent young man he was. Tommy, known by most, was a true believer that there would be a day when our species would be accepted and not hunted. Our bloodlines prevent us from doing so many things in life and he did not want that for himself or for his sister.” He paused and looked at me. “He wanted a new life that did not include the rejection of our people. He did not want to hide who he really was but felt the need and the necessity to do so for his family’s safety. He will be greatly missed by myself and our territory. To Tommy.” He lifted a silver cup that had Celtic markings around the sides and took a drink. His eyes glowed blue as he set the cup down.

  I felt like some of his memorial was intended for me. Was he part of the Morrígan’s devious plan? I turned when my dad stood and walked up the podium.

  He cleared his throat. “Tommy, my son, you will live on in each of us.” I thought he had more to say, but he ended with his voice breaking and lifted the cup and took a drink. His eyes glowed blue, the same as Julius’s and then he went back to his seat. Declan stood put his hand out for me and walked with me up to the podium, he spoke. “Tommy, you will be missed. Vengeance will come.” He picked up the cup and drank then handed the cup to me as he did his eyes glow a different blue than before. “You don’t have to say anything, but you must drink.”

  I cautiously took the cup, pausing to look inside; it was dark red. I gasped and looked at Declan. “Tradition. You must complete the ritual.” I closed my eyes and lifted the cup to my mouth, taking a drink. It entered my mouth with a sharp iron taste. I was sick of these blood rituals for the mac tire species.

  Declan grabbed the cup from me as I opened my eyes my vision was blue for a moment. We walked back to our seats and Duncan got up to walk to the podium. “Tommy, my friend, I shall honor you in everything I do in my life. I will protect your family as if it were mine.” He took a drink then returned to his seat.

  Julius Callamore stood and walked back to the podium getting the cup and walking over to the coffin. “Chuid eile.” Then dipping his finger into the cup and making a cross on Tommy’s forehead then setting the cup on top of the coffin and walking away. Everyone spoke. “Chuid eile.” I spoke the words in my head; it translated to a simple word: rest.

  “Is there anyone here who believes that the service has not been properly executed?” He looked around the room and then turned to the coffin and closed the lid. “No one shall open Thomas James Evans’s last resting place until final services. We will resume services at dusk.”

  Everyone got up and left the room except for my parents and Julius. They stood talking for a while longer. “What happens at dusk?”

  I turned to Declan. “Come with me.” He put his hand on the small of my back and we walked outside.

  Duncan followed closely behind, but far enough to give space. We walked around the grounds quietly for a minute, then he led me around the corner of the mansion, I had never seen this part of the grounds before. It was a large stone wall area that looked completely enclosed. I turned to Declan. “What is this?”

  He looked out to the stone structure. “This is Tommy’s final resting place. All mac tires of this territory have the same ritual and are consecrated.”

  I looked out at the structure again. “Consecrated?”

  He turned back to me. “Tonight at dusk Tommy will be brought here, and with the end of the day we will light his remains on fire and let it burn to ashes, returning him to Mother Earth.”

  I looked out at it once again. “Why?”

  I could hear him swallow spit back in his mouth. “This is how all of our people should be buried.”

  I looked back at him. “Why did we have to drink that? It was his blood wasn’t it?”

  Declan looked into my eyes. “For every fallen warrior the blood makes the living stronger. It must be passed within the family of the fallen, the leaders of the territory that have all transitioned. It not only brings us all together, it completes his life on Earth.”

  I didn’t know what to say, I felt like it was a horrible tradition, but it was part of my culture. We walked back inside and immediately met Julius at the door. “My dear, how was your first traditional ritual burial?”

  I just looked at him and stepped around him. Declan turned to his father. “How could you have asked that?” Then he walked away and rushed to catch up with me. “That was horrible of him to ask. Don’t take it personally, he has to do too many of these, he doesn’t realize that it was still someone’s brother, father, sister or grandparent that died.” I just shook my head.

  “I know you are hungry, so let’s go into the kitchen away from everyone and I can have Mary make us something to eat. Okay?”

  I could tell he was handling me with kid gloves. “Fine.”

  We walked into the kitchen and I sat while Declan and Duncan moved around the kitchen. Mary walked back into the kitchen as the boys started to pull things out. “Nope, absolutely not. Out of my kitchen.” She made a motion to make them back up and they came to sit next to me. “Now Shay, what would you like me to make you? Name anything.” She stood there smiling as she grabbed a rag and shuffled some crumbs off the counter. I looked around and could tell that there was a lot happening and that Mary really didn’t need more work to do or to worry about me.

  I stood and reached forward, grabbing an apple. “Thank you.”

  Then I walked out of the room. Duncan tried to follow me, but I just turned to him and put my hand on his chest. That moment when I looked him in the eye he could tell that no one would be following me.

  He tilted his head downward. “I understand.”

/>   I continued to walk out of the room and through the foyer to the staircase.

  “Shay.”

  I didn’t turn around.

  “Miss Evans.”

  I looked back at Julius Callamore. “Mr. Callamore, what can I help you with?”

  He walked closer to the staircase while I stayed on the third step. “I was hoping that I would be able to escort you tonight to Tommy’s ascension?”

  I was surprised that he had asked that. “Mr. Callamore, Tommy’s ascension is not a party that someone would need to be escorted to. My brother was murdered because someone with far too many connections felt it was necessary for me to gain his abilities and power. This may just have something to do with the fact that I can be sacrificed in a ritual to end Aodhan O’Dorcha. My brother died in vain, and I will not rest until I seek out vengeance.”

  His jaw dropped. “Shay?”

  I turned away. “Don’t bother.”

  I walked away from him. I sat in my room at the desk watching out of the window as the day went by. It started to get late and I could hear the commotion starting downstairs. My heart beat harder and I became anxious, I turned to the door. “Declan, you may come in.” He opened the door quietly and walked in. He stood close to the door as I continued to stare out of the window.

  “It’s time,” he said.

  I turned to him and realized he was holding a black cloak. “What’s this?”

  He looked down. “Part of the traditional burial. We will all be wearing these.”

  I stood. “Fine.” I walked over to him and he held it up for me to put on. He wrapped it around me then tied it at the neck and pulled the hood up over my head. Then he held out his hand for me and I looked away walking past him and down the cold hallway. I felt no emotions at this point, no expression, no pain or sorrow. I even started to not feel love for anything or anyone. He walked behind me quickly keeping up as we moved silently through the house to the front door. There was a servant at the front door ready to open it as we passed. I continued to walk in silence as we all gathered by the stone structure with everyone dressed in a hooded black cloak. I looked around, but I couldn’t really tell who anyone was. Tommy’s body was covered in a white cotton cloth and laid out on a large metal grate with wood below it, a light scent of cedar and cherries in the air, and from behind me I saw a man walk toward us with a torch. As he got closer I started to get more anxious than before, my heart was beating hard and it was even harder for me to breathe.

  He walked up to me and lifted his head. “Samantha Shay Evans, please follow me.” Julius Callamore spoke with a deeper voice. I followed him into the stone structure that looked like an oval with a small space to enter and exit.

  He held the torch to the sky. “We have lost a brother, and we send him to you for him to protect those he leaves behind.”

  The cup that was used in the ritual earlier was now sitting on top of a cloth that covered the full-length of Tommy’s body. As I got closer to him I could see that the cloth had Gaelic writing and symbols that spread the length of the cloth in the outline of a human form. I couldn’t see everything that was on it, but I could read the words that went from shoulder to shoulder Fágaim mar a tháinig mé. I spoke the words quietly. “I leave as I came.”

  Julius looked over to me. “Shay, will you take the cup and pour it over Tommy?”

  I nodded my head in agreement. I stepped forward reaching for the cup, I pulled it closer to me and paused thinking. Then I poured out the last of his blood over the cotton cloth that covered Tommy. It soaked into the white cotton quickly and the words on the cloth started to disappear. Julius turned to me and threw the torch under the grate into the wood. It instantly caught fire and started to burn everywhere. The scent of cedar and cherries now filled my lungs as the fire reached Tommy’s body and it too started to burn.

  Julius left the stone structure, but I stood close to the fire for a moment longer until Declan came for me and pulled me out. Everyone stood for a bit, but then as it started to get darker everyone went back to the mansion; I continued to watch as my brother’s body burn to ash through the night. It was a contained sadness that I felt. Everything was quiet and I could only hear the fire as it popped in the air. I took a deep breath and the smoke from the fire hurt as I breathed it in. I couldn’t walk away from him.

  ➢21 Sorcerer’s Gift

  Morning came slowly, the fresh cold air brushed against my skin in the wind. Declan and Duncan watched from the edge of the mansions door while I stood next to the smoldering wood and ash left. I wasn’t tired, hungry, or cold. The hood of the cloak had fallen at one point in the night and I had let it fall. I was still standing when the sun had started to come up. I could hear Declan and Duncan talking about me. I tilted my head up waiting for the sun and closed my eyes. There was a strange fog in the air and a chill that can only come when the seasons are getting ready to change.

  I felt a presence come from the woods. I opened my eyes to black birds flying low in the sky overhead. The eerie feeling was back. It was a dark presence and I hadn’t felt this fearfulness in the way it was making me feel right now ever before. The wind picked up and blew some of the ash into the air. I turned to Declan and Duncan.

  “What is she doing?” Duncan said.

  When I turned back around there was an older man walking toward me, his form solidifying from the fog at the edge of the trees. He wore a wool black coat that tapered off at his knees and lay over his admirable black suit and a black collared shirt with a crimson tie. The detail of his crimson paisley scarf tucked behind the lapels of his wool coat was beautiful. He walked with a black and gold staff but did not look as though he needed it. I could almost smell a cinnamon scent in the air over the cedar and cherry as he neared.

  I just watched him waiting for him to speak. His eyes were a brilliant blue of youth, but his face had the wisdom of many years. This man walked to me in silence and stood as if he was waiting. He looked away and to the end of the smoldering ash. “You are exactly what I thought you would be.” His voice was deep and gruff.

  “And what exactly were you thinking about me?” I did not look at him as I spoke.

  He continued to stare directly at me. “You, my blood, are powerful beyond the expectations that even Morrígan thought of you. You have a will that I have not seen in past generations.” I turned back to Declan and Duncan. “No worries, they cannot see me nor can they hear us speak. So speak freely.”

  I turned to him. “Aodhan O’Dorcha?”

  He had a straight face with little emotion. “Yes, you are correct.”

  I looked away from him and to the ashes. “Did you have my brother killed?”

  He stood motionless. “No. Morrígan has a deep need to make her actions look like those of mine.” He turned to the ashes. “Your brother was my blood also. I do not wish to destroy my blood, only to return it to human form. We were not meant to continue through the years as mac tire. The mac tire was a curse that was only meant to conceal the bloodline.”

  I sighed.

  “He didn’t die in vain, you have become more powerful than any mac tire and you have now gained your brother’s abilities and power. This makes you stronger, faster, and with the unique abilities he had.”

  I looked him in the eyes. “So what do you want from me?”

  He never broke eye contact. “I do not want you to join Morrígan. Her intention is to slaughter the three of you girls that are left from her bloodline by performing the winter solstice ritual and tying your abilities to her so that she can continue her immortal life.” I was confused. “The winter solstice ritual only takes your abilities to give to her.”

  I looked away then back to him. “Is that the only thing that you want from me?”

  There was a pause, just long enough for him to process the question but not long enough to go over a scheme. “Yes. In fact, I have something for you.” He reached into his coat pocket never breaking eye contact. “This necklace.” He finally broke eye c
ontact when he looked back into the smoldering ashes; he waved his right hand in a circular motion and spoke. “Leis an aer breathe mé.”

  I spoke the words softly after him. “With the air I breathe.” He tilted his head when I spoke and a slight smile to his face. As he spoke the phrase the ashes that still smoldered rose from the ground and gently blew toward the necklace. The ashes connected with the gemstone pendant in the necklace and made a red smoldering gleam. I gasped at the beautifulness that the necklace now held. He leaned in. “Hold out your hand. Please.” He dropped the pendant of the necklace into the palm of my hand. “You will always have Tommy with you. This is for you alone. No one will be capable of seeing this, and therefore, it will never be taken from you.”

  I smiled a real smile for the first time since Tommy’s death. “Thank you.”

  He returned to the stiff posture that he had in the beginning. “You are very welcome. Something for you to think about. Morrígan will never stop coming for you, and you are not safe here. And as for your watchers, you will not destroy the one you do not choose. I will leave you to your grief.”

  He looked toward Declan and Duncan as they carried on their conversation. When I looked at them the sun was finally up and when I turned back around Aodhan O’Dorcha was not there. I looked at the necklace that I now held in my hand, the gemstone was so beautiful with flecks of red. I latched it around my neck then took my final look at the last place I will remember my brother. “Goodbye.” I turned and walked back to the mansion. Declan and Duncan watched me as I walked closer to them.

  “Are you ready for something to eat?” Duncan asked.

  I shook my head no.

  “You have to eat something.”

  I looked at Declan, with his demand that I eat. “I said no.” Then I walked past them.

  There was a different mood to the mansion. My parents had left without saying one word to me. It was as if they didn’t care. Maybe it was Edness Callamore that asked them to leave, but who would ask the parents of the boy that just died to walk away from their other child? I knew there is more going on here than they are willing to tell me. I decided to go straight to the source, Edness Callamore. Declan and Duncan watched as I walked through the foyer to her den where her office sat. I saw the guard standing on the outside of the closed double dark wood doors.