Page 30

Shy

I don’t like tunnels. I’m really more of a walk out in the sunshine or the moonlight girl. Either is acceptable. But the tunnels Lee is leading us through makes me think of being buried alive, and I have to force myself to breathe.

It doesn’t help that I can hear her behind me. I hear the water rushing, a river of misery I can’t run from.

How did she find me here? I’ve never known a spirit to be able to move the way she does. She follows me from place to place when every other damn spirit I’ve seen is tied to where they died.

I have to accept the fact that this spirit isn’t haunting a place or a time. She is haunting me.

“You okay, baby?”

Rhys is right behind me, his hand on the small of my back most of the time, reminding me I’m not alone. Reminding me that by all Fae rights, I have a husband.

I turn slightly so he can see my face in the torchlight and give him a tight nod. At the end of our line, behind Cassie I can see the Drowning Woman. She stays back but she is here, still following me everywhere I go. “I’m fine.”

His brow rises and his arm curls around my waist as he pulls me back against him and whispers in my ear. “Liar. But understand, I will take care of you. I will find a way to break this curse.”

I’m not sure I would call it a curse. The Drowning Woman is attracted to my power. I need to stop thinking of her as a burden and start thinking of her as a…client. I need to start viewing her through an adult lens and put aside the fear from my childhood. Everyone in my life right now has told me I need to view myself and my power differently, and I saw it last night. My power doesn’t hold Rhys back. My power attracts him as his does mine. Life and death. Spring and autumn. We need each other, and it’s a beautiful thing. “I need to find a way to help her move on.”

“There’s my wife,”

he says, and I hear the pride in his voice. “She cannot hurt you. I would never allow it. I know I don’t have your power, but I would find a way.”

I believe him. I tilt my head up and he kisses me. My body immediately responds, the bonds of the night before hugging me close.

“Do you have to be so, like, emotional and stuff?”

Lee says with a shudder. “It’s bringing the mood down, brother.”

“See, I know he means that brother as a friendly term, but I know what my brother would say,”

Rhys grouses.

It makes me smile. He and Fae Lee have bickered like he and Vampire Lee do all the time. Since they were children. “The very same thing. Lee struggles to understand complex emotions.”

“I do not,”

Lee argues. “I understand all the emotions. I just think they’re unseemly. Anger and humor are really all I need to get by. And horniness.”

“You definitely understand that,”

Cassie replies. She moves behind Rhys, with Brendan prowling after them. He’s back in wolf form. “I would bet you’ve never had a serious girlfriend. Or boyfriend.”

Lee shrugs negligently as we reach one of what he calls the resting points. They’re slightly larger spaces in the tunnels where the rebels store food and water and weapons. “I try to keep things light.”

“I saw you hitting on the priestesses last night,”

Cassie accused. “Like five of them.”

Lee’s lips kick up in a salacious grin. “I didn’t merely hit on them, sweetheart. I had some fun with three of them after the kiddos were all put to bed. That lust magic might not make the priestesses insane, but it does something for them.”

“Eww,”

Cassie replies with a shake of her head.

Rhys reaches for his canteen and refills it. He huddles to one side, keeping me close. “Do you need anything, my goddess?”

“Just to be out of here. How much longer?”

I ask. When we’re out in the sunshine, I’ll be able to breathe again.

“About an hour more. Sorry. We’re taking the longest route because that’s the one that dumps out close to our village,”

Lee explains, tearing off a piece of what looks like jerky and tossing it Brendan’s way.

The werewolf bounces up and catches it, swallowing it in one big gulp, and then he stops and turns, beginning to growl.

Rhys immediately steps in front of me, a long blade in his hand.

I have to admit, my husband looks superhot when he’s defending me.

But then I hear a familiar bark and the C?n Annwn are running in. I note they avoid the Drowning Woman as though they know she’s there. They seemed to have been running toward us at breakneck pace, but they slow and carefully avoid her.

They don’t bark or growl. They don’t seem to see her as a threat.

Brendan growls again as the biggest hound tries to sniff his butt. He definitely sees that as an affront to his dignity.

Cassie giggles as they edge past her. “I think they’re just being friendly. I wondered where they went.”

The big hounds make their way to their target. Me. All three crowd in, trying to get near me. There’s nothing unfriendly about them. They’re big dogs looking for cuddles and treats. It’s hard to remember they’re supposed to be hellhounds.

“The king had them held in the royal kennels,”

Lee replies, looking down at them with a vague smile on his face. “I’m pretty sure he was going to…”

He draws a hand across his throat in the universal sign for get rid of in the meanest way. “My father’s not a pet person. Hey, guys. Did you seriously think these were real C?n Annwn?”

“How were we supposed to know?”

Rhys asks with a huff.

“Well, you’re Fae for one thing. I suspect you have some in your home sithein. These are kind of runts.”

Then I would fear seeing the real thing.

“I didn’t spend a lot of time there except when I was a child,”

Rhys admits. “There weren’t a lot of hellhounds on the planes where we hid out. But there were dinosaurs.”

“What is a dinosaur?”

Lee asks, absently petting one of the hounds.

I shake my head because we are not going there. “They’re extinct in every plane that counts now. So these aren’t Arawn’s hounds? Your father said something about them being from this plane. Would the crone have been, too?”

“If it’s the same crone I’m thinking of, she used to be one of the King of the Dead’s councils. At least on this plane,”

Lee replies. “From all accounts she’s the real thing. I know many Fae visit her for her wisdom.”

“So she would have been working for Myrddin, but she could also have told the truth about some things.”

Rhys seems to know where my head is at. He’s asking the same questions I have.

“Very likely, though I’m not sure when she was last in Annwn. No one has been in a long time.”

“How would you know?” I ask.

He seems to think about the question. “I guess I wouldn’t. No one’s come back. Which since it’s a land of the dead makes sense. What I do know is every soul that has died on this plane in the last year hasn’t gone. Our witches tracked the energy.”

I can guess. “They’re going to the mountains in the north. But there has to be a cutoff point because I met some spirits in the forests where we came out.”

“But that forest is connected to the tunnels we found on Snowdonia.”

Rhys has put on his thinking cap, and his big brain is working. He might have been forced to flee traditional education at the age of eleven, but Sasha taught all the kids how to think critically. Well, he taught Rhys and Evan at least. Fenrir is more of an emotional thinker, and Lee thinks with his dick. “The legends place Snowdonia atop Annwn, the Welsh version of Hell.”

I shake my head. “Annwn was never Hell. It was the afterlife. The idea of Hell is a Christian belief. Viewed in that way, Annwn would be more like Heaven, but I get your point. It would also likely have some effects on the land around it. Perhaps there’s a reason those spirits wouldn’t go further into the forest.”

“The proximity to Annwn protects them,”

Rhys agrees. “There might be other distances that would be safe, but we can’t count on that. Whatever spell Myrddin’s put in to attract the souls of the dead is definitely working in other parts of this sithein.”

Lee nods. “From what they can tell. We’re not allowed close to the mountain. My father has guards on all the trails. It’s been going on since shortly after he first met with Myrddin. We had a couple of spies make it to the mountains, but they didn’t come back.”

Lee gets to one knee as the hounds roll around and offer their bellies up. “We’ve had some disturbances as well that led our witches to believe something is wrong.”

“So he did something to the mountain.”

I think carefully about what the gnome told me. “Something that attracts the recently dead. They’re drawn in through Myrddin or the king. Likely via some spelled object they’re wearing. If one could see it, it might appear as though the soul was being consumed.”

“Are you telling me my father isn’t a soul eater?” Lee asks.

“I don’t think so, but it might be possible to use those souls as fuel for something. I don’t know if it would destroy the soul however. I think that might be impossible. But it could damage it.”

I consider the problem as my hand strokes down Fluffy’s back. I like the fact that they’re here. They weren’t responsible for tricking us. They only wanted some affection and treats. “A spell like that could disrupt the balance.”

“Balance?”

Cassie asks as her brother hides behind her because Caddoc is still trying to get a whiff of him. “What balance is there to death?”

“A soul needs to move on, and most do. It’s why the sluagh colonies aren’t filled to the brims,”

I explain. “The truth of the matter is most people move on quickly because they’re ready. Otherwise, the world would be filled with spirits, and they would be restless. So restless they would disturb the waking world around them. I suspect that’s why no one is allowed near the mountains and why your people never came back.”

“They’re dead, too, aren’t they?”

Lee asks, his expression grim.

“I think we can count on it,”

I reply. “That many restless dead forget they’re trying to move on. They become angry even if they were not in life. They know they’re not in the right place, and after a while they seek revenge for it on anyone they can.”

“Myrddin needs my father because of his access to the mountain,”

Lee says with a huff. “Why didn’t I think of it? We know he’s holding them there, but they had magical properties, too. Those mountains have long been ruled by my family. It’s where we hide our treasures. The sluagh actually guard some of them. I think he needs my father to access the mountain and get what he needs. He has to have my father alive to perform his ritual, and the only way to get him to agree was to give him what he wants.”

“My mother.”

Rhys leans in, his arm going around my waist.

“He’s also convinced my father that he can take his temple back if he integrates with Bris,”

Lee explains.

“Why bring Ostara into it?”

Cassie asks.

I think I’ve figured that out. “She’s the experiment. They found a fairly weakened ascended goddess. If they can find the right spell to peel her off her host, then they can do the same with Bris. Bris is a non-corporeal spirit. They might think he could get sucked into the trap, and let me tell you, his soul moving on would be the big bang of that kind of magic.”

I shudder at the thought of it. Bris leaving could be everything Myrddin needs to do his will. To close us off. When that is done, he will open the gates to Hell and Earth will become a warzone like nothing we’ve ever seen.

It must be stopped at all costs.

“That might be enough to close the celestial planes off.”

Rhys takes a long breath. “And he thinks you can stop him.”

He’s talking to me. Of course he is. I don’t understand it. “Me?”

“Yes, my love. You. He’s afraid of you,”

Rhys says. “I want nothing more than to take you to Lee’s village and hide you away, but you are the key to all of this.”

“He’s terrified of you, Shy,”

Lee agrees. “I saw it in his eyes when you were fighting him in the dining hall. You are what he didn’t count on. He thought he would get Rhys’s parents.”

“But the trap was about me,”

I point out. “The crone came for me. Not the king and queen. Not the high priest. Me.”

“Which is why we have to consider the fact that the gods we call are not always the ones who answer,”

Lee says solemnly. “What if my father and the wizard sought to trick your parents by hiring the hag, but the hag tricked them? What if, after all these years, she still loves the god she worked for? She is a divination witch. What if she saw what must happen and gave it the push it needed?”

“Like the dark prophet did.”

Rhys nods. “This is all dependent on you, my goddess. I can stand by your side and accept whatever fate brings us, but you will lead us down the path. You will win or lose this battle.”

Tears spring to my eyes, and I am so afraid of his words. Because they ring true. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.”

I feel my power, but I don’t know how to use it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be. I only know I’m more than I thought I was.

Water caresses my toes and I glance their way, thinking someone must have spilled. When I look down I see my bare feet in the mud of the pond that father used to fish in, and for a blink I am there. I feel the sun on my face, the warm winds of a Texas spring on my skin. It’s almost dark and Mama will call me in soon, but for now I stand beside my father as he whips the fishing pole into the pond and waits.

“Such a feral child,”

he says with a grin. “You know we buy you shoes, Shy.”

I smile his way. “But I like the feel of the earth between my toes. And the sky above me.”

My father grows serious and he stares my way, his eyes going dark. “Because you are earth and sky. You are the bubbling cauldron we were all born of. When you need him, call his name. He always meant to find you again.”

I blink and I’m back in my adult body and the floor is dry again, but I look to the Drowning Woman.

She sent me that message. Why? She never has before.

Or has she and I was too afraid to see it?

I am earth and sky. I stand in the mud and feel the tug of a thread that runs to the core of the planet. I tilt my head up and that thread runs from me to the heavens above. Earth and sky. Moon and sun and all the planes.

Power bubbles up. I can feel it.

And it frightens me.

“Shy?”

My husband stands in front of me, gently tilting my head up. “Are you all right?”

“She sent me a vision,”

I say quietly.

“She?” Lee asks.

Cassie gasped. “The she? The creepy water spirit? Is she here?”

Cassie turns, machete in hand like she can fight a non-corporeal spirit. I know she would try for me. “How is she here?”

“She found a way to follow me.”

I look past Cassie but the Drowning Woman is further back now, or perhaps she used up energy sending me that vision. She’s not as solid as she was before and sounds more distant. “What are you trying to tell me?”

The hounds have taken space around me, like they’re letting me know they are there for me.

Why would the hounds specifically want to be with me?

Why would Matilda, the crone, call me yr un sanctaidd? The sacred one. I thought she was trying to pull me, to get me to do what she wants, but now I wonder. Had she been the trap for me? Or for Myrddin Emrys and the king of this plane?

I see a hand come out of the water as though she’s trying to touch me, and then she’s gone.

“Well, that’s frustrating.”

I look to Rhys. “She’s gone. She somehow sent me a vision of my father.”

“Why would she do that?”

my husband asks.

I’m not sure. “It started out as something I remembered. My father would go fishing in this pond on our land and I would sit with him. I would sometimes play in the mud, and he would tease me for being feral. But then one day I cried because that seemed like a bad thing to be and he told me to never think that. He told me I was made of earth and sky and I had found my way to him.”

Tears pierce my eyes as the memory flows over me. The sweetness of my father laying down his pole and getting into the mud with me. “He told me I was a gift to my family, a gift from the old ones, and that one day I would understand.”

I shake my head. “How did I forget that? He told me I was made of earth and sky, that I should never apologize for liking to play in the mud. But he wasn’t talking about mud. He knew. He knew I would have these powers.”

“Your father was a telekinetic,”

Rhys points out.

I love that he listens to me. My family might no longer be on the Earth plane, but Rhys knows them through my stories. He encourages me to keep them alive even when it would seem easier to forget. It was one of the first ways I knew he cared about me. He was a teenaged boy and he would sit up late with me and ask about my family and tell me about his. We bonded through loss, but it became something beautiful. “He was, but every now and then he would have the sight, as my grams would call it. Not divination. He would see something as it was rather than as it wished to be seen. He could see trolls through their glamours. I think he saw me that day.”

And loved me. Wanted the best for me. Wished for me to step into my power and use it for good.

“So there’s a weird ghostie in here with us?”

Lee shudders a little. “I’m not sure I wanted to know that. Can’t you send it along, Shy? Like you did with my uncle?”

He really understands nothing, and he doesn’t listen. He was probably either thinking about his next meal or who he could hit on when I explained the first time. “Your uncle was ready to move on. The Drowning Woman is not. So she follows me. When she does what she needs to do, she will find her path.”

And it’s up to me to figure out what she needs to move on. We’re connected somehow, but that is a problem for another day.

Today I have to deal with Myrddin.

“Are we rested up?” I ask.

And Brendan starts to growl.

I look down and the hounds move in front of me, hair coming up on their backs.

“Shy, when I tell you to run, you do it,”

Rhys commands.

“I’ll get her out of here,”

Cassie promises.

“Follow the signs back to the temple.”

Lee stands beside his brother and then moves so they are back to back. Like they’ve done this before. The trouble is we’re at a crossroads where three different tunnels meet.

It would be super nice to have some big-ass power right now. I want to throw up a shield around us but I’m still just me, and the power bubbling inside me doesn’t cover the living world. My hands are useless as my adrenaline rushes to the surface.

“Who’s there?”

Lee takes a couple of steps forward, into the tunnel to our left. He tilts his head to speak to Rhys. “This tunnel leads back to the palace. It’s how we get into the servant quarters.”

“Is it a friendly?”

Rhys asks, not taking his eyes off the tunnel in front of him.

“I don’t know,”

Lee admits. “Who is there? Identify yourself or we’re going to have a problem.”

A light appears in the darkness, small at first but getting bigger.

“Shy, run,”

Rhys says.

I can’t leave him. “What if it’s coming for you?”

“Run, baby,”

he pleads.

But the light is already there, and it has one target. Me.

The ball of light hits my chest and, in a blink, I’m transported.

Cold winds whip around me, and I am alone at the bottom of the mountain that hums for me. Hums? More like screams. What was a mere whisper in those woods is now a roar.

The dead are here, and they are restless. They want. They need. They will do anything to get out of here.

I put my hands to my ears in a useless attempt to stop the screaming.

“Well, I rather thought this place might bring you low.”

I look up and my horror is complete.

Myrddin Emrys stands in front of me and he has Devinshea Quinn wrapped in bindings. He’s covered in blood, and I feel horror splash across me as I realize why.

His hands are gone.

Myrddin cut off his hands.

The screaming pulses through me, and I faint dead away.