Page 3 of The Shadow Path (Shadowlands #2)

CHAPTER TWO

“ I was about to cross the gate to look for you.” Cadell sat on a log around a friendly fire in a clearing. “You should have been here an hour ago.”

He was clad in leather armor, his muscled arms bare, as if he didn’t feel the morning fog at all. He stretched out his massive legs and leaned toward the fire.

Dragons really loved fire.

“Duncan showed up at the college,” Carys said. “We had a cup of tea before we walked over. I’m sorry if you were worried; we kind of lost track of time.”

Men and women were bustling around the village, getting ready for a busy spring day as children ran around the camp, calling to their friends and gathering their belongings from long, low cedar-plank houses that were halfway dug into the ground. The roofs were covered in redwood shingles, and from each house, a grey stream of smoke rose from a clay chimney.

It looked like a typical morning as children grabbed knapsacks for school, parents readied them for the day, and others headed off toward the forest to hunt or fish.

Though the faces were as familiar as the ones in Baywood, everyone in the village spoke a dialect of the local Yurok language that Carys was still trying to learn. But though she didn’t speak the common language, the Shadowkin in Kere’s village had always made her feel at home.

Cadell turned to Duncan. “Perhaps you think that I’ve become derelict in my role as Carys’s protector?—”

“No one was thinking that, Cadell.” Carys tried to stop him.

“I have learned that there are no malignant forces in Baywood—other than the typical human dangers,” Cadell continued, “but also that I can feel Carys from this side of this gate. The old growth forest exists in both worlds, so the gates are more porous than they are in Briton.”

Duncan frowned. “That’s interesting.”

“Should she be in danger, I have timed my arrival at the college where she works to under fifteen minutes.” He took a deep breath. “Now that I tell you that, fifteen minutes is too long. Nêrys, I should continue guarding you at work.”

“You really shouldn’t,” Carys said. “You scare the students.”

“Then they’re too easily frightened.”

Duncan cocked his head. “That’s interesting about the gates. And that bear who guided us?—”

“Right?” Carys leaned forward. “Magical shifters from here retain form on the other side of the gates, at least as long as they remain in the old growth forest, which… I have a lot of theories.”

Duncan nodded. “I’m sure you do.”

Cadell sat up. “Did the cross human return to Baywood in order to court you properly?” He turned to Duncan. “What gifts did you bring her? Jewels? Cows?”

Duncan’s face turned red. “I didn’t exactly— Not that I wouldn’t like to, but?—”

“That’s not why Duncan came to visit, Cadell.” Carys tried to turn the conversation away from her very confusing love life.

At her words, the dragon seemed to expand in size. “Then what is wrong in Briton?”

“Edgar is dead.” Duncan lifted a hand. “Hunting accident. No foul play is even being considered.”

Cadell grunted. “Humans are so fragile.”

Just as he said it, Laura walked over and handed him a massive platter with a giant roasted salmon. “Fragile?”

Cadell didn’t flinch, but his attention shifted immediately to the pretty woman who gave him food. “Your bodies are not as durable as dragons, bears, or wolves. If your bones weren’t solid, I would classify you with birds.”

Laura crossed her arms over her chest. “Keep irritating me and I’ll show you how solid my fist is.”

The dragon frowned. “I would never insult my host. You misunderstand me.”

Laura sighed. “Whatever, Cadell.” She plopped down on a log next to Duncan and across from the dragon. “So why did you fly all the way here about the king dying? He has an heir, right?”

“He does.” Duncan continued, “And he’s already in control of the country. Harold has trained his whole life to be king, so the transition is going smoothly. But there will be a coronation, and Carys’s uncle would like her there.”

Cadell’s chest puffed out. “As is appropriate for a nêrys ddraig in the royal line.” He nodded and broke off a large piece of salmon. “We’ll make preparations to leave immediately.”

“No worries,” Duncan said. “Dafydd’s man in Cardiff already sent a plane. It’s waiting in San Francisco.”

Cadell swallowed a large bite of fish before he spoke. “We can fly to Briton from here. The Chahta would not permit Cymric soldiers to live near them, but they did allow Mared to deliver a coracle for Carys to train. We can travel that way.”

“And be there next week,” Duncan said. “The coronation is in four days.”

The dragon’s mouth was a grim line. “I hate flying in the metal tubes.”

Carys raised her hand. “Excuse me. Uh, thanks for making all these plans without even asking me what I’d like to do, but no, thanks.”

Cadell’s head swung toward her. “You’re going.”

“I don’t actually have to though?” Carys wanted to go back to Briton—of course she did—but the idea of landing in another sticky political mess when she was still getting used to dragons and magic and having power she couldn’t predict sounded like a horrible idea. “I have lessons with my Chahta trainer this week. I was planning on spending all summer practicing my archery, and Cadell was going to start on swords and stuff.”

“Swords are cool,” Laura muttered.

“Exactly.” She looked at Cadell. “We’ve talked about this. We have plans.”

The dragon was unmoved. “Plans change when there is a coronation and the king of Cymru requests your presence.”

Carys didn’t have a great response to that, so she looked at Laura. “What do you think? I’m not his heir. I’m barely a dragon rider.”

Laura kicked out her feet and crossed them at the ankles. “Listen, I hate people planning my life as much as anyone, but you do have a role. I think you need to go.” She shrugged. “It’ll probably be a week of parties and boring dinners, a long-ass ceremony or two, and then you come home. You can spend some time with your uncle. You know that’s probably all he really wants. The coronation just gives him a good excuse to call you home.”

Carys wanted to scream. “You do realize that just by saying that, you’re practically guaranteeing that something shitty is going to happen to me, right?”

And her current concept of home felt very, very tenuous.

Yes, she was born in Wales.

Yes, her extended family was there.

But she had grown up in Northern California. Her parents were estranged from their families, and everything Carys knew was in California.

Except for Duncan.

And Lachlan.

And her uncle and aunt, who were both in the Shadowlands.

So home was uncertain at best.

Laura lifted a steaming mug of what smelled like mint tea. “I don’t think you can get out of it, so you should consider it a paid vacation. You’re flying to England on a private jet, dude.”

Cadell turned to Duncan. “ Dude is a common term of address in California, and it can be applied to all genders. It expresses a general sense of camaraderie, but it can also be used in insults. It is sometimes hard to distinguish which is which.”

Duncan nodded. “I appreciate the information, Cadell.”

“Fine.” Carys smiled at Laura. “Then you can come with me as an honorary representative of Turtle Island.”

Laura snorted. “I wasn’t invited.”

“I think that is an excellent idea,” Cadell said.

Laura gaped at him. “What? Why?”

The dragon was silent.

“You’d be able to keep Carys company.” Duncan spoke up. “I know for a fact that Dafydd would love to meet more of her friends. He’s about as welcoming a host as you can imagine, so it’s not a bad idea.”

“I’m not a leader here.” Laura looked around. “Kere is a healer. Most of the humans here have some kind of magic even if it’s just a little bit, but I don’t have any mysterious powers like Carys does.”

“Don’t lie,” Carys said. “You can read runes.”

“That’s not magic.”

“It is power though.” Cadell looked at Duncan. “As a pauwau inwe, Laura Thompson has been trained in magic, and while she is not fae-touched like humans born into the shadows, she can access some elemental magic.”

“I’m just a go-between for our people both here and there,” Laura said. “It’s not the same.”

“If it helps, I don’t have any magic at all,” Duncan said.

“A go-between is exactly what Carys needs,” Cadell said. “Someone from her life here to accompany her and give her council on her role in Briton.”

Carys hated to see Laura uncomfortable, but she had to confess she loved the idea of having someone from home come with her.

“Please?” Carys tried to make her eyes as doe-like as possible when she turned to her best friend. “Please, please, please?”

Laura humphed. Then she huffed. Then she sighed. “Okay, but if things get weird, I’m ditching all of you and going on a pub tour or something.”

Carys couldn’t say Cadell’s face was beaming, but he looked less terrifying than usual. It was strange and somewhat disturbing.

She turned to Laura and made her hands into a heart. “I love you so much, and I owe you so much chocolate.”

“Yes you do, and also you’re the one who has to tell Kiersten that we’re taking a vacation without her,” Laura said. “I have paid time off and she just got back from Iceland, so you know she’s stuck here all summer.”

Carys turned to Cadell. “We’ll let Cadell tell her.”

Cadell’s expressed turned from mildly happy to grim.

“So who is your Chahta trainer Cadell was talking about? Iniwe?”

Carys looked up at Duncan and smiled. “Jealous?”

“Maybe.” He glanced at her. “I already have to share too much of your attention with other people. I don’t want more.”

She snorted. “So antisocial.”

“I’ve a mind to be plenty social with you.”

They walked along the edge of the forest, the massive trees stretching up into the fog that rolled in from the ocean.

By the afternoon, the fog would burn off and the pearl-grey sky would emerge, but there would be no sun. There was no moon or stars. The Shadowlands—no matter what part of the earth they were in—resided in a dreamy half-world where sun and moon didn’t exist.

The only light that came from the sky was caused by the terrifying and mysterious thunderbirds that occasionally raced across the horizon, their shrieks so loud they made the trees sway, and the flap of their wings created light shows within the clouds.

The forest and the earth around her were alive in a way that Carys could see with new eyes, and she wondered if her mother had seen them the same way.

Tegan Morgan had talked to the trees. She’d sung to the deer and the birds. Carys had always thought her mother was a fanciful artist, but Cadell was convinced that Tegan wasn’t from the Brightlands at all. Carys’s dragon was convinced that the brilliant paintings Tegan had produced in her short life could only have come from seeing the Shadowlands of Briton.

“So.” Duncan spoke again. “Iniwe?”

“Yeah.” Carys grinned. “She’s amazing actually. She’s from… I guess it’s around Mississippi in the Brightlands. Archer. Javelin thrower. All-around badass.”

“Ah.” His face brightened. “So you’ve been learning how to be a nêrys ddraig from an American.”

She smiled. “No such thing as America here, Laird Duncan.”

He nodded. “Right.”

“But the dragons from Chahta…” Carys’s smile grew. “They’re stunning. I mean, they’re kind of like Cadell, but their bodies are a lot longer and they have all different colors. It’s been amazing to learn from her and Minko—that’s her dragon—all the different flying and battle styles, because obviously they don’t have coracles.” She turned to him. “Oh! And feathers. Chahta dragons have these beautiful feathers around their faces, and Iniwe says that the dragons in Aztlán have even more feathers, and of course that would make sense because the mythology and cult of the feathered serpent is so prominent in Mesoamerican history, so?—”

“Carys, you’re rambling.” Duncan stopped and leaned against a massive redwood. “What’s wrong?”

She glanced at her feet. She looked at the dark earth and the verdant-green moss that covered the rocks. She breathed in misty air that smelled of salt and cedar.

“I don’t know where I belong anymore.” She blinked away the tears that wanted to rise. “I don’t know where my family is from. At least, not my mother. If you’d asked me two years ago where my home was, I would say—without a moment of hesitation—that it was Baywood.”

Duncan turned and looked at the village in the distance. “They don’t treat you like a stranger.”

“I know.” She nodded. “They’re wonderful. As soon as Laura realized what Cadell was and what I was, she immediately went to Kere and told her about us. Offered both of us passage. Told us that the forest was our home too.” She smiled a little bit. “The children all adore Cadell. He’s so good with them, and he takes them flying almost every day if their parents allow it.”

Duncan muttered, “He’s a very confusing dragon.”

“He misses his children.” Carys swallowed the lump in her throat. “And I’m the reason he’s missing them. Because I can’t face the fact that this place isn’t really my home anymore. That it can’t be.”

Duncan walked to her and lifted her chin, his callused finger rough on her skin, but it felt so good. So… real. “You’ll make your home where you want it to be, Carys Morgan. You have to be the one to choose your path. No one else.”

She looked into his brilliant green eyes. “And if I wanted to move to Scotland?”

“Fuck yes,” he blurted. “Brilliant idea. I’ll help you pack.”

Carys smiled. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”

“You say the word and I’ll move heaven and earth to make it happen.” He tapped her chin. “Don’t forget I’m filthy rich. Feel free to take advantage of me.”

“Is that so?” She had a feeling he wasn’t just talking about money.

Duncan stepped closer, and she could feel the heat of his body through her wool sweater. “I haven’t forgotten how your lips taste. Haven’t forgotten how you feel in my arms. Have you forgotten, Carys?” He leaned down, his lips inches from her ear. “Would you like a reminder?”

She closed her eyes, and his scent grew stronger. He smelled like cut grass on the edge of a forest. She remembered his kiss too. She remembered how it felt to have her body pressed to the firm planes of his chest, wrapped in his embrace.

Everything about Duncan lit her up. If Lachlan had been like the sun, Duncan was fire.

He was grumpy as hell at times; he was also kind, thoughtful, and honest.

“It would be so easy to fall into this.” Carys opened her eyes and stared at the cable-knit sweater that covered his chest. “To fall into you . I’m not even going to pretend it wouldn’t be.”

“You think I wouldn’t catch you?”

“I know you would.” She looked up and her heart ached. “But you know why it’s not simple.”

Duncan had feelings for her. So did Lachlan. And Carys had feelings for both of them. It wasn’t just about picking one brother over the other; it was about two different lives.

“Until I know what kind of life I want—who I even am—I can’t give you my whole heart.” She put a hand on his chest. “Because that’s what you deserve. My whole heart or nothing.”

Duncan put his hand over hers, pressing her fingers close until she could feel his heartbeat underneath her palm. “You deserve that too, Carys Morgan. You deserve a man’s whole heart. And don’t you forget that ever.”