Page 38 of The Shadow Path (Shadowlands #2)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

T he blue wisps flew away, and the cool grey dawn appeared before her, the brush around her cloaked with fog.

Carys stumbled out from between two tangled yew trees, her ankles catching on some overgrowth in the grass. She walked forward, pulling Duncan behind her, and saw a narrow asphalt track just ahead.

As Carys walked forward from the bushes, she saw Laura emerge from the trees, then Cadell, and finally Godrik walked through, carrying Naida cradled in his arms.

Footsteps sounded in the distance, and emerging from the fog, a jogger slowed, taking out a white earbud as he squinted at the motley crew of people who probably looked like they’d just come from a Renaissance fair.

“Hey.” Carys waved at him. “Good morning.”

The jogger paused, running in place, then shook his head, put his earbud back in, and muttered, “Fuckin’ tourists.”

A moment after that, they were alone.

Duncan closed the door in his mother’s large town house in Belgravia and looked at them. “She’s sleeping. I gave her filtered water and tried to take everything metal out of the room that I could find. If she’s not better by tonight, I say we take her back through the gate.”

“She’ll be fine.” Godrik was dressed in some of Duncan’s Brightlands clothes, and the pale grey sweater highlighted the silver in his hair and his cool grey eyes. “The small fae has a surprisingly strong constitution.”

Even in human clothes, he looked like a wolf.

“I have been reaching for my power ever since we passed through the gate, but I feel nothing,” Godrik said. “I cannot sense any larger power here. Dragon, what do you feel?”

“Nothing, but if the Morrigan is stretching her power, we might not feel it until we get closer to her,” Cadell said. “As soon as Naida is well, we should go to Gorne Wood.”

“Assuming the Morrigan is still there,” Carys said. “She may already have moved on.”

“Remember, she was trying to start a war and we stopped her,” Laura said. “We did defeat that old crow, so whatever magical sacrifice she was looking for, it did not go according to plan.”

“It might not be enough to do anything other than cause some ripples at the gates,” Duncan said. “Maybe make the gates here in London more fluid.” He pointed at Laura. “Kind of like the way the fae gates are back in Baywood.”

Carys let out a slow breath. “That wouldn’t be so bad. A little confusing maybe, but not bad.”

“Very true,” Cadell said. “It might cause a few minor problems, Brightkin stumbling into the Shadowlands and such, but in theory those gates can be secured over time.”

“The last thing we need is mundane humans stumbling into a magical world,” Godrik said. “Or Shadowkin crossing into the Brightlands without any guides.”

Carys had a feeling that in London—especially if there were as many small gates as Naida had indicated—that might cause more than a little chaos.

“Still,” Carys said. “That’s good news. I can’t hear Cadell either, and I’ve been talking to him, so we were probably overreacting.”

Duncan nodded. “I think we were. Better safe than sorry, but once Naida has rested, we can head back through the gates.”

“Goodness.”

Carys turned when she heard a quiet voice at the end of the hall.

Duncan’s mother—Brightkin of Queen Elinor in Alba—was standing at the top of the stairs.

“Mother!” Duncan said. “I’ve… invited some friends to stay for a few days. I hope that’s okay.”

Godrik stood up straight, Laura gave a little wave, and Cadell just stared.

“Oh, that’s lovely dear.” The older woman waved a hand and brushed at something imaginary in the air. “Make yourself at home. Just talk to Randall about meals and such.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Murray,” Laura said.

“Mother.” Duncan took Carys’s hand and walked toward his mother. “You should meet Carys. She’s a mythology professor and she’s my girlfriend, so you’ll be seeing her again. Carys, this is my mother, Alexandra Morrison Murray.”

Okay, that was… direct. But not incorrect.

Carys held out her hand, seeing Elinor’s kind eyes in a new face. “It’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Murray.”

“Oh dear.” Duncan’s mother’s expression fell. “You’re American.”

Duncan growled, “I won’t stand rudeness, Mam.”

“Then please don’t call me Mam .” She sighed. “It’s so… Scottish. I’m sorry.” She looked at Carys. “I’m suppose I’m just disoriented because of the news this morning. What can you even make of such things?” She looked back to Duncan. “They think it might be a volcano . In Wiltshire, for heaven’s sake. It’s only a few miles from the Seymours’ country place. Can you imagine? Your father used to go on shooting parties there, do you remember?”

Duncan jerked his head. “What are you talking about?”

She frowned, and two deep lines etched her forehead. “Duncan, haven’t you heard?”

Carys heard a television somewhere downstairs.

She followed the sound of the very proper English news presenter’s voice down the stairs, through a long hallway, and into a cozy study where a breakfast table was set with tea and two maids were holding hands, staring at a small television on a bookcase.

“—more news from Salisbury where the geological event now appears to be spreading into neighboring farmland.”

“Carys?” Duncan called her name. “Where are you?—”

“Shhh.” Both the maids hushed him.

Carys reached for his hand when she saw the picture on the screen. “Duncan.”

“I see it.”

The footage on the television looked like drone footage over a very familiar monument, but while the shadows of Stonehenge in the morning light looked familiar…

The giant growing barrow next to it was not.

The news presenter said, “We do have a statement now from the Corps of Royal Engineers, who say that this geological event does not match any known faults or seismic activities and they are still investigating but that currently there is no danger to either life or property in the area.”

“What about the bloody henge though?” one of the maids asked. “It’s goin’ to topple the old thing if it keeps growing.”

There was a circle of crows flying in formation around the top of the barrow. The grass around it was dead, the vibrant green leached to dull yellow and brown.

“…meanwhile, local law enforcement has been challenged by a group of neo-pagan activists who are trying to enter the site, claiming any attempt to obstruct them is a violation of their religious freedom. Let’s hear from Pippa Kulkarni, who’s in the nearby village of Amesbury. Pippa?”

“Thank you, Grant.”

Laura and Cadell entered the room, and the dragon stepped closer to the television, bending down to inspect the picture of the mound that had grown next to Stonehenge, seemingly overnight.

The dragon straightened, looked at Carys and Duncan, and said, “I don’t think the Morrigan is in Gorne Wood anymore.”

End of Book Two