by Linsey Hall
“I’m more interested in how a ghost dog can eat a real ham,” Ana said. “But don’t change the subject. Why are you wearing Cade’s clothes?”
“Don’t get excited.” I tossed my bag of slimy clothes onto the side table and set down the golden stone Melusine had given me. “I got slimed.”
Ana winced. “Did you figure out how to get through the portal?”
“Someone briefed you?” I hadn’t had time to talk to her before I’d left for Edinburgh.
“Word gets around.”
“Yeah. We’re going in tomorrow morning at dawn.”
“I hate that you’re going alone.”
“It’s just recon. When we need backup, you’ll be the first in.” I took the middle seat on the couch, between her and Mayhem. Fortunately, the pug had mastered a strange way of eating that kept the ham from touching the couch. She might be a Pug of Destruction, but she wasn’t going to waste any precious ham juice on my upholstery. Since it was the first nice thing I owned, I appreciated it.
I rubbed her back, not really making contact since she was a ghost. But it was nice, in a tingly way.
“I was hoping you could do me a favor while I’m on recon,” I said.
“Anything.” Ana turned toward me, giving me a full view of the sleeping ducks on her giant night shirt.
“I’m starting to get some clues about what I am, but I have no idea what they mean. Can you find the library and do some research like we talked about?”
“Of course. What have I got to go on?”
“I’ve been called Njord—whatever that means. And this strange old man in Edinburgh said that I have conflict within me that must be resolved. Two halves that must be made whole.”
“All right. Not a bad start.”
I leaned back against the couch and stared up at the wooden ceiling. “I sure hope you can find something. Because this is starting to get scary.”
Ana reached for my hand and squeezed. “We can handle it.”
5
Cade and I met early the next morning in the entryway of the castle. Though we had full kitchens in our apartments, I’d figured out early that there was a large communal kitchen on the first floor of the castle. A man named Hans was the head cook, and he made a mean cup of coffee.
Before meeting Cade, I’d swung by there to grab a cup, and I was pretty sure it was the only thing keeping me standing. It was quiet this close to dawn, and no one in their right minds was awake.
“Ready?” Cade asked as I stepped into the entry hall.
He wore a backpack and was dressed in boots, and his dark clothes looked like they were made of sturdy fabric. Exploration gear, if I’d ever seen it.
“Yep, ready.”
Footsteps sounded from behind me, and I turned to see Jude descending the sweeping staircase on the left. She had a paper clutched in her hand. “I have a copy of that map here for you. If you’re not back in three days, we’ll send reinforcements in after you.”
“Thanks.” I took the map that she handed me. “We’ll figure this out.”
She nodded. “See that you do. Passing this test will go a long way toward advancing you at the Academy. And from a practical standpoint, that portal is a serious problem.”
I nodded, feeling the pressure of the real-life test, and turned to Cade. “Ready to get a move on?”
“Aye.”
We said goodbye to Jude, then strode from the castle and across the lawn. The sun was peaking over the horizon by the time we reached the forest, though it was still dark within. The fairy lights helped illuminate the path, and made the nippy air feel just a bit warmer.
When we reached the clearing, I raised my hand over my nose. “The smell is worse.”
“Aye.” Cade’s voice hinted at his disgust.
“And the curse has spread farther.” The black veins stretched across the forest floor, all the way to the edge of the clearing. “We need to hurry.”
I pulled the vial of potion that Melusine had given me and downed it quickly, wincing at the taste of sour milk. “Ugh.”
A cold chill raced over my skin, followed by a tingling sensation. Hopefully, that meant the potion was working.
Cade drank his, then pulled the big key Melusine had given him from his pocket. He held it up and gave me an inquiring look. “Ready?”
“Let’s do it.”
My heart thudded as we approached the portal. The surface gleamed like an oil slick, and the memory of the creature pressing out of it made my skin chill with nerves.
I called one of my daggers from the ether, gripping it like a security blanket.
Cade raised the key to the portal and pressed it into the oily surface. There was no distinct keyhole, but the portal shimmered. He twisted the key.
The portal glowed white, just briefly.
“Go.” Cade pulled the key from the portal and stepped through, disappearing.
“Now or never.” I sucked in a deep breath and followed.
My skin crawled as I passed through, feeling like tarantulas were scuttling over my flesh. A shudder raked me as I stepped out onto a dimly lit beach, joining Cade.
The sun was just starting to peek out from behind some clouds on the horizon, sending a hazy gray morning light over the waves and hard-packed sand. A forest to the left looked dark and abandoned. Sick, almost. The ocean to the right was gray and dark, waves lapping at the shore.
A rustling sounded from behind me, and I whirled.
A slimy pitch-black creature—shaped kind of like my imaginings of an alien—lunged for me. Its skin gleamed with the same oil that covered the portal, and there were no eyes in its elongated head.
Right before it reached me, I hurled my dagger. It thudded into the creature’s skinny chest. The beast, which was well over six feet tall, wobbled, then reached out with a slender, claw-tipped arm. I lunged backward, but the monster was fast. It sliced through my arm.
Pain flared.
I stumbled backward, drawing my sword from the ether.
But Cade was faster. He lunged forward, sword and shield in hand. The creature sliced out again, but Cade blocked with his shield. The beast’s hand clanged against the metal, as if it, too, were made of iron. Cade sliced his blade clean through its neck.
The head crashed to the ground, exploding in a puddle of oil, and the body followed shortly after.
“Thanks.” I gasped, catching my breath, and pressed my hand against the wound on my arm. It was so thin that it barely bled, thank fates, but it stung like the devil. Warily, I approached the fallen body. It had splashed into a pile of oil, though it’d felt solid when it was attacking. “What is it? It didn’t really seem alive, did it?”
I hadn’t noticed it breathe. Or seen its chest move. And it’d made no sound.
Cade nudged the oil puddle with his blade. “A spell. Or some other kind of monster. It’s not disappearing the way demons do.”
I turned from it and spun in a circle, inspecting the beach. It stank like rotten eggs, and there was a gray tinge over the land. Black veins spread across the ground, just like the ones that were starting to infect the castle.
“The poison is still here,” I said. “Killing the creature didn’t change that.”
Cade chuckled. “That would be too easy.” He knelt down and touched one of the black veins that shot through the hard-packed sand. “The beast was a symptom, not the cause.”
“Think there are more?” I squinted into the forest, which looked haunted as hell. Twisted trees reached for the sky, their leafless branches barren and dead.
“Could be.”
I unfolded the map Jude had given us. It was sparsely drawn with very little detail. “There’s almost nothing on this map.”
“The Fae who once lived here did not permit the Protectorate much access, from what I’ve heard. They were a suspicious people.”
“Clearly.” The mapmaker looked like he’d drawn the thing from quick memory after a brief visit. It looked like there was a settle
ment of some kind, past the beach and forest and an open space. I pointed to it. “What do you say we look for answers there?”
“I’d say that’s a good idea.”
We’d have to be sneaky since we didn’t know what kind of welcome we’d get, but going toward people was the best chance at getting answers. And I was doubtful that the Fae were behind this. Why would they want to contact me?
The sand stretched out far ahead of us, the haunted forest on the left and the dark gray ocean on the right.
“Too bad we can’t transport.”
“If we knew exactly where it was, we could.” Cade patted the left pocket of his trousers. “But I do have a transportation charm in case we get into serious trouble. We’ll come straight back to the portal and return to the Protectorate.”
“Sounds good.” I looked around. “I wonder if this dark magic is what made the Fae close their portal? Or if it’s new.”
“The speed with which it is infecting the enchanted forest at the Protectorate leads me to think it is new.”
“Good point.” I set off down the beach. It was exposed, which I didn’t love, but I was staying away from that forest and we had no boat to travel on the water. Not like I’d want to, anyway.
Cade joined me, matching his stride to mine. Eventually, I became used to the stink of rotten eggs.
We walked in companionable silence for a while. It worked for me, since silence made it easier not to put my foot in my mouth. I couldn’t help but still be attracted to him. Except he’d made it very clear how well that was going to work out.
The sun climbed higher in the sky as we crossed the long beach. Eventually, a forest appeared at the far end.
I rubbed my chest, suddenly feeling something strange.
Like an awareness. A heaviness.
My gaze darted to the sea. It called to me, almost as if I could hear the siren song.
Holy fates. Was I feeling the sea?
Nah.
I tried to shake it away.
“Do you hear that?” Cade murmured.
“What?” I was so preoccupied with the ocean that I hadn’t been paying attention.
“In the forest. A rustling noise.”
“Great.” I inspected it as I walked, tracing my gaze over the large, dead trees. There were still a few green ones left here and there, but most were withered and leafless. Black veins crept up their trunks, strangling the life from them. “I don’t see anything.”
A rumbling from my right pulled my gaze over to the sea. The waterline was pulling back from the shore! The beach was now twice as wide.
“Cade!”
He turned toward the sea, eyes widening. “Shite! Run.”
I whirled and sprinted toward the forest, away from the receding ocean. I’d only ever heard of the sea receding in two cases—right before hurricanes and tidal waves. Either way, I wanted to be a hell of a lot farther from the water.
Whatever was rustling in the forest was about to get some company.
My breath heaved in my lungs as I ran. We were still fifty yards from the trees. When the roaring of the sea increased, I chanced a glance backward.
My heart leapt into my throat and my skin chilled to ice.
A massive tidal wave loomed overhead, bearing down on us. It rose over a hundred feet in the air, gray and dark.
Shit!
We’d never make it to the trees. Not that they could really help.
“Cade!” On instinct, I lunged for him, wrapping my arms around his waist and taking us both to the sand.
The wave crashed down on us, a force so powerful that I lost my hearing and my vision as it sucked us up and tossed us around like dolls. My blood thundered in my veins, and my head roared as I thrashed around in the water. Cold. It was so cold.
Fear like I’d never known caught me in a vise. Cade’s strong arms wrapped around my waist. He was kicking, trying to reach the surface that we couldn’t see.
The water surrounded me. Crushing. Seeping inside me.
I could feel it.
No way was I going to drown. Not in the ocean.
The idea was freaking ridiculous, for some reason.
I forced the water away from me, envisioning it retreating.
Go, go, go.
Away!
I had no idea if it was working. Everything was gray and dark, and my lungs burned as we were thrashed about in the sea.
Then I hit solid ground. The water rushed off me. I lay limp against the wet sand, choking on water. I rolled away from Cade, weakly retching up the water. Beneath my hands, the sand was wet and covered in a fine layer of sea grass.
I sucked in a ragged breath, coughing.
The air rushing into my lungs was the best feeling in the world.
Beside me, Cade coughed and gasped.
I looked up, having no clue what had just happened.
We were surrounded on all sides by walls of water that rose fifty feet high. The blue sky filled the hole above our heads, and the sun shined down into the water, making it glint blue from this angle.
“Holy fates.” I scrambled upright, whirling around in a circle to take it all in.
There were fish in the water, staring at us like they were in an aquarium. Or like we were in an aquarium. Giant coral heads dotted the ground around us, white and red and yellow. There were even a couple of sharks staring right at me through the wall of water.
At my feet, a squishy white thing flopped around.
Holy fates!
An octopus.
I grabbed the thing up, wincing at the slimy feel of its skin, and ran for the wall of water. I thrust the octopus into it. Immediately, the creature poofed up, regaining its proper form now that it was submerged. I released it and yanked my hand back out. The octopus darted away.
“What the hell is happening?” Cade asked.
I stepped away from the wall of water—and the Hammerhead who was looking at me like I was a tasty snack—and joined Cade in the middle of our air-filled cylinder.
“I have no idea.” I couldn’t take my gaze off the sea around us. Or the sky above.
“Do you have any idea how to get us out of it?”
“Our options aren’t great.” We couldn’t climb the walls of water. Nor did I want to walk into the water and try to swim my way up. It’d be fifty feet to the surface, and the sharks could get us. Not to mention, if this water collapsed, we were screwed.
“You’re holding it back,” he said. “Can you clear another path toward the shore?”
“Maybe?” I could feel the water—like it was part of me. It took hardly any effort at all to hold it like this. “But which way is shore?”
“Bree. Turn around.” His voice had the calm steadiness of someone who knew something was going wrong.
I turned to face the direction he was pointing. The water shimmered on that side. Figures walked toward us along the bottom of the sea. Nine of them. Women.
They stepped out of the wall of water, entering our air bubble. Each was made of shimmering blue water, but their features and hair and clothes were so detailed that they looked real.
My head spun.
“They are not the Fae,” Cade said.
I’d seen some crazy shit in the magical world, but this was beyond.
Awkwardly, I raised a hand and waved. “Hi.”
Fortunately, Cade didn’t draw his sword from the ether. Not like it’d do much good against an army of water women.
They approached gracefully, the sun gleaming off their shimmery water surfaces, and stopped in front of us, forming a semicircle.
All their eyes were on me.
“Who are you?” one asked.
“Um, Bree Blackwood.” I hiked a thumb toward Cade. “And this is Cade, the Celtic god of war.”
They didn’t look at him, just crowded closer. I could see confusion on their faces, which was a bit weird considering I could also see through their faces.
“Who are you?” I asked. “Why are we here?”<
br />
“We brought you here,” said the leader.
“We wanted to know more.” The one to her left leaned closer, squinting at my face. Then she turned to the leader. “I think you’re right, Hefring. I can sense Rán in her.”
“Rán?” I asked.
“Our mother.” The leader nodded. “It is finally time.”
The others began to chatter in an unknown language, voices rising over top of each other.
“Time for what?” I asked.
“Only you can determine that. But you must leave here to do so.” Hefring raised her arms.
Sloshing water sounded from behind me. My heart leapt into my throat and I turned. The water parted, forming an air channel back to shore.
I spun back to Hefring. “Who is Rán? What’s happening to me?”
“You must go,” Helga said. “The passage won’t stay open long.”
“But—”
“Come, sisters.” Hefring stepped back toward the ocean. Her eight siblings followed, joining her in the water. They walked off, accompanied by a procession of sharks.
“Come on.” Cade grabbed my hand and tugged me along.
I gave one last longing look after Hefring and her sisters, then turned and ran. We sprinted down the channel, between the tall walls of water that housed fish who watched our progress.
My lungs burned as we ran, but I pushed myself harder, not wanting to get caught if the sea slammed back down upon us. I could control it—yes. But I didn’t fully trust myself.
As if on cue, the water began to crash down behind us, driving us on.
Hefring encouraging me to get a move on? I could almost feel her presence as I sprinted, lungs burning.
We sprinted onto the dry beach—the real beach—as the sea splashed down, returning to normal. I stumbled, going to my knees in the sand, and barely caught myself with my hands.
I hung my head, panting, wet hair hanging in my face.
Holy fates. This was nuts.
I flopped onto my back, staring up at the blue sky. Cade lay next to me, arm thrown above his head as his big chest heaved up and down.
“That was wild,” I finally said.
“That was insane.” He rolled over to look at me, propping himself on an elbow so he leaned overtop of me. “Are you all right?”