Ancient One: Paranormal Romance (Protectors of the Veil Book 1)

by Ruby Wilder

  'Gran...'

  ‘Yes, they need to know…’

  ‘Gran?’

  And with that, she ran out of my room.

  'What's an Ancient One? Gran? Gran? What's a circle?' I shouted after her. But she'd gone.

  I was left confused. Gran was always, well, a bit strange. But this was odd even for her.

  So yeah, it had been a very strange kind of day.

  3

  12.40 pm. Ugh, time was moving slowly tonight. Conri hadn't been back. He normally made a pass of the gift shop every twenty minutes or so.

  But not tonight. Adam must be keeping him entertained.

  Adam. Who was he?

  He set my fight or flight reflex on edge. His jet-black eyes held mystery and danger. He looked about thirty years old, tall, slim, and very handsome. I was drawn to him, but at the same time repelled. He was fascinating. I hoped I'd get to know him better.

  He wasn't at all like Conri.

  Conri was funny and happy, he made me laugh, made me feel comfortable.

  When he walked into a room, the room lit up. He drew me to him like a moth to a flame. And he was hot. Big and hot. I melted inside when he smiled at me and had trouble concentrating when he was around.

  Unlike Adam, Conri put me at ease. Maybe that would change as I got to know him better. Maybe not.

  I was bored. There was no one about. I missed my chats with Conri. There was only so many times I could tidy the shelves or straighten the brochures. The gift shop was quiet tonight - not one single customer. Even the dead were quiet. I hadn't heard them since I walked into work.

  Sometimes it was like that. Sometimes they were noisy. Sometimes they were quiet.

  I had time to sneak to the kitchen and make myself a cup of tea.

  I could put it in one of the reusable plastic mugs we sold, the ones with the stone circle picture on it. No one would know it was my cuppa.

  I walked quickly out of the gift shop, plastic mug in hand, past the toilets and through a door marked in big red letters: STAFF ONLY

  Our kitchen. It was tiny. If two people were in, they had to squeeze past each other to get to the opposite end.

  But I was alone tonight.

  I filled the new swish kettle with water from the tap and clicked the switch to make it boil. I liked the new kettle. It was glass and had LED lights in it that changed the water into different psychedelic colours as it boiled. It was mesmerising.

  I was staring at the kettle and picking the price tag off the mug I'd just stolen, when I felt a strange sensation on my chest.

  It was the pendant.

  It wasn't the slight buzz it produced, no, I'd gotten used to that - this was a different feeling, a warm sensation that I could feel through the material of my jumper.

  I put the mug down and absentmindedly reached for the stone, still staring at the psychedelic glass kettle.

  I touched the pendant, it was hot. It shocked me and I let it go rubbing the palm of my hand. The pendant was shining blue now - not purple.

  Freaked out - it would burn my chest - I tried to pull the old leather cord loose, but it wouldn't untie.

  The knot was solid. I tried to get it off over my head, but my head was too big, it wouldn't go past my nose. I could feel the burning hot stone on my top lip.

  In a panic, I opened the kitchen drawer and reached for a knife - I'd have to cut the bloody thing off - but as I turned, what I saw out of the kitchen window made me forget all about the hot, blue stone around my neck.

  Normally, when I'm in the kitchen I can only see myself reflected through the window because outside is so dark and inside the kitchen so bright.

  But not tonight.

  Through the inky black darkness was, what I can only describe as, neon blue lightning.

  It was coming from the ground around the stone circle and snaking its way backwards and forwards across the grass.

  I hadn't seen anything like it before. I climbed onto the counter and opened the window, pushing it wide enough to stick my head out. It was spitting and crackling as it snaked unnaturally around the stones.

  It smelled bad. Like rotten eggs.

  Now, I should've closed the window, gotten off the counter and finished making my cup of tea.

  I should've turned my back on the phenomenon and carried on with my life. That would've been the best solution.

  But I didn't. I wanted a better look, wanted to see this up close. I jumped off the bench - my cup of tea and hot pendant forgotten - and ran to the door.

  My inquisitive nature often got the better of me and into trouble. But I never learned.

  I dashed along the corridor, past the toilets and empty gift shop, and was outside in seconds.

  The strong eggy smell hit me. Sulphur. Isn't that what hell is supposed to smell of? Hadn't I read that somewhere?

  I could feel it now that I was outside. It was like thousands of tiny pins pricking me all over my body. But that wasn't going to stop me. I ran towards the stones, towards the blue lightning. It drew me to it, welcomed me. It wanted me there.

  I hadn't put my boots or socks back on - too concerned with getting outside to see the spectacle - and could feel the static pulsing through the wet earth. It felt alive. The sound was deafening, like thunder overhead. My hair was crackling, my skin was on fire and my ears rang with the noise.

  I don't know why I did it, why I kept running toward the circle and into the middle of this terrifying, spitting blue anomaly. But I did.

  I ran right into the centre. The stench hit me at the back of my throat and made me gag. My nose burned and my eyes watered. My hair was on end and the blue electricity was running through my veins. I stood, arms outstretched and demanded the thing stop. It was shooting up my feet, through my body and out of my fingertips. I willed the blue force back down into the ground where it came from.

  This was combat. Me against it. A fight to the death.

  The normally quiet voices, the ones I couldn't understand, were screaming at me through the deafening thunder. I still couldn't understand them, but I knew now - knew they meant me harm.

  I screamed back at them, throwing my head high, raising my arms to the sky. The stone circle helped me, giving me the strength I needed to fight this, this thing.

  I yelled one last time, one last gut-wrenching, throat tearing scream, and it was gone. The last pieces of the blue tendrils slithered and sparked their way back into the ground.

  I was standing in the dark in the middle of the stone circle, hair on end. Alone.

  Or so I thought.

  From the darkness, I heard clapping. Adam and Conri appeared from out of the shadows.

  'I think we've found our Ancient One,' Conri said.

  'I told you she wasn't human!' Adam laughed.

  4

  'What just happened?'

  I was sitting on the counter in the tiny kitchen, with a cup of tea in my hands.

  Adam leaned casually on the door frame and Conri stood in front of me, looking concerned.

  'Are you okay?' he asked.

  I nodded and took a sip of the hot sugary tea, wincing. I did't take sugar but wouldn't say so because Conri had made it for me.

  'You were amazing. I didn't know you could cast spells like that!'

  'Cast spells?' I asked, confused.

  'Yeah, you know, the blue lightning, the banishing spell, the stone circle...' Conri tailed off at my confused look.

  'She doesn't know what she is,' Adam said.

  It was too confusing. The high from chasing the blue lightning was wearing off. My head hurt, I was exhausted and becoming increasingly angrier.

  'Look. Will someone tell me what the hell is going on. And quick,' I said, hand banging on the counter and voice raised.

  I noticed when I spoke like this the pendant around my neck buzzed. Cool.

  'Drink your tea. The sugar will replace some of the energy you lost. That's why you have a headache,' Adam said.

  I put the cup to my lips a
nd lowered it again, 'But...' I started saying.

  Conri pushed the cup towards me, 'You drink. We will talk. Deal?'

  'Deal.'

  Adam started, 'You're an Ancient One. A Wise Woman. A Witch. Whatever you want to call it. You must come from a very powerful line of Druids to seal the opening as you did.'

  I turned to look at Conri, I didn't believe this man I'd only just met. I needed Conri to say something. He must've seen it on my face because he nodded.

  'It's true, Maeve. You cast a spell and sealed the opening. Adam and I were waiting to see what came out, we were waiting to destroy it. We are Protectors of the Veil. But we didn't need to because you closed the doorway, stopping anything from escaping.'

  'But I didn't cast a spell. I only went outside to see what the blue lightning was. I don't know how to cast a spell. Come on, we are talking about magic here. Really? Magic? We aren't at primary school,' I said, shaking my head.

  Whatever just happened, the sugary tea was working. My headache was going and my anger subsiding.

  'You caused the blue lightning,' Adam said, simply.

  'Me? No, I didn't. It was already outside when I came out to see it.'

  Conri held my hand and said, 'It was you, Maeve. The lightning came from you. You were controlling it. It's your magic. You are an Ancient One. It was coming out of you, your fingers, toes, body. Even your hair. It might have been outside when you saw it, but you projected it out there. Why did you run into it so readily? Why did you feel the need to stand in the middle of it? Most people seeing that would run a mile. Me and Adam included.'

  Conri looked at Adam, who looked at me and nodded.

  'Yep, you wouldn't catch me running into someone's spell. No way.'

  'But it felt like I was fighting the lightning,' I said, shaking my head.

  'I think you were fighting the opening veil. Maeve,' Conri said, staring at me.

  'What's behind the veil?'

  Adam and Conri looked at each other, but it was Adam who spoke up. 'It's a long story, but not one for us to tell. We need to get you to The Circle. They will tell you everything.’

  'The Circle? My gran mentioned that to me yesterday after she gave me this pendant,' I said, holding the now cold, purple pendant.

  'I thought she meant, like a knitting circle or something...' I trailed off.

  My crafty granny knew more than she was letting on. I had to see her before I saw anyone from this circle.

  'Cover for me. I'm going home. I need to see my gran.'

  'Here, I'll take you. It will be quicker, and safer,' Adam said.

  Conri agreed and said he'd watch the shop.

  I walked out of the visitor centre with Adam and looked back at the stone circle. It was all calm - as it should be.

  'Where have you parked?' I asked, looking in the empty car park.

  'Parked?' Adam said, grinning.

  I frowned at him, he wasn't making any sense. The hairs pricked on the back of my neck again, he was freaking me out.

  'Where do you live?' he asked me.

  I was getting that feeling again. The fight or flight. But this time I knew I could wield blue lightning. I didn't know how, but it made me feel better knowing I had that ability.

  Just in case.

  'Oh, it doesn't matter,' he said, when I didn't answer him, 'I'll find it.'

  'Now just you wait for one...' I stopped mid-sentence.

  Adam scooped me up in his arms. He was freezing cold. It didn't matter - he was so strong, I melted into him.

  He stared down at me with his dangerous black eyes, and my mouth went dry. I swallowed. His chest was hard and I wanted to rub my hand over it.

  Would his stomach be as taut?

  'Ready?' he asked.

  'Uh-huh,' I nodded.

  I didn't know what I was ready for, didn't care. As long as Adam had me tight in his arms like this, nothing mattered.

  I can't describe what happened next.

  It felt like we were travelling at great speed, but not moving. The wind rushed all around us, but my hair never moved. Time froze, but we'd been there for hours.

  Adam never took his eyes from mine - they burned into me - and then it stopped.

  'Is this your place?' he asked.

  I tore my eyes from his and looked to my left.

  How? My place was thirty minutes away from work, and that was by bus. But there it was, right in front of me.

  'How?' I asked, but shook my head.

  Tonight was weird enough, I really didn't need to know.

  'See you later,' Adam said and disappeared.

  Yeah, he actually disappeared. I'm not exaggerating.

  I opened the garden gate and walked along the path to the front door. As I took my key out to open the front door, gran yanked it open.

  'You did it! You sealed the veil!' she shrieked, jumping up and down.

  'Gran... I,'

  'No one has been able to seal that for twenty-five years, not since your mother died.'

  'Granny. Please.'

  'Come on, inside. Someone wants to talk to you.'

  I couldn't be bothered to argue. I was bone tired. So I submissively followed gran into the house.

  But what gran did next, surprised me, even after the night I just had.

  Instead of walking into the living room, where I assumed this person was waiting, she went into the kitchen and opened the pantry door.

  Now, normally the pantry has tinned food, boxes of cereal, toilet rolls and the like, stacked neatly on the shelves. But no, not today.

  Things just took an even weirder turn.

  Gran opened the door to reveal a woodland path. Yes, you heard me correctly. A woodland path - in the middle of our house - behind the pantry door - in the kitchen.

  Okay.

  'Come on,' gran said as if it was perfectly normal to step out of your kitchen and into the middle of a forest.

  I followed. What else could I do?

  A part of me thought I was dreaming. Maybe there had been an accident on my way to work. Maybe the bus had crashed, and I was actually in a coma in a hospital bed somewhere.

  It would be more logical than everything that had happened to me that evening.

  I stepped into the forest - the one in my gran's kitchen cupboard - and immediately noticed the change.

  It was cooler here on the forest floor. I could smell the damp earth, the wild garlic and the rotten leaves. I could hear the wind blowing the treetops high above and my gran's footsteps crunching the twigs ahead of me.

  What the bloody hell was going on?

  Confused, and a little scared, I followed gran through the trees.

  'We are here,' she announced, stopping at the foot of a giant oak tree.

  I looked around, 'Where?'

  As I spoke, a door appeared in the trunk of the ancient oak. Gran placed the palm of her hand on it and it creaked open. I followed her as she stepped in, ducking her head because the doorway was only about five feet tall.

  By this point, I was utterly convinced I was in a coma.

  I'd wake soon, in a pristine hospital bed with gran clutching my hand, praying, at my bedside.

  We stepped into a huge, grand room, the size of a theatre. Was this oak tree the Tardis?

  The walls, floor and ceiling were all oak, intricately carved with markings. They were the same as the markings on my pendant. Ogham, gran called it.

  There were strange lights every few feet. Carved oak hands stuck out of the walls, each pair of hands held a ball of green flames. They cast a wonderful green glow around the wooden hall.

  There were seven high backed oak chairs in the centre of the room set out in a semi-circle. Each chair had a purple velvet cushion on it.

  In the centre was a small circular platform. I guessed you stood on there to talk to whoever sat in those seven chairs.

  Gran ushered me onto the central platform and said, 'Wait here.'

  'Where are you going?' I hissed.

  She flap
ped her hand at me and disappeared behind a large oak pillar. What on earth was going on?

  I was about to get off the platform and go find gran, when a drum beat rang out, clear and loud, stopping me.

  It marked out a deep, steady beat, sending shivers down my spine. I was enthralled at the beautiful sound. Then chanting began, I couldn't understand the words, but it sounded religious.

  From the large pillar my gran disappeared behind, a line of people began appearing.

  They were dressed in white robes that went to the floor. The robes had no markings or adornments, only a golden-brown belt that went all around the robe, tied, and hung at the front in tassels almost to the floor.

  There were seven of them, slowly walking towards me in time to the heavy drum beat. Three were men and four were women. The ladies wore flowers in their hair.

  One was my gran!

  She was the fourth person in the line. She had a serious expression on her familiar face and looked ahead, chanting.

  They filed neatly in front of the chairs. They'd obviously done this a hundred times, it was so polished.

  The music stopped abruptly, and I let out a breath that I hadn't realised I'd been holding.

  From somewhere behind me a single long note rang out like someone had hit a brass bowl.

  'Please be seated,' a voice boomed from behind me. I turned to look and saw maybe twenty to thirty people standing facing the chairs. These people were also dressed in robes, but some were green, some purple, some dark red.

  'Maeve Pendle, you stand here today, in front of The Circle, as the last in the line of the great Celtic Druids.' It was a man speaking, I squinted to get a better look.

  'Mr Green?'

  I looked around. 'What the fuck is going on?' I asked, incredulously.

  Mr Green ran our local newsagents, I'd known him all my life.

  Gran spoke up. 'Hush now, Maeve. No swearing in the sacred place.'

  'Okay, I'm sorry.' I said holding my hands up and shaking my head.

  I heard mutters and stifled giggles behind me. It was pissing me off. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now.

  Maybe I should start throwing some of that blue lightning about. Maybe then someone would tell me what going on.

  'I wouldn't do that if I was you,' a voice rang out from one of the chairs. I snapped my head to the left to see who it was.