by Linsey Hall
What am I supposed to do?!
There was no way out. Just a world of fiery death.
I sucked in a deep breath and stiffened my spine. My knees were about to go out from under me, so it was no easy task, but I managed. The air in my lungs was so hot, I almost couldn’t bear it.
We had to get out of here. I had to get my cats out of here. They were hissing, and pissed as hell. Even Bojangles was paying attention to his surroundings.
The heat was so bad that it felt like it reached inside me, burning muscle and bone. It was one with me, so ferocious that it filled me up, making me feel like the fire itself.
My collarbones burned, my shoulders lighting up with pain. The area around my lower neck hurt the worst by far. Then it didn’t.
The torc?
Use it, a voice whispered. The flame is yours.
I jerked. Whoa.
Was this magic mine?
Could it be?
Through the horrible pain, I tried to focus on the fire. Tried to feel for a core of magic that I could manipulate and use. If I wanted to get out of this, I would have to bend this flame to my will.
The fire danced around me at first, alighting on me only to cause pain. I sucked in a deep breath and focused. It wasn’t hard to imagine why I wanted to use this magic. I really didn’t want to burn to death.
Finally, I caught the tail end of it. The fire that had begun to flicker within my belly was mine. I commanded it, driving it away. Visions of the flame sweeping away from me flashed in my mind, and the fire obeyed. It rushed backward, leaving me and the cats standing and panting. The pain faded.
Took you long enough.
I looked at Muffin.
His annoyed green eyes met mine. Almost singed my new wings. He fluttered the little things.
Princess Snowflake III just hissed at me, clearly having forgotten that I’d just saved her life. Ah, well, I was more comfortable with her ire anyway.
Bojangles had somehow managed to capture a little ball of flame and was now playing with it. The glow of fire lit up his eyes as he tossed it back and forth between his paws.
I left him to it and stepped forward, determined to get these trials over with. I was still a ghost, so there was clearly more to go through.
The round house had burned down, revealing the silver trees that filled the sacred grove. It was so calm and pretty that when a massive wind rushed through and picked me up, it took half a second to process what was happening.
By then, the wind had swept me up above the trees. Far below, the cats stared up at me, shock on their little faces.
Hang on! I’m coming! Muffin leapt off the ground, his little wings carrying him slowly up toward me. He huffed and puffed to get higher, and in the meantime, the wind tossed me around like a rag doll, dropping me and picking me back up again. My heart leapt into my throat and my extremities went numb. I nearly slammed into the trees twice, and I knew without a doubt that if I did, I’d be dead.
Trial failed, body gone.
Forever.
Muffin huffed his way to me, flying slightly above me and grabbing the back of my jacket with his claws. I could almost hear his little wings fluttering frantically.
Got you!
I dipped again on a current, not quite as quickly as before. Muffin was buying me some time and a bit of stability, but the little cat couldn’t carry someone as big as me.
The wind tossed us around as Muffin tried to keep me aloft.
You better think of something quick! You weigh as much as a prize tuna!
“Always with the tuna.”
Always.
I sucked in a deep breath and focused on the wind that tossed me around. If this was anything like the fire, it could be part of me. I could control it.
The wind itself was cold and sharp, a contrast to the flame that would have melted me like an old tire if I’d had a body. It flowed around me, even through me, in my transparent form.
I grabbed onto it, feeling it like a physical thing in my hands. It was more than just particles of oxygen and nitrogen, it was mine.
Magic flowed through me, starting at my torc, and the wind began to obey my commands. It stopped tossing me around, and instead, it allowed me to slowly lower myself to the ground.
I was nearly there when the wind disappeared entirely, and I splashed into water. The liquid closed around me, cold and wet. Shock lanced me as I kicked for the surface. I broke through, struggling and spitting.
Desperate, I sucked in a lungful of air and kicked, trying to keep my head above water. The cats were nowhere to be seen, and I prayed they weren’t part of this trial.
A huge wave crashed down over me, pushing me deeper into this new sea. The water thrashed around me, pushing me deeper and deeper.
It was cold and dark all around, threatening to crush me in the darkness. My lungs burned and my mind screamed.
Trapped.
I struggled for the surface but made no progress. Panic threatened to overwhelm me, dragging me down into a pit of despair.
I fought it with everything I had.
And then I didn’t.
Maybe I shouldn’t fight it. It wasn’t doing me any good or getting me anywhere. Maybe the water was part of me.
On instinct, I opened my mouth and sucked in. Water flowed into my mouth, my lungs. But it didn’t hurt.
Far from it.
Strength and energy filled me. The water around me became a friend. Or at least something that wasn’t out to hurt me.
I kicked upward, easily finding my way to the surface. My head broke through, and I sucked in air, then commanded the water to disappear.
It did, dropping me into the dirt.
The cats appeared around me.
Muffin gave me an unimpressed look. You look rough. You see any tuna?
“No tuna. And I feel rough. But apparently I’m a mermaid.” Or the closest thing to it.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Something soft hit me on the head. I looked up. A dark splotch in the air was headed right for me. A millisecond later, a clod of dirt hit me in the face.
Sputtering, I backed up, shaking the dirt away. More began to fall, hitting the top of my head and piling around me. Bojangles chased it, but the other cats hissed, trying to avoid the dirt.
You better do something about this!
It was already up around my waist. Shit.
More fell, faster and faster. It would bury me alive, and somehow I knew that there was no way I’d be able to breathe in dirt.
Forever.
No thanks.
I sucked in a deep breath and called upon my magic. My neck burned, right where the torc had absorbed into me. A moment later, I swore I could feel the dirt around me. Like it was an extension of me.
I commanded it to stop, visualizing the sky becoming clear again. Magic flowed through me, out into the world, wrapping around the dirt and commanding it to halt.
A moment later, the sky cleared. No more dirt.
Next to me, Muffin was buried up to his neck. So were Princess Snowflake III and Bojangles. They must have had to scramble to stay above the dirt as it fell.
They looked at me, clearly annoyed.
About time.
I scrambled out of the dirt pile that had formed around me, reaching down and pulling out the cats one by one. Snowflake was the biggest mess, her white fur a total disaster. She hissed at me.
“Sorry, sorry.”
I turned to figure out what the hell would come next, and I spotted Lachlan. The dirt had disappeared, and so had the sacred grove. He stood at the edge of the river where I’d left him. The land around him was torn up, as if he’d been battling centipedes for hours, their thrashing limbs tearing up the grass and dirt.
But there were no more monsters, and he looked fine.
Shock and relief flashed across his face. I felt the same, deep in my bones.
“Thank fates,” he said.
My boat pressed up against the shor
e, and he tugged me into his arms, hugging me tight.
I startled.
Hugging me.
I had a body again.
I whooped and hugged him back, gratitude flowing through me.
Lachlan pulled back and looked at me, his dark eyes concerned. “Are you all right?”
“Definitely. It was a bit touch-and-go for a moment there, but I’m doing good now. I got my powers. Or at least, some of them.”
He grinned, and kissed me hard and fast. “Well done.”
“But how are you? How many centipede monsters were there?”
“Couple dozen. They were meant to stop you.”
“But you stopped them. Thank you.”
“Any time.” He pressed another kiss, this one to to my forehead.
“We need to get back to the Protectorate. I’ve got info we need to hunt down. I know where we need to go next.”
He kissed me on the forehead. “I can only imagine that it will be dangerous.”
“Oh, you’re imagining right.”
It wasn’t hard to get back to the Protectorate. As if Otherworld had realized that I’d accomplished my goal already, it had spit us out pretty much immediately, and we found ourselves standing on the lawn in front of the castle. One second we were in Otherworld, the next, we were in Scotland.
The sun was dipping behind the horizon and the night air growing chilly. I’d lost all track of time in Otherworld, but it was evening here.
Immediately, I pressed my fingertips to my comms charm. “Bree? Rowan? Where are you?”
Bree’s voice filtered through. “We’re at the Whisky and Warlock. Jude’s here too. Most people, really.”
“We’ll be right there.” My stomach rumbled as loud as a truck, no doubt at the thought of the meat pie that the pub served. I was famished.
“Dinner time?” Lachlan asked.
“Is it ever. Let’s go eat and talk.”
We made our way quickly through the enchanted forest, passing by the gnarled old trees and the fairy lights to find the portal that would take us to Edinburgh. I let the portal suck me through the ether and spit me out in the alley in the Grassmarket. The sound of revelry echoed from the main street.
Lachlan and I pushed through the crowd, which seemed to be celebrating some kind of sports victory, if the matching outfits were any indication, and made our way into the Whisky and Warlock.
I turned left, entering the room that was usually full of Protectorate members. The fire burned merrily in the hearth, and Sophie wiped down the bar, a big grin on her face. The smell of food and beer made my stomach grumble, while the scent of woodsmoke made me want to sink down in a chair in front of the fire and never get up. Apparently, my trials in the Otherworld had given me a powerful need for a nap.
“Ana!” Rowan’s voice cut through the crowd.
I turned, catching sight of her by the bar with Bree. I hurried toward them. They threw their arms around me in a big hug. Before I’d even pulled away, I blurted, “I found our mother.”
Rowan pulled back and gasped. “What?”
Shock flashed on Bree’s face. “Where? Otherworld?”
“Yep. She lives there now. It’s her afterworld.”
“Oh my gosh.” Tears sprang to Bree’s eyes.
“You can take us to see her?” Rowan asked.
I grinned, happier than I’d ever been in all my life. “Yep.”
“Wow. I just…” Bree shook her head. “I can’t believe it.”
“This is amazing.” Happiness glowed from Rowan.
“Ana!” Jude’s voice echoed across the bar.
I turned, catching sight of her at a table by the mullioned windows. She sat with Caro, Ali, and Haris. Hedy sat at the end, along with Jessie Ammons, head of the Demon Trackers Unit.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We’ll catch up more about mom later.”
“Definitely,” Bree said.
We headed toward them and gratefully took the seat that offered. Lachlan sat next to me, and my sisters squeezed in at the end.
“You look like you could use some chow,” Ali said.
“Definitely.”
He stood. “You hang out. I’ll get you something. Meat pie or fish and chips?”
“Pie.”
Lachlan nodded his agreement.
“And water,” I added. “No time to celebrate yet. I’ll save the champagne for when we finish this.”
Jude’s eyes searched mine. “So you’ve found something? What’s going on in Otherworld?”
“It’s more than we realized,” I said. As quickly as I could, I explained the issue with The Three invading Otherworld in search of an army.
“So they’re the same people you fought last week and that Lachlan has been hunting?” Jude sat back and rubbed a weary hand over her face. “I don’t like the coincidence.”
“Dangerous,” Jessie rumbled.
I rarely heard the big blond man speak, and it sounded like he could eat glass.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Hedy said. “We definitely shouldn’t assume that it is.”
Ali delivered our food and water at that moment, apparently having sweet-talked Sophie into getting it quickly. I chowed down, trying not to eat like a ravenous bear. But it was so danged good. I was also starving, so that probably had something to do with it.
“So you need to go to the land of the Fomori?” Caro looked at me with wide eyes and whistled. “Dangerous.”
I swallowed the last bite of pie. “Jealous?”
“A bit.” She grinned. “I’d love to see it.”
“Unfortunately, you won’t,” Jude said. “It’s nearly impossible to get there, and we can only send two at most.”
“Lachlan and I will do it.” I didn’t know if Jude had already been considering that, but I wanted in on this mission no matter what. “I gained the rest of my powers in Otherworld, so I’m qualified. And I want to see this through. This is all linked to me somehow. I know it.”
Jude nodded. “I agree. It’s no coincidence. And this isn’t finished yet. The druids said they needed the two of you.” She pointed between Lachlan and me. “The Fomori are Celtic demons. It’s all linked, and you’re part of it.”
“How do we get there?” I asked. “Boudica mentioned that the Protectorate would know.”
“We do, and it was difficult to get the info. But we have a contact who can get you in, though it won’t be easy. The realm of the Fomori is in the Atlantic Ocean.”
“In? Like, under?” I asked.
“The closest thing to Atlantis,” Lachlan said. “But full of demons. There’s a bubble around it, so you won’t need gills.”
“So we’d be trapped underwater with a bunch of demons, unable to escape if we got separated from our ride,” I said.
“Pretty much.” Jude nodded. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”
“Not a problem.” I sipped my water. “How do we get in?”
“There are two entrances that we know of. One in Dublin, through the river Liffey, and another through New York.”
“New York?” Lachlan asked. “That’s far from Celtic turf.”
“Lots of Irish moved to New York. And Celtic culture has never been about place,” Jude said.
“Fair point.” Lachlan nodded.
“We’re going to have to get in touch with our contact,” Jude said. “It’s not always easy to find him. Once we do, you’ll go and meet him. He’ll get you in, but he won’t go past the gate. When you’re in the realm of the Fomori, you’ll seek out our undercover man.”
“Jonnie.” Ali grinned. “I wonder how the bastard is doing?”
“Probably smells like fish by now,” Haris said.
“Who is Jonnie?” I asked.
“He works with my unit,” Jessie said. “A demon tracker. He’s been undercover in the realm of the Fomori for six months now.”
“So, before we showed up here,” Bree said.
“Exactly. The Fomori shouldn’t be leav
ing their realm and coming to earth. But they are, in too many numbers. Jonnie is there trying to figure out why and how.”
“And he’ll help us find out who The Three are looking for?” Lachlan asked.
“He’ll try,” Jude said. “In the meantime, get a bit of rest. We’ll find out where Shen is—that’s our contact in New York—then you’ll head there immediately.”
“I’ll go to help,” Bree said.
“Me too,” Rowan added.
“Sorry.” Jude shook her head. “Like I said, Shen can only take two at a time. It’s not an easy journey.”
Bree and Rowan scowled but nodded.
I smiled my thanks at them, wishing they could come. I’d been spending more time away from them lately, and our favorite thing to do together was kick ass and take names. But given the threat that The Three posed, we’d probably have a chance to do that sooner rather than later.
10
Because Jude needed some time to locate Shen, we had a few hours to sleep. My feet dragged up the stairs toward my tower apartment, but my skin prickled with awareness. Lachlan walked behind me. There wasn’t enough time for him to go back to his place and get rest, so it’d been the most obvious thing to invite him back to my place.
As soon as I walked in, I went to the bathroom to check out my new tattoo in the mirror. I tugged aside my shirt collar and peered at it. The markings were much fainter than the ones around my arms, a pale gold that shimmered in the light.
Swirls of gold danced over my collarbones, and if I squinted, it looked like a dragon.
“Cool.” I spared one look for my face and winced.
Yeah, I needed a nap. I looked as ragged as a superstore employee after Black Friday. I’d never personally attended a Black Friday sale, what with living in the desert and being broke, but I’d heard stories. It sounded more exhausting than driving across Death Valley.
“Help yourself to anything!” I shouted out to Lachlan, belatedly realizing that I’d just ditched him. “I’m going catch a shower.”
“Aye.” His voice filtered through the door.
Quickly, I scrubbed up, then changed into PJs and went down the stairs toward the kitchen. Lachlan handed me a warm mug.
I smiled. “What is this?”