creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge

by Rachel Morgan

  “What?” Darius demands, quickly returning to his chair.

  “You’re kidding,” Ana says. “Surely that’s not possible.”

  “According to three separate visions, it is. Calla’s seen them all. Unfortunately, so has Angelica.”

  I suck in a breath. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. I don’t know how, but she knows. Perhaps someone with illusions or an invisibility gift was hiding in your mother’s room while she showed you the visions.” Chase removes the telepathy ring from his pocket and places it on the table in front of him. “I spoke to her just now. She told me she’d received word that the third Seer, the one who was rescued, had unknowingly revealed her vision. Angelica then said that if I still want to be part of her plan, I need to meet one of her minions at the Monument to the First Mer King tonight so I can help him steal it.”

  “I assume that’s a detail from the vision?” Lumethon asks.

  “Yes.”

  “So Angelica still trusts you,” Gaius says. “That’s good.”

  “Yes. So we need to get there first, make sure the monument is secure, then ask for an audience with the mer king so we can convince him that it would be in the best interests of the entire fae world that he order his monument destroyed.”

  “Great,” Darius says as he places his hands behind his head. “I love an easy Tuesday afternoon mission.”

  “You’re not going,” Chase tells him.

  “What?”

  “You and Lumethon are going to rescue the other two Seers. If Angelica and Amon think they have all the information they need now, then what reason do they have to keep the Seers alive? Since we don’t like to leave people to die, you two will be taking care of that.” He slides a map across the table to Darius. “I’ve confirmed that they’re in the lighthouse,” he says, tapping an area of the map before leaning back.

  Grumbling under his breath, Darius takes the map and shifts closer to Lumethon so they can examine it together.

  “Gaius, did you find out where the monument is?” Chase asks.

  “Yes. It’s at the mouth of the bottommost Wishbone River, where the fresh water joins the ocean current.” Gaius turns an open book around and pushes it toward Chase so he can see the illustration on the page. “It’s a system of parallel subterranean rivers, one on top of the other. Since the rivers are considered part of the merpeople’s territory, they’re inaccessible from the faerie paths. The only way to get to the bottom is to drop through the enchanted whirlpools from one river down to the next. The whirlpools form in different places in each river, but the idea seems to be fairly simple. You let the current carry you along until a whirlpool sucks you down. You land in the next river and repeat the process until you get to the bottom.”

  Silence greets Gaius’s explanation. Then Chase says, “Well, I can’t say I’ve ever traveled like that before, but I suppose it’s entirely normal for a merperson.”

  “Probably,” Gaius answers. “When you get to the bottommost river, you let it carry you along until the cave system ends. At that point you’re actually beneath the ocean floor.” Gaius points to a part of the illustration. “If you let the river carry you further, you’ll wind up in the ocean in mer kingdom. You don’t need to go that far, though. In the final cave is where you’ll find this monument. And there are warriors or guards or whatever they call themselves swimming around in this area, so you can speak to them about seeing the king.”

  “And how exactly do we get out?” Ana asks.

  “Ah, yes, I saw something about that.” Gaius pulls the book back around and pages through it. “Something about a portal …” He turns another page. “Yes, here it is. At the end of the final river, just before it goes into the sea, there’s this shallow bit on the right where these rocks are. A permanent whirlpool exists there which is actually a portal. You jump into it and wind up in the top river again, which is open to the air, so you can easily get out and open a doorway to the faerie paths.”

  “Sounds like fun,” I say, pulling the book closer so I can take another look at the drawings. The cave systems seem fairly large, so I don’t have to worry about confined spaces being a problem. And while the idea of being sucked into a whirlpool seems somewhat frightening, it can’t be too bad if merpeople do it all the time.

  “Kobe, Ana, Calla,” Chase says. “You can all swim, right?”

  The three of us nod.

  “Then let’s be on our way.” As the five of us stand and push chairs into place and help gather up books and maps, Chase lowers his voice so only I can hear. “I knew you’d stay.” His gaze is focused on the map he’s folding, but I can see his lips pulling up on one side.

  I remember Ryn asking me if it was the Guild I wanted so badly, or what the Guild represents. I smile to myself as I reply, “I think I did too.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-TWO

  We pick our way through tangled, overgrown bushes along the bank of the topmost Wishbone River as the sun moves closer to the horizon. “Your team is … interesting,” I say to Chase, keeping my voice low so Ana and Kobe, walking a little way behind us, won’t hear.

  “It’s your team now too,” Chase says. “Unless you’ve changed your mind. You haven’t gone through the initiation blood ritual, so technically you’re not bound to us yet.”

  My steps slow as I frown up at him. “Blood ritual?”

  His straight face breaks into a grin. “I’m kidding.”

  “Darn.” I manage to keep myself from cracking a smile. “Here I was looking forward to spilling my blood as a way of demonstrating my commitment.”

  “If that’s how you’d like to prove your commitment, I have no doubt you’ll soon get the chance.” His expression turns serious and his eyes find mine as we stop walking. “This isn’t exactly a safe game we’re playing.”

  “It never is when people’s lives are at stake.”

  He looks out across the water. “This is a dangerous life you’ve chosen, Calla.”

  I place my hands on my hips, ready to do battle with him if he goes anywhere near overprotective territory the way Ryn does. “So is the life of a guardian, and I was happy to choose that one. I’ve never wanted to walk the safe path.”

  “I know. I’d never dream of telling you that you can’t choose this life because it’s too dangerous. Your choices are your own. I just wanted to remind you to be careful. There are people who would be shattered if anything happened to you.”

  “Chase.” I place my hand on his arm so he’ll look at me. So he’ll know how serious I am. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, so let me be the one to tell you. There are people who would be shattered if anything happened to you. We both need to be careful.”

  It looks like he wants to say something, but Ana and Kobe have caught up to us now. “Is this where we get in?” Kobe asks.

  I remove my hand from Chase’s arm, glad that I managed to refrain from spontaneously emitting magic that might have knocked down a tree or set his clothes on fire or sent a wave of river water splashing over us. That would have been awkward to explain. I rub my hand across the back of my neck as Chase says, “Yes. That boulder is the marker.” He points behind us to a smooth, oval rock with markings on it sticking up from between the bushes. “The whirlpools appear from here onwards.”

  We skid down the muddy part of the bank and into the water, which is cold enough to raise a shiver across my skin. There are numerous spells I could use right now—waterproof clothing, warming up the water around me, a bubble of air around my entire body—but I’d rather conserve my energy. This is only the start of our mission, after all.

  We wade out to where it’s no longer shallow enough to stand and let the current pull us along. “So now we just wait for a whirlpool to appear and suck us down?” Ana asks.

  “That’s the plan,” Chase says.

  “What if it doesn’t happen?” I ask. “Is there a waterfall at some point along this river before it meets the ocean?”

  �
�Yes, but the diagrams showed numerous whirlpools appearing before then.”

  “What if these whirlpools only appear for merpeople?” Ana says. “We’ll only find out when we reach the waterfall. I don’t have the kind of magic you have, and I don’t particularly want to wind up crushed on the rocks at the bottom of a waterfall.”

  “Ana,” Chase says. “Have I ever let you fall down a waterfall before?”

  “Well, no, but I’ve never—”

  “Exactly. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “Women,” Kobe mutters. “Always worrying.”

  Ana pulls herself sideways through the water until she’s close enough to Kobe to punch his arm.

  I start thinking about what magic I’m going to use if we do wind up at the edge of a waterfall, but I’ve barely come up with a plan when I suddenly feel myself tugged sideways by the water.

  “This is it!” Chase shouts.

  “Oh crap, oh crap,” I gasp as we’re tugged violently into the swirling current of the whirlpool and I become abruptly aware of what a bad idea this is.

  “Stop, stop, stop!” Ana shrieks. “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

  “Just go with it,” Chase yells.

  The whirlpool forms quickly, creating a hole at its center larger than I’d imagined. I fight the panicked urge to magically launch myself out of the water and instead let it pull me down into the vortex. I spin around and around and down, completely out of control, the current terrifyingly strong, my claustrophobia screaming at me that I’m being sucked into a hole with no air, and then—

  I’m falling.

  A second later, I plunge into a river colder than the one I just left. I pull upward amidst the rush of bubbles, again and again, until my head finally breaks the surface of the water. I suck in air along with intense relief. I don’t know why I didn’t consider how terrifying that would be before it actually began, but it’s probably a good thing I didn’t.

  I swim toward Chase and Kobe just as Ana surfaces. I look around as I go, taking in the beauty of the vast underground cave this river flows through. The ceiling and walls are covered in specks of purple light, filling the area with a purple glow. The rock itself is dark, and I can almost imagine I’m looking up at a night sky.

  “That was awful,” Ana says after several gasps of air. Her short dark hair, normally sticking out in all directions, is flat around her face. “How many more do we have to do before we get to the bottom?”

  That’s exactly what I was trying not to think about.

  “Four more,” Chase says as the current pulls us gently along. “But was it really that bad?”

  “It was rather terrifying,” I admit, mainly so that Ana doesn’t think she’s the only one who was afraid. Based on the few interactions we’ve had, she doesn’t seem to like me all that much. Since we’re going to be seeing far more of each other now, I’d like to change that.

  “Sorry, but I don’t think you can leave without first going all the way to the bottom,” Chase says.

  “I don’t want to leave,” Ana says. “I committed myself to this mission. I’m just warning you that I’ll probably scream going down every single w—Oookay, here we go again.”

  With no warning, the gentle current suddenly sweeps around into a spinning circle, taking us with it. Even though I tell myself repeatedly that this isn’t going to kill me, it’s still terrifying being sucked around and around in an ever decreasing circle until the sudden drop comes. The cave we fall into this time is green. There are no specks of light, but a green shimmer in the cave walls reflects off the water. It’s also warmer than the first two, for which I’m grateful. Kobe and Ana surface further ahead. Chase and I join the current behind them, floating on our backs and staring up at the shimmering walls as the water pulls us along feet-first.

  “Anyone want to take a bet on what the color of the next river will be?” Chase calls out.

  “Can we just bet that we all make it to the bottom alive?” Ana’s answering shout comes.

  “So that’s a no?” Chase asks.

  “Nooooononono!” Ana squeals, which most likely means another whirlpool has begun. I don’t feel any pull in the water yet, though. I lower my legs and body below the surface so I can look ahead.

  “Come on,” Chase says to me, pulling at the water with strong strokes. “Don’t want to miss the ride down, do you?”

  Ana and Kobe vanish into the vortex as Chase and I swim toward it. The swirling current catches us—and then the water slows and the hole closes up and within seconds, the sloshing water becomes a gentle current once more. “Shoot,” I murmur. “That didn’t just happen.”

  “It’s okay. There’ll be another one,” Chase says. “We’ll just keep going.”

  We continue floating downstream, the current a little faster now than it was before. Chase is watching the ceiling pass by again, but I’ve got my eyes fixed firmly ahead this time. It looks to me as though the cave ends abruptly up ahead, but that can’t be right. I squint through the green glow and realize the cave doesn’t end—but it does become extremely narrow, forcing the river to flow through three gaps that are little more than cracks in the stone wall.

  “Oh no.” I start pushing against the current. “No no no. I’m not going through there.” I can handle the whirlpools because they’re over so quickly that I barely have time to panic, but not this. Not these dark slits in the wall.

  Chase floats past me as I turn myself around. “Hey, it’s fine,” he says. “Gaius checked the entire route. He said there’s no part of any river that’s too narrow to get through.”

  “Not happening.” I begin swimming in the other direction, pulling at the water with as much strength as I have.

  “Calla, there’s nowhere else for you to go,” Chase says from somewhere behind me.

  “I don’t care. I can’t do that.” My voice sounds just the tiniest bit panicked as I struggle against the current.

  “What do you mean you can’t …” He trails off as I continue pawing at the water and getting nowhere. “Are you kidding?” he asks. “Claustrophobia? That’s your issue?”

  “Yes! And I’m not going—”

  “Just relax and float.”

  “I can’t relax!” Wait, I can use magic. Add strength to my strokes—swim all the back to where we fell in—wait for the next—

  “Stop,” Chase says, pulling himself closer to me and catching hold of my arm. “Just float, okay?”

  “I can’t just—”

  He grips both my hands. “Why don’t you float backwards, and that way you don’t have to see—”

  “No!” I don’t know why, but it’ll be even worse if I can’t see where I’m going.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll go backwards and you just look at me, not the walls.”

  I shake my head furiously as I watch the river narrowing and the three gaps coming closer. We’re heading for the middle and there’s no way we can stop now.

  “Hey, you never told me about Vi and Ryn’s baby.”

  “What? That’s … so not …” The horrible slit in the wall comes closer and closer.

  “Is it a girl or a boy?”

  “Um … a girl.”

  “Hey, look at me,” Chase instructs. “What’s her name?”

  “Victoria.” The name comes out in a rush of air as the water sweeps us into the gap. I force myself to look at Chase, but the shimmering green walls are right there. “We’re gonna be squashed, we’re gonna be squashed, we’re gonna be squaaaaashed!” My voice rises into a squeal and I shut my eyes tightly as the current increases. We shoot into the air and lose hold of each other’s hands. I open my eyes in time to see the continuation of the green river before I plunge beneath its surface.

  I fight my way through the bubbles until I find air and an enormous cave and space, space, space. “I made it,” I gasp as I pull myself away from the three waterfalls. “I’m not squashed. I’m not crushed. Oh, space is so amazing.” I look around and find Chase nearby.
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  “So let me get this straight,” he says as I swim toward him, his voice only just audible above the thundering water behind me. “You have the most powerful imagination of anyone I’ve ever met, but you can’t imagine your way out of a small space?”

  “It … just … doesn’t work that way.” This part of the river seems to barely be moving, so without a current to carry us, we continue swimming away from the falls.

  “But all you have to do is picture it, right?” Chase says. “Then that’s what you’ll see.”

  “Not when I’m freaking out! I can’t focus when I’m panicking.”

  “Then you have to decide not to panic.”

  “It’s not that simple. You don’t know what it’s—”

  Water erupts between us, throwing us into the midst of two separate whirlpools. “See you in the next river,” Chase shouts as I feel myself tugged irresistibly into the vortex. This one becomes wider and deeper than the others, flinging me around until I can barely breathe before finally dropping me into the next river. I’m so disoriented I don’t know which way is up. As I run out of air, I try to form a bubble over my nose and mouth. Then I sense myself slowing rising, so I direct my hands behind me instead. With a spurt of power, I shoot up to the surface.

  Delicious air fills my lungs as I tread water and look around. I’m in a red cave with a smooth wall on one side and a collection of rocks on the other. Red light seems to come from somewhere beneath me. The riverbed, probably. I turn in the water, looking for Chase, but I don’t see him. I don’t see Kobe or Ana either, which I assume means the next whirlpool has already taken them.

  “Chase?” The current wants to pull me away, but I’m not going anywhere without him. I kick against the water until I reach the rocky side of the river so I have something to hang onto. “Chase!” I call again. He should have come up by now. Trying to beat down my panic, I slap the water with my palms and yell, “Where are you?”

  “Hey, calm down, I’m over here.” I twist around and see him dripping wet and climbing over one of the rocks beside the water. “Sorry, I got washed under here after I fell through and it took me a while to navigate my way out.” He climbs back into the water and swims toward me. “You weren’t seriously panicking about being all alone down here, were you?”