Talia scrambled to bring him a plate of food, and a cup of coffee. Herne accepted it with a soft Thank you, looking more solemn than I had seen him in a long while.
“Well, I had a talk with my mother and father. Also, Brighid was there. First, they thank you, Yutani, for the work you’ve done. Have you found out anything else?”
Yutani nodded. “Yes, actually. I was going to send the information through one of the portals to you. We have the full membership list. And I have a list of potential targets, although there’s no information on when they’re to be targeted.”
Herne’s eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. “That’s going to be of tremendous help. All right, we’ll take that with us when we head back to Annwn.”
“Us?” I asked.
Herne nodded. “Yes, us. That’s what I was about to tell you. We are all headed to Annwn tomorrow morning. Ember, Mother will have Serafina waiting for you.”
He gave me such a long look that I started to get nervous. The thought that we were all heading to Annwn was daunting enough. That meant something big was going down.
“Can you tell us anything more about the trip?” I said, trying to coax him without outright asking.
“Make arrangements for Mr. Rumblebutt, Ember, and your dogs, Talia and Viktor, to be taken care of. We may be there for several days to a week. Cancel anything you have going for the rest of this week. Bring whatever clothes you need—it’s full-on winter over there. And you need to bring something fit for an audience in front of the gods.”
“I’m going, too?” Angel asked.
“Yes, everyone in the agency. So, you’ll need to put any active cases on hold. Angel, make whatever calls you need to in order to inform current clients that we’ll be out of the office for the rest of the week. We may be back before then, but we want to give ourselves enough wiggle room just in case we aren’t.”
“Should I print off everything that I found?” Yutani asked. “I’m assuming our tech won’t work over there.”
“For the most part, you’re correct. Print off everything you found and make several copies. But do bring your phones and tablets. We have an interdimensional space in which we can use them. That’s how I can contact my mother by phone.” He paused for a moment, then added, “I’m sorry to be so vague. But I can’t tell you what this is about. Cernunnos explicitly forbade me to talk about it until we get there. We’ll leave tomorrow morning at eight a.m. I’ll pick you all up. I’ll text when I’m on my way. Pack wisely—and bring backpacks, not suitcases. All right, everyone take the afternoon off to get ready. Viktor, we’ll want to take some of our best weapons with us.”
After Herne dismissed us, it crossed my mind to try and weasel out information from him, but as I approached, he just gave me a shake of the head and pressed his lips together, and I knew that it was useless. He wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me on the forehead.
“I can’t tell you, love. Just go home with Angel and get ready.” But the look in his eyes was a worried one, and it set me on edge. I returned his kiss, then motioned to Angel.
“Come on. I have to call Ronnie so she can look after Mr. Rumblebutt.”
Ronnie Archwood was one of the Light Fae. She was the pet sitter for Talia’s dogs, my cat, and Viktor’s dog. She was also an outcast from Navane, and we got along fairly well.
“Okay, let me just make copies of everything we have on the Tuathan Brotherhood.” She headed back to her desk.
I returned to my office, putting in a call to Ronnie as I entered the room. She answered the phone with a laugh.
“I expected to hear from you. I just got off the phone with Talia. Yes, I can take care of Mr. Rumblebutt for the next few days. However long you need. And I assume Viktor’s going to want me to look after Anastasia?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. I know sometimes he leaves her with his girlfriend Sheila, but this is going to be a longer trip. So I’d expect a call from him any minute. I know it’s short notice, but can you start tomorrow morning?”
“I’ll be over around nine a.m. I’ll stop by Talia’s to walk her dogs first.”
Having taken care of Mr. Rumblebutt, I sorted through my office, trying to figure out what we might need. I printed out everything that Yutani had sent me on the Tuathan Brotherhood. We would probably have numerous duplicates of all information, but it was better to have too many copies rather than not enough.
Finally, I cleaned my desk, making sure everything was neat and tidy for our return. Something felt off. Herne had said there were things he couldn’t tell us, and while I didn’t like to seem paranoid, it felt like they were directly related to me. When I was finished in my office, I headed out front where Angel was finishing up packing a box of documents.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
She nodded. “I don’t mind telling you, I’m nervous. I’ve never been too far away from home, let alone traveling to another world. But it’s more than that.” She paused, then glanced around. “I’ll tell you on the way home.”
As we stacked up everything that we were going to take in the corner, I glanced around the office. For some reason, it felt like we were headed on a major quest, like we were heading out on the long road, like Frodo to Mordor. Only I prayed we wouldn’t be facing a foe like Sauron. And I prayed we would be home a whole lot sooner than it had taken Frodo to get back to the Shire.
Once we were in the car, I turned to Angel. “All right, what’s going on?”
“I’m worried about you,” she said bluntly. “I told you that I had a premonition while Herne was talking. You’re walking into something big, Ember. It’s huge and it’s scary and it’s dark and I’m terribly afraid for you.” She paused, then lowered her voice. “I’m afraid you’ll get killed.”
I kept my eyes on the road. “I wonder if this has to do with that recurring dream I’ve been having for weeks.”
In the dream, I was standing in a wide field as the stars twinkled overhead. As I stood there, a flaming arrow came soaring toward me and landed at my feet. I reached down to look at it, and saw that it was made of gold, and the fire clinging to it was magical—clear and pure and sacred. Then the sun began to rise behind the distant mountains, and as I looked up, I saw the dark silhouette of a man standing against the sky with a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. As I stood there, terrified, I looked down and saw that the arrow had turned into a sword, and I realized that I was going to be facing the man in battle.
“I think it does,” she said. “Could the man be Nuanda?”
I caught my breath and eased onto the graveled parking space that stretched the length of our property. We had room for up to six cars, which was helpful when everyone came over for a party. As I turned off the ignition and leaned back against the seat, I could feel something stirring in my blood.
“Yeah. It could be.”
As we stepped out of the car, Angel said, “I forgot to tell you, I’ve got the gift certificate for Joffrey.”
“Why don’t you take it over to him?” I was feeling almost dizzy. Angel’s premonition had stirred up my own fears.
As I headed inside, I felt a pull to go out into our garden. I opened the sliders and stepped onto the patio. The rain had eased up, and it was partially cloudy, a welcome change from the constant drizzle. Huddling against the chill, I sat on the bench nearest the roses, staring out over the second lot that was our garden. We planted a lot of perennials, though none of them were up yet. But the juniper bushes were still green, and the fir and cedar trees, of course, had kept their needles. The beds where we intended to plant vegetables were so much mud right now. Pawprints told me the neighbors’ cats had been wandering through. We didn’t mind, considering we kept Mr. Rumblebutt inside at all times. I wanted the neighbor cats to feel safe around my home.
As I sat there, three crows winged down to land near me on the ground. They were cawing loudly, and I looked up to see a raven circling overhead. Ravens and crows didn’t always get along, espec
ially when it was nesting season. I leaned down, my elbows propped on my knees, and looked at the crows.
“Is that raven bothering you?”
One of the crows let out a shriek. Then a bevy of them came flying in, chasing the raven away. They all settled into the yard, waiting. I realized that I hadn’t filled the birdfeeders in a week, and they were empty.
“Hold on. I’ll get your food.”
I headed back to the small shed that was offset on the back of the house. It was only big enough to hold a few things, like gardening implements and birdseed, but it did the trick for what we needed. I pulled out a bag of birdseed and trudged my way through the mud over to the birdfeeders, taking them down one by one and refilling them.
Not only did the crows come to feed, but we had several pairs of Steller’s jays that liked to hang out in our yard. And of course, we had grosbeaks and finches and a lot of the other birds around the Pacific Northwest. I had even seen a pileated woodpecker a few months back, though I hoped he would stay away. The last thing we needed were holes in the house. As I stowed the birdseed away, the crows fell silent, and I turned to find Angel behind me.
“Joffrey was ever so grateful. He asked if we needed any help with the house and I told him we were going to be away for a few days, so could he keep an eye on it. He was happy to help.”
“Good. I’ve never been so grateful to Herne for catching Ray as I am now. If he was still on the loose, I’d be afraid to leave. I would have to board Mr. Rumblebutt to make sure he was safe and hire someone to house sit.”
“What do you think Cernunnos did with Ray?” Angel asked as we headed back inside and I closed the sliders.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to know. I’m just grateful that he won’t ever bother me again.” I let out a sigh as I looked around. “I’m not really looking forward to this. Beyond your premonition, I just don’t feel like taking a trip. But I guess we don’t have a choice.”
“What kind of clothing should I pack? Is it perpetually warm over there?”
I shook my head. “No. Remember, Herne said it’s winter over there right now. Think snow and cold. I’d pack jeans and T-shirts and tunics that you can move in. In terms of fancy dress, for when we go before the gods, I usually just end up in my jeans and whatever I happen to be wearing, but it sounds like there’s going to be some dance or ball or maybe a formal dinner. I’d take the fanciest dress you have.”
She frowned. “You mean like something that I’d wear for a wedding?”
“No, I’d say more something you’d wear for a dance. It doesn’t have to be long, but it has to be nice.”
As we headed upstairs to pack, I tried to keep my mind off of Angel’s premonition. It wouldn’t do any good to dwell on something that I couldn’t change. But all the way through the afternoon, as we discussed outfits and function and form, in the back of my mind I played over Angel’s warning, and I mulled over the dream that I kept having. The two were linked, I knew it in the core of my being. But how they were linked, I wasn’t sure. And just what we were walking into was anybody’s guess.
Angel and I decided to make the evening a special one, given we were headed into what could very well be a shitstorm. She made clam chowder and biscuits for dinner, while I played with Mr. Rumblebutt. I called Joffrey and asked him if he could also pick up our mail for the next few days. I also made sure that Angel had told him the arsonist had been caught, so he shouldn’t worry about Ray coming back after him. I liked putting people’s minds at ease when I could. Next, I put in a call to Raven.
“We’re headed to Annwn for a few days. I’m not sure when we’ll be back, but I wanted to let you know.” After a beat, I added, “I think it’s a dangerous mission. If something happens, Ronnie Archwood is watching over Mr. Rumblebutt. I doubt if both Angel and I will…” I wasn’t sure how to say it, so I paused, running through the options in my head.
“It’s not likely that both you and Angel will be hurt, but on the off-chance you are, I’ll make sure Mr. Rumblebutt’s okay. I promise.” She forced a smile into her voice—I could tell—and said, “Whatever you’re facing, I hope you make it through with as few bumps and bruises as possible. Good luck.”
As I hung up, Angel called me to dinner. As we ate, I told her what Raven had said.
“In no way do I think that you’re in danger,” I said. “But it occurred to me that you can never tell what’s going to happen. If something happens to me, I know that you’ll take care of Mr. Rumblebutt. But if by some chance something happens to both of us, I don’t have a backup. Raven seems as good as any, and I know she takes good care of her ferrets and Raj.”
Angel nodded. “You know, I was thinking. I should make a will and grant custody of DJ over to Cooper, should anything happen to me. I’ll take care of it when we get back.”
After dinner—which was wonderful—we curled up on the sofa and caught up on several episodes of The Underhill Staff, a period drama that we had fallen into watching. It was in the same vein as Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey, only it was set in a Fae household, with shifters being the staff.
Finally, it was nearing midnight.
“I guess we can’t put off the inevitable. Let’s go to sleep.” I stood and stretched, then gathered up Mr. Rumblebutt to carry him upstairs.
“I’m actually looking forward to seeing Annwn,” Angel said. “But I’m nervous, because of the premonition I had. I wish we were going on a vacation instead.”
I let out a sigh, then gave her a reassuring smile. “Tell you what. When we get back—and let’s just assume we are coming back—we’ll go on a vacation to Annwn. Just for fun. I’ll ask Herne to take us to all the pretty sites there. How about that?”
Angel nodded. “Sounds good. I’m going to take you up on that. Okay, I’m going to check the doors and turn off all the lights. You go on up.”
As I ascended the stairs, holding Mr. Rumblebutt in the crook of my arm, I realized there was a knot in the pit of my stomach. It had been there ever since Herne had told us we were headed to Annwn. Yeah, something was waiting for us, all right. I just didn’t know what it was, and that was what made me the most uneasy.
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning, rain loomed as we waited for Herne to pick us up. Angel sent a text to Rafé, letting him know we were heading out.
“I’m going to miss him,” she said, sighing.
“You two are getting on pretty well.” I shaded my eyes to keep the wind from stinging them. It was chilly, but Herne asked us to be outside so we could just take off.
“We are, though I’m cautious. Rafé is wonderful, but he really doesn’t understand much about the human condition.” She paused, then pointed down the road. “That’s Herne, isn’t it?”
As Herne eased his Expedition into the drive, I saw that he had already picked up everybody else.
“I guess we’re last on the list, huh?” I joked as I slipped into the front passenger seat, which the others had left open for me.”
Viktor was in the second seat along with Talia, and Yutani was tucked away in the back with a bunch of gear. He jumped out, stowing our gear for us, and then held out his hand to Angel, helping her to scramble in next to him.
I leaned across to give Herne a quick kiss. “Morning.”
“Hey, gorgeous. Good morning.” He glanced over his shoulder. “All set back there?”
“We’re good to go,” Yutani said.
As we pulled away from the drive, I glanced at Herne. “Are we headed over to Quest Rialto’s?” She was the portal keeper I knew best.
Herne shook his head. “No, actually. There’s a portal that’s closer—we recently installed one that’s not far from my place. It’s on Culbertson…my father bought a house there. It’s at 1010 Culbertson Drive, just past Sherwood Road Northwest. There are two huge oaks on the land, and they made a perfect place to set up a portal. Gage, a bear shifter, is watching over it. I can park my car there for days and it will be all right
.”
Traffic was still heavy but we managed to reach Carkeek Park, where Herne’s house was, in about fifteen minutes. Another ten minutes through yet more heavy traffic and we reached Gage’s house. The house was nice, and I thought it made a great perk that portal keepers generally had free rent thrown in with the deal.
The area was heavily wooded and near to the Sound, and the breeze came in off the water, bringing the smell of brine and decaying kelp with it. I shivered as I opened the window and took a deep whiff. Those smells—seaweed and saltwater decay—always spelled home for me.
As we pulled into the driveway, a huge bear of a man walked over to the car. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell what kind of shifters people were, but in the case of bear shifters it was easier. Most of them were burly, or stout if they were women, and while they could be short, they tended to be tall. The men almost always wore thick beards, and the women were full-busted and full-figured.
Gage was at least six-four and he must have weighed close to three hundred pounds. He greeted us as we tumbled out of Herne’s car, gear in tow.
“Herne tells me you’re all his crew. Welcome, welcome friends.” Gage’s mood seemed jovial enough, but I had the distinct feeling he was watching us, sizing us up.
“Sure enough are,” Yutani said as he shouldered his pack.
Herne shook hands with the bear shifter and introduced us. “Gage, this is Talia, Ember, Angel…that’s Yutani, our computer whiz, and this is Viktor.”
“How do?” Gage shook each of our hands in turn. “You all be careful over there, you hear? I gather there’s an upswelling of sub-Fae crossing over here, and they have to get through somehow. Lord Cernunnos thinks there may be a natural portal in the area, so I’ve been tasked to look for it.”
“That means the traffic may be heavy on the other side, in Annwn, as well,” Herne said.
“Yeah, that’s the thought. I’ll keep your car safe. If you give me a key, I can drive it into my garage to protect it.” Gage held out his hand.
A Sacred Magic: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 9 Page 13