Shadow's Curse

by Alexa Egan

  Or perhaps, a small voice whispered, he cares more than you know and this is his final sacrifice.

  She stiffened, lips pressed tight, a knot choking off her breath, the broad, windswept hills and dark mysterious lakes blurred as her eyes burned with unshed tears. She wiped a hand across her cheeks and stared hard at the wide silver sky, where clouds spread and broke and spread again. A bird rode the drafts, its wings outstretched. As she watched, it dove close to earth and she saw it was a crow, black and sleek as a missile.

  Badb? One of her sisters?

  She shielded her eyes. “You’re one of the true Fey,” she whispered. “You must know how to help him. If a curse can be cast, then a curse can be broken.”

  The crow soared high, beating its wings before dropping like a stone toward the trees. Death. Death. Death.

  The word filled Callista’s head and broke against her heart. The sun slid behind a cloud, and she dragged her shawl close around her shoulders.

  “I’ll warn you now, divine intervention can bring unwanted consequences.” Lord Duncallan had awakened. He sat across from her, his hand gripping his cane, his eyes bleak. “And Badb is clever and cunning. Causing trouble is one of her few real pleasures.”

  “I ask again and again, but I only ever receive the same answer.”

  “I assume by your glum expression that it’s not the answer you want.”

  “David can’t die. He’s so strong, so full of life. He’s like a human lightning bolt, all fire and energy. How can he just . . . not be?”

  “Death takes us all in the end.”

  “Don’t preach to me of death. I know the place intimately. I’ve trod its paths and seen the flickering shades of countless men as vital as David, but I refuse to let him just give up without a fight.”

  “Is it your decision to make?”

  His words stung, and she turned back to the window to watch the passing country. If David wasn’t hers to lose in the first place, then why was she fighting so hard to keep him alive?

  The sting became a hollow feeling that dropped into her stomach and tightened her throat. The answer was simple. Because she didn’t want to look up at the moon one day from within the cold stone walls of Dunsgathaic and know that he was gone forever. That she had missed her chance to have a life with him. As long as David lived, so, too, lived her hope.

  The coach crested a hill. The sky seemed to stretch forever before disappearing into a gray horizon. The crow had vanished and the clouds moved slowly east, darkening the long, winding lake below.

  Somewhere up ahead lay Dunsgathaic, a seat of Other power, a source of Other wisdom. She blinked, heart turning over in her chest, lip caught between her teeth in sudden inspiration. Other wisdom . . . Other power . . .

  If an Other cast the spell on David, could an Other possibly . . . maybe . . . perhaps . . . conceivably lift it?

  Her stomach knotted with excitement.

  Perhaps it wasn’t death that awaited David on Skye . . . but life.

  “Lord Duncallan, we have to turn around.”

  * * *

  “Was violence necessary?” Gray leaned, arms folded, against the doorframe to David’s bedchamber, his eyes hard as steel.

  David shrugged. “I don’t know if it was necessary, but the bastard deserved it.”

  “And what of our bid to win hearts and change minds?”

  “Do you really think if I’d treated him with kindness and dignity that the slimy, worm-ridden sack of shit would suddenly change his opinion and love and trust a demon shifter? There are some people you can’t win over, Gray. Not with all your pretty words of alliance and common cause. They hate you because you’re not them. The end.” David’s rage turned in his chest like a blade, his mind aflame.

  Gray pushed off the doorway, coming into the room, and eyed the maps spread out on a nearby desk. “Where are you going?”

  “Where do you think?”

  “Duncallan can take care of Miss Hawthorne. No harm will come to her.”

  “You’re right about that. I’ll be there to make sure of it.”

  “And if Corey’s men are as thick and as close as we suspect? You’ll never win through to Skye undetected.”

  “They’re looking for the man on that broadsheet.” David jerked his head at the wrinkled piece of parchment on the bed. The wolf scented blood and the thrill of the hunt. Fangs extended, skin prickled and burned, and his heart drummed in his ears, but this time it was in anticipation of the shift. “I’ll win my way through.”

  “And what then? What of your vision of her slaying and your death? Can you dismiss that so easily?”

  Always reasonable. Always cool, calm, and collected. Gray was bloodless. Heartless. As remote as his godforsaken castle.

  “Do you think this is easy?” David seethed. “What awaits me chills me to the bone, but doing nothing is a hundred times worse.” He looked to the window where twilight bleached the color from the far hills and transformed the trees to black shifting shapes against the gray sky. But above, the Mother hung fat and golden in the sky, her light spilling through the curtains to bathe him in her power. It was Silmith, the night of the full moon, and there would be no greater time to face Corey than when the wolf ran strongest. “Callista is my responsibility.”

  “Liability, more like. She makes you vulnerable, David. She sidetracks you from your ultimate duty, which is to the clans.”

  “Fuck the damn clans!” David wheeled on Gray. “Ever since Charleroi, ever since Beskin took his red-hot iron to my back and ripped my very mind apart with his weapons, I’ve been devoured by hate and rage and bitterness. Then I met Callista.” He tried dragging in a breath, but it was as if steel bands clamped his chest. His hands shook. “I won’t go back to that, Gray. Not for you or the clans. If you want me after, I’m yours. But I have to see her safe within Dunsgathaic first. A week is all I need.”

  “You don’t have a week. You’ll need to dose yourself again or suffer for it before long.”

  David closed his hands around the scars on his palm. As always, Gray was right. The first stirrings of illness tightened David’s muscles, and the lick of blue and silver flames hovered at the edges of his sight. The curse strengthened as the medicine ebbed from his weakened system. “The draught must wait. Callista cannot.”

  “And what of your promise? You swore that if I did as you asked and sent her away, you would follow my orders.”

  “I made a promise to her as well.”

  “No, you lied to get what you wanted, which is all you’ve ever done, David. But no longer. You’re mine. I’ll send Lucan if that will ease your worry, but you stay here. I need you, Captain.”

  David closed his eyes in silent apology before spinning on his heel, his fist catching Gray clean on the jaw with enough power behind the blow to crush a normal human’s skull. Caught off guard, Gray reeled backward, unable to stop the second punch that dropped him to the floor unconscious.

  David dragged his friend into a chair and poured him a whisky for the pain that would come when he woke.

  “Sorry, Major. You know I never took orders well.”

  18

  The inn consisted of one large drafty room downstairs and a few damp chambers above, while their grizzled, one-armed landlord MacDonald more closely resembled a sheep-stealing reaver than a jolly innkeeper, but the place was relatively dry and comparatively warm, attributes that couldn’t be overlooked as the weather turned foul and the roads vanished beneath an icy layer of white.

  Callista could only stare out the window in disbelief, nerves jumping with impatience. Snow in June? Really?

  “And here I thought Wales in January was frigid,” Lady Duncallan said, dragging her cloak around her shoulders and scooting her chair closer to the fire. “Scotland in June is ten times worse.”

  “Do you suppose the roads will be clear by tomorrow?” Callista asked, peering through the swirl of snow beyond the glass.

  “This is just a wee dusting, miss.” If Mac
Donald had been intimidating in a loud vulgar way, his wife’s honeyed smiles and flattering words were downright frightening. A gaunt, beak-nosed woman with a shock of white hair beneath a dirty mobcap, she smiled broadly enough to show her broken and blackened teeth. “Naught to worry your head over.”

  “My father once told me Dunsgathaic was built over hot springs, and there are pools where one can bathe in water that never cools,” Katherine said, in an obvious attempt to draw Callista’s attention from the gale outside and the tension within. “I can’t wait until we reach the place. I’ll soak in one for at least a week.”

  “You travel to the fortress of the Shadowy One?” Mrs. MacDonald asked with a simpering leer. “Now, what would such comely maids be seeking in such an unnatural place as that?”

  “Miss Hawthorne has family among the holy sisters there,” Lady Duncallan offered.

  “Does she? A strange and haunted place is the fortress there. Not safe for such pretty things. Full of spirits and devilry and old magic.” Her voice lowered, her eyes snapping as she warmed to her story. “The islanders steer clear of the place and even the fishermen avoid the coves below the cliffs for fear of the beautiful roanes and sinister kelpies, both able to drag a man down into the deep waters and send back only bones. Here.” The woman handed Callista a mug. “Have a cup of warm cider to calm your nerves. You’re white as the snow, lass.” She leaned in close. “White as death.”

  Callista’s hand jerked, cider slopping onto her hand, hot against her skin. “What do you mean by that?”

  Mrs. MacDonald tilted her head and rounded her shoulders in an obsequious simper. “I meant no offense, child. I’ve three daughters of my own and ten granddaughters. I know a body heartsick and a mind full of worry when I see one.” She offered another secret smile. “My cider will give you sweet dreams and when you wake, all will look better.”

  “Or you’ll wake with a head like a bass drum and a stomach weak as jelly,” Lady Duncallan commented, a teasing twinkle in her eye as she sipped from her own drink.

  “There, now. Rest yourself by the fire, and I’ll see to supper. I’ve some stew simmering and there’s cheese and ham and a bit of bread.” With a last darting look, the innkeeper’s wife passed into the kitchens.

  “She reminds me of a maid I once employed,” Katherine whispered to Callista with a smile.

  Callista took another swallow. The heavy sweet cinnamon and clove taste coated her tongue, but the heat loosened the hard press of worry in her gut. She made a turn about the room, sat, and picked up her book, but read only three words before she was up and back at the window.

  Flakes fell from a dingy, washed-out sky, mixing with a pelting ice that sheeted the ground and made walking from the inn to the stables treacherous. She sighed and made another turn around the room, the walls seeming to close around her. And these were walls of mud and brick. How much worse would it be when the walls were stone, thirty feet high and twelve feet thick, and guarded by warriors of Scathach’s brotherhood?

  Katherine eyed Callista with kind apprehension. “Naught will happen to him in a fortnight. He’s well and out of harm’s way at Addershiels. Gray will make sure of that.”

  “You don’t know David. He doesn’t just seek trouble, he hunts it down.”

  “We’ll send word as soon as we reach Dunsgathaic. As soon as we speak with the sisters.”

  Callista knew this was the sensible course, the proper course, but she itched to be doing. Not sitting and waiting. She’d spent her life in such patient desperation and garnered nothing by it. Only after she’d taken charge and taken off had her life truly felt her own.

  “What if it’s too late? What if the sisters refuse to help? What if David refuses to answer my letter?” So much for the cider’s restorative properties. Frustration banded Callista’s shoulders and pounded in her temples.

  “What if there’s nothing the sisters can offer?” Katherine answered sensibly. “Bringing him to Dunsgathaic will only raise his hopes. Could you stand by while they were dashed . . . again? It’s better this way.”

  “And if it were your husband in trouble and you were stuck in the middle of a snowstorm unable to do anything but watch and wait?”

  Katherine turned her eyes to the flames in the hearth, hands clenched white on her cloak. Her memories were obviously painful, though at least she had the comfort of the present. Lord Duncallan was just outside with the horses. He was safe. He was whole. He was hers.

  Callista had no such comfort.

  “Is it like that between you and David?” Katherine asked. “Circumstances must have changed while you were at Addershiels. You weren’t so certain when we spoke last.”

  “I’m still not certain, but how can I live knowing I didn’t try? That I might have had everything and gave up? That I let the dream . . . and David . . . die.”

  “James and I lost five precious years because of mistakes and misunderstandings.” Katherine shivered, though Callista wasn’t sure this time it was from cold. “If you truly believe there’s a chance for David on Dunsgathaic, I’ll help you convince James to go back for him. Five years was an eternity. I can’t imagine living a lifetime without the man I love.”

  As if cued from the wings, the door banged open, and Lord Duncallan shook the snow from his coat and dusted it off his dark hair. “The horses are settled.”

  “Where’s MacDonald?” Katherine asked. “Lost in a drift?”

  He rubbed his hands before the fire as the old woman brought him a heaping plate of stew and a mug of frothy beer. “Attending to another guest.”

  “Caught out in this weather? Poor man, he must be half frozen.”

  The door opened again, MacDonald stamping off his boots. “A right blow out there, but I’d say it’ll be over by dawn. Winds are shifting from the south and the snow smells warm.”

  A second man followed him in, bundled in greatcoat and muffler, his hat dusted with flakes. He carried his saddlebags over his shoulder, but it was the scabbard at his side that drew Callista’s eye before she lifted her gaze to his face. He returned her stare, his lipless mouth curling into a cold, dead smile. “I almost rode past without stopping. How fortunate I didn’t.”

  * * *

  The snow blanketed the uplands, glittering like crystal under a high, cold sun or shining soft and blue beneath the goddess moon, frosting the bent and broken trees, shriveling and blackening their spring leaves with cold. It drifted thick and treacherous over ditches and ponds and swirled in the cutting crystalline wind. Tracks dotted the fields and forests; hare, fox, stag, and stoat. Once or twice he scented the trail of a lynx or caught a glimpse of the cat sliding gray and brown against the monochromatic landscape. He opened his mind and lifted his head in lonely song, but there was no mental touch of minds, no brush of a signum he recognized. These were not the lynx of the Sorothos, these cats wore only one shape. They would not assist him, but they would not name him emnil and offer him a rogue’s death, either.

  He padded silently beneath the bowed trees and slithered through the snow-weighted bracken. Caught a squirrel and ate it, the flesh hot and steaming as he pulled it from the bones. Drank in a stream so cold the water torched his throat and sat in his stomach like a rock. The day melted into night and the moon rode high through long streamers of cloud, the snow glowing blue and white as the dark curse’s flames.

  He’d glimpsed no sign of Victor Corey or his men since the snow began and the roads ended. But that didn’t mean his enemies weren’t out there. Only that the wolf proved more elusive. But he could not be the wolf forever. The draught’s potency faded as the sickness increased. First it was the cramping of his muscles and a fever’s burning heat. Then it was the jaw-clamping tremors that racked him hour after endless hour, until he curled tail to nose in the shelter of a rocky outcropping and dreamt of evil words spilling like snakes from a dying Fey-blood’s mouth, waking only when dawn kissed the snow pink.

  It was then that he rejoined the road, standing on a
high ridge and looking down upon the muddy snow-crusted trail as it wound its way around the edge of the loch, the water an oily pewter beneath the gray sky. Behind him, three blue-veined stones stood sentinel over the valley below. The potent magic within their borders raised a ridge of fur down his back and buzzed against his brain. A chill breeze tasted of game and the sharp aromas of pine and elder and hard fern. Nothing moved below him, either east or west, but a horse’s prints left a wide, plowed trail ending in a churned muddy patch where a man had dismounted and walked into the wood to relieve himself.

  A shadow passed over the snow. He looked up to see a bird high against the clouds, an eagle by the size of it. It circled and headed west. A small flock of chittering black wheeled and rippled and wheeled again, then dove for the loch.

  The wind changed direction even as a horse’s soft whicker twitched the wolf’s ears. There, half hidden by a fold in the earth and a trick of the drifting snow, was a stand of four or five trees. Enough to conceal a horse and rider, a figure wrapped in a heavy woolen cloak though it was drenched from hood to hem, snow-draggled and caked with ice.

  He froze as the stranger scanned the ridgeline where he hid, her scent twisting in his chest until the pain was an agony of desire and fear, relief and danger. He dare not path to her. He dare not even move, for he scented another—faint but present, like a swirl of ice across the snow.

  She lifted her face to him, the hood falling from her hair. Her features were bone-white, her mouth open on a scream of warning: “Behind you!”

  David leapt to the side, his paws breaking through the crust of heavy snow, his breath steaming the air. A sword, silver and glittering as ice, swept down where his head had been an instant before.