“Hey,” I said, raising my hand as the old man waddled around the corner.
“Skye. This is a surprise. Is somethin’ the matter? Need help towin’ a car out of the creek again?”
I groaned, shaking a fist at the sky. The last time I’d asked Roy for a favor was when the real estate agent I’d called to evaluate Irish Moon for sale had almost smashed into the hawthorn in the middle of the village, swerved to miss, and landed in the creek behind Mary’s Teahouse instead. We had to get the farmer and his tractor to pull the poor guy out. Would Derrydun ever let it go?
“I’m looking for Boone,” I said. “Is he here?”
“Is somethin’ the matter with you two? The lad’s been grumpy the last week. Ever since that Australian lad appeared.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Give me a break!” I exclaimed. “I just gave him a black eye to match the one Boone gave him.”
“You did?”
“Have you seen him or not?”
“Nay,” he replied. “He was here today but left a while ago.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. He must’ve finished work, then crossed the field. It was shorter to visit the sheep than to take the main road back into the village. And there I was sitting by the tower house with Alex, right in his path. Talk about moronic.
“Thanks, anyway,” I said, reaching down to scratch Phee behind the ears. “If you see him, can you tell him I stopped by?”
“Aye.” Roy nodded.
Heading back the way I came, I fared much better over the fences and dodged all the piles of animal shite. When I passed the tower house, Alex had already left, which was good news for him. I was a hairsbreadth away from sinking my boot into the family jewels and stomping on his grapes.
It was a long shot, but Boone wasn’t at the cottage, Mary’s Teahouse, or Molly McCreedy’s. No one had seen him, either. I stopped by his little cottage on the outskirts the village—the cottage he hadn’t let me see—but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere.
Not knowing what else to do and way past leaving him alone to wallow, I went to the hawthorn in the woods.
Staring up at the tree, I grasped the talisman around my neck and closed my eyes. Imagining the ball of golden light in my chest, I thought about Boone. Where are you? Come to me…
I had no idea if it would work, but I was out of options. If he’d gone off somewhere to sulk and had stepped outside the boundary, something might happen to him. When we went to Croagh Patrick, no one had followed or attempted to stop us, but it didn’t mean we weren’t being watched by whoever had taken his memories. Hannah had lured him away from the hawthorns, and look what happened.
Where are you? Come to me…
The low growling hummed behind me, and I turned, my eyes flying open.
A russet-colored fox was prowling around the clearing, his head down and his eyes flashing. Boone!
Darting across the clearing, I fell to my knees before him, ignoring his bared teeth.
“Boone!” I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, my fingers digging into his waxy fur, and I shook him. “You’re acting like a baby! Change back so I can talk to you!”
He yipped and growled, shaking himself and dislodging my grasp.
“Boone!” I said again, reaching for him. “Please!”
He danced around the clearing, clearly agitated. Of all the stubborn foxes…
“He tricked me,” I said, tears forming in my eyes. “I went to tell him… I told him he would never win me back. I…” I love you. The words stuck in my throat, and I raised my hand to my neck. “I…” Why couldn’t I say it?
I wanted to scream it at the top of my lungs. I wanted to tell Boone he meant everything to me. He gave me his heart in this very spot, and I wanted to give him mine forever. You hear that universe? Forever!
“I…”
Boone stared at me, his fox eyes shining eerily in the half-light of twilight.
“I…” I tried to form the words, but I began to cough instead, choking on my declaration.
The fox growled and leaped away, disappearing into the darkening forest, leaving me all alone in the middle of the clearing.
Falling to my knees, I gasped for breath.
“I… L… Lo…”
Why couldn’t I say it?
The next morning, I woke fully clothed, askew on the bed, one foot hanging off the edge and my arm flung over the other. I’d slept sideways on top of the quilt.
Lifting my head, I sniffed my armpit. I stunk like sheep shite. Somehow, I’d made it back to the cottage in one piece, but who knew how that eventuated.
Dragging myself out of bed and shuffling into the shower, I washed the filth off me, then slapped on some fresh clothes and a pound of makeup to disguise the bags under my eyes.
Outside, the day had hardly begun, and it was already dreary. The sun was hidden behind a thick layer of gray, dew was sticking to every available surface, and my breath was vaporizing on the air.
Screw winter.
Screw the snow.
Screw everything!
I had a score to settle.
I practically tore the village apart looking for Alex. I checked Mary’s Teahouse, peered in the windows at Molly McCreedy’s, walked through the car park, inquired at the bed-and-breakfast, but it was he who finally found me by St. Brigid’s church.
“What are you doing lurking in a graveyard this time of morning?” he asked with a chuckle.
“You’ve gone too far,” I said, turning on him. “There’s a line, and you crossed it miles ago.”
“Whoa,” he said, holding up his hands. “All I did was give you a little kiss.”
“Get out of my life, Alex!”
“We both know that’s not happening.”
“Like hell, it isn’t.”
He grasped my arms and pulled me close, causing panic to spike. We were alone behind the church at the butt crack of dawn. Not even Father O’Donegal was pottering around inside preparing his sermon for Sunday. Something didn’t feel right. The air tingled with an unknown energy, and I began to feel the same fear I’d experienced the night Boone and I had lured the craglorn to the hawthorn.
Lucy warned me, I thought. She warned me about his malice…
“Let go of me,” I demanded, struggling against his grasp.
“Skye, don’t fight me,” he crooned. “You want to be here. You want to be in my arms. You want to go back to Australia where things were easy. Don’t you?”
I sank into his touch, his words making my head swim. Maybe he was right…
“You don’t need these people,” he went on. “You don’t need Boone. He walked away from you, remember? You told him how you felt, and he didn’t want you.”
“I…” But I hadn’t told him because the words had stuck in my throat.
“Shh,” Alex murmured. “I’ll make it all better. Just come with me, and you’ll forget all about this place…”
He tugged at me once more, and I sank against him, pressing my cheek against his chest. His hand began stroking through my hair and over my shoulder, soothing the panic from my heart. Focusing on his fingers, I sighed. Maybe he was right.
I stilled as the air shimmered around us. It was so slight, I almost missed it, but for a second, his fingers had turned blue. Blue like the man I’d seen at Aileen’s wake at Molly McCreedy’s.
Remembering the image of the man who’d shimmered into a blue humanoid monster with long pointy teeth, and I gasped, breaking out of Alex’s grip.
That was how they did it. That was how they hid among us.
I was almost too afraid to look Alex in the eye, but I raised my head, knowing if I was right, then I was in a shiteload of trouble.
The air shimmered, and his face was no longer the Alex I knew. His skin took on a sickly steely blue hue, his eyes bulged, his hair grew long and black, and his teeth became razor-sharp points. He appeared to me in his true form for the blink of an eye before his glamour returned.
Ew! He’d ki
ssed me!
“No…” I murmured, taking a step back. “That was you… At Aileen’s wake…”
He was a fae, and that kiss at the tower house had been a spell. He’d taken my ability to tell Boone I loved him. He’d stolen my words and destroyed Boone in the process.
He’d stolen my words!
At that moment, I should’ve been alarmed. In the least, I should’ve attempted to hold onto some kind of rational thought, but all I saw was the enemy. The enemy who’d taken Boone away from me. The enemy who’d divided us in order to get to me, the last Crescent.
The enemy.
Alex was a fae, and he was working with Carman…but was it Alex? Had they snatched his body and possessed him with magic? Or was he an illusion? Or, more worryingly, had he been a fae the whole time I’d known him? Before and after the Crescents called me home.
If I were thinking a little more clearly, then maybe I would’ve made a different choice. Maybe was a terrible word in hindsight. But my faculties were definitely not in order. They had been completely blown apart.
“You took my words!” I shrieked, seeing red. “Give them back!”
He chuckled and shook his head. “There’s only one way you can do that.”
I narrowed my eyes. He was talking to me like I should know, but I didn’t. I didn’t know how to break his stupid spell, and it was infuriating.
“You don’t know how to use your magic,” he stated, looking surprised. “That’s new.”
“You know shit all,” I exclaimed. “You and that bitch Carman don’t know anything about me.”
Fae-Alex laughed, clearly not believing I was in control of my Crescent abilities. I wasn’t, and I didn’t have the athame like I did when I fought the craglorn, but I knew how to smack him down. Magic was about instinct and intent…and boy, did I have a single intent when I looked at the fae who’d tricked us all.
He’d said there was only one way to break the spell he’d kissed on my lips. Death was the obvious choice and clearly, he thought I wasn’t capable.
“Carman is coming for you,” he said, laughing. “There’s nothing you can do to stop her returning to Ireland. When she does, the doorways will be opened, and the witches will be punished. You worst of all. The Crescents will suffer.”
“Do you know who you’re talking to?” I demanded. “I am Skye Williams, Crescent Witch.”
Raising my hand, I called on my magic and launched myself at him with a roar. His glamour dissolved as my power lashed out, revealing his true form.
We fell to the ground, and I straddled his body, not letting him go for a second. I felt the golden light stream from my hands and spear into his body, stabbing into his repulsiveness like I was wired with twin blades. I didn’t need the athame this time because I was the sword.
“Skye,” he said, moaning as my golden light engulfed him. “Skye, you’re killing me…”
His face shifted back into the Alex I knew, but I didn’t falter. Fae were tricksters. He was trying to pull on my heartstrings.
“Skye, please… It hurts…” He moaned and writhed, trying to knock me off him, but I was too strong.
Fae-Alex began to convulse, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Then, he gasped and went rigid.
“The spell will be broken,” he exclaimed in an otherworldly voice. “The blood of the golden one will crack the chains, and she will return…”
“What are you talking about?” I shook him violently. “Explain yourself!”
Fae-Alex’s eyes glazed over, and he went limp. My magic had run its course and taken what I’d willed it to.
“No!” I shook him again. “No…”
His body began to emit wafts of steam, and I scrambled off him with a yelp as he began to melt and dissolve. His face sagged and bubbled, and I covered my eyes.
He was dead. I’d killed him. I’d killed Alex.
Huddling against my mother’s empty grave, I moaned, calling out for the one person I needed most but knew wouldn’t come.
“Boone!”
Chapter 9
I ran all the way to Irish Moon.
By the time I got there, I was completely out of breath, and my lungs burned. Considering St. Brigid’s was only a few hundred meters away, it was a sign I was terribly unfit.
Lucy was waiting for me out the front, a takeaway cup of coffee in her hands. When she saw me, her expression fell.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “You look terrible.”
“Thanks,” I said, making a face.
“Oh, I didn’t mean… Has somethin’ happened?”
“I’m really sorry, but I… I don’t think I’m going to open the shop today. Something’s come up, and it can’t wait.”
“Do you need any help?”
I shook my head, hoping no one had heard my argument and subsequent murder of Alex.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” I asked with a grimace.
“Tomorrow.” She nodded enthusiastically. “If you need anything, you’ve got me phone number.”
“Sure, thanks.” As I caught my breath, I watched her walk across the road to where she usually parked her car behind Mary’s Teahouse. “Hey, Lucy?”
She turned.
“Thanks,” I said. “For understanding.”
“Don’t mention it.” She smiled and continued on her way.
Shaking my head, I turned the corner and went around the back of the shop. That woman was super understanding. Mairead would’ve thrown an epic tantrum, then fleeced me for an extra fifty euros to look after the shop. I didn’t like closing and losing a day’s trade, but Boone was more important. He was the ultimate, you know?
I spent the day walking the forest right to the limits of the hawthorns, but Boone had disappeared. He had a strong animal nature, and if he didn’t want to be found, then he wouldn’t be found.
Completely defeated, I shuffled into Molly McCreedy’s as the sun began to dip low, hoping someone would’ve seen or heard something.
Maggie was behind the bar, polishing a pint glass.
“Hey,” I said, leaning against the bar. “Have you seen Boone?”
She gave me a dirty look and flicked her ringleted hair over her shoulder.
“Maggie.”
“Nay, no one’s seen him for a few days,” she said. “Not since… You know.”
“Give me a break.”
“You broke his heart, flouncin’ off with that Australian moron.”
“I didn’t flounce anywhere!” I exclaimed. “Have you seen him or not?”
“No, I haven’t.”
Turning, I surveyed the pub. A few groups of locals were sitting around tables by the fireplace, drinking and talking heatedly about something or other.
Listening closely, I heard Roy complaining about the absence of one of his farmhands.
“There’s been a fox hangin’ about the top fields,” Roy said, sounding irritated. “Wherever that boy has vanished, I need him up there watchin’ the flock.”
“Get Sean up there with Phee,” another man said.
“Nay,” the old man replied. “I can’t leave Sean alone for too long. I’m afraid he’ll turn up drunk as a skunk and cut off a limb.”
My heart sank. Boone hadn’t shown up for work in two days, which wasn’t like him at all. He was the guy who was always on time, always dependable, and always did his work to the highest standard. He even stayed late if he had to and refused to be paid overtime. To just vanish and not let anyone know was completely out of character.
I knew why he’d taken off, and it seemed like the entire village was currently debating which side they were going to take in the breakup. Team Skye, or Team Boone. Let’s just say, it was shaping up like all my high school PE nightmares. You know, the ones where I was picked last and shoved in the back because I was the weakest link. I was totally the kid who forged notes from her parent so she could get out of all forms of team sports.
The group of men had realized I was staring at them while I
was off daydreaming about my teenage years and were glaring at me.
Grimacing, I hightailed it across the room and shoved outside.
Boone was lurking around here someplace. All I had to do was be persistent. I would wander around the forest all night if I had to.
Burying into my jacket, I shoved my hands into my pockets and headed for the path behind Irish Moon. Luckily, I wasn’t afraid of what lurked in the dark anymore. I’d conquered that fear weeks ago, but I hadn’t faced the fear that even if I did find Boone, he mightn’t want to come back at all.
Shoving away the terrible thought, I resumed my search. There was no other way.
The forest was dark, and the temperature was dropping.
Powering through the trees, I followed the paths, searching the night for the elusive fox. I reached the very edge of the boundary, then I turned back, looking in on the Druid’s cave we’d once sheltered in during an unexpected rainstorm. The heavy scent of earth filled my nostrils, but it was empty inside.
The night wore on and I was really beginning to worry.
I doubted Boone had been in any animal form for more than a few hours. If I was right, then he’d been a fox for two days. The longer he was an animal, the harder it would be for him to change back. His wild instincts would take over, and he’d… No, it wouldn’t come to that.
I carved a path through the forest, listening and searching for signs he’d been this way. I didn’t know a single thing about tracking animals, but Boone wasn’t an animal. Not yet, anyway.
The shrill cry of a fox broke through the air, and my head shot up. Boone.
I ran blindly toward the sound, desperate to catch him before he vanished. If he crossed the boundary and something happened to him, I would never forgive myself.
I’d been so stupid. I should’ve seen what Alex was hiding… I should’ve known.
My foot caught on an exposed root, and I fell. My shoulder hit the ground, jarring against the earth, and I rolled. Over and over I tumbled, careening down a slope until I crashed to a stop at the bottom, my back colliding with a fallen tree trunk.
“Ow!” I exclaimed, curling in on myself.
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