by Kate Keir
I’d watched enough movies and read enough books to know that whatever they were hiding wasn’t going to be a lovely surprise revelation about how I was going to be the ultimate Soul Keeper. The one who saved the world and killed Sluag—could he even be killed?
Of course, I’d do all of this single-handedly, without any harm coming to myself or the Dion, and the world would celebrate my awesomeness for eternity.
The reality was, they had found out something horrific that would mean one of us, maybe all of us, would die, and Sluag would win his war on humanity.
Not knowing was the worst part. It frightened me to think that something awful was almost certainly coming and neither Pen nor Finlay would arm me with the knowledge I needed to perhaps protect myself and the others.
I walked into a very hushed and subdued dining room. Everyone was here, but there was none of the laughter and banter I had grown used to hearing at dinner.
Mara and Artair sat together, with Freya sitting quietly on Mara’s right-hand side. Pen was in her usual seat at the head of the table. She met my eye when I walked in, giving me a small smile but saying nothing to me.
Finlay and Lyall sat at opposite ends of the table, and the atmosphere between them was thick and foreboding. Finlay kept pausing in-between mouthfuls of food to scowl at Lyall.
My dark-haired suitor did an admirable job of pretending to ignore Finlay’s snarl, instead acting with a casual disinterest in everything around him. But I could sense the anger coming off Lyall in rolling waves.
“Well, this is nice.” I shrugged as I carefully selected a chair that was an equal distance away from everyone.
I had just filled my plate with food when a beeping sound caught my attention. It took a couple of seconds for me to realise the sound was a text message on my phone. It had been that long since I’d had a message, I had begun to think there was no reception in the alternate dimension of the Dion’s castle.
I pulled the phone from the back pocket of my jeans and opened the message.
Hi Flora, I know you don’t work at the castle anymore. Robin told us your friend called to say you’d quit. But me and a few of the others are going out next Friday and thought you might wanna come. Let me know, Jess xxx
The thought of a night out with the girls from my old job was exciting. None of them were close friends in the way Finlay was, but we’d been on nights out together tons of times before, and it was always fun.
I also had a desperate urge to go back and spend some time in the real world. It felt as though I’d been here at the castle a lot longer than I actually had. I missed doing normal stuff, and I also felt more than a little sad to hear my job had been given up on my behalf. I wondered who had called my boss to tell him.
“It’s Jess, from work…um, my old work,” I corrected. “She asked me to go out with them next Friday. I’m going to go. I feel like I need a break.” I had intended for my statement to come out as a question, but halfway through talking, I changed my mind. I was almost twenty years old and had lived alone for the last eighteen months. I didn’t need to ask permission to go out.
“No.” Finlay used the exact same tone he had used when he got rid of the Draugur in the gatekeeper’s chamber.
I arched a brow at him. “Excuse me?”
“We can’t keep you safe in a huge crowd of people on a Friday night. Plus, you’ll be less alert to any danger if you’re drunk.”
It was a reasonable argument. But, after our fight earlier, I was feeling less than reasonable.
“I don’t need you to keep me safe. I’ll be out with friends who are nothing to do with this screwed up world. Being in a crowd will hide me, not highlight me, and I won’t drink either,” I finished.
Finlay was just starting to argue with me again, but Pen interrupted. “I understand your concerns, Finlay. Yet, Flora is making a huge transition right now. If she needs a time out, then we must respect that. Flora is a fully-grown woman after all.”
I had to suppress the urge to fire a smug smirk in Finlay’s direction.
“I’ll go with you, if you like?” There was no flirty attitude from Lyall when he offered to come with me, and he didn’t say it in a pushy way like Finlay had, which I appreciated.
“That kind of defeats the point of me getting away. I’ll be fine. I’ll stay alert and keep my phone with me. You can come and pick me up at the end of the night if you like.” I had intended to throw that offer out to the whole room, meaning to encompass all of my Dion in the word you.
Lyall, however took it to mean just him. “I will. Call me when you’re ready to come home, and I’ll go and get you. Doesn’t matter what time.”
Finlay stood up quickly, his chair scraping the floor as he pushed it back and headed to the door. “I’m glad that’s sorted then. I couldn’t make it next Friday anyway. I have somewhere else I need to be.”
I bit my lower lip as I watched the retreating back of the boy who had been my best friend in the whole world for most of my life. Right now, it didn’t feel like that friendship was something that would ever be possible for us again.
“Don’t worry about him, love. I’ll take care of you.” Lyall narrowed his eyes and shook his head angrily as he watched Finlay go.
Pen was standing now, carefully watching everything that had unfolded between the three of us. Mara, Artair, and Freya just looked surprised and a little awkward.
“You are never more valuable as Dion or more safe than when you stand together,” Pen addressed us all. “There is a rift forming between you, and that is dangerous.” She gave Lyall a pointed look.
“Flora, you may go out on Friday. I feel that some time away from here will do you good. But no drinking. Between now and then, I want everyone to work together to bring Flora up to speed. Lyall, you will continue training at shifting.” She waited until Lyall nodded his agreement before turning back to me.
“I will speak with Finlay later. He needs to accompany you to the Everwood until you feel that you are ready to deal with rogue souls alone, Flora. Otherwise, can we please try not to fight amongst ourselves? Sluag would have a field day to know we’re less than a week into welcoming our Soul Keeper into the fold, and we are already in dissent.”
There was a murmured chorus of, “Yes, Pen. Sorry, Pen,” as we filed out of the dining room.
Dinner ended so late everyone headed to their own rooms. I closed my door and lay back on my bed with my eyes wide open. I was terrified to go to sleep, certain that Sluag would summon me again.
I had no idea if I would be able to control my response to any questions he asked me. What if he asked how things were between Finlay and me?
He’d know that his visits to my dreams were working and he’d keep pushing to break my mind in the same way he’d broken Aiden’s. I’d only met Sluag once, and already I had caused an epic rift between me and my best friend, and any friendship that Lyall and Finlay had once had was strained to breaking.
I was doing a terrible job of learning from past mistakes.
I played the argument with Finlay back in my head, over and over again. I knew I shouldn’t have said half the stuff I had. He didn’t deserve the way I had treated him, but he was just so infuriating when he got jealous and protective.
When he had tried to stop me from going out with my friends, I’d wanted to punch him. Even Pen didn’t seem to want to stop me living my life away from here from time to time. Although I knew she was lying to me about the manuscripts too. How could I place my trust in them when they wouldn’t even be honest with me?
Finally, exhaustion won. I couldn’t fight my tiredness any longer, and I drifted off to sleep at about two thirty in the morning. Thankfully, my sleep was peaceful and undisturbed, filled only with the boring things ordinary people dream about.
Chapter Thirteen
My excitement grew throughout the week as I anticipated my return to freedom and normality for a night. My training with Lyall was tough. It was frustrating me that I still couldn�
��t shift, even though Lyall kept telling me I was doing brilliantly.
I enjoyed my time spent with Lyall immensely. He was firm but fair and always gave me credit when he knew I was doing my best. Equally he’d pull me up when he knew my heart wasn’t quite in it.
The time when I wasn’t on my game usually happened right after a training session with Finlay in the Everwood. Both of us had tried to make an uneasy truce, but it was hard. He was distant and cold, something I had never seen in him before. Even when I tried to make a joke or lighten the mood, he would shrug it off, insisting we focus on the task in hand.
By the time Friday evening came, I was exhausted from failed attempts at shape-shifting with Lyall and also from battling to keep things on an even keel with Finlay.
I gave Lyall a frustrated growl as I once again missed the mark in trying to become my inner animal. These were my last few moments of training before I would need to start getting ready for my night out with Jess and the other girls.
“Don’t let it get to you, Flora. The more of a big deal you make in your head, the harder it’ll be to succeed.” Lyall stood up from where he had sat on the grass, while watching my pathetic attempts.
Panting hard from my exertions, I grabbed my water bottle from a nearby tree stump and started to make my way back to my room for a shower. “It’s just so hard. I feel like I’ll never be able to do it,” I complained.
“You will be able to do it.” He followed, frowning. “It hasn’t helped that you’ve been sent here on a wave of negativity for half of the week, love.”
So, my issues with Finlay haven’t gone unnoticed then?
“I’m not talking about this right now, Lyall. I’ve kept up my end of the bargain this week. Now I have dancing and laughing and normal stuff on my agenda for the rest of tonight.” We reached the castle gate, and I started to make my way inside.
“Flora?” His voice made me turn.
“Have fun, lots of it. But be aware and be safe. Call me when you want me to come and get you, okay?”
“Okay, see you later.” I shot him a genuine smile before hurrying into the castle and bounding up the stairs to my bedroom.
Mara and Freya were already waiting for me. They both grinned as I walked through the door. Mara gestured to the pile of clothes strewn across my bed.
Although Pen had provided me with a wardrobe full of day-wear, she hadn’t given much thought to stuff I could wear for going out. I suspected because she hadn’t really expected her Soul Keeper to make a break for normality.
“Oh. My. God. How many clothes do you girls have?” I laughed.
Freya picked up a gorgeous silver halter top and held it up against me. “This would look amazing on you, girl.”
Mara squealed, “Eek, it really will. But go and get in the shower first, Flora. I need a blank canvas to work my magic on.” She gestured to several make up bags, hair curlers and brushes of every kind.
After a long and emotional week, it made me smile to just hang out and be girly. I had a premonition tonight was going to be exactly what I needed.
After my shower, I let Mara and Freya decorate my face, twist my auburn locks into a mass of doll-like curls and dress me in the silver halter and a pair of extremely tight faux leather pants, coupled with some killer heels.
When I looked in the mirror, I barely recognised myself. I looked like a different person. I didn’t usually wear very much make up; I figured I was probably wearing my whole year’s quota in one sitting.
“Flora, you are a fox.” Freya was triumphant.
“You look amazing.” Mara looked up from packing away her tools to compliment me.
I felt a rush of gratitude toward them both. “Thank you so much, girls. You both know that you’re welcome to come along with me tonight, don’t you?”
Mara finished packing and stood up, ready to leave. “If we do, you won’t get that break from the weird and wonderful that you’re craving. You need to do something for yourself tonight, Flora.”
“Besides, I wouldn’t wanna be seen dead, out with you, Soul Keeper.” Freya winked at me as she slid out of the door.
I laughed as I took one last look at myself in the mirror before I headed downstairs to wait outside for my taxi.
One thing I had learned this week was how to cross over from the Dion version of the castle to the real-world version. It was actually surprisingly easy. All I had to do was approach one of the original boundaries that were in place when the castle was built, and step through it back into normality.
As I crossed the threshold of the original grounds I felt as though I were walking through a waterfall of colours, the air shimmering around me as I emerged into the ordinary world.
It had surprised me to learn that I didn’t have to access the castle via the loch. I had thought Finlay had brought me that way because it was the only way to get in. But now I knew better. I guessed he had just wanted for me to see it at its most beautiful. No time this week had felt like the right time to ask him to confirm my thoughts though.
My taxi arrived, and shaking off any thoughts of Finlay and our argument, I jumped into the back of the car and focused on the night ahead. “The Foxhole, please?” I said, naming the bar where I was meeting Jess and the other girls.
I hadn’t been ready for the jolt of nerves as I paid the driver and climbed out of the taxi at the front door of The Foxhole. I found myself looking around suspiciously at the crowd of Friday night revellers, wondering if any of them were Draugur in disguise.
No, enough. I’m not going to let thoughts of them or Sluag ruin tonight for me.
When I walked into the bar, the music was already up to full volume, and the place was so busy I had to squeeze through several groups of people before I managed to spot my girls. I caught Jess’s attention and waved as I approached her.
“Flora, omigosh, look at you. Hi.” Jess threw her arms around me in an exaggerated hug. “It’s amazing to see you. What are you drinking?” She tugged me toward the bar as the other girls smiled at me and shouted their hellos.
“I’m not. I mean I am drinking, but just a soft drink, thanks, Jess.”
She screwed up her nose at me and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. “You are not having a soft drink, sweet.”
I began to protest, but Jess wasn’t listening. She called the bartender over with a wink and a smile and ordered two Vulpine Divine cocktails. They were specialities of The Foxhole and were known to be deadly.
Not wanting to be that boring friend, I took the bright red glass of liquid Jess held out to me and sipped at it. It was as delicious as I remembered.
“Come on, Flora. Come and dance.” Jess grabbed my hand and dragged me through the crowd to the dancefloor. I felt as self-conscious as only a sober person can, when on a dancefloor filled with intoxicated others. When Jess offered me a second drink, I paused for a moment, knowing I shouldn’t take it, but I was also desperate to just let go and have some fun.
“That’s my girl.” Jess laughed as I took the glass and drained it halfway. My nerves had gone, along with any reservations about dancing and I joined in with the other girls, swaying my hips to the beat.
We spent a relentless hour on the dancefloor. Every time I thought I’d stop to get a drink of water, a song I loved would come on and I’d have to keep dancing. Just when I thought I’d die if I didn’t get some fluid into me soon, Kim, the newest girl in our group–my replacement, in fact–came over and offered me a bottle of mineral water.
“Thank you, I don’t think I could have lasted much longer.” I beamed at her as I took the bottle and drank it back eagerly.
She smiled back at me and melted back into the crowd to carry on dancing.
Inevitably after drinking that much water, I suddenly needed to go to the bathroom. I signalled to Jess where I was going. Usually we would go to the bathroom together. But, Jess was currently entwined with a hot guy, so she just waved at me that she would be here when I got back.
I
crossed the dance floor, pushing my way through the crowd and starting to regret the two cocktails. My head was getting fuzzy, and I felt really hot all of a sudden. I stumbled and only just managed to stop myself from falling to the ground. I felt so faint I changed direction, and instead of heading for the toilets, I started to head for the door. I needed some cool air in my lungs.
As I stumbled out into the street, I felt a moment of blind panic. I was sure I was about to pass out, and if I did, I’d be completely vulnerable. The fear only intensified the feeling of nausea and imbalance. I managed to take a few shaky steps toward the side of the bar building, but then I felt my legs give way and I started to fall toward the floor.
A strong pair of hands hooked underneath my arms, just in time to stop my knees from hitting the floor. I let myself fall back against my mystery saviour whispering, “Thank you, so much,” as he guided me toward the side street that ran alongside The Foxhole.
I was gently turned around and brought to rest with my back against the brick wall of the building behind me. My head had lolled forward as nausea threatened at the back of my throat. Now I lifted my head to see who had helped me in my moment of need.
As my eyes came back into focus, I was confused to see Kim, who gave me the water inside the bar. Standing next to her was a guy who looked familiar to me, but my alcohol-addled brain couldn’t work out where I knew him from. Not until he spoke at least.
“You are a lot less cautious than your predecessor was, Soul Keeper,” he hissed.
Realisation dawned as I finally recognised his face. It was the Draugur from the gatekeeper’s chamber. I used my hands against the wall to push myself off as hard as I could, trying to get a head-start over them. Unfortunately, four-inch heels are not the footwear of choice for sprinting, and I was quickly bowled over by the male Draugur as he caught up with me and threw me to the ground.
Kim—or the thing that had pretended to be Kim—stood over me and laughed. “Oh, silly. I really didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to take that drink from me. But you were.”