“Do you know which one?” Thomas asked the question forming on my own lips.
“No. Rhys wanted to keep me and the kids away from the supernatural world. He believed it too dangerous for us to know anything about his work.”
That may have been a wise decision, although problematic where gaining information was concerned.
“Have Ryan or Katie exhibited any powers?” I asked.
Leah shifted uncomfortably on her chair. “Ryan... no.”
“But Katie has?”
She nodded.
“Does Rhys know?”
Another nod. “Since she was a baby. He hoped that if he didn’t train her to recognise her powers they would fade away.”
I understood Rhys’ theory — it is possible for a child who never engages their powers to lose them — and a little of his motivation. It’s hard growing up different, hiding who you are from your friends. But something told me there was more to Rhys’ reluctance to train his daughter than protecting her from being different.
I looked at Leah. “You don’t think it’s working?” I asked.
She avoided eye contact and glanced around the kitchen as though reluctant to speak her thoughts, but when she reached for her water to take another sip, I knew she’d come to a decision on what to tell us. “There are times when I think she controls the weather.”
The weather! Some druids possessed the power long ago, but I hadn’t heard of anyone doing so for more than a hundred years. “You’re sure?” I asked.
“No, and if she is, I’m not certain she knows she is herself.”
Leah saw the questions bubbling beneath my surface and explained. “A few weeks ago, she sat by her bedroom window staring at her wind chimes. She always loved those things, the way they tinkled in the wind. They were tinkling then. I thought it strange for the wind to have picked up so quickly as I’d been outside not ten minutes before and there was hardly a breeze. I checked the window, but it was shut tight. Katie just shrugged when I looked at her. So, I opened them wide and then shut them again quite firmly. The wind chimes stilled instantly. We both agreed it must have been open a crack and spoke no more of the matter.”
The situation itself was harmless enough, and Leah’s reluctance to confirm the presence of magic in the act was understandable. Hell, it could have been open a crack for all we know. But, as Katie’s mother, Leah’s instinct regarding the abilities of her daughter were probably correct. If she thought something fishy was involved, she was probably correct.
“Right,” I said, standing tall and running my hands over my head. “Regardless of that, we have a job to do. We need to know everything you can tell us about where Rhys went and the work he does.”
“I already told you everything I know about his work.”
“We’ll go through it again. I know you believe you know very little, but you’d be surprised how much indirect information you pick up without trying.” I pointed to the kettle. “Do you mind if I make a cup of tea?” I asked.
“Not at all.”
“Great.” I brushed my hair over my shoulder and thought of Rhys’ own long hair. “Oh,” I said. “I don’t suppose you have some of your husband’s hair lying around. Perhaps, still attached to his brush or comb?”
“A location spell,” Thomas said, sighing.
“Yep.” We didn’t have a good track record where it came to missing person cases and the use of locations spells, but despite that, it was still the best chance we had of locating Rhys.
Chapter Six
The drive back to Wentwood was made in silence. Even the peace of the trees did little to still my building worry as I soaked in their power and replenished my stores. It had always seemed a sensible idea to keep Thomas with me. He kept me grounded, allowed me to focus on how much I had in my life. I had to go and find Rhys Roberts, but Leah had said we might not all make it back.
Thomas wasn’t someone to be pushed around. But all I could think about was how much I had to lose, there seemed no point in saving myself at the cost of Thomas’ life any more than at the cost of my mother’s. Thomas made his own choices, but too many of those choices involved protecting me. The magical backlash he’d been subject to when Rachel Platt had faked her own kidnapping, the underground fight scene, where he could have been beaten to a pulp. These were all my fault. I’d led him into my world. I could handle the curse on my head. I could handle the possibility of dying if it meant he would be safe. But that’s the problem... he felt the same. Was I being selfish keeping him by my side and not sending him away?
“I think I should go and find Rhys alone,” Thomas said, breaking the silence and echoing my thoughts.
“What?”
“I should go find Rhys and bring him back. You can work more with your mother, find out what you can and work on finding an alternative.”
“That is not happening,” I said. “If anything, I should be the one to go and you stay behind. You heard Leah, she said if I didn’t help him, he would die. Her words. I have to help. I have to go. There’s no other option. You stay.”
“Not a chance.”
“I don’t even know why we are talking about this. Neither one of us will ever willingly stay, so it’s pointless bringing it up. We’ll pop home, check in with Mam and Gwen, and be on the road in half an hour, just as we planned.”
Thomas sighed. “Words are important. That’s the one thing we need to remember in all this,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I always wondered why your Mam turned up at Christmas. Why then? What made her come?” Thomas flipped the indicator and pulled the car off Chepstow Road and into the country lanes.
“The curse,” I said, as though the reason was obvious.
“That curse was made twenty-five years ago. She had ample time to tell you about it.” Thomas shook his head. “No, she came because of our engagement.”
“Thomas, I don’t see where you’re going with this.”
“You heard the curse. ‘Their mixed-blood abomination will suffer the same fate as her mother when she embraces her one true love.’ I knew you didn’t want to get married, but I pushed over and over until you caved, and when you did, the curse found you. If I’d accepted us the way we were, we wouldn’t be worrying about this now.”
“First off, you didn’t push me into anything. I’m marrying you because I want to. ‘One true love,’ remember. Secondly, the curse hasn’t just found me, it’s been hanging over my head since I was a baby. This is in no way your fault.”
We pulled up outside the cottage and sat in the car with the engine off. Neither of us wanting to be the first to move. The wind howled through the trees, and the sky slowly turned tar-black as heavy clouds gathered overhead.
“Looks like rain,” I said. “There must be a storm coming.”
Thomas laughed. “There’s always a storm coming.”
His eyes twinkled, bluer than a summer sky and with more depth to them than the Mariana Trench. I could lose myself in those eyes forever.
“That there is,” I said and smiled, before reaching over and clasping his hand. “And this is bullshit. I’ve been sitting here, blaming myself for putting you in danger, and you’ve been sitting there, blaming yourself. Well, enough of this pity party. You know who is to blame?”
“The Tylwyth Teg.”
“Damn right, the Tylwyth Teg. Whichever one of them manipulated Rhys and cast this bloody curse.”
*
“Okay, what do we know?” I asked as I paced the living room ten minutes later. Thomas, Gwen, and Mam sat around me. A plate of Welsh cakes rested on the coffee table, filling the room with their freshly-baked aroma. I picked one up and took a bite.
“We know your father is trapped,” Mam said.
I stopped pacing and placed my hand on her shoulder. “And we are going to get him out.”
“We know Rhys is in trouble.” Thomas looked at me. “Do you think the two events are connected?”
“Leah said Rhys worked for one of the Tylwyth Teg. My guess would be it’s the same one who laid the curse.”
“Why’s that?”
“Something you said earlier about words being important. ‘In return, you will use your powers for me.’ That was the binding agreement of the curse. No doubt, Rhys is bound to use his powers for the fair folk connected.”
Mam sagged in the chair and looked down at her feet. For a second, I was worried she was falling into her melancholy ways again. Thomas must have sensed it, too, as he moved across the room, sat on the arm of the chair next to her, and put his hand around her shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said. “It’s just a lot to take in. First, I blamed Dylan, and then Rhys, and now... now I don’t know who to blame.”
“Is who to blame really that important?” Thomas asked. “Dylan, Rhys, the Tylwyth Teg? We just need to focus on moving forward and setting things right.”
Mam smiled and patted his hand. “You’re right, but do you really think Rhys is off the hook for this; that he’s being manipulated?”
“I do.” Thomas ran his hand through his hair and rubbed at his forehead. “The thing that’s still bugging me is why? I mean, why would one of the Tylwyth Teg want you dead? What would they have to gain?”
I pushed a crumb into my mouth and bit my lip. “You know, that’s a good question. Why would they want you dead?” I asked Mam. “Have you ever had any dealings with any besides Dad?”
“No.” Mam sighed. “I honestly can’t think of a reason why anyone would wish me harm, or you, for that matter.”
“Well... at this moment in time, we probably don’t need to go into how many people might want me dead,” I said. “But no-one could have known that when I was six months old.”
“Unless they could,” Thomas leaned forward in his seat. “Rhys is a seer, right? What if he used his abilities to give someone an insight into their future and told them what a pain in his arse you’d be.”
“That’s a possibility,” I said, smiling. “Though, any seer worth his salt would have directed the Tylwyth Teg to you. I swear, you’re way more of a pain in the butt than I could ever hope to be. Plus, I wouldn’t get into half as much trouble without you around.”
Thomas reached out and snatched a Welsh cake from the plate, while giving me dagger eyes, and returned to his spot on the sofa. I smiled and scrunched my nose at him in return.
“There is another possibility.” We all instantly turned to Gwen and she shrank in her chair. “Although, it’s probably silly. I should put the kettle on and let you all think.”
“None of that,” Thomas said. “We’re all just spitting things out to see what sticks. What’s the other possibility?”
“Well,” Gwen said. “Is there not the wee chance that Carys was not the target, and it was your dad that the Tylwyth Teg wanted to punish?”
I froze. Dylan was a member of the fair folk. Gwen was right, the logical conclusion to make was that their problem was with Dad and not Mam.
Thomas smiled and looked me in the eye. “Now, that’s an idea that might stick,” he said.
I sat on the edge of the sofa next to him. “That settles it. Although, it changes nothing. The only thing to do for now is find Rhys.”
Thomas lifted his arm and pulled me in. I scooted up closer to his body, happy that we were together and functioning the way we should.
“You feel better now?” Thomas whispered.
I gave him a wry smile. “I do.”
Thomas kissed me on the forehead. “Good. Now, one more cuppa and we’d better be off,” he said, before gathering our empty cups and leaving the room.
“What did you remember about meeting Dad?” I asked while he was away.
For the next few minutes, Mam updated us on how she met my father. As it turns out, the night that Nana had been worried about her, after she’d lied to the police and ran away, Mam had wandered as far as the reservoir and, feeling sorry for herself, began skipping stones. It was then that she saw him. He walked out of the water and up the bank towards her.
“He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen,” she said. “Long flowing hair, down to his shoulders, that didn’t seem wet, despite the fact that I’d seen him emerge from the water. I was entranced.”
“Like the Lady of Lyn y Fan Fach,” Thomas said, when he entered the room with our tea, and remembered the tale of the farmer who met a beautiful woman and instantly fell in love. She emerged from the waters of the Lake and eventually agreed to marry the farmer on the condition that if he strike her three times, she would return to the lake and the fairy realm.
“Oh, he was a sight,” Mam said. “His chest was bare and the moonlight glistened on a single bead of water as it travelled down his body, over his abdomen, and—”
I cleared my throat and blushed. I so did not need to hear my mam perving on my dad. It was definitely something I would never get used to.
Thomas smiled at my embarrassment. “Did you ever worry you were simply bewitched by one of the fair folk?” he asked, to move the conversation along.
“Not until the day he disappeared. We were arguing, I thought our marriage contract was broken.”
“Do you still love him?” I asked.
Mam sighed. “I haven’t seen Dylan in twenty-five years. A lot has happened, and we were together for such a short time. I don’t know what I feel,” she said, although, it was clear her heart was broken.
Chapter Seven
An hour later, we were driving towards the Black Mountain, on the other side of which, Leah said Rhys had gone to work. We had the name of the hotel he was staying at, and a quick call by his wife to reception demonstrated he was still checked in, even if he hadn’t been seen all evening and was not answering the room telephone.
I’d taken the helm for a change while Thomas booked a room for us and called Joe to inform him of Katie’s potential magic. I didn’t like informing the Council of her powers behind her mother and father’s backs, but if Rhys... or I... didn’t make it home, someone had to ensure the child was trained in the safe use of her powers.
We were on a desolate road approaching the Brecon Beacons National Park. The red sandstone hills beckoned in the distance. Cloaked in the shadows of the approaching night, they were an ominous sight to behold. Soon we were on the mountain pass, a road that dipped, twisted, and climbed. I switched off the entertainment system to better concentrate on the hairpin turns and blind curves. With no road lights to illuminate our path, and only a colossal empty sky stretching to infinity above our heads, we had to rely on the full-beams of the car to guide our way. I cursed our oversight in having forgotten to change the dimmed bulb. Mountain passes like these left no margin for error. The views might be to die for, but no-one wants to do it literally.
“You want me to drive?” Thomas asked, sensing my unease.
“I’ll be fine.” I might not be as good a driver as Thomas, but I was passable, and as long as I ignored the fact we were aiming to drive over one-and-a-half-thousand miles above sea level in the blackness of night, I’d be fine. The slope was a gentle climb; we’d be fine.
Absolutely fine!
I took a deep breath and focused on the road. The promised storm had bypassed the mountains. Hazy curls of mist gathered on the hills and crept over the heather like pale wraiths bent of mischief. It thickened and instantly my senses fired off a warning. I slowed down, taking my foot off the accelerator and tried to focus on the feeling of wrongness, but it drifted from my mind as easily as the mist drifted in the air.
My eyes grew heavy. I shook my head and blinked rapidly to stop them from closing, surprised at how sleepy I felt. I turned to Thomas, wondering if it best he drive after all, but was shocked to find him battling sleep himself.
I stopped the car instantly. Certain now that something was wrong.
Without hesitation, I called forth the power in my Coll tattoo and scanned the area. Almost at the core of
the mist, I heard a low hissing. A faint sound that I could easily believe came from my own imagination. The mountains lent themselves to myth and magic, and right now, it felt as though that magic was coming for us. I drew on the power of the fir and directed a spell at both myself and Thomas to clear our heads and shake off the subduing effects of the mist.
“What is it?” Thomas asked, his stupor banished.
The tension in the air became suffocating. Before I had the chance to respond, our car was shunted full force from the side. The mist thinned slightly and retreated, gathering away from the car as though mustering the force to charge us.
“Brace yourself,” I said, while flooding our bodies with the strength stored in my Duir tattoo: strength we’d need to survive if a fall proved inevitable.
The mist rushed forwards like a tsunami, buffeting the car and shunting us over the edge.
My heart froze as we rolled into darkness, being jostled about like flotsam on a sea of heather. Fear threatened to overwhelm me as the car careened down the hillside out of control, rolling side over side, while we remained pinned by our seatbelts. Even so, we had to brace ourselves to stop our limbs and heads from bashing against the inside of the car. Leah’s warning that not all of us would make it back rose forefront in my mind. I couldn’t lose Thomas...
No! We weren’t meant to die like this. What was the point in even coming to find Rhys if our journey was fated to end here? I screamed in frustration and called to every magic I knew, every tree whose power flared within the vicinity. There were so few to rely on, but those that existed heeded my call.
“Summer,” Thomas said, his voice a distant echo of concern in my ears.
Suddenly, we hit a crag and the front of the car flew forward. I reached out and grabbed Thomas’ hand. In the darkness, there was no ground to watch, no horizon to focus on, but we felt every dip and every bump and we slid down the mountain. For a breath-taking second, we became airborne in an empty void of darkness, punctured only by the luminous indigo glow that emanated from my body.
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