Forgotten

by Victoria DeLuis

  “But, he made a deal with one of the Tylwyth Teg a long time ago, and that deal may cause him to act against his will,” Thomas continued. He reached across the kitchen table and placed his hand on mine.

  Trystan had trusted us with his secret, maybe it was time we trusted him with ours. I fidgeted, focused on the sensation of Thomas’ hand resting on my own and turned to Trystan.

  He watched us curiously for a moment, as though he understood a form of silent communication passed between us. He was right to. Thomas read the unspoken decision in my manner and proceeded to tell Trystan about the curse.

  I sat in silence as he related the tale, moving only to eat the odd spoonful of cawl — it really was very good. A sense of numbness overcame me while Thomas explained everything. He still possessed a note of hope in his voice. One that I envied. More and more, I’d resigned myself to my fate. To me, it no longer felt as though we were on a quest to find Rhys and break the curse, it felt as though we were simply going through the motions and playing for time, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

  Trystan stared at me. A look of pity shone in his eyes, and I felt an irrational twinge of anger. With it came a flash of defiance against the curse.

  The Hell I was going to be a victim. Damn it! I was already acting like one. My mother was finding her backbone again, maybe it was time I found mine.

  I pushed away from the table and rose to my feet.

  “Right,” I said as I paced towards the large window overlooking the meadow. “Now that you’re up-to-date with everything, I’m sure you understand the situation. We needed to find Rhys Roberts to find out more about the curse. Although, I’m beginning to wonder if the answer has been under our noses the whole time.”

  “Dureth,” Thomas said quietly.

  “You know how I hate to jump to conclusions, but I can’t shake the feeling he’s involved. If he didn’t cast the curse, I’d lay odds he knows who did.”

  Thomas walked over and pulled me into a hug. “So we go after Dureth, bring the roof down on his head like you once promised.”

  Trystan rose from the table. “This Dureth, he is one of the fair folk?”

  “Yes. The young witch, Annabelle, she didn’t know the name of the witch who’d hired them, but the description fits someone known to work for Dureth.”

  “And it was his voice that spoke the words of the curse,” Thomas added. “We both knew at the time. We just weren’t willing to face the truth.”

  “Again, I must ask how you intend to proceed.” Trystan gathered our bowls from the table and placed them in the sink.

  “Nothing has changed,” I said. “We find Rhys Roberts.”

  “But if you believe Dureth is the Tylwyth Teg responsible, you could go directly to him and attempt to persuade him to release you of its effects.”

  Thomas scoffed. “He’s about as likely to do that as I am to... well, turn into a dragon.”

  “Besides, Leah believes her husband is in mortal danger, and,” I ran my fingers through my hair and clasp the back of my head,” so help me, so do I. We find Rhys and save him, that has to be our priority for now.”

  “How do you propose to do that?” Trystan asked.

  I reached deep into my pocket and removed a small bag containing the hair I’d gained from Leah. “With this.”

  Thomas grumbled. “A location spell!”

  “You know it.” I winked at him.

  “Then it is settled.” Trystan flicked on the kettle and opened the cupboard. “I believe a cup of tea is in order. Then I must bid you farewell.”

  I started, shocked that Trystan would send us on our way after we’d explained everything. Not that we needed his help. I just hadn’t expected the dismissal.

  “You must perform your spell and find Rhys. I understand your desire to help this man, but I am not as convinced of his innocence as you are. It is he who wished to enslave your mother in the first place. Without that desire, the Tylwyth Teg could not have used him as he has.”

  “No, of course, and fate willing, we will meet again someday.”

  Trystan smiled. “Call me when you find Rhys, so I know where you are. There is something I must attend to.”

  My ears pricked curiously.

  “Now, please, do not get your hopes up,” Trystan said. “But I knew of another druid long ago who escaped a curse of the fair folk.”

  “And you think he can help us,” Thomas said and looked at Trystan as though a halo had appeared over his head.

  “No, he is long dead, but the creatures who helped him still roam these lands. It is they I shall seek. But, as I said, please, don’t get your hopes up. If — and it’s a big if — I can find them, there is no certainty they can or will help.”

  “That may be so,” Thomas said, moving over and pulling Trystan into a companionable hug and patting him on the back. “But so far, we’ve been putting all our eggs in one basket. Any other options are a blessing to explore.”

  Trystan stiffened, clearly uncomfortable with the contact, but he didn’t move away.

  “Right,” Thomas said after pulling away. “I really think we need to grab a few hours sleep. I know we’re eager to get on with things, but we’ve been awake more than thirty hours.”

  Despite my reluctance to waste any further time, Thomas was right. It would be best if we grabbed a few hours rest before performing the location spell and tracking Rhys.

  Trystan directed us to a spare room, said that he would be gone before we rose and that we should help ourselves to some food before we left.

  At first, it was hard to fall asleep in the strange house, even more so when my mind whirled with possibilities. It proved fortuitous to run into Trystan in the mountains. Not only had he saved our lives, but he also offered the possibility of a way to break the curse. Even if that turned out not to be the case, we’d still be forever in his debt.

  Eventually, exhaustion overtook my body and I fell into a deep dreamless slumber.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I came awake slowly. My whole body ached and there was a dull pain in my left ankle. Nothing serious, more like the remembered pain of an old injury. My sluggish thoughts took time to gather, but as I stretched beneath the sheet, the faint scent of gardenia mingled with vanilla and caused me to wonder at the strangeness of the bed.

  I froze with the realisation I had no idea where I was. Opening my eyes, I looked around an unfamiliar room. An empty nightstand, with nothing but a glass of water sitting on top, stood by the side of the bed. The sheets and pillowcases were a pristine white and matched the curtains blowing gently in a breeze that entered through the open window. From the style of windows, the thickness of the windowsill, and the height of the ceiling, I surmised the house was old, but couldn’t for the life of me imagine how I got here.

  Daylight shone outside, but I had no way of telling the exact time. My clothes rested over a chair in the corner, so I quickly rose and threw them on.

  I peered through the window. There were no guards, no cars, only an empty courtyard surrounded by meadows. I smiled at the reassuring presence of the trees and drew in some of their energy to clear my head. The only noise was the faint gurgling of water running through the pipes, and I guessed there was someone in the house running a tap.

  I took a deep breath and ran through what I knew in my head. Thomas and I had visited the coraniaid. They’d given us a stone fused with their magic. That I remembered, but where was the stone? I patted my pockets. It wasn’t there. Why should it be? I was wearing different clothes to those I wore last night.

  Okay. So what happened? I remembered arriving home, and gave a grim smirk at Thomas calling me trouble — it certainly seemed as though I was in trouble now. It had to be the coraniaid, but what had they done and how?

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs. My heart raced, quickening my breath.

  The coraniaid were pure evil. I knew I should take comfort in the fact that they hadn’t harmed me so far. In fact, looking around the roo
m, they hadn’t deprived me of comfort, either. But that was beside the point. They’d crossed a line taking me prisoner, and I wouldn’t stand by and submit to their plans without a fight.

  I clenched my fists and called my magic. Heat flushed my body as every muscle tensed, ready to strike. I backed away from the window and edged behind the door, before heightening the clarity of the sounds around me with the power of Ailm — one set of footsteps, no voices.

  This didn’t feel right. Something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. I called on the power in my Coll tattoo and explored the energy of the person approaching. My hands shook as the familiar touch of Thomas greeted me.

  I paused with my hand on the doorknob, unsure what to do. My senses told me Thomas approached, but what if it was a trick, what if I was wrong?

  My head swam, as my heart and my head warred. Time was running out. I either believed what my heart told me, or faced whoever approached as though they were an illusion.

  I backed into the room, called an orb to my hand, and waited.

  The door eased open having been pushed from outside. Thomas stepped through with a tray, carrying tea, in his hands.

  I backed away. “Tell me what I did the first time we went to the forest together,” I demanded.

  All the while, I probed with my senses. Every touch of Thomas felt how it should. Every contour of his body remained the same, every hair on his head, every thread of my wards.

  “Tell me,” I almost sobbed.

  “You told me you needed me to see something. To see magic.” Thomas narrowed his eyes and looked at me with worry in their depths. “Summer, what’s wrong?”

  “No.” I wanted desperately to believe it was Thomas, but my insides twisted into knots. Dark thoughts swarmed through my head and tore at my soul. This was all so very wrong. Everything was wrong.

  “Anyone could guess that.” I tried to still my stomach, pushing aside the need to throw up. “I’m a tree witch. Of course, I’d show you magic in the forest. What did I do?”

  “You made a posy. Called the blossom from the hawthorn tree and floated it to me.”

  I stood trembling.

  “You invited me into your world, and I told you that I’d go anywhere with you.” Thomas took a tentative step forwards. “And I will. I will go anywhere and do anything for you. Just... tell me what I need to do now.”

  A strange limpness came over me and I wanted to fall to the floor in a heap.

  “W-where are we?” I asked, instead.

  “We’re at Trystan’s house. We came here this morning after leaving the hotel.”

  Tears came unbidden. My hand trembled as it flew to cover my mouth to stop the sobs from breaking through.

  “Trystan?” I mumbled as I bit on my thumb to distract me from the hollow pain I felt inside.

  Thomas took another step forwards. “I’m going to put the tray down.” His voice came smooth and calm.

  I let him, but my mind was a maze of confusion. “I don’t know who that is. I don’t know where I am.”

  Thomas took a deep breath as though steeling his own nerves. “Trystan saved us on the mountain when we were attacked. He came with us to find Rhys Roberts.”

  “Rhys Roberts?”

  Thomas started to explain, but I only half listened. I’d lost days. We’d visited the coraniaid four days ago. I trembled and sank to the edge of the bed. Without hesitation, Thomas sat next to me and pulled me into a hug. I wanted to scream in frustration, but all the fight had left me.

  Thomas kept talking, his voice soothing and kind, as though he wanted to fill the gaps in my memory with details of his own.

  Slowly, the words sank in and I had a flicker of images in my mind. Then in an almighty flurry that felt like a sledgehammer to the head, my own memories returned. I gasped and rested my head on Thomas’ chest.

  “I’d forgotten,” I said. “I’d forgotten everything. The dragon, the witches. My father’s innocence. Everything.”

  Thomas lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. “We are going to beat this,” he said. “Even if Rhys and Dureth can’t break the curse, Trystan is working on another way.”

  “I remember.”

  Thomas held my head in his hands and kissed me on the forehead before pulling me closer to his chest.

  “You are my whole world and I love you.”

  “I know.”

  “We will beat this. I am never, ever going to let anything happen to you, okay?”

  “Okay.” I sighed and enjoyed the feeling of Thomas’ arms enveloping me, the sound of his heart beating in his chest. He meant what he said, but the sad truth was, no matter how hard he tried to protect me, my fate wasn’t up to him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Three hours later, we were on the road to Cardiff, being drawn along by the pain building in my stomach. The gut-wrenching feeling caused by the location spell proved a welcome distraction to the numbness I’d felt after my memories returned.

  We were running out of time. Where I’d had only three months to work on a cure, the process of transfer had given Nana almost eight years to fight the curse, and she had avoided the memory loss I experienced now. Thomas tried to persuade me to let Mam take over the burden, the way Nana had for her, but how could I? Sure, Nana had gained extra time, but she was a lot stronger than Mam. What if Mam didn’t gain extra time? What if we never found a cure?

  No. As much as I hated to see Thomas suffer, to think of him without me, there was no way Mam could take my place. I hated to think that I was somehow being selfish in not choosing to stay with him, but if I lost Mam, he’d lose me anyway. I’d become a shell of myself.

  We drove towards the city in the shade of late afternoon. Light-grey clouds gathered overhead and teased with a trickle of rain, but the day remained fresh and warm.

  “Do you think we’re wasting our time together?” I blurted out, surprised at the direction of my thoughts. “We could be spending the day picnicking in the forest, walking through the trees, getting married before it’s too late.”

  Thomas glanced towards me, before returning his gaze to the road. “We are spending our time how we always do. Helping people. Together. And as we do, we will also work to help you.”

  He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “You sound as though you’re giving up.”

  I studied his features, etching each and every one into my memory before answering, “I feel like we’ve been swimming against the current for months, and getting nowhere. If these are the last days we’ll spend together, I want them to be filled with fun times and happy memories, not with us fighting witches or desperately tracking the man who cursed me in the first place.”

  Thomas’ knuckles turned white as his hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Damn it, Summer. You need to stop. How are we ever going to beat the curse if you’ve already given up? Time hasn’t run out... yet. We are moving closer and closer to Rhys Roberts; if that fails, we’ll pay Dureth a visit, and if that fails... we’ll... we’ll see what Trystan has managed to come up with. Besides,” he gave me a slight smile. “Morys said that you’d cause the Tylwyth Teg ‘more troubles than you think’ and that’s something to fight for, if nothing else.”

  I laughed at his raspy imitation of the coraniaid’s voice. “It is,” I said after a moment. “And there’s one of the fair folk in particular that I’d like to cause a whole heap of trouble for.”

  “Me, too,” Thomas said. “Me, too.”

  “Ouch!” I sat forward at the stabbing pain in my stomach.

  “You okay?” Thomas asked.

  “Yep. Just pull off at the next junction. We’re almost there.”

  We said no more about the curse as we pulled nearer and nearer to Rhys’ location. We soon joined a throng of cars all heading in the same direction we were. A glance inside one of the passing vehicles showed the inhabitants dressed to the nines.

  “Looks like everyone’s going to a party,” Thomas said.

  I took a d
eep breath and clutched at my stomach. The cars pulled into a private drive that led towards some unseen home. “I have a terrible feeling we might be, too,” I said. “You’d better pull over.”

  Thomas pulled over on the side of the road. “You sure this is the place?” he asked as we watched four more cars pass and pulled into the drive.

  The agony in my stomach and the bile rising in my throat confirmed it was. Thomas asked me to release the spell. With so many people around, he wouldn’t risk leaving me alone or entering the building with me bent double in pain. For once, I agreed, and released the location spell by unwinding Rhys’ hair, entwined with my own, from the hazel branch resting on the dashboard of the car.

  Within seconds, the pain caused by the spell left me, and I sat, glancing from my clothes to those of the occupants of the passing cars.

  “We’re not exactly dressed for the kind of party they’re having,” I said.

  “Not unless you have a ball gown hidden beneath your jeans.”

  I smiled. “I don’t, but I know where I can find one.”

  Ten minutes later, we had... gently accosted, or possibly mugged, a couple travelling in a BMW towards the party. I took some comfort in the fact that they were supernaturals as we stole their clothes and imprisoned them in their own vehicle. The fact eased my guilt from the robbery and assured me we were on the right track. Rhys Roberts had to be at that party. The question was, who would we find with him?

  “I’m not sure about this at all,” Thomas said when he took one look at the man’s outfit.

  I stifled a giggle behind my hand as we assessed the clothing.

  “There has to be more.”

  I cleared my throat and composed a straight face. “We need to blend in. If this is what he was wearing, this is what you need to wear.”

  “Nope, not happening. I can’t walk into a party in nothing but trousers.”

  “Breeches.” I bit my lip to stop the mirth I felt from blasting out and looked at the bright-blue, knee-length trousers in Thomas’ hands. “I think they’re called breeches. Now, change.”