“Do I want to know what sort of business happens down here?” I asked when Tadhg took the second. The smell of mold and mildew grew stronger as we descended.
“It’s a surprise.” There was mischief in his voice.
Three doors waited at the base of the stairs, two black and one green. Tadhg used the key to unlock the green one, then left it on the ledge at the top of the doorframe. From inside the dark room, I could hear water dripping.
My hand automatically found his. We stepped inside, and the door snicked shut, enveloping us in darkness.
“What are we doing?” My whisper echoed like a shout.
“Shhhh. I need to concentrate.” It sounded like something was sliding along the wall in front of us. Tadhg muttered in a language I’d never heard before, and a triskelion carved into the stone began to glow.
“Close your eyes,” he said.
I did. The glowing symbol still scorched through my lids.
“Are they closed?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now, hold on tight and don’t let me go,” he said, adjusting his grip on my fingers.
Don’t let me go.
It felt like he meant more than here and now. The thought of letting him go was becoming harder and harder to imagine.
A cyclone of mildew-drenched air lifted around us, whipping at my hair, tearing at my skirts.
Thump
The shaking ground made my legs wobble but then it stopped. Vanilla and lavender replaced the damp smells, and muffled laughter replaced the sound of whipping wind. My free hand brushed against something soft. Tadhg opened the door, and light burst into the space. We were no longer in a musty cellar but in someone’s linen closet, full of floral sheets and fluffy towels.
“Was that a portal?” There were myths surrounding hidden portals on the island, but I had never believed they really existed. After all that I’d seen on this journey, I should’ve known better.
Tadhg chuckled and kept my hand in his as he brought me out of the closet and into a sun-speckled hallway. The furniture in the three tidy bedrooms we passed was solid but worn. “It was.”
“How far are we from Tearmann?”
“All going well, we’ll be there in two hours.”
Two hours? “I thought you said it’d take four days.”
“It would take four days, if you took the human route. Not that I’d say that in front of your friend.”
At the bottom of some creaky wooden stairs, a man with thinning red hair sat at the head of an uneven table, eating a bowl of stew. A red-haired woman sat next to him, holding a small child, asleep in her arms.
When they saw us, they didn’t look the least bit concerned that we had appeared in their house without warning.
“Morning, Tadhg,” the man said with a nod.
Tadhg returned the nod. “Ronan. Sive. How’re the little ones settling in?”
The top half of the split front door was open; children’s shouts filled the yard beyond.
The woman smiled, revealing a mouthful of crooked yellow teeth. “This one’s a dote. Other two have been runnin’ like mad all mornin’, but it’s great to have a bit of life ‘round the place.”
Chuckling, Tadhg flattened the corner of a wrinkled runner with the toe of his boot. “You’ll send word if you have any trouble, yeah?”
“Won’t be no trouble at all,” the man said with another nod, his mouth full of stew.
“Even so.”
The woman put a hand on the man’s arm and gave him a smile. “We’ll let ye know.”
Tadhg said goodbye, waved, and pushed the half-door aside. The exterior of the house was painted white with green sills. The thatched roof had gone black from mold, but a stack of fresh golden thatch sat at the corner beside a massive woodpile.
Two children screamed and threw mud at one another while a tiny pink piglet squealed and raced between them. At the edge of the fenced yard, a cow with ribs protruding beneath its tan hide munched on the few remaining clumps of grass.
“Tadhg!” The taller of the two children bounced over and hugged his legs, leaving his breeches smeared with small, muddy handprints. Her short red hair made it impossible to hide the deep purple bruise around her left eye.
Tadhg bent at the waist and gave the back of her dirty hand a chaste peck. “Are you feeling better today, Mila?”
My heart clenched in my chest. Were these the children Tadhg had kidnapped? What kind of monster would inflict that kind of wound onto a child?
“Yup.” A grin. “Our new mammy gave us sweets.”
“Did she now?”
“Yup. And they was the best sweets I ever had.”
I shifted uncomfortably, wishing I had actually done something to help these poor children.
The little girl’s eyes landed on me . . . and narrowed. “Who’re you?” she asked, poking my thigh with a bony finger.
“My name is Lady Keelynn.”
The girl’s eyes widened, and she brought a self-conscious hand to her shorn hair. “Are ye a real lady?”
“I am.”
“What’re ye doin’ with Tadhg?”
I glanced at Tadhg. He smiled and waved for me to proceed. How did I even begin to explain our relationship? “Tadhg and I are friends.”
We were friends, I realized.
Being married to an insanely attractive friend who loved me sounded like a blessing, not a curse. I knew plenty of women who didn’t even like their husbands. What if this was my one chance at happiness? Was I being crazy to even consider a real relationship with someone I barely knew?
The other child, a boy in short pants and shoes that were far too big for his small feet, caught the piglet and hauled it into his too-thin arms. The pig squealed and grunted, trying to wriggle free. He ran over and hid behind his sister’s skirts, looking up at Tadhg with a mixture of awe and fear on his grubby face.
“And how’s Cian this morning?” Tadhg asked, kneeling down to ruffle the boy’s hair. “And Jordie?” The pig received a pat as well.
“I got my own bed,” the little boy said with a shy grin. He was missing two of his bottom teeth.
“Isn’t that brilliant?”
“Would be if my new mammy let Jordie sleep in it with me.” He rubbed his cheek against the pig’s wiry head. “But she says pigs isn’t allowed in the house.”
The little girl groaned. “I already told ye, Cian. Pigs isn’t allowed in the house ‘cause they make everything smell like shite.”
“Not Jordie.” He pressed his nose against the pig’s snout. “She’s a clean pig.”
Mila planted her fists on her bony hips. “She’s the dirtiest pig we got.”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
The little boy glared at her, then turned to Tadhg and grinned. “Mila told me she’s gonna maaaarry ye.”
The girl elbowed her brother, her cheeks pink. “Shut yer gob, Cian.”
“Mila deserves to marry someone far better than me,” Tadhg said with the sweetest smile.
From the starry-eyed look Mila gave him, it seemed like she didn’t agree.
“I’m in a bit of a hurry today,” Tadhg went on, “but I’ll be back to check that you’re minding your new mammy and daddy.”
Mila’s lips puckered. “Yer leavin’ already? But ye promised to bring me something from Gaul.”
“Did I?”
Her head dropped as she twisted her toe in the mud. “Ye forgot, huh?”
“I never break a promise—especially not one made to such a pretty girl.” Tadhg winked and nodded toward her skirt. “Perhaps you should check your pockets.”
Mila’s eyes widened when she reached into her dress and withdrew a small present wrapped in cheesecloth. “Thank you! Thank you!” She hugged Tadhg again and ran into the house, carrying the bundle as though it were the most precious gift in the world. Her brother raced behind her, the poor pig swinging and squealing the wh
ole way.
“What did you give her?”
“More sweets,” he said with a wink before turning and starting down the muddy lane.
“Those were Marina’s children, weren’t they?”
Tadhg’s shoulders seemed to cave in on themselves when he dropped his head and sighed. “Yes.”
Marina’s life must’ve truly been terrible for her to beg Tadhg for a kiss. And to have left her children behind with a man who used his fists on them. She must’ve believed there was no other way out.
Marina had been married to a monster, whereas I was currently married to a prince. Tadhg was kind and thoughtful and seemed to genuinely care about others, human or Danú. I may not have known him for very long, but I knew he would never hurt a child the way Marina’s husband had.
I could’ve been stuck with someone far worse. Someone like Robert.
The lane ended at an unpaved road pitted with carriage and hoof tracks. We followed the road for a short while, then turned off on a grassy path between two large redwood trees where birds chirped and flitted from branch to branch.
My mind was as tangled as the brambles on either side of the path. I needed something to focus on besides this predicament. Otherwise, I’d end up going mad before we reached Tearmann.
“Tell me about the portal.”
Tadhg held back a low-hanging branch, allowing me to pass before releasing it. “There’s not much to tell. Technically, we’re not supposed to bring humans through, but since I’m the one in charge . . .” He shrugged.
The one in charge. I knew he was a prince but I hadn’t realized that put him in charge.
“Are there more?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“There’s one in Port Fear.”
My footsteps stilled, and I glared at Tadhg’s back until he turned around. “If we’d taken a portal, we could’ve been here ages ago.”
“I know.” A small smile played on his lips. “But someone insisted the fastest way to Tearmann was to travel north by carriage.”
If we had continued on his route, we would’ve reached Port Fear within six days of leaving. Instead, I had insisted on bringing us north, to Buraos.
I know my world better than you do.
That’s what Tadhg had said.
He’d been truly trying to help me all along.
The forest grew thicker, and the path grew narrower until it stopped abruptly at a line of polished black stones, as if all the travelers before us had reached this point, thought better of continuing, and turned back. In the distance loomed a wall of black trees, their sharp, barren branches like gigantic pikes stabbing the gray sky.
Tadhg flicked his wrist, and a leather satchel appeared across his chest. He dug through and withdrew a silver container of kohl. “I want you to listen carefully,” he said, dipping two fingers into the pot and smearing kohl across his eyes. “You need to follow in my footsteps and remain completely silent. All right?”
Follow him and stay quiet. “I think I can handle that.”
Everyone on this island had heard of the Phantom Queen. The tales were even more awful than her name implied. During the war, she’d slaughtered humans on the battlefield without mercy and consumed the souls of those who perished. When the battle ended, her bloodlust remained. If you met her, you were as good as dead.
The Queen’s castle was somewhere in the Black Forest. No one knew exactly where because no one dared to trespass on her land.
Yet here we were, about to trespass.
The black earth shifted like it was alive, waiting to swallow us whole. Piles of bones floated along the rolling, tar-like surface, then disappeared beneath the ground. Twisted trees with bark as black as ink oozed bloody red sap into puddles that soaked into the blackness.
Every step Tadhg made seemed to take careful consideration. He’d walk forward a short distance, stop, take a step to the right or left, then continue a few more steps like he was following a narrow trail only he could see.
The place reeked of rot and death; no plants grew, only soulless black trees.
My heart thundered in my chest, and air escaped my lungs, but neither made a sound. What sort of horrible beings would choose to call this desolate place home?
The sky darkened, and it began to rain. Only the drops weren’t clear and refreshing but red, like the clouds were crying tears of blood.
Tadhg swore and rubbed at his red-rimmed eyes, smearing kohl onto his shirtsleeve. With his hair matted to his head, the points of his ears stuck out even more.
We’d only been in the forest for twenty minutes when Tadhg stopped so suddenly, I rammed into his back.
He dragged a hand through his drenched hair. “Why can’t things go right for once in my cursed life?”
From over his shoulder, I could see an endless lake of black crows spread across a gap in the trees ahead.
He dug into the bag and retrieved the kohl. When he looked back at me, a V formed between his eyebrows. “You need to put this on in case we get separated.”
Separated? I wasn’t letting him out of my sight. Still, if he wanted me to put it on as a precaution, I would. I reached for the tin, but he didn’t let it go.
“Do you want me to put it on or not?” I asked, tugging harder.
Tadhg grimaced but released it with a sigh. The kohl was sticky and warm on my fingertips, and it stung when I smeared it over my eyes. I blinked against the pain, wishing I could rub it right off.
And then everything around me changed.
The trees weren’t black, they were bone white. A broken black path twisted along the ground in the odd way Tadhg had been walking. The ring on my finger gave off a faint glow, covering me in green light.
No wonder Tadhg had known about the ring when we first met.
Tadhg.
I looked over at him and felt the smile slip from my face.
Tadhg’s features morphed into different faces, all of them handsome and all of them wearing the same resigned expression. His nose, eyes, and cheekbones changed fluidly, like his face wasn’t sure what it wanted to look like. The only thing that didn’t change was the color of his eyes, green swirling with black.
The most disturbing thing was his mouth.
Like the ground of the Black Forest, black lingering death slithered along his lips, awaiting its next victim.
“Don’t look at me,” he whispered, turning his face toward the crows.
He took back the kohl and stuffed it into his bag. With a flick of his wrist, the bag disappeared. “We cannot linger any longer,” he said. “Do you think you can run along the path?”
I tore my gaze from his cursed face and tried to focus on the broken path cutting through the hundreds of birds pecking at the rolling ground.
“My land borders the Queen’s.” He pointed to a faint green light, barely visible between the white trunks on the other side of the birds.
My land.
“If we can reach it in time,” he said, adjusting the belt and dagger at his waist, “she won’t dare cross it.”
“Is she near?” I glanced around but saw only trees and crows.
“She’s always near.”
I had never been very athletic, but I would do my best to keep from slowing him down. “I can run.”
He nodded and faced forward. “On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
We sprinted for the crows. I willed my legs to move faster, weaving along the broken path. A skull rose from the ground, and I stumbled. Tadhg caught me before I fell. When the birds saw us, they lifted into the sky, a tidal wave of black feathers and talons.
He would have been so much faster without me.
What was I thinking? Without me, he could have evanesced and avoided the forest altogether.
My lungs screamed, aching for oxygen they couldn’t find; the muscles in my legs burned and throbbed. Beyond the gap flowed a wide black river with glowing green trees on the far bank.
Thump thump thump
<
br /> At first I thought the noise was my heart.
Then it got louder. Closer.
Hooves pounding on earth.
I glanced over my shoulder, sure that something was chasing us, but there was nothing—
“Going somewhere?”
Tadhg skidded to a halt. I slammed into his back.
The voice, haunting in its sweetness, belonged to a gaunt older woman wearing a cape of black feathers and sitting astride a white horse. On top of her thinning mahogany hair sat a black crown that came to a point in the center of her wrinkled forehead like the beak of one of her crows.
A shudder ran through my body.
The Phantom Queen had found us.
29
Two broad-shouldered guards in black masks and black leather uniforms flanked the Queen on onyx steeds. Battle axes stuck out from leather straps on their backs. The tips of the broadswords in their hands reached the ground.
Tadhg’s kohl had all but disappeared in the rain. He wiped his eyes with his shirtsleeve, smearing it off completely. “Hello, Auntie.”
Auntie?
The Queen was Tadhg’s aunt?
“I take it you don’t plan on staying for tea?” The Queen’s light, pleasant voice contrasted with the wicked gleam in her depthless black eyes.
Tadhg tucked his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels, a picture of nonchalance. “Must you always ask the most inane questions?”
Shouldn’t he be bowing or trying to placate instead of antagonizing her?
Clucking her tongue, the Queen drummed her pointed black nails against her horse’s saddle. “After all these years, I’m shocked you haven’t found any manners.”
Tadhg stepped closer, positioning himself in front of me. I couldn’t find enough air to sigh in relief. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed me. Perhaps she would let us go since I was with her nephew.
“If I had manners, I wouldn’t waste them on you.”
Dammit, Tadhg. She was going to kill us both if he didn’t at least pretend to be nice. I peeked around him to see how the rude comment was received. She didn’t look angry. If anything she appeared indifferent.
A Cursed Kiss (Myths of Airren Book 1) Page 28