With the last ounce of energy in my body, I tried to fight against the monster on my back. Right as everything started to turn black, I heard a shot ring out through the trees. Then a second one. Then a third.
They pierced the forest air even louder than the car alarm. Not a split second later, the air was sucked back into my lungs as the hands around my neck fell away. The world came back into my eyes in vivid technicolor as I coughed and spluttered, crawling onto my hands and knees.
“Elena!”
Logan’s voice traveled through the darkness and I searched for him through the trees. I wanted to get up on my feet and run to him, but my body refused. Instead, I stayed firmly in place, paralyzed by the pain in my throat as I sucked in one lungful after another of the sweet night air.
“Elena!”
I saw him kneel down beside me, crouching low to take a close look at me. The smell of him soothed me immediately as he ran a hand along my back.
“Logan,” I managed to croak out. “The Sheriff . . . Lafayette . . . he killed him . . . ”
“Looks like that scrappy little cat did a hell of a number on that shithead’s face,” Logan said, noticing the little heap of raggedy black fur lying nearby.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “You’re okay. I got you.”
With curiosity getting the better of me, I turned my head ever so slightly and saw a heap on the ground beside the rock. McKinney’s body lay motionless. The only movement came from the flickering fire near his lifeless body. With his face covered in deep cat scratches, blood trickled out his right temple from a perfectly circular bullet wound, and there were two more holes in his chest. He was dead. There was no denying it. But his eyes were wide open and staring at the sky, glossed over and empty.
“Oh, shit . . . ” Logan groaned in a way I’d never heard before. “Lafayette’s still alive. Fuck . . . the little guy’s suffering.”
He reached for his gun and aimed it at the cat’s head.
“Stop!” I cried, and crawled over to his little body. He was lying on his side, twisted in a way that wasn’t cute at all. His bright green eyes were wide with fear and pain. “If he’s still alive, I can heal him!”
Logan holstered his gun and moved out of the way, and I placed my hands as gently as I could on the cat’s chest and stomach. I took a deep breath and willed my energy and vitality into his body, imagining an invisible needle and thread stitching up his internal bleeding and broken bones. The insanely long nap in Sylvia’s living room and the sheer amount of adrenaline running through me lent itself well to the act of being funneled into a half-dead cat. Within a matter of ninety seconds, Lafayette went from a twisted mess of broken bones to getting up on his feet and arching his back.
He barely had time to blink before Logan scooped him up and held him close against his chest. There were tears in his eyes, and he blinked furiously to keep them from falling. Seeing the way he was snuggling against Lafayette’s chest, I gave him a soft smile.
“Shut up. So what if I like this cat?”
“I like him too,” I grinned, reaching out to pet him. “He helped save my life by clawing the shit out of Sheriff McKinney. I think he deserves a can of tuna all to himself.”
Lafayette turned to look up at me, not as grateful as I was expecting, but then again, he was a cat. And then, still looking at me, Lafayette tilted his head.
“Really?” he said. “I helped save your life, and the best you can offer me is a tin can of fish? Try again.”
32
Logan
Elena stared at Lafayette, then me, and I’m sure I had the biggest, stupidest grin on my face.
“I fucking told you he could talk!”
“I . . . I don’t even know how to respond to this,” Elena said, looking at Lafayette with less curiosity than I was expecting. I suppose if she dealt with ghosts and demons on a regular basis, a talking cat wasn’t quite as difficult for her to wrap her head around.
“How about you don’t say anything?” Lafayette suggested. “But I do expect more than a can of tuna.”
“I brought you back to life!” Elena countered. The black cat squeezed his eyes shut briefly, then looked at her with a smug little grin.
“I wasn’t dead.”
I looked down at the cat in my arms. So many emotions were flooding through me all at once. I was way more excited about Elena saving Lafayette’s life than I thought I’d be. And holding him close and petting him helped distract me from the fact that my partner had almost been murdered, and that I’d shot and killed another person.
“Please tell me you shot the sheriff,” Lafayette said from my arms. “That guy is the worst.”
“He’s dead,” I replied. “You said so yourself.”
“Fine, whatever,” Elena said, standing up. “I can’t stand this noise anymore.”
I watched her make her way over to McKinney’s body to dig in his pockets until she found his keys. Aiming the fob at the truck, she squeezed it and to our relief, the alarm stopped. I had no idea the silence would be so deafening. For a moment, the three of us stared at McKinney, trying to process what we were looking at. I’d never drawn my firearm in the line of duty, and now I’d killed someone. I’d have to call my superiors and let the authorities know what happened. There would be an investigation and forensic tests would be conducted. It would have to be decided whether I was truly culpable for what I did or if it was a clean shot.
But the second I saw McKinney with his hands around Elena, my hand reached for my gun like a reflex action. I knew what to do immediately and there was no hesitation. He was killing my partner, so I took him out.
It wasn’t until his body hit the ground that the realization of what I’d done came over me. Even now, I could barely believe what I’d seen or done.
“You did the right thing,” Elena said before I could get too deep into my own head. Her feet crunched through the foliage as she walked towards me. “He’s as much a part of these kidnappings as Solana.”
“I had no idea he was involved in . . . ”
I didn’t need to finish my sentence. She knew what I was thinking because she was thinking the same thing too. We didn’t know he was one of the bad guys. How had the wool been pulled over our eyes so easily? Was it the slightly incompetent small-town sheriff act that he put on so well? Had we not even bothered to consider him a suspect because we didn’t think he was smart enough to get away with it?
“We need to do the ceremony,” said Elena, still looking at Lafayette in my arms. “That’s all that matters right now. We can worry about that dickhead sheriff later. And if he somehow gets eaten by a few dozen hungry cats . . . ” she paused and lifted an expectant eyebrow at Lafayette. “If he gets eaten by cats, I guess I can’t help it.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lafayette said in between deep purrs.
Elena raised her hand to her neck as she spoke, her voice still raw from being nearly strangled to death. Holding the cat in one arm, I leaned in and brushed the hair from her throat. It was dark, but in the light from the fire nearby, I could make out the start of bruises forming across her skin. They looked like the fingerprints of a ghost.
“You’re right about focusing on the ceremony,” I agreed. “All that matters right now are those missing children. We can report McKinney as soon as we’re done.”
Elena nodded in agreement.
“Let’s get a move on,” she said, and kicked dirt onto the fire to smother it out. Pale moonlight filtered through the trees, with glints of bright white peeking out from beyond the leaves. “It’s a full moon tonight. If we’re going to get the spell right, we don’t have any time to waste.”
33
Elena
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
We were standing outside the door to the kitchen, gathered on the back patio where Sylvia’s pots of herbs were growing. The moonlight was bright enough that we didn’t need the light from the kitchen, although it was
nice to have options in case a cloud passed by.
The instructions I’d written that explained the ceremony were gripped tight in my hands. As I looked at the words I’d written on the page during my remote viewing session, I silently thanked my mom. They were her words communicated to me and through me—the way I saw it, she was the one saving those missing children. I was just the vessel through which her words could be spoken.
In front of me, Sylvia and Logan waited. Sylvia was excited. Logan was clutching onto Lafayette, petting him to alleviate the uncertainty of what was to come. There was a great sense that we were awaiting something of cosmic proportions to happen, but weren’t sure what. I knew the words on the page were magic, but what exactly would they do? Would they crack open the ground to reveal The Hollows hidden beneath it? I didn’t know, but I was about to find out.
“Let’s begin,” said Sylvia. Logan set Lafayette down on the concrete and watched as he led a significant number of cats into the woods towards Sheriff McKinney’s body. Logan and I shared a glance but said nothing.
Instinctively, we drew closer until the three of us stood in a circle. I placed the page down between us, securing the corners with small stones to keep it in place. I looked into the eyes of both Sylvia and Logan and was given an affirmative nod from each of them. Alright. We were actually doing this. Time to stop fucking around.
With a big, deep breath and my hands clenching onto them both, I began reciting the first line from the page.
“From goodness born, a seed of gold . . . ”
I paused for a second, feeling embarrassed as shit by the sound of my own voice. It felt like I was reciting a poem at school.
“Go on,” urged Sylvia. She gave me a warm, encouraging smile and squeezed my hand as I started again.
“From goodness born, a seed of gold shall pierce the veil and strike out bold.”
As I spoke, something behind us stirred among the trees. We all turned round to see nothing but darkness, but it definitely felt like something was out there. We were being watched. I just knew it. The hairs along my neck began to prickle with excitement. Spurred on by the fact that my words were having an effect, I continued.
“From heaven high, it shines through dark, and burns a light in a glimmering arc.”
“What was that?” gasped Sylvia as she looked around the patio. “I heard a rumble.”
“I heard it too,” said Logan. “It sounded like it was coming from beneath us.”
I had also heard it. I just didn’t want to be the first one to say so. It was a subterranean tearing sound that grumbled deep beneath our feet. I could feel the sensation travel up my legs and shake my bones. My words were obviously being heard from The Hollows below.
“Keep going,” Logan urged. “Something’s happening.”
I held his hand so tight it hurt and he squeezed back. Right then, I felt connected to him more than I’d ever felt connected to anyone in my whole life. Sure, we were partners, but it was so much more than that. We’d saved each other from death . . . more than once. I felt like we were inseparable, two parts of the same whole.
In that moment, I never wanted to let go of him.
There was energy flowing between us like electricity traveling up our arms and I knew he felt it too. As I held his hand and felt his energy merge with mine, I felt that all of time was one, that all humans and fae and all other living beings were one . . . that all worlds were one . . . that me and Logan were one.
That powerful sensation spread through me like an explosion of blissful white heat. It unfurled itself from deep within my body and spread out far beyond my physical form. I could feel it rise all around me like an aura of energy, and as I looked up, I thought I could even see it. A glimmering arc of gold. A seed of goodness to extinguish all evil. It shone through the night brighter than the moon and the stars. The essence of a pure heart and noble intentions. It was the greatest light of all.
“Purity of heart shines bright to mute all blackness,” I continued. “It leads the light to burn through darkness!”
The light around me grew brighter and bolder as it started to swirl around us. First, it was slow like honey . . . then it was like a missile of light seeking out its target.
Sylvia and Logan stared up in awe as it glittered through the air, but our wonder at the spectacle wouldn’t last long. Below our feet, the rumbling grew louder. At first, I thought I was just imagining the ground rocking back and forth. Then I realized I was actually losing my balance as the earth trembled. I looked down and saw cracks begin to form where my feet stood. The cracks began to branch out like spiders’ legs through the concrete and dirt. Sylvia screamed and tumbled backward as the ground shattered under our feet.
“Sylvia!”
She fell away into the shadows behind the potted herbs, and I couldn’t see where she landed. It all became a blur as the light mixed with the dark and the ground quivered and shook.
“Logan!”
“I’m right here!”
Somehow, his hand managed to remain tight around mine.
“I’m not letting go!” he shouted. “You have to finish the spell!”
“But Sylvia!”
Trying desperately to see her, I searched the ground, but all I could make out was a heap on the ground.
“Finish the spell!” Logan yelled. “You have to!”
I tried to see the words on the page, but the paper was fluttering wildly on the shaking ground with most of the stones fallen loose from its corners. Just one remained, but as I tried to focus on the words, that too fell away.
“No!”
I fell to my knees and caught the page just as it blew up from the ground. Logan landed beside me, gripping hold of my sleeve.
“I’m not letting go!” he yelled. “Keep reading!”
Struggling to keep my balance, I held the page tight and leaned into Logan for strength. Then I looked up at the sky and saw the arc of glimmering light still hovering above us.
“Banish thee evil to bowels below! Where captivity holds thee for eternity! Those pure of heart will cleanse us all with blessed divinity!”
The rumbling beneath us grew louder. The cracks in the ground snaked out deeper and longer until giant fissures ran through the mud. I saw the horror in Logan’s eyes as he focused on something from below us. As I followed his gaze I felt his horror.
An acid green light was coming out from the fissures, creeping like fog as if it was attempting to escape to the surface of the earth.
“Elena . . . ” came a growl so deep from within the earth. It didn’t sound like a voice, but like the wind . . . like something that could only be uttered from the deepest elements. It sounded like evil. It sounded like Solana.
“Elena . . . ”
The wind picked up around us, whipping at our faces as it whistled in our ears. I could hear all the boards within Sylvia’s house creak as it struggled to remain upright, and hear the hissing of all her cats as they scattered deep into the woods like rats off a sinking ship. The trees, previously shrouded in darkness, soon became illuminated in the unnatural, toxic green glow.
“Solana!” I screamed. A ferocious hatred came bubbling out of me that I couldn’t control. “Solana, I know you’re here!”
Her response echoed through the trees as her sickly green aura filled the air.
“I knew we’d meet again,” she laughed. “I always knew you would fall into my hands.”
Logan’s grip on me was still tight. It was the only thing keeping me grounded. The wind lashed my hair as my feet struggled to stay planted on the shuddering ground. Through the turmoil, I started to catch glimpses of a silver dress billowing in the wind, of large black eyes, and a cruel, merciless smile. I could feel her glowering at me, her hatred burning into my body.
Leaves and branches were ripped from the trees as hatred flew out of her like a hurricane. It rocked the earth to its core, shaking tree roots and rocks and banishing woodland animals from their homes. Birds fled from the
ir nests, screeching into the night, while rabbits and mice scurried through the grass in search of safety.
Through it all, I gripped the ground and the page in my hand, determined to continue. With the elements whipping at my face, I looked up through the strands of my fluttering hair and saw feet walking towards me. They were bare, the skin blackened and shriveled around the toes.
Logan held me tighter as she approached. I could feel the piercing cold emanate from her as she neared. The goosebumps up my back intensified until a deep chill had permeated my spine.
Gradually, the rest of her legs appeared, long, spindly twigs no thicker than the bones beneath her flesh. Each step she took released more of her green aura into the ground. I could smell the sickening despair oozing from her as she came closer. It was the stench of decay and rot and misery. It was the stench of evil.
“Do you really think you can cast me out with a spell?” she roared.
I looked at Logan and his eyes implored me to continue with our work.
“Finish it, Elena!” he insisted.
Holding up the page towards Solana I thrust it at her.
“From goodness born, a seed of gold shall pierce the veil and strike out bold!”
A roar escaped Solana’s mouth that came from somewhere so deep within her it sounded as though it had risen from the deepest pit of Hell.
“From Heaven high, it shines through dark, and burns a light in a glimmering arc!”
“Stop!”
She screamed and fell to her knees, her hands outstretched towards me, trying to push me away. But each time I saw her get close, I’d look to Logan and felt that burst of energy within me. I could do anything with him beside me. And as I took his hand, I felt the blistering white light of our pure hearts and our noble intentions shoot out from both of us.
“Purity of heart shines bright to mute all blackness,” we both shouted. “It leads the light to burn through darkness!”
Wiretaps & Whiskers (The Faerie Files Book 1) Page 30