"I'm glad to hear it. I remember that feeling too." He glanced over his shoulder, and back towards where the other past Wardens were seated.
"Is this place we’re in somewhere us Wardens need to go?" Macey asked.
"No. This isn't really a place as such. More an echo of what is past. The thrones do exist. But they existed where we needed them to and will exist where and when you need them too."
"So, they'll just appear?" That should have surprised her. Or freaked her out. Or something, but it'd had gotten to the point where nothing was surprising her.
"I assume so. They did for us."
"But aren't you just human?" she blurted out, remembering something Malan had said.
"Yes. And I believe that's where the world has been going wrong. With the exception of Air, all any of us have ever been is human. It came as even more of a shock to us than it did to you."
"I must admit, finding shifters along the way hasn't been the weird bit."
"Exactly." The man looked off into the distance. "The road ahead is tough, Macey. You need to be prepared."
"Can you help me?" she asked hopefully.
"No, I don't believe so. The trials you have to face are too shrouded in mystery for anyone to see. Even prophets such as Malan and Fedelm will struggle to see your true path. There are so many you could take. In some, your battle is internal. A battle for yourself so to speak. In others, the war encompasses all manner of beings. And the people you've befriended along the way, are those that will aid you here."
"So, what you're saying is that anything could happen to me?"
"Pretty much." The man shrugged. "But I suspect the truth lies somewhere between there. You will have mental battles to face. Mahoun is trying to stop the prophecy coming to pass, though what's in it for him, is beyond anything I know. On paper, he has nothing to gain from the Staran dying. Nor from the things that would die after that."
"Because there's far more at risk than just our way of travelling?" she clarified.
"The whole world is at risk. Everything. Each type of magical being, every way of life. Even the humans are in danger."
"Got it. If I fail, everything will die. The world will implode. Nowhere will be left untouched."
"Pretty much, yes."
"Cheery thought."
"It's rather a heavy weight to bear. Our Wind Warden almost lost her mind over the pressure. I can empathise. She was only fifteen at the time. It's a lot to take in at that age," he said wistfully.
"At any age," Macey returned. "I don't think this would be any easier if I was as old as Aunt Nessie."
"Ah, yes, Nessie. She was only young when I met her, but she made an impression on Jonas."
"Jonas?" Macey echoed. "That was aunt's first husband's name"
"You don't know?" The man seemed surprised.
"Obviously not, please enlighten me."
"This place both exists, and does not," he started. "People can visit if they so wish."
"Go on..." Macey prompted, a sinking feeling she knew where this was going.
"We were the Wardens a hundred or so years ago, when your Aunt was a young kelpie, just exploring the world. Not unlike you, actually."
"Please tell me you're not saying what I think you are?" Macey shook her head from side to side, trying to rid herself of the images that had taken root there.
"Jonas and Nessie fell for each other instantly. Almost like it was written in the stars so to speak. They were inseparable until it came time for the final battle."
He looked away, sadness etched all over his face.
"They're lucky they still found a way to be able to meet. She used to come here once a week or so. Until about twenty-two years ago. She stopped then. We haven't seen her since."
He looked back towards the other Wardens.
"Which Warden was Jonas?" Macey asked, pretty sure she already knew the answer. There was only one way this was going, and she wasn't sure what to make about it.
"Water, but I think you already knew that." He smiled weakly.
"It makes sense. Kelpies are drawn to water."
"And to Wind, Fire and Earth apparently." He smiled coyly and Macey laughed.
"Apparently so."
"Jonas is a good man. Though he's fading now. We all are, to make way for you."
"I'm sure he is. I'd never think my ex-Uncle was anything else." And it did explain why her Aunt had always seemed so distant from the uncle Macey could remember."
"He's not your ex-uncle, Macey. He's your father."
Chapter 12
With a gasp, Macey woke up.
"What's wrong?" Jared asked sleepily and pushed himself up until he was looking straight at her. "Bad dream?"
"You could say that," Macey muttered, still trying to get her head around what'd just happened. It didn't feel like a dream. The image of the room with the stone thrones and her conversation with one of the previous Wardens was as clear a memory. It had to be a memory. It was real.
Which meant that everything she knew about her family was a lie.
"I need to see Nessie," she announced and got up, struggling with the blanket which had tangled itself around her legs. No, that wasn't a blanket. That was Flint, stretched out diagonally over the bed.
"Huh?" He rubbed his eyes and looked at her in confusion. "Why are you kicking me?"
"I thought you were the duvet," Macey mumbled. "Now get off my legs, I need to kill a certain loch monster."
Cam cleared his throat. "Ehm, I'm sorry to be a spoilsport but you may want to put some clothes on first."
A moment later, Macey was back under the covers, hiding her naked body. Not from the guys. From herself. The universe.
"What would you do if you suddenly found out that your parents aren't your real parents?" she asked, her voice close to a whisper.
"Burn someone?" Flint suggested.
"Did you have a bad dream?" Cam asked, making Macey glare at him furiously.
"Don't patronise me! It wasn't a dream, it was real. I met Wardens, and one of them told me about... Nessie."
Jared tried putting a calming hand on her shoulders, but she shrugged him off.
"Want to tell us more about it?" he said gently, his voice full of incubus charm.
Macey sighed. Saying it aloud was going to make it more real.
"He said my late uncle is my father. Which means that - unless he slept with my mum which I highly doubt - that Nessie is my mother."
"What the..." Cam bit down a string of curses, before he took a deep breath and smoothed his expression. "You don't look like Nessie though."
"I don't look like my mum either. Nor like my dad. Nor like anyone in my family."
"But Nessie is old," Jared mused. "She shouldn't be able to have a child at that age."
Macey sighed. "Kelpies can have children for a lot longer than humans. Almost until they die, pretty much. So, it's definitely possible. But... no, it can't be true. Why would they lie to me? Why would she give me to her sister?"
Tears were running down her face before she even realised that she was crying. Three pairs of arms wrapped themselves around her and she breathed in the scent of her men. It was comforting and soothing. But she wasn't sure she wanted to be soothed right now. She wanted to be angry, and keep that anger burning until she got the chance to confront Nessie.
Her aunt? Her mother? Someone not related to her at all? Macey was beginning to doubt it all. She'd grown up as the third in line to the throne, but if she wasn't her father's daughter, she'd be in a completely different position. And her brothers... maybe they were actually her cousins? That at least would explain why they'd always been so different compared to her.
"Urghhhh!" she groaned, clutching her head in frustration. This couldn't be real. Maybe it was a dream after all?
"Take a deep breath," Jared said softly. "We'll work this out. How about you tell us what else they said?"
Macey noticed she hadn't actually told them all the important bits. The ones th
at affected all the Wardens, not just herself.
She sighed. "You better get the others while I put on some clothes. We have a lot to discuss.
Izban and Amber both looked flushed and happy when they joined the other four. Macey hoped they'd actually got some sleep and hadn't just talked, kissed or done other things. They were all going to need their energy.
When they'd all settled down on the bed - which seemed to have grown since the last time she'd slept in it - Macey told them what had happened in her vision.
"You're sure it wasn't just a dream?" Izban asked but Amber elbowed him in the ribs.
"Sorry," he muttered and Amber gave Macey a cheeky smile. It was good to see that the beithir was dealing with Izban's grumpiness. Maybe he'd actually become bearable now that he had a girlfriend.
"That Warden didn't really seem to be all that useful," Cam observed. "We already knew that the Staran were disintegrating and that it would have terrible effects on everything. Maybe he expanded on how bad it really would be, but he didn't tell us anything about how to stop it, right?"
Macey shook her head. "No, he didn't have any advice. All he said was that now that all seven of us are together, we have a chance. And that the marks are important but we don't need them yet. So, I have time to get my missing ones."
She shot Izban a meaningful look. It was supposed to tell him that she expected him to come up with a solution that didn't involve him sleeping with her or attacking her. The mage seemed clever, so surely he could find a way.
"The appearing thrones didn't make much sense either. Why would we need stone thrones in the future? I don't think the Staran will heal themselves by us looking regal."
Amber chuckled. "I quite like that none of us are human, though. That gives us an advantage over the previous Wardens. It has to count for something, there has to be a reason why suddenly supernaturals became the new Wardens."
Macey nodded. "The humans were only given their elemental power when they became a Warden. They had to learn how to use it. We already know how to, and we all have additional abilities. Amber and I can shift, Izban can do magic and has his little blue helper, Cam and Flint can travel the Staran and Jared... can have sex."
They all laughed, clearing up some of the tension and worry in Macey's chest.
"I'm a bit worried about the internal battles he spoke about," she admitted once they'd calmed down. "I think I can deal with outside battles better than with internal ones."
Amber chuckled bitterly. "I've had my share of internal battles these past few months. If I have to go through something like that again... I'm not sure I'll be able to cope."
Izban put an arm around his partner and pulled her close. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
Macey was hurting for her friend. It was obvious how vulnerable Amber was beneath her strong exterior. The girl wasn't going to keep up the pretense forever. They needed to get this over with before Amber crashed.
"We can help you both," Cam said, interrupting the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the Wardens.
It was only then Macey realised Luch was missing. Where had the pesky mouse got to? And after the ex-Warden in her dream had revealed such interesting things about her role in fixing the Staran. Though Macey had no idea what actually entail. Hopefully the woman herself would know.
"I know you can," Macey acknowledged. "But that doesn't actually change what happened. We can make ourselves stronger but healing our scars will take longer.”
She exchanged a supportive glance with Amber, who smiled weakly. As much as she hated what the Voice had done to both of them, and wished it hadn't happened, she was glad she had someone else who could understand completely.
In time, the two of them would heal. But for now, it was better to repress the nightmares and the negative stuff surrounding them and concentrate on the task at hand.
"That's not a plan for now, though," Amber said, echoing Macey's thoughts.
"Where were the Staran created?" Macey asked absentmindedly. It might not make a difference. But often they said that the best way to fix something was to go to where the root of the problem was. It sounded like the right kind of plan to her. At least it gave them some kind of direction.
"No one really knows, but there's many rumours about it," Cam said.
"Don't tell me, Mount Olympus?" Macey asked, hoping to the very depth of the seas that she was wrong. As much as she wouldn't mind a quick trip to Greece, the thought terrified her. If most of what the humans thought was mere mythology existed in Scotland, then there was going to be some seriously bad things in the other country, and she didn't fancy her chances against sirens or minotaurs.
"No, not Olympus, you'll be glad to know that it literally is just a mountain," Cam said, sounding a little amused. At least her question had raised some spirits then. That was a start.
"So where?"
"This tiny island in the middle of the Northern Sea," Cam answered.
"Because that's a perfectly reasonable place for a travel system to be born," Izban muttered.
"Where would you pick? Somewhere obvious that anyone could find?" Cam bit back.
"Boys," Amber barked. "This is not the time to start arguing. Yes, Izban, it's a weird place. But Cam, he does have a point. If you're going to make something for people to travel on, don't you want them to actually be able to find it?"
"I suppose?" Cam seemed uneasy about the beithir's commanding tone.
"No, not supposing. The answer is yes. You don't put something on a tiny island unless you don't want people to find it." Amber rose to her feet and began to pace. "Which raises the question of why."
"But why wouldn't the creator want people to find them?" Macey asked. "Especially when there are other entry points. I mean, they're all over the place," she added, thinking back over all the times they'd travelled on them already.
"My guess is that they were never meant to be used by that. Maybe the person who created them, wanted to be the only person that could. And whenever they landed somewhere, they created another door? It would then open up the Staran to other people then too." Amber's tail swished from side to side as she paced, almost like it was thinking itself.
"She's not completely wrong," Luch said from the doorway, leaning on the frame and studying them all.
"Where does the completely come in?" Macey asked, wondering how long the mouse had been stood there.
"Assuming that it was just one person that created the Staran. They were originally a Unseelie invention. A way for them to travel around the world unchecked by everyone else. They just didn't catch on to the fact that a Seelie woman would uncover their plot. She changed the Staran, and opened them up to the world in general. Or at least, those of us who can see them." She looked straight at Macey, as if knowing she was one of the people that couldn't see them on their own.
"Are the Seelie really that powerful?" Amber asked, turning around so she faced the mouse. And, for the first time since raising to her feet, she stood still. Even her tail wasn't moving anymore.
"Not anymore, no," Luch admitted. "Their powers are constantly weakening. I think a part of them is tied to the Staran, and it's dying off along with it." She sounded sad. Not that Macey knew what she was going to do about that.
"Or is it the other way around?" Macey asked. "Are the Seelie weakening because the Staran are?"
Luch considered her words for a moment. "Possible. Or it could be as simple as an imbalance between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. No one, even they, aren't sure how the balance actually works."
"One question," Flint interrupted. "What's this got to do with us?"
Everyone turned to face him, and Macey added a questioning look. She had no idea what he was trying to get at.
Flint shrugged. "We're not Seelie or Unseelie. In fact, we're hardly anything but a bunch of misfits. What do we have do with their Courts and the battle between good and bad?"
"It's not a battle," Luch corrected. "It's a balance. J
ust like the elements you all represent are all about balance. The world couldn't survive without fire. Nor without water, or air, or any of the others. To think that the two things aren't connected is a failure on your parts. This world is nothing but connections."
Flint nodded. "Okay then, that does make a little bit of sense."
"It makes a lot of sense," Macey added. "Except that there's seven of us."
"Balance can be had between any number," Luch pointed out. "For example, are you not balanced within the Wardens as two relationships? Everyone has someone else they can rely on. No one is left on their own."
"So, it's normal for relationships to occur within the Wardens?" Macey asked softly, wondering what that could mean for them all. Did it take away from their relationship if they were predestined to be?
"It happens," Luch shrugged. "But it's not a given. Sometimes the Wardens hate each other and only come together if they absolutely must. It's very rare for all six of the Wardens to be in a relationship."
"If the Seelie know what's going on with the Staran, why didn't they want us to come and help? They could have told us about their origin, about where to find them. Why didn't they?"
"The woman who helped us said something about evil reaching their queendom," Cam mentioned. "Maybe they're no longer all on the same side. Maybe the Unseelie have more influence in their court than the balance should allow."
"It seems we have to do it on our own," Flint said with a huff. "Yet again, it's all down to us. Why can't people just be nice and give us some more information?"
Luch chuckled. "It's not in people's nature to be helpful. Nor is it in that of mice." She grinned cheekily. "But I'm an exception. I'm nice, so I'm going to tell you where to go. It's a pretty place, actually, I haven't been in years. I'm going to think of this as a holiday. You can do the work and I'll enjoy the scenery."
Macey grimaced. Luch was proving once again that the mouse knew far more than she let on.
"Where is it?" she asked.
"St Kilda. The last islands before there's nothing until you reach America. An archipelago with the highest sea cliffs in all of Britain. It's a beautiful set of islands, you'll like it."
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