Luathara - Book Three of the Otherworld Trilogy

by Johnson, Jenna Elizabeth

  Eventually we came to a low spot in the campground, only a few dozen yards from the closest tent, the one with my snoring friends in it. I caught a clear glimpse of the lake in the distance, the moon pooling in the silver dimples over its black surface. A dumpster and several trash cans formed a dark obstruction of the view, and the dozens of oak trees clinging to the hilly campground offered many good places for faelah to hide.

  A sudden crash sounded to our left as one of the trashcans fell over. Cade whipped around, keeping his sword low but pointed away from him. I fought the urge to press myself against his back. Instead, I lifted my bow and chose an arrow, getting ready to do battle.

  A heartbeat later, two small creatures came rolling out of the trash bin, snarling and fighting over a chicken bone. At first glance they looked like raccoons, but as I watched them I could see they were definitely Otherworldly. Bushy tails and patchy fur covered their hides, but it was the legs and heads that made me blanch. The faelahs' arms looked mummified; shrunken skin stretched over bone, and their heads were completely devoid of flesh. Cade tapped his sword tip on the asphalt and the horrid creatures stopped their argument to look at us. I felt my stomach turn. Bloody eyes peered out from gore-stained skulls.

  “Now Meghan,” Cade hissed under his breath.

  Pushing aside my fear and disgust, I drew my bowstring back, took aim, and let an arrow fly. It pierced the side of the first creature, causing it to scream in agony. The other one scrambled to get away, but I had already found a new arrow. As it tried to scurry up the hill into the shadows, I took aim and released my bowstring. This time the arrow lodged into the back of its neck.

  I grinned, very proud of myself, and it was only when Cade leaned in to give me a one-armed hug and plant a kiss on the top of my head did I realize how badly I was shaking. I had always managed to stay relatively calm in the swamp, but then again, that was always during the day and practically in my backyard. Here, it was dark and there were other people who could be immediately hurt.

  “You did great Meghan,” Cade whispered against my hair.

  I didn’t have much time to enjoy the moment because the dark campground was shaken by the roar of some Otherworldly monster. Cade’s grip tightened right before he released me and stepped away. He made ready his sword again, this time positioning it so that its length protected his torso.

  “What was that?” I breathed, feeling cold sweat break out on my forehead.

  “Cuthra,” Cade growled, his jaw tight. “They don’t normally visit the mortal world, unless-”

  He paused, so I prompted him, “Unless?”

  “Unless they are sent by someone with great power,” he finished, turning his head to give me a grim look.

  Sent by someone with great power . . . The Morrigan. I gulped, tempted once again to run and hide, but I never got the chance. In the very next moment the huge beast stepped out of the shadows of the trees. I think the smell hit me first, that clinging scent of death and rot and evil. The monster was about the size of a Clydesdale horse and walked on all fours. Instead of hooves it had long-fingered hands and feet with wicked claws at their tips. A bedraggled mane ran down the back of its neck all the way to its small tail. Like most of the Morrigan’s evil faelah, it appeared to have been dead for a week. Its face, so disturbingly similar to the two faelah I had killed, was broad and ridged with bony spikes. Saber-like teeth lined its mouth and its small eyes glowed with a malevolent orange.

  As if the Cuthra's size and muscle mass weren’t terrifying enough, it stopped and stood up on its hind legs. Oh, it could walk like that too? Now it could use its long, powerful forearms like spiked wrecking balls. Wonderful.

  “Meghan, I want you to go back to the tent, wake your friends, and get out of here.”

  Huh? My mind was still numb from processing what it was seeing.

  “What?” I rasped.

  Cade whipped his head around, his eyes fierce. “I want you to get out of here!”

  “No!” I said without even thinking. “I’m not leaving you!”

  Cade gritted his teeth. “You don’t understand. I have to use my riastrad against the Cuthra, so I want you as far away as possible.”

  Riastrad. Cade’s battle fury. The same battle fury he had inherited from his father, Cuchulainn. I had seen it once before, when he had died protecting me from the Morrigan’s mutated hounds.

  I placed a hand on his arm and forced him to turn and look at me. “I have seen you use it before Cade. I’m not afraid of you.”

  His mouth was set in a grim line, the sword in front of him gleaming in the moonlight. “I don’t want to hurt you Meghan,” he murmured.

  I tightened my grip on his arm. “You won’t. But I’ll keep my distance just in case.”

  Terrified as I was, I couldn’t leave him to fight this battle alone.

  His shoulders drooped insignificantly and then he nodded once. Reluctantly, I stepped back several paces before turning and looking for a good place to watch the battle. There, behind two boulders marking the boundary of the campground. My heart was in my throat and I was tempted to crouch behind the stones, but Cade might need my help. I positioned myself so that I faced the monster, then drew an arrow from my quiver.

  The creature moved forward, close to fifteen feet tall now that it stood on its hind legs, and swiped at the air in front of Cade with a massive paw, its razor sharp, bear-like claws almost making contact. It opened its mouth and let out a great roar, its nose, eyes and throat glowing with red coals like the Cumorrigs’ had. My knees went weak again and what little sense I had left spent its energy wondering how this thing wasn’t waking up the other campers. Perhaps its glamour disguised the sounds it was making, or maybe they thought it was a bear and they were hiding in the false safety of their tents.

  I didn’t have much longer to think about whether or not the Cuthra could actually be heard, because in the next second Cade lunged at it. I almost screamed as I ducked my head. What was he thinking? That monster’s reach was far greater than his and it was obviously much stronger. When the Cuthra bellowed again, I risked a peek. Cade was back to where he had started, his chest heaving, his sword, dripping in near-black blood, held to the side. He had managed to cut the faelah, but now it looked angrier than ever.

  Cade hesitated, and as I squinted in the pale moonlight, it looked like his eyes were closed and he was trying very hard to concentrate. The Cuthra moved forward slowly, back on all fours, twitching its tail like a lion about to pounce. I wanted to shout out a warning, but then I realized what was happening. Cade began to grow larger, his hair gathering in spikes. His arms seemed to dislocate and his eyes grew wild. The riastrad. When he was done with his transformation, he was a full two feet taller than usual and more closely resembled the Cuthra than the young man I loved.

  The sword he carried looked like a dagger in his hand, but as his battle fury took full control of him, Cade made quick work of the Cuthra. It wasn’t an easy fight, not in the least, but I could tell by Cade’s quick movements and the monster’s flagging strength that soon the problem would be gone and we could return to the tent.

  As I watched the fight from afar, I spotted a few more of those little faelah I’d shot before the Cuthra arrived. A pack of them, like rats smelling blood, waited on the outskirts of the ensuing struggle. Feeling a rush of adrenaline, I aimed my arrow and shot. The first creature squealed and fell to the ground, twitching. I readied another arrow and took aim at another one. Twelve arrows later, they were all dead. I wondered at their intelligence, since none of them fled after witnessing their comrades fall. Perhaps they were too focused on the smell of blood to care.

  “Well done Meghan.”

  I jumped. I had been so fixated on killing the faelah I hadn’t noticed that Cade had finally killed the Cuthra and morphed back into his more human-looking self. I grinned sheepishly and glanced up at him. He looked tired and bedraggled in the torn remnants of his clothes, but not nearly as exhausted as he had the day he
fought the mutated Cumorrig.

  He must have seen something cross my face because he asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Oh,” I flapped a hand, “nothing. I just thought you would look more, uh, worn out after your riastrad.”

  He grinned, that grin that made my bones melt.

  “Normally it takes a lot more out of me. But a Cuthra, in the mortal world, isn’t that tough to defeat.”

  I blinked up at him. He thought that had been easy? Of course, I shouldn’t be that surprised. After all, he had managed to take on ten of the Morrigan's giant hounds at once.

  We headed back to our tent, staying alert in case any more faelah showed up. It was when we were returning our weapons to Cade’s car that the glare of a flashlight fell on us.

  “Meghan, what the hell?!”

  I froze. Robyn. Of course.

  “Is that, is that a sword?! Crap, I thought you guys were just going out for a make out session or something.”

  She gasped. “Is that blood?! What happened to Cade's clothes? What have you two been doing?”

  I sighed and started to turn around. Maybe I could make up some excuse . . . But when I noticed Tully, Will and Thomas standing behind her, all three of them with looks of horror on their faces, I knew there was going to be no easy way out of this.

  “What’s that smell?” Tully asked, crinkling her nose.

  Oh no.

  “Hey, what’s that over by the dumpster?”

  Will adjusted his glasses and picked up a lantern, Thomas close behind. Robyn cursed and started after them.

  “Wait up!” she grumbled.

  Oh no, oh no, oh no!

  I twisted around and shot Cade a panicked look. Would they be able to see the dead Cuthra? His face was grim.

  In the next breath, Cade’s words entered my mind: Meghan, it hasn’t been dead long enough to turn to ash and it no longer has control over its glamour. They are going to see it for what it truly is.

  Crap! What do we do?! I sent back.

  Cade sighed, then gave me a long steady look, his eyes appearing black in the pale moonlight. We tell them the truth.

  Could we? Tell them the truth? I mean, I'd wanted to tell them something about my true identity, but could I really do it? After hiding it all these months, and would they believe me? Was I really ready to tell them?

  A panicked curse coming from Will and a blood-curdling scream that could only belong to Robyn was my answer. I let my shoulders slump as Tully bolted towards our other friends. Ready or not, my friends were about to learn what I'd been keeping secret for the past few years. That I was from an entirely different world than they were, one that grew monsters like old bread sprouted fungus. And I thought the worst part of the night was over . . .

  * * *

  Half an hour later, we were sitting around the inside of the tent. Cade had changed into a new set of clothes and I had pushed back the screen that separated our small alcove from everyone else. And at the moment we were being very closely scrutinized by my friends, the light of the two lanterns we'd switched on illuminating four unreadable expressions.

  “So,” Robyn said, her voice sounding uncharacteristically subdued.

  “So,” I repeated.

  I had just finished telling them, in a rush, everything I had been withholding from them for the past two years. I told them how I had always heard voices, how I had stumbled upon Cade in the middle of the swamp, how he had told me about Eile and how I'd been jumping back and forth between the two worlds for some time now. I didn’t, however, tell them about the Morrigan, only that the creature they found by the dumpster had come from the Otherworld and that it was Cade’s job to take care of them. Cade had held my hand the entire time and I was certain he was only being a gentleman by not complaining about my death grip.

  Now we sat silently, Cade and I, facing my friends and waiting for the judgment, the questions, and the horror to come pouring out of them.

  Next to Will I could hear Thomas muttering something about God and the devil in Spanish. I couldn’t blame him. The Cuthra had looked like something straight out of hell.

  “I must admit,” Robyn said, “that this all seems a bit far-fetched, and I would in no way shape or form believe you if it weren’t for that, that,”

  She gave me a hard look.

  I closed my eyes and released a deep breath.

  “Cuthra,” Cade offered, his voice a bit clipped and defensive.

  Robyn cast him a quick, wary glance. “Yeah, that, thing lying next to the trash bins in plain sight. But, I mean, how is it even possible? This is the stuff I’ve been telling you about for years Meghan! It’s mostly mythology. It isn’t real!”

  I blinked in surprise. It was the first time I had ever seen or heard Robyn doubt her Wiccan beliefs.

  “But Robyn, I thought you believed in this stuff,” Will said, voicing my question aloud.

  “Well, yeah, some of it!” Robyn answered. “There are spirits and ceremonies and the like that need to be observed, but nothing like this!”

  She gestured towards Cade, and I sucked in a breath, suddenly feeling resentful. Cade must have felt it too because I could have sworn he growled under his breath.

  “What more proof do you need!?” I hissed, pulling my hand away from Cade’s so that I could throw my arms up in annoyance.

  Robyn snorted and crossed her arms, turning her head to stare at the wall of our tent.

  I gritted my teeth, trying not to grow angry. This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell them.

  Then Will surprised me by saying, “How the hell could you be keeping this from us Meghan? I thought we were your friends.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but the emotion that had been building up got caught in my throat.

  But Tully, who had remained calm and quiet this whole time, only nodded somberly. “No Robyn, Will, you’re both wrong. How could Meghan have told us something this big? Think about it. Would you have told anyone?”

  And that was Tully. Always level-headed, always coming up with the right answer to smooth out all of our problems. She was probably life’s greatest gift to me simply because she knew that not every predicament could be solved by talking about it.

  Tears burned my eyes. I had lied to her all these years and she should be upset like Robyn and Will and Thomas. But she wasn’t. No, she understood. Somehow, with all the hurt and anger and fear that was permeating the space around us, she understood. I was going to miss her more than anything when I left for Eile.

  “Oh Tully,” I cried, swiping at a wayward tear, “I’ve been such a horrible friend.”

  She only smiled sadly and crawled over to give me a hug. “No you haven’t Meghan. I knew something must be bothering you all this time, but I knew you would tell us when you were ready. Of course,” she added with a soft laugh and a smile, “I never imagined it could be anything like this.”

  I sniffled and returned her hug.

  Robyn, Will and Thomas had quieted down and were now donning looks of guilt.

  “I’m sorry Meg,” Robyn finally said, the tone of her voice telling me she had let go of her anger, “I didn’t mean to yell at you, it’s just, well, this is a big shock is all.”

  I nodded grimly. I didn’t think I deserved such kindness. Deep down, I thought what Robyn and Will had said was true. They were my closest friends and I should have told them the truth.

  “Well, now what?” Will asked, crossing his arms after adjusting his glasses.

  “There’s no way we’ll ever get back to sleep,” Thomas offered quietly as he eyed Cade suspiciously for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.

  Or was he just checking him out again?

  I bit back my amusement, glad to be distracted with silly thoughts instead of angry, hurtful ones.

  “I don’t know about you guys,” Robyn said with her usual brusque confidence, “but I would kill to hear more about the Otherworld.”

  I grinned again. So, Robyn was finally going to
admit this was real, huh? And just like that, Cade started in with details and stories from Eile and my friends hung on his every word. I relaxed and moved so that I was settled between his legs, my back leaning into his chest. I sighed when he draped an arm around me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I added a few tidbits here and there as he retold some of our experiences in the Otherworld, but left most of the talking to him.

  We stayed like that until dawn, exchanging stories like kids spending their first night with their cabin buddies at summer camp. At some time during Cade’s regaling, it dawned upon me that I may have told my friends where I was from, but I hadn’t told them I was going back.

  “Well,” Robyn said, yawning as Cade finished off another story, “anything else we should know?”

  Cade looked at me and whispered in my mind, Well?

  I think I should tell them that I’m leaving.

  I studied my fingers, folded together over the hand Cade had placed against my stomach.

  Now would be a good time.

  His thoughts were gentle, soothing.

  Gathering my courage, I took a deep breath and let my eyes trail over Thomas, Will, Robyn and finally Tully.

  “Yes, there is one more thing you should know.” I took a deep breath and dropped my gaze. “I’ll be leaving soon, with Cade. I am going to go live in Eile.”

  “What?” Tully asked, her voice quiet and slightly strained.

  And that’s when the lump, which had snuck up on me in the last few seconds, lodged itself in my throat.

  “I don’t belong here Tully,” I whispered.

  I drew my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my knees. Cade tightened the arm he had draped around me. I felt somewhat comforted but not entirely.

  “But, your family, your friends!” she said, a little louder but not shouting. Tully never shouted.

  The guilt was nearly overwhelming. She had been so calm earlier, so ready to accept the fact that I was much more different than she had always thought. Now it was Tully’s turn to let me know how upset she was.

  “They know, and now you know,” I murmured. “I’ll be living in Eile Tully, but it doesn’t mean I’ll never come back and visit you again.”