The Stone (Lockstone Book 1)

by Seb L. Carter

  “Do you know the name Sadhbh?” Patrick asked.

  Eoin didn’t answer right away.

  Katina did, though. “That was the name of Fionn mac Cumhaill’s first wife,” she said. “He found her as a baby doe, and she turned out to be Fae. They married until she was taken from him by a dark druid. Some of the tales surrounding that story believe it was The Dagda that took her back and that she was the consort of the king.”

  “Well, Cyril seems to think that I’m her descendant,” Patrick said. “He basically said what you’re telling me here.”

  Katina’s mouth opened into an O of understanding. “That makes total sense,” she said with a bit of excitement in her voice. “Oh my god! I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. Just a second.” Katina spun on her heel and went into the aisles of the library. The lights in the aisles flickered on and off as she passed beneath them, marking her location.

  But Liam was focused on something else. “When,” he said.

  “When what?”

  “When did Cyril tell you about this Sadhbh?”

  Patrick looked away then back to Liam again. “Last night.”

  Liam gripped the stone as if he was trying to crush it in his bare hands. “In other words, while I was at the motel. You had a meeting with Cyril after the kidnapping? Is that why you stole away in the middle of the night?”

  “No.” Patrick took a step toward Liam. “No, that’s not it at all. I wasn’t going to meet Cyril.”

  “Why should I believe you?” Liam said? “You’ve been lying to me from the beginning.”

  “Not really lying,” Patrick said. “I just never told you the whole story.”

  Liam laughed at the ludicrous nature of that statement, and he backed away from Patrick. “That’s the same as lying.”

  “I didn’t mean for it to turn out this way,” Patrick said. “Everything changed when I got to know you.”

  Liam wasn’t buying it. He turned away. “You’re such a cliché,” he said.

  “You have to believe me.”

  “I don’t have to do anything,” Liam said. He felt Patrick’s hand on his shoulder, and Liam jerked himself away. He went to go stand by Brodie. It seemed they had something in common now.

  Katina emerged from the stacks, carrying a book.

  “Some of this is documented in Supinity, Book of the Shadows,” Katina said as she opened the book. It wasn’t a large book, more of a hard-backed reader type of book. Old by the outer appearance of it, but Liam knew that appearance didn’t mean a whole lot for these books down here. She flipped through the pages as if in a frenzy. “Here,” she said. “It says that Sadhbh made the declaration as she was led off by, well…” she paused and turned a doubting glance up to everyone listening to her. “This text refers to him as the Dark Druid, but I’m pretty sure research has revealed it to be Dagda. A set of scrolls were unearthed about two-hundred years ago that—”

  “Get on with it,” Eoin said.

  “Right,” Katina said, turning her attention back to the book. “Anyway, Sadhbh made the declaration that she would always be able to find her way to Fionn mac Cumhaill, and it was believed that she returned to him several times. Some even speculated that Fionn mac Cumhaill’s later wives were, in fact, Sadhbh in a disguise. But I don’t follow that line of thinking.” She closed the book.

  “I don’t follow any of this,” Liam said.

  Eoin seemed to be catching on too. “I see where you’re going with this,” Eoin said. “Your mother’s spell prevented anyone else from seeking you out, so—”

  “Right,” Katina interrupted. “If Patrick carries Sadhbh’s ancestral blood, he carries some of her magic. And that means he was the only one most likely to be able to break through the barriers of Elena Coyle’s spell. A multi-millennial loop hole.”

  Liam threw up one hand with the stone still cradled in the other.

  “Patrick was the only one who could find you,” Katina said. “Cyril chose him to get you out of hiding, and when the tracker was put on you, that made it possible for him to keep watch over you.”

  Patrick spoke up again. “This was a setup from the very beginning.” He shook his head. “I should have killed Cyril when I had the chance.”

  Liam studied Patrick. If all this was, in fact, true, then Patrick was as much a pawn as he was. That should make everything okay again, right?

  But it didn’t. Not in Liam’s gut. He still felt betrayed. Patrick entered into this whole thing based on a ruse—a lie—and that wasn’t so easily forgotten. Liam knew it already: Everything with Patrick moved too fast. He’d done that before with Brian Grazinski way back in 2010 on the night before everything in his life turned to shit. He let his dick do the thinking, just as he had last night with Patrick. This was becoming a pattern in his life, sleep with a guy then the world falls apart the next day. Nobody was fated. He couldn’t believe that. He wasn’t ready to believe that.

  Liam turned to Eoin. “Look, I’m less concerned with who was able to find me,” he said. “What I really want to focus on is how to get Nina and my aunt out of this psychopath Cyril’s grasp.”

  “That’s exactly what Cyril wants you to do,” Eoin said.

  Liam turned on him. “Well then I guess he and I are in agreement on that, because that’s what I plan to do.”

  Eoin shook his head. “That’s not a good idea. We have to get you out of the city and keep you away from Cyril, not take you to him.”

  Liam lifted the stone up above his head as if he might spike it like a football. He didn’t, of course. But he was frustrated. He was trapped. He wanted to get out of this place. “I don’t give a shit what you say, Eoin.” He took them all in. “Any of you. The only person in this world who I know of as family is in some mad man’s custody along with my best friend. This isn’t an argument,” he said.

  Brodie wiped at his nose. It had stopped bleeding, but he was still holding the bloody tissues. “I’m with him,” he said, pointing toward Liam with an elbow.

  “We have a duty to protect the stone,” Eoin said.

  “If we take Cyril out, all of this ends,” Brodie said.

  “Yeah,” Liam added. He hadn’t thought of that. Of course, he didn’t know enough about the structure of these institutions to be able to think of it. But he liked that someone was on his side.

  And he liked the idea of all this madness coming to an end.

  But Eoin balked. “I still don’t think—"

  Liam stepped forward. “Look, I don’t give a shit what you think. I’m going to save my aunt and Nina, and that’s final. You can come with me or you can go hide in some big house somewhere.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Patrick said.

  Liam turned to him. He wasn’t back on Patrick’s team yet. He wasn’t even entirely sure he could trust him, not after what he’d heard. Not after the secret meeting with Cyril. A small voice at the back of his mind said that Patrick might only be going along to make sure he ended up in Cyril’s hands. He didn’t say anything. There were more immediate concerns they had to deal with first.

  A slam at the door caused Liam to flinch. “Fuck, that’s annoying!

  Patrick knew it was too soon, but they were trapped. It was a big place. Big enough that each of them could take a corner and not even have to see each other, but, considering their circumstances, their need to figure a way out of there, separating was not a good idea.

  After Patrick spilled everything, Liam took off in the direction of the big, glass window that looked out into the water. He didn’t need to use his talent to find him. Patrick could see his dark silhouette against the dancing blue of the water. He followed him.

  As he drew closer, he cleared his throat. But he watched the water too. Being this close to the blue wall was a little disorienting. It curved so that the water was overhead too. It was a little disconcerting.

  Liam stood with his arms crossed, staring out into the water. When he heard Patrick, he turned around. “What do you want?�
� He turned back around again.

  “I want to talk.” He took a step closer to Liam. Really, he wanted to close the gap, to touch Liam on the back and to let him know he was there. Maybe opening their connection again would somehow make it easier to communicate.

  “I think you’ve said enough,” Liam said.

  Patrick didn’t move any closer. “What can I say to make it all right?”

  Liam faced him then. He hugged the stone close to his chest. “You could have not lied to me from the beginning. That’s what bothers me, Patrick. I feel used.”

  “I never wanted to use you.”

  “But you did. To free your SEAL team buddies.”

  “I really thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “Yeah, well… maybe one of these days you’ll understand that lying is never the right thing,” Liam said. He turned around again to face out into the water.

  Patrick did take a few steps closer, close enough that he could, if he wanted, reach out and touch Liam on the shoulder. He resisted that impulse. “It’s a little freaky here,” Patrick said. He instead reached out and touched the glass. It was cold. With his hand on the glass, he felt almost energized. He had an even stronger sense of their surroundings, almost as if he could map out this entire place with only his mind. It was a heady experience. “How is this possible?”

  Liam pointed. “Stones,” he said, curtly.

  Patrick saw the stones standing on pedestals. It didn’t make a lot of sense to him, but he didn’t push.

  “Can I say I’m sorry?”

  At first, Liam didn’t say anything. “You can,” he said, finally, blowing out a breath. “It’s not going to mean much.”

  “I am sorry.” Patrick said. “Liam, if I’d known what you were to me, I never would have gone through with it. The tracker, none of it. I would’ve found another way.”

  “Are you sorry?” Liam turned on him. He was angry, Patrick could see it in his eyes.

  “I don’t know what else to say.”

  “I don’t either.” Liam started to walk away.

  As Patrick stood there with his hand still on the cold glass, another sensation coursed through him. His ability to sense others. He was able to feel the creatures outside, the Fae-touched. But now, there were others. Close and getting closer.

  Five of them. He wasn’t sure what it was, how he was able to see them so clearly—spatially, as if he was able to watch their movements. They didn’t move like those monsters outside. They moved in a way he was all too familiar with—one forward, followed by the others.

  They moved through the house above as a strike unit.

  “We have to go,” Patrick said.

  Liam turned. “What?”

  “Someone’s here,” Patrick said. “We have to go. I don’t think they’re friendlies.”

  Liam followed Patrick back toward where the others were gathered. “I think we have trouble,” Patrick said. He explained to them what he felt at the water wall. “We can’t stay here.”

  “Maybe they’re from the Council,” Brodie said.

  Patrick shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said.

  “Why? What makes you think you can tell?” Brodie had his fur rankled again.

  “Because they’re in the hallway now, and those creatures out there aren’t attacking them.”

  That put everyone else on alert.

  “How are we getting out of here?” Liam asked.

  “We can’t,” Eoin said. “Not yet, anyway.”

  Katina turned around to head back to the stacks. “I’ll go see if there’s anything locked down here with us that can help,” she said over her shoulder.

  “You know, for a super-secret society who’s managed to stay around for so long, you guys sure are shitty at planning ahead,” Liam said. He paced, facing the back wall again.

  With his jaw set, he turned again and continued toward the back wall. He was helpless. Useless. And his aunt and Nina were still under threat.

  There wasn’t much he could do to help search the books. He couldn’t even read the books, and he wasn’t in the mood for Eoin to teach him whatever spell was required to read dead—or fantasy—languages, so he decided watching the water waving and dancing over the glass or plexiglass or whatever it was keeping them safe was his best course of action.

  But he stopped.

  “You know, guys,” Liam said over his shoulder. He still watched the water. To be exact, he studied the two stones on either side of the big window out into the water. “There is a back door to this place.” He turned around toward them all again.

  Eoin had moved to pick up a book, but he watched Liam now, as did the others. Even Katina peered from around a large shelf.

  “What if we broke those ward stones?” Liam said.

  Brodie laughed. Patrick was, well, Patrick in stony silence.

  “And bring the entirety of the house down on our heads,” Eoin said.

  “You said one stone was to keep the place intact and the other was to keep the water out.”

  “What do you propose we do after the water floods in here?”

  Liam squinted. “You said there were some mages who cast spells to let them spend long times underwater to refuel themselves. ‘Recharge their batteries,’ I think you said.”

  Eoin laughed, not a funny laugh, but one tinged with sarcasm. “Yes, but that was only in stories. These days, we just jump into the pool or take a shower.”

  “Well, obviously a lot of these stories have a ring of truth to them,” Liam said. “I mean, I did just learn that Fae are real, and a demon creature tried to sniff me out in an alleyway. And didn’t you teach me how to start fire and shoot electricity earlier?”

  But Eoin dismissed it with a wave. “This is not an acceptable idea,” he said.

  Liam wasn’t ready to give in yet. He marched back toward Eoin. “You, yourself, said that the first Council created a wall that kept the Fae out of our world and that controlling where the water went was easy.”

  Eoin stared at him like he was only barely entertaining any of what Liam was saying, and it only pissed Liam off more.

  “I’ve seen this thing shatter your precious lockstones,” Liam said, holding up the tenth Lockstone that had become like an appendage to him. “It could just as easily break those wards, I’m guessing. And if it’s possible to create a barrier of some sort to keep this entire house from sinking down to the clay at the bottom of Lake Michigan, then there’s got to be something that will protect us from getting a little bit wet when we let the water flood in here.”

  “I don’t think you understand what you’re saying,” Eoin said.

  “I understand perfectly.” Now he really was getting mad. “And don’t patronize me.”

  “I’m not patronizing you,” Eoin said. “I understand that you’re stressed about your aunt and your friend, but it does us no good to offer up senseless suggestions.”

  “Actually…” Katina had come closer while Liam was talking.

  Everyone turned to her. Eoin tilted his head. “You’re not buying into this idea, are you?”

  “He has a point,” she said.

  Eoin’s mouth opened then closed again. “No. We’re not entertaining this any longer.”

  She pointed to the stone in Liam’s hands. “That stone was made to build walls.”

  “That stone contains magic that only our ancestors were able to control, magic that is impossible by our standards today.” Eoin said. “They were close to their Fae blood, the origins of their power. And, in case you’ve forgotten, the Fae were still in this world when they forged that stone through their power.”

  “So, you lied too,” Liam said.

  Eoin turned on him. “What?”

  “You said keeping the water out was easy.”

  For a second, Liam thought he was going to see Eoin get angry again, maybe light up his hands again. But his demeanor changed once more to that aura of needing to be in charge and of insisting that he kept control of
the conversation. “For some, yes. Engineers who have learned to incorporate magic into the mathematics of engineering. It’s not something that all of us can do,” Eoin said.

  Liam was about to argue his point further when Katina spoke up again. “You did say he was a prodigy,” she said.

  “Only in that he was able to learn to use his magic quickly.”

  “Quick enough to impress you,” she continued. She looked at Liam. “That’s not an easy thing to do, by the way.”

  “Do you really want to leave it to him, someone who only learned how to do simple offensive and defensive spells this very morning, to protect us when this library fills with water?”

  Katina paused. Liam didn’t say anything either. He knew well enough when it was a perfect opportunity to shut the hell up and see how it played out. “I’m saying he’s offering up an idea when the rest of us have none.”

  For a long moment, Eoin didn’t say anything else, and Liam began to think that this was the end of the conversation. “It’s a ludicrous idea,” Eoin said, finally.

  “It may be the only one we have,” she said.

  Eoin turned around like he was talking in the entirety of the library. “There’s a lot of knowledge in this chamber,” he said. “A lot of artifacts gathered over the course of centuries.”

  Liam wasn’t unsympathetic to what Eoin was experiencing, but considering their situation with possibly thirty of those things trying to get in—not to mention a strike team of unknown origin—it was extenuating circumstances. Katina stepped toward Eoin. “You said it yourself that this was a library for less-important artifacts.”

  “Less-important is still important,” Eoin said.

  “If we don’t get out of here, none of it will matter anyway. We’ll be turned into Fae-touched and Liam will be a sacrifice for Cyril,” Katina said.

  With a breath, Eoin turned back to Liam. His mouth was tight. “It really is a stupid idea,” he said. “But it’s all we have. Let’s do it.”

  A brief surge of excitement went through Liam’s body. He was on his way to saving his aunt.

  It was tempered rather quickly, though, when he realized that now he was expected to do the magic to make it happen.