by Ava Benton
I was so sure I’d never come back here. I had no reason to, after all, not until the heartbeats went away. I’d been unhappy when we were assigned our mission. It had meant leaving the only home I’d ever known. And it had taken a long time to accustom myself to our new home, too.
It wasn’t until roughly a century after that long journey across the ocean that I’d finally stopped thinking of Saighead Uaine as the place where I belonged.
The woods were still the woods, however. Some things never changed. I knew better than to expect the area around the mountains to be built up—the land had been enchanted from the early days, ensuring humans never settled too close. Even so, we’d had our close calls. Hunters, mostly.
Times were different back then. People had respect for that which they didn’t understand. They only knew a clan made their home in the big mountain and gave us space. There were always stories in the town about our mysterious doings, and we never bothered silencing those stories when we went down for supplies. Those stories were what kept us isolated.
I wondered if the stories still existed, or if there were other ways of keeping people out of the clan’s space.
“Here we are.” Miles turned to me with a disbelieving smile. “I can’t believe it.”
I caught up to him and found what he was talking about.
We’d reached the clearing.
There was Saighead Uaine, just the way I remembered it. And the semi-circle of stones in front, where the old ones had performed rituals which were considered ancient, even in those times.
Without saying a word to my brother or cousin, I walked up to one of the stones and touched my palm to it. It was warm, though there was no sun.
“It looks the same. It’s hardly changed at all.”
Gate turned in a slow circle, mouth half-open in surprise. “I had expected… I don’t know what. Something different. Something to show the passing of time.”
“The stones have worn down,” I pointed out. Though, not nearly as much as I’d expected. I’d thought we’d find little stumps in the ground, something to stumble over. The enchantment must’ve had something to do with it.
It took a moment for me to remember why we were here. It wasn’t to reminisce or marvel at how little it had changed.
The mouth of the cave was dark, foreboding. Or perhaps that was my imagination working overtime.
I walked toward it, feeling as though it were drawing me in. For what purpose? To reveal its secrets, of course.
“We need to be careful,” Miles announced, as though it needed to be spoken aloud.
I didn’t bother answering, focusing my attention inside the dark cave. Something was in there, waiting for us. No, for me. Waiting for me. My dragon felt it, prowled around inside my head and ran its claws along the inside of my skull. There was no ignoring it, though I wished I understood its frenzy.
I kept my ears tuned for any sudden noises as I flipped on my flashlight. Its beam was soon joined by two others as the three of us made our way down the dark, empty tunnel. “I wonder how much further we have to go before we reach a fuse box or generator or something,” Gate mused.
I did my best to remember the length of the walk to the interior of the cave, where we’d once lived. Things had more than likely changed by now, but I recalled a large, round room between the entrance and then, our living quarters.
The elders would meet in the large room to discuss clan business. It wasn’t more than three minutes’ walk from the outside. When the tunnel widened, I knew we’d found it.
“Still here. I wonder if they use it for meetings,” I murmured, looking around before focusing my flashlight further down the tunnel. If we had made it this far, it wouldn’t be long before we hit something worthwhile.
“You know what I wonder?” Gate asked in a tight voice. “I wonder why we haven’t seen any signs of a struggle."
“I have to admit, I expected to see bodies.” I turned to them with a grimace.
“Me, too,” Gate admitted. “It’s a relief.”
“Yes, but this begs the question: where are they? If not here, then where?” Miles shone his flashlight straight down the tunnel, which seemed to go on forever.
“Maybe they left a clue behind.” I started walking again, this time looking for rooms. There had to be rooms set up the way we’d set them up in our cave. I remembered having a makeshift bedroom of my own once I was deemed old enough to deserve one. I wondered if I could find it if I tried.
The first room I found was the control center, like back home. They had computer monitors, too, just like we did. All that time, and we could’ve been in communication with them. If only we had known.
I made for the fuse box as Miles and Gate caught up with me. A flip of the breaker and the lights went on.
Miles turned off his flashlight. “Good. I was getting tired of being in the dark.”
“Should we turn on the computers?” Gate asked, crouching to take a look at the setup.
“I don’t know—what happens if there’s somebody out there, monitoring the activity on the server? It’s possible. It could be how they tracked the clan down.” I ran a hand over my jaw, then over the back of my neck.
My dragon didn’t like what we’d found so far, though there was nothing inherently ominous. Nothing except the absence of all other lifeforms.
There’s another here. I can feel her. Find her, the dragon’s feelings were transmitted, loud and clear.
Her? I didn’t feel anyone.
“Do either of you feel like there’s somebody else here? Besides us, I mean?”
They both gave me a blank stare which answered my question sufficiently. I wondered if my dragon wasn’t a bit overstimulated after all the travel and the rush of memories.
“Come on. Let’s keep looking around. I don’t care for the idea of there being nothing for us to go on here.” I watched Miles and Gate walk out into the tunnel, both moving deeper into the cave.
Something told me to hesitate. My dragon, insisting there was something for us to find. Somebody. She needed us, whoever she was. A member of the clan, left behind?
I stepped out of the room, too, and it was much easier to see the layout of the space with the lights on. There were dozens of doors stretching as far as the eye could see. The guys went in and out, muttering to each other, both dissatisfied.
None more than me. But my dissatisfaction came from another source. I wanted to find some clue from the clan, of course, but something else pressed harder on my consciousness... Somebody needed help.
My dragon kept warning me to go back. That she was there. I didn’t bother to ask who the dragon was talking about, since I wouldn’t get an answer. Still, I followed my instinct,, turning back in the direction from which we’d come and following the tunnel. It was easier going, since I was able to see.
And I saw her almost immediately. How had I missed her the first time?
“There’s somebody here!” I shouted.
Running footsteps pounded down the hall as I rushed to the crumpled female figure against the wall. There was a dent in the sheetrock and a smudge of blood. She’d hit it, hard.
I was careful as I turned her onto her back, pushing aside her backpack as I did. Who was she? One of the clan? No, I would’ve been able to tell, even if she were unconscious. I brushed blonde hair back from her forehead to get a look at the bloody bruise.
“What happened?” Gate asked, crouching beside me.
“No idea. We weren’t focusing our flashlights on the floor, and she was out of the way. We might not even have seen her if it weren’t for the lights.” I was careful to keep her modesty in mind as I ran my hands over her shoulders and arms, her ribs, her legs to check for breaks. It looked as though only her head had borne injury—and that was enough, since not even our voices or my hands on her body had woken her.
“How would she even have gotten in?” Miles asked.
“How would I know? Perhaps any enchantment on the place has dissolv
ed since the clan’s no longer here.” It was all speculation, and nothing I particularly had time for. I wanted to do something for the girl. She was breathing. I lowered my ear to her chest to detect her strong heartbeat.
“Here.” Gate handed me a bottle of water, and I poured some over the wound on her head, washing away the dried blood to get a better look at what we were dealing with. There was a lump forming, too. The blood was fresh, to the point where the wound still oozed, so she couldn’t have been there for long.
“Perhaps something frightened her,” Miles suggested.
“I can’t imagine, what with her being here in the dark,” I muttered. What was she doing there?
“I don’t like this.” Gate looked at me. “I really don’t.”
“Neither do I, but what do you suggest? That we just leave her here? She’s already seen too much, I’d wager. What if she tells somebody what she found here?” I looked around, pointing down the tunnel toward the entrance. “She was facing the entrance, which means she was going in that direction. She’s already seen everything.”
“Great. What do we do? Kill her?”
I shot my brother a dirty look. “Yes. Because that’s the sort of thing we do.”
“Well? Do you have a better idea? There’s no way of telling if she’ll keep her mouth shut, unless we shut it.”
“All right, all right.” Miles placed a hand on both our shoulders. “What if we take a step back and consider this rationally? I agree that we can’t leave the girl here, especially if she wakes up and decides to explore a little more. Nobody needs that. But we can’t take the chance of her leading others here to look around, too. The only option left is to take her with us.”
The dragon inside me couldn’t have been happier. But he was the only one who was even remotely pleased.
“What are we supposed to do? Let her stay at the hotel? Bring her home with us?” Gate’s voice grew louder with each word, until he was shouting.
“Stop…” The girl surprised me by rolling her head from side to side. “Stop fighting…”
“Shh!” I held up a hand to silence him, hovering over her.
I was already insanely protective. Somebody had to keep her safe, after all.
Gate muttered to himself, but I ignored him in favor of her.
“Hurts…” she whimpered, eyelids fluttering.
“You’ll be all right,” I said, leaning close.
She was a vision—creamy skin, high cheekbones, full, cherry red mouth.
The dragon roared his approval.
Her eyes opened, focused on me. The most striking hazel, flecked with gold. They narrowed in confusion as she frowned. “Who are you?”
6
Ciera
I focused in on him as best I could, but my vision was a little hazy. Why was my vision blurry? What happened to me?
Where the heck was I?
Think, Ciera. My brain clicked away, though it felt a little rusty. I couldn’t even think fast. I had to be in pretty bad shape, since thinking fast was one of the only things I was unfailingly good at. Catching a ball? Nah. Throwing one in the general direction of somebody else, and actually hitting my target? No way. Getting through a conversation without saying something I’d beat myself up over for days afterward because I’d sounded so incredibly stupid? Forget about it.
But I was good at reasoning.
One man. No! There was another standing behind him—and another kneeling by my feet!
What the crap?
My first instinct was to crawl away from these strangers with their concerned expressions. Concerned over what? Did I have a massive head wound or something? That would explain the crushing pain in my skull. I touched my fingers to my forehead and winced, gnashing my teeth together.
Scruffy McCutie Pie—the name popped into my head once I took in his full appearance, something I blamed on the egg on my forehead—held up both hands. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid of us.”
“Oh, no. Three massive men in a cave.” Because that was where I was. I remembered the hike and the discovery and the darkness. And the…
My eyes darted back and forth. They’d turned on the power. There were lights set up in the ceiling, like something in a doctor’s waiting room or a tasteful lobby someplace. What the hell was a cave doing looking like this? It wasn’t merely a cave. Of course. I had figured that out already.
And that was what had made me run. And trip like an idiot.
“Who are you?” I whispered, crossing my arms over my chest as I sat with my back to the wall. They were all tall and ridiculously well-built. Jacked, to use a word I had never used before. They looked clean, anyway, so I didn’t think I was dealing with mountain men who spent their lives away from civilization. Maybe some random hikers who’d stumbled upon the cave during the storm.
But that didn’t explain why they’d turned on the lights, or even why they’d wandered as far in as I had.
The three of them exchanged a look I could interpret easily. They weren’t sure if they should tell me who they were. What did that mean?
Scruffy spoke first. “I was going to ask you the same thing. How did you ever find this place?”
He didn’t have a brogue, which told me he wasn’t local. He sounded American. Common ground. My mind latched onto that.
“You’re American?” I asked, looking from one to the other.
The one who stood behind the other two nodded, folding his thick arms. “We are.”
“Me, too.”
“What brings you all the way out here?” Scruffy’s eyes seemed to probe me. He was much more interested in me than the other two were.
I wondered if this was a good thing or not. He might… like me a little too much.
I pulled my eyes from his with a tiny shudder. He was handsome, sure. Even gorgeous. But none of that would matter if he wanted to hurt me.
He’d asked me a question. What was I doing out there? Might as well be honest. “I’m doing research on the ancient Scottish clans. I’m a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh.”
They exchanged another look. Probably not sure if they could believe me.
“I’m telling the truth,” I added, watching them closely. If they cared that much about why I was in the cave, it meant they had a personal connection to it. Right? They didn’t think I should be there and were concerned that I was. But how could they have a personal connection?
“Do you live here?”
Scruffy snorted. “Hardly.”
“So… who are you, then? Why are you here? You asked me. Now I’m asking you.”
He grimaced. “We’re explorers.”
“Explorers.” The word fell out of my mouth and hit the floor with a thud. “I thought that line of work went out of style with Magellan.”
To my surprise, he chuckled. But his pals didn’t. I had to be careful of them. Why did they freak me out the way they did? I simply didn’t have a good feeling but couldn’t put my finger on why. Not that it mattered—I’d learned to trust my instincts. Trusting them had led me to the mountain.
It had also led me to what could be my doom, depending on what these three had in mind for me. So maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, after all.
I focused on Scruffy. He might be a deranged rapist, but he seemed to be on my side. I might be able to get past him and get the hell out of there. “Seriously. What are you doing here, for real?”
“My cousin was serious when he told you we’re explorers. Perhaps not professionally, but we were exploring this area because we have ties to it.” The one kneeling to his side winced—briefly, so fast I would’ve missed it if I’d blinked. He didn’t like that much information being shared. Why? What was their story? Did I even want to know?
I forced myself to take a few deep breaths before my head started spinning out of control. “Okay. That’s really cool. Maybe you could even help me with my research.”
Scruffy smiled and looked suspiciously warm and human. I reminde
d myself that I had no idea who he or the other two were, and I couldn’t allow myself to get pulled in by that smile. “I think there’s something you need to turn your attention to before that. Something very important.”
“What?”
He touched his forehead, indicating mine. “You have a nasty bump there. The bruise is spreading.”
And it hurts like hell, genius. He was right, though, and I was only babbling, reaching for anything I could use to appeal to them.
I sensed a ton of animosity from the other one who was kneeling. He looked like Scruffy, only without the beard. And he looked like he’d gotten his hair cut at some point in the last year, too. He didn’t like me. What could he have against me?
“I know. It’s pretty painful.” I looked to my left, where I’d made a dent in the sheetrock. “Oh, my God. That’s definitely the most damage I’ve ever done.”
“You sound like you’ve done damage before,” the one who stood remarked.
“You have no idea. If they give awards for coordination, I’m at the bottom of the list.” I ran my fingers over the damage. Somebody was going to be seriously pissed with me for doing that.
“I think you should come with us.” Scruffy stood, holding his hands out. I guessed he thought he was going to help me up. He thought wrong.
“Excuse me?” I couldn’t help but laugh, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. “What makes you think that? What makes you think I will?”
He blinked like he was surprised to hear me disagree. “You’re injured. I thought you’d need help—I mean, we thought you would.” I glanced at the others and saw that they agreed. Or they wanted me to think they did. What was it about them that made me second-guess everything they said?
Three men who looked like they could be fitness models, exploring the same cave that I’d been exploring. Telling me they had ties to it. Acting protective, too. Giving me the third degree, like I was the one with the burden of proof on my shoulders. The only one of the four of us who was trespassing.
“Are you sure you aren’t just a little more concerned with why I’m here, and what I saw?” Might as well pound the final nails into my coffin, if they were as sketchy as they appeared to be. Why bother wasting time? I pressed my hands to the wall and used it to help myself to my feet. I was a little woozy, but I didn’t want them to see my weakness. There was something funny about them, and not “funny ha-ha.” More like ominous.