"She means what she said," the second said.
"Be patient," the third said.
Somewhere along the way they reversed roles. The three working in unison baffled me.
"I don't want to trick you." They gave me a description to work with. Between Vincent and the AIR data banks, I'm sure we could come up with some leads. Besides, who wants to tick off a leprechaun? Their good luck could mean bad luck for me if I got on their bad side. "Who should I give the soul or the luck to?"
All three blinked at me and rocked on their feet as one.
"She means to give it back," the first said.
The second one blinked in awe.
"You would be willing to hand over the luck?" the third asked.
"It's not mine," I said again.
"You must give it to the one it was stolen from," the third said.
"Is he alive?" My heart jumped. "The other Lost died within days or even hours after what this person did. We can save him?"
"We don't know of the Lost of which you speak," the second one said, "but our friend did not survive."
I slumped, "I was hoping..." Taking a deep breath, I forged on. "Let's give him his luck back."
"Even though he's gone, you're willing to give it back?" the first said.
I had a sneaking suspicion that they were working together to try to catch me in a lie. "Yes."
"We'll take you." The third uncrossed his arms and walked into the woods.
I hurriedly stood and followed. Even with luck on my side, I lost track of them from time to time, so one fell back and stayed with me. The trails they took were for people three feet tall, so I became caught up in the undergrowth and trees on the way. When I walked into a small clearing, I could tell we were close to their home. There was a cave entrance a few feet away, and the entire area felt more alive than any other place I'd been. There were similarities to the homes of other Lost that lived in the wilderness, but somehow this was more vibrant. They took me near the cave and pointed to an area on the ground.
I took a few steps and stopped. "I'm not sure what to do."
"The luck will know." It was possibly the first one again, but I had gotten them mixed up, so it was hard to be sure.
As the sun sank below the tree line, I closed my eyes and concentrated inward. The leprechaun soul gave me the feeling that it was crowded, but it vibrated with relief.
It was home.
With a little hint from the luck, I knelt down and put my hands to the ground. The shards of all the other Lost stuck to my own soul, but the leprechaun had never attached itself like the others. With a little concentration, I felt the warm yellow-green glow flow from me and into the ground.
It left an uncomfortable emptiness behind. I didn't move and stared at the spot for a while. It wasn't until one of the leprechauns stood eye to eye with me that I snapped back to myself. It was the closest one had ever come.
I remained still and watched him closely. "I suppose without the luck, I'll never see you all again."
He winked at me. "Everyone has a little luck." He reached out with his finger and drew what felt like a circle on my forehead.
"What does that do?" I asked.
"Always asking questions," he said. "It marks you as safe. It doesn't mean that you'll see us, but our kind will see you and know you are friend to us."
He moved back to stand with the others.
Before I could stop myself, I asked, "That man I saw earlier with you, the tall man, who was he?"
"Always questions," the first said.
"Even when they make no sense," the second said.
"There was no one there, but you and us three," the third said.
I started to reply, but they shook their heads, so I thought better of it. The sun had set, and shadows were merging together with others to build the night.
"I don't suppose you know which way I need to go?" I asked.
"We will lead you out." The three moved as one and walked into the forest.
There wasn't much choice but to follow, and I knew they wanted to lead me as far as possible from their home.
"I'm having trouble seeing anything," I said after running into a tree branch.
"It's dark," one of the leprechauns said.
I'm pretty sure they were randomly picking directions to walk.
I laughed. "Yes, it's dark. Luckily, my friends can see very well."
"The wild one and the elf," I heard someone say from around my waist.
"They have good hearing too," I said.
"We are almost where they can hear you, but not us."
"You all really didn't see someone standing there when we met?" I asked.
"With luck, you can see what others miss," someone said.
"Even we do not see him. Only his passing. She could not have seen," someone else said.
"Unless he wanted to be seen," said another. "It is time we go."
"I can't tell you how happy I am to have met you all," I said. "I'm sorry it was under these circumstances."
"Be well, Cassie Heidrich."
I didn't hear them leave, but my surroundings began to feel drab and empty, so I knew I was alone again.
They hadn't told me which way to go, so I assumed it was the direction they had been taking me. It took me two steps to walk into a tree. Pain jumped up my arm from the injection site when my arm rubbed across the tree bark. I was going to have to talk with Taylor about that spot and see why the pain was still there.
I had decent night vision, but the darks appeared darker here. Rubbing my arm lightly, I took two steps back from the tree. My foot caught on a root, and I fell to the ground.
"Yep, luck is gone," I muttered.
There was no way I was going to get anywhere on my own, so I called out. "Rider! Logan!"
An answering call sounded far away. I stood up and dusted off. When I heard a twig snap, I looked up, expecting Rider.
An old man stood closer than I expected. The moon hit him in a way to make his features stand out.
"Who are you?" I took a step back. "I saw you before."
His beard and hair were long, but they didn't have the unkempt look of a man who might be living off the land.
Why, why, why, did I have to think about Deliverance earlier?
"They marked you." The man was at ease. "That is a rare occurrence indeed."
He didn't seem threatening, but the whole situation was eerie, so I stayed on my guard.
"I think it's rare anyone even sees them." Chancing it in the dark, I closed my eyes briefly and reached out to the Path. This couldn't be a coincidental meeting.
When I opened my eyes, the Path was a mass of brilliant white. That brilliance rushed forward, caused pressure all around me, and then threw me out of the Path.
"No peeking," the man said.
I gasped and staggered back, bouncing off the tree. No one had ever pushed me out of the Path before. I didn't even think it was possible.
"Who are you?" I blinked as if my eyes needed to readjust to the night.
"I am me, and no one else." His voice was higher pitched, almost like an old woman instead of an old man.
Time to raise the bravado. "Look, it's been a long day. What do I call you? Are you human or Lost?"
"I'm as human as you." He laughed hard.
"What's your name?"
"My name?" The man let out a chuckle. "My name! It's been so long since someone's asked me that."
I edged around the tree, away from him. This was too weird, even for me.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Ah, yes, yes, I wanted to see."
"See what?"
"To see if you were the one."
"The one what?" I was able to take a few more steps back.
The man didn't move, but there wasn't any more distance between us.
"I needed to see the one that is you," the man said, "and I was the first!"
I crossed my arms. "I'm me, and you're you. Glad that's settled."
I took a few more steps back, trying to look everywhere at once. All around, shadowed shapes loomed. I was hesitant to reopen the Path. The first time in days I had used it, I had been kicked out. It didn't bode well for my confidence, but my need to know outgrew my anxiety about using the power.
There was nothing. No trace of anything. I ran through the shimmer raging forward to see the past and the Path the man had left behind, but there was no trace.
An intense fear took hold. It was too dark to move quickly, but I tried my best to put as much distance between that man and me as possible.
"Rider! Logan!" I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but I failed miserably.
When Rider ran into view, he was breathing heavy, even though he was used to running long distances. He came over to me and I hugged him without thinking, relieved not to be alone.
"Is everything okay?" Rider accepted the hug until I drew away. "You were supposed to be back before dark."
"I got wrapped up. Quick, can you take me to where I fell back there?"
Rider looked unsure but walked in that direction.
Logan bounded into view and followed us. "What were you thinking, girl? We were worried sick."
I flapped my arm at him, intent on Rider.
Rider circled an area. "You fell here."
"Can you tell what else was here with me?" I asked.
"Nothing." Rider walked in increasingly larger circles. "I smell nothing else in the area. Were they here, did you see them?"
Sighing, I turned to go and promptly lost my footing in a hole. Logan managed to keep me standing.
Gran told me to ignore the old coot in the woods. Maybe this is what she meant. I regained my balance and took a last look around. "If I can manage to stay on my feet, I'll explain on the way back."
I told them the story of the leprechauns and giving back the soul of their friend. I didn't tell them I had been marked since I wasn’t sure what it meant. It also seemed personal in a way.
Then I explained about the old man.
When we walked into the campsite, there was a fire going. Vincent jumped up and met us at the edge of the firelight.
"You took your time." His face didn't hold its usual blankness. Swallowing hard, he looked me over, assessing any damage. I'm not sure how he expected to find anything among the mass of old bruises.
Somehow, he managed to look closer than I did. He grabbed a first aid kit and doctored cuts on my hands.
"I am going back for Cassie's bag." Rider melded into the woods and was gone.
"Wait up," Logan said, "there's someone else out there. We shouldn't travel alone."
Chapter 30
"We're not alone out here?" Vincent inspected my hands, cleaning scrapes as he found them.
My hands heated up every time he touched them. "Uh, yeah. He appeared, talked like a madman, and then disappeared without leaving a scent or Path behind." I relayed the rest of my adventures in the woods.
Vincent inspected my hands far longer than necessary.
"So," I said after describing the Walker who stole the leprechaun’s soul, "is it someone you know?"
Vincent dropped my hand and repacked the first aid kit. He gathered the trash from the Band-Aids and cleaning wipes before he finally spoke. "Yes, I know who it is."
"And?" I said after it was clear he didn't want to move on.
"And, it's a friend of mine. I guess he used to be anyway."
"A friend of yours is doing this?" I asked.
"Yes." Vincent, finished with the trash, checked the rest of the campsite and he kept moving, refusing to look at me as we spoke.
"Any ideas why he would do this?" I tried to choose my words carefully. Since I share a soul with him, I knew Vincent better than most, but only who he was on the inside. Now I was discovering that I didn't know anything about his life.
"I talked to him last fall. I wanted to know if he'd ever seen anything like what I had done." Vincent’s voice dropped and he stopped moving. "He asked me details, wanting to know exactly what happened. He dragged out every last thing about what I did to you. He hypothesized with me. About what could be done to reverse it, what we could do in the meantime, and what could be done if any of those little pieces escaped?"
"Escaped?" I made the leap without him having to say the words. "You two discussed storing parts of a soul into objects for safe keeping?"
Vincent jabbed sticks into the fire. "He knew it could be done with whole souls, but until last fall, no one even knew it was possible to fracture a soul, at least not to that extent. Now I see he wanted to try splintering a soul."
I sat on the ground nearby and watched him stoke the fire. Now I understood what he meant at the club and why he felt responsible. A part of me, a large part, wanted to comfort him, but yelling was also an option roaming through my mind. Both were wrong at the time, so I sat.
"I couldn't be sure it was him. That's why I was working with Jin," Vincent said.
"Now that we know, we can all move on this." Logan stepped into the firelight with Rider close behind, holding my bag.
"You didn't try to find the leprechauns, did you?" I hoped for a distraction.
Rider glared at Vincent. "You could have saved us time and trouble by letting us know before this. What happened with Jin did not need to happen."
"We couldn't have let him keep that soul," I said. "It didn't belong to him, and it was our job to bring it back."
"It didn't have to happen the way it did." Vincent's voice was low, and he didn't meet anyone's eye. "I agree with the wolf on that. I should have left Jin out of it."
"What's done is done." Logan's voice was firm. "We need to move forward on this now, not dwell on which way the centaur twitched his tail."
"You're one-hundred percent sure that your friend is at fault?" I asked.
Vincent winced. "Ex-friend."
"This moves you off the case," Logan said.
Vincent looked at Logan, surprised. "There's no way you'd find him."
"Who is he? You will tell us where he is," Rider demanded.
"His name is Cole. I don't know where he lives, and we don't have the kind of time needed to track him down," Vincent said.
"What are you suggesting?" Logan asked.
"There are... channels that I can go through." Vincent shifted uncomfortably. "They're not pleasant ones, but I'll be able to set up a meeting."
"Then what?" Logan asked.
Vincent didn't look away from the fire. "Then I kill him."
"No!" The detached way he said this threw me off guard. "You can't kill your friend. Besides, we need to take him in."
"Walkers don't wait around for portals," Vincent said. "We can step between the worlds and disappear for life."
"That doesn't mean you have to kill him." There was no way I could let Vincent kill someone close to him.
"We can try to find a way to stop him. Vincent can arrange the meeting, and we can be there as backup." Logan's eyes flickered to me and then back to Vincent. "Is there any way possible you could talk him into coming in?"
Vincent's voice was cold. "Walkers don't get brought in. The knowledge of what we do isn't shared. If a Walker goes down, he goes down and out."
"We know what you can do." I worked to keep my voice soft, not wanting to upset Vincent further.
"You know a part, and you three know more than most." Vincent stood and looked at Rider and Logan. "But AIR knows what's useful for them and nothing more."
Logan and Rider nodded as though that fact was the most obvious thing in the world.
I felt uncomfortable. How much of myself had I put into the files? I was willing to bet it was more than these three combined.
"So what do we do?" I asked. "We can't kill him."
Vincent and Logan looked at each other, grim expressions on their face.
"We don't go ar
ound killing people." There were many things I wasn’t sure about, but this wasn't one of them. "It's not what we do."
"It's not what you do." Vincent made it sound like I was naive, childish even.
I stood up and glared at him. "It's not what any of us should do! Not if there's an alternative."
"You don't get it." Lines of fury broke through Vincent's features. "This is a Walker. There is no nice way of making him come with us or go away. It ends in death."
Trying to keep in mind that Vincent had to be upset about the thought of killing Cole, I tried to rein myself in. "It doesn't have to end that way."
"She's right." Logan wasn't looking at either of us. "We have to find a way to try to take him in."
"Any ideas on where to start?" I asked in a rush, before anyone could interrupt.
"That's not a smart decision." Vincent's voice was beginning to escalate. "You know the wrong person could end up injured or worse if we try to take him alive."
Rider let out a low growl. Turning, I expected it to be aimed at one of us. Instead, he stared into the woods. We went still and Rider silently moved to stand beside me.
My ears felt strained in trying to hear what had agitated Rider, but there was nothing. The dark night stood still. Not a twig broke or leaf rustled. The forest sounded dead.
A cackle sounded out around us. To me, it sounded like it came from everywhere at once, and it was the same voice that the man in the woods had used earlier.
Logan abandoned the firelight, moving faster than I would have thought possible. I took a step closer to the fire and watched in the direction Logan disappeared. Rider glanced at Vincent and something unspoken ran between them before Rider also disappeared into the night.
"Gran said to ignore the old coot," I yelled at his retreating.
Vincent strode around the campsite. With a jolt of fear, I thought he too was going to run off.
Instead, Vincent dowsed the fire. "Start packing."
My heart beat fast; there was no way I was going to argue. I threw things in bags, but Vincent was more methodical in his breakdown of the camp. Vincent caused the fire to run low but still give us enough light to see by. Every few minutes, I would stop and peer into the night.
Staring at a tree, just outside the firelight, it almost looked as though someone was standing out of sight, only a small portion showing.
AIR Series Box Set Page 57