The Screaming Stone: The Otherworld Series Book 2

by N. K. Vir

  “The sword is made from magick. I do not question it, but rather accept it.” He studied Finn carefully. His normally darker complexion was pale and his eyes were rimmed with dark circles that gave his face a hollow appearance. He did not look well enough to be standing let alone attempting to watch his back. “I’m fine. Why do ye no’ go with the others and rest.”

  Finn shook his head again still dumfounded by what he had just witnessed. “I think I’ll stay with ye an’ see what other magick ye an’ yer magickal sword have mastered.”

  Duncan frowned as he had never concerned himself with the workings of magick. It was complex and his mind worked better with action and instant results. If he swung his sword and hit his target he weakened his opponent. If he ran he reached his destination faster. The physical world was much easier to understand and navigate. Answerer seemed to understand his needs and simply appeared when needed. It was simple and direct unlike the tangled strings of magick which, at times, did not always work the way you had intended. The tangible world just made more sense.

  The sound of someone whimpering softly drew his attention away from his internal thoughts on the complexity of magick. He cocked his head to the side and tried to pinpoint the sound. Finn too had heard the new noise and also began using his ears to track it. Silently they communicated with each other as they quickly determined that the quiet sobbing sound was coming from the far corner of the darkened room. The noise was vaguely familiar to Duncan but the memory was cloudy at best. Duncan glanced once more at Finn who was swaying slightly as he weakly clutched his battle stained sword. The memory that had insisted on being recalled bloomed into focus as the sight of an injured Finn coupled with the sobbing sound forced his disconnected memory to make the connection. It had been Rian who had been sobbing in the room the night he had violently awoken from his drug induced sleep, and it was Rian who was sobbing now in the corner.

  Ice flooded his body as he became frozen in place. His eyes made assumptions and his heart began to fracture as he realized his worst nightmares had come true. Rian was in the corner crying over Annie. The brave Brownie had been incapable of protecting her against whatever had chosen to sink its blade deep into her chest. His imagination ran wild.

  Then he saw her.

  She lay broken and lifeless staring sightlessly at the cob web infested ceiling as her soul, her spirit and her life drifted away from her. There were no words, no thought and no sound in this world or the Otherworld that could mimic the sound his heart and soul made when it shattered.

  She was gone, taken from him while he had been only feet away, unable to help her and unable to save her. He had failed. He had failed the Battle Queen. He had failed to return the only chance the Seelie court had at repairing the veil. But more importantly he had failed Annie. He could hear her friends, new and old chatting in the other room, unaware of her death. Yet he stood still, unable to move as the weight of his failure crushed what was left of his broken heart.

  He felt Finn brush past him. He heard Finn speaking in hushed tones to Rian. He smelled Rian’s fear as he sobbingly replied to Finn’s questions. Duncan’s diaphragm began to spasm as his body worked against itself; his lungs crying for air as his body rejected the need. She was gone. Both mortal and immortal had been erased, and he was left with a pain that knew no expression.

  He heard the rest of the group shuffle into the room as they argued quietly amongst themselves. They were all completely unaware of what was happening, of what had happened. He did not possess the strength for words and his body deflated as he crumpled towards the dirt floor beneath him.

  Griffin reacted first as he reached out and stopped Duncan from falling. He felt the man’s large hands squeeze his shoulders. He felt the quick invasion into his mind that alerted him that someone was reading his thoughts. He was incapable of defending his mind and allowed Griffin full access, if only to share the pain he was unable to describe and to inform the others of what had happened without having to say the words out loud.

  “Duncan open your eyes and look,” Griffin instructed softly.

  Duncan squeezed his eyes tighter closing off the vision of Annie’s body lying on the floor beyond the help or magick of anyone in the room.

  “Duncan, open your damn eyes it’s not what you think!” Robert demanded. When he refused Robert changed tactics. “Rian get over here and tell him what happened.”

  Duncan heard the scuffling of boots in the dirt. He heard a tiny voice clear its throat. He heard the sniffle of tears long since dried before he heard Rian finally speak. “Annie found a passage,” he said meekly.

  “Why are ye cryin’ then Rian?” Fiona’s motherly voice asked the frightened Brownie.

  “Cause I was too scared ta follow her an’ I knew Duncan would be mad,” Rian admitted with a deep sniffle.

  “How long since she entered the passageway Rian?” Finn asked.

  “No’ a moment afore ye entered the room,” the Brownie quickly answered.

  Duncan’s eyes flew open as Griffin quickly exhaled a breath meant to calm the unsteady emotions in the room. Duncan’s eyes hurriedly scanned the room taking in instantly the scene before him. A large hole opened up exposing a passage on the far end of the room. To the right of the passage was a large sack, which in the poorly illuminated room Duncan had mistaken for Annie. Finn rested a comforting hand on a now visibly cowering Rian who stood in front of him cringing as he prepared himself to take the brunt of Duncan’s anger. Griffin and Robert flanked him on either side holding him upright. Autie was cautiously kicking the leaking sack trying to determine what it actually contained. Kat and Fiona stood behind him just out of sight, while Failinis whined and nudged at Duncan’s legs checking on his new master.

  Duncan stood up straight forcing his legs to reclaim his weight. Griffin and Robert released their grip on him and took two quick steps away from him as he slammed shut the entrance to his inner thoughts. No one needed to see or feel what was beginning to build inside of him.

  No one spoke as he strode to the entrance of the passage. He spared a word for no one. What was about to happen would take place between him and the stubborn woman who was destined to be the death of him. Even Griffin’s parting breathy attempt to calm him could not penetrate the fire that was pure fury in his blood.

  What had she been thinking? She asked herself for at least the third time in the short space of a minute.

  As soon as she had entered the secret passageway a sense of eerie gloom had descended upon her. She had only taken a few cautious steps inside, after convincing Rian that she would be okay, and she had been plunged into a choking blackness. She was surrounded by dirt and dust that had remained quarantined off from the light of day and the lungs of man for at least a couple centuries. The damp, dank feel of the basement was multiplied in the passage as even the walls were cool and almost wet to the touch.

  When she had found the word Dillan inscribed on a loose fitting stone she had convinced herself she was in the very adventure movies that only moments before had her shaking in fear. She began bravely fiddling with every stone that surrounded it in an attempt to uncover the secret escape route she was convinced really did exist. Rian, who had quietly followed her, startled her. Spooked she had backed into an old wooden shelf knocking an oozing sack onto the floor. She shot Rian an angry look, if only to cover the scare he had given her. As she carefully stepped over the bleeding sack her foot stepped on something and she heard a loud click followed by the unmistakable sound of ancient hinges in desperate need of oiling.

  “Just like in the movies,” she whispered in awe. As the dark passageway, unused for ages, revealed itself to her,

  Cautiously she peered into the dark entryway. Remembering she still had her phone in her back pocket she reached around for it. She fiddled with the screen for a few moments until she found the flashlight app she had installed just before leaving Salem. Since no one went anywhere anymore without their phone buying a flashlight seemed like an unnee
ded expense. Her four human, and hence phone possessing friends, had scoured the app stores for any gadget and widget they might need to survive the wilds of Ireland. They had all downloaded not only the flashlight app, but a knot tying app, a compass, a ghost detector and a book on the myths and legends of Ireland as well as a first aid app. Until recently only the first aid app had come in handy. Now she had a chance to use her phone as a flashlight.

  “Annie we should wait for the others,” Rian had warned her. She should have listened. The slow descent into the basement had been joyous compared to what she was feeling now.

  Since when was she so brave?

  “Since you convinced yourself you were watching a movie,” she muttered to herself. At least she hoped she was by herself. “Well it’s just a dark hallway.” She continued talking to herself liking the idea of at least hearing something even if it was her own voice.

  The moment she had stepped into the dark space it seemed to not only swallow light but sound as well. After a few steps she hadn’t even been able to hear Rian quietly crying. At first she had felt guilty about abandoning him, but honestly she did not intend to go far. She had promised herself that she would only take fifteen steps down the seemingly unending passage. So far she had taken twelve, albeit twelve very large steps.

  “Okay,” she said exhaling loudly. “I’ll take one more step, then turn around and head back.”

  She drew in one long breath for encouragement as she braced herself to take one more gigantic step further down the tunnel and away from the relative safety of the basement and her friends. Her foot landed hard on the dirt beneath her and her feet crunched something beneath the sole of her hot pink sneakers. She cringed. Then the internal argument began.

  “What had she stepped on?” the child inside her asked.

  “Oh it’s nothing probably just a bug,” the grown up inside her replied.

  The teenager just screamed in girlie shock.

  The old lady that had, until now, remained quiet chose to speak her mind as well. “Maybe it’s a bone. You are under a graveyard after all.”

  With that thought firmly etched into her mind she spun and ran, like a coward, straight into a fleshy wall.

  “Faerie princesses should no’ wander aboot dark scary passage ways without an escort,” growled an angry voice as an unseen hand clamped around her mouth silencing the scream that threatened to erupt out of her throat.

  She was suddenly shoved, hard against the wall of the passage and lost her grip on her phone, as well as the only light source in the passage, which fell to the floor face down. The passageway instantly became dark as her eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change in light. Panic seized her. She had been so stupid to wander off on her own. She should have waited, should have told the others what she had found, but her innate curiosity had driven her to take just one more step. That one last step had led her straight into danger.

  All of this happened with in the space of a breath. Then her brain suddenly stopped working and started acting. It recalled every self-defense class Kat had dragged her to. It recalled every kung-fu theater she had seen as a kid. It recalled every kick ass female she had ever seen in an action movie and moved. Her knee rose up and came into contact with the soft exposed male parts that drove every man to the ground as her hands clapped hard over his ears and her teeth bit deeply into the hand that was covering her mouth.

  Then she screamed.

  It wasn’t a scream queen scream. No she powered her lungs with the one word; the one name that she knew would come to her rescue as her feet moved fast carrying her away from her attacker.

  “Duncan!”

  She managed to take one faltering running step away before her legs stopped working at the sound of a voice laced heavily with pain rolling around on the ground behind her. “I think I would’ve fared better had ye stabbed me Annie.”

  She spun around and dropped down to her knees feeling around in the darkness for her phone. Her shaking, adrenaline fueled fingers finally found the rectangular shape a foot away. She raised her hand and a tiny pool of light illuminated a writhing Duncan. His bleeding hand clutched at his more sensitive areas while he continued to scream at her, unable to hear his own voice over the deafening blow she had delivered him.

  She scrambled towards him kicking up dirt and dust that made both of their lungs cough in protest. She reached out a tentative hand afraid of touching him again. At least he had stopped screaming, and probably cursing, in Gaelic.

  “I think ye’ve beat the fight out of me luv,” he muttered a few octaves higher than his normal pitch convincing her that it was safe to touch him.

  “Duncan, I am so sorry I didn’t realize it was you. When you get angry your voice changes slightly and you accent becomes thicker and harder to understand.” She was rambling and she knew it she just couldn’t think of a way to apologize for de-manning someone.

  “It’s alright. I may have deserved that one,” he grunted as he heaved himself up to a sitting position. He took a few slow deep breaths before speaking to her again. “But ye deserve a thrashin’ for wanderin’ away on yer own!”

  He was waggling a finger under her nose like she was a child and her own anger swelled inside of her. She stomped down on it hard. They had both been foolish, and she was willing to admit her own stupidity if he admitted his first.

  “I thought you said you deserved it?” she challenged.

  “Annie,” he growled at her.

  “Don’t you do that,” she warned pointing her own waggling finger at him. “Don’t you growl at me! I took twelve steps down a dark hallway yes but it was only twelve steps. It’s a longer trip to my bathroom from my bedroom and I do that on a daily basis without your assistance!”

  His chin jutted out in stubborn anger and he inched closer to her stopping just as his nose brushed the tip of hers. “Aye,” he acknowledged. “But that was before half o’ the Unseelie were huntin’ ye! From now on ye’ll no’ take more than one step from my side!”

  “If you are both done venting we really need to get a move on. The sun is setting fast,” Griffin calmly informed both of them.

  Annie used her periphery vision unwilling to take her angry eyes away from Duncan’s. He was angry, but he was scared too. She hadn’t heard the others approach and wondered how much they had witnessed and how much they had overheard.

  Kat, the only human not blessed with psychic abilities spoke out first. “We’ve heard and seen enough. Annie you should have never wandered away without us. We thought you had been attacked or worse!” she chastised.

  Annie lowered her eyes and closed them as the realization of Kat’s words penetrated her stubborn brain. She could just imagine what it looked like when they stumbled on the darkened room with Rian crying in the corner and the oozing sack laying a few feet from him. The sight must have been…horrifying.

  “I’m so sorry everyone.” She was sorry and knew that words would never fix the few moments of terror they had all had to live through. They had all; every one of them, given up so much, sacrificed so much to protect her. She had taken their loyalty and squashed it when she allowed her curiosity to override her safety.

  When Kat was convinced that Annie had understood and had accepted her wrongdoing she turned her attention on Duncan. “And you!” she said pointing an accusing finger in his direction. “I have spent over a year training her in self-defense. You never, ever approach a woman like that. You are so lucky she only bruised your balls. I’ve taught her to do much worse.” Duncan was not willing to give in so easily and tried to protest but Kat clapped a hand over his mouth silencing him. “See, it’s not very nice is it?” she challenged.

  Duncan held up his bleeding hand as an answer.

  “She bit you too. Good she did some real damage,” Kat said with a satisfied smirk on her cherub-like face. “Now knock it off both of you. We have a matter of minutes before the sun sets and then all the planning we’ve done is out the window. I don’t mind flying on m
y broom by the seat of my pants but this is cutting it close.”

  With that Kat had taken control and become both the general and the dictator as everyone quickly followed her down the darkened passage.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Superstitions

  Kat had taken exactly two steps before she spun around; the flashlight on her phone blinded all those with the misfortune to be standing directly behind her. She used the blinding light like the police use a spot light to search for a criminal. The light swept by Annie then swung back and remained focused on her. Annie, like the good criminal she was, raised her hands in surrender.

  “I give up. What did I do now?”

  “Booby traps,” Kat whispered to her.

  “I didn’t even think of that,” Annie replied in horror.

  “I am canceling your Friday night movie parties,” Griffin informed both of them as he shook his head in disbelief.

  If this whole excursion was ‘just like the movies’ how had Annie not thought of booby traps? The answer, she was the stupid heroine in those movies. No one thought ahead, no one stayed upstairs where it was safe, no one stayed with the group (because at least one idiot wandered off), and no one thought that the creepy secret passage way they had just found would be rigged with booby traps.

  “We’re supposed to be the experts!” Annie hissed as she slapped her thighs in frustration.

  “I am the expert,” Kat corrected her. “You’re the one following the script. I’m the one who said we needed a blonde. I’m the one who stayed with the group.” She used her free hand to count out her points while Annie, Griffin and Robert rolled their eyes. Kat was invested in proving her point and they knew there would be no stopping her until she had reached the climatic conclusion. “And,” she said dramatically warming up for the grand finale. “I thought of the booby traps before it was too late. Ha!” she shouted. “Three strikes and you are out,” she finished by giving everybody her best impression of a major league umpire.