Ironspark

by C. M. McGuire

  DIRGELWCH.

  Secret.

  “Because we are valuable to them. You need to be strong, cariad.” She reached out, her fingers hovering an inch from my cheek, but she didn’t touch.

  Cariad. The little Welsh endearment I hadn’t heard in so long made my heart pound. I took a deep breath and shifted to rest my cheek against her hand. Like a rabbit fleeing, she snatched her hand back before we touched, but her expression remained unchanged. Cool and blank. Distant. Like a recording. Something knotted up in my chest. All I wanted in the world was to crawl over that table and hug her close, but that wasn’t allowed here.

  The pages flipped again.

  GWIRIONEDD.

  Truth.

  “We are so much more than we seem, Bryn,” she breathed. “For generations before you were born, she wanted our bloodline. She can unlock a power in us that you couldn’t imagine.”

  “I stopped her, didn’t I?” I demanded, pushing myself up from my seat, but Mum didn’t seem to hear me. She raised her hands slowly, like she was moving through water, and pressed her fingers to the pages.

  “We’re probably the only humans in the world who can use this book. You and your brothers alike.”

  “It doesn’t matter. They’ll never have to.” I blinked. The dappled light filtering through the branches dimmed. The earthy scent of an imminent storm washed over us as the trees began to shake. I glanced over my shoulder. I needed to get home soon. They would be waiting for me. They would be scared.

  “You cannot deny Asher and Jacob their birthrights, Bryn. They are just as powerful as you.”

  “I’m protecting them.” I turned back to her, my brows furrowed. “If you really think we should use it, why did you never show us this book when we were kids? Why didn’t you teach us then if you knew they were after us?”

  Mum stood up, and leaves fluttered down from her hair, crumbling to dust even as they fell to the ground at her feet.

  “You need to teach the boys, cariad.”

  “No!” I shouted. I balled my hands into fists. “If you knew we were in danger, why didn’t you tell us anything? You should have taught me this yourself!”

  “Bryn.”

  She gave me a small, sad smile, and closed her eyes.

  There was a crunch of leaves underfoot. In the space between two blinks, Mum disappeared. The air filled with the thickness of impending rain. I turned, and … no.

  There was the prince, blue blood dripping from his side.

  I scrambled back, reaching for my iron nail, but my neck was bare. Pain exploded across my jaw as his knuckles slammed into my face, sending stars dancing in front of my eyes. I stumbled, my back slamming into the side of the wooden table. The breath rushed out of me. I wheezed and kicked out, but it was a bare foot that met his chest.

  The Fae leered at me, wrapping his thin fingers around my ankle. The world slowed down as he yanked me up, hurling me away. My head collided with the earth and the world spun. But the Fae was coming back. I had to run. I had to get away from him. I forced myself to my feet, but everything was off. The table and the Fae loomed over me. My dark clothes had been replaced with my little sundress, my small, scabby knees poking out from the hem.

  “Little one,” the Fae positively cooed, reaching down for me. “Where will you go?”

  No! I had to get home. I had to protect Mum and Dad and the twins. I turned and tried to run, but the grass curled up around my ankles, holding me in place. My knees hit the ground first, followed by the rest of me. Claws dug into my shoulders. Chills ran down my spine, pooling and flooding and covering me in ice. The grass tightened. The claws dug deeper until, first with a crack, then a mighty thunder, the icy feeling shattered. All that remained was heat stabbing into my shoulder.

  “Stop!” I screamed, my cheeks burning. “Get away!”

  The nails ripped down my back, trailing fire in their wake. I screamed until my throat went raw. I was going to die here. And the prince would go home and take the boys. I pressed my forehead into the grass, tears streaming down my cheeks as I prepared for the end of it.

  “Bryn!” a distant voice called. I blinked through the tears. Red banners with gold dragons tumbled down from outstretched branches. The woman in the dove-gray gown flickered between the trees. Her skirts billowed around her as she ran, legs charging against the ground, but she never drew any closer. Instinctively, I pulled away.

  “What do you want from me?” I called, but my voice came out in a wheezy whisper. “You already sold us!”

  The woman stretched out both arms and, in a rumble of flapping fabric, she transformed into a withered crone. Then again, into a delicate white doe.

  “Who are you?” I cried.

  A hand touched my shoulder. I flinched, my breath hitching in my throat.

  “Come back,” a familiar voice cried from the distance. “Come on, Bryn. You’re not ditching me like this.”

  It wasn’t him. He was gone. It wasn’t him. I was safe now. Cold washed over me in waves until, like a rubber band breaking, it stopped. I turned, staring up. Through the blur of the tears and pain, I saw Jasika staring down at me.

  Twenty-One

  The steady whoosh and click hissed in time with every throb between my temples. At once I was too cold and too hot, my skin burning in an icy room.

  “Shit, shit,” Jasika hissed, her callused hands pressing against my face. I leaned into the touch, right until those callused fingers pinched my cheek.

  I winced and jerked away, peeling my eyes open. The room spun above me before it settled into white walls. Jasika knelt next to me, her eyes wide. She looked like she was going to throw up.

  “Oh my God,” she breathed. “Bryn, we need to get you a doctor.”

  “I’m fine,” I insisted, pushing myself up. Fire ran down my back, and I almost collapsed onto the floor. The taste of blood filled my mouth. What the hell? I touched my cheek, right where the Fae had hit me. The tender skin ached.

  I turned and stared down at the floor. Blood smeared the white tile right where my back had been.

  “Little one. Where will you go?”

  They could still get to me. Through my dreams. I hadn’t even used the dream spell. And, like a stab to my chest, it really hit home. They could get into my dreams, and Mum hadn’t been able to stop them. My ears rang as it all pressed in too close, too tight, too loud. The whole world crashed into me like the deepening ocean, pressure building and building. A scream bubbled up inside of me that I couldn’t vocalize. I wanted my mum. I needed her. She wasn’t here to protect me. Nobody could.

  I wrapped my arms around my middle and squeezed my eyes shut. I had to breathe. I had to think. Dammit, I’d been so stupid! Why did I think playing with the book would be a good idea? I’d all but invited them in, hadn’t I? Gwen was right. I hadn’t stopped Mab. Not if they could still find me anytime I closed my eyes.

  “Bryn, what hurts?” Jasika demanded, dragging me back before the panic could send me spiraling out.

  I blinked at her.

  “What?”

  “I need you to tell me what hurts. I need to make up an excuse to tell the doctors.”

  “No doctors.” I pushed myself to my feet and wobbled back and forth for a moment. Jasika leapt to her feet, ready to catch me, but I waved her off. “I’m fine. I … I will be. Grab some paper towels. We need to clean up the blood.”

  Jasika didn’t move, so I stumbled forward, trying to ignore how and why my ankle ached as I searched for something to destroy the evidence that I’d even been here. One step at a time. One problem at a time. Clean the room. Get out. Get help.

  I found a handful of antiseptic-wipe packets in a bowl next to the door. When I managed to shuffle back to the spot, Jasika was already at work, tucking the book back in my backpack.

  “Bryn, we can’t hide this,” she insisted.

  My hands shook as I tried to rip the packet open, and that just made my heart pound and my eyes sting and oh God, oh God, they could f
ind me in my dreams …

  Jasika took the packet from my fingers and ripped it open, but she didn’t hand it over right away. Instead she made to press it to my back. I stiffened and caught her hand.

  “We can deal with me later, we need to clean all this up.”

  Jasika twisted her hand in mine, giving me a little squeeze. “Okay. But Bryn, you’re hurt. You’re scared. I need you to tell me what’s happening.”

  “I…” My heart leapt into my throat. “I think I just messed up.”

  “How?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. The faintest twitch of a hand on the stiff sheets.

  Shit!

  I glanced over at the heart monitor. It was speeding up. Somewhere in this building, some doctor was getting an alert about William. If they saw us here, if word got back to Dad …

  “We need to go,” I insisted. “I promise, I’ll explain everything in the car.”

  Jasika hesitated, her eyes flicking back to her cousin. I could see how much she wanted to stay with him. She must have been so worried about him for so long. The thought that he could wake up and she could somehow miss it must have been agony. I was ready to take off on my own, call a cab if I had to, but she took a deep breath and nodded.

  “Okay.” She handed me the wet wipe. I lowered myself down to the ground, grinding my teeth together as my back burned, and started wiping up the bloody smear. In a second, Jasika was on her knees next to me, and between us, we managed to clean it all up. She snatched the filthy wipes and tossed them in the garbage next to William’s bed. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she scooped up the trash bag and tied it to her belt loop. There would be no trace we’d been here.

  “Come on,” she said, grabbing a spare blanket from the edge of the bed. “Where are we going? I assume not to the church.”

  I pushed myself up slowly and swallowed as the room spun again.

  “The woods.”

  “To Gwen?” Jasika looked at me like I had a concussion. Maybe I did. I just felt bad for making it her problem.

  “Trust me,” I pleaded.

  “Trust you.” Jasika shook her head, but her eyes drifted back to William. He was still motionless, but the heart monitor didn’t lie. “Sure. Yeah. Let’s go in the fairy-infested woods after dark.”

  I reached up to touch my throat. The nail necklace was there.

  “Do you have iron?”

  “Of course.”

  Jasika shook her head but held out her arm. Maybe something was wrong with my head because it took me a few seconds to realize why. I grabbed my backpack and stumbled forward, leaning against her. She secured the arm around my middle, and I wish I hadn’t yelped when she did, but there was no helping that. She threw the blanket over my back and half led, half dragged me out of the hospital room and down a different corridor than the one we’d come through. Apparently Jasika really knew her way around this place. We didn’t run into a single person on the way out. I leaned against her, my head pounding as my feet tripped over each other, but she caught my every stumble.

  * * *

  JASIKA SPREAD THE pilfered hospital blanket across the back seat of the car and helped me crawl up onto it. I settled onto my stomach and spent the whole drive trying not to breathe too deeply or fall asleep. Jasika flipped through radio stations like she had some sort of compulsion. I watched her punch the buttons every few seconds. At every light, she took a break to check her cell phone. Nobody ever called, though.

  I didn’t notice when we reached Postoak, but the door flew open, and her hands were on me, helping me out of the back seat. Huh. Time flies when you’re bleeding on someone’s back seat.

  I stumbled out and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, head lolling onto her sternum as I tugged my nail free.

  Jasika pulled an iron crucifix from her pocket and held it out. Her heart pounded so hard I could feel it against my cheek. I took a deep breath and let the steady ba-dum ba-dum beat through me.

  We crept through the trees, shoes crushing leaves and twigs as the sweet pine smell settled over me like a shroud. I struggled to keep my eyes open. Dark shapes danced between the trees, but after everything that had just happened, no wild Fae could possibly scare me now. Maybe it was the shadelings. I’d lost their loyalty but I couldn’t imagine they’d let anything happen to us.

  “What do you think Dom will say if he finds out we practiced magic without him?” Jasika whispered.

  “Betrayal. He’ll probably disown us.”

  Jasika let out a weak laugh, and swung her crucifix in an arc, like some sort of warning to whatever invisible threat might be out there. “He’ll never let us out of his sight again.”

  I had to fight not to laugh. Right now, any motion was a bad idea. “Maybe we should get him a crystal as an apology.”

  “Or his own magic succulent terrarium?”

  “Maybe a—”

  I froze. A pair of orange eyes shone out from the dark, wide and familiar. I sagged a little more against Jasika and held out my hand.

  “It’s okay. It’s only—”

  The eyes blinked out, leaving behind only the darkness. Oh hell, I’d held out the hand with the nail in it.

  “Bryn, what was that?” Jasika hissed.

  “A … a friend,” I murmured, tightening my grip on the nail. “I think I just offended it.”

  “Is it hostile?”

  “Never.” My heart sank. Every time I had ever seen a shadeling, they had been excited to see me. This one didn’t even speak to me. The little purple one who’d braved the convent really was the only one left who gave a damn about me.

  Jasika huffed and continued forward. I shuffled along, my whole body a single throbbing ache. A fluke. It had been scared off by Jasika or the nail; that was all. After all, I had told them to stay away from humans. I’d deal with it later.

  Gwen waited by the edge of the pool when Jasika and I staggered through the tree line. Somehow, the water wives probably knew we were coming.

  Gwen rushed forward, grasping my arms and tugging me from Jasika’s grasp.

  “Oh, Bryn, what have you been doing?” she gasped, leading me to the edge of the water.

  “We were trying to help her cousin,” I muttered, gesturing toward Jasika. “Something went wrong. I ended up in a dream and the Fae attacked me.”

  Gwen fixed me with a stern look. “You used the book.”

  “I had to.”

  She hissed under her breath. Of course, Gwen wouldn’t believe that. She wasn’t stupid. Still, she helped me to sink down onto my stomach next to the pool. A second later, water sprinkled onto my back through my shirt. I bit back a yelp and pressed my forehead into the grass. Gwen laid her hands on my skin. I waited for the familiar warmth and the spread of relief … but they never came.

  Gwen snatched her hands away. “Why isn’t it working?” she murmured.

  I started to push myself up, but before I could, there was a loud rrrriiiiip and cold air on my back.

  Jasika swore.

  “What is it?” I gasped, craning my neck, but I couldn’t see whatever it was.

  “Bryn, give me your nail.” Gwen’s voice shook as she spoke.

  “It’ll burn you,” I protested.

  The grass crunched as Jasika knelt on my left. “I’ll do it.”

  “Do what?”

  Jasika pulled the nail from my hand. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, geez I hope you got a tetanus shot.”

  “What’s hap—” I choked back my words as the nail’s sharp tip dug into my already aching back, dragging across my sore skin. Something hot bubbled up. I kicked out, knocking her to the ground in a struggle as I jumped to my feet. “The hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Jasika stared up at me with wide eyes. Her hand holding the nail shook. “I think I’m saving your life, Bryn.”

  “There was an eye carved into your back,” Gwen murmured. “The queen is trying to watch you. To find out where the boys are. It broke through my protections l
ike nothing. Bryn, I told you not to attempt anything you didn’t understand!”

  “What?” I reached back, pressing my fingers to my stinging skin.

  Gwen let out a huff and brushed her fingers against my cheek. “Was it a court Fae that attacked you?”

  My jaw throbbed under her touch. My stomach sank. How could she still be so kind to the person who dumped her? Maybe it was the pain, but I felt my eyes stinging with tears because, really, I didn’t deserve someone like Gwen in my life. I swallowed and nodded.

  “Yeah. The same one from Wales.”

  “The queen sent him to mark you. It’s a great fortune you chose to come here. Jasika just broke the pattern of the eye. You’re hidden again.”

  The implication nearly made my heart stop. If the Fae had hurt me any less, if I had decided to go back to the church, they’d have been able to see the boys through me. Maybe they’d have even figured out how to get in. My knees felt like jelly. I sank back down onto the ground.

  “Oh … thank you.”

  “Yeah, uh … don’t mention it.” Jasika grimaced and held the nail back out to me. “Sorry, it’s kind of bloody now. Guess that’s just what happens.” She smiled weakly. I took the nail, wiping it on my shirt. The shirt was pretty much ruined now anyway.

  Gwen took a deep breath and gazed down at the water. “She’ll have seen us now. We need to build up our defenses. At least we know now just how crafty she is.”

  “I’ll build up my defenses, then,” I insisted. “I’ll reach out to Mum. I can…”

  Gwen gazed back at me, a thin sheen of tears swimming in her lily-pad eyes. Water wives. So sensitive. They could feel another person’s pain before that person even knew it was there. Dread settled in my stomach like thick, burning coal.

  “I’m sorry, Bryn. But if it were truly your mother in your dreams, Mab would never have been able to break my protection and mark you. You cannot trust anything you see there.”

  My heart skipped a beat. It made sense, of course. It made more sense than my mum suddenly reaching out after all these years to find me. But my brain pushed back against it, like a dog refusing a pill. I didn’t want it to be true. I didn’t want to smother that little spark of hope. Not yet. I wasn’t ready to let go of it. My breath caught in my throat. I struggled to breathe as my eyes and cheeks began to burn.