“You should be sleeping,” Wren said, his voice waking the darkness.
“Can’t sleep.”
“You haven’t tried.”
I closed the grimoire, stretching out my legs as I turned to look at him. “There’s still so much we don’t know,” I confessed. “What if this is all for nothing–what if the eclipse comes and the enchantress doesn’t show?”
Slowly, Wren rolled his fingers into his palm as a thoughtful expression rearranged his features. He rose up on his elbow, leveling his face with mine. “She’ll show.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I have faith in you,” he answered as his fingers tapped the grimoire’s cover. “Look at what we’ve faced, Quinn–look at what we lost.” He paused as his eyebrows twisted above his eyes and I knew he was thinking of his father. “I refuse to believe this has all been for nothing.” His tone was adamant.
A dull ache thrummed in my chest as I reached out to cover the back of Wren’s hand with my palm. Like so much else, I wished I could take on his pain so he wouldn’t have to bear it alone. He tipped his forehead to mine, closing the space with things he didn’t have to say. The meaning of his silence was understood–all he had to do was look at me and I would know…
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Wren’s hand stiffened beneath mine as I made out the shape of Ryker’s frame in the darkness. He stepped into the fading light, his skin still shadowed in blue. “Coming to switch me for second-watch?” Wren guessed.
“That’s the plan,” Ryker said, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops. “At least, that was the plan before I found something I think you both might want to take a look at.”
A frown creased my forehead. “I should get Blaire.”
Ryker was shaking his head. “No. It isn’t far. I think you’ll want to bring your grimoire.”
I waited a beat, gauging his calm expression before agreeing. “Okay.” I palmed the grimoire, hugging it to my chest as the cool air slipped through the cotton fabric of my clothes and caressed my skin. I shivered. Wren wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we began our trek into the forest. I called on Spirit to light my way, and the element responded by pushing out its familiar indigo hue.
We walked for about ten minutes before the ground seemed to level out and the trees thinned. It was hard to distinguish, but I thought we were approaching a meadow. The grasses were longer and softer, and I saw some kind of faint, blinking neon glow. I stopped walking, squinting my eyes. “Are those–?”
“Fireflies,” Wren answered, confirming my suspicions.
“But it’s–”
“October, I know,” Ryker interrupted.
“I can finish my own sentences you know,” I snapped.
“Sorry.” Wren squeezed my hand.
“This looks familiar… I think the enchantress showed me a glimpse of this place in the first vision she sent me.” I tilted my head, studying the fireflies.
“Try to catch one,” Ryker said.
I looked up at Wren and he nodded. I stepped out into the clearing, walking until I’d reached the middle. The fireflies were twinkling all around me, lighting up the meadow with intermittent bursts of neon light. I waited until one was within arm’s reach before reaching out and cupping it in my palm. Or at least–that’s what should have happened. The firefly passed through my hand as if it were no more than a hologram. My lips parted, eyebrows furrowing as I swiped through another. “What the heck?”
“I was hoping you might have a supernatural answer,” Ryker said, nodding towards the grimoire that I was still hugging to my side.
“Oh. Right.” I sat down, crossing my legs and spread the grimoire out on my lap. I waited until the starlight unlocked the cover, and then opened the book, scanning through the star spelled pages. There was nothing new after the map. I took my hand and waved it over the book and said, “Nochtann.” I’d seen Blaire do it before and had little faith anything would happen, but the pages began to glitter. An aurora of bright light burst through the binding. Squinting, I watched as beautiful, golden script bled onto the pages. The letters trickled down the page, filtering through the parchment like spilled watercolor until I could make out the words. It was a spell, I realized, running my fingers across the title: To Awaken the Ancient Sleeping Ones.
As the sun sleeps the moon rises to shine
unbroken, be the ties that bind.
Winter’s Moon will come at last
behold, the future is the present and the past.
“What’s it say?” Wren crouched behind me, peering over my shoulder.
I twisted the book so he could read the inscription. “It’s an incantation to awaken the ancient sleeping ones.” I frowned at the page. I looked up, watching the peculiar dance of the fireflies, wondering how it was possible that they were just existing in suspension as if they were neither here nor there. The future is the present and the past, I recalled. That was the last line of the incantation. “It’s a thing in between,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“The fireflies. We can see them, but, I think they exist in a different realm. That’s why we can’t touch them.” I jumped up so fast I nearly fell over. Wren steadied me. “I think the incantation is meant to bring the enchantress to us during the eclipse. That’s why she’s not here right now. She doesn’t exist on this plane!”
“My life was so much simpler before I met you,” Ryker said, shaking his head.
“I could say the same about you,” I retorted. “I need to talk to Blaire. She’ll want to see this.” I lifted the book.
Ryker volunteered to wake Blaire when we got back to the cottage. Wren and I waited on the decrepit porch; the boards sagging beneath our combined weight. Inside, I heard rustling, and then soft murmurs as Blaire returned to the land of the waking.
“What the devil? Get off me!” she shouted, and then a burst of blueish-white light exploded from the opened cottage door and a loud crash had both Wren and I bolting inside.
Blaire was standing in front of the fireplace with energy-balls circling her palms and Ryker was rolling to his knees across the room, laughter shaking his chest. He wiped the corner of his lip, spitting blood onto the floorboards.
“What the hell, Blaire?”
“Me?!” She flattened a hand over her chest, eyes bulging from their sockets in total disbelief. “What would you do if you woke to find a hulking giant hovering over top you? He’s lucky I only hit him with a knockout spell.”
“Seriously Ryker?” I narrowed my eyes at him as he pulled himself to his feet.
“I wasn’t hovering,” he insisted, “I was trying to wake her without scaring her.” He snickered, rubbing his jaw.
Blaire snorted. Hailey and Bryna came thumping down the staircase, both dazed and disoriented. “Do you people value sleep like, at all?” Hailey snarled.
“Sorry,” Blaire said, “you can go back to bed. Nothing happened.”
“Well I’m up now.” Hailey sauntered across the living room and plopped down on an old couch; a cloud of dust billowed from the cushions. Bryna lowered herself to the arm gracefully. “What’s going on that couldn’t wait until–oh, I don’t know–sunrise? It’s always something with you people.” Hailey reached up, massaging her temples.
“You’re the one that asked to come,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, because I didn’t trust you guys to get the job done and I wanted to make sure my pack wasn’t getting screwed in the deal.”
I glanced at Ryker. His jaw worked forward in a glower that he cut right at Hailey. The growl vibrating from his chest was low, but it managed
to raise the hair on the back of my neck, and reminded Hailey of her place.
Ryker explained what he found while scouting the woods, and then I jumped in for the grand finale. When I finished, the room sat motionless. After what seemed like a lifetime of silence, Blaire finally spoke. “That is concerning. I’ve never heard of an incantation like that before.” She turned her face towards her sister.
“Waking ancient beings isn’t a practice the Aurora Coven would indulge,” Bryna added. “Ancient sleeping ones might imply that the beings are primordial. That’s dangerous territory.”
“I don’t think the incantation is meant to wake a bunch of primordial beings,” I said thoughtfully. “I think we’re supposed to use the enchantress’s name to wake her specifically. That’s why we’ve been given all the different clues. She doesn’t exist in our world–we have to summon her.”
Hailey snorted. “Right, because the clues have been so entirely helpful thus far. Do you know her name, Quinn?”
I narrowed my eyes, but I had no reply.
“Well I’m going back to bed. Try to keep the cryptology lesson down to a whisper.” Hailey rose to her feet, tossed her platinum hair over her shoulder and marched up the staircase. I heard her mumbling under her breath about the mission being nothing but a wild goose chase.
I sighed, pressing the heels of my hands into my eye sockets. “We at least have to try the incantation,” I said in a tone that sounded defeated. “When the eclipse begins, I’m reading the spell.”
Blaire reached over, palm squeezing my shoulder. “You should try and get some rest, lass. We need everyone to be as fresh as possible for the eclipse.” She turned to Wren. “Are you still good for second watch?”
Wren nodded.
Ryker ambled to the couch and lowered himself to the cushions. His body was so big it took up the entire space, his legs splayed over the arm Bryna wasn’t perched on. Blaire chuffed out a laugh and blinked up at me with her arm extended in his direction.
“I’m sorry, did you want the couch? I can make room…”
Blaire stared blankly into his face before retorting, “That’s charming but I think I’ll pass.”
Ryker grinned, his straight teeth glowing in the firelight. He propped an arm under his head and settled into the cushions. Blaire’s face screwed up into a perfect grimace. I saw the frustration plain as day, but there was something else there, too. He tried her patience–ruffled those elegant raven feathers of hers. But it was clear to me that he was making her feel something.
“We’ll be outside if you need us,” I said.
“Fine, I’m going upstairs.” She grabbed Bryna’s elbow and wrenched her up from the arm of the couch. “Next time you need me, don’t send the wolf.”
“Duly noted.”
Wren’s left eyebrow was hitched up to his hairline. He looked at me, started to open his mouth, but I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him out onto the beach before he could say what he was thinking.
“Okay,” I glanced at my watch, “we have approximately four hours until the eclipse starts. You should probably–” he peeled off his shirt, tossing it to a boulder beside me, “–do that,” I finished, clamping down on my lower lip.
He grinned and began working on the removal of his belt.
“Where will you go?”
“Never far,” he replied as if sensing my unease. Gently, Wren framed my face in his palms and pressed a kiss to the center of my forehead.
“Be careful,” I told him, covering his hands with mine, “and come back to me.”
“I promise,” he said, moonlight stirred in his eyes as he brought on the Change.
Morning light pierced through my eyelids until the brightness woke me. I sat up in a daze, head spinning from the onslaught of irretrievable dreams. Wren was curled around me, still in wolf form. His golden eyes were focused on me. The wind sweeping in from the sea was playing through the strands of his onyx coat, ruffling the scruff at his throat. He whimpered, nuzzling my face in concern. “I’m fine,” I told him. “I must have fallen asleep.”
He pressed his face against the side of mine and leaned into me. His long limbs straightened out in front of us, and I reached for his paw that was larger than the palm of my hand. His coat was both soft and course beneath my fingertips. I slipped my fingers through the fur at his neck and pulled him even closer. The grimoire lay to our right, sunlight glinting off the arcs of the crescent moons. Wren lowered his head, resting on his paws. “You’re probably exhausted.”
He grunted a protest.
I glanced at my watch. “We still have close to an hour before the eclipse starts; I can stand watch if you want to catch some Z’s.” Another grunt. His head lifted, face turning towards the cottage. “Someone awake?” I guessed.
Blaire walked onto the porch then, arms folded over her chest, bracing against the cool morning breeze. She spotted us and I waved.
“Hey,” I said, “couldn’t sleep?”
“I got enough.” She shrugged it off and rubbed at her arms. “It’s a bit cold out here.”
“I barely feel it, what with all the heat Wren puts out.”
He grumbled and gave the wolf equivalent of an eye roll. Blaire chuckled and climbed up on the rock beside me. “I miss the sea,” she said with a look of nostalgia in her eye. She gazed out at the inky blue of the vast ocean. “The water is colder in Ireland, but the views from the Cliffs of Moher are breathtaking.”
“I can imagine.”
“You’d like Ireland. The lands are pulsing with ancient power. It’s like being in the Nexus no matter where you are–always surrounded by the elements. It’s the ideal place to be a witch.”
“We’ll have to visit,” I said. “I’d like to see it and learn more about my heritage. Plus, it would be great to meet the faces behind the mysterious Aurora Coven.”
“They would like that.” Blaire smiled.
Something occurred to me then, and the thought soured the emptiness in my gut. “After this is all over… Will you go back–permanently, I mean?” I turned my face to hers.
“I hadn’t much thought about it.” Blaire drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “We’ll always be the Trinity; nothing will happen to our bond. But, my life exists within the Coven and their need of me, too.”
I nodded and traced a crack in the boulder with the tip of my index finger. “It’s your home,” I said. “I understand your need to protect it.”
“Just as Silver Mountain is yours.” She bumped her shoulder into mine. “We’ll always have each other, but we’ll always have greater responsibilities that may separate us for a time being. That’s how it goes for those who bear the honor of following the Light.”
“Ryker will be disappointed,” I teased her. “I think he’s quite taken with you.”
She snorted, lifting her face to the wind. “You know how I feel about werewolves–namely ones that are called Alpha Master.”
“He’s not Griffin. I don’t think he cares about the whole heir thing since he’s carrying a serious torch for you.”
“Well that may be, but I haven’t decided whether or not I want children of my own.”
“Oh,” I said, puckering my lips.
Blaire laughed. “No matter–we’ve a world to save before all that. Come on. Let’s wake the others and get ourselves to that enchanted firefly meadow of yours.” She tugged on my sleeve and slipped down from the rock. “Based off your vision and the first incantation in the grimoire, that’s probably where we ought to be when the eclipse takes place.”
“I’m right behind you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Awakening a Goddess
I wasn’t afraid.
Fear was too simple a term for the restless energy humming through my veins. The tension gripping every fiber of my being was like static, tingling with acute awareness. The amulet around my neck pulsed with awakened energy, swelling and feeding from my anxiety. Wren placed a hand on the small of my back; the feather-light pressure a reassurance.
“This is the place,” Ryker said as we stepped into the meadow’s clearing. The fireflies were still hanging in suspension, existing in a space that wasn’t part of this world.
Blaire reached out to catch one, her palm swiping neatly through its tiny body. “Strange,” she breathed in a tone laced with fascination and curiosity. “Quite remarkable, really.”
“If by remarkable you mean creepy as hell, then yes,” Hailey said, “I tend to agree.” She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her face towards the sun. “So what’s the plan Your Esteemed Highness?” Her gaze cut to me.
Ignoring her tone, I replied, “We wait for the eclipse to move into alignment and then I read the incantation.” I swallowed, forcing my nerves to the pit of my stomach.
“Place the grimoire in the sunlight,” Bryna suggested. “You should be able to watch the eclipse move across the symbols as it would in the sky.”
I did as she said, holding the book so the sunlight gleamed off the metal. As the moon above began to slide into position, the first crescent began to glow on the cover. My breath hitched as I looked up and caught Blaire’s gaze. She stepped to the left of me, fingertips tracing the arc of the crescent. “Try to unlock the page with the spell.”
I opened the grimoire. “Nochtann,” I commanded, waving my hand across the page. Light crackled through the spine and the golden words of the incantation bled through the parchment. This is it, I thought as my heart slammed against my ribs. Every wall that we’d climbed–every dark road that we’d crossed to get here would soon be validated. My eyes found Wren’s, and he was looking at me with such conviction that I borrowed the strength from him and blinked down at the page.
The Calling of the Trinity (Trinity Cycle Book 2) Page 29