by Brenda Trim
Thankfully, after that, the pain lessened enough, and I could take in small gasps of air. Violet and Aislinn knelt in front of me with Argies and Grams behind them. It took an eternity for me to suck in a full breath. The pain was horrendous, but it no longer threatened to make me blackout.
“What…the…hell…was that?”
Grams had a frown on her face. “It was a trap like I was worried about. Vodor is powerful indeed if he was able to hit you through a source, he shouldn’t even be able to access.”
Sweat covered my body, and nausea churned in my stomach while the pain receded at a snail’s pace. I was entirely too old for this crap. And unprepared for this magical twist. Even if I wanted to go back on my promise to help fight Vodor, it wasn’t possible now.
He could reach me without ever leaving Eidothea. Guilt rose to join the party of nausea, agony, and bile. He was likely making innocent Fae pay for me killing the Queen as I laid there struggling to stay alive.
“I’m sorry for questioning you, Grams. I don’t think I would have survived if I’d gone into the crypt.”
“You might not survive the night. He managed to take out most of the protections on Pymm’s Pondside that have been built by countless generations of Shakletons.”
I sat up so fast I couldn’t even stop myself. Black spots danced in my vision, and I lost my battle with bile, throwing up all over my lap. A decade later, after the heaving died down, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Looks like we need to rebuild those first. I’ll just need a minute.” Or a year. That would work much better, but I didn’t think the Evil King would allow me the opportunity.
Chapter 2
I sat up with a groan and rubbed my head. What the hell had woken me up? A tiny man was slamming a hammer against the inside of my skull. I couldn’t form a coherent thought. “Agh!” Blinking was an exercise in painful sandpaper scrubbing my cornea raw.
What time is it? It felt like I just barely laid down. Groping around the side table next to my bed, I shoved my cell to the floor. Shouting outside prompted me to get my ass in gear. I’d like to think I jumped right out of bed, but really, I lumbered and picked up my phone to see it was barely four-thirty in the morning.
My chest ached, reminding me I hadn’t healed from the attack a few hours ago. I should be laid up in a hospital somewhere, resting and allowing the broken ribs the time needed to be able to breathe easily again. I shouldn’t be up and about already, and my chest was screaming at me to get back in bed. That wasn’t going to be possible until I discovered what was causing the commotion. The last thing I wanted was to have my home infiltrated by dark Fae while I laid around in bed.
I opened my connection to Pymm’s Pondside and tried to see if I could feel an incursion. I hadn’t been able to replace all of the protections last night. I had given up, figuring Vodor must have been spent after using so much power to attack me through the portal.
Snatching my robe from its hanger on the back of my door, I threw it on as I ran down the stairs. “Grams!” My shout echoed throughout the spacious house. I never knew where she spent her time, so yelling for her was usually my way of locating her.
A door to my left opened, and a bleary-eyed Violet stood there pushing her hair off her face. “What’s happening?”
“Not sure,” I replied. My grandmother floated through a wall to my right as I descended the stairs. “Do you know who’s yelling outside?”
Grams glared at me, which was disconcerting, to say the least. She was semitransparent, and I could see a framed picture of my kids at Disneyland behind her. “I have no idea. I can’t leave the house, Fiona.”
“I haven’t forgotten, Grams. I figured you were connected to everything here.” I winced when I heard another door opening, knowing I had woken Aislinn, as well. Neither of my best friends had wanted to leave me alone last night with me being so vulnerable, and Bas hadn’t returned when we headed for bed.
“Why are we up so early?” Aislinn’s voice was raspy and far more sleepy than Violet or I had been. She should be able to spring up like a daisy. She was the youngest of the three of us, turning forty in a few months.
“Something is happening outside.” Violet responded since I was already halfway down the stairs.
I missed a step at the bottom when pain lanced through my chest. Sucking in a breath, I caught myself on the wall and rubbed the spot. Thankfully it seemed to vanish. Continuing to the mudroom, I shoved my feet into my rain boots and went outside.
The smell of a campfire hit me first. I stood there while Violet and Aislinn joined me and scanned the area. There were no signs of flames or anything of that nature. The pond was placid, and the forest surrounding the house was serene.
“What do we do? I can call the water over here.” That was Kairi’s voice.
Heart in my throat, I ran toward the left, figuring she was in the cemetery. When we cleared the side of the house, I finally found the source of the smoke. I saw Kairi, Theamise, and Tunsall standing outside the mausoleum while it was engulfed in dark blue flames. Adrenalin and fear kicked me into gear.
It was better than a quad shot espresso. My heart dropped back to my chest and went into v-tach, and the world swam around me for several seconds while I made my way to their side.
I stopped next to the mermaid and had to brace myself on my knees while I caught my breath. “If you really can bring the water from the pond to put this out, do it right now.”
My heart constricted painfully, and I knew I was in v-tach. It wasn’t just a racing heart. It felt like it wasn’t filling with blood and was threatening to give out. The agony was back, and it dropped me to my knees, making my bad one scream at me. For once, you aren’t my biggest pain.
“Fiona! What in creation is going on out there.” I heard my Grams’ voice yelling out at me, but I couldn’t respond.
Violet and Aislinn knelt next to me. “Are you alright?” Both women bombarded me with the same question.
“Not sure. Can you guys help me up?”
Rather than respond, they each threaded an arm under one of mine and tugged. I poured what energy I could into getting upright and finally managed. But not before those pesky black dots were back and trying to take me under again.
I fought it back, and by the time my vision cleared, I could see a beautiful arch of crystal-clear water flying overhead and pouring over the crypt where the portal was housed. That was the noise I heard. It hadn’t just been the blood rushing through my body as it tried to resume normal flow.
“It’s not working,” Kairi called out.
I looked from the flames to the mermaid and noticed the strain on her pinched face. She had her hands held aloft while sweat beaded on her brow. “Crap. It must be a magical fire. You can drop the water. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
Turning around, I was grateful my friends had a hold of my arms when I nearly collapsed. “Grams! How do you fight a Fae fire? I think the king is burning the portal and crypt down.”
“That’s not possible. He has no power over what our family created. It’s outside his ability.” I could see her hovering in the kitchen window that looked out over the garden to the cemetery.
Beside me, Aislinn stumbled and fell into my side. Violet ended up taking the brunt of our weight for a few seconds until we both steadied. It wasn’t easy. The pain was getting worse, and my lungs were threatening to go along with my heart.
“Somehow the…asshole figured… out away.” It was getting difficult to breathe.
“Is the structure going? Or are the flames on top of it?” I wasn’t sure that it mattered or why Grams thought that was important. I also couldn’t answer.
“The stone is on fire, but it isn’t actually burning. It’s turning to ash, I think. It’s hard to see through the dark fire.” Theamise shifted from foot to foot as she told Grams what was happening. The slender wood nymph was a gentle creature and didn’t deal well with strife, unlike the tiny brownie standing next
to her, twisting her red dress in her hands.
“Did you do something, Tunsall?” I growled the question as my anger ignited and overrode some of the pain.
Tunstall’s large green eyes flipped up in my direction, and I could see the tears shining in them. “I didn’t do anything, Fiona. I promise. I would never go against you or your family again. You gave me a second chance, and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. Besides, my sister was killed, so there isn’t much they can hold over me to force me into action anymore. I know they won’t abide by their promises anyway.”
I believed the brownie. I’d seen her grief firsthand. And she had helped me during my first battle with the dead Queen, so she’d chosen her side. My body swayed as the anger receded, taking my energy with it. Violet tried to hold all three of us up, but my chest constricted, and my legs gave out.
“What’s wrong, Fiona?” Grams sounded far closer than inside the house.
“It feels like I’m on fire, and my organs are shutting down, I think.” The words left me in a whisper. Every inch of skin on my body felt raw, like I’d stepped into the flames and stood there for several seconds. It was a hot flash that seared my flesh to my bones and involved unending agony. Violet ended up relaying what I said to Grams while Aislinn knelt next to me, cradling my head.
“Fiona, you need to cut your connection to the portal. Vodor is using it to kill you.” A sinister laugh seemed to float on the air with Grams’ command.
Cut my connection? I tried to find the thread and found nothing but agony. My head was a mess, and all I knew was agony. I no longer felt the cool breeze. All I heard was the crackle of a fire, and my nose was filled with charred flesh. That got my attention.
“Did anyone go inside the crypt?” My words were mostly breath, but my friends heard me.
Tunsall laid a small palm on my overheated cheek. “No one is inside. I think Vodor is sacrificing the Gods know how many on his side to fuel this spell.” That made me gag. How could the guy be so evil? It was a stupid question, but I couldn’t help wondering why people were willing to harm others to gain power.
Aislinn jerked and moaned, drawing my attention. She seemed to be affected by this too. “How do you feel, Violet?”
“What is going on? Did you cut your connection, Fiona?” I couldn’t answer Grams. I needed to know if this was hurting my friends, as well.
Fiona glanced down at me, and I could see the lines deepen in her face. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck, and the hot flashes won’t stop, but I’ll be okay.”
I looked at Aislinn and swallowed the lump in my throat. Sometimes being stubborn helped. My determination made it easier to talk through constricted lungs. “He is attacking both of you through your connection to me. You guys should cut it off and save yourselves.”
“No,” Violet snapped.
“Not happening. If we can share this, maybe you can find a way to beat him back,” Aislinn added.
I couldn’t ask for better friends. They were the freakin best to have at my side. I knew they had their own midlife reboot, but I hadn’t been able to help them like I wanted. We’d been too focused on one crisis after another. I would be there for them, whatever they needed as soon as we dealt with Vodor.
“Fiona!” Sebastian’s voice was a balm to my scorched skin. I could see him, Finarr, and Argies running to us over Aislinn’s shoulder. Within seconds he was there and scooping me up into his arms. Argies grabbed hold of Aislinn.
I braced myself for the agony to follow and was surprised when I was able to suck in a breath, and my heart filled with blood again. I was still in pain, but it was less now. “Let go of me.”
Bas’s head jerked, and his face crumpled. For a split second, before he masked his emotions, I saw the hurt cross his features. Before I could explain, he let go of me, and the agony was back full force.
I reached for him and wrapped my arms around him. Once again, the pain lessened. “Somehow you take away some of the misery. I just wanted to test a theory. Please don’t let me go until I can work through this mess.”
Sebastian’s gaze filled with too many emotions for me to decipher. “Always. I’m sorry it took me so long. We came as soon as we felt the dark fire.”
“Thank you for always having my back. I’d say you can join the Backside of Forty with us, but it’s a women’s only club.”
Bas chuckled and shook his head, then placed a quick kiss on my lips. I wanted more and was about to go for more when my grandmother’s voice interrupted us. “Now is not the time for kissing, Fiona. Cut your connection, now! It’s killing you.”
“I can’t sever the tie, Grams. If I do, I am giving control over to Vodor, and I will never do that.” Now that I was able to think a bit, I realized what he was trying to do.
“Shit.” I glanced at the window where my Grams was hovering inside the house. I saw the way she wrung what looked like a doily while she paced a short circuit.
“How do we stop this?” Violet asked.
“I’m going to try and contain it. If I can manage that, maybe I can find a permanent solution. Let’s move away a few feet.”
Sebastian helped me limp a few steps. I was glad to see Violet and Aislinn walking independently. However, Argies remained close to them both with his eyes trained on Aislinn.
Finnair, Theamise, Tunsall, and Kairi joined us, and I closed my eyes then searched for my connection to the elements. I usually felt energy flow inside me like a river. Now it more closely resembled a dry creek bed.
Grabbing hold of everything I could in that flow, I chanted, “Quae.”
Energy immediately flooded through my funnel. I allowed my rage over Vodor’s hubris and cruelty to fuel my spell until my fingers tingled. I hadn’t had to try so hard to access my magic for the past four or five months. And even in the beginning, I never had to focus so intently on accessing the well and wielding it. It happened accidentally.
There was no way in hell I was giving anything to this asshole. He wouldn’t take that much from me. Opening my eyes, I saw the shimmer that represented my magic grow in a giant dome over the now crumbling crypt.
The pain nearly disappeared the second the dark magic was enclosed inside my cocoon. The second it snapped into place, I heard both Aislinn and Violet heave a sigh of relief. Turning, I checked to see their complexion was no longer quite so green around the gills.
“You cut him off from the source,” Grams called out in a louder voice and drawing my attention to her. The fire must have been making more noise than I realized. That and I could no longer hear my heart pounding in my ears.
Turning around, I saw that she’d managed to get the window open somehow. “The flames are below the roofline but not out. Do you have any idea how he is doing any of this? Did you find any of our ancestors that might have information to share?”
“I spoke with my mother, and she said that you definitely weakened him when you killed his wife, but I don’t think she was right. Unless grandma Eunice was right, and he knows what you are and is scrambling to steal your power from you.”
I was betting my great-great-grandma Eunice was right. I felt him draining the life from me. I saw the result of my river drying up. “I don’t think that helps us one bit.”
“The flames are gone!”
My head swiveled around when I heard Violet’s excited voice. I swear I gave myself whiplash. My jaw dropped when I saw she was right. The dark fire was gone, leaving a charred mess in its wake. The roof was gone entirely and three-quarters of the front wall along with it. The other three walls were half of their usual height.
Tears welled in my eyes that someone had desecrated my ancestors in such a way—a lump formed in my throat next. The king had stolen something from me. The crypt was a symbol of my magical new beginning, and now he’d ruined it.
I blinked to clear the blur from my vision, and a gasp escaped me. The tombstones and remains of the mausoleum were aging before my eyes. It was as if the magic was being su
cked from the sacred land.
The first time I’d seen an old cemetery in the States, I was surprised that the names on the headstones were barely legible. The ones here in my family’s place of rest remained as pristine as the day they’d been made, until now.
“No!” The denial flew from my mouth, and I rushed to great-great-grandma Eunice’s grave. My steps slowed when I hit the barrier I’d erected.
Pushing through felt like trying to swim through a pool of pudding. Once I made it to the other side, my energy evaporated, and the pain was back. And not only that, my body reverted to what it had been before all this running around. Every ache and pain had returned with a vengeance.
Sebastian had told me once he thought I would stop aging and maybe even regain some of my youthful vigor after my powers were unlocked. I’d dismissed the idea out of hand. Now I realized he’d been right, and it had been happening subtly.
I still had the body of a middle-aged woman, but it was in far better shape now. My legs gave out on me once again, and I caught myself on a headstone. The rock crumbled beneath my hand.
My heart went into v-tach again, the lower chambers not filling entirely with blood while it raced far too fast. I needed to get the hell out of this shield. Vodor was taking every last ounce of magic he could from my family’s land. Pretty soon, there would be nothing left of Pymm’s Pondside.
Strong arms banded around me, allowing my heart to fill and my pain to recede. Sebastian. “I’ve got you, love. You can’t cross your spell until you figure out how to stop Vodor.”
Nodding, I allowed him to help me cross to the other side where Vodor couldn’t reach me. Violet was chewing on her lower lip while Aislinn had her arms around her middle and was clutching her sides.
The vice around my chest eased, and I stood straight again. “He is definitely stealing magic. And he zeros in on me when he can feel me close.”
Violet released her abused lip and snorted. “That’s because you’re a lightning rod full of power.”