Ascent: Book 3 of the Scorched Trilogy

by Lizzy Prince

  “What have you done, Cailleach?” Áine asked with a quiet authority.

  It made me wish I had some context for when all of this was happening. I’d had dreams about the sisters. I knew bits and pieces about their lives and the things that Cailleach had done. Had she already murdered people? Had she taken their hearts? Or was Áine just beginning to suspect that something was not right with her sister?

  Cailleach tilted her head and pushed out her lips in an irritated pout. “Why is it you think I’ve done something, sister?”

  “Connall could not remember me this morning when I saw him,” Áine snapped, fire burning behind narrowed eyes.

  “Men are fickle, sister. You are best to be done with him.” Cailleach smoothed her hand over her skirt, avoiding her sister’s angry stare.

  Hmm, this made me think that Cailleach had not yet eaten the hearts. But had only been trying to keep Áine and Connall apart up until this point in time.

  “He’s not fickle or cruel, Cailleach. He’s kind and caring and remembered me as soon as I touched him.”

  Cailleach had been schooling her features, trying to appear innocent and detached from the situation, but at those words, her eyes narrowed. A small explosion of flame burst to life in the fireplace, causing Áine to look at her sister in shock and surprise, like she couldn’t believe she’d just let her power out for that small show of dominance.

  “He will be your downfall, Áine. He will take your powers and leave you a helpless human.” Cailleach wasn’t feigning disinterest any longer. Her eyes burned with a crazed rage as she hissed out her words.

  Áine just shook her head. “I have no idea why you would believe that. There is nothing wrong with loving someone.”

  “I didn’t say that, Áine. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  Áine sighed in exasperation, but Cailleach cut her off before she could respond. “You have me. Why would you need anyone else?”

  Áine gaped at her sister and shook her head. “And you will always have me. That doesn’t change because I love someone else too.”

  Cailleach reached out and grabbed at the herbs and flowers hanging from the ceiling and yanked at them in a furious tantrum, ripping them down and throwing them onto the floor. “All men want is to control women, to hold more power over them. He will steal your magic and abandon you.”

  With that, she turned and flung open the door, leaving it to slap against the wall as she charged out, the wind whipping around her as she disappeared from sight. Áine stared after her with a stunned look on her face, her hand trembling as she touched it to her forehead as though an ache bloomed there.

  The room faded from view, or maybe we faded from the room, because next, we were standing outside. The sun was shining so brightly on us that I had to squint and cover my eyes, until I realized that this memory world didn’t function the same way as the normal world. The sun wasn’t actually hurting my eyes, so I lowered my hand and looked down and found Áine and her mother working in their garden. Munro and I were still in the same place, as though the world had disappeared and reformed around us. Our hands were still clasped tightly together as we stood still and took in this new memory.

  Áine sat back on her heels and tilted her head up to the sun. “I’m afraid there’s something wrong with Cailleach.”

  Her mother paused in her work of pulling weeds. She cocked her head to the side as if she was contemplating how to respond, but she didn’t look at Áine. Instead, she kept her attention focused on the garden. At first, I thought she was ignoring her, but then she spoke, never looking away from the herbs she was tending. “I, too, have noticed something different with her. She has been cruel to the neighbor’s wife.”

  Áine’s head swung down, and she gaped at her mother. “What did she do?”

  “She went to barter for some supplies, and she nearly shredded her mind.”

  Áine gasped, her dirt covered fingers lifting to cover her mouth. “Why would she do that?”

  “I think she did it to see if she could,” her mother said softly as she finally looked over at Áine, worry and pain glimmering in her eyes.

  “Were you able to help the woman?”

  “To some extent, but with the damage Cailleach inflicted, she must have dug around in there like she was working in our garden. The poor woman might never have a good memory, but I was able to get her a potion that I hope will heal most of the damage.”

  “But why?” was all Áine could say in response. “Why would she do such a thing?”

  “This is not the first time I’ve seen her test the boundaries of her magic, Áine. Since she was a child, she has tried to push for more, to do more with her magic. Even when it harms others. I think you’ve been able to balance her and remind her where the lines should be drawn. But I believe she’s lashing out because of your relationship with Connall.”

  Áine’s head dropped, her chin nearly touching her chest. “I will not give him up mother. I love him.”

  Her mother got to her feet, but she placed a comforting hand on Áine’s shoulder. “I am not asking you to do that. You should not have to sacrifice your own happiness to appease your sister. We will just need to watch her more closely. I fear she hasn’t reached the edge of her limits yet.”

  Another fade happened, and we were thrown into darkness, my eyes were forced to adjust once again as I blinked into the inky night trying to understand what was in front of me. Cailleach was using her arms to scoop great armfuls of dirt into a hole. Her gown was completely covered, and she was filthy with mud coating her arms. There were streaks of dirt blurred across her cheeks and forehead as though she’d swiped her sleeve over her face without realizing it was covered in mud.

  “What is she doing?” I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud until Munro’s fingers tightened around mine. Shit, she couldn’t hear me, could she?

  My heart stopped when it looked like Cailleach had heard me, and she angled her head as though listening. But it wasn’t me she heard. It was Áine.

  Áine came running in from the darkness, a brilliant burst of light encircling her hands that she let fly as she came closer. It landed in the next to Cailleach, and an explosion of dirt and mud was expelled from the hole, quickly followed by a groan.

  Áine jumped inside of the hole, and I could just barely see her continuing to dig, flinging rocks and mud behind her. It was only a few moments after she landed in the hole that she was helping someone up, and I saw it was Connall, looking just barely alert. Áine helped him out of the hole, quickly clamoring up behind him and turning to glare at her sister in disgust. “How could you?”

  Cailleach just stared at her, looking bored and annoyed that Áine had found them and ruined her little game of bury your sister’s boyfriend alive. “I’m doing you a favor, Áine.”

  “Stop!” Áine shouted, running her hands over Connall’s head, searching for injuries. He was such a mess I wasn’t sure how she’d be able to tell what was mud and what was blood. “Just stop, Cailleach. You aren’t helping me. You are hurting me. Connall is not driving a wedge between us. You are doing that on your own. I can’t be around you if you refuse to let me live my life as my heart demands.”

  Cailleach was trembling with rage, and little sparks of magic pulsed at her fingertips, like she was charged and ready to explode. Áine was too occupied with Connall to see her sister’s mounting fury, and more likely than not, she wouldn’t have expected her sister, her twin, to lash out at her. But Cailleach screamed as a burst of magic shot out at Áine and Connall and threw them both backward, their bodies hitting the earth with a sickening thud.

  For one instant, I thought I saw regret pass over Cailleach’s face, but then there was only raw cruelty, and I almost questioned what I’d really seen. Áine groaned, but Connall lay there silent and unmoving. My heart lurched as I wondered if Cailleach had killed him. Áine pulled herself a few inches closer to him and reached out her hand, touching his face, and I knew she was healing him.

&nbs
p; My soul sighed in relief when his chest began to rise and fall, which I understood was idiotic since this had happened thousands of years ago, and he was most certainly dead and gone now. Well, except for that small sliver of his soul that resided in Munro. Even so, the thought of him being hurt made me ache with sadness and fear.

  I leaned into Munro, needing to touch him in some way, slumping with my relief, and he pulled his hand from mine so he could wrap his arm around me instead, tucking me in tightly against his side. I wrapped my arms around his waist and fought the urge to cry. I knew it made no sense, but it hurt to see Connall that way. And to see Cailleach treat her sister with such low regard. She wasn’t listening to a word from Áine’s mouth. Cailleach’s mind was made up, and there would be no convincing her of anything else.

  In the memory, Cailleach walked past her sister and spoke coldly, “That is your last warning, sister.”

  Áine wept over Connall, cradling his head in her lap as the memory faded. I stayed in Munro’s arms as we reappeared in their small home, and the memory hit me with a sense of deja vu. I’d already seen this, in my dreams. It was their mother telling Áine that Cailleach had eaten the hearts of some men traveling through the village. In my dream, it had ended there, but this time the memory continued.

  “What are we to do? She is not the sister I’ve always known.”

  Áine’s mother looked broken, tears streaming down her cheeks as she spoke. “There is no coming back from what she’s done, Áine. She has broken the laws of nature and of fairy. She has stolen magic that was not freely given, magic that doesn’t belong to her. Magic like that is tainted, and it rots you from the inside. She is not your sister any longer, but rather a shell, full of dark and evil power.”

  “How do we stop her?” Áine sniffed loudly, and tears pooled in her eyes as she tried to blink them away. She finally gave up, closing her eyes, and let the tears trail down her cheeks in slow, endless rivers.

  I lifted my head from Munro’s chest so that I could hear what her mother was about to say. Was this the information we’d been looking for? Information that would tell us how to put Cailleach down again? Munro’s fingertips dug into my waist when the room began to disappear around us, and I shouted, “No!” in frustration, not understanding why we weren’t seeing this part of the memory.

  Another memory materialized, and we found ourselves standing in a huge assembly hall. The room looked like the main hall of a medieval castle. The ceilings were vaulted and held up with giant beams. Animal skins hung on the stone walls, and I couldn’t tell if it was decorative or an attempt to keep some heat inside. Long tables were overflowing with laughing people eating from platters filled with bread and dried beef of some unknown animal.

  My eyes scanned the room, looking for someone familiar, still not understanding why we had been brought to this memory. At the front of the room was a dais with an ornately carved wooden seat that looked like a thrown. Or maybe it was that the woman occupying it looked so regal that I assumed she had to be royalty. She had long dark hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back like a black sheet of water. Her skin was pale, and her dark brows slashed over her crystalline blue eyes in a way that made her look cunning and sharp. Like she could cut you to shreds with just one glance. Her lips were a vibrant red that looked fake but it wasn’t like she had access to a tube of lipstick, so it had to be natural. She was so beautiful it was hard to look away from her and take in the rest of the room.

  Her hands draped over the arms of the chair carelessly, her posture relaxed, but her eyes were alert as they scanned the room. For one instant, I swore her eyes stopped on me and Munro, flicking over us dismissively before they began their cycle around the room once more. There was something magical about her. I could see the small golden particles of magic swirling and clinging to her form almost as if she had an aura.

  “There,” Munro whispered next to me, nudging my head just a bit lower than where the regal woman sat. How he’d been able to tear his eyes from her was beyond me, but I followed the direction of his gaze and saw that Áine and Connall were standing on the ground in front of the raised platform where the woman sat. It took her another moment to acknowledge them, but she finally did so with a small dip of her chin.

  “What is it that has brought you to us today?” the woman spoke, her voice musical and yet sharp somehow. The bustle of the room quieted so quickly that I was afraid to breathe.

  “Queen Mebh, we have come to ask a boon.”

  Mebh, the beautiful and imposing looking woman, stood up from her throne and looked down at Áine and Connall, whose heads were bowed respectfully. She floated down the steps with a grace that entranced the entire room, including me. When she came to stand in front of Áine, she flicked a finger under her chin and tipped her head up so she could look at her face. Mebh was tall for a woman and a lot taller than Áine, who looked so little in comparison.

  “What have you done, little witch?” she whispered, but I was still able to hear her. Not wanting to miss anything, I started forward, grabbing onto Munro’s hand and pulling him along with me until we were standing just to the side of the little triangle of Mebh, Áine, and Connall.

  “What had to be done, my Queen.”

  Mebh’s eyes were assessing, and her lids lowered before she took a step back and nodded. As if that were some kind of signal, the noise of the room picked back up.

  “And what is it that you require of me?” Mebh asked, her voice low and sultry, like every part of her was made for seduction.

  Áine’s throat flexed as she swallowed, but she looked Mebh in the eye, not allowing herself to be cowed by the woman in front of her. She turned to Connall who I realized held something wrapped in cloth. He pulled away the covering until a huge broadsword was exposed. The steel was highly polished and gleamed, reflecting light as Connall turned to show it to Mebh. The hilt was wrapped in leather and just above the cross guard was a knot of steel that looked decidedly Celtic. It was the pummel that caught my attention though, because laid out in rubies was the same rune that marked my arm.

  “We need to hide this away, someplace safe, until it is needed again.” Áine’s words came out quiet but resolved. I looked at her for the first time, taking in the shadows beneath her eyes and the heartache that was clearly written on her face. This must have been after they’d already put Cailleach in the ground.

  “This is a gift from my people,” Mebh stated as she took the sword from Connall, lifting the heavy sword with an ease that betrayed her strength.

  “And it is too dangerous to remain in the hands of people who don’t understand its power,” Áine replied.

  Mebh looked at Áine, studying her face for a long time before she lifted a hand signaling to someone over her shoulder. “This is my most trusted man. He will keep it safe.”

  I gasped as the man came to stand at Mebh shoulder, and Munro made a grunted noise of surprise next to me. Because standing next to Mebh was a man that looked exactly like Roark.

  “Please tell me that is Roark’s long lost eighteen times removed grandfather?” I choked out, not even able to look up at Munro as I stared at the man who looked exactly like Roark, minus all the tattoos that covered his body. At least, from what we could see, which was really just his forearms and his upper chest. The rest of him was covered. But I didn’t see any hint of the tattoos that Roark seemed to take pride in flaunting.

  Munro made a low hissing sound, pushing air out through his teeth. “Well, his family genetics must be fucking incredible because that looks like his twin.” His hand was back at my waist and biting into my skin in a way that told me he had no idea that he’d tensed up that badly.

  Roark 2.0—or was this 1.0, hmm—took the sword from Mebh and bowed over it before leaving the room. Just when I thought the memory would begin to fade, Mebh’s eyes returned to me and Munro. The rest of the room froze as though time had stopped, just like it had at the football game a million years ago. At least that was how it felt.
I didn’t know if I should be panicked or terrified or amazed, but all of this was just too damn weird. A queen, from inside the memories of a witch, was staring at me.

  Mebh was gliding around the frozen people and stopped in front of me, forcing me to tip my head back so I could look her in the eye. She was even more beautiful close up, and I felt almost entranced by her. She smiled down at me, but it wasn’t exactly kind, although it definitely wasn’t cruel either. More like knowing. Or superior.

  “Has the time come then?”

  Assuming she must know why we were there, since she didn’t seem fazed in the slightest, I responded, “Cailleach has returned. We need to stop her.” I wasn’t even going to question the fact that she could see us and interact with us. I was going to use this magical craziness to try and get answers.

  “And you are the one to stop her?” she asked without judgement, just digging for facts.

  “Yes?”

  One of her dark slashing brows arched up. “Is that a question?”

  “No?” I couldn’t help but respond with another uncertain response.

  The edges of her lips twitched, and I thought she might be trying not to smile. “My man will have the sword for you.”

  My eyes darted over to great grandpa Roark, and my pulse fluttered wildly against my throat. “That’s like a legacy thing, right? A mission passed on from generation to generation?”

  Mebh looked at me like I was an idiot. “He’ll have your answers.”

  She’d already turned away from us before she finished speaking, and the memory disappeared until we were standing at the bottom of a set of stone steps. They lead up into rock that had been excavated and hollowed out so the stairs could continue on without impediment. All I saw there was Áine walking down the steps before the image faded and we were taken to an open field with huge rocks scattered over the landscape. It was daylight again, and the sun and sky were free from any clouds. In front of us was an enormous rock formation, as if giants had been building a house of cards with stone slabs. There were multiple stones with one large flat stone laid on top, and I stared up at it, wondering if it was a shelter at one point or some sacred druidic sight that no one in modern times had figured out the reason for its existence.