by Lizzy Prince
“Are you alright? She threw you so hard.” I was still struggling to catch my breath. Worry that he could have been seriously hurt stabbed through my heart, making my throat seize up even more.
“Annie, take a deep breath. I’m okay. You’re okay. We got away for now. You saved our lives.”
“I lit her on fire,” I croaked.
“She was going to kill us both, Annie. And not just us. How many more people will die from her hand? You did what was necessary to get us out of there so that we can stop her for good.”
Munro’s head leaned back against his seat and he groaned. “Crap, she threw me hard.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, I probably shouldn’t fall asleep for a while though,” Munro tried to joke, but I wasn’t finding anything amusing in any of this
“How do you think she knew where we were?”
“I don’t know. She may have been tracking the lia fáil. Or maybe she can sense Áine’s magic?”
I pushed on the accelerator, speeding up as I felt the desperate need to get back to the others. And to put as much distance between us and Cailleach as possible. “I really hope not. Hell, I hope she hasn’t figured out cars yet and is still walking everywhere. We need to get back to the others and figure out a plan.”
“Just keep going straight until I tell you. We should be there within the hour.”
I snorted, nervous energy thrumming through me as I maneuvered the car through the twists and turns of the road. “Straight?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Munro shook his head, and then groaned. I ventured another look at him, grimacing at the blood that continued to trickle down the side of his face. He was holding the cuff of his sweatshirt up to the cut, but it wasn’t a very good bandage.
“Should we find a hospital?” My voice wavered as the adrenaline rushing through me started to wane, leaving my limbs feeling overly heavy.
“No, let’s keep moving. It really isn’t that bad. It’s just bleeding like a bastard.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered, feeling like I’d just had an out of body experience.
“Indeed,” Munro said on a sort of chuckle.
“Do you think she’s behind us?”
“Not yet, but we probably have less time than we thought before she finds us again.”
Like someone had just slapped me on the side of the head, I groaned and reached my hand over and gently laid it on the back of Munro’s neck.
“What are you doing?” He sighed, and I knew my magic was already working its way through him, healing his injuries.
“I’m an idiot. Why didn’t you remind me that we didn’t need a hospital because I can freaking heal people?” I rolled my eyes because honestly, when was I going to get the hang of all this magic stuff?
Munro chuckled, and my stomach rolled a bit. I was drained from all of the magic I’d tried to use against Cailleach. And now that I was trying to heal Munro, it was enough to throw me into puking territory.
“I’d never assume that you should just heal me.”
“That’s dumb. From now on, remind me, because I can’t seem to remember on my own.”
My hand dropped from Munro’s neck, feeling heavy. The curves of the road as we hauled ass from the horrible mess we’d just left behind us was making me nauseous.
“Oh God,” I said, pulling over as far as I could get off the road and untangling myself from the seatbelt as quickly as possible. I made it with just enough time to get to the grass before everything in my stomach came up for a repeat performance.
I heard the car door close behind me a second before I felt the press of a hand on my back. Munro made gentle circles on my back while I sounded like a T-Rex, puking all over the beautiful countryside of Ireland. Munro’s hand slid up to the nape of my neck, and the warm spark of electricity charged through me. It settled my stomach, but I pulled away before Munro could tire himself out.
“I think it’s your turn to drive,” I rasped. “And please tell me you have some gum.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Munro pressed a kiss to the top of my head and led me to the passenger side door, helping me in like I was about to pass out. There was a real possibility that I would.
By the time we arrived at Roark’s, my body was a quivering mess, and Munro looked like he’d been through a battle. His face was covered with dried, crusted blood, but at least it wasn’t free flowing any longer. While he’d been driving Munro had asked me to message Ryan and so far, he and Roark were the only ones back. The rest of the crew had a much longer trip out to Poulnabrune and wouldn’t be back for a few hours. All we’d heard from them was that they’d gotten the spear, but it had been a real shit-show. Lola’s words.
When we arrived at Roark’s Munro didn’t bother knocking, he just opened the door and ushered me in. I was holding the box with the lia fáil against my chest like it was armor. I had the need to keep it in my sights at all times. Ryan darted up off the couch as we walked into the apartment, his face tense and tired as he surveyed us.
“What happened?” His eyes flashed over me, taking stock of my own appearance and frowning with confusion.
Roark was in his kitchen, leisurely sipping something from a mug that said, I want to be nice, but everyone is too stupid. I almost laughed but didn’t have the energy, I just shook my head instead. He really was a dick. He didn’t really seem like the kind of guy to have a novelty mug, but I guess if he was going to have one, this suited his personality. He took a long sip of his drink, his eyes staring straight into mine while he did. Almost as if to say this mug is for you. I clenched my jaw and directed my attention back at Ryan.
Munro reached out a hand and squeezed Ryan’s shoulder. “We’re fine. It looks worse than it is.
Ryan gripped Munro’s arm, and the worry was clearly etched on his face. “This happened when you got the lia fáil?”
“No,” Munro replied wearily.
“Cailleach found us,” I said, moving over to the couch.
I was too tired to keep standing in the front entry. I noticed Roark perk up out of the corner of my eye as Ryan and Munro followed me to the living room and sat down on the couch with me. Roark wandered over, sitting in one of the chairs, leaning back as though lounging, but he wasn’t fooling me. I could see the rabid interest on his face. He wasn’t as indifferent as he wanted us to think he was.
Munro and I filled them in on what had happened with Cailleach. Ryan got increasingly more nervous all while Roark pretended like this was old news and he was bored by the whole situation. When we had them both caught up, I turned to look at Roark.
“Now we need to talk about you,” I said.
Roark cocked his head, and there was the barest hint of a smirk on his lips. “Do we now.”
Munro’s hand drifted up to rest on the nape of my neck. The tingle of electricity that sparked between us had me relaxing and calming.
“Here’s the thing, Roark. We saw the strangest thing when we did a spell to track the lia fáil,” I said, keeping my tone calm and even.
He took another sip out of his mug, and I swear he was making sure the stupid part was pointing at me. “And what was that?”
“It seems that you were somehow around thousands of years ago. Looking almost exactly the same as you do right now.”
A true smile broke out over his face this time, and he sat forward as though something I’d said had finally piqued his interest. “Is that right?”
“What are you, Roark?”
Roark just smirked at me, his light brown hair falling over his forehead. His size made him intimidating, but I recognized something in his eyes. Something he tried to keep shuttered and closed away that was familiar. He’d known pain and suffering, just like the rest of us. No matter how badly he wanted to pretend he was immune to anything as plebeian as emotions. It made him a lot less scary.
“Asks the witch with an ancient slice of someone else’s soul residing inside her.”
“Roark. Stop messing around. What’s going on?” Ryan broke up the stare down Roark and I had been having. I would have cracked him, damnit.
The smile faded from his face. He may have enjoyed messing with my head and playing snarky little games with me, but Ryan was his friend. Had been for years, according to Munro. So maybe having Ryan call him out made him realize that this wasn’t some stupid game we were playing.
Roark leaned back into the chair again and set his mug down on a table next to him. He steepled his fingers and looked from Ryan to Munro and finally stopped at me.
“I was at Mebh’s that day.”
My lips parted in surprise. I hadn’t been sure he’d admit it. And even though I’d seen it, I still wasn’t sure I believed it. “What day?”
He tapped two of his fingers together. “The day the two of you dropped in to watch Áine and Connall give Mebh the sword for hiding.”
I blinked at him stupidly. Munro stiffened next to me, and I could feel the tension rolling off of both him and Ryan.
“Why didn’t you ever tell us that? After all this time?” It was Ryan who spoke, and he sounded pissed. “Especially the other day when we came here specifically about the lia fáil?”
Roark held up a hand to stop Ryan. “I didn’t know. Because it hadn't happened yet.”
“It happened thousands of years ago,” I stated dumbly.
Roark’s piercing green eyes turned to me. “Yes, however, up until a few days ago. You’d never dropped in for a little magical visit. It didn’t happen that way originally, so my memory up until you did your spell did not include you or Munro. After you magicked your way into that time and place, my memory was altered. Yet, I know it wasn’t what originally happened.”
My head hurt at the logic, but I wasn’t in the mood to break it down any further. “Okay, without breaking out the blackboard and trying to create a new theory of time travel—”
“It wasn’t time travel,” Roark interrupted.
I rolled my eyes. “Magical transportation through time, whatever you want to call it. Bottom line. It didn’t seem like you saw us when we were in the memory. Or when we were really there? Or… you know what, I have no idea how that works,” I said, blowing out a frustrated breath.
Thankfully Roark didn’t linger on the semantics. “I saw you.” He looked smug. “I just didn’t give away that I could see you.”
Munro shifted, moving his hand from my neck to just above my knee, giving it a light squeeze. “We don’t really care about all of that. How is it that you’re still here so many years later?”
This time, real emotion passed over Roark’s face. I was surprised to see true sadness and pain pass like a spasm, but he masked it so quickly it could have been an illusion.
“I was Mebh’s protector, head of her army. She asked me to see to a task.”
“What kind of task?” Ryan asked, his voice quiet as if he understood Roark was struggling with something. He must have been seeing the same thing as me, I just didn’t understand what it was.
“She wanted me to protect the sword. At the time, there was no indication that it would be for this.” He twirled his finger around, indicating all of us sitting in his living room.
“But if you had no memory of us being there until just a few days ago, how did Mebh know to give you the sword for safe keeping?” Ugh, maybe we did have to break out the blackboard and go over the intricacies of time travel.
“Mebh is not of this place.”
“She’s from fairy,” I stated, confirming what I’d already suspected.
“She knows things before they happen. That’s the only way I can explain why she would have given me the sword.” He looked weary all of the sudden, and I wondered what kind of a journey he’d been on to get to this point in time.
“Did she cast a spell on you? To keep you alive all these years?” I whispered the question, feeling guilty for some reason.
“Something like that.” Roark’s reply was sharp, and he looked like he was done talking about this. “That’s not the important part. What is important is that you stop Cailleach.”
He stood, grabbing his stupid mug from the table and moving into the kitchen, dumping the contents into the sink before he turned around and gripped the counter. I stood too and walked over to the other side of the counter so I could look him in the eyes.
“How do we do that? We’ve been chasing down these relics as if that is going to be enough to stop Cailleach. But we have no idea what to do with them. Do you know? Did Mebh or Áine share anything with you about how they put her in the ground last time?”
Roark took his hands from the counter and crossed his arms, muscles flexing and showing off the runes that were tattooed up and down his arms. “I know how Áine did it, but it’s not going to help you.”
I lowered my eyes as my frustration threatened to erupt out of my throat in a scream. The granite beneath my hand was made up of small tan and black pieces of stone, but there was one large irregular circle of black right next to my pinkie. I traced the awkward shape, thinking that it reminded me of an infinity sign. The never-ending struggle that humanity had with one person seeking out power, destroying everything in their path, only to be destroyed themselves. Then there was rebirth, growth, and the inevitable forgetting. The world would relax back into complacency while someone new rose up to seek power.
That’s what this felt like. An infinite loop of the struggle between two sisters. One of dark. One of light. “How did Áine stop her?”
“She bound her magic.”
This guy, seriously. I deserved a medal for not kicking his shins and poking him in the eye. Couldn’t he just answer one damn question?
“Yeah, that part I already knew. What about the rest? What spell did she use? How do the lia fáil come into play?”
Roark’s finger traced one of his tattoos, and I didn’t think he even realized he was doing it. Like it was an unconscious gesture that reminded him of something. We weren’t exactly ready to start swapping secrets while braiding each other’s hair just yet, so I figured I shouldn’t ask. His eyes looked distant, and I wondered if he was thinking back to that time so many years ago. What if he knew but couldn’t remember?
“There are four lia fáil. The coronation stone, the spear, the sword, and the cauldron. Given as gifts to Áine and Cailleach from their fae father, they represented the four elements of magic. The stone for earth, sword for air, spear for fire and cauldron for water. But there is a fifth element, as you know.”
My eyes narrowed slightly when I thought that his words were a jab at me. But Roark looked so lost in memory, his vacant stare almost haunted, that I kept my mouth shut.
“The fifth element, soul, was the sisters themselves. Their magic was meant to be a gift to the humans. But I don’t think the fae realized the temptation their magic would pose for humans.”
I wanted to scoff and tell him to add the qualifier “all” to that statement. Because not all of us were so tempted by magic that we’d destroy everything we love in order to get more power. But I just bit the inside of my cheek and told myself to wait until he was finished.
“Each element in magic correlates to the four cardinal points on a compass. North, South, East, and West. The fae felt there was power in these elements, which is why the four points of fairy correspond to the directional points as well. When Áine hid the lia fáil, it made sense to use the magic that already existed and was reinforced with fae magic to help cloak them. And so, Áine and Connall created a magical boundary, placing a lia fáil at the four points to contain the magic to that space. Lastly was the representation of the soul magic.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. Was there another lia fáil that no one had told us about? Were we about to get sent out on another road trip?
“Áine. In the center. She was the final piece to connect all of the elements in order to cast the spell to hide them.”
I felt every muscle in my body unclench at his statemen
t. While it didn’t make anything easier, it certainly didn’t make it harder.
“She did a binding spell on her magic, and then pushed it out to Cailleach, in turn binding her magic.” Roark finally realized that he wasn’t just talking to himself, and his eyes focused, landing on my face.
“Why did they put her in the ground? Why not just let her exist with her magic bound?”
Roark closed his eyes, but not before I saw the agony in them. Once again, I wondered what the hell had happened in his life to get him to this time and place.
“She was too far gone. Before, Áine had been her balance, but with all of the magic Cailleach had taken from others, the darkness overtook the light. Like an infection that seeps into a healthy body, the darkness consumed her. Áine tried to stop it, but by the time she knew about it, it was too late for Cailleach. She had killed. She had used her magic to hurt others, to manipulate and control.”
Roark’s eyes opened but looked over my head. “Áine put her in a sort of stasis, a magical deep sleep.” He rubbed at his forehead as if remembering was giving him a headache. “I don’t know if she thought she might find a way to release her at some point, but it never happened in her lifetime. And your existence just shows that she never truly believed Cailleach could be rehabilitated. Not in the end.”
Munro had come to stand behind me, his hand resting on my hip as I leaned into him. “Why do you say that?” he asked.
“Because Annie is the failsafe. She was built into the spell in case Cailleach ever came back. So that she could stop her. Permanently.”
My muscles tensed, and I clenched my fist, feeling my anger spike like an animated thermometer. I didn’t like the idea that I was some weapon. That I existed as a pawn in someone else’s game.
“And I’m just supposed to kill her? Put her down once and for all?” I heard the defensiveness in my voice, and I saw that Roark noticed it too. He almost looked sympathetic, but then his face hardened.
“Yes. That is exactly what you need to do.”