Aloft

by J F Rogers

  Wow. I’d never seen him so uptight. Aside from when he was a fasgadair. Then again, he headed to face someone who was a much bigger demon to him in a deeper way than I could fathom. My blood rushed faster with each step lurching me closer to her. How much worse must it be for him? My heart aching for him, I placed a hand on his shoulder, wanting to fill him with peace through my touch.

  He finally made eye contact, for a second. But the crooked smile he gave me didn’t reach his frightened eyes. “All I know for certain is that she’s evil. I’m not eager to see her or meet her sisters.” He kicked a stone in his path. “I will say this, though—the fact that there aren’t guards surrounding this mountain terrifies me.”

  “Why?” I held my breath, barely uttering the word.

  He grimaced, looking like he wanted to puke. “It means she wants us to come inside.”

  ****

  We reached an escarpment, stretching into the forest. Cataleen waved others forward. She’d escaped with me last year. She must’ve remembered the general location. A crowd felt along the cliff side while soldiers ringed us, eyes darting in every direction.

  “Oh!” A pech almost fell through the rock. He jumped up as if he’d intended for that to happen and waved us forward. His bushy beard covered his smile, but the deep crinkles and his sparkling amber eyes made it clear.

  Was he unaware of what lay ahead beyond those tunnels? Or was he that excited to enter Ceas Croi, eager to reclaim it? Probably a mixture of both.

  I’d barely been conscious when I escaped last year. But I remembered the windy staircase. Last time, we descended. But going up? For a mile? Assuming this was the same entrance and the same staircase, this would be an exhausting climb.

  I crossed through the stone façade behind Alastar with Kai by my side. A familiar musty odor hit me, transporting me back to these tunnels last year. My foot slipped on something greasy coating the stairs. The same stuff slicked the sides. Yuck.

  Torches lining the wall lit the way. The pech must be lighting them. If I’d been in front, I could’ve made their job easier for them and quickened our pace.

  At least we were in better shape. Last time we’d been escorting decrepit prisoners, and I’d suffered the loss of three bites. We made it then—we could make it now.

  We’d barely progressed, yet I was already growing dizzy and panicky from the constant upward spiral. My thighs and calves burned. I wanted nothing more than to transition, fly to the top, and wait for everyone there. But what would I do with my clothes?

  People’s backs blocked my view. My chest constricted. I peeked down the stairwell. Nothing but a sea of heads coming up from behind, I tensed. My heart pounded to the marching steps echoing in the stairwell. No. Not now. Don’t panic.

  Standing on the promises…

  Kai put an arm around me, steadying me. “Are you all right? You look green.”

  “I’ll be okay.” I kept my gaze low, focused on the steps before me, fighting the urge to push the people in front out of my way. Warm bodies squeezed in from every side. I lifted my gaze to the low ceiling. How much air was in this place?

  Air. I gulped, needing more air. My breath came in gasps.

  “Oh no.” Kai caught me as my feet gave way.

  People shuffled aside as much as possible, giving us room. He picked me up. Those in front saw my struggle and pushed aside, allowing us to pass. My head and feet bumped multiple people as he maneuvered us to the front of the line. Declan and Alastar stayed close behind.

  My breathing came easier with the clear path before us.

  “Feeling better?” Kai frowned at me, concern wrinkling his tan forehead.

  I took a deep breath. “I can walk now.” So much for Maili’s training. I wasn’t doing as well with the claustrophobia as she thought.

  He glanced at the pech falling behind, then jogged a few more quick steps, and put me down.

  Alastar and Declan bumped into us.

  Kai lugged me ahead of the coming crowd. “Since we’re in front, we need to keep the pace to stay ahead.” He flashed a dimple at me. “If you can’t, I can try carrying you on my back.”

  “I’ll tell you if I need it.” I smiled back. “Thanks for getting me out of there. You always come to my rescue.”

  His dimple deepened as he viewed me askance, his dark eyes gleaming.

  Our progress slowed. The pechs’ did too. A faint shuffle sounded from below. Thank God for their short legs.

  “Can we take a break for a second?” I doubled over to catch my breath and rubbed my sore quads, then my calves.

  Grunts, heavy footfalls, and clanging armor of oncoming pech rounded the corner. Great. Here we go again. This was like filming a workout session/horror film. Good thing such things don’t exist. Though they would be highly motivating. I could see the tagline now—Keep up the pace… or die trying.

  When I thought my legs would buckle underneath me and I’d never walk again, gray bricks blocked our path. “Is this it?” What if people heard us through the façade? I lowered my voice to a whisper. “The fake wall?” My aching body was grateful to reach the end, but I’d prefer to remain on this side, safe from Morrigan’s clutches.

  “It must be.” He brought his hand up as if to test it, then thought better of it. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

  Sweat wetting his sideburns, Alastar scratched his head. “I wish I knew this was here. Perhaps I could’ve escaped Morrigan. I wonder where it leads?”

  Declan shrugged. “This is my first time in Ceas Croi.”

  “I was too out of it to remember,” I said. “All I remember is passing through a bunch of fake walls.”

  The pech had lagged behind again. But nervous energy made me bounce despite my aches, shaking my hands while Kai looked at me as if I were an alien—albeit a cute alien, judging from his face.

  Our short friends neared. Kai descended a step and tugged me with him. Declan and Alastar flanked him on either side, making a barricade so the pech didn’t crowd us. Still, the moldy stink of whatever lined the stairwell combined with musky body odor to produce a new offensive smell.

  A pech in front came to a halt, faced the oncoming troop, and raised his hand. A mass of red hair dangled from his chin, blanketing his chain mail. Metallic beads gleamed where they’d been interwoven into braided sections of his beard. Gleaming, angry brown eyes peered out from his helmet.

  The oncoming pech lurched. Some bumped into those in front before realizing the seemingly endless staircase had come to a stop.

  Bead Beard puffed out his chest. “It is time. We’ve awaited this day for centuries. Pech will speak of it for generations to come. Are you ready?”

  The pech nearby shouted and waved their weapons in the air. An echo of their enthusiasm reverberated down the stairwell.

  “Are you ready to reclaim our ancestors’ honor?”

  They shouted louder. Determination steeled their faces.

  “Are you ready to reclaim what’s rightfully ours?”

  I covered my ears. How would anyone within a mile radius not hear this?

  “Let’s go!” He thrust his fist toward the fake wall.

  Kai hauled me up against the bricks as screaming pech ran through the façade like Super Bowl hopefuls storming the football field.

  I sucked in my gut for fear of a weapon coming too close as they streamed past. Was this the plan? To make sure everyone heard us coming and had ample time to warn others?

  Two pech stormed into the wall and bounced off. Others caught them and stopped. Had the wall solidified? Or had the pech on the other side gotten backed up, causing a traffic jam?

  The standstill continued. Too long. We were trapped. The room closed in on me, and my chest squeezed. No. No. No. No. Not now. I can’t have another panic attack.

  God, help me!

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  ◊◊◊

  THE PECH WAITING TO exit froze. One moment they’d been roar
ing, ready for a fight. Now they stood motionless. Their faces calm. Their eyes vacant. They’d fallen into a vegetative state.

  Oh no! “Are they—” I caught a whiff of fasgadair.

  Alastar and Declan grabbed hands and reached for mine.

  “Give us room!” Alastar yelled.

  “They’re under the fasgadairs’ power.” Declan shoved them aside. “Help me move them.”

  They shoved the pech away, clearing a path to the façade.

  I nudged Kai behind me. He backed away until he bumped into someone.

  Once my brothers and I had a wide enough girth, we ignited the fire. Despite our efforts, the flame touched a pech. But it didn’t burn him. That was Alastar’s doing. Somehow. He probably didn’t understand how he protected people from the flame any more than I understood how I started fires. I thought about starting a fire, and it happened. But when I connected with my brothers, it seemed something that happened without thought.

  “Stay here,” I told Kai.

  “But—” He stepped forward.

  “Wait until the pech are no longer in entranced. Then you’ll know the area is free from fasgadair.”

  He huffed. His dark eyes narrowed as he clenched his jaw. But he stayed put.

  We broke through the fake wall into a dim hallway strewn with bodies. Vampires stood over some of them, blood dripping from their chins.

  We rushed at them.

  The first fasgadair leapt at our approach but failed to get out of our way. It disintegrated on impact. The next bloodsucker seemed confused and slipped in a pool of blood in his hasty retreat. We caught up to him, and he melted too. Two other fasgadair fled.

  I glanced down the hallway to the right of the façade. It was empty. Had the pech split up in two directions? Or had they only come this way?

  Declan disengaged to touch one of the fallen. The moment the fire disappeared, the coppery blood stench assaulted me. I poised my arm over my nose.

  “What were they thinking barging in here like this?” My heart squeezed at the lost lives filling the hall. “As unbelievers, they’re unprotected.”

  Alastar shrugged. “I wasn’t part of the planning.”

  “Neither of us were. It was the only way to stay by your side.” Declan brushed off his hands. “He’s dead.” He glanced at the other bodies. “We should check them all.”

  Kai and some dazed pech emerged from the stairwell. Wolf, Cahal, Maili, and my mother followed, eyes wide.

  Wolf surveyed the dead bodies. “They must not have received the message in time.”

  “Who?” I asked. “What message?”

  “Hmph.” Cahal readied his battle-axe.

  My mother stepped over the bodies. “We need someone with redeemed blood to guard this passageway.”

  Did I speak? Why was everyone ignoring me?

  “I’ll do it.” Wolf stationed himself against the wall opposite the façade.

  I sniffed the air. Still no fasgadair, but they had to be coming. Where were the other pech? Far more than this had rushed through the wall.

  My brothers and I rounded the corner with Kai close behind. A stream of pech, gachen, and selkie decked out in chain mail followed.

  The eerie halls were vacant. Flickering lights illuminated sections in a dancing glow, leaving other spaces pitch black. Several rats scurried along the corridor from one shadow to another as we neared.

  We passed the last of the fallen pech. Some must’ve made it through to somewhere… or they went in another direction. Either way, once any unbelievers came upon fasgadair, they’d fall into their trance, waiting to become their next meal. Whose dumb plan was that? Stupid.

  We rounded many corners, climbing and descending stairs through a perpetual maze. This was as I remembered Ceas Croi, but I’d come from the top. And how many secret passageways had we missed? Evan had taken us through some to escape. Why hadn’t we recruited him for this mission? He and his brother had mapped out the place.

  The electric fasgadair scent blasted my nose. I stopped, holding my arms up to keep my brothers and everyone else back.

  My brothers wrinkled their noses. They must smell it too. We crept along the wall with Declan in the lead. He peeked around a corner, then ducked back, waving at us to back up.

  He drove us back around another corner before uttering a word. “There’s a huge cavern full of fasgadair. It seems they’re gathered for something.”

  “And so we have.” Malevolent voices rang out around me, sending an icy shock pulsating along my spine. I bolted toward the cavern, but arms I never saw coming held me firm. My brothers struck their hands out to ignite the fire, but Morrigan doppelgangers materialized and captured them. One grasped my brothers. The other grabbed Kai. They fought Morrigan’s sisters’ grips.

  Kai reached for me, but I was swept away. My feet didn’t touch the ground as Morrigan pulled me at an incomprehensible speed through blurry halls.

  Chapter Forty

  ◊◊◊

  MORRIGAN DELIVERED ME TO the lair I’d seen through Turas. But she’d moved the table with whatever potion or spell she was working on to the side, in front of shelves built into the wall to make room for a red pentagram. The heinous thing took over much of the floor. Was that blood? It had to be. The coppery scent filled the space.

  The witch’s look-alikes appeared in the entryway with my brothers and Kai. What did they want with them?

  As my brain attempted to process what was happening, Morrigan pushed me toward the pentagram. I tripped and fell near the center, landing on my butt. A sharp sting radiated from my hand. Blood covered my palm.

  “Fallon!” All three of my would-be rescuers called out in unison. Their voices mimicking the fear and desperation in my heart.

  I inspected my hand. The blood wasn’t mine. I’d caught myself on the pentagram. It wasn’t a drawing. Someone had carved it into the stone floor. Blood pooled inside the indentation. My stomach squeezed as my last meal threatened to reappear.

  Please, God, please tell me they’re not planning to use them to force me to do something they want.

  After everything I’d been through, I’d grown stronger. I could handle a lot. But not that. Not Kai. Not my brothers. I’d fold like a loser in a card game before I’d allow them to get hurt because of me. I had to do something. Anything. God wouldn’t have brought us here without giving us a way out.

  Would He?

  I ran toward Kai and slammed into an invisible wall and bounced off it onto my rear. Panic welled up as I stood, touching the air before me. My fingers found the unseen obstruction. Like a mime pretending to be in a box, I felt along the sides. The wall ringed the pentagram. I was trapped.

  “Set her free, ye hag!” Alastar yelled.

  Morrigan raised an eyebrow at her former ward. The next second, she stood before him, her hand wrapped around his throat. “Such vulgar words from one who should be grateful, son.” She said son as if the word repulsed her.

  Alastar’s face turned purple as gurgling sounds struggled to escape him.

  “Leave him alone!” I banged on the wall. It made no noise and had no give, but I persisted. My chest heaved as I raged at her. “Why are you doing this?”

  She released him and glided around my cage. He sucked in breaths, and his normal color returned as Declan and Kai fought against their captors.

  “Why am I doing this?” Her head cocked to one side, reminding me of the face I’d first seen in my dreams, masked in eerie calm, right before the attack. “You are aware of the depth of human cruelty, are you not? Your own grandmother treated you with contempt. Human beings are fickle creatures who feign love for others as long as it suits them. But truly, they care only for themselves. They are a plague upon the planet, and I made it my mission to wipe them out.”

  “You’re insane!” I braced myself against the invisible wall.

  “Perhaps,” she jeered. “But I didn’t make myself this way, did I? The lord o
f Hades gifted me with the ability to create a race of fasgadair under my control. He saw my heart and showed me a better way.”

  I sucked in my breath. “You work for Satan?” Of course, she did. Why did that surprise me? There are only two choices—follow God or follow Satan. Perhaps the surprising part is that she did so knowingly.

  “I spent an eternity in Hades. How would I not know its master? Why would I not serve the one who offered me freedom and power?” She looked at me as though her gaze alone could suck all hope through my pores and disintegrate it on contact. “All he asked in return was to do what I already wanted to do.”

  I wasn’t Morrigan’s prisoner. Satan himself had bound me here. Every muscle in my body tensed, begging for release.

  Declan reached for Alastar’s hand, and their demon captor laughed. “You’re useless without her fire.”

  The rage and agony welling up within me threatened to push my heart from my chest. My fists shook while my hatred formed as fire aimed at the laughing witch. A spark lit the concealed barrier between us, then fizzled.

  “The only thing you’ll be able to set on fire is yourself.” Morrigan grinned like the Cheshire cat as she circled my cage.

  An insidious dread and hopelessness seeped in, diluting my anger. I pressed my hands against the wall, looking to my brothers and Kai as if they might offer a solution.

  But they were equally desperate, their faces plastered in determination and fear. Veins bulged at their temples and in their necks. But their efforts were in vain. The witches didn’t even twitch. My friends were no match for their inhuman strength.

  I fought the self-pity threatening to drop me to my knees, weeping. The complete depression I’d experienced at Turas in the demon’s presence surrounded and filled me here. I choked on it. But I couldn’t give up.