Ann Gimpel (9 page)

Coming to her feet, she made her way to Fionn and Bella. “How is she?”

Fionn shook his head and sat back down. “Weak. She’s lost a lot of blood. I was just getting ready to see what I could do for her when I had to stop to dismantle my wards for you.” He looked at Aislinn. “We only beat you here by a few minutes.”

“I healed Rune. Would you like me to try to help?”

Nodding, he moved over to make room for her. Aislinn held out her arms for the bird. “I did what I could in the forest. Like with Hunter magic, I didn’t think I had Healing abilities either, but it appears I do.”

She linked to the bird and tried to figure out what D’Chel had injured. Fionn was right. His bird had lost blood, but nothing critical seemed damaged. One of her wing bones had snapped. That would be an easy fix. Taking her time, Aislinn infused Healing energy into the large raven. She felt Fionn in her mind, working alongside her. When she was certain the bird could tolerate it, she mended its broken wing.

Looking up, she met Fionn’s gaze, grateful he hadn’t tried to talk to her while they’d been navigating through unfamiliar avian physiology. “She’ll be fine. A good rest, and she’ll be good as new.”

“I think the same. Thank you.” His heart was in his eyes. He lifted the bird off her lap and placed her on a cushion off to one side. Turning back to Aislinn, he said, “Do you feel like telling us what happened?”

Sidestepping his question, she quirked an eyebrow. “How’s your arm? And you were limping earlier.”

“Hmph. Ankle was just a sprain. Not so sure about my arm. I’d planned to see to it once I was done with Bella. Didn’t expect you back quite so soon.” He paused for a beat and skewered her with his gaze. “Truth was, I didn’t expect you back here at all.”

She snorted. “Oh ye of little faith. Would you like me to look at your arm?”

Wordlessly, he held it out. Her Healer magic was still close to the surface. She laid a hand on either side of his arm and called her power front and center again. “Something took a hell of a chip out of the bone right here.” She pressed gently, trying to get a sense of what she needed to fix.

“Whooph.” He winced, apparently biting back the rest of what would have been a yelp.

“Sorry.” She chanted softly and wove strands that would bring new bone cells to patch the weak spot. His body heated under her touch. She smiled as she felt the damage recede, replaced by healthy tissue.

“Thank you a second time.” He dipped his head her way. “I didn’t want to disturb you while you were working, but what in the name of the gods happened out there?”

“If Rune will forgive me for forcing him to go with you, I’d like to tell all of you.” The wolf still faced away from her and didn’t budge. Not so much as an ear twitched, even though he had to be listening.

A corner of Fionn’s mouth turned downward. “I want to know, even if he doesn’t. Say, we have all those greens we gathered earlier. I could cook them while you catch us up.”

Aislinn realized she was famished. “That would be great.”

“Would you like dried meat along with them?”

“Even better.” Pushing heavily to her feet, she went over to Rune. The wolf drew away, and she knew how badly she’d hurt him. Settling next to him, she stroked his fur. After a time, he turned reproachful eyes on her.

“I do not care if it means my death,” he said with dignity. “I do not want you to ever order me away from your side again.”

“You left me earlier,” she pointed out. “While we’re on that topic, why couldn’t I sense you?”

He dropped his amber gaze. “Because I know how to shield myself.”

Aislinn glanced at Fionn, who was using magic to cook their meal. “Is that a common bond animal trait?” He shook his head. She refocused on Rune. “Yet you can do this.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you want me to know where you were?”

“So you wouldn’t stop me. I was trying to help Bella.”

Confusion rocked her. “Why would I have interfered?”

“Because his first loyalty must be to you,” Fionn answered, handing her a cracked earthenware plate.

“Thanks.” She sat on the floor next to Rune and shoveled food into her mouth. Now that it was in front of her, it was all she could think about. When she came up for air, she gazed at Rune, who’d laid his head next to her thigh, and at Fionn, who sat across from her. “I need a tutorial on Hunter bond mates. There’s a whole lot I don’t know about them. While we’re at it, there are things about myself I guess I don’t know, either. I got away from D’Chel by concentrating my magic. But I kept it inside, so it made the surface of my skin uber hot. Turns out, he couldn’t tolerate touching me when I did that. He shape-shifted, and I took the opportunity to jump.”

“Did he fuck you?” Fionn’s stark question startled her.

She shook her head. “No. The closer he got, the more I understood it would kill me—or turn me into some sort of mindless zombie—if he got his dick inside me. That’s when I came up with my idea to use fire. I was so damned cold from his touch, I had to do something.”

Deep worry lines etched into Fionn’s forehead relaxed. “Thank God,” he breathed. “I tried to tell you back there. Mortals who fuck the dark gods end up, well, not exactly human anymore. They turn you so they can pilfer your power. I don’t know about the zombie-thing, but sex with them makes you useless to our side.”

“Yes,” Rune seconded. “Do not ever do that again. You thought you could control a god. Ha! You got lucky.”

“I am lucky—” she grinned at them “—because I have both of you to care about me.” As soon as she said the words, she knew how true they were. After three years of being alone, she had a family again. Joy, a feeling so unfamiliar that she barely recognized it, warmed her heart.

“We need to leave as soon as Bella’s strong enough to travel,” Fionn said.

“Agreed.” Aislinn nodded. A daring thought took root. “Even though Metae called me off, I think we should head for the gateway.”

Fionn shot her an appraising glance. “Bold move. Especially without an invitation.”

“Well, she didn’t tell me I wasn’t welcome. Just that she wanted me to have a few more experiences in the real world, first.”

He chuckled. “You’re certainly racking those up.”

“So I am.” Her eyes felt suddenly heavy.

“Sleep. You’ve earned it. Plus, you’re exhausted.” Fionn reached across the space between them and laid a hand on her arm.

Aislinn sensed his spell, but didn’t fight it. Leaning against her wolf, she fell asleep before she could say another word.

Chapter Eight

T
he murmur of Bella’s and Fionn’s voices woke Aislinn. It was impossible to tell what time it was, since, unlike her cave, no daylight filtered into Fionn’s home. She pulled air into her chest and took stock of how she felt as she blew it back out.
Hmph. Not too damned bad.

Rune padded over to her and licked her face. “Bella is much better today,” he told her.

Good. One less thing to worry about.
Since she didn’t know all that much about the dark gods, she hadn’t been sure how sophisticated, or interested, D’Chel might be in terms of his ability to track them. Fionn kept wards about his place—they’d nearly been the death of her—and she’d taken care to cover her tracks, but she doubted if either strategy could stymie a god. “How late is it?” she asked Rune.

“The morning is close to gone.”

“You’re awake.” Fionn walked over to her, a broad smile on his face. “Bella is—”

“I already know,” she interrupted. “Rune told me. I’m so glad. That means we can get going.”

“I need to check outside to make sure it’s safe.” The air around Fionn took on a shimmery hue as he pulled magic.

“Why can’t we just leave from in here?”

He spun and looked hard at her. Enough illumination shone from his mage light for her to see an odd look on his face. “It’s almost impossible to travel from underground.”

“It is harder.” She stood and rose on her tiptoes to stretch. When she tried to run her fingers through her hair, they tangled in hopeless mats. “With two of us, I think we can manage it. I really pissed D’Chel off yesterday. Unless something more pressing came up, I’d bet my last dollar—if I still had one—he’s out there, hanging around and waiting for the first wisp of magic to surface.”

“You’ll have to show me how to help you.” Fionn was still eying her strangely.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

He bit his lower lip and dropped his gaze. “Because you seem to have more magic than any other human I’ve come across since this whole travesty began.”

She glanced away. What he’d said made her just as uncomfortable as it obviously made him. “Okay. Makes meeting up with the Old Ones that much more critical. They know things.”

He snorted. “They certainly do. And it’s a sure bet they’ve told us as little as possible to secure our cooperation. Have you ever wondered why we never heard of them before the dark gods stormed the gates?”

Her brows drew together. “Now that you mention it, we’d heard of them. I Googled ‘Lemurians’ for a high school project.”

“Yes, and everything you came up with said they weren’t real.”

She shrugged. “We didn’t know as much then as we do now.”

“Or maybe they’re linked to the dark in some way we don’t know about.”

She sucked in a breath. “Mmph. I suppose they could be. Both sides are into killing us off. It’s just the Old Ones seem so much more honest about it.”

“Oh, you
liked
the culling?” he inquired archly, voice liberally laced with sarcasm.

“Of course I didn’t like it.” She huffed. “How could anyone like seeing their friends and family drop into some vortex that was a one-way trip to hell?”

“The thing that blew me away was why no one organized against them.”

“Did you?” It was her turn to gaze appraisingly at him. She’d been so inexperienced and naive when everything happened, it never occurred to her to do anything other than follow orders.

He nodded, jaw set in a defiant line and chin tipped upward. “Yeah. I tried, but no one seemed interested. It was just weird. Like there’d been some sort of mass hypnosis.”

“It didn’t affect you?” She crossed her arms over her chest, still looking at him.

“Guess not.”

She shifted her gaze to Rune. “How did you become a Hunter’s bond mate? Was there something special you had to do?”

“I cannot tell you that.”

Both she and Fionn stared at the wolf. “Why not?” she demanded.

“It is a condition of the magic.”

She exchanged glances with Fionn. “Looks like a conspiracy to keep us in the dark.”

“No shit.” He bit off the words and looked cowed. “I’m actually embarrassed I never thought to ask Bella the same question. I simply accepted that she was mine and we were bound.”

“Maybe they did…something so you wouldn’t be curious.” She hurried on. “See, I didn’t start as a Hunter—or a Healer. Until Rune approached me, I assumed I didn’t have that type of magic.” Aislinn pressed her tongue against her teeth. “I’ve asked lots of questions these past few days. Mostly in my head, mind you.”

“I think we should trade all the information we have,” Fionn said slowly. “Together, maybe we’ll be able to figure things out.”

She wasn’t so sure about that. It seemed like far more puzzle pieces were missing than the two of them could provide, but at least it would be a start. And more than they had right now.

She walked over to where Bella sat on her perch. “May I touch you?”

The raven squawked sarcastically, clearly back to her irascible self. “You don’t have to ask. You saved my life. You and my bond mate together.”

Aislinn thought about explaining she’d only been trying to be polite and considerate by giving Bella a choice before touching her, but decided against it. Laying a hand on either side of the feathered body, she ran the Healer equivalent of a scan. Surprise sent her brows crawling up her forehead. Just to be sure, she scanned Bella again, but the information was the same. Even the broken wing bone was completely healed. “My,” she gasped, “you’re better than good.”

“Exactly.” Fionn joined her next to the raven. “Even more reason we should tell each other…everything.”

“I disagree. We should leave.” Rune paced nervously.

Trusting the wolf’s senses, Aislinn exchanged glances with Fionn and said, “We can talk once we’ve put some distance between us and D’Chel.” She held out an arm. Bella hopped onto it.

“Uh-uh. This will work better if Bella’s with me.” Fionn gathered the bird into his arms.

“Send me an image of the next jump,” Aislinn told the wolf, already drawing the mix of energy that would get them out of there.

“I need it, too,” Fionn said.

“Ready?” Aislinn asked. Fionn moved next to her. Rune closed in, too.

“Okay, everybody.” Familiar power built within her. The previous night’s meal and a decent rest had worked wonders. She felt as if she could move them all, even if no one else did a thing. Fionn put his arms around her, sandwiching Bella between them. Taking care to hold everyone’s life force separately so no one would get lost in the transition, she loosed her spell. Aislinn felt magic flow around them and waited for the weightless sensation, but it didn’t come.

“What the hell?” she sputtered. Magic was thick in the small space. They should be gone. She couldn’t gin up any more power. Had D’Chel trapped them in some way? Fear surfaced. Her heart hammered against her chest.

“Here.” Fionn added to her working. “Let’s try it this way. As you guessed last night, we’re deeper underground than you might think, and there’re my wards to get through. I should have disabled them before you began.”

Pathetically grateful to have a reason her magic had failed, she pushed her power outward again and was rewarded with the buoyancy that told her it was working. “Thank God,” she muttered. Then Rune was in her mind, and she saw through his senses. Fionn hadn’t been kidding about being far beneath the earth. They were at least five hundred feet down, with ward bands every fifty or so. She developed a new respect for his magic as she passed through each of them.

They came out on a long stretch of deserted asphalt. It was so open that it gave her the creeps. Aislinn fanned magic in all directions, but didn’t feel anything that gave her pause. “We need cover,” she said.

Fionn looked around. “Pretty barren.”

Rune padded in a large circle, looking in all directions and scenting the air. “This is not the image I sent.” He flooded her mind with another.

Aislinn wondered what had happened. Now that the wolf mentioned it, this stretch of roadway certainly wasn’t the image she’d held in her mind. Why hadn’t she realized that?
Christ, am I losing my mind?

“I’ll take us from here,” Fionn said. “Ready?”

Grateful no one commented on her lack of stewardship for the current jump, Aislinn just nodded. The next jump brought them back into forested terrain. She sank into a shaded spot under an oak tree.
Oaks. That means we’re fairly low.

“Feel like hunting?” Bella asked Rune.

“Stay close,” Fionn cautioned.

“We will.” Bella flew off, with Rune tracking her from the ground.

Fionn sat next to her and asked, “What happened?” Concern etched deep into his features, making little crinkles around his eyes.

She shook her head. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing. It’s like something—or someone—got into my head and swapped the first destination for the second. Makes me nervous. Once I set the traveling spell loose, there’s no way I can control it en route.”

“I know.” His jaw closed in a firm line. A muscle twitched beneath one eye, which probably meant he wanted to say a bunch of other things, but was holding his peace.

“Tell me about yourself.”

He looked at her, half a sour smile on his face. “Not much to tell. I was an archaeologist. I’d just finished my doctorate and begun teaching at Oregon State. I had a wife and two kids.” The muscle twitch got worse. “They were culled. I was spared, though at the time, I wished they’d sent me through the gateway, too. Sometimes I still do.” His blue gaze bored into her, as if testing how much truth she could stand.

He lost his entire family.
She didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry” seemed inadequate. She laid a hand over his, trying to infuse compassion through her touch, but he shook her off.

“Don’t,” he snapped. “Makes it worse.”

Yes, it does.
She thought about her own closet full of skeletons locked away in a corner of her mind where they couldn’t hurt her anymore—or at least, not as much. Dragging out a couple, she told him about Bolivia and the Surge. About her father being murdered and her mother going mad. “The madness turned out to be a good thing,” she said, grateful to be close to the end of her tale. It had hurt more than she’d thought it would to dredge up the memories. “Being checked out shielded Mom from what the world had turned into. I don’t think she even knew what was happening when they herded her to her death.”

Aislinn looked hard at Fionn. “Do you know why they thought they had to kill everyone without magic? I’ve wondered about that.”

“No, but it’s why I think there has to be some connection between the dark gods, those who serve them, and the Old Ones.”

“Maybe they use our magic—you know, siphon off little bits of it—to somehow help themselves,” she ventured. “The rest of humankind would only have been a drain on resources—”

“—and if they’d left enough of us alive, there could have been some sort of unpleasant uprising that might have sent the whole lot of them back across the veil,” he finished for her.

She smiled bitterly, mouth puckering as if she’d bitten into something unspeakably sour. “Well, now that we’ve solved the puzzle, what do we do about it?”

“Nothing. We do nothing, or they’ll ship us through the vortex. I’ve spent the past three years shielding my thoughts.”

“Oh.” She felt woefully unequipped to deal with the squatters who’d taken up residence on Earth. “Have you ever talked about any of this with anyone else?”

He laughed, but it held a chilly edge. “Of course.”

“And?” She thought she knew the answer, but needed to hear it out loud.

“Everyone told me I was nuts. Like I said, it’s as if there was some sort of mass hypnosis that passed me by.” He paused. “And apparently you as well.”

Rune loped back to her, a marmot hanging out of his mouth.
“Bella has one, too—a small one,”
he informed them.

“Do you think we could risk a fire?” she asked, looking from Fionn to the wolf.

Rune bristled. She knew his opinion about fires.

“Better if we cook with magic,” Fionn concurred, apparently having read the wolf’s stiffened posture.

The raven’s wing beats filled the air. She dropped her kill into Fionn’s outstretched hands.

Aislinn grinned. It was obvious they’d done this before. “I hear running water,” she said. “There has to be a creek not far from here. Let’s go. It will give us fresh water for the cook pot—and maybe some greens, too.”

“Grand idea.” Rune’s tail swished. “Bella and I will get more meat.”

Aislinn watched his retreating form, glad he’d forgiven her for forcing him to her will.

It all worked out. We’re still alive. Now if we can just stay that way.

After they’d eaten, Fionn pulled some badly stained topographic maps and a compass out of his rucksack.

She drew close, fascinated. “Do you know where we are?”

“Not precisely. Give me a minute.”

“I always wanted maps to help me figure things out—”

“It’s like with the books. The Old Ones either took them all or destroyed them,” he cut in.

“But you still have these.” She tapped the map with an outstretched finger.

“Only because I didn’t give them up, and they don’t know I have them.”

“You have books, too.”
And so do I.
She wasn’t sure why she was reluctant to let him know about their shared civil disobedience. She opened her mouth, but shut it before her secret could spill out.
He’s not telling me everything, either,
her inner voice noted, as if the quid pro quo made it all right to keep things hidden.