Dark Fae (15 page)

When they were gone, silence again reigned.
I licked
my lips
.
“Tell me what you know so far.”

What came next was so very much worse than I could have expected.

Chaos had been as busy as
I had
, putting the world into a tailspin of destruction. Natural disasters had ravaged across all the continents
.
H
urricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and every imaginable force of nature had been
unleashed
on the world
in the space of only a few days
.

“How many have been killed?” I whispered.

“Hundreds of thousands
. The
death toll is rising every day. The humans are calling it the apocalypse
,” one
of the Council members said.
“They are waiting
for
a Savior.”

The world seemed to tilt under my feet. Bres slipped an arm around my waist
,
and Luke to
uched my arm, but wouldn’t even take
my hand. “You couldn’t have stopped this any sooner
,”
he said, his blue eyes holding my gaze. “Don’t you dare think this is your fault.”

Bres tightened his arm around me. “He’s right. This
be
her doing, not yours.”

The Council members that were left said nothing, their faces
left
carefully blank.
No doubt th
ey were used to dealing with Nuadha, which said a great deal about their reaction to the situation. How long had Chaos been leading Nuadha by the nose? How long had they been forced to do what she wanted through his bidding?

“I need
...
a moment.” I pointed to the Council. “Leave us here, return in an hour.”

They filed out, obedient
without question. Not a good thing in a council that was there to advise a leader.

“Chaos has been running things for a while, I think
,”
I said.

Luke grimaced. “I bet that’s why Nuadha and the Council forb
a
d
e
me from coming after you
, Chaos was already in control then
.”

“Good thing you disobeyed them
.” I
attempt
ed
a smile,
though inside
,
my heart was breaking
.
S
o many people had died because of Chaos
—
because
I hadn’t stopped her.

Bres dropped his
fore
head to my shoulder. “It was my pa that did this.”

“He did and didn’t
,”
I said. “I’ve no doubt Chaos has been planning this for a long time. She’s been putting all her pawns in
to
place.
Don’t you remember what Fianna said? Aednat had been swayed by Chaos years ago
, even while she was locked away
.
Now it’s up to us to stop her.”

I stepped away from the two boys, my thoughts racing. “Do you think Chaos will meet me in open battle?”

Both of them shook their heads. Luke answered first. “No, not a chance. Not now that you have Carnwennan.” He motioned to the sword at my hip. “She’ll know it is the one thing that can destroy her, and you are
prophesied
to do just that.”

Bres was nodding his agreement. “It’s too great a chance that she’ll lose to you. I think she’ll try and kill you from a distance, use assassins and such to get close to you.”

My blood chilled at what they were saying. We were in a full
-
blown war. “Then we have to find a way to draw her out, to trick her into meeting me.” I refused to think about the reality of what I was saying, of what it would mean
when I did face her.

Death for one of us
, maybe even both
.

Luke folded his arms, “Do you have something in mind?”

I thought for a moment, my mind rolling over the
possibilities
. “What if we used Nuadha?
W
e could set him free.”
They
gasped
,
and I kept talking, “and use him to draw her here. If she thinks she has an ally in Nuadha, she won’t hide from him.”

Bres began to pace. “It might work. If we had someone in camp who could report back to us
about
her movements,
we could find
someone who
to
influence Nuadha.” He glanced up at Luke. “You could do it. We’d be able to trust you, and
you’ve
always been able to bend Nuadha to your way of thinking.”

Tapping his fingers on the edge of a chair, Luke nodded. “Yes, that would work. You and Quinn could wait just outside of the army’s camp for my signal.”

I lifted my hands up. “Whoa, I wasn’t thinking of leaving Luke behind. I was thinking someone else
could do this, one of the council members maybe
.” That sounded feeble
,
even to me.

Luke smiled. “Who else would you trust?”

“What if she figures out that you’re on our side?” I whispered, thinking of the black tendrils that had devoured the Fomorii, her own army. I started to shake. “I can’t lose you
.”
I looked to Bres
.
“
Either
of you. There has to be another way.”

Though we
spent
the next hour
working through different scenarios
,
none
worked as well as the first. I fought the two boys on it
,
in spite of the fact that it had been my idea at first
,
but in my heart I knew it was the only chance we had to get close to her. The plan was to set Nuadha
free
that night, before any suspicion could be roused.

When the Council came back
,
I informed them that we would have an answer for them in the morning
. They
left as quickly as they’d come
,
seemingly happy to be out of the presence of their new “leader
.
”

We had several hours before it was even dark, and both Bres and Luke insisted that I try to rest while they readied the plan. After the ride in on the Aughisky, and the time spent in the scorching hot Barrier, I didn’t argue.

I was shown to a darkened tent where a bed and clean clothes were laid out for me. A basin of hot, soapy water had never looked so heavenly. I stripped out of my jeans and t-shirt and scrubbed far too many days worth of dirt, fear
,
and blood off my body.

Slipping into the clean clothes, I wondered at how well they
would
fit. Snug
khaki-
colo
u
red
pants that tucked into a pair of leather knee
-
high boots
,
and a white blouse that was nearly see
-
through
, clung to me as if tailored for my body
. If it hadn’t been for the camisole, it would have been indecent. Fully dressed, Carnwennan in its sheath and strapped to my hip, I
lay
down, sleep claiming me instantly.

“Quinn, please, I don’t have much time.” I opened my eyes to Ashling leaning over me in the same white dress as before, her eyes full of fear. It was a dream, but it felt real.

“Ash.” I pulled her into my arms and hugged her to me, feeling how frail her body had become.

“I can’t help you, there is nothing I can do, but I wanted to see you again
,
o
ne last time
,”
she whispered into my hair.

“Don’t say that.” My words caught in my throat. “We are not saying goodbye
;
that isn’t how our story ends.”

She started to cry and I rocked like I had when we were younger
,
and
when
she’d been afraid of the dark. “Ash, we can get through this, just like everything else.”

“Don’t lie to me
,” she
said, pulling back so she could look me in the face. “I know you had a sword made, one that would kill Chaos. I’m not angry
.
I understand
,
b
ut don’t lie to me.”

I closed my eyes, tears spilling down my cheeks. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “You are the strongest person I know, Quinn. You are my hero, the one person I look up to. Don’t let me down
.
D
on’t let her win
.”

I put my hands over hers. “Do you remember when we used to wonder about mom, if there had ever been someone she really loved?”

The change in subject caught her off guard. I told her about Wil, about how Cora had forced Darcy to produce a child with Lir
,
and then Balor
,
And
h
ow Wil was still waiting for her.

“I think you’d like him. There’s something about him that seems so calm, so easy to just be yourself
,”
I said. Ashling was sitting beside me, our arms around each other. “It’s amazing to think he’s waited all this time for her.”

“Love makes us do crazy things
,” she
whispered.
“
I think I’m falling in love with someone, but I can’t tell him that. Not now, not knowing what is coming. But it doesn’t stop me from going to him as often as I can, just to talk to him.”

Her confession surprised and hurt me. Ash deserve
d
a chance to have a shot at love, to find out all about what that meant, how it felt to love someone with all her heart and have that given back to her tenfold.
It hurt that she would rather spend time with this new man in her life rather than me, but I did understand. Just the thought of leaving the two boys made my own heart ache with enough pain to steal my breath away.

“Yes,
love does make you do crazy things.
”
I said, holding her tight, as if that would keep her here with me
.

She looked up at me, pinned me with her gaze. “Don’t let it make you do anything crazy, Quinn. You can’t change this. I know you love me, but this is the way it’s going to be.”

Ashling flinched as though she’d been hit. I frowned and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to go.” She kissed me on the cheek. “Be brave, Quinn. She will try to trick you, will try to use me against you, just be brave and do what you must.”

Her image shimmered
,
and I was left alone in the tent. A hand on my shoulder brought me fully out of the dream. Bres leaned over me. “Everything’s ready
. I
t’s time to go.”

Bres and I were alone behind a sand dune about a half mile from camp. The moon was overhead, the night clear of any cloud cover. “Do you think it went okay?” I asked for probably the tenth time.

He didn’t get upset, just took my hand and lifted it to his lips. “Luke is a fighter, he knows what he’s doing, Quinn.”

We lay on our
bellies
looking towards the camp. The fires were burning, which we could just see at this distance.
Suddenly a great shout went up and I knew that Luke had released Nuadha and all those taken by Chaos’ mark.

The plan was that he would tell Nuadha that he’d never believed in me, not once
did he see
how weak I was. Both Bres and Luke thought the Tuatha leader would buy it
,
not seeing past his own arrogance.

There was a lot of movement in the camp
,
and then silence. The s
tillness
was broken by a great crashing of symbols
,
and then we could hear someone shouting.

“That’s Nuadha
,”
Bres said. “But I can’t make out what he’s saying.”

I strained to c
atch a word, phrase, anything
,
b
ut we were just too far away. “Should we get closer?”

Bres shook his head. “No. Luke said he would talk to Nuadha about bringing
Ashling…
Chaos here. We have
ta
be patient.”

A part of me wanted everything to just hurry up and get on with it. I had to face her
.
T
hat wasn’t in doubt, but the waiting was killing me.