Dark Fae (2 page)

“There is nothing we can do now
,
”
Fianna
said. “Soon his ancestors will come and guide him home.”

“That’s not true
,
”
Bres said. “
What about ta Cauldron?”

Fianna
spun
to face him
, her skirt swirling outwards, skimming across Luke’s face. I wondered if he could feel or hear anything, if he knew he was dying.
This was all my fault.

I doubt it. Likely he floats as you did between old memories.

Fianna’s voice was sharp.
“Do not fill her with false hope. It has been hidden away. No one has found it in years
. Searching for it would be a waste of her time.
”

Bres’ voice was tight
,
clipped
. “I say that you are
wrong. Ta Cauldron was always kept within the bounds of the Enchanted
F
orest. Mayhap you don’t want to be helping us, maybe you be on ta side of Chaos.”

Fianna
and the Banshees around us gasped and
,
in the silence that followed
,
Luke drew another rattling breath, the sound
filling the tense air.
Looking over my shoulder, I eyed Bres as he locked
eyes
with the Banshee queen.

Standing there,
Bres
faced Fianna
down
. “Quinn needs Luke. He’s her future. We have to save him before we go after Chaos
. There’s no telling what will happen if
Quinn
tries to face her alone, without Luke
.
” He paused. “Not to mention he’s ta only one that Nuadha will trust enough to follow into a battle with Chaos.
” His words settled over me
.
Bres
was fighting for me, though that meant I was going to be with someone else. A dull aching throb started deep in my heart
,
but I ignored it,
d
oing
my best to push it away.
His words echoed my earlier thought
s
.
W
e needed Luke
more than
just
my aching heart.

Fianna
put her hands on her hips;
she
let out an exaggerated sigh. After several seconds of staring at Bres, her eyes narrowed, she finally
shrugged. “
Fine, but if she fails, and the world falls, it will be on your head.
I can take you to the place that crosses over, but it will mean your death and hers.
I do not want to be the one to end our
singular hope against Chaos.
”

Luke’s fingers were icy, as if he’d been dunked in water and then set in our freezer back home that kept the ice cream so hard we couldn’t scoop it out. I shook my head knowing that the tangent my brain was running off to was an attempt to escape the truth. Luke was dying.

“I can’t just let him die, not if there’s a chance we could save him
,
”
I said.
Guilt clawed at my guts. It was my fault that Luke was dying, just like it was my fault that Ashling had been taken by the Fomorii in the first place. I couldn’t save Ashling, but maybe I
could
save Luke.
Bres nodded
his agreement
.

You don’t have that luxury. You have other things you must do. Luke understands that
;
he wouldn’t want you to put your life in danger for him.

I didn’t answer her
. I
just put Luke’s hands back on his chest, and then stood up
.
There was no longer any hesitation
.
I couldn’t be afraid, not when the people I cared about were dying around me.

“Let’s go to this place,
Fianna
.”
I knew that this was only the first step
.
W
e still had to find the Three Smiths in the hope that they could make a new Excalibur
,
a
weapon that would be the death of my sister. Suppressing that thought, I steeled my resolve. Save Luke first, get the sword after.
Don’t think about the final step, not yet.

You are a fool, girl.

I nodded, but didn’t answer her
.
I didn’t need to. Fool or not, I was doing this my way.

As we prepared to leave, a
willowy Banshee bolted into the Queen’s bower. She was shaking
,
and sweat dripped off the edge of her chin
.
H
er eyes
—
a beautiful hazel
—
were huge and dilated. Fear radiated around her, infecting the other Banshees.
The entire group began to shift, distancing themselves from the messenger.
“Calling mirror
,
”
s
he
whispered, handing
a
silvered mirror over to
Fianna
. I recognized it
;
it was the one Aednat had brought me to Call Ashling on.

The thought of Aednat made me sick to my stomach. I’d killed her.
Only a few short days ago I’d been like any other twenty six year old. How could it be that
,
in that time, I’d changed so much that not only was I capable of killing someone, but of killing
Aedna
t, who
reminded me so much of Ashling. Aednat had brought out the protective side of me,
but I had
still killed her, without hesitation.
Me
.
I’d ended her life
.
Squinting my eyes shut
,
I took a deep breath, held it,
and
then let it out slowly. The world had
spun
on me, flipped my perception of it inside out, and
I
had
to change
in order to survive the shift
. That didn’t mean I was happy with
that fact
.

Fianna
accepted the
mirror and swirled her hand around it.
The
silver
-
edged Calling mirror
slipped from her
hand but didn’t fall to the ground. Instead it hovered in mid air, shimmering and bending as it flexed its borders. The mirror stretched until it was about two feet wide and nearly six feet tall
,
l
arge enough for a person to see
her
entire outfit. Or
,
in this case,
it was
large enough for Ashling to be completely visible.

“Ash!” I shouted,
starting forward in excit
e
ment. She had perfect timing.
I’d
broken through the mirror once, which had allowed Ashling to heal me. Maybe she could do it again for Luke.

“No, Quinn, it isn’t her anymore.” Bres said, the urgency and fear that laced his voice stopp
ing me
. “Look at her, really look at her.”

The same
strawberry
blond curls, the same petite figure, the same eyes . . . no, that was the difference. Her eyes, once the colour of new spring grass had darkened to the green of mold and damp things. Things shuffled and shimmered in those now darkened
iris
es
. Her head remained half cocked to the right, as if she was listening to music only she could hear.
She stepped forward, her joints jerking and popping as if she were a marionette. I couldn’t stop myself from stepping back. I knew that
mirror could be passed through, I’d done it myself.

“I don’t think this is a good idea
,
”
I said.

Ashling
sneered at me. “Y
ou should
listen to Balor’s weakest link. He is
actually
helping you stay alive
, more than he could do for your little sister
.” Her voice was heavy and thick, as though she
were
speaking underw
ater and I was only hearing the echo of it
. She snickered
. “
Fo
r now. Soon this world will be mine as it should have been from the start. Chaos will reign.”

Ashling’s voice and words wreaked havoc on my heart.
Lir had been right. He’d told me before he’d left that seeking out Ashling would end the only chance we had at stopping Chaos.
Seeing her now, I knew
in my heart that he was speaking the truth;
Ashling was gone forever
.

Fianna
stepped up to the mirror. “Why have you called us Chaos?”

Ashling, Chaos now, began to pace in front of the mirror
with that odd jerking movement
. “I want you to do something for me, Banshee Queen.” Her eyes flickered over to mine, those dark shadows behind them made my skin crawl.

“What is that you would ask of us, but more important, what would you give us in return?”
Fianna
said, clasping her hands in front of her body.

Chaos flung one hand towards me and I flinched. “That one
is prophesied to end my life. I doubt she has it in her to complete the task.” She laughed, her mouth opening so wide the skin at the edge of her lips stretched to the point of splitting.

My spine stiffened and I squared
my shoulders. No point in denying that, at least, a portion of what she said was true
. As soon as we got Luke healed, I refused to believe there was any other option
.
I w
as going after Chaos
.

Fianna
turned and lifted an eyebrow at me. “Yes, I can see that she has already decided to end your life.”

The air around us shifted, becoming far cooler than any summer air should be. Bres stepped up beside me and bent to my ear. “This is about to get bad.”

Chaos snapped her fingers
and the entire screen filled with half her face, that strange shifting eye
mesmerizing
me
. “You, Banshee Queen, will receive everything you always wanted if you do one small thing for me
. You will rule this Dark Isle with
no
interference
. I will leave you and your people in peace.”

T
he only sound
was
Fianna
’s skirts
,
swishing as she walked towards the mirror. “For what task will I receive these honours?”

Chaos smiled,
a half smile on the mirror, and
a parody of Ashling’s beauty rippling her skin. “You will kill that one.” She
dipped her head towards me. No surprise there. But what shocked me was that
Fianna
didn’t say she wouldn’t. My gut tightened and my muscles tensed. Chaos went on.
“A little task, easy for you and your Banshees. Already one of her protectors is dying and the other, well, he could prove a fun aside for your . . . ladies.”

Bowing her head, chin to her chest,
Fianna
seemed to be thinking over the request.

“You can’t!” I burst out, unable to contain the words. “You can’t possibly trust this creature!”
Even as the words escaped my mouth, I cringed. Creature
. Was
that all Ashling was to me now?

“SILENCE!”
Fianna
roared.
Then,
“Restrain her.”

Ah
,
shit.

The Banshees swarmed
around
us, before I could do more than draw my dagger,
never mind
cast a Barrier. Bres pushed me ahead of him and we started to run, barely making it out of the bower before
Banshees surrounded us
, far too many to fight and survive.

“Hold!”
Fianna
commanded and we all froze, outside the bower, away from the mirror. I could still see the single eye, a small speck
in the corner
of what had once been Ashling’s brilliant green orbs
was all that was
left. It was already hard to think of her as Ashling. This
was
what the prophecy was about
:
I wouldn’t truly be killing Ashling, I’d be killing Chaos
,
t
hat is, if we were able to get out of this
current
bind.