Dark Isle (Celtic Legacy Book 2) (20 page)

“I will wait, I want to speak to . . .
another sister. It is of importance.” I tried my best to mimic Aednat’s way of speaking, as sweat trickled down my spine. Everything around us seemed to narrow to that moment
. She lifted her shoulders in a shrug and streaked off the way I’d pointed.

As she flew away, a group of a dozen Banshees flew overhead, their wailing and singing climbing up and down my spine like a kid bashing on a piano. Again I pointed to the northwest and they followed my directions. It was too good to be true.

You were very lucky, Quinn.

“Don’t have to tell me twice
,
” I said, letting go of the
G
lamour, dropping the scythe and bolting off in the direction that Aednat had led the humans.

They were moving at a good clip when I found them, only about ten minutes away from the border
of the forest
. “Aednat!” I shouted. “I sent them the wrong way.”

She barely nodded in reply and it was then that I could see the huge strain this was on her, commanding a small army of humans to follow her every wish. Knowing that I couldn’t
sing to them like Aednat,
there was a simple
thing I
could
do to help ease th
at
strain.

“Here, I can help.” I scooped her up onto my back and kept jogging. She bounced along, her song right in my ear. Five minutes passed and I could see the
shimmer of the lake ahead
.

“We’re going to make i
t!” I said.
But n
o, life wouldn’t be quite that fair
.

The
Banshee
guard who’d survived
the bluffs
,
and called out the reinforcements
stepped in
to
our path
;
I skidded to a halt. Aednat
slid from my back and I gave her a gentle push
. “Go, I’ve got this
.”

Aednat streaked around the
Banshee
,
and the humans followed. When the guard tried to intercept them, I sent a
blast
of fire that caught the edge of her long red dress.

“Damn you Tuatha!” The
Banshee
sh
rieked at me
.
H
er
whip whistled
through the air
while she attempted to put out the flame with her other hand
. I ducked and rolled, avoiding the lash. Leaping to my feet, I ran at her, tackling her to the ground. Her eyes widened as we scrambled for dominance, her weapon of choice nullified by our proximity
, the flames
put out by
our struggle.

Grabbing her around the waist,
I tossed her over my hip. She landed on her head and shoulders
and then
crumpled up
. She let out a groan, eyes closed, mouth open and panting, a stain spreading over the middle of her dress. The scent of urine was strong and for a brief moment I felt bad for hurting her. But then I remembered Luke
;
the pity disappeared.

With a
quick twist
,
I flipped her onto her back, using her own whip to tie her hands and feet together. I had no doubt that the other
Banshee
s would be hot on our tails, which meant that I had to get out of here; there was no way I
could take on a pack of them
.
And that wasn’t the point anyway
;
we had to get to Luke.

Sprinting, I caught up to the stragglers of the human horde just as they stepped over the forest
’
s edge
and onto the paved road
. All of them were stumbling, blinking, rubbing their faces. The disbelief in their eyes
,
and
in their
stances was obvious. I jumped up on a downed log to get a view over their heads. There in the center of them was Aednat, her hands fluttering like two hummingbirds sparring.

“We gotta go!” I shouted, waving to get her attention. A curt nod, one final wave of her hands
,
and she ran to my side.

She raised her
left
hand, a
high-
pitched note erupting out of her mouth, one that made my skin crawl with the intensity of it. It went on and on, climbing higher; I clapped my hands over my ears, afraid that Aednat might do some lasting damage. The mass of people froze, their bodies seizing up as a unit and then
,
as the note finally began to fade, they relaxed shaking off whatever spell she’d laid on them.

“I make it so that
…
they can’t be spelled again.” She paused
.
“Now we take care of bad
Queen
. Now, you see what Aednat can do.”

The determined set of her jaw would have been cute if she was truly a little girl.
K
nowing her for what she was, it was more than a little unnerving.

This time, I led the way back into the forest. Luke, we were going to get Luke out of here
. A shiver ran through me, the fear that I was too late
filling me up
. Too late for Luke, too late to stop Card, too late to be everything everyone wanted me to be.

Easy. Right now you need to worry only about your own ass in the frying pan. Once that’s taken care of, you can pull others out of the fire.
I let out a long slow breath. Cora was right. I reached up to touch her
,
forgetting for a moment that she was no longer
around
my shoulder
s
.

We’d reached a grove of trees
t
hat
looked to be the oldest of the forest
,
if their girth was any indication.
A ring of holly circled around th
e trees
,
creating a gazebo. A
bove the holly was a thick band of ivy and above all of that was honeysuckle in full bloom. The whole effect was breathtaking, a cathedral of nature.

Aednat touched my arm. “This is where we will find the bad
Queen
.”

“Crap, I don’t want to find her, I want to find Luke!” I said, my eyes widening.

“We have to get past Queen first
,
”
Aednat answered, calm and relaxed. Like we were going out for tea with the Queen.

The rustling of bushes as the variety of plants parted drew my eyes to the far side. A slew of
Banshee
s flowed into the clearing, their eyes trained on us, weapons bared. I forced myself to slow my breathing, to push the sudden lurch of fear down. It wouldn’t help me to pass out now.
Apparently not all the Banshees took off after the humans. Damn it all to hell.

What could only be the
Banshee
Queen
stepped through the opening last, her glittering gown catching each ray of sunlight and sending rainbows of color
arching
across the clearing. She was taller than me, well over six feet in height, willowy and pale.
She held a staff loose in her hand, a twisted piece of arbutus tree that was studded with quartz and abalone. Pure
white hair fell to the ground in a waterfall of waves
, though her face was unlined with age
. Her eyes were far from the cruel flints of hard steel I’d imagined, but instead were a gentle
brown, like that of a
wide
-
eyed
deer.

“Welcome, Quinn, daughter of Lir. Aednat, little sister of mine, you should not have returned.” The Queen’s voice made Aednat’s hypnotic tones pale in comparison.

Aednat shrugged. “
Aednat
warned you
she
would be back, you not listen, you think you right,
and
strong.”

The Queen shook her head slowly, sadness
emanating
from her in an almost touchable wave. “You have never understood
,
Aednat. Now it will be ended between us and for that I am truly sorry.” Her eyes turned to me, the full force of her will behind them. It was like I was being wrapped in a
blanke
t
, dark warmth made me surrender my will. The Queen, I was only there to serve the Queen, to do her bidding. My mind screeched at me in an attempt to free me from the snare she’d set
,
and I’d walked into.

A slap snapped me out of my reverie, stinging my cheek and making my eyes water with pain. “She tries to spell you.”

The slap worked and a low moan caught my attention. Luke was dragged out into the open by a pair of
rat
-
faced
Banshee
s
.
Head hanging low, his blond hair was matted with blood and leaves
.

The
Queen
lifted her hand and the guards dropped him, his body hitting the ground hard; there wasn’t any effort made to catch himself.

Again Aednat touched my arm. “Let me go first.” It was only then that I realized I’d Called my knife and held it in my right hand, ready to throw it.

Aednat strolled
—
yes strolled
—
forward
,
as if she were visiting a friend’s garden. She stopped halfway across, picked a single daisy and then tucked it behind her ear. What the hell was going on now, a way to show some bravado?

“You are done
,
”
Aednat said, her voice ringing clear and loud, the trees trembling under the power of her voice. It shocked me and took everything I had to keep standing. Most of the
Banshee
s weren’t so lucky
;
their knees
buckl
ed
and weapons
f
e
ll
to the ground.

The
Queen
snarled, her face contorting
, but her
beauty
remained.
Leaping forward at the same moment, the rivals
, sisters,
clashed in the middle of the clearing, their shrieks lifting every single hair on my body. Taking advantage of the distraction, I bolted across to Luke, dropping to his side. For a moment, my hands hovered over him
;
I didn’t want to cause him any more pain. “Luke?” I said, finally laying one hand on a bare patch of skin that
seemed to be clear of any injury
. Even so, he let out a long groan.

With a
s
much care as I could, I rolled him over, holding his upper body in my arms, his head leaning against my chest. “How bad is it?” I asked, my eyes tallying up the wounds that I could see. They were bad
—
huge gashes in his chest that were open down to the white of his ribs
, a puncture to the right of his navel that was leaking a thick, almost black substance. It looked like the pus that had come out of my
Banshee
bite
, but so much worse
.

“Did they bite you?” If he was full of toxin, we were in far worse trouble than I’d first thought.

“Don’t trust her
,
”
h
e
whispered, his lips cracked and swollen. I wanted to soothe him, but I had nothing, not even some small amount of Fairy Honey. Damn it, why couldn’t I heal others like Ashling could?

I lifted my eyes to see the battle between Aednat and the
Queen
in full swing, and it looked like Aednat was winning. Or at least, I hoped she was.
It was hard to tell, they moved so fast it was a blur of bodies, fist and bolts of light.

“Don’t trust the
Queen
, yeah, I got that
,
”
I said, smiling down at him. Another groan escaped his lips.

“No, don’t trust Aednat.”

“What?” I asked, shock making me cold. Not trust her? She’d gotten us here, helped me free the humans fr
om the Barrier
.
She was fighting for us even now. Luke must be delirious.

“Lying to us. That’s why she knew so much
,
”
h
e
said, one eyelid opening. Swallowing hard he continued
,
though I could see it
pained him
. “She was the one working with Balor,
Fianna stopped her
.”