Reunion (42 page)

Nika glanced at the cab disappearing down the deserted, dawn-lit street for a moment and shook her head. "Are you sure? Do Pete and Logan know how to operate such a machine?"

"Of course, they do. It's easy," Trása assured her, smiling at Nika's concern. "Even I can drive."

"Truly?" Nika seemed very impressed.

Trása nodded, not going into the details of her one and only driving stint in a stolen car. Nika did not need to know that it was more good luck than good driving skills which got her and Ren's friend, Hayley, to their destination without killing either herself or any number of innocent bystanders along the way.

"You'd be surprised to learn some of the things I've seen and done when I've been rift running," she said. "Just wait until you see television for the first time. Toyoda, Echo, come here!"

The pixie and the
Leipreachán
did as she ordered, appearing in front of her to receive their orders. Trása marvelled at their obedience. And lamented the loss of her
Youkai
kingdom. Now that Marcroy had found the ninja reality, she was a Faerie Queen no more. She was back to what she had always been - a troublesome, mongrel, half-
beansídhe
rift-runner desperate to find her place in the world. This one or any other.

Trása forced her attention back to the job at hand. She may not be their queen any longer, but she was responsible for these creatures and it was her job to ensure they remained protected, particularly in this realm full of limited magic and unknown dangers. "I want you two to stay out of sight until I know it's safe."

"Boys asked us to come. Boys asked us to come," Echo insisted zipping about Trása's head so fast it made her dizzy to try and stay focused on the little creature. "We'll be well. We'll be well. We'll be well."

"Let me be the judge of that. Now scat. I'll call you back when I need you."

The
Leipreachán
and the pixie - somewhat to Trása's surprise, did exactly what she asked. They winked out of existence, leaving Trása and Nika alone in the quiet suburban street.

Nika looked up and down the street, frowning. "It is hard to credit this is the world Pete and his brother come from."

"Well, technically, they don't come from this world," Trása reminded her turning to study the house. There was a light on in the front room, but no indication of who might live here. "They just grew up in this realm."

"Do you think they'll want to stay here now they've found their way back?"

Trása turned to Nika, curious about her tone. "Is that what's bothering you? You think now Pete's back in this world he'll want to stay here?"

"This place has many temptations," she said, as if bracing herself for the inevitable. "You said it yourself. This realm has many strange and wonderful contraptions. What if Pete misses them? I would not be surprised if he chose them over ... his other life."

"He won't," Trása assured her friend with a confidence she certainly didn't feel. "Pete loves you."

"He has never expressed that opinion to me."

Really
, Trása wanted to ask.
We have to talk about this now?
"Some men don't seem to think it's necessary to tell a woman they love her," Trása said, thinking of Rónán rather than Pete.

"I would not make him choose," Nika said, squaring her shoulders with the stoic determination of somebody who has already lost the fight. "If Pete wants to stay in this realm, I would not try to dissuade him."

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it," Trása said, thinking the last thing they should be worrying about right now was Nika and Pete's love life. They had to survive the next few days first. "Let me do the talking."

"What?"

"When we get inside. Until we know for certain that Pete and Logan are here and this place is safe for us, let me do the talking."

"It they have harmed Pete in any way, I will turn them into cockroaches and step on them," she said, in a matter-of-fact sort of voice as Trása headed up the neat path to the front door.

Trása glanced over her shoulder at the Merlin. "No magic in this realm, remember?"

"Then I will find another way."

Oh dear,
Trása thought, as she lifted the brass knocker and rapped on the door a couple of times.
And I used to think Sorcha being in this realm was a problem.

Pete opened the door almost as soon as Trása finished knocking. "Get inside, quickly."

She hurried through the front door and into an elegant, carpeted hallway followed by Nika who stepped over the threshold with great trepidation.

"Nika! Thank God you're safe," Pete said when he saw her.

Of course he loves you, you fool,
Trása thought.
Anybody can see that.

Nika wasn't buying it. She bowed her head and then stared coolly at Pete. "My lord."

He looked stunned by her aloof reception. "My lord? What?"

Trása sighed. "She thinks you're going to choose staying in this realm over her. Whose place is this?"

"It belongs to someone I used to work with," Pete told her as he stepped forward and took Nika in his arms. He really wasn't interested in Trása. He only had eyes for the Merlin. "I'm not staying in this realm, Nika. I promise."

"He says that like we have a way out of here," Logan remarked from a door a little further down the hall.

Before Trása could say hello, another man pushed past Logan with a panicked look on his face. "Shhh! You'll wake Stella."

"Who is Stella?"

"Annad's wife," Pete explained, still holding Nika in his arms. She wasn't convinced by his assurances, Trása guessed, because the Merlin was still scowling and holding herself stiffly apart from him, refusing to melt into Pete's embrace the way he obviously expected her to.

"This is Annad?" she asked, turning from Pete and Nika to study the man who'd scolded them for making too much noise. When Pete said this house belonged to someone he used to work with, she'd assumed he meant another cop. This man didn't look like a cop. He was Asian, with a delicious caramel-colored skin, a soft brogue, kind, although worried, dark eyes and the air of a man unused to the trouble that was visiting his house.

"I am," Annad said. "Now, please, can we go back to the kitchen? My wife is asleep right above us. I'd prefer she stayed that way so I don't have to explain even more strange visitors arriving at the crack of dawn."

It seemed a reasonable suggestion. Without another word, they followed Annad through the tastefully furnished living room to the kitchen at the back of the house. He closed the living room door behind him and leaned on it for a moment, before looking around. "Is the fairy here?"

"Pixie," Logan corrected. "And no, she's not here. Where is Echo, by the way?"

"I sent her away with Toyoda until I was sure this place was safe," Trása told him. "What are you doing here?"

"Making my life a misery," Annad remarked, as he pushed off the door. "Would anybody like some tea? I think I need to make some tea."

"Is this where you'll be staying?" Nika asked Pete, looking around the room, probably trying to figure out what the strange appliances were.

"Why do you think I'm staying?" Pete asked, and then turned to Logan. "Why does she think I want to stay in this realm?"

"I have no idea," Logan said, not the least bit interested, Trása guessed, in what Nika was worried about. "What I want to know is what the hell you're both doing here in the first place?"

Trása shrugged. "Marcroy found us. Nika decided we should escape and convinced everyone I was dead, used her talisman to bring us first to my realm and then I opened a rift to here, looking for you. Where is Rónán? Has he found Darragh, yet?"

"We don't know," Logan told her, taking a seat at the table. "Darragh's in prison here, and the last we saw of Ren, Marcroy had him."

Trása stared at Logan, not sure which bit of the devastating news he had just so casually delivered was the one of most concern.

Darragh is in prison.

Marcroy has Rónán.

It was almost too much to take in. "How ... how did Marcroy find Rónán?"

"How did he find
you
?" Logan asked.

Trása sat down opposite Logan. "Um ... I think Abbán may have contacted him from the Pool of Tranquillity."

"You
think
?" Logan asked with mock surprise. "What happened to asking Ren to wipe Abbán's memory and send him home with some story about how he lost the jewel in a bog?"

"We were still talking about it when Isleen went missing, remember? Things got rather hectic after that. And why is this suddenly my fault, anyway?" she asked. "You're the ones who left without telling anybody. If you were so worried about Abbán, why didn't
you
ask Rónán to do something about him before you went haring off across realities to save Darragh?"

"My lady is right," Nika said. "This is not her fault. What is this?"

Trása glanced up. Nika was staring at a box with a glass door and glowing numbers sitting on the kitchen counter. "It's a microwave," Logan told her. "Leave it alone."

"Do you have a television?" Nika asked Annad who was spooning tea from a small metal caddy into a teapot, concentrating on the task as if he believed that by doing something normal, the abnormal things happening around him would make sense.

"Over there," he said, jerking his head in the direction of the set on the sideboard.

Nika turned to study it for a moment and then looked at Trása. "I do not see what you find so intriguing about this thing, my lady. It does nothing."

Annad glanced at Pete. "Is she serious?"

Pete smiled, walked over to the sideboard, picked up the remote, and pushed the power button. "It's a bit more interesting when it's on." Nika's eyes widened at the sight of the screen coming to life. "This button here changes the picture," he explained. "This one controls the sound. You just point it at the TV and push, okay? Don't turn it up or you'll wake Stella."

Nika nodded, her eyes glued to the set. Without taking her eyes off it, she dragged a chair over, perched herself close to the set and started flicking through the channels forgetting, apparently, all about her fears that Pete was planning to stay here in this realm without her.

With Nika concentrating on the TV, Pete returned to the table and took the seat opposite Logan. Annad brought a tray to the table with the teapot, cups, a jug of milk and sugar bowl. Without asking if they wanted any tea, he began to pour a cup for each of them.

"Is Darragh really in prison in this reality?"

Pete nodded, his expression grim. "He's in Portlaoise. Don't know if you've heard of it, but it's not a very pleasant place."

Trása's heart went out to Darragh. All this time he was in prison. What had they done to him? What had prison done to him?

And Rónán. What must he be feeling? He had been so sure Darragh was living a life of luxury and extravagance in this realm with Kiva. It was how he'd justified leaving him here for so long. He'd clung to that belief so strongly. It was how he slept at night. His nightmares had stopped and he didn't need to feel guilty about it because Darragh was living it up and loving every minute of his time in this reality.

Rónán had been telling himself the same story for years.

"What did Rónán do when he found out?"

"Before or after I stopped him walking in front of a speeding car?"

Trása couldn't find it in herself to be angry at Rónán, certain nothing she could say to him would come close to inflicting the guilt or remorse he must be inflicting on himself since learning of his brother's fate. "After, obviously."

"He went to see Kiva."

"His mother from this realm? Was that wise?"

"Of course not, but that didn't stop him." Pete looked at her like she was just a little bit dim. "This may come as a shock to you, Trása, but Ren frequently doesn't do the
wise
thing. Haven't you noticed?"

She had noticed. But this was probably the dumbest thing he'd done in the past few years - stepping into a realm that had no magic to save his brother without an actual plan notwithstanding. "Where is he now? You said Marcroy has him? How can that be? Marcroy would die the moment he set foot in this realm."

"He ambushed me in your realm," Logan explained. "It had to have been the jewel we used to open the rift, I figure. He must have some way of tracking it ... some innate sense of where it is, perhaps. I was at the Drombeg circle in your realm, waiting for the right time to open the rift for Ren and Pete to come back when next thing I know, there's
Tuatha Dé Danann
everywhere, I can't move a muscle, Marcroy's invaded the circle, taken back his jewel and there is no sign of you or any hint about what had become of you back in the ninja realm."

"He put Stiofán in charge."

"Seriously? That guy's a monumental pain in the arse."

"And he's loving every minute of being the new king of
Tír Na nÓg
," Trása said, realizing now why Marcroy had arrived in the ninja realm and then left again so quickly, allowing her and Nika to escape. Marcroy had other fish to fry. He'd been on Rónán's trail the whole time.

She shouldn't have been surprised.
Where are they, little bird?
It was the first thing Marcroy had said to her when he arrived in
Tír Na nÓg
and took her prisoner.
"RónánDarragh. Where are RónánDarragh?"

Trása sighed. It was the story of her life, really. Marcroy hadn't wanted her. He hadn't really cared about her at all, which is why they got away so easily. There was a time when this realization would have burned Trása like acid in the pit of her belly, but now she just accepted it, marvelling at how the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. "Why does he want Ren?"

"He didn't say," Logan told her. "I take it he didn't tell you why?"

"No."

"It can't be for anything good," Pete said. "How long have you been in this realm?"

"A few hours. We came through the circle at the golf club."

"What did you use to open the rift?"

"This," Nika said, holding up the mummified baby's foot talisman she'd brought with her from her own realm without taking her eyes from the TV. She had the remote in the other hand and was changing the channels so quickly it was impossible to fix on any one program for long enough to tell what it was.