Rua (Rua, book 1) (13 page)

“When did you turn seventeen?” she asked Celeste.

“Three days ago.”

Her dark brown eyebrows moved up. “Really? And you’re not overwhelmed?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve got a nasty, nasty headache. It’s getting worse.” She glanced at Rylan, sensing his disapproval at her telling so much. She lowered her voice. “Dr. Ramone, I see them everywhere, especially at night.”

She smiled. “Please, call me Kara. I can help you, show you what to do. What have you been doing thus far? Most people without training would be completely overwhelmed, curled up in a ball in some padded room somewhere, muttering about voices. We’ve had that happen before.” She frowned at the memory.

“Okay, Dr. Ram—I mean, Kara. I make a circle with my light and it keeps them away.”

“Your light?” she asked. “What do you mean?”

Rylan kicked her under the table.

Kara cocked her head to the side. “You have purple light burning in your hands? No, from everywhere. Interesting.”

Oh yeah, she can read my mind.

“Not really,” Kara said. “Only what you project to me. When you are obsessing over something or upset about it, I can pick it up, but I can’t pick up everything.”

Before she could stop it, her mind focused on Rylan, on her huge, sad, puppy-love style crush. She didn’t want to think of it, tried to stop it, but it was there, she was sure, on the very front of her mind like a giant, blinking, neon “I’m pathetic” sign.

Kara’s eyes traveled to Rylan then back to Celeste. She cleared her throat. “I’m glad you sorted out how to make some sort of protection around you.”

“Am I doing it right?” Celeste asked.

“There is no right or wrong. We all do it differently. But as you can probably feel, it’s only a temporary fix. Tell me, what happened with Fayga? She didn’t cross, did she? I think I would have felt that.”

“No, she didn’t,” Celeste said. She relayed the story to Kara, watching as her eyes widened when she described the circle and pulse of power that made Kara, and all the
Sidhe
, disappear.

“We need to begin your training immediately. She’s not the only nasty one. Some of the
Sidhe
are very old, and very dark. They hate humans, hate this realm, and want to destroy it all. Those are the ones that we must keep out. I think you have probably injured her, so she will leave you alone for a few days.”

“You don’t have a purple flame thingy?” Celeste asked.

She smiled again. “No. We each have a special gift. Mine is the mind-reading thing, yours is apparently the light, which sounds very powerful.”

“Oh.”

Kara finished her coffee then pushed it to the edge of the table. “We have a lot of ground to cover, but what are your most pressing questions?”

She smashed her hands together in her lap. “Do
Tuatha
, you know, live normal lives? Have careers and all that? I mean, how do you support yourself when your main job is passing the
Sidhe
through the portal?”

“Celeste, there is a lot more to it than the portal. This is why you can only put so much in what Rylan says.” She paused and looked at him. “Sorry, it’s the truth. You don’t know the half of it.” She leaned forward, toward Celeste. “There is a lot more you can, and should, do. I will explain it all at a later date, and eventually take you to meet the board.”

She folded her hands in front of her. Her nails were clipped short, but neatly manicured and painted a fire-engine red. “To answer your question, yes, you can live a normal life. I will train you to have most of your portal duties on ‘auto pilot’ so to speak, where they pretty much come and go without much active attention from you. Your existence, your being, is the portal. You just need to set up some sort of alarm system that triggers when something weird is happening.”

“So, I can go to college, get married, have a family?” Celeste asked.

When she mentioned the word ‘family,’ a pained look washed over Kara’s features. It was over in a split second then she was back to normal. Celeste glanced at Rylan to see if he’d seen it too. He had, judging by his furrowed eyebrows.

Kara smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “It can be hard to find a balance at times, but yes. You can do all those things. Um, did you have any other questions?”

“What’s with the crows?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

Celeste thought of the swarm of crows, the ones she’d banished, and the one she called to her. She let the images flicker through her mind. It was a lot easier than trying to explain. “Ah, I see.” Kara nodded. “That’s normal. We all have special affinities in nature. One of yours is with blackbirds. You may have more.”

Celeste smiled. “Cool. That, I like. What is yours?”

“Bats,” she said.

“Creepy,” Rylan said.

Celeste ignored him. “And Regina?”

“Water. She can manipulate water.”

“Awesome,” Celeste said. “How did she find out?”

Kara adjusted her glasses. “She knew she was
Tuatha
when she was a little girl, but never had a connection with any animal. She thought something was wrong with her. It took her years to correlate that every time she was sad, it poured buckets. Whenever she had something important going on and it was raining, it’d stop.”

“Wow,” Celeste said.

“Any more questions before I take my leave?”

“Why is the night and darkness so…” Celeste dug for the word to describe her love of dark and night.

“Compelling?” Kara asked. “It’s part of your nature. We derive our power from the other side of nature, the one most cannot see. All of the supernaturals are more active at night.” She glanced down at her watch. “I need to go. Meet me tonight at 10:30 p.m., you choose a place. We must begin your training immediately.”

Rylan chimed in. “My place. It’s isolated.”

Kara’s smile tightened, but did not disappear. “Fine.” She jerked her head in Rylan’s direction. “This one can help your parents stay asleep while you are out.” She stood and picked up her multicolored purse. She strode out of the coffee shop without another word.

As soon as she walked away, Celeste’s head started its annoying heavy pounding again. She rubbed her temples, wishing in vain for the pain to stop. “Oh, God. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

He stood. “I’ll take you home.”

She walked out to his car. Evening had arrived, bringing the shadows out with it. The good ones and the bad ones. He opened the door for her and she slid in then rested her pounding head on the doorframe while he drove her home.

“I still don’t know about her,” he said. “I don’t trust her.”

“She seems nice. It seems like if she meant me harm, then she would have done it already.”

“I guess we don’t have much of a choice,” he said. “She’s right, my knowledge is limited.”

“We? You know, you don’t have to do this for me. I’m very grateful for everything you’ve done, but this is not your responsibility,” she said

“What, you don’t want me around?” He parked in her driveway.

“I didn’t say that, I don’t mean it in that way.” She exhaled too hard, sending a few red curls around her face. “Yes, I do want you around.”

He smiled. “Good. See you later.”

She stepped out of the car and forced herself not to look back at him as he backed out of her driveway.

Chapter 12

“Who was that?” her dad asked as she walked in the front door. “That didn’t look like Tink.”

“Rylan.” She dropped her backpack off by the couch, trying to be as casual as she could. She grabbed a candy from the dish on the coffee table, threw it in her mouth, then collapsed on the edge of the couch.

Her dad sat next her and turned down the T.V. As usual, he was watching the news. “So, where were you guys? School ended a while back.”

“We got coffee,” she said, nice and smooth. It wasn’t like she was lying or anything.

“Oh, I see,” he said. “Are you guys dating or something?”

“Dad! I don’t really think I’ve been here long enough to be dating anyone.” She pulled her legs underneath her.

“Dating who?” Her mom breezed into living room. “Celeste, please take your feet of the couch, babe.”

“No one.” She unfolded her legs.

“No one, except the guy she just had coffee with.” Her dad stood to leave.

“Not Tink?” her mom said.

“Rylan.” He left.

Nicely played, Dad. Drop the bomb, then leave.

“Rylan? The guy who showed up on your birthday, but didn’t stay? When did you guys start dating?”

“Not dating, Mom. We just had coffee after school. What’s the big deal?”

Her mom raised her hands in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. If you continue to have coffee with this boy, then we need to meet him. I mean, really meet him.”

“Sure.” She smiled and nodded, but the splitting headache made it hard. She rubbed her right temple with her finger.

“Still have a headache?” her mom asked.

“Hmm mm.”

“Poor baby. I’ll make you some tea.”

***

She went to bed early, hoping her parents would do the same. They did. At 10:15, she got up and dressed in the dark. She felt a little silly as she pulled on her all-black outfit, sports bra, and sneakers, but she had no idea what was in store for her.

In her bathroom, she turned on the light so she could see well enough to pull her crazy mass of hair into a very thick ponytail. Once that was done, she turned off the bathroom light then dug through her purse in the dark until the telltale jingle of the extra set of her mom’s car keys reached her ears.

“You won’t need those.” Rylan was sprawled across her bed, hands behind his head.

She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she still was. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.”

She saw the white teeth of his smile, even in the dark. “Are you amusing yourself?”

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yes, I am.”

“Give me just a second.” He disappeared. Literally. One second he was there, the next the space was empty and her bedroom door swung slowly inward.

“Rylan?” she whispered into the dark. No answer. She sat down at her desk chair to wait for his return.

“Don’t sit. We need to go.” He was back, holding the window open for her. Her bedroom door was closed.

“Quit showing off,” she said. He went out the window first then helped her down. “Where did you go, anyways?” she asked.

“Just made sure your parents were in a deep sleep, that’s all.” He took her hand then led her through the forest again. It was much easier to navigate with shoes and socks. She followed him, expecting him to lead her to his parked car. But instead, he stopped.

Keeping her left hand firmly grasped in his right, he pulled her close, then rotated her body until they were face to face. He took her other hand with his free hand. Their faces were only inches apart, and she was painfully aware of how close his body was to hers. She looked up into his face.

He said nothing, but watched her with golden-flecked eyes. In the dark, they had some subtle luminescence.

He said nothing, and she stayed still.

Finally, he spoke, in the lowest voice she’d heard him use. “Please be careful. We can’t trust her.”

“Okay,” she said.

“I want to try something.” He dropped her hands, but replaced them with something better. He wrapped his arms around her waist then pulled her against him. Their bodies pressed together, spreading warmth to new places in the cold night.

Her breath caught in her throat.

He leaned closer. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Close your eyes.” His breath moved the baby hairs framing her face.

She did, expecting his lips to press on hers in the dark. Instead, her body was ripped violently into motion, like taking the first drop-off on a roller coaster.

“What the–” She snapped her eyes open. Rylan still had his arms around her, but the forest was gone. She wriggled out of his tight grasp so she could see around her.

They were in a yard, near a driveway, in front of Rylan’s house. “Holy crap!” she said. “You could have warned me, you know. Did you teleport me?”

“In a way. We’ll talk later.” He pointed behind her.

Kara was there, leaning against a red four-door sedan in the driveway. It seemed weird a
Tuatha
would drive a sedan. “Hi, Celeste. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, sure. I guess.”

“Good.” She straightened to her full height. “Let’s go into the backyard for this.”

They did. Rylan sat on the back steps of the house, while Celeste and Kara stood in the very back of the yard, near the tree line.

“How does this work?” Celeste asked.

“First things first: an important concept you need to get. You are the portal. Your existence is the portal. Understand?” she asked.

“I guess so.”

“Okay. You’ve been blocking the portal, putting up barriers so they can’t get through. It’s like a lamp at night. The light attracts the bugs, and they swarm around the glass, but they can’t get inside. You need to let them in.”

“How?”

“Close your eyes. Visualize a protective bubble you have around you, like the circles you make with your light.”

“Okay.”

“Can you see it?” Kara asked.

“Yes, I can.”

Kara put her hand on her shoulder. “Picture it dropping into the ground then disappearing altogether. Open yourself up.”

Celeste did, then gasped. She felt movement inside her. Something twisted and coiled, then burst free. Energy rushed through her body. She felt them moving through her, felt their relief at passing to the other side and their gratefulness when they crossed. Her headache disappeared, the pounding stopped. It was replaced by euphoria, joy, and energy.

She opened her eyes. Kara squeezed her shoulder. “Good job, keep it up.”

Celeste dared to look around her. The
Sidhe
were everywhere, moving seamlessly with the shadows of the trees, the blades of grass, and her. They moved through her with sighs and laughter. She saw them differently, as part of nature, as part of her.

Power thrummed through her, exploding through her arms and legs. “Oh, wow. What a rush.” She threw her head back and laughed. Who knew being
Tuatha
could feel so good?