Shadowborn (13 page)

Gallagher took a step closer—arms held wide. “I can help you control the rage. You are not alone.”

“No, Gallagher, you can’t. And I am alone. I’ve been alone for a long time, and I’m finally realizing that’s how I’m supposed to be.” I reclaimed a bit of calm as I accepted the truth in my words.

“Distance will keep them safe.” I whispered my mother’s advice before she died. “All of this … friends, desire … is a distraction. Once we’re done with the selkies, I’m going to Freymoor alone. We’ll put an end to Alastair, return the souls to their bodies, and after that, I’ll disappear into the human world and fix things there. My people don’t want me here, and Parthalan is going to consume me eventually.” I shut my eyes against the bloody images that sailed through my head from the night before. “Yeah, I enjoyed hurting Callandra so much it makes me want to barf. I was tempted to kill her, so it’s only a matter of time before I do kill someone. Breaking Rourke’s neck was like a drug with instant addiction. I dream about it. How it sounded. The fear in his eyes. I crave it.” My lip curled with disgust. “What would Mother think of me now?”

“You have been through things none of us can imagine,” Donovan said. “You are lost and confused. We need you, and even though your people can’t see it yet, they need you too.”

“For the last time … put your minds on this Shadowborn bullshit and leave me alone.” I finished pulling the wood out of my skin and walked toward the rocks at the far edge of the beach. Soft footsteps padded in the sand behind me. Emptiness erected a barrier around me like a shroud. I needed to get used to it again. No time like the present.

As I approached the shore, two large seals emerged from the surf and crawled up the beach. One had a sandy blond coat and the other, sable. Before my eyes, the skins split down their stomachs, spilling out a burst of light. A moment later, a nude man and a woman stood where the seals had been. They inhaled deeply, stretching out their limbs.

Willa waved at me, picked up her seal skin from the sand and wrapped it around her like a cloak. Seeing her alive and well after the way she’d looked after two Unseelie had beaten her nearly to death made me remember why I had to fight to keep our world safe from dickheads like Alastair and the Magi, whoever they were.

Quinn donned his skin in the same manner, but he never lifted his gaze from the sand.

“Been a long time, Lila. What’ve yeh been up to now?” Willa said in her Irish lilt as her brown seal eyes swept my ragged form. “Yeh look like yeh fell on a cheese grater.”

Nice to know I looked as I felt. “Good to see you’re all healed.”

“Thanks to yeh.” She nodded to the others who stood behind me. “Gallagher. Liam. Donovan. And who’s the cute blond?”

Nix beamed and offered a dramatic bow, sweeping both arms out to his sides. “Nix, Captain of the Royal Guard, at your service, fine lady.”

Liam snorted.

I turned to Quinn to hide my eye roll from the guys and their continued pissing match. “What are you so tense about?”

“I killed yeh, and yeh saved me mate. I owe more than I can pay.”

A short laugh rushed past my lips. “Funny, I was pretty sure I lived, and Willa is my friend.”

“Yeh know what I mean. I shot yeh. Twice.”

“You did what I asked you to. Stop sulking. We need to talk about the Shadowborn.”

Willa smiled. “That’s ma girl. Right ta the point.” She motioned toward the end of the beach with her hand. “Shall we have a sit with some tea and get Lila tended?”

Gallagher squinted at the indicated spot, a spark of interest igniting behind his eyes. “I detect nothing there.”

Quinn stared at the white haired fae. “Forgive me, but are yer eyes not blind?”

“I see using the minds of others,” Gallagher said. “I hope you don’t mind the small intrusion.”

Eyebrow raised, Quinn shrugged. “The selkies have our own breed of magic, yeh see. Some o’ us keep cabins on the beach for entertainin’ non-water folk.”

I followed Quinn and Willa, and the rest came after me, still at a distance. Despite so many people, a thick loneliness pressed on me. I concentrated. Breathed in and out. Put one foot in front of the other.

A few yards down the beach, Willa stopped and extended her hand forward. A wooden door appeared in front of her, the knob in her grasp. Quinn ushered me through the door first and followed me in. I stood in an enormous room with a tall, peaked ceiling crisscrossed with heavy, wooden beams. Carved furniture dotted the room—a long, rectangular table surrounded by chairs, a few benches by the windows and two rocking chairs by the stone fireplace.

While Quinn and Willa puttered in the kitchen, the rest of us sat around the table in silence. Willa had given me a wet cloth, which I used to dab at the splotches of blood all over my torso, tiny pink dots were all that remained of my wounds.
More ruined clothes to ball up and whip at Neasa’s head.
Oh yeah.
I’d enjoy that.

My spine itched. “Stop staring at me, Liam.”

“I’ll stop staring when you start making sense and stop being an ass.”

“Fuck you.”

“If that would heal you, I’d take you right here on the table.” He grinned in a way that gave me pause. The glint in his eye let me know he pictured how that scenario would go.

Small fires lit within my cheeks. “Watch your damn mouth. I am the queen of the Seelie Court, and you will treat me as such.”

His dark chuckle injected an image of the two of us testing the table’s limits before I shook myself.

“Either you are queen, or you aren’t. You just said you’re going to abandon your Court. You can’t have it both ways. Maybe a good romp would take the starch out of you.”

Donovan, his brows drawn down low, put his hand on Liam’s arm. “My king, this is not an appropriate discussion for this venue.” By the tight set of his jaw, Donovan spoke as my father instead of Liam’s royal aide and knew the selkies wouldn’t give a flying leap about a little nasty talk.

I scowled and extended my middle finger toward Liam, careful not to stare too hard in case his rugged looks worsened the twitching in my nether regions. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Nix’s fingers clamped down on the arms of his chair.

Willa and Quinn returned and set a tray in the center of the table. They passed cups around and filled them with tea. Silver ribbons of steam curled up from each one. I put mine on the table; I’d never been a lover of tea.

“So, what can you tell us about the Shadowborn?” I asked as the selkies took their seats.

Quinn linked his hands and placed them on the table, his face grim. “Seamus, me Da, used to lead our clan back when the Brunai were tryin’ ta wipe out the water elementals centuries ago when I was naught but a pup. I’ve mind of him comin’ home to me Mam after meetin’ with ’em the first time. I’d never seen me Da that way, white as a cloud and shakin’ so bad me Mam had ta hold his tea ta his lips so’s he wouldn’t scald himself.”

“Did he say why he was so afraid?” Liam asked, his gaze never leaving me.

“All I know is their rules are absolute. Break ‘em, and yeh’ll find yer soul in eternal servitude to a crazed loon.”

“What did they demand as payment?” I asked.

Quinn tilted down and swallowed. Willa stroked his hair, resting her head against his shoulder.

“Me Da said once summoned, usually the hunt is thrill enough for ‘em,” Quinn continued. “But after the deed was done, I found the truth. The Brunai were no match for ‘em, so they demanded a worthy soul ta hunt.”

My breath hitched as I connected Quinn’s wilted posture to the story. “Your father agreed to let them try for his soul instead of offering up someone else.”

Willa wrapped her arms around Quinn from her seat beside him, the muscles in his arms cording as his fists worked open and shut. “They played with him for a week before they took him. He spent every moment in terror. He gave his life to save someone else.”

“A truly noble act.” Gallagher stared at me as if urging me to say something.

“Yeah, noble.” I cleared my throat without a clue what words of comfort I could say. “I’m sorry, Quinn.”

His head bobbed slowly. “Now yeh know what yer up against. Yeh should be sorry for yerself.”

I returned my focus to Willa, considering how that information could help us.
“Do the Shadowborn think of me as worthy prey?”

“You escaped them,” Gallagher said, “and they spoke to you—something they’ve never done to prey before, from what I understand. I would bet yes.”

“Okay, let’s say that’s true. Did they know that when they took the job?” Hopeful, I surveyed them all for ideas.

Donovan tugged on his beard. “Where are you going with this, Lila?”

I sighed. “Hell. I have no idea. Who would be desperate enough or sick enough to chance having to give up their soul to kill me?”

“I still say it’s Parthalan,” Liam said as though the name caught in his throat.

“No.” I shook my head with a little too much enthusiasm.
He couldn’t have done it. He’s my mate.
The little voice in my head came out of nowhere and flooded me with terror. I shoved it aside and hoped my shock and disgust didn’t show on my face. “He doesn’t know who he is, let alone who I am.”

Parthalan’s awareness of me sparked to life in my head with another twinge of pain and fear before I shut him down. Someone was hurting him again. A tremor rattled through me.

Willa gaped at me. “What do yeh mean? The two of yeh did away with him.”

“The Sluagh took his body,” Donovan said.

“Goddess, help us.” She closed her eyes and squeezed Quinn.

“I command the Sluagh, so if they emerge, they have to ob—” a thought stabbed into my head. “Shit.”

I’m not sure what expression I had on my face, but everyone at the table shot up and leaned toward me.

“Come on, woman. Out with it!” Tension rolled off Gallagher in warm waves.

“Bain, lord of the Sluagh. I remember the way he looked at me when I ordered his brethren around, and they had to obey. He probably took Parthalan, thinking he could use him to kill me, but with our bond still intact, I don’t think he’d be able to without hurting himself. When Bain figured it out, maybe he hired the Shadowborn to do me in instead.”

Liam pounded a fist on the table. He walked away and braced his forearms against the mantle over the fireplace.

“The question becomes, how do we find Bain,” Donovan said. “And if it is him, this is a worse situation than I imagined. A race fighting for their right to rule themselves is more dangerous than one person with a grudge.”

Quinn composed himself and sipped his tea. “Finding Bain—if it’s even the Sluagh who hired them—wouldn’t stop the Shadowborn from huntin’ yeh if what Gallagher said is true—that yeh truly escaped an active hunt. They won’t let up ‘til they have yeh.”

“Perfect.” I crossed my arms and slouched back in the chair. “Why is everything so complicated all the time? And what if it isn’t Bain?” I pinned Liam under my glare. “What about the Magi? No more secrets. Did you and Quinn deal with them, or not?”

Liam shot me a glower that could have set a wick on fire. “Not now.”

“Yes, now. They forced your guys to kill them for their skins, and we don’t even know why. For all I know, they have some other magical artifacts to collect for a spell to end the world, and they need me out of the way for some reason.”

Liam huffed and posed against the wall, all pissed-off grace and hard lines. “Quinn lent me his skin so we wouldn’t raise suspicion by showing up empty handed, and because they were expecting the Sidhe in the Unseelie prison and not us, Donovan covered us in illusion to make us appear to be them.” He shared a heated stare with Quinn.

I made a rolling motion with my hand. “And …”

“The Magi never showed,” Willa said. “Somehow they knew. We don’t know what they look like or what they wanted the skins for. Nobody knows in our circles.”

A tired sound heaved up from my chest. “And let me guess, they’ve fallen off the face of the planet.”

“Pretty much.” Liam’s hand made a rough pass over his mouth, muffling his voice.

“Of course.” My elbows cracked down on the table, and I set my chin on my upturned palm. “So why couldn’t you just tell me that? Why pussyfoot around the issue for so long? Maybe I could have helped.”

Liam met my glare with soft eyes. “Because I gave you my oath I’d get them, and I didn’t. I’m … ashamed, all right?”

Wow.
For Liam to admit that sparked a little fear in my chest. Had the universe slipped off its axis?

Nix tried to touch my hand, but I jerked it away. “What do we do now?” he asked.

“The same thing I was going to do before. I’ll meet with the elves tonight and figure out what they have in mind to get rid of the Shadowborn.”

“Not alone, you’re not,” Liam said.

I put my hand up. “You’re not coming with me.”

“You don’t command me, Lila, so stop trying to. You should stay inside Dun Bray where it’s safe until we kill these things and figure out who hired them.”

When I opened my mouth to unload the string of curses lining up, Donovan jumped in. “What would you have the rest of us do?” Ever the practical fae, I could always count on my father to keep us focused, though a tinge of shame heated my face that I was apparently unable to do that for myself.

“Find a way to get into Cargun. Find Bain.”
But don’t kill Parthalan.
I cringed internally. Why not kill him? I’d survive. Probably. Even thinking about snuffing him shot pain through my heart.
Dammit!

“I’m sorry we couldn’t be more help,” Willa said.

“Don’t be sorry.” Donovan stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Unlike humans, the selkies were used to the touchy-feely tendencies of the fae. “You’ve given us insight into the Shadowborn’s operations.”

“The selkies will stand with you, Lila.” Quinn rose and stood before me, a little too close for my comfort. “No matter how many lives it takes, we’ll see yeh through this.”

“Not this time.” I patted his arm, about as touchy as I got. “You owe me nothing, and I won’t allow another of your people to fall on my behalf. The elves said I had to do this alone, so that’s what I’ll do.” Far too many of his people had fallen while trying to help me kill Parthalan. It would haunt me forever.