Son of No One (9 page)

But alas, he needed to be sending her on her way. And sooner rather than later. Every second she was here, especially in the open, she was a threat to his life.

She lifted her hand to offer him a berry. “Can I ask you something?”

He almost declined taking her food. But before he could stop himself, he ate it from her hand, and allowed her to tame him when no one ever had before. Normally, he'd lop the appendage off anyone foolish enough to attempt such where he was concerned. Yet he didn't mind such intimacies with her. Rather, he craved them. “Of course, lass.”

Frowning, she stared up at him. “How do you stand it here? Really? How can you tolerate the unending silence and not go bat-shit crazy?”

Bat-shit crazy? He snorted at the hilarious term. “That's never been the part what bothered me.”

She was aghast. “How can it not?”

He shrugged. “I reckon it has to do with growing up at Cymara Clas.”

“Growing up where?”

“Cymara Clas…” He paused as he searched for the English translation for it. “Um …
clas
 … cloister?” At her nod, he continued. “The monks there had all taken vows of silence, so I never heard human language until the king came, forced us to open our gates for his men, and took me away.”

Jo swallowed her berry. It was a solid minute before the full weight of his simple statement hit her with a harsh reality. “Are you telling me that they took you to war, and you couldn't even understand or communicate with them?”

“Aye.”

Her mind boggled as she tried to make sense of everything he'd told her. “But you knew the monks' names? How?”

He moved his hands in graceful gestures to explain it to her.

“Sign language? The monks spoke to you in signs?”

“Aye. Likewise, I think in pictures and not with words, even now.”

She took his scarred right hand into hers as another awful thought occurred to her. “And when they hurt you for the theft you didn't do, you couldn't sign, could you?”

He tossed a random stone across the small brook as they walked through the forest. “Not for nigh about a year.”

Total silence. No way to speak and tell anyone anything. No way to ask for help …

Unshed tears for him tightened her chest. “Cadegan, how did you stand it?”

He furrowed his brow as if he didn't comprehend why she was indignant on his behalf. “It's all I knew, lass. You don't miss what you don't know. 'Tis the same as asking a fish if it grieves for not flying.” He scratched at his cheek. “In a peculiar way, I find the silence and solitude here comforting. When I'm allowed it.”

“Then what is it about this place that bothers you? If
that's
not the most irritating part?”

He picked up more stones. “Being stalked and hunted. Me worst fear is being taken for torture and never finding a way to escape it.”

Again, her jaw dropped. Was he implying what it sounded like? “How often does that happen?”

“So far, never. I've always eventually found a way out whenever they take me.”

He totally missed her point. “How often do they capture you?”

Screwing his face up, Cadegan paused as if he had to seriously consider the number. “'Tis not as oft now as it once was.”

“Meaning?”

“I'm better at fighting them off these days, lass.”

Dear Lord, it was exactly what it'd sounded like. It was so commonplace that he didn't even flinch or hesitate to speak about it. “Cadegan … we've got to get you out of here. How do we break the spell?”

He laughed bitterly. “There's no spell locking me here to be broken. Me brother sent me to the one realm he knew I could never leave from.”

“Your brother? You mean another monk?”

His eyes sad, he shook his head as he tossed the stones into the water. “Me half brother, Leucious. Once after I'd been wounded in war, he came and offered me to ride in his army, to fight others of our kind. I agreed, with reservations I should have heeded.”

“Then why did he put you here?”

Cadegan sighed. “'Tis a long story that matters naught.”

She hated how he defaulted to that on things that mattered most of all. It was as if he thought that if he downplayed them enough, they wouldn't hurt so much. But that wasn't how it worked. The only way to ease the pain was to work through it with someone who cared. Someone who would pick you up when you fell, without hesitation, and not judge you for your past.

Jo had always had her family for that.

Cadegan had never had a single soul.

“Is your brother your only family?” she asked.

“Nay. Both me parents are still alive, and they have other children aplenty.”

“Can't they get you out of here?”

He laughed bitterly. “Lass, as soon as me mother squeezed me from her body, she tossed me to the monks and never looked back. Me father sired me only to use me against her, which is why she wants nothing to do with me. I can't fault her there. Me siblings have their own lives that have never been a part of mine. And after what Leucious did, I realized I'm better off without any of them. Truth be told, I'd much rather be with meself than those who can't be trusted.”

How could someone have so large a family and not a single member of it defend them? Love them? She couldn't fathom his circumstances any more than he could fathom hers.

“I refuse to believe you're stuck here.”

He smiled sadly. “It matters naught.”

“Cade! Stop saying that! Of course it matters. How can it not?”

He paused to give her an intense, sincere stare. “I've been here for a thousand years, lass. What do you propose I do in your world? Where would I live? How could I work? I barely understand half of what
you
say. You speak of things that are far beyond my ken.”

Indignant and furious, she raked him with a scathing glare. “Oh fine, throw logic and sense at me, why don't you? What kind of asshole are you to argue with reason, huh?”

“And the taste to the pudding is that … what are you saying, lass? It makes no sense to me.”

Honestly, she didn't know what her point was, either. She could barely take care of herself. She'd been a failure in everything she'd ever tried to do.

But there was one truth she couldn't deny. She pulled him to a stop and placed her hand to his cheek. “You break my heart, sweetie. It hurts me to see you banished here in this glum, forsaken hell.”

He held her hand to his face as if trying to burn the sensation of being touched into his memory. “I am relegated.”

“You shouldn't have to be relegated to this! No one should.”

He cupped her hand in his before he kissed the back of her knuckles. “Nothing changes, love. Ever. Hope is a fickle vixen sent to torment us with discontent. And I am done with her, and her empty promises, and wishes unfulfilled.”

His anguished gaze tore her apart. “A thousand years.” He enunciated each word with harsh bitterness. “I would rather you flay me skin from me bones, than flog me heart with things that cannot be. Take your useless hope back to your world with you. I only pray she's far kinder to you than she's ever been to me.”

Suddenly, a loud screech sounded.

Cringing at the nerve-shattering decibel level, Jo covered her ears.

Cadegan scanned the drab gray sky over their heads. “Time's passed, love. You've got to go.” There was a panicked undertone to his voice.

“What is
that
?”

He pressed his forehead against hers. “Enemies who want what I will never give to them. I took an oath to Brother Eurig, and I will not break it.” His brow furrowed, he placed the backs of his fingers to her cheekbone. “They've taken everything from me, lass. I won't let them take you, too.”

He teleported them from the brook to someplace deep in a gnarled forest. While it was lighter now than it'd been last night, it was still dark gray and colorless. But there was something strangely shiny between two small trees to her right. It reminded her of a sideways pond that reflected light back at them.

Cadegan nudged her toward it. “You needs go through. You'll be with yours, then.”

An intense pain racked her at the thought of abandoning him here. In spite of what he said, she knew he was lonely in his isolation. He'd been too grateful for her touch for it to be otherwise.

“Come with me! We'll figure everything out together.”

Agony darkened his gaze as he cupped her cheek in his gloved hand. “I can't, lass. No matter how much I wish it.”

The screeching came closer.

“You have to go, Josette.”

Tears filled her eyes. She couldn't make herself go through the gate. Not without him. “Cade—”

He silenced her protest with a kiss. “On with you, now. Live for us both.”

Jo heard Selena and Karma calling frantically for her from the other side of the shimmering image. She looked back at Cadegan. “Are you sure you can't follow me?”

He placed his hand on the shimmering portal to show her that for him, it was a solid, impenetrable wall. “Nay, lass. I am damned here. Now go while you're able. And break the glass once you're clear of it.”

The screeching was almost on top of them now. He unsheathed his sword and moved to protect her.

“Can I come back to visit you?”

Cadegan clenched his teeth at a question that tore him asunder. There was nothing that would give him greater pleasure. But alas, it couldn't be. “'Tis too dangerous. For us both.”

“Jo! Where are you! Don't make me call your mama! I mean it, girl! I will do it!”

She ignored Karma's angry tone on the other side of the mirror. “Cadegan…”

He said something in Welsh before he pushed her forward.

Like he'd done a moment ago, she slammed into a wall. “Stop!” she snarled as he continued to push her. “I can't go through it, either!”

Cadegan froze as he realized that she was trapped here, too. Nay. It wasn't possible!

Rage gripped him as he assaulted the portal with every bit of the fury he kept bottled inside himself.

Jo gasped as she saw a side of Cadegan that terrified her. He was out of control as he beat against the portal and shouted in Welsh. At least, that's what she assumed it was.

All of a sudden, the screeching was on them. And as she saw what made that sound, her stomach slid to her feet. Dark and twisted, they definitely weren't human.

“Cadegan?” She reached out to pat his shoulder. “What are those?”

He turned and let loose another string of curses. “Stay behind me.” With the same skill he'd used the night before, he fought them until they were dead or fleeing.

By the time it was over, he was covered in bright red blood—the only color that was evident in whatever possessed this land.

He wiped at his face. “Come, lass.” He held his hand out to her.

No longer sure if she should be with him, she placed her hand in his and allowed him to return them to his hobbit hole.

He flung his sword down before he teleported to the washstand to clean himself. He'd barely left her side before the banging returned to his door.

Terrified that they might yet get inside, she climbed the ladder as fast as she could. “I'm so confused. Why did you fight them when you could have just brought us back here with your powers?”

He let out the bitterest laugh she'd ever heard. “Fancy that being the same as milking a bull, love. Bring you nothing save pain.” He toweled himself off before he faced her. “If I open the ether to travel, they can follow. The door would then be useless. I have to have a certain range before it's safe to use those powers.”

Oh … that made sense.

“What were those things, anyway?”

“Graylings.” He ran the towel through his short hair. “They were once fey creatures who ran afoul of Morgen and she cursed them to those twisted forms.”

He scowled fiercely at her. “I don't understand why you couldn't go. It should have been no problem for you to leave.” Pulling her against his chest, he held her there. “I promise I'll see you home, Josette.”

“I know you will.”

He stepped away from her. “I'll be back. Now, in a minute.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see about freeing you.”

Even though she knew it was useless if he chose to use his powers, she blocked his way. “I'm not letting you go alone.”

“Josette,” he said in a chiding tone. “You've no idea the dangers waiting to devour your soul. You, with where I'm headed, might as well be a bleeding, three-legged stag in a kennel of ravenous hounds.”

“Very descriptive and probably apropos. But—”

“No buts. Please. Let me do this.”

A horrible feeling settled in her gut. Yet she knew that she had no real choice.

Stepping back, she nodded. “Godspeed you.”

*   *   *

Karma paused as
she heard Jo's voice off in the distance. “Josie Jo!”

There was still no answer.

“Hey, Karma!” Selena called from downstairs. “I need you.”

She ran down the stairs as fast as she could, to find her sister in the dining room. Alone. “What is it?”

Selena handed her Jo's phone. “It was by the door.”

How weird was that? Jo never let go of her phone voluntarily. “Did she go out the back?”

Selena shook her head slowly before she motioned for Karma to follow her out, into the small courtyard. “We have a problem.”

“Yeah, no shit. We've lost Jo, and our mothers
will
kill us if we don't find her in one happy piece.”

“Well, there is that. But no. Listen to me … I
saw
her.”

“Where?”

Selena glanced to the house before she spoke in a whisper. “In the mirrors. She was with a man dressed like a medieval crusader.”