Wilde's Fire (Darkness Falls #1) (32 page)

“I know this is hard for you, dear. When Brad formed his attachment to you, I knew it was going to be difficult getting him to let you go, but I never imagined him actually coming here with you. If I had known now was the time, I would have been there, Kate,” Mom says, her voice pleading for forgiveness.

“It’s okay, Mom. What was wrong with you?” I remember how pale and weak she was the night before we left. Gary fed her crackers and water, while I held a bucket for her to throw up in.

“Nothing you need to worry yourself with. I’m fine.” She’s never been one to allow people fuss over her.

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay, but I don’t think it will be easy to convince Brad to go through the portal and leave me behind forever. I know somehow I’ll have to do it.” I’m trying to convince myself, more than I am them. Brad being out of my life for good will cause me a lot of pain, but won’t be anything compared to what it will do to him.

Mom hugs me again. “We will talk more about this later.”

“That would be nice.” All the years I thought my mom was not compassionate, she was actually hiding my truth from me. I don’t know why, but I’m sure she had her reasons. I’m almost afraid to find out. Every time I learn something new, my future becomes more difficult.

“How it is you’ve managed to rope such a hot guy already?” Brit’s always been a girl who gets straight to the point.

Arland and I blush.

I dig my toe into the dirt. “Umm.”

“I want details!”

This isn’t exactly a conversation I want to have in front of my mom … or Arland. I give Brit a pointed look, bringing her questioning to a halt.

She squeezes my hand. “Later?” Brit whispers.

“Maybe … if you’re lucky.” I hug her once more, then take Arland’s hand again.

Joining Cadman and Flanna, we lead our group down into the base.

Cadman’s gaze bores into me.

I look back at his eyes full of hope. At the bottom of the steps, he smiles as he separates from the rest of us.

I pray he does not speak of what he saw to anyone.

Lann walks out of the communications room. “That was extraordinarily fast.”

Arland glances down at me with pride. “It was an extraordinary trip.”

Butterflies. He’s giving me butterflies.

“What did you discover about the daemons from the woods earlier?” All pride disappears from Arland’s face.

“Ogilvie and Saidear searched for an hour, but discovered nothing to track them by,” Lann says.

“This is bad news.”

“The spell has been recast over the perimeter.”

Arland stiffens. “When? We just killed at least a thousand daemons
inside
the perimeter.”

“Dunn, Tristan, Saidear, and Ogilvie are still out now. It took a lot more men than I expected, but they should return soon. We will continue searching for the three that got away.”

“Where did the spell fail?” Arland asks.

“Near the river.”

He rubs his chin. “And that was the only located failure?”

“Yes.”

“I am aware I instructed you to bring the soldiers in, but I have changed my mind. After dinner, send everyone available out for watch duty. Cadman should remain inside to relieve you.”

“Yes, sir.” Lann tips his head in my mom and Brit’s direction. Dark locks of hair fall in front of his eyes. “I see you made it through the portal.”

“Yes.”

He eyes Mom and Brit, while Arland explains how we got through the portal and how we battled the daemons. When he finishes, Lann bounds back into the communications room.

“Report back to me as soon as the soldiers are in place,” Arland calls, voice riddled with concern.

“I will, sir.”

Mom stares after him. “Did a Concealment spell break?”

Arland nods. “The first time in twenty years. A large population of daemons has formed between us and the Gorm Mountains—”

“
How
large?” she asks.

“Larger than what we battled tonight.”

Mom shakes her head, but doesn’t respond. I cannot imagine what all this must be like for her. She hasn’t been here since Dad died. She never saw Encardia in Darkness.

Arland leads us down the hall, but I stop at the door before we enter the kitchen and look up at him.

“Am I still glowing?”

“No. Do not worry. I will not allow Perth to discover who you are.”

“Perth Dufaigh?” Mom asks, with a hint of caution.

“Yes, Mrs. Wilde, Perth Dufaigh is here. Were you and Mr. Wilde aware of the trade?” Arland asks.

She gasps. “We were not officially made aware of the trade before we left. We knew it would happen, but why is he here?” Her voice is smooth, composed.

“Do you know how it turns out?” Arland asks the question that means more to our future than anything else in the world.

A sympathetic look crosses Mom’s face.

“Not now, Arland.” She obviously knows why he wants to know. There are a lot of things my mom knows that we want to hear, that we
need
to hear.

“His father put him here as a reminder of what he took from Arland,” I tell her.

Mom grits her teeth. “That sounds like Dufaigh.”

Pushing through the kitchen door, we find Enid serving dinner to the children.

The other night, over meal preparations, I got her story from Flanna. Enid and her family lived about a day’s hike from here, through the forest, in a little stone cottage built into the side of a hill. Her husband fished the dying river; their life was quiet, simple. It had been their intention to avoid the war, and they had been doing just that for twenty years, but the daemons eventually found them.

No one knows how she managed to escape. She couldn’t speak about the tragedy, other than how her family died. The children were murdered first, while Enid and her husband were forced to watch. They pleaded with the daemons, but the beasts used their poisoned claws to poke the children, over and over again. The deadly liquid delivered a slow and painful death to the two eight-year-olds. Upon their final breath, the coscarthas inhaled something from the children’s mouths, then moved on to Enid’s husband.

After watching their children tortured to death, Enid and her husband lost their will to live, making them less fun for the coscarthas to torture.

Her husband was murdered instantly.

Enid has been here for two months. I feel horrible for her. As much as I’ve tried to be kind to Enid, she’s still too scared to speak to me.

Everyone looks up as our group enters the dining area.

Anna waves.

“Hi, Anna.” Passing through the room, I smile at her.

“Flanna, please collect beds from the soldier’s quarters and bring them to mine and Kate’s room,” Arland says.

My sister’s gaze locks onto him. I almost hear Brit saying, “And what have you two been doing in
your
room?”

When we enter
our
room, she smiles mischievously at me.

Pretending like I don’t notice, I grab Mom’s arm and tug her toward the door.

“What are you doing, Kate?”

“Shouldn’t we go see Brad?”

Tilting her head to the side, Mom squints her blue eyes. I know the look she’s giving me; even through the candlelight, I see she feels sorry for me.

“I will get to him, soon.” She pats my hand and leans in near my ear. “There are things we need to discuss, and I am worried about your sister.”

I look from Mom to Brit.

My sister hugs herself, rubbing her arms.

I nod.

Flanna carries two rolled-up beds into the room. “Where do you want these?”

“One should go along the wall, and the other between the dresser and bed,” Mom says.

We set up the room and decide to rotate who sleeps where.

“Arland, have you made plans to get Kate to Wickward to meet your father?” Mom wraps a sheet around one of the mattresses.

“We were planning to leave in two days.”

She glances at my sister, struggling to attach a sheet to her bed. “As much as I’d like to see Kimball, I feel we should wait another week before we leave. It will give us time to work on Brad, and it will allow Brit time to acclimate to this new life, the way Kate has.”

I agree with Mom. Brit clearly needs time to adjust to the lack of light, to fighting, to an anything-but-normal life.

Arland rubs his chin. “I do not like the idea of staying here, while so many daemons gather just outside our perimeter. We have already had one breach; I cannot allow that to happen again.”

Mom crosses the room and places her hand over Arland’s forearm. “You are a good Leader, but look at my daughter … .”

Brit lies on her mattress, arms wrapped around her shins.

We all turn our heads to her.

“W-what?” She sits up, but keeps herself in a ball.

“I will need to contact my father and make some additional arrangements,” Arland says, bringing our attention back to him. “But, for Kate’s safety, you must not refer to yourself by either your first or last name. Is there something else we can call you?”

“Morgandy Domhnaill,” Mom says at once, removing her hand from his arm.

“Does it have any family meaning?”

“It’s a name a Seer gave me to use.”

Yes, my mom knows a lot. I’m curious to hear about myself, about my future, about her life here, and about so many things she has never shared.
Morgandy Domhnaill
. I wonder what it means, or if it means anything at all.

After our short discussion, we enter the dining room for dinner, then take seats at the table in the middle. Flanna serves the food Enid prepared. We eat, but everyone is curious about the new arrivals. On my second bite of chicken, Saidear and Tristan walk up, eyeing Brit and Mom the way they did me when I first arrived.

“Saidear, Tristan, this is my sister, Brit, and my mom, Morgandy.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am. I am glad you made it to safety.” Saidear offers his hand.

Mom takes it, and he kisses her fingers, just above the knuckles.

“Nice to meet you, too.” She smiles up at him.

“Kate, your sister is identical to you. You are both beautiful.” There may be a little hope in Tristan’s voice. He looks from Brit to me. A relationship between them will never happen; he’s fifteen, she’s nineteen, and way too wild for him.

I grin. “Thank you, Tristan.”

The two men walk toward the kitchen and are met by Lann. All the soldiers in the room look at him. He whispers something to Saidear and Tristan, then motions for them to follow.

Chairs creak. Bowls clack onto the tables. The soldiers vacate the room, trailing behind Lann.

“Are they going to watch the perimeter?”

Arland nods. “Yes.”

I lean next to Arland’s ear. “Why isn’t Perth going?”

“We do not trust him to fight.”

Rubbing my hands together, I stare at the spot where Saidear and Tristan stood. He’s just a kid.
Please take care of them, God
.

Arland places his hand over mine. “You are worried for Tristan?”

“I’m worried for all of them … .”

Marcus and Anna—who stayed in the dining room after the other children went to bed—run up to our table.

“Do your mother and sister handle swords as well as you do?” Marcus asks, chest heaving, smile stretched wide across his face.

Setting my concern aside, I lean forward and take his hands in mine. “They have not had the same good instructor, like I have, so we’ll see how well they do.”

“Marcus, you know Kate is the best sword fighter around. No one could ever be as good as her,” my little cheerleader says.

“I don’t know about that.” I pat Anna’s head.

“Marcus, Anna, I think you two should get to bed,” Arland says.

“Yes, sir. See you at training tomorrow.” Anna waves goodbye, grabs her brother, and they disappear.

Perth makes his way over. When he steps in front of us, Mom and Arland both stiffen.

The tension is so thick, I could make a wall with it.

“I am glad you made it. The way Kate moped around without you, it was as though she had lost all hope. How did you arrive here?” my
future husband
asks.

I shudder.

“It was a difficult trip. A lot of lives were lost along the way, but we persevered and have finally reunited with our Kate.” Mom’s tone is lined with formality.

She regards Perth with the same indifference the others do. I’m not sure how she recognizes him—he didn’t introduce himself—but from her pursed lips and balled fists, I’d say Mom knows who he is. I’m going to need to learn how everyone differentiates between the Ground Dwellers and our own kind. He looks like a regular guy to me—albeit creepy.

“It is nice to meet you, Mrs… . ?”

Mom’s face is cold, as she narrows her eyes. “Mrs. Domhnaill.”

“
Domhnaill
?” He shakes his head. “You are from The Meadows?”

“Yes, and we need rest, not questioning.” Mom turns away from him. “So, if you will excuse us?”

Perth nods as he returns to his seat in the corner of the dining room. His cold stare pierces through me.

Chills run up my arms. “I have to head up to the stables. We haven’t had a chance to feed the chickens or milk the cows today,” I say, bouncing my legs. I need to get away from my
betrothed
.

“Can you excuse Kate for tonight?” Mom asks Arland. “I’d like to speak to you both.”

Arland places a hand over my knee. “Of course, she may be excused.”

I realize I should talk to my mom, but I made a promise to a friend. “If I don’t help, Flanna will be stuck with more than her fair share of responsibility. It’s already late. I’m not going to walk away from that.”

“Thank you, Kate.” Flanna trills from the kitchen.

Mom relents. “Go ahead. I will check in on Brad while you’re working. But when you finish, I really need to speak to you both … privately.”

“Oh. Should I take you to Brad first? Is there something you can do for him now?” I push my chair back and get up, ready to run to my best friend’s side. My visits with him have been more and more difficult. Watching Brad stagnate in the same condition for weeks—barely breathing, not improving—is miserable. My mom offers him a chance to come out of this, and I want so much for Brad to heal.