Chapter Twenty-Six
Sunlight woke Aidan from his slumber in a downy-soft bed. He found rather quickly that he was, indeed, in an extremely feathery bed. He looked around to find twigs, feathers, and debris making up the nest in which he lay. He carefully sat up, not sure how stable the nest was or where it was located. It sure didn’t smell like bird droppings, and there were not any eggs inside the six-foot wide nest. He peered up over the edge just to wish that he had not been so curious.
He was looking over the edge of a cliff that plummeted straight down into a frothing river.
“What the—”
No sooner had he said the words than a golden eagle came swooping toward him, its sharp talons outstretched. Aidan quickly grabbed the silver axe which was still by his side. He held it, ready to strike if needed. However, the gigantic eagle smoothly ripped him from the safety of the nest, holding an arm in each enormous claw; the axe barely clung in Aidan’s hand.
Aidan looked at the ground beneath him, the churning river, and the rocks – the many ways he could die.
“But she said there would be a third Keen! That’s what she promised!”
He closed his eyes as the eagle soared, but their flight slowed, and Aidan felt the rush of descent. The eagle dropped him suddenly, Aidan’s body tumbling on impact. He was left at the top of a mesa, and he could do nothing but curse as the eagle flew off the way it had come.
Aidan stood, axe in hand, readying himself for anything as he continued to struggle to fully awaken. Normally such circumstances would have roused Aidan from the drowsiest of moods, but he just couldn’t shake the slumber from his head. He turned around, eyeing the mesa with his clearing vision – at least that seemed to be coming back to him. And then she came into view. Erin stood yards away, her golden cloak flying in the wind.
“Sleep well?” She smiled and came to him, enveloping him in a motherly hug.
Her arms felt familiar and comforting, but his memory of the mother who raised him led him to delicately push her off of him.
“Yeah, I slept well. Too well.” He shook his head to try to clear it, but his head seemed stuck at seventy-five percent clarity. Just when he thought he was clear, his peripheral vision would go hazy. Erin looked at him oddly, waiting for him to collect himself, and he remembered that she asked him about his sleep the night before. Sure, he had expected not to sleep well after the incidents with Holly, Morgan, and Erin, but the last thing he remembered before going to sleep was clinging to the back of a winged lion. His eyes went wide. “You were a freakin’ flying lion.”
Erin smiled and shrugged. “Just one of the many forms I take when I so choose.”
It sounded reasonable enough compared with everything else he had been through in the last week. But then there was that blasted eagle. “And leaving me in a nest? What the heck was that all about?”
Erin crossed her arms, the hood of her cloak sparkling in the morning sun. “The Leanan found out you were missing and went on the hunt for you. I would hate to think what she would have done to you if she found you, so I found an old friend from the region, and she let me keep you safe in her eyrie.”
“Well, besides all of that creepy shift-changing and waking up feeling like the prey of a pterodactyl, I slept like a baby.”
“No surprise, since you’re half Sidhe.” She rustled his hair with her hand. “You’ve probably always found yourself more comfortable in nature than anywhere else. It’s in your blood.”
Aidan considered it for a moment, and now it all made sense. He knew that it was his outings into the wilderness which had made him feel most at home and at ease with himself. It seemed plausible that if this Sidhe was his real mother, that he would have some kind of genetic defect. “So if I’m half-Sidhe, does that mean that I’ll live as long as the other Sidhe?” he asked.
“Considering you’re being keened, sadly, I don’t think a long life is in your future. But I’ve never known a half-Sidhe until there was you, so it’s all untried territory. Can a Sidhe keen the death of another Sidhe? I’ve been thinking about that all night.”
“So now what?” Aidan hefted the axe so the base of the head was in one hand and the end of the handle in the other. He felt like a warrior from a different time and place – like the ones he always played in his videogames. But this was real, and this was his life. That is what kept nagging in the back of his mind ever since the night before.
“Time for you to go slay the beast,” Erin smiled. “And save your half-siblings from an untimely end.”
Once again she morphed into the winged lion, Aidan onboard, and they flew toward Winchester Lake, ready to face whatever came next.
The lake was serene. Not even a single fisherman floated its calm waters. Aidan found this strange considering that every other time he went on the water with his aunt, the lake was occupied by at least one angler.
Erin swept low over the waters, her paw brushing the surface as they approached the cabin tucked away in the pine trees ahead.
He saw the familiar green truck parked at the side of the house, but Quinn’s Silverado was nowhere in sight as they landed softly on the dirt. He dismounted and stared into his mom’s cat eyes. She purred deeply and brushed her furry cheek against his.
“Does that mean good luck?” he smiled and patted her golden fur.
“No.” Her voice growled, still sounding like her but with a touch of a beast. “There is no such thing as luck, but my spirit travels with you and hopes to see you again.”
“So it really means goodbye?” He looked into the depths of her topaz eyes, now wishing that this new mother would stay with him and see him through to the end of his journey.
“I’ve stayed here much too long and must return to the Northern Gateway. Maybe I can delay movement from the inside of the Otherworld until everything is put back in order.”
“Then instead of luck, go with hope.” He patted her head this time, ruffling the hair between her ears.
She nuzzled close to him, purring so he could feel it deep in his chest. There was something primeval that it awakened within him, filling him with a sense of surety. And then she took off with one enormous leap and was gone.
He looked to the skies to catch a trace of Erin, but he could not even see a wisp of her in the blue sky. His mind went back to the task at hand – the cabin, his brother and sister, and the axe in his hand. The scene was becoming vaguely familiar, like some kind of past life peeking through for a moment.
He walked up the worn steps of the porch, but instead of going in through the kitchen entrance as usual, he circled around the house, knowing where he needed to enter if things were to go according to his dreams. For they were no longer nightmares to Aidan, but dreams which he could accomplish and lives he could save.
The front door was locked, as he knew it would, so he took one swing with his axe and the door splintered for a moment. The ground shook, rattling the very planks on which Aidan stood, and then with a massive crack and boom, the door imploded, leaving sawdust swimming in the sunlight. Aidan stepped over the mess and into the family room, but instead of the axe being bloodied and buried in the door’s remains, it was still in his grasp, faintly glowing green.
He looked about the room for the dog he was sure would be there waiting for him, but he found none.
Then, from the back of the cabin, he heard her distinct cry. Now he knew with certainty that it was Kaylee’s voice calling from the back hallway that led to his borrowed room.
Slowly he stepped down the dark hall, listening for someone lurking and waiting to attack, but he sensed none as he approached the closed door. He turned the knob and the door swung inward. No matter how much his mind tried to figure out Holly’s next move, what he saw inside of the room was far from anything he had imagined.
Fallon and Kaylee were wrapped up in vines, dangling head-down from the ceiling, their arms, body, everything but their heads wrapped up in the constricting greenery.
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bsp; “Aidan!” Kaylee shrieked, her face red with the blood that gathered in her cheeks. He was surprised she had not passed out; it appeared that Fallon already had.
He looked around the corners of the room, making sure nothing was hiding and waiting to attack. Rushing up to Kaylee, axe in hand, he took one swoop at the topmost vine that met the ceiling. In one sweeping motion he grabbed hold of the vines closest to Kaylee’s head and held them up so her head would not bash to the floor as the cocoon lost its connection to the ceiling. He laid her encased body on the ground and repeated the same technique on Fallon’s prone body.
He checked his brother’s breathing, found it fairly shallow, but hoped that once his blood was no longer rushing to his head that it would help him breathe normally.
Kaylee squirmed on the ground, trying to loose the vines which inhibited her movement.
“Hold still!” Aidan held the axe over his head.
“Are you crazy?” Kaylee yelled. “You’ll hack through these and into me, you moron!”
She was right – he knew that. He set the axe down and looked about the room, searching for something to use, but the office scissors wouldn’t work, nor would the letter opener in the top drawer.
His pocketknife! How could he forget?
He snatched his trusty weapon from his pocket and began sawing away at the squirming vines. One after another he cut away the vines, the task seemingly never-ending.
“Where is she?” he asked Kaylee as he broke through the final vine, setting her free.
Kaylee looked up at the doorway behind Aidan.
“Right here!” Her voice chilled his spine, and as he turned to get a glimpse of Holly, golden haired and just as beautiful as ever, the door slammed shut and locked.
Aidan leapt and grabbed at the handle, but it was of no use. She trapped him. Again.
How could I not see this coming?
Kaylee fumbled with cutting Fallon loose of his binds, but the vines in which he was entwined seemed tighter – either that or Fallon’s extra twinkies were finally causing problems.
Aidan ran to the window and tried to break it with the glowing axe, but when the axe head bounced back from the glass without leaving a hint of a mark, it was obvious there was some kind of enchantment over the window. Maybe even over the whole room.
Who knows how strong this spell really is?
He could hear the hum of Holly’s boat start up outside, and he knew where she was heading. If only he could get there first and stop her! He tried the axe against the door, but just as he thought, it bounced back at him.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Someone knocked on the door to the room.
“Aid! You in there?”
It was Uncle Quinn. There to finish them off and do Holly’s bidding?
“Yeah, Quinn. But I swear, if you come in here, I’ll chop your head clean-off!”
“Don’t be a half-brained fool, boy! Open this door!”
“I would if I could, but your darling demon-wife locked us in here!” he shouted at the wood, now hefting his axe, ready to swing if necessary. Even if it was his uncle, he was willing to slay him if it meant saving Fallon and Kaylee.
This time it was Keiran who spoke from the other side of the door. “Stand back, then!”
Aidan wasn’t sure if he could take on both of them at once. If they were under her control, then they may do anything it took to restrain the Tanner kids. But if the skinheads were coming in, he figured he’d better step back and get ready for the onslaught.
“Ligim!” Keiran shouted and the door shook. “Ligim!” This time, the door did nothing, but Aidan heard the turn of the handle and the door swung inward.
He held his axe at the ready, “Come on and get me, then! Let’s do this now!” He swung the axe in front of him, trying to show that he meant business.
Quinn and Keiran looked at each other, confused expressions on their faces, and then they broke out into laughter. Not maniacal laughter. No, they were actually laughing like someone just told the best bar joke they’d heard in a while.
Quinn stepped through the doorway first, holding his hand up to Aidan, “Hold on, Aid. Looks like you need a little bit of help with technique and form.”
Keiran was still bent over in the hallway, trying to recover from laughing.
“Stay back!” Aidan swung again, barely missing the top of Quinn’s head that ducked just in time. “I swear, I will kill you where you stand!”
“Easy, Aid! Easy!” Quinn crouched low, his hand held out and over his head to stave off any attacks. “We’re not on Holly’s side. In fact, we just barely got out of a heap of mess she left for us back at Keiran’s shop.”
Fallon and Kaylee huddled behind Aidan, the last of Fallon’s binding cut and left withering on the ground.
“She had us locked in the freezer since last night,” Keiran explained, clearly embarrassed that a woman got the best of them.
“How do I know I can trust either one of you? You’re both a couple of white supremacist whackos!” Aidan’s grip tightened on the axe handle.
Quinn looked sideways at him. “White what? What in the heck are you talkin’ about?”
“Look around, Uncle Quinn!” Aidan swung the axe around the room for emphasis. “It’s not that hard to figure out with all of your pictures and awards in here, plus all of your secret meetings!”
Quinn chuckled. “So, I guess my cover worked!” He slapped his knee and looked up at his nephew. “Aidan, I know this may sound crazy to you, but we’re on the same side. I was blind of Holly for quite a while, but when she came to the shop last night, I knew she was far from the person I thought I married. Heck, she’s not even human!” He took one shuffled step forward, his eyes pleading. “Please put down the axe so we can talk, okay?”
“No, you just stay right there and we’ll talk.” Aidan tightened his grip on the axe, sure that with everything that happening recently that anyone could betray him at this point.
“Fine, fine.” He ran his hand over his leathery face, visibly frustrated. “Aid,” he sighed, “I hate to say this, but… I know that you’re half Sidhe.”
Aidan’s face dropped, and if he hadn’t been so full of adrenaline, he would have also lowered the axe. “What?”
“I know who your real mom is, and I heard your Keen last night.” He said it so matter-of-factly-–like it was normal to admit such things in an already bizarre situation.
Aidan heard his brother and sister muttering from behind him. “What is he talking about?” “Not our brother?”
“How do you know?” His interest peaked, Aidan slightly lowered the axe.
“Your mom visited me when she was pregnant. She gave me some powers in exchange for a promise that I would keep watch over you. See, she knew your dad would never forgive her, so she needed a backup plan. Me? I’m your backup plan. The whole brotherhood thing? It’s all an elaborate cover for what I’m really doing up here.”
“Which is?”
“A second safeguard to protect the Northern Gateway into the Otherworld. You could call us a reserve unit, living near the gateway in case of a breech. It looks like we’ve been called into active duty.”
“So, why aren’t you out there stopping Holly? Why are you here instead of fighting your precious battle?”
“`Cause I made the mistake of fallin’ for Holly, and while I know the truth of what she is, it’s like she’s sunk her nails into me, and I can’t be freed. Aidan, I don’t think I can kill her. I take one look at her, and it’s like she grabs hold of my very soul. We can hold her off and make your way clear, but you must go take care of Holly before it’s too late. I don’t think I have the strength to do it myself.”
Aidan looked back and forth between his siblings and the men blocking his only exit. He really had no choice but to trust them. Sighing, he lowered the emerald axe. “Fine, but one of you better stay with them.”
Keiran stepped into the r
oom and offered himself. “It would be my honor to help protect the O’Briens.”
“Looks like you’re with me, Quinn.” Aidan slapped his uncle on the shoulder as he made his way to the door.
Heading out to my death. I can do this, he thought it out, willing himself to believe every word. And yet he did.
Aidan stopped and turned back to the room – Kaylee trembling with tearing eyes, the fear still rattling her tiny frame, and Fallon, holding Dwayne close to his face, wordless as he stroked the rat’s pink body.
He ran up to his brother and sister, pulling them in close and stamping the moment into his memory. “I love you both. Don’t ever forget that. No matter how big of a jerk I’ve been, please remember it.”
He playfully pinched Kaylee’s arm like they used to when they slept next to each other on camping trips. “Keep Mom sane for me, okay?”
Kaylee nodded and wiped tears off her cheeks.
“What’s going on, Aid?” Fallon’s little voice blubbered. The experience was too much for both siblings, but Fallon was the only one who could pull himself together enough to even verbalize a response.
“Saving the world, Fallon.” Aidan smiled and ruffled Fallon’s hair for what he knew would be the last time. “See ya, Fal. Go fishing and camping with Dad for me.”
As Aidan dashed out of the office he took one look back to see Fallon’s bravery and Kaylee’s compassion staring back at him.
Quinn guided Aidan through the hallway, not saying a word about Aidan’s final work to his siblings.
The two headed out the main door, past the wreckage and toward the lake.
Aidan wiped his face with his shirt sleeve and focused. He turned and asked Quinn, “How are we supposed to get out there when she took the boat?”
“This way. I have another boat.”
They raced down the shore to another wooden dock that Aidan never recalled seeing before. A rowboat was tied up with a loose knot, and Quinn jumped in. “Well, come on! I’ll row and you tote that weapon!”
“A freakin’ row boat? But your condition—” he began to protest, but Quinn sat in the middle of the boat, an oar in each hand.
“I said, get in! We don’t have time to bicker about who’s going to do what!”
Aidan shrugged, untied the boat, and jumped into the bow, unsure that they would be able to make it all the way out to the point Holly had showed him just days ago.
Every twitch from Quinn’s body seemed to disappear as he heaved the oars back and forth, speeding the tiny boat across the water with inhuman speed. Ahead they saw Holly’s silver outboard boat bobbing lazily on the surface, right where Aidan knew it would be.
“This is where she had me help with those plants of hers. I knew there was something odd with this whole setup.”
Quinn stopped rowing and brought the boat to a standstill. “We better not get too close – no telling what she may do once she realizes what we’re up to.”
They watched the lapping waves for any sign of the golden-haired vixen. Not a bird flew overhead as Quinn and Aidan sat waiting in silence. The lack of animal chatter was ominous and chilled Aidan.
Suddenly the water began to roil a few yards beyond the rowboat. As the wakes intensified, her head slowly emerged, a wicked grin of shark-like teeth. In her hands she held a massive, pulsating green blob, or what looked like an eggsac of sorts. The casing was gelatinous and transparent like seaglass. Inside of it, something wriggled and swished in the amniotic fluid.
“Hand it over!” Aidan shouted to Holly, his axe at the ready.
Her mouth opened, issuing forth a laugh that filled all vacancy of sound. “And what makes you think I would give you something I have so carefully concealed and protected?”
“Hand it over or else I’ll come in after you!”
“With what? That little play-toy in your hands? Really, I think I’ll be on the winning end of that battle.”
She walked across the water’s surface and placed the egg in her own boat. When she looked back over at Aidan, gone was the bohemian angel that had attracted him since they met. She was replaced by a salacious demon with razor teeth. Into the air she leapt like a springing jaguar, flying above the rowboat.
“Go, Aidan, go!” Quinn bellowed as he stared up at Holly, oar in his hands like a weapon.
Aidan leapt from the rowboat, axe in hand, unsure if he would be able to swim fast enough to the boat and retrieve the egg.
But when his body didn’t hit the water and he looked around, he found himself dangling from the mouth of a prehistoric nightmare. It held the back of his shirt in its front teeth as they headed straight for the boat.
Aidan looked behind the long-necked monster as best as he could. His spirit was lifted as he recognized Morgan sitting on its back, shrieking with delight at the spray of lake water that doused her face. She beamed at him, holding onto the monster’s neck like she was on an amusement park ride.
In an instant he was dangling over the silver boat, right above the green egg.
“Grab it, Aidan!” Morgan yelled from the back of the creature.
He looked behind Morgan and the beast, noticing for the first time that the rowboat was smashed to pieces. He had not even heard the sound of its destruction because of the noise created by the monster’s raucous swimming. Now, Quinn desperately grabbed hold of a piece of driftwood as Holly stood on the water’s surface, her elongated fingernails poised for the kill.
In an instant, Aidan seized the slimy egg and tucked it under one arm. “No!” he shouted across the waves, his tone begging urgently for Quinn’s life.
Holly’s head jerked away from Quinn, and her breath hissed as she saw Aidan cradling her prize possession. Apparently she had missed the three-ton creature swim past her – she was so caught up in her desire for Quinn’s blood.
Now she skimmed across the surface toward them like an ice-skater, but Quinn lifted his arm and an arc of bursting light flew at Holly’s back. Upon contact it sent her flipping, her fall like a stone skipping across the surface.
“Get out of here now!” Quinn’s voice boomed. “To the Northern Gateway!”
Morgan ushered the beast on across the waters, for Holly then stopped bouncing across the surface, regained her footing, and chased after them.
“He’s right. We better get out of here!” Morgan yelled from behind.
“We can’t leave Quinn there to die!” Aidan shouted as he clutched the egg, his axe held tightly in his other hand.
“If we go, she’ll find a way to follow us. I think Quinn is the least of her worries right now! And the end of the lake is the next problem for us!”
Sure enough, ahead of them was the shoreline. If they tried to cut a circle, Holly would surely meet them, and then what?
Aidan’s mind raced with what to do, but nothing seemed to make sense. If they couldn’t take to the air, they were doomed.
Unexpectedly, the beast flung Aidan onto its back and landed him right behind Morgan.
“Hold on! I have an idea!” Morgan shouted back to him.
She wrapped her arms around the serpentine neck and closed her eyes.
Not the time to meditate! Aidan’s mind panicked.
The next instant, her legs transformed into black claws which grabbed hold of Aidan’s axe-wielding arm, lifting him off the prehistoric wonder. The eggsac wriggled in Aidan’s arm, but he kept hold of it for dear life.
Above him, Morgan had shifted into an enormous crow, and her other claw reached for the dinosaur’s front flipper. In the same moment, the lake-creature transformed into a man in a black cloak. The man, whose arm was encased in Morgan’s claw, smiled casually over at Aidan.
“Nice to finally meet you, Aidan! I’ve heard so much about you!” The man laughed as they soared away from Winchester Lake, Holly shrieking in anger below.