“I know you’re there—Earth-aligned and Water-aligned—you’re no match for me. Don’t allow some foolish, misplaced devotion to that lying filth cost you your lives.”
They didn’t move.
“Stop the car,” I said when the hair stood up on the back of my neck. “They’re not alone.”
Gavin jabbed the brakes and the pink T-Bird lurched to a stop adjacent to turn-off to the Seoladán. “Clóca. There’s a very old Fae here.”
I felt confined inside the car and sprang to my feet. Gavin killed the engine and joined me at the front fender. There were no insect noises, no birds, not even the sound of a breeze—that never happens in the Ozarks in the summer. I sent pure Air energy out in all directions like water spilling out of a punctured bucket. Nothing close. Sara turned off the warbling growl of the other car, and swung the door open. Every noise seemed to echo down the mountain—every noise annoyed me. I breathed through my mouth to keep from adding to it. Down, check down.
Earth energy spread out below me and almost immediately I felt contact. A tree to my right, a large white oak, splintered and fell far too fast. I reacted semi-automatically, turning it to ash with Quint. After the initial roar of snapping wood and the sizzling sound of it being incinerated, everything went silent. The connection I’d felt underground disappeared. All around us, white-gray flakes drifted to the ground amid the stench of burned wood.
I forced the Earth energy out further. It traveled slower through the limestone than energy travelled through Air. What if they’ve learned to hide behind pure energy like I can? Shit.
The raw elements danced on my fingertips, ready for anything that might come our way. A split second later I was fighting for control of the earth deep below us. The violent exchange of energy barely registered at the ground’s surface, but I located my adversary. I directed Aether toward it in a pinpoint strike, but it felt the attack coming and moved away in Naeshura just as quickly, dropping its connection to Earth energy and disappearing. Clever, fast, and powerful.
“Maggie, where is it?” Sara whispered.
“Below ground, deep. I lost it somewhere north of the mountain. Check the sky—use pure energy, there have to be more of them.”
I felt Sara’s connection spread past us, and got the distinct impression that we were being watched. Lightning ripped through the sky, striking the barrier my mind flung in front of it. I considered wrapping us in Clóca, but what was the use? We weren’t going anywhere. The thunderclap echoed off the bluffs above where Sara’s cottage once stood, and then everything went eerily silent again. Only the sizzling sound of Plasma at the end of Gavin’s hands made any noise—that, and the sound of my heart pumping blood through my ears. My knees shook, my hands shook, and I felt a little numb all over.
Sara spun, her black eyes wide open. I created Amber, the combination of Air and Earth, and flung it at the convertible past Candace, Ronnie and Sean. It made contact with Clóca just behind the car. The barrier melted away, leaving a Fae crouching at the back bumper: long canines, sinewy arms and black claws. I felt like I was moving in slow motion. Before I could react, Sean blew the beast into an upright position, ripping the back window out of the convertible top, and Sara blasted it back into the rocks. Clear of Amber, the attacker tried to recloak, but not before I caught it in Aether. A yelp echoed through the forest. Flash. One more down.
Then to the west, over the first island, I caught the sight of a large black bird dropping from the clouds. A Fae appeared in Wakinyan’s talons and then flashed into nothing. Wakinyan banked right, and like a falcon taking a pigeon he dove a hundred feet and caught another with the same effect. A dozen bolts of thick blue lightning showered down from the gray clouds, striking invisible targets. Two flashed out as they fled. One dropped below the canopy and out of my line of vision. Quint ripped back up at Wakinyan, but didn’t pierce his shield. I wanted to reach out and smash the enemy, but it was too far away.
“Maggie,” Gavin yelled, directing molten plasma immediately above me. A hundred feet over my head, a Fae cloaked and disappeared—I hadn’t even felt it. There was so much happening all around us, and my anger boiled. Enough of this.
I reformed Amber and spread it out in a dome, pushing it as far as I could. I made contact with two Fae, but I didn’t stop. In seconds, I pressed it to a quarter mile, melting the Clóca from two more Fae. Before they could escape, I changed the Amber to Aether and squeezed the life out of two immediately. Gavin burned the third in half with molten energy, and Wakinyan streaked at the fourth. I yanked the Aether back just before he made contact. A yelp escaped from my lips and I stumbled backwards, like I had physically pulled a sheet loose from a bed. Quint, lightning, and Plasma exploded from Wakinyan and the other Fae when they collided hundreds of feet in the sky and plummeted to the forest floor at the bottom of the hill—it looked like a meteorite. Gavin practically disappeared when he bolted toward them.
“Wait,” I yelled after him. He covered a quarter mile before the word completely formed on my tongue.
A crashing sound blasted back up the hill. My breath caught in my throat. I wanted to follow him, but my gut screamed at me to stay. Stay put, dammit. They need you. I had to protect Ronnie and Candace, who were still sitting in the burgundy Thunderbird. I felt Wakinyan and the other Fae struggle, then a flash lit the low clouds. A loud sigh, nearly a scream, escaped my chest when I recognized Wakinyan and Gavin, still alive and standing alone.
“You jerks,” I grabbed the front fender of the pink convertible and wheezed for air.
“I heard that,” Wakinyan said.
“You…if you ever…do that again…”
“You need to learn to breathe, Maggie O’Shea. And breathe more quietly, for nature’s sake. I can here you from here.”
“Funny…I’ll keep that in mind.”
I searched the area above and below us for several minutes. If there were any Alliance Fae still around, they were staying well clear of the Weald.
“You okay, girl?” Ronnie asked, gawking around at the woods, as he quickly came to my side.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I think they’re gone.”
“Well, hell yeah, they are,” he whispered. “You’re a badass. Screw Rambo and to hell with Chuck Norris—badass, girl, completely badass.”
Candace laughed, inching up beside Ronnie with Sean’s arm around her waist. “That was so intense. Frankly, I’m scared to death.”
“You were amazing,” Sean said.
“You weren’t so bad yourself.”
“I wasn’t very effective.”
“Oh yes you were. You stopped Prater in his tracks,” Sara said. “Had you not, he would have been in the car with all three of you.”
Sean blushed and fought with a toothy smile. It tickled me, and reminded me of me when I smiled too big. It definitely looked better on him.
“Let’s get down the hill,” Sara suggested, looking around.
She ushered them back into the car and I led the way. We parked in front of the ruined toy box. The roof had collapsed. The timbers that remained were coated in black char. It made me sick, but it was nothing compared to the cottage. Sara glided up to the crumbled rock wall, and turned to me with tears in her eyes. She shook her head slowly, lower lip quivering. She’d left months before the attack on the Seelie Council and hadn’t seen just how much damage had been done.
Wakinyan and Gavin came up from the lake edge and joined Sara as she surveyed the remnants of what had been.
“Are you okay?” Wakinyan asked.
“Physically, yes.” She said. She glanced back once more and huffed in disgust. “Where are they staying tonight? The Seoladán Cottage?”
“It’s still standing. It is damaged, but can be repaired in short order—much faster than this,” Wakinyan said.
Sara turned to me. “I’m not one for manipulating the physical world, but under the circumstances, I believe it’s warranted. For Lola, for May, and for you, I will see that it is restored to the smallest detail.”
“There are so many little parts I don’t remember,” I said.
“I do,” she replied. “I know every stone, every beam, and every piece of glass—I spent the last ninety years here. This may sound strange coming from a Fae, but now that I’m back and it is gone, I realize this was my home, too.”
“Thank you.”
She bent over and lifted a stone back in place on the wall. “One at a time, we’ll repair it. It will take time and at the moment we have more pressing matters. If my guess is correct, you’ll have company very soon. A lot of it.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Wakinyan nod in agreement. “We have a Seoladán to repair. As I suspected, Ozara damaged the one we created on the second island. Feel like a boat ride?”
* * *
Candace and Ronnie didn’t care for being on the island, but until we opened the portal, we were in danger from another attack.
“What do you sense?” Wakinyan asked.
“I feel two types of energy—Aether, and something below it.”
“Can you separate the two?”
“Yes, I think so—but how can she create Aether and just leave it lying about?” I asked.
A laugh rumbled out of his chest. “You’re the Maebown. Figure it out.”
I shot him a dirty look, which made him smile even broader. I connected with the Aether, and found it attached to the energy around it. It was as if Ozara had plugged it into nature.
“Okay, I think I understand.” After I unspun the energy, the Aether abruptly stopped and the connection fell away.
“Well done. Now, to test it,” Wakinyan said.
He dissolved into Naeshura and made contact with the energy. I’d never been this close to a Seoladán when a Fae entered. It took less than a second, but I felt his energy slide past the film and disappear. Before I could back away, he reemerged and solidified in front of me.
“How far did you just travel?” Ronnie asked.
“About two feet,” Wakinyan said with a serious expression.
Ronnie blinked a few times, unsure of what to say. Wakinyan belted a laugh as the Ohanzee began spilling through the energy well. Behind them Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hera, and the rest of the Olympians followed.
Wakinyan cast Clóca over the area, and looked up at me. “Now it is safe for your family to come out of hiding.”
TWENTY-TWO
VIRACOCHA
As soon as the Olympians made it through the Seoladán, they went below ground in Naeshura and Aphrodite hid them under Clóca. It was Candace’s idea—well, her mom gave her the inspiration. It turned out Chloe could see the Fae in physical form, but when the Fae were in Naeshura, she was as blind to them as any human. Sensing them while projecting, apparently, was another of my unique gifts.
Poseidon, grumpy when he wasn’t somber, refused to shift or cloak. He wanted Ozara to see him in the Weald. How do you force a sixty million year old Fae to hide when he doesn’t want to? You don’t. Wakinyan just growled and left him trudging along the beach down below the cottage ruins. The rest of us returned to the original Seoladán.
Right away, Enapay began helping Sara repair the Seoladán Cottage. He was the huge Ohanzee elder who lost his look-alike, Nodin, to the Rogues early in the summer. His handsome, angular face bore no visible signs of anguish, but, like Poseidon, he was subdued—especially compared to his personality before Nodin’s death. All the Fae seemed upset by the fact that only an hour earlier several of their kind had died, Wakinyan most of all. I left Candace, Ronnie, and Sean chatting by the elaborate fountain. She had apparently memorized my journal and was giving them the play-by-play of my Water trial.
I found Wakinyan past the greenhouse, down near the driveway. He was positioned atop a boulder and taking in the views of a changing landscape he’d known for millions of years. I climbed up beside him. Getting closer, his dark eyes, deep set under a heavy brow, appeared to be focused on nothing. I reached down and took his frying pan-sized russet hand in mine.
“Maggie,” he acknowledged me.
“If you don’t mind the company…”
A rare, warm smile eased the harshness of his face.
“I’m sorry about what happened.”
The deep sound of his voice resonated in his chest before he articulated the words, “It was an unfortunate necessity, but I grieve for them all the same.”
“Who was the one…you know.”
“His name was Capac…we were friends once.” The last half of what he said was little more than a dark whisper.
I’d never heard of him. “What clan?”
“Viracocha.”
I’d never heard of them, either.
“They were a small clan. Capac was first. He stayed here with us before he left to find his place in the world. May I show you?”
I nodded and he gently pushed a vision into my mind. Capac was not as tall as Wakinyan, and his features were more rounded. What struck me first were the dark tattoos around his eyes. They made him look fearsome. Beyond the image of Capac, the Weald flattened and the trees grew taller, much taller. I felt thick damp air clinging to my skin, weighting my blouse to my shoulders and chest. Vines and waxy green leaves the size of posters took shape around us. Layers and layers of jungle sprang up behind one another until we were surrounded and stood deep in some exotic forest.
“This was his place—the one place on earth he felt the most drawn to,” Wakinyan said telepathically. “He called it Neahm Glas in our tongue. It means Green Heaven in yours.”
High-pitched bird songs seemed muffled in the vegetation. The chirps and cries of other animals responded back—some close, some in the distance. Capac moved through the vegetation, taking note of every leaf. He seemed happy—totally at peace. Others appeared. Bronze-skinned and beautiful, they seemed a part of the lush landscape.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
“Many felt so. His clan numbered fifty-three before the conflict began—each of them seemed intoxicated by this place. Of course, none of this remains.”
“What?”
“Before he died, he shared a vision of what it looks like now, five years after humans came for the timber. I will spare you. It is an atrocity. The tragedy is that he blamed humans alone.” He spoke aloud, anger in his voice. “Even with my hand gripping his heart, he refused to see that it was the Seelie Clan that allowed it to happen.”
The image drifted out of my mind. “The rest of his clan?”
“Only forty remain. They are with the Alliance—the news of his death will strengthen their resolve. Capac was paired with Alura—I was forced to kill her as well.”
Guilt bubbled up in my chest. What had seemed like a well-fought victory just seconds before felt like a needless waste of life, and the knowledge caused a pit to form in my stomach. “Wakinyan, is there any way to do this without killing more Fae?”
“I hope. It comforts me that you are concerned about both species. Thank you.”
“I know it sounds bad to say this, but there are some I want to kill, including Ozara and Chalen. But I’m not a blind killing machine. I want us to live together—if it’s possible. Not as slaves, or pets, but really together.”
He nodded. “I know that, but do you realize the amount of hysteria your kind will endure when they learn of us?”
I nodded.
“Three thousand years ago, humans thought we were gods…when we let them. Can you imagine trying to explain Bastien to the human race? It will cause more harm than good. I’ve seen it happen. It will happen again.”
“What if you introduced yourselves to just a few—people in power—so you could share your wisdom.”
“You know nothing of politicians or CEOs,” he said, chuckling.
“Now you sound like my father.”
“Your father was right,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“With what I learned today about Aether—if we built just one power plant the size of a closet, it could generate e
nough energy to power a city.”
“It could power the entire state of New York,” he corrected me.
“You see what I mean?”
“Of course I do, Maggie. But as soon as you create such a power source and share it with mankind, men would be trying to find a way to exploit it to get richer or use it as a weapon. And how could you safely make any decisions about who to trust? Are you not having a difficult time determining which of us with whom you should share the power? Should it be Ohanzee, Olympian, Alfar, Portune?”
“You aren’t doing much to boost my confidence.”
A soft laugh rumbled out of his chest. “I am making your decision easier, I hope, by taking myself out of consideration. I am not the Fae you’re looking for. I am too easily angered, and while I cherish you and your family, if given the power…right after I killed Zarkus and Ozara, I would have a devastating impact on your species.”
A chill ran up my spine when I realized he was being serious.
“Do not look so concerned, I would spare the artists, musicians, singers, and the gardeners.”
“I guess I really should pick horticulture as a major, huh?”
He grinned. “Are you through trying to cheer me up?”
“Did it work?”
“Of course,” he said with a reassuring nod.
“Then yes.”
“My turn. I’ll go retrieve your family.”
* * *
Mom gripped me in a loving stranglehold moments after entering the cottage. “You’re thinner,” she said, giving me a quick once over.
I did the same to her. “You’re not.”
Mitch latched on for his turn and then complained when Mom decided she hadn’t held me enough. “Hello. Smushing me, Mom.”
“Hush.”
He grumbled but didn’t try to get away. I’d had so many close calls over the last month, touching them again in the flesh meant more than ever. The scent of Mom’s hair, the softness of the skin on Mitch’s cheek: they were sensations I desperately missed, and I fed on them.