creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge (34 page)

Instead of contradicting me, though, Chase says, “Yes, sorry, I should have lead with that.” I sense a change in his voice. “Calla is the newest member of our team.”

Darius leans back in his chair, still watching me. “Well then. Since we all have our areas of expertise, what exactly do you plan to add to this team, Calla—aside from a pretty face?”

I blink at him. A second later, a manticore drops out of the air and hits the table. Shrieks and gasps fill the room as the manticore scrambles to its clawed lion feet and opens its mouth to emit an inhuman roar. Darius jerks out of the way and falls from his chair as the manticore’s scorpion stinger flashes forward to strike at him. He throws his hands up to release magic—

And the illusion is gone.

Heavy breathing is the only sound in the room. I lean back in my chair and cross one leg over the other. “I think my usefulness extends beyond a pretty face.”

Darius slowly turns his horrified gaze to me. Then he starts laughing. He points to the empty air, looks at Chase, and says, “You might have wanted to lead with
that
.”

Chase, the only one who didn’t freak out at the sight of the manticore, says, “I wasn’t sure we had time for dramatic demonstrations, but I see now that it was necessary. Anyway, let’s get back to the part where Amon and Angelica plan to bring down the veil that separates the fae realm from the human one.”

Everyone’s attention snaps back to Chase.

“What?” Darius demands, quickly returning to his chair.

“You’re kidding,” Ana says. “Surely that’s not possible.”

“According to three separate visions, it is. Calla’s seen them all. Unfortunately, so has Angelica.”

I suck in a breath. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. I don’t know how, but she knows. Perhaps someone with illusions or an invisibility gift was hiding in your mother’s room while she showed you the visions.” Chase removes the telepathy ring from his pocket and places it on the table in front of him. “I spoke to her just now. She told me she’d received word that the third Seer, the one who was rescued, had unknowingly revealed her vision. Angelica then said that if I still want to be part of her plan, I need to meet one of her minions at the Monument to the First Mer King tonight so I can help him steal it.”

“I assume that’s a detail from the vision?” Lumethon asks.

“Yes.”

“So Angelica still trusts you,” Gaius says. “That’s good.”

“Yes. So we need to get there first, make sure the monument is secure, then ask for an audience with the mer king so we can convince him that it would be in the best interests of the entire fae world that he order his monument destroyed.”

“Great,” Darius says as he places his hands behind his head. “I love an easy Tuesday afternoon mission.”

“You’re not going,” Chase tells him.

“What?”

“You and Lumethon are going to rescue the other two Seers. If Angelica and Amon think they have all the information they need now, then what reason do they have to keep the Seers alive? Since we don’t like to leave people to die, you two will be taking care of that.” He slides a map across the table to Darius. “I’ve confirmed that they’re in the lighthouse,” he says, tapping an area of the map before leaning back.

Grumbling under his breath, Darius takes the map and shifts closer to Lumethon so they can examine it together.

“Gaius, did you find out where the monument is?” Chase asks.

“Yes. It’s at the mouth of the bottommost Wishbone River, where the fresh water joins the ocean current.” Gaius turns an open book around and pushes it toward Chase so he can see the illustration on the page. “It’s a system of parallel subterranean rivers, one on top of the other. Since the rivers are considered part of the merpeople’s territory, they’re inaccessible from the faerie paths. The only way to get to the bottom is to drop through the enchanted whirlpools from one river down to the next. The whirlpools form in different places in each river, but the idea seems to be fairly simple. You let the current carry you along until a whirlpool sucks you down. You land in the next river and repeat the process until you get to the bottom.”

Silence greets Gaius’s explanation. Then Chase says, “Well, I can’t say I’ve ever traveled like that before, but I suppose it’s entirely normal for a merperson.”

“Probably,” Gaius answers. “When you get to the bottommost river, you let it carry you along until the cave system ends. At that point you’re actually beneath the ocean floor.” Gaius points to a part of the illustration. “If you let the river carry you further, you’ll wind up in the ocean in mer kingdom. You don’t need to go that far, though. In the final cave is where you’ll find this monument. And there are warriors or guards or whatever they call themselves swimming around in this area, so you can speak to them about seeing the king.”

“And how exactly do we get out?” Ana asks.

“Ah, yes, I saw something about that.” Gaius pulls the book back around and pages through it. “Something about a portal …” He turns another page. “Yes, here it is. At the end of the final river, just before it goes into the sea, there’s this shallow bit on the right where these rocks are. A permanent whirlpool exists there which is actually a portal. You jump into it and wind up in the top river again, which is open to the air, so you can easily get out and open a doorway to the faerie paths.”

“Sounds like fun,” I say, pulling the book closer so I can take another look at the drawings. The cave systems seem fairly large, so I don’t have to worry about confined spaces being a problem. And while the idea of being sucked into a whirlpool seems somewhat frightening, it can’t be too bad if merpeople do it all the time.

“Kobe, Ana, Calla,” Chase says. “You can all swim, right?”

The three of us nod.

“Then let’s be on our way.” As the five of us stand and push chairs into place and help gather up books and maps, Chase lowers his voice so only I can hear. “I knew you’d stay.” His gaze is focused on the map he’s folding, but I can see his lips pulling up on one side.

I remember Ryn asking me if it was the Guild I wanted so badly, or what the Guild represents. I smile to myself as I reply, “I think I did too.”

CHAPTER

THIRTY-TWO

We pick our way through tangled, overgrown bushes along the bank of the topmost Wishbone River as the sun moves closer to the horizon. “Your team is … interesting,” I say to Chase, keeping my voice low so Ana and Kobe, walking a little way behind us, won’t hear.

“It’s your team now too,” Chase says. “Unless you’ve changed your mind. You haven’t gone through the initiation blood ritual, so technically you’re not bound to us yet.”

My steps slow as I frown up at him. “Blood ritual?”

His straight face breaks into a grin. “I’m kidding.”

“Darn.” I manage to keep myself from cracking a smile. “Here I was looking forward to spilling my blood as a way of demonstrating my commitment.”

“If that’s how you’d like to prove your commitment, I have no doubt you’ll soon get the chance.” His expression turns serious and his eyes find mine as we stop walking. “This isn’t exactly a safe game we’re playing.”

“It never is when people’s lives are at stake.”

He looks out across the water. “This is a dangerous life you’ve chosen, Calla.”

I place my hands on my hips, ready to do battle with him if he goes anywhere near overprotective territory the way Ryn does. “So is the life of a guardian, and I was happy to choose that one. I’ve never wanted to walk the safe path.”

“I know. I’d never dream of telling you that you can’t choose this life because it’s too dangerous. Your choices are your own. I just wanted to remind you to be careful. There are people who would be shattered if anything happened to you.”

“Chase.” I place my hand on his arm so he’ll look at me. So he’ll know how serious I am. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, so let me be the one to tell you. There are people who would be shattered if anything happened to
you
. We both need to be careful.”

It looks like he wants to say something, but Ana and Kobe have caught up to us now. “Is this where we get in?” Kobe asks.

I remove my hand from Chase’s arm, glad that I managed to refrain from spontaneously emitting magic that might have knocked down a tree or set his clothes on fire or sent a wave of river water splashing over us. That would have been awkward to explain. I rub my hand across the back of my neck as Chase says, “Yes. That boulder is the marker.” He points behind us to a smooth, oval rock with markings on it sticking up from between the bushes. “The whirlpools appear from here onwards.”

We skid down the muddy part of the bank and into the water, which is cold enough to raise a shiver across my skin. There are numerous spells I could use right now—waterproof clothing, warming up the water around me, a bubble of air around my entire body—but I’d rather conserve my energy. This is only the start of our mission, after all.

We wade out to where it’s no longer shallow enough to stand and let the current pull us along. “So now we just wait for a whirlpool to appear and suck us down?” Ana asks.

“That’s the plan,” Chase says.

“What if it doesn’t happen?” I ask. “Is there a waterfall at some point along this river before it meets the ocean?”

“Yes, but the diagrams showed numerous whirlpools appearing before then.”

“What if these whirlpools only appear for merpeople?” Ana says. “We’ll only find out when we reach the waterfall. I don’t have the kind of magic you have, and I don’t particularly want to wind up crushed on the rocks at the bottom of a waterfall.”

“Ana,” Chase says. “Have I ever let you fall down a waterfall before?”

“Well, no, but I’ve never—”

“Exactly. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Women,” Kobe mutters. “Always worrying.”

Ana pulls herself sideways through the water until she’s close enough to Kobe to punch his arm.

I start thinking about what magic I’m going to use if we do wind up at the edge of a waterfall, but I’ve barely come up with a plan when I suddenly feel myself tugged sideways by the water.

“This is it!” Chase shouts.

“Oh crap, oh crap,” I gasp as we’re tugged violently into the swirling current of the whirlpool and I become abruptly aware of what a bad idea this is.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Ana shrieks. “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

“Just go with it,” Chase yells.

The whirlpool forms quickly, creating a hole at its center larger than I’d imagined. I fight the panicked urge to magically launch myself out of the water and instead let it pull me down into the vortex. I spin around and around and down, completely out of control, the current terrifyingly strong, my claustrophobia screaming at me that I’m being sucked into a hole with no air, and then—

I’m falling.

A second later, I plunge into a river colder than the one I just left. I pull upward amidst the rush of bubbles, again and again, until my head finally breaks the surface of the water. I suck in air along with intense relief. I don’t know why I didn’t consider how terrifying that would be before it actually began, but it’s probably a good thing I didn’t.

I swim toward Chase and Kobe just as Ana surfaces. I look around as I go, taking in the beauty of the vast underground cave this river flows through. The ceiling and walls are covered in specks of purple light, filling the area with a purple glow. The rock itself is dark, and I can almost imagine I’m looking up at a night sky.

“That was awful,” Ana says after several gasps of air. Her short dark hair, normally sticking out in all directions, is flat around her face. “How many more do we have to do before we get to the bottom?”

That’s exactly what I was trying
not
to think about.

“Four more,” Chase says as the current pulls us gently along. “But was it really that bad?”

“It was rather terrifying,” I admit, mainly so that Ana doesn’t think she’s the only one who was afraid. Based on the few interactions we’ve had, she doesn’t seem to like me all that much. Since we’re going to be seeing far more of each other now, I’d like to change that.

“Sorry, but I don’t think you can leave without first going all the way to the bottom,” Chase says.

“I don’t want to
leave
,” Ana says. “I committed myself to this mission. I’m just warning you that I’ll probably scream going down every single w—Oookay, here we go again.”

With no warning, the gentle current suddenly sweeps around into a spinning circle, taking us with it. Even though I tell myself repeatedly that this isn’t going to kill me, it’s still terrifying being sucked around and around in an ever decreasing circle until the sudden drop comes. The cave we fall into this time is green. There are no specks of light, but a green shimmer in the cave walls reflects off the water. It’s also warmer than the first two, for which I’m grateful. Kobe and Ana surface further ahead. Chase and I join the current behind them, floating on our backs and staring up at the shimmering walls as the water pulls us along feet-first.

“Anyone want to take a bet on what the color of the next river will be?” Chase calls out.