Dark Isle (Celtic Legacy Book 2) (18 page)

Maybe it was already too late, maybe we just couldn’t swing this, or maybe I was too tired to deal any more. “I wish Ashling were here
,
”
I said.

Aednat cocked her head to one side. “That your sister?”

Nodding, I looked around us. “If she were here, she could heal me
;
I’d be able to keep going. Right now, I can barely stand.” As if to prove my point, my legs collapsed underneath me; I hit the ground hard.

“
Yes. You really are too weak to fight.” She considered me for a moment and then reached into the small leather bag she wore.
She
pulled out
a silvered mirror, about the size of a laptop screen.

“Now, you
C
all little sister
,
and she heals you. Then we can go.”

“I don’t know, can
she really heal me through a mirror
?” I asked. Mind you, the Fomorii had been able to reach through the mirror,
so
why n
ot Ashling? Or better yet, why couldn’t I reach through? Surely the two of us were stronger than a Fomorii guard
.

I sat up, my heart pounding. “What if she’s afraid of me?”

“Little sisters always love big sisters, no matter what. No matter
what
big sister
does
,
” Aednat said, her eyes thoughtful. I had a feeling she was not talking about me and Ashling.

Propping myself up on a log, I leaned back and took the mirror from Aednat. If nothing else, it was worth a try. “Where’d you get the mirror?” I asked, stalling for a moment, needing to gather myself.

Aednat winked at me. “Stole it from my big sister.”

I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped my lips
, though my muscles contracted painfully
.
Tightening my hands on the gilt edge, I stared into the mirror. “Come on Ash, I need you. Please, please answer this.”

With my eyes closed, I imagined her in front of me. Green eyes, blond curls like my own, smiling, happy to see me. That’s how I saw her. But, when I opened my eyes, I saw that for one thing, she wasn’t happy
;
for another, she wasn’t alone.

“Quinn!” she shouted and ran to the mirror
,
her eyes full of unshed tears. Bres was
hot on her heels.

“No, Ashling, don’t!”
h
e
shouted, the anger with me
—
and fear for
her
—
obvious in his voice. He glared at me. “I warned you to stay away from her!”

“Wait, please. I . .
.
need her help
,
”
I said.

“You’re sick, I can see it
,
”
Ashling whispered, putting her hands on the mirror. I nodded as Bres snarled.

His violet eyes glittered dangerously. “That’s impossible, Tuatha don’t get sick. She’s just doing it to get close to you.”

Ashling pushed him back. “You don’t know Quinn. You may have
swapped spit
with her, but that doesn’t mean you know her. She would never hurt me, why can’t you believe me?”

This was interesting. Maybe I still had a chance to get Ash out of there. Before I could say anything, Bres tried to pull the mirror off on the other side. Shit, if he broke it I was royally screwed.

Ashling fought him. “No, she needs me, let me go!” Her shouts galvanized me like nothing else could.

“Bres, don’t you hurt her!” I shouted through the mirror, wishing I understood the how of reaching through.
Then again, no time like the present to give it a try. I did my best not to think of how the Fomorii had attacked me through the mirror. That had ended with an arm on one side and a body on the other. Not really what I was aiming for this time around.

Holding the mirror with my left hand, I took a breath and placed my right hand on the surface of the small mirror. Pushing, I thought about
the entrance to Lir’s prison
and
how I’d slid through it to the other side.

With a pop, my hand shot through. With the last bit of my strength, I threw a bolt of power at Bres, knocking him backwards. Ashling ran forward and grabbed my hand, tears streaming down her face. “Quinn, I know you won’t hurt me. They don’t understand.”

I felt the pressure well up behind my eyes. “I know that too Ash. But right now, I need
your
help
;
I need you to heal me or this toxin will be the end of me. Luke’s in trouble, we’re trying to stop the earthquakes and Balor . . .” I didn’t know how to tell
her
that
her
father was digging up an ancient evil that would be bent on destroying the world.
Chaos.

She shook her head. “You leave these boys to me
;
go save Luke, he’s too cute to die.” Her lips gave me a tremulous smile, shaking at the edges. So brave, so much braver than I’d ever been.

“You should have been the one of the prophecy
,
”
I whispered. “You’re better at this than I am.”

Ashling gripped my hand, the flow of her Healing abilities washing through me. “No, Quinn, you were always the strong one, you just didn’t see it.” She glanced over her shoulder as Bres stirred. “
He’
s
going to have a headache.”

“You can wipe it away for him
,
”
I said, my body already back to one hundred percent; I didn’t let go of her hand though.

“Nah, he deserved that. I thought you
were overbearing
,” she gave me a wink
.
“
B
ut
dang, this older brother business is ridiculous!”

I let out a
half
-
choked laugh, knowing that she was trying to make it easier on me. “Are you okay?”

Nodding
,
she gave my hand a squeeze and let go. “I love you, Quinn. You know that? I know that I didn’t tell you often enough, before all this. But I do. You’re my best friend, sister and mom
,
all rolled into one.”

Now I couldn’t stop the tears that tracked down my face. “I love you too Ash. Just hang on, stay close to Bres and we’ll get you back. I won’t stop fighting.”

She smiled, her face lighting up. “I know
;
I’ve always known that.”

I pulled my hand out of the mirror and let go of the connection. The mirror faded from the image of Ashling and Bres
until it
showed only my own face staring back at me. There was no flush of fever and holding the mirror at an angle I could see that the bite in my shoulder was completely healed.

Handing the mirror back to Aednat, I stood and brushed off my clothes. Ashling’s belief in me was what I
’d
needed, almost more than the healing.

“Okay, so how far in do you think we can get without being seen?” I asked, eyeing the thick forest around us.

“We go the
round
-
about way. Make a big distraction that draws Banshees away from their bower, then we dive in and steal Shining boy back
,
”
s
he
said, drawing a quick map in the dirt at our feet.

The bower looked to be in the middle of the forest and the distraction she pointed at was on the far side, closest to the mountain.

“Aednat, do we really have time for this?”

She looked at me, her eyes hard. “You want to save Shining Boy? Then yes, we must.”

“
All right.
How are we going to distract them?”

Aednat stood and took my hand. “The people the
Queen
is keeping, they are on the far side, up the big hill
.
Aednat thinks
she is drawing her power from them
.
I
f
we free them, that is big distraction
.”

Motioning for me to lower my voice and body, we began to creep forward, Aednat once more in the lead. “The people, they have high blood in them, not lots but enough to draw from.”

My mind whirled
;
high blood, surely she didn’t mean . . . All those people who’d been drawn to the forest, all the ones who’d gone missing. The puzzle pieces were beginning to fit together.“You mean like Tuatha, but not enough blood to actually manifest the powers?”

Her nod confi
rmed it. “The more people a Queen can draw from, the stronger she is. Their lives fill her with power.”

A very small, very careful spark of hope lit in me.
I knew I wasn’t up to fighting someone who could take down a helicopter.
Th
is would give us a chance
to save Luke, a good chance,
i
f
we hurried
.

Creeping through a forest is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Three times we dodged
Banshee
patrols
;
the third time I thought for sure we’d been spotted, but
again
they passed us by.
M
y heart was pounding so loud
it was
like a teenager on a new set of drums.

When the forest
ended
at the foothills of the
Beaufort Range
, I touched Aednat on the shoulder. “How much further?”

“Not far, not far at all
,
”
s
he
said, though her voice was strained. It seemed too easy. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong.

Jogging along the edge of th
e forest, we paralleled the range
, keeping in sight
the lake
, trees and mountain looming above us. The path was well worn, beaten down by
the
multitudes of feet that
had been seduced into coming here.

We crested a rise and I yanked Aednat to the ground. She let out a squeak and glared at me. “I can see farther than you
,
”
I whispered
.
“One of the perks to being
adult
-
sized.”

She sniffed but stayed low
,
“What you see?” I motioned to her and we
army
-
crawled forward
,
so that we could both see over the edge.

Without
us
realizing it,
the ground had been gently sloping upwards
and
we
were now on the top of a rock bluff that looked down over a clearing about the size of a parking lot.
It was p
icturesque,
except for the
hundreds of people milling about
, some singing softly to themselves, others sprawled out sleeping on the ground,
while
still
others
st
ood
silent like
sentinels
.
The worst
,
though
,
was the pile of bodies stacked on the far side like firewood.
Even from a distance I could see they were d
ried up husks of the people they’d once been, their lives dra
ined away to give the Queen more power
.

“Where are the
Banshee
guards?” I whispered.

Aednat frowned. “Should be around.”

A wicked chill slipped over me and goose
bumps rose over my body. I rolled, trusting my instincts, tumbling halfway down the cliff
towards the milling people
. I was
able to stop my free fall only by grabbing a
four-inch-
thick tree root that stuck out between the rocks
—
a perfect handhold
.
I stared back up the way I’d come, holding on to the root for all I was worth.
Aednat was close behind
.
T
wo large
Banshee
s stood where we’d just been.

One held a scythe, her hands manicured right down to a
French
-
tip finish. Her face was stunning, a blend of beauty
and anger
that
didn’t fade
even when I concentrated
.