Chapter 5
Chapter Five
I t was a good thing that I’d thrown on pajamas for comfort. The Shadow Breakers pulled me out of bed at the crack of dawn. They’d somehow convinced Gigi my life was in danger. Her eyes were glassy when she stood at our bedroom door and encouraged me to cooperate.
One of them had done something to her. No way would she have let them drag me out in my pajamas otherwise. I knew for sure I was right when she went to sit in a kitchen chair while the four of them wrestled me out of the door.
“ Tony! I need some help here,” I yelled at the top of my lungs, straining against their hold.
The Shadow Breakers wore trench coats and sunglasses like characters from a movie. One of them grinned at me. “Yer angel won’t be able to help ya, Fiona O’Malley. He’s got his problems this morning. Ya might as well cooperate because we have orders to place ya in protective custody.”
“Whose orders?”
“Well, now that’s classified information,” he said.
I looked at Gigi. She was facing straight ahead and staying silent. Her hands were folded primly in her lap. If I put up more of a fight, what would happen to her?
I turned to glare at all of them. “What did you do to my grandmother?”
“Nothing permanent or harmful. It will wear off in a day or two. Maybe three days total. It’s an unpredictable spell.”
I yanked against their hold and glared at my hand. Are you going to help me or not?
The ring is not being threatened. Neither are you. We suggest you cooperate until they reveal their true intentions.
I screamed in frustration and then yelled at the men. “Let me go! You have no right to do this.”
I yelled at the ring as well. Listen, you piece of shit metal. I only care what happens to my grandmother. If you had done this when my grandfather wore you, he would have chopped off his finger to get rid of you. I swear if anything happens to Gigi, I will see that you do not survive, either. This is bullshit and you know it.
One of the other Shadow Breaker goons spoke to all of them. “I can’t cast the cooperating spell again inside the witch’s house, especially while she’s under its influence. Her normal wards would nullify it a second time. The women in this family are pretty powerful. Even the young one has a backbone.”
Another man pulled a bag out of his pocket. “That’s why I brought this. We’re going to go old school with the O’Malley girl.”
“That should do the trick,” the main one who’d first spoken said to them all. “Be grateful the girl is not like her mother. We’d have never taken Aran so easily.”
When I stopped struggling to focus my outrage at the speaker, two held me still while the bag man blew white dust in my face and chanted a spell.
My eyes closed without my permission.
I heard the bastards joking about my size and weight being so much greater than my mother’s before I completely blacked out.
Sometime later I woke up on the cold concrete floor of a jail cell still wearing my pajamas and the jacket I’d yanked on to cover my braless breasts when they’d first invaded the house. I had no bra and no underwear under my clothes. They could have done anything to me while I was unconscious. Would I know if I’d been violated? I convinced myself I would so I could put it out of my mind.
Mom would advise me not to borrow trouble. I didn’t need more to worry about, that was for sure. The Shadow Breaker shitheads she used to work with had zombified Gigi. She could be stuck being a zombie for two more days.
I couldn’t think, and my head hurt more than I had words to describe. The only upside was that I knew I wasn’t dead because I was in too much pain. The last time I felt this much pain was when I came out of that demon trance Dad put me in. I was terrified then but Mom had been there. She’d vowed to teach me to protect myself from such attacks but there just hadn’t been time.
The concrete was cold. I rubbed my temples with the tips of my icy fingers to ease my headache. Was this my life now? Being put into trances and brought down with spells?
These men didn’t realize what they’d done in putting me here. If I didn’t check in with Mom soon, she’d be losing her shit and fairies would suffer. Her temper was way worse than mine.
I didn’t know where Tony was or what the Shadow Breakers had done to him. They knew he was powerful, but how did they know that? Gigi didn’t remember him. How in hell did the Shadow Breakers remember him?
Did they know what manner of being he actually was? Or did they simply fear Tony for reasons none of them intended for me ever to discover?
Mom sending me to Ireland had helped none of us—not me, not Gigi, and apparently, not even the angel who was supposed to be training me.
Why? Because everyone worked to keep me in the dark. This was the reason I knew nothing. Mom was the only one even remotely willing to answer my questions. No male I knew had even attempted to be honest with me, not even the one who spoke from the ring.
My lack of regular magick sucked. It must have been quite the burden to most of my magickal family that I had none. In hindsight, it would have been better if I had stayed away from both Mom and Dad. Technically, I could still do that.
It wasn’t too late for me to go back to college and work on getting a master’s degree in some safe human occupation. I could become a therapist—or perhaps a financial advisor. The ring probably would like me to do something human and mundane forever.
I grabbed my head and moaned. The throbbing made me feel ill. Whatever that white powder they used on me was, the effects weren’t going away quickly.
I hated feeling this helpless. I hated feeling so human. And I was tired of being vulnerable to everyone else’s magick. Yet I saw no way not to be.
Training was for sure off the table while Tony had other problems and I was locked up in here. The ring didn’t seem to care about my well-being because I knew it could have stopped this from happening. I don’t know why I was so sure, but I was.
Getting locked in a cell was turning out to be a big reality check. I understood now that the only people who genuinely cared about my welfare were Mom, Conn, and Gigi. Unfortunately, none of them could help me get out of here today. Two were across the ocean and the one that was here had been spelled against me.
I raised my hand and glared at the ring sitting on my finger like some arrogant king on its throne. And I was it.
Mom said others often couldn’t see the ring when she wore it, including Conn who never got fooled for long. The ring had somehow fooled Conn’s demon senses. I was inclined to believe Mom’s stories because the Shadow Breakers would have taken the artifact if they’d noticed it. Any piece of jewelry could be magickal. Since I still wore the ring, I assume it was at least acting in its own interests, even if not in mine.
I lifted my hand to glare at it. “Are you happy now? Because you have failed both of us. If you’re doing this to punish Tony, that is petty and selfish. I’m sure those actions don’t align with your religious leanings. At least the fallen angel guarding both of us kept people from hurting me. He at least was trying to train me to protect myself. You’re merely sitting on the sidelines and watching me suffer. You’ve been nothing but bossy and extremely unhelpful the whole time I’ve worn you.”
The ring didn’t answer my complaints but the older man sitting outside my cell did. “Stop yer whining, lass. No one failed ya. Ya should be happy we didn’t have to hurt ya to bring ya in. I heard ya put up quite the fight this morning. It’s always the females that fight the hardest. That’s why we sent four men to do the job. They said it took three of them to subdue ya. Maybe knowing that will ease yer mind a bit. Being here is yer destiny.”
If this was part of my destiny, I’d eat one of the house slippers I still wore.
Instead of indulging my “duh” moment explaining why women fight so hard to someone old enough to know, I asked the more important question. “What happened to my grandmother? If you hurt her, my mother will become your worst nightmare.”
“Mrs. O’Malley was never in any real danger, lassie. In the latter stages of the cooperation spell , she’ll resume her normal activities in a zombie-like fashion.”
“Are you hearing yourself?” I asked. “Because I don’t consider that good news at all.”
“Oh, pipe down. You’re not in any real danger, either. Our orders were simply to take ya into custody and hold ya. If we’d wanted to harm ya, it would have happened the night ya came. We were waiting on instructions and now we have them. Ya need to get comfortable because ya’re going to be staying here as our guest for a while.”
I bent a knee and rested my elbow on it so I could use my hand to hold up my aching head. Threatening to tell my mommy might have been the wrong tact to use since she wasn’t here. They’d already proved they were very concerned about Tony. I should have demanded to know what they did to him.
“I don’t know what you did to my angel mentor but I pity you when he comes after me. Tony is my official protector and has permission to kill people who try to hurt me.”
The older man laughed. “That being is not an angel, lass. If he told ya that, he was lying.”
“Well, what is he then?” I asked, just to hear the man’s opinion. I knew what I knew but I considered myself to be open-minded. It would be interesting to hear what others thought.
“He’s a djinn wannabe. Djinns are self-made creatures, ya know. It’s rumored that if ya do sacred work for centuries like a good little magickal, the powers that control everything will convert ya into an all-powerful djinn. Did ya not learn that in magick school?”
“No. My father didn’t let me attend magick school. I went to a normal school and got a normal education.”
The man stopped shuffling the papers on his desk to stare at me. “Good Goddess, lass. Are ya saying ya went to a human school? No offense, but yer father should be locked up. Why didn’t yer mother make him? She’s well known for holding her own in the magickal community. I can’t imagine her allowing that to happen to her child.”
“Dad put Mom in prison to stop her from using her magick and from training me to find mine.”
“Well, he was a right bastard then, wasn’t he?”
I shrugged before answering him. “Yes, I’ve recently begun to see him for the bastard he is.”
The old man laughed at my disrespect of my father.
“The only thing worse is if he’d been a demon hunter. Those stupid jack-holes think they’re killing demons. Crazy eejits don’t have the sense to know demons can’t be killed. They refuse to listen when ya tell them. We call them non-magickal compensators.”
I scrubbed my dirty face with both hands. “Could I get out of here to use the bathroom? I didn’t get to go before your goons abducted me.”
“No, ya can’t get out,” he said with a grin. “But ya can use the facilities behind yer cell. The opening is covered by cloaking magick so no one sees ya doing yer business.”
“Why should I trust anything you say? You could have a camera in there for all I know.”
“Watch yer mouth, missy. My wife did the cloaking. Not all men are perverts, and I’ll thank ya not to imply that I’m one.”
I struggled to my feet. “Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
“We’ll let that be our reason for peace between us then.”
Nodding, I stumbled to the alleged bathroom opening. When I touched it, the magick was sticky like jello. I drew in a breath and walked through an invisible curtain of it. After a quick search for cameras, I took pity on my straining bladder. While I sat there, I stared at people walking by my cell like it was nothing unusual for me to be missing from it. I took care of things, flushed, and then used the sink to wash up. If I’d had real clothes, I would have changed into them.
I exited through the invisible curtain of energy and finally noticed a bunk shoved against a wall. There was a pillow, a blanket, and a couple of fashion magazines tossed on it. They were a decade old. I perched on the bunk and indulged in my need to sulk about my situation.
“Is all of this happening because Ezra went to America to see my mother?”
“I’ll not be discussing my missing boss with ya. That would be classified.”
“I have news for you. Your fairy boss wants my mother’s power, but he’s not going to be any more successful than my father was at getting his hands on it. She’s more powerful now than she used to be. Plus, she’s sleeping with a guardian who’s a badass. Remember you heard it from me first.”
“Young people like yerself need better manners.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Older people like yourself need to get hearing aids so you can hear the truth when someone is speaking it. Your boss is not one of the good guys. Maybe he used to be, but he’s not anymore.”
“I see. And what proof do ya have of yer accusations?”
“None,” I said. “I have none. But eventually, you’ll hear all about it. Mom has fairy friends who aren’t trying to kill her. The truth will come out eventually.”
“Then I guess we’ll be waiting together for it to do so”
“I don’t know about you, but I’ll only be waiting until my angel comes.”
“That stuff they used to subdue ya evoked some strange imaginings in yer brain.”
I lifted my hand with the ring on it and gave the old man a middle-finger salute. He grumbled about my manners again and got up to stomp away.
Your disrespect is unnecessary , a commanding voice said in my head.
I’d reached the limit of my patience with the ring so I snapped. The ring was no better than my father. “Well, so is your constant disregard of my needs. You could have saved me from this headache from hell. And from being stuck in this cell. And from the bad guys spelling Gigi into a zombie.”
None of that was our fault. You must find out what they intend.
“You heard what the man said. They intend to keep me locked up here until Ezra tells them differently. They intend to use me to force my mother to do what they want. I didn’t escape any of the bad guys by coming to Ireland. I inherited a new set of them.”
We do not understand your anger with us. We took no action against you.
“You took no action to help me. So I’m not going to help you again until you help me get out of this place.”
You do not get to question our decisions.
“Oh, yes, I do. We will have a mutually beneficial relationship or I’ll be seeking a finger amputation the first chance I get. You may be a sacred artifact, but ya don’t act sacred or good. All you want is to create problems for the people trying to help you.”
Your anger is unjustified. You’re too uneducated to understand the risks.
I flicked the ring with two fingers. “I understand your poor attitude perfectly because I’ve had one of my own for most of my life. My anger is a red flag warning you should heed. As the jailer keeps saying, I’m a freaking O’Malley. Losing a finger would be worth it to teach you magickal aliens not to eff with humans. I’ve worn you less than a week and I’m already tired of your continual bullshit. You should be falling all over yourself to be nice to me since I’m stuck serving your ungrateful artifact ass.”
Where did you get the idea we were aliens? We are not aliens. We were once as human as you.
I rolled my eyes and looked away from the ring. “Oh, shut up. I’m not talking to you again until you help me get out of here. I’m not my mother... or my father... or my grandfather. And I’m not going to stay stuck in here simply to indulge your ego trip. The people who put me in this cage are corrupt. I’m starting to wonder whether or not you are. When Tony gets here, I’m going with him.”
After fussing at it, I went silent, lay down on my cot, and crossed my arms.
“I find your threat of not talking difficult to believe since ya haven’t shut up since ya woke up,” my jailer said snidely.
I grunted and glared at him. “Piss off, old man. I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Patience then. I’m sure yer hallucinations will be wearing off soon.”
I huffed as I rolled over to sleep. My foul mood was growing fouler, and I was worried about what was happening to Tony.
And to Gigi. My grandmother was going to be so upset when she realized someone from the Shadow Breakers had put a zombie spell on her. She might curse their entire organization over it. Gigi was as bad as Mom when she got upset. Her thirst for revenge would honor no boundaries.
Not that I cared what happened to them. After what they did to me, I could never work for these stupid paranormal bastards. I hated their guts for sure now.
Mom sent me because she thought they would protect and train me. Despite Dad’s betrayal, she was still a trusting soul. I bet Mom could never have imagined her old co-workers would incarcerate me.
Oh, she’d no doubt laugh about me finding myself stuck in prison as unjustly as she had. But after Mom stopped laughing, she’d avenge me on her scary Daughter of The Dagda way—to teach them a lesson, of course.
As I drifted off into a restless nap, I could almost hear my mother chuckling over the loss of my temper. I missed her and Gigi so much at that moment that I did something I hadn’t done in ages. I closed my eyes tight and prayed to Goddess Danu to help me smite my family’s enemies so I could free us all.
Do not call on her. We forbid you to ask that being for help. You do not serve her.
I closed my eyes tighter. And I forbid you from talking to me. I don’t serve you, either. In fact, I refuse to have anything to do with you until I’m out of this cell.
You can’t forbid us anything. We are the ones in control.
I quietly huffed against my pillow. Control is an illusion at worst and an agreement at best. I sent my true thoughts to them, even though it hurt my brain to think so hard. Danu is the goddess of my mother and my grandmother. And she was the goddess of my grandfather. You may have cowered Grandpa into abandoning his faith but that won’t work with me. I’m religiously unaffiliated, which means I’ll call on whoever I bloody well want. It for damn sure won’t be you again until you prove to me you’re worth it. Worth goes two ways, you see. So get me out of here or leave me alone.
A woman’s merry laughter filled my ears as I welcomed sleep. I smiled because I could tell this time it wasn’t my mother chuckling. But it could be someone just as good or maybe even better.
I told myself I’d find out if Danu heard my prayers when I woke up again.
Then I let myself sleep.