12. Ciara
“Calm down everyone,” I said channeling Mother for her calmness when dealing with her children. How she ever managed all seven of us I’d never comprehend. We were all different yet similar.
“We’re all here now so tell us what you found,” Aislinn said.
I thrust back the chair little by little and stood. “It might be nothing, but it might be something.”
“Stop dragging it out,” Lorcan said.
“I’m not. I don’t want you all to get your hopes up and it is for nothing.”
“Ciara, hope is all we have left,” he said.
“Aye.” I nodded. He was right. If we didn’t have hope, then what did we have left? Nothing. We’d be nothing but a piece of history soon. Even then we wouldn’t be history to any humans but the Fellowship. Other humans didn’t believe we existed anymore.
Lifting the book, I drew in a grounding breath, sensing my power pulsing in my palms, I pointed at the picture in the book. “This fits the description of the statues Rian and Sophia found at the top of the waterfall.”
Lorcan drew the book from under my hand and peered closer at the sketches. “I’d say you’re right. We should ask Rian and Sophia to confirm.”
I shook my head. “It’ll take too long. Malachi and I are going to the waterfall now.”
“Too long?” Lorcan cocked his eyebrow. “It doesn’t take us long at all to travel through the Veil.”
“Our powers are unstable, traveling might go wrong.”
“But you’re willing to risk yourself to travel through the Veil to the waterfall and check this out without knowing for certain?”
“I can’t sit here and read any more books. This is the biggest clue we’ve found. Besides, those statues refer to the Water Sprites. Beings with powerful water magic. Doesn’t that seem important?”
“Water Sprites?” Aislinn shrugged out of Fallon’s arms and threw one of her knives across the room. It landed on the wooden side of the shelf. “Why would they harm us?”
“I’m not saying they did.” I sighed. This was going as well as I thought it would. “We won’t learn anything until Malachi, and I go there and talk to them.”
“We should all go,” Roisin said.
“No. I need you all to stay here and keep researching because if I’m wrong, then we still don’t understand how to cure the spring.”
“You think the Water Sprites can cure our Spring of Life?” Roisin asked.
“From the small amount of information in the book, then aye, I think they would be able to with their powers.”
Roisin smiled. “You truly have found what we’re looking for.”
“Please don’t say that.” My bottom lip quivered.
Roisin stepped forward and hugged me. “I believe in you. We all do.”
“She’s right,” Malachi said. “We all believe you’re the smartest.”
“Hey,” Lorcan said. “I’m the smartest.”
I spluttered out a laugh. Trust my brother to lighten the mood. I squeezed Roisin back. My little sister was my biggest champion, but she didn’t comprehend how dark my powers and thoughts might go.
I poked Lorcan in the chest. “When I get back, we’ll have to settle this once and for all.”
“What do you suggest?” He puffed out his chest ramming it into my finger.
Pepper cackled. “You’re so old yet so immature.”
He caught her around the waist, swung his mate up into his arms, and kissed her into silence.
I glanced away but my gaze landed on Malachi. Heat bounced around the room with the way Pepper and Lorcan were displaying their fated mate status. I’d never been jealous of my siblings but right now I wanted what they had. Happiness with their fated mate even when life was uncertain.
“Dia, go find a spare room,” Aislinn grumbled.
“Like you and Fallon do?” Lorcan asked after ending the steamy kiss.
Fallon laughed. Aislinn lifted a dagger. Roisin smiled and then skipped off into the depths of the library. My family might be crazier than most, but they were mine, and I loved them very much.
“All right, time to tell my guards where we’re heading.”
Emer appeared from nowhere. “No need, we heard everything. We’ll go with you to the waterfall and protect you from the danger.”
I grimaced. From what Rian had said about the statues, they’d shot poisonous darts from their faces. The book said the poison was toxic, but it also said announcing your presence to the faced statues will go one of two ways. Darts shot at you or an entrance into the Water Sprites kingdom opened.
We had a fifty-fifty chance of it going either way.
Ivo and Emer walked with Malachi and me back to the secluded setting of the caravans. We’d agreed it was the best place for me to open the Veil. With how unstable our powers were, if anything bad happened, then the damage wouldn’t hurt the Fellowship or the humans in the village. After working by their side, I didn’t want to hurt any of them. They’d become our friends. Our allies. We needed to protect them. They’d protected our existence for years.
A nervous energy bounced between us on the path back through the forest. Malachi shoved his hands into the pockets of his human clothes. I still wore a dress. Made from thick human material I didn’t like, they said it made me fit in better. The knitted hat on my head matched the dress. I suppose if I was human the material would keep me warm in this cool weather of Ireland.
I couldn’t wait to visit Crystal Creek where Briana found her fated mate Sledge, the Alpha wolf shifter, and Saoirse had met her fated mate, Arrow, another wolf shifter in the same pack. Saoirse had been in heat at the time and had fallen pregnant. It was a miracle she’d given birth and not lost the baby as most Fae did these days. Excitement to see the place my sisters lived happily with their fated mates warred with my nervousness. What would Malachi think of my sister’s fated mates? He’d yet to meet them or my nephew. If we were to have a child together, what would it be like?
I forced a finger between my eyes. Why was I thinking about Malachi again? About us having a baby.
“Are you all right?” Malachi asked.
“Aye.” I dropped my hand and watched as small shadows engulfed my fingertips. I drew my power back before it swallowed me whole.
Malachi frowned but said nothing else.
Shadows were everywhere but not from my power. The twisted trees in the forest seemed to come alive as the wind swirled around us. Sound traveled with the breeze. I could have sworn I heard a woman speak. I paused and spun around searching for the source of the distorted words.
“What is it?” Emer asked scanning the trees for any threat.
“Didn’t you hear it?”
“Hear what?”
I cocked my head and listened to the wind rustling through the leaves. No other words came. I must have imagined it.
“Never mind.”
I walked along the moss-covered path again. The ground was slippery under my feet, but I placed each foot carefully one after another until we left the eerie forest and stepped into the clearing. Here the grass was soft under my toes and tickled between them. Dainty flowers bloomed amongst the foliage. If I pretended hard enough, I could be back in the Summer Court before any of this happened. The area was that pretty, it could be a part of our magical kingdom.
I stopped in the center of the caravans and lifted my hands. As I called on my power, I manipulated the Veil the way Saoirse and Lorcan had taught me. Magic pulsed and tore at me. My power surged sending dark shadows up my arms. I thrust the power forward into the Veil, but nothing happened. The lock held.
“No,” I cried, urging more and more power into the Veil. I may not have been as well practiced as my brothers and sisters with unlocking the Veil, but I understood what I needed to do. My arms shook with the force of magic coming from me. Shadows drifted higher toward my neck threatening to suffocate me, but they’d never hurt me simply consume me. Make me dark. Invisible.
Malachi’s hands landed on my shoulders, a familiar, comforting embrace. A bright light flared from his palms sending the shadows back down my arms and forcing the power into the Veil. The lock twisted. Popped open. The Veil swirled into existence a shimmering cacophony of dark and light mixed in a beautiful display that made me gasp.
“Faster,” I said. “We need to hurry.”
Ivo and Emer rushed into the glowing curtain. Malachi kept his connection on me and together we stepped into the Veil. As the curtain closed behind us, the power inside me eased or perhaps it was Malachi’s grounding touch that soothed my power. I didn’t worry about anything else now he was by my side. I kept my concentration on the place we needed to go. Kept my mind open and the pictures in my head focused on my sister Briana, on Saoirse, and the place she now called home. What seemed like hours later, we stepped from the Veil.
Around us was a different forest. One of red-brown soil, silvery-gray tree trunks, and dull green leaves. A strange animal hopped by on two long back legs. From what I’d read about this place, Australia, the animal was a kangaroo.
“I think we’re in the right place.”
In the distance, a wolf howled. I pointed in that direction.
“We’ll head this way.”
“Wolves aren’t always pleasant, Princess,” Ivo said.
“This one is.” I smiled. “It’s one of my sister’s mates.”
“How do you recognize him?”
“Because I’m believing in myself.”
Malachi smiled down at me. It was all because of him we were here now. Without his unwavering support and calmness then I wouldn’t have been able to open the Veil. We would never have made it to Crystal Creek. My best friend was always there for me.
Now we were one step closer to finding the Water Sprites and asking them to cure our Spring of Life.