Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
There was no telling how long Nelson had been out this time.
Not a word was spoken and the lights were off when the hood was pulled back so he could be fed or when he was allowed to stand and was guided to a contractor’s bucket to do his business.
Whoever was guarding him didn’t need light to see what they were doing and the hands that touched him were frigid and gritty.
“I don’t want it!” Nelson yanked his face away when a spoon was held to his lips but he ate the bit of bread that was jammed between them.
Finally, Nelson heard someone and he growled and lunged against his bindings at the sound of Hugh Dùbhghlas’s hissy, gravelly laugh.
“Save your strength, Uaithne,” he said and Nelson went still, suppressing a shudder at the use of his other name. He didn’t want the warlock to see how affected he was and provide him with another tool to torture Nelson with.
Nelson rolled his eyes under the hood. “Congratulations. Did Smoak tell you?” he guessed, then held his breath and ducked when he felt the hood sliding up and off.
It was still pitch black and all Nelson could sense was a body in front of him.
He sniffed discreetly but he couldn’t smell anything other than the usual corpses and sulfur.
“I figured that part out on my own but it became obvious once Smoak told me that MacIlwraith had also claimed the Badb.”
“Fucking Smoak,” Nelson muttered under his breath.
“Tell me about it,” Dùbhghlas said with a wheezing chuckle. “How else could MacIlwraith defeat the Dagda if he was merely a vessel as I had previously believed?” he asked, then Nelson heard a faint click and a beam of light glowed between them, aimed at the ceiling.
Everything around them turned into a deep, black blur and Nelson’s eyes rolled and watered as they struggled to adjust to the bright light.
The halos and spots of color subsided and Nelson grimaced as a gaunt, gray, bearded face with giant black eyes stared back at him.
The eyelids were raw, blistered and caked with dried blood around the edges.
“Didn’t think it was possible but you look even worse, Hugh,” he said and Dùbhghlas’s left shoulder rose in a jerky, dead-limbed shrug. The right arm was gone and the sleeve of Dùbhghlas’s soiled flannel shirt had been knotted.
“The transition has been far more…unpleasant than I expected and this place has been warded heavily against me. It’s another layer of torment but I haven’t let it slow me down.”
Warded? “Good for you,” Nelson said flatly.
Dùbhghlas’s maniacal grin faded. “You’ve all become a nuisance that I can no longer tolerate.
I had thought that Oglethorpe had lucked out with this heir and they had merely outwitted the old Dagda.
But it seems he had ancient help. He is the one from the prophecy and you, Oglethorpe, and Clancy are His three. ”
“You might be on to something,” Nelson conceded. “But can you see him following someone else’s plan or giving a fuck about a prophecy?”
“No…I didn’t think he would,” Dùbhghlas agreed with a dramatic sigh.
“That got me to thinking: what would happen if I took his Uaithne?” He tipped Nelson’s chin back with the flashlight, smirking as he leaned in closer.
“What would happen if I killed it?” he laughed but stopped when Nelson grinned and chuckled with him.
“Do it. I dare you.”
Dùbhghlas blinked rapidly, considering, before he sneered. “You’re bluffing. You’ve impressed me, though. I thought you’d be a lot easier to break and I thought this would break him by now. But I’m tired of playing games with you, Agent Nelson.”
“Do I strike you as the kind of man who plays games?” Nelson countered. “Why would I? I already know where my soul is going and that Nox will be waiting for me when I get there. You’re the one with everything to lose.”
“Am I? You’re his gateway to the god and Mag Mel,” Dùbhghlas said with a pleased humph.
“Figured that out, did you?” Nelson rolled his eyes. “But that’s old news. It’s in the prophecy. He’s the god now and doesn’t need me for that anymore. I have a new purpose.”
“And that is?” Dùbhghlas asked sweetly, earning a hard snort from Nelson.
“You’ll have to kill me to find out.”
Nelson was totally bluffing.
He wasn’t afraid of dying and he’d give his life in a heartbeat to save Nox.
But Nelson had discovered that he was also the anchor that kept Nox tethered to his human self and mankind, not simply a gateway to the Otherworld.
Nelson knew very little about his importance in the spiritual and metaphysical scheme of things, other than it was his job to keep the god in check so it didn’t overwhelm the man and try to take over the world.
The consequences wouldn’t just be bad for Dùbhghlas, a Nox unleashed could be bad for all of humanity.
Dùbhghlas snorted and drew back, taking the light with him. The glow passed over the blade of a ceiling fan and an ornamental beam and Nelson recognized them immediately but didn’t react.
“You’re a lot smarter than Smoak led me to believe.”
“Probably not,” Nelson replied without a hint of sarcasm.
“But I don’t care if you or Smoak or Hildr think I’m smart.
” He was smart enough to figure out that they were in Merlin’s cabin in Coudersport.
They were in their guest room and there was a fireplace to his left and a wall of thick glass at his back.
The rest of the furniture must have been moved but he could picture the wooden armchair he was sitting in.
He kept going back to this room in his dreams and now, Nelson knew why.
“Smoak says you’re nothing more than a pet and the god’s ferryman to the Otherworld,” Dùbhghlas said with an amused snort.
“He also calls me a throne, like that’s supposed to be an insult.” The beam of the flashlight swung past the window as Dùbhghlas moved and Nelson spotted a single crow on a nearby branch, watching them before the light went out. “What’s your point?” Nelson asked.
“I think there’s more to you, Uaithne. You may be worth keeping alive.
Ish,” Dùbhghlas added with a rasping giggle before the hood was dropped over Nelson’s head again.
“I think I could make something fearsome out of you, Agent Nelson,” Dùbhghlas said, his voice placing him on the other side of the room before Nelson heard a door open and close.
He listened and waited until he was sure that he was alone, then focused as hard as he could and screamed one word with his mind and his soul, with all the spiritual strength he could muster: Coudersport. Nelson prayed with his entire being that Nox could hear him and that everyone was ready.
They were on Nox’s home turf and Dùbhghlas had commandeered someplace sacred to his, Merlin’s, and Clancy’s practice.
There was no telling how Dùbhghlas had defiled the place and what Nox was walking into but something in Nelson’s gut told him that coming here was a terrible mistake.
Nelson had consecrated this ground with Nox and they had already fought a great battle against a far mightier force.
That was why he heard it talking to him.
No monster could break that magick, not while Nox and Nelson were still carrying it in their veins.
Like his love for Nox, the magick of Coudersport was in the breath that wafted from his lungs and had settled into Nelson’s bones.
He couldn’t feel the stone circle or the lake through the hood and the dark curses Dùbhghlas had cast around them, but Nelson knew they were still out there.
The wild magick around him was too old and too pure and too many generations of white witches had enchanted the ground beneath their feet.
Nelson had only visited a handful of times but he had undergone some transformations of his own.
And while he had yet to gain any useful powers, Nelson’s spirit was one with Nox’s and was therefore connected to nature and its deities.
He called to all of them, begging for his message to be carried and for aid.
I’ve seen what you can do, Sister Babd. I’d appreciate your help again, if you’re out there and listening.
He winced and mouthed an apology. Nox probably knew a spell or how to properly summon her in Gaelic but that was the best that Nelson could do at the moment.