7. Chapter Seven Baer
Chapter Seven: Baer
I listened to Rhowyn and Charity’s conversation about what they'd faced as we approached the area where the other Consorts had last been seen. Just as we were about to turn the corner to the right, three fae men rounded the corner, almost running into Callum, Arryn, and Connor, who all drew their swords in preparation for a fight.
Thankfully, Connor's shoulders dropped as he put his sword away, “Eoghan. It's good to see you all again.”
Charity pushed past our group and Connor to launch herself into Eoghan's arms, the other two surrounding her in a hug, relief clear on their faces.
Eoghan's eyes met Arryn's in question before turning to Connor. “What happened?”
“After the Puca took off, we tried to stay on its back but were flung off as it turned a corner. I was knocked unconscious, and Charity couldn't do anything with her ankle twisted.”
“Both of you look fine now,” Eoghan stated warily, glancing at our group. Callum and Arryn had returned their swords to their sheaths, but Callum's hand stayed on the hilt, always ready .
Charity pulled away from her Consorts and spoke up. “Rhowyn and her Consorts found us. Captain Oakley healed us both, and then they decided to help us find you all.” She beamed at Rhowyn in thanks.
“Why would they help us?” Eoghan asked suspiciously.
“My thoughts exactly,” Callum grumbled under his breath.
Before Callum could start a fight, I pushed forward to address the issue. “Rhowyn wouldn't let us walk away,” I said simply, grabbing her hand and pulling her into my side, both to feel her against me and to protect her should these men decide to attack.
“It wasn't right. I couldn't just leave them there to fend for themselves, even after they were healed,” Rhowyn explained, as if the question was ridiculous, her brow furrowing slightly.
“In that case, we owe you our thanks, Rhowyn,” Eoghan said stiffly, while the other two Consorts remained quiet during this entire exchange.
“Rhowyn fought off a Loathly Worm,” Charity announced to Eoghan and the others, who all stiffened and snapped their gazes to look at her in the same disbelief as Charity had.
“You'd risk your Chosen like that?” snapped one of the others.
“Luke!” Charity chastised the man, but Callum was already bristling at the slight.
“We didn't have much choice in the matter,” he growled, his hand squeezing the hilt of his sword and shoulders stiffening in affront. The challenge Luke had thrown down was one of the greatest insults, a challenge to our honor. As Rhowyn's Consorts, it was our job to keep her safe, not letting her throw herself into danger in such a way.
Luke huffed, rolling his eyes in response. “Says the traitor.”
“Luke!” Charity snapped at him, pulling his arm as he postured in response to Callum. “Enough! They helped us when they didn't have to.” She tried reasoning with him.
Connor stepped between Callum and Luke and pushed his fellow Consort back as his group circled themselves, trying to defuse the situation.
I glanced at Rhowyn, who had stiffened beside me at the insult from Luke, anger clearly written on her face in Callum's defense. I hugged her more tightly into me, kissing the top of her head, trying to ease her ire.
“That bastard,” she hissed under her breath.
Luke's head snapped up at the insult from Rhowyn, his eyes glowing in response. I sighed, knowing she hadn't intended for him to hear her, but she kept forgetting that our hearing was better than any human's.
“Says the human.” His lip curled in disgust at the term.
“I would watch what you call my Chosen if I were you,” Callum said calmly, danger evident in every line of his body despite not raising his voice. He was close to snapping.
“I'd keep my Chosen in check if I were you,” Jordan snapped back.
“Jordan! Stop!” Charity cried out.
“Stay out of this, Charity,” he snarled down at her, and she gasped, backing away from him and into Connor's arms.
“My Chosen is not some thing to order about,” Lennox said, his anger dropping the temperature as he stepped forward in Rhowyn's defense.
Arryn tried to step in between Callum, Lennox, and Charity's Consorts. “Just drop it. We don't need to listen to them. We can just leave now that we've delivered Charity safely. We still need to get to the center of the maze.” His logic didn’t make a dent in the emotions that were coursing through us.
“You would say that,” Callum growled at him.
“What does that mean?” Arryn snapped at him. Arryn’s calm and even demeanor slipped, his outright anger rare for him to express. Callum and Lennox could be hot heads, but not Arryn. At this thought, my uneasiness with the situation grew as Rhowyn and I watched the scene play out in front of us.
“Just that you always toe the line. Always doing what you're told like a good little soldier,” Callum retort, his muscles tense.
“Enough, Callum! This isn't the time or place.” Lennox stepped in, trying to defuse the argument between them that threatened to go downhill and fast.
Callum just laughed in disgust at Lennox's words. “You’d know all about timing, right, Lennox?” Disdain dripped from his every word, causing Lennox to pale in response, his body stiffening as he tried to keep himself from breaking. Callum’s words had struck him deeply.
“You know that's not true,” he whispered out.
“Do I?” Callum poked at Lennox further.
Rhowyn jerked out of my arms and rushed to Lennox's defense, the grief and defeat all over Lennox's face at Callum's words. She grabbed Callum's arm, trying to pull him to face her.
He jerked away from her, causing her to stumble slightly. All of them were acting so out of character. This wasn't like them, at least not the people I had come to know. Say what you wanted, but there were certain things about a person’s character that couldn’t be faked, that couldn’t be denied. I studied them, trying to find out just why they were acting in such a way, while listening to Charity and her Consorts arguing behind me.
“Callum, stop. Please,” Rhowyn said, trying to plead with him.
“Oh, now you want me to stop? Why should I listen to you when you never listen to me?” he snapped at her. “You've been nothing but trouble since you got here, always doing whatever you please without thought or consideration for anyone else!”
She pulled back as if slapped, her mouth hanging open in shock at his words. “At least I'm not an asshole to everyone I meet.” Her reply was weak in comparison, showing just how rattled she was.
“If you'd been through what I have, then you would be the same exact way. Trust me. You have no idea what you're up against. You'll find yourself in over your head, expecting us to bail you out when you do, just like the trouble you are,” he continued harshly.
Arryn pushed Callum away from Rhowyn. “That's enough, Callum. You've gone too far.”
“Not as far as Lennox and his mother,” Callum snarled, approaching Lennox as he spoke the words. Lennox barely responded, still reeling from his earlier words. “What? Nothing to say? Just like always with you. You speak when you shouldn't and stay silent when you should speak up.” Callum lobbed the insult at Lennox as he pushed him back, trying to provoke him.
I stood there in shock, watching the entire exchange, still convinced something wasn't right. Instead of diffusing the situation, they only seemed to be escalating it. This was not the behavior I expected from these men. They wouldn't act this way, purposefully trying to hurt each other with words. If they didn't stop, this would come to blows.
As if my thoughts conjured the actions, Lennox pulled his dagger, getting ready to use it. Rhowyn grabbed Lennox's arm, holding him back from lashing out at Callum. A dark whisp winding its way around them both.
Callum stepped forward, continuing to advance, challenging him, and getting into Lennox's face, the smoke wrapping around him as well. “What are you going to do with that? As if you could hurt me after what I've been through.”
“If you don't stop, I'll have no choice but to stop you,” Lennox threatened Callum.
“Like mother, like son,” Callum said stone-faced, calling his bluff.
Those words did something to Lennox, though. His composure, or what was left of it, snapped. He lunged at Callum with the dagger, dragging Rhowyn along with the motion, slinging her in between them accidentally. She stumbled over her feet, and the dagger cut along her arm.
She hissed and reeled back in shock, the dark whisps growing in intensity. I needed to do something quickly before they killed each other, but I didn't know what I could do. Normally, I could ease a tense conversation or emotion with a well-timed joke, but I had a feeling that nothing I said would make a difference.
I glanced over to the other group, hoping to find some help, only to discover them all in the same situation, each of them at each other's throats. Something was here with us.
I wasn't the best with lore, but I searched my memory for anything that could cause this kind of discord among the group. My thoughts raced knowing I didn't have much time before this all devolved into a bloodbath. I couldn't allow that to happen.
My memory wasn't coming up with anything that could cause this sort of animosity in so short a time, so I did what I could do. I formed a shield around our group and the other, trying to prevent whatever outside force from being able to manipulate them any further.
Rhowyn continued to hold her arm with one hand, blood dripping through her fingers as the guys continued arguing. Anytime Rhowyn tried to step in, they'd lash out at her verbally, shutting her down. Maybe that was normal for Callum, but it wasn't for Lennox and Arryn.
The dark whisps continued swirling around the guys, though it was no longer growing in intensity. An idea came to mind, and I used my air magic to blow the whisps outside of the shield I had placed around them.
The whisps didn't respond like smoke would, easily blown away. Instead, it seemed to be struggling to hold onto the group. I pushed harder with my magic, the air blowing their hair and clothes all around, causing them to duck away from the force of it inside the shield.
Slowly, the whisps were forced from the bubble I had created, and almost immediately I saw the change. They all looked at each other inside my bubble with shock and devastation at the words that had been spoken. Arryn was the first to notice Rhowyn's arm, immediately placing a hand over the wound and healing it.
His eyes met mine outside of the shield. “What happened?” he demanded, his commanding presence taking over to evaluate the threat that we were still under.
“I don't know,” I told him. “You guys were not thinking clearly, and I started to see dark whisps of smoke. At first, I thought it was Lennox's magic, but none of you seemed to notice it. So, I made a shield and pushed the whisps away and outside of the shield.”
“An Ankou is here,” Arryn said on a whisper, his eyes immediately scanning the area. Callum and Lennox both came to stand at attention, also searching for the creature.
A cry reached my ears, and my focus jumped to the other group. Their fighting was starting to escalate, while they remained inside my shield. Again, I used my air magic and pushed the smoke away from the group until I could no longer see anything, with the same result. The other group looked around confused, Charity crying among them as they met my eyes.
Arryn called to them. “There's an Ankou here, somewhere.”
“Shit!” Eoghan spat out the curse, pulling his own sword and scanning for any sign of it.
Tinkling bells reached my ears, and I threw up a shield around myself, remembering that the bells preceded the arrival of an Ankou. “It's here,” I called out to everyone. “I can hear the bells.”
Everyone held their weapons in hand, pushing their Chosen to the middle of the group. Sweat started to bead on my brow, the exhaustion from using so much magic starting to get to me.
A disembodied laugh sounded around me, and I spun trying to find the source. “You're getting tired, fae of spring. It won't be long until I get the meal I so want. I just have to wait you out.” It hissed the words with a lisp, taunting me.
It was right. I couldn't hold the shields for much longer. I made my way to our group, hoping that by dropping one of the shields I could hold out until we could deal with the Ankou.
Before I could get there, the smoke thickened, surrounding my shield until I couldn't see and halting my progress. I could blow the smoke away with my air magic, but that would only drain me further. The Ankou was ensuring that I would tire more quickly.
The smoke started to press against my shield, testing the boundaries and looking for cracks. I could feel the whisps slither against the shield as it prodded every square inch of the bubble, causing me to focus even more on my shield to reinforce it.
Sweat started dripping into my eyes, further reducing my visibility as I held my hands out, desperately trying to keep the shields from failing. The stale air quickly grew to sweltering, and I could feel my control slipping. Holding three individual bubbles on top of all the other magic I’d used was draining me quickly.
“Guys!” I called out, unable to determine if they could hear me. “My magic is weakening. Whatever you're going to do, you need to do it now!” I warned them, my arms and legs shaking from exertion.
“How much time do we have?” Arryn called out in response, the tension evident in his voice as I strained to hear him, the Ankou dampening the sound .
“Fuck! I don't know! Five minutes? Maybe?” I said, giving them a number, praying I would be able to hold them all that long, but seriously doubting it.
Before Arryn could reply, the Ankou doubled its efforts, pushing against my shield harder, as if by taking me down, it would then have access to all the others, using brute force to weaken me faster. My muscles started shaking harder as I pushed back against the force the Ankou was using as its laughter echoed around me. As I struggled to hold up my shields, the smoke started to clear slightly, giving me a view of Rhowyn still inside my other shield, working my magic to blow the smoke away before it was quickly replaced.
She just didn't have the strength to clear the dense smoke and keep it from hammering at my shield, but she was buying me a little more time, what little good that would do.
The smoke cleared again, my muscles screaming at me as they shook. My eyes met hers, full of determination. I felt a burst of pride at having been picked to be her Consort. She was so strong. Stronger than any of us. She just didn't know it yet. I prayed I'd get to see her when she finally became a force to be reckoned with, that I'd be by her side as she grew into the woman I knew she would be. The only hope for our lands and people.
My knees buckled under the pressure, my muscles giving out as I continued to push my magic into the shields, giving everything I had to buy them more time to figure out how to deal with the Ankou. Rhowyn's eyes widened in panic just as the smoke obscured me from her view again, and I collapsed, completely tapped out. The smoke rushed toward me, swarming me as soon as my shield dropped, intent on my destruction.
I just hoped I had bought them enough time as I passed out, completely drained of magic and at the mercy of the creature who saw me as a meal.