Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“Ireally wish my dad was here,” Carys whispered.
They were sitting at a half-empty table in the morning room, waiting for the house in Belgravia to wake.
Duncan turned to her and took her hand. “Why?” He didn’t look dismissive, just curious.
“I just always felt like Dad would know what to do.” Carys looked up. “All the time. In any given situation, I felt like he would be able to fix it.”
“Even a problem like magic creeping across fae gates and into London?”
“I mean, he figured out how to marry my mother, so he had to know about magic, right?” Carys hadn’t even considered that her father hadn’t known about the Shadowlands. “He had to know.”
Duncan slowly shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“Don’t you ever feel that way? Like you just need someone older than you to figure something out?”
“I can’t say I ever—”
“Duncan?”
He looked at the door a moment before his mother appeared. “Yes, Mother?”
Lady Alexandra Morrison Murray, mother of the laird of Murrayshall and current heiress to several large fortunes, appeared in the doorway leading to the hall. She was dressed in what looked like hiking pants and a bright green cardigan.
“Randall is in the kitchen.” Alexandra glanced at Carys. “Does she prefer a full breakfast or a continental one?”
“She prefers an omelet,” Carys said. “If that’s something Randall can manage.”
Alexandra wrinkled her forehead as if she were surprised that Carys could speak. “I see.”
“We’ll let Randall know what we want for breakfast, Mother. What are you doing this morning?”
Alexandra said, “I’m headed out to the garden. The roses have gone wild in the past few days. I suppose it’s the heat.”
“Do you think so?” Duncan murmured. “Let me know if you need any help.”
It was summer in London, which according to Duncan could be cold, hot, or anything between. This morning was damp and cool, not warm at all.
Alexandra waved a hand as she pulled on a glove. “Gordon is already trimming the beds. I’m simply overseeing the pruning.” She looked up, glanced at Carys for another silent second, then disappeared.
“She’s cold but not naturally rude,” Duncan said. “She just doesn’t know what to do with you.”
Carys suspected that Duncan had enjoyed springing her existence on his mother the night before, so she was inclined to ignore the way his mother spoke to her even if it felt like discourtesy. “You didn’t exactly give her a heads-up that you were bringing someone home to meet her, I’m guessing.”
He shook his head. “I did not. Bit too busy averting a fae war on the other side.”
She could hardly fault Duncan for prioritizing that. “Well, how did she treat your other girlfriends?”
Duncan smirked. “She didn’t meet any of my other girlfriends.”
She pulled her eyes away from what looked like a Turner landscape hanging over the sideboard. “What?”
“She hasn’t met any of the other women I’ve dated,” Duncan said.
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “More trouble than it was worth, I suppose.”
“Are you saying that I’m trouble?”
“Yes, but you’re trouble that is worth it.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Completely different situation.”
Carys sighed. What am I going to do with you?
The question kept pinging around in her mind.
She could move to Scotland. They needed teachers everywhere, right?
But Duncan had already offered to move to California.
His workshop was in Scone.
But he could work in California.
He had a mansion in Scotland.
But she loved her cozy little house.
“I can see those questions.” He tapped her temple. “Out with it.”
“Our future relationship plans don’t really seem like the thing to focus on right now.” She had weeks before she had to be back in California. “The Morrígan needs to be stopped before we talk about anything else, and since I’m the one who let her through to this world, it’s my job to stop her.”
“I know you think that but—”
Nêrys.
“Cadell’s coming.”
She sat up as the dragon walked through the door. Cadell appeared, holding two plates, while Godrik waited behind him with a tray.
“What’s all this?” Duncan asked.
“An omelet.” The dragon set down a plate of eggs. “And this one has roasted potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, and bacon.”
Duncan stared at the second dish. “Where’s mine?”
“You have legs.” Cadell sat across from her. “Godrik will be feeding the women upstairs.”
Carys turned and watched the massive wolf duck under the doorway and back into the hall. “He got that food from the kitchen, right? I don’t need to worry that there’s a dead deer in Hyde Park?”
“He procured it from the efficient human in the kitchen named Randall.” Cadell looked at Carys. “Who cooks in enamel-clad dishes, I might add. Important that he not use any cast-iron for the fae.”
“I didn’t check on Naida this morning.” Carys tried to stand, but Duncan pulled her back to her seat.
“Eat, Carys. Godrik’s checking on Naida.” Duncan looked at Cadell. “And Laura?”
“She was up late, speaking with her brother in California,” Cadell said. “I thought I’d let her sleep.”
“Did her brother have anything to say?” Carys dug into the plate of food in front of her. “Are things different there?”
“Not so far,” Cadell said. “Or not that he’s noticed. But the gates in California were never the same as the gates here.”
After Carys’s first journey to the Shadowlands, she’d returned home and been startled to find that not only did her best friend know all about the parallel world, she was a shadow person—a pauwau inwe of the Yurok people—who moved between the Shadowlands and Brightlands of Northern California.
“So do you think that’s what’s happening here?” Carys asked. “The gates in Baywood are more porous than in London. We see more wisps. Shifters can move between them in animal form.”
“Yes, and Bigfoot occasionally slips across and scares a few hikers,” Duncan said. “But can you imagine a dragon accidentally shifting in Central London? Can you imagine a unicorn trotting across Hampstead Heath?”
Cadell sat down across from her. “I think the idea of letting the gates thin in Briton is a very different prospect than the thinner gates in America, Nêrys. The magical creatures of Briton are wild, numerous, and frankly, often violent. Allowing the Morrígan to break the barrier between the worlds would cause chaos on an unimaginable level.”
She looked at Duncan, and she could see by the set of his mouth that he agreed with the dragon.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Then I have to fix this. Somehow I have to figure out how to stop a goddess, get her back across the fae gate, and keep her from crossing over ever again.”
And she had just over a month before her fall classes started.
No problem, right?
Laura rubbed her eyes as Cadell handed her a cup of coffee. “I don’t know. Are we absolutely sure that it’s such a bad thing to let the gates here thin? I mean, Carys and I have lived in a place with thinner gates, and yeah, it can be kind of spooky for humans sometimes, but it’s not that bad.”
Naida asked, “What kind of magical creatures do you have in your home?”
The fae woman was pale, but she did look stronger than she had the night before, and the abundant green salad that Godrik had gathered from the garden outside seemed to be helping.
“Most of our mythology revolves around animal spirits,” Laura said. “There are the giants, of course, but they protect humans from things like the wechuge, which are very rare, and they live farther north. Wechuge prefer the cold and ice.”
“There are thunderbirds,” Carys added. “Those are probably the most powerful.”
“But I’ve never seen a thunderbird who could cross a gate,” Cadell said. “They almost never shift to their human form.”
“So mostly animal shifters,” Laura said. “And things that appear human but have other powers.”
“You’ve been to my world now,” Naida said. “What do you think it would be like if our magical creatures got lost in the human world?”
“Forget getting lost,” Godrik said gruffly. “Trolls would cross the gates to scavenge almost anything from the Brightlands to sell in their markets. Shadowkin might cross just because they’re curious. Shifters. Fae maybe. Magical creatures could pour into London if the gates are broken.”
Carys said, “And if they don’t lose their powers…”
“Chaos,” Duncan said.
“Is that why she wanted to come here?” Laura asked. “Is that why she wanted to cross over? I don’t know a ton about Celtic mythology, but in the fantasy books that I’ve read, the Morrígan is like a war god, right?”
“The Morrígan is a war goddess,” Carys said. “But that’s only one aspect of her nature. She’s also about land. Sovereignty. Protecting territory. There is a guardian aspect in the myths about her.”
Naida nodded slowly. “Territory. Land. Like creating more land in Briton like Orla and Cian were trying to do?”
Duncan said, “It’s completely possible she was involved in that. She definitely knew it was happening.”
“She’s not venerated as she was in the past,” Godrik said. “There is no cult among the shifters for her, and the cult that once worshipped her in éire was suppressed by the high fae lords.”
Naida sighed. “Because they are idiots.”
Carys looked at Cadell. “So the Morrígan has been confined to the Shadowlands for centuries, watching as her power diminishes bit by bit.”
“Stuck on a small island in a big world,” the dragon said quietly.
Duncan spoke. “On a purely practical level, if the Morrígan tears down the gates between the Brightlands and the Shadowlands, she will effectively double her territory.”
“That part.” Laura pointed at Duncan. “Pretty sure you nailed it.”
“Breaking down the fae gates would mean she’s no longer an obscure goddess on a few small islands,” Cadell said. “With human communication the way it is now, she could gain acolytes all over the world.”
Carys put a hand over her eyes and groaned.
“What?” Duncan grabbed her hand.
“I just had an image of the Morrígan going viral.”
“Oh, that would be…” Laura’s eyes grew wide. “That would be bad.”
“I don’t know what going viral means,” Godrik said. “But the dragon is correct. More acolytes means a larger cult means more power. Gods only gain power when mortals believe in them.
“We have to stop the Morrígan before she tears down the gates between the Shadowlands and the Brightlands.” Carys looked around the table. “And I don’t think we have much time.”
“Okay, mythology prof.” Laura set her empty coffee cup down. “This is your area of expertise, isn’t it? How can a group of humans with a few magical friends stop an ancient goddess who wants to take over the world?”
Carys sat back with a lump in her throat and a sick feeling in her stomach. “I’m going to need a laptop and a really big library.”