Chapter 19 #2
Naida frowned a little bit. “Maybe love is like faith. It only needs an object for its energy to focus on. If one god is lost, another one will do.”
“Do you really believe that? That you could fall in love with anyone if you just focused?”
Carys hated that idea. Not that she was overly romantic about destiny or anything, but she didn’t just decide to love Duncan. If anything, she kind of fought against it.
“I don’t know,” Naida said. “I never wanted to love Dru, but I did anyway. Maybe his love was so overwhelming I just gave in.”
Carys didn’t know where Naida’s head was at, but she had a feeling that the melancholy expression she’d been wearing since Scotland had at least a little bit to do with a certain wolf missing from the party.
“I hear something,” Lachlan said. “Coming from the east.” He pursed his lips and hooted like an owl.
“Give me directions,” Carys whispered. “East means nothing to me here.”
“That way.” Lachlan jabbed his finger toward the right.
Carys held up a hand and signaled to Laura on the other side of the apiary.
Laura nodded and started tiptoeing back.
By the time Laura got back to their first position, Duncan had also returned, his long strides surprisingly quiet in the forest. “I heard something. Did you?”
Lachlan drew his short sword. “Yes, if you’ll…”
“Of course.” Duncan lifted a cricket bat he’d grabbed from Jibril’s house as Lachlan crept from the bushes and went to explore.
Duncan parked himself by the side of the hedge and watched the apiary.
“Does that ever drive you crazy when they talk in pieces like that?” Laura whispered.
“I’m kind of used to it now.”
And it made her a little bit jealous.
“We’re sisters. Sisters may fight, but they stick together.”
What would Carys’s life had been like if she’d grown up in Wales? Would her mother have taken her across a fae gate when she was young? Would she have grown up knowing Seren?
Don’t be silly. She was a princess.
Right.
Lachlan had disappeared around the hedge, and the night birds fell silent as something crunched on the ground.
“That was not a human footstep,” Laura whispered. “If I didn’t know better…” She eased off the log and stepped lightly toward Duncan, who had already poked his head around the bushes.
Carys stood and looked for Naida, but the fae woman was already gone, halfway under the hedge and moving silently, as stealthy as a mouse avoiding an owl.
Carys peeked from behind Duncan’s back and saw a dim figure moving in the shadows where the bees were now zooming and angry as an intruder violated their peaceful sleep.
There was an unmistakable huffing sound, and then the massive creature moved farther into the clearing and moonlight fell on the dark brown fur that covered his massive back.
Carys’s breath left her body.
Laura said, “Weird. I thought you didn’t have bears in England.”
“We don’t,” Duncan said. “At least not in the Brightlands.”
“You mean—”
“I recognize that bear,” Duncan muttered. “He has one ear that’s very noticeably cut. Right side, about a third of it taken clean off.”
Laura squinted. “Good eyes.”
“Easy to recognize because I’m the one who cut it.” Duncan looked at Carys. “That’s the Morrígan’s bear. The one from the Crow Mother’s mountain, remember?”
“I’m not likely to forget.”
Lachlan appeared in the shadows, then slipped behind the trees and returned to their hiding place behind the hedge. “It’s just the one bear, but he’s not from this world. Somehow an enchanted bear is loose in the Brightlands.”
“What do you want to do?” Laura said.
Lachlan shook his head. “I don’t think a cricket bat and a short sword are going to do much against an animal that size other than make it mad.”
Carys turned to Duncan. “We have to get him back to the Shadowlands.”
Duncan crossed his arms over his chest. “Excellent idea. And how do you propose we do that?”
“Fire.” Cadell nodded decisively.
Jack frowned. “We’re not setting Wyre Forest on fire, dragon.”
“Fire will work,” Cadell grumbled. “Bears hate fire.”
Carys was back in Jibril’s cozy sitting room with Duncan, Cadell, Angus, and Jack. Laura had remained in the forest with Lachlan and Naida, keeping an eye on the bear while Carys and Duncan had a short consult with Jibril and Jack.
“We can’t burn the forest,” Carys said. “But what about smoke? You have smoking equipment, right?”
“Smoke will calm the bees,” Jibril said, “but will do nothing about the bear.”
“Fire will,” Cadell offered again.
Jack stood up. “No fire!”
“Do you have any ketamine?” Duncan asked.
Carys and Jibril turned toward him.
“What? It’s a large-animal tranquilizer.”
Angus scooted forward in his seat. “This is no mere bear, boy.”
“One, I’m not a boy. And two, what if he is?” Duncan pointed at Cadell. “That one can’t transform on this side. Godrik couldn’t either. What if the Morrígan’s beast is really just a bear on this side of the gates?”
Angus frowned. “The boy could be right.”
“We could tranquilize it, drag it to the nearest gate, and dump it in whatever forest is on the other side.” Duncan nodded at Jack. “Then Jack can reinforce the gate so it can’t get through again.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “It’s not the worst idea.”
“I still don’t have any ketamine,” Jibril said. “I have herbs that might soothe an animal, but nothing narcotic in my house.”
“But if the Morrígan’s bear is just a bear on this side of the gate, that means that it would hate the same things that any bear would hate,” Carys said.
Shockingly, she had an idea.
“Yes,” Cadell said. “Like fire.”
“Not fire.” Jack turned to Carys. “Do you know about bears?”
“I mean… I grew up in Baywood. There are tons of black bears in the forest. I may still have a lot to learn about magical parallel worlds” —she glanced at Cadell and Angus— “but I do know about bears.”
Jibril cocked his head. “Fascinating.”
“Do you have any ammonia in the house?” Carys stood up. “I have an idea.”