Chapter 27 #2
“All your clothes,” Angus said. “Off. Take nothing from the mortal realm.”
“You want me to strip naked in front of you?”
Angus rolled his eyes. “You think you have anything I haven’t seen before?”
She looked down at the chain that was glowing beneath her skin. “I don’t know. Have you seen a glowing gold chain embedded beneath someone’s skin before?”
“That one I’ll give you, Carys Morgan.” Angus sounded amused. “But the rest is fairly boring to me.”
“Thanks, I guess.” She pulled off her shirt and saw Oshun’s mark more clearly.
It was a twisting and intricate chain that dipped below her collarbones and just above the rise of her breasts. When she reached back, she could feel the metal just below the base of her neck and saw the edges embedded in her shoulders.
The weight of her limbs was still noticeable, but she felt lighter than before. And as she stripped the rest of her clothes off, she noticed warmth creeping over her skin that seemed to emanate from D?n’s golden collar.
Angus waited for her to be completely naked, then stood at the edge of the pool and held out his hand. “You know what happens next.”
Carys walked over and looked down at her reflection. The chain was glowing with a warmer light than the silver pool. “Do you have to push me in or—”
The water enveloped her, sucking her under the surface and pulling her down and down and down until she opened her eyes and saw the mirrorlike surface below her.
Carys swam toward it, her lungs burning and her body aching until she reached the other side and surfaced with a gasp, shoving the water from her face and pushing her hair back where it covered her eyes.
She looked around the glowing silver pool, then up at the glowing blue lights that hovered over her like wisps at the gate.
“Hello, cariad.”
Carys turned and saw her mother bending down at the edge of the pool. “Mom?”
Tegan smiled at her daughter. “You followed the lights.”
“Mom!” Her heart felt like it was going to burst. She swam to the edge of the pool and let Tegan pull her from the water, then wrapped her arms around her mother and sobbed into her neck.
“There you are,” Tegan whispered. “There you are, my love. My precious gift. My lovely girl.”
Tegan rocked Carys as if she were a child, hushing her and gripping her tightly by the shoulders. She rocked her until Carys’s tears had stopped and the weight on her heart was a little bit lighter.
Carys pulled away to look at her mother, but it was a face she’s only seen in pictures. As young as she was in that moment. “Wow.”
“Hello.” Tegan couldn’t stop her smile. “Look at you. You look the same.”
“You don’t.”
Tegan laughed. “I’m here, Carys. I hope you’ve forgiven me. I always thought we’d have more time.”
“So you were going to tell me about… all of it?”
“Oh yes. I wanted you to know your sister if you could. I’d hoped…” Tegan’s eyes were filled with regret. “I can’t think of it now, because there’s no helping it. I could never go back, so I thought it would be better to wait.” She shrugged. “Then I ran out of time.”
“You and Dad—”
“It was a deer,” she said softly. “Just a deer in the road. A little thing, no? A drop of rain falling in water instead of the ground. We were gone. But I’m so sorry we left you, my love.”
“But you’re not together.”
Tegan’s smile was sad. “We are and we’re not. It’s hard to explain. But I always feel your father near me.”
“I saw him in a dream, and he said you were just in the house. He was in—”
“His workshop?” Tegan laughed. “Of course he was, my love. Of course.”
Her mother brushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ears and brushing drops of water from Carys’s face. “Look at you. So beautiful.” She ran her fingers over the gold chain embedded in Carys’s skin. “And bearing the mark of the mother goddess.”
“Oshun made it.”
“But it is D?n’s collar.” Tegan’s voice was reverent. “I do not know who placed the chain on you, but the mark belongs to the mother of our gods.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the chain. “A gift I could have only dreamed of wearing.”
Carys blinked and took a deep breath. “So I’m in Annwn now?”
“You’re in a very small corner of it.” Tegan glanced over Carys’s shoulder.
“And right now no one is watching. But we don’t have much time.
If Arawn’s hounds catch the scent of a mortal in this realm, the hunt will be on.
They will keep you here.” Tegan lifted her eyebrows.
“You’ll have a great time, but I don’t think that’s really where you want to be, am I correct? ”
“No, I need to go and defeat the Morrígan so she doesn’t start a magical war.”
“Oh.” Tegan sighed. “Yes, that sounds like her. Where is she?”
“Southern England. She’s raised three points of power on Salisbury Plain, and we think she’s heading to Cley Hill to gather her acolytes.”
“Okay, but you’ve given her three wounds, have you not?”
“What?” Carys shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
Tegan frowned. “Haven’t you?”
“No, I’ve only seen her in dreams.”
“Hmm.” Tegan pushed away and looked at Carys. “I see that you need new eyes.”
“What?” She put a hand to her temple. “What do you—”
“Not literally, Carys.” Tegan sighed. “You were always strangely literal for a girl who loved fairy tales. You have wounded her, but you’re not seeing it for some reason even though you’ve met her in battle three times.”
“I am telling you, I have not met the Morrígan in battle. She’s been wandering around Southern England, posting videos online and probably getting brand deals, and I’ve been chasing bears covered in ammonia and nearly getting drowned by sea monsters in Yorkshire.”
Tegan stared at her.
“What?”
Her mother was giving her the “you know what you’ve done” stare, and it had always confused Carys.
“A sea monster in Yorkshire.”
“Yes.”
“And a bear in…”
“Wyre Forest, I think?”
“And there will have been another battle as well.”
Carys’s eyes went wide. “The bison in Blean Forest.”
“Cariad, all of those were the Morrígan.”
“But they all survived.”
“Yes, but every time you battled one of them and drove her from their bodies, you dealt her a wound.”
Carys sat up straight. “The Mothers said I’ve already defeated her, I just don’t know how.”
“You haven’t defeated her.” Tegan put a hand on Carys’s shoulder. “And Carys, you cannot defeat her. But you can force her back to the Shadowlands, and Epona will bind her again.”
“How?”
“I can’t tell you that.” Tegan’s eyes narrowed when she smiled. “But I can tell you how to acquire the vision you’ll need to see her wounds and exploit her weaknesses. You already know what you need to do.”
In the distance, there was a sound, and then an echo came.
The howl of a baying hound.
Tegan’s smile faded. “We’re out of time, so listen closely.”
“Mom—”
“No more questions.” She pressed a kiss to Carys’s forehead. “Listen to me and remember, because I can only tell you once.”
She grabbed her mother’s arm. “I changed my mind. I want to stay with you.”
“No, you don’t.” Tegan’s eyes were bright. “But I love you for saying it. I’m with your sister now. And it’s everything I dreamed of, but it’s not your time yet.”
Carys blinked, and the cave was gone. She was walking through the forest, and a doe was leading her. Blue lights were guiding her in the darkness, and hounds were calling in the distance.
She opened her eyes, and Tegan had her hands on her shoulders.
“It’s not time yet.”
Carys fell backward into the water, the dark ocean pulling her from Annwn.
Her mother’s voice followed her.
She will gather at Cley Hill. Go to Hogg’s Well, take the water in your left hand, and put it in your right eye. Do not drink it. Do not put it in both eyes. Only in one.
A rushing sound as violent water buffeted her body and pressed against her, shooting her from the land of the dead and into the living world.
When you see as she can see, your sister will be with you, and your eye will be opened. Then you will see the wounds you have dealt the crow goddess so you can send her back to the Shadows.
Carys surfaced in the cave where she had started, shaking the water from her ears.
I love you, cariad. Know that I love you so much.
She spat salty water from her mouth and searched the cave for Angus, but the old god was nowhere to be found. “Angus?”
She spun in circles, but there was no one with her, and the water in the sea cave rocked with the tide. The light below the water was dimming quickly.
“Seriously?”
Carys climbed out of the cave pool and managed to get to her feet on the rocky ground. Her entire body was shivering as she found her damp clothes and quickly pulled them on before the light was gone.
She stumbled back through the narrow corridor until she saw the glow of the cave entrance and the silhouette of the man waiting for her.
Duncan.
“Carys, is that you?”
“We need to get to Cley Hill!” Carys said. “And I need to find some place called Hogg’s Well.”
Duncan held out his arms. “I’m not sure if I can come and get you. Can you keep walking?”
“I’m okay. My legs feel normal now—I’m just cold.” She stumbled to him and threw her arms around his solid warmth. “Let’s get out of here.”
“You’re freezing.” He rubbed her back. “And soaking wet. Where’s Angus?”
“Gone.” Her teeth were chattering. “I think that was all he was meant to do, so he’s gone.”
“Fucking arse,” Duncan muttered. “He could at least have said goodbye.”