Chapter 2 #2
“Liam’s going to take care of all that,” I reminded them. “Once we get to the loch, we just need to hunker down and wait for him to show up. We trust that he will come through. He hasn’t steered us wrong yet, has he?”
Gary shot a dubious look at Caterina who shrugged.
“Harlow is right. He helped her find her Quirk,” Fable said. “And was helping Zeed too before . . .”
She trailed off and we all went silent, thinking about Zeed, no doubt. We were missing our eighth member of House Phoenix. Zeed was the brains of the group along with Fable, and I felt his absence, now more than ever. We could use his smarts, and I knew the others felt the same.
The train began to slow, and an announcement bubbled through the sound system.
“Arriving at Lairg Station.”
I chanced another look out the window and the scenery wasn’t as nauseating as before. Now I could appreciate the flash of heavily frosted trees and shrubs, the dark gray overcast sky, and the quaint, shingled buildings we pulled up next to as our train rumbled to a stop. Almost there, almost safe.
“Come on.” I stood and locked my knees as the train gave one last jerk, as if to check my balance for me. Scooping up my backpack, I slung it over my shoulder, the others doing the same with their own bags.
They followed me through the train and out onto the platform. We were the only ones disembarking, and no one got onto the train. Thank Hecate we’d been able to change out of our uniforms and into civilian clothing, or we’d have really stuck out as not belonging.
As it were, we looked like a random group of friends instead of a group of students escaping to the other side of the ocean.
“Dang, it’s chilly,” Ross muttered.
He was not wrong. It was just below freezing, according to the temperature gauge on the platform, but it felt far worse as the cold, damp wind snapped around us like a wild animal trying to burrow under our clothes, biting at any exposed skin.
“I could do without the wind.” I hurried toward the ticket booth, adjusting my backpack as I hugged my fur-lined leather coat tighter to me. Behind us the train let out a blast and began its path onward to its next stop.
The window to the booth was shut tight, but I rapped my knuckles lightly against the glass. From within the booth there was a scuffling, and then a narrow face peered out at me, not bothering to open the window. Instead, he just yelled through the glass.
“What you want? Train left, too late to buy a ticket!” At least that’s what I thought he said – it was hard to tell, with his accent and the thick glass.
“How far into Lairg?” I shouted back.
He pointed over his shoulder. “Mile and a half. Bloody cold walk today.”
Mile and a half. That wasn’t the ten-mile hike I feared. I gave him a single thumbs up.
“It’s quiet for quitting time, don’t you think?” Caterina looked around. “Do you think that’s normal?”
“Don’t say that,” Ellie whispered. “Let it be normal. We like normal.”
I started off in the direction the teller had indicated, digging the locket out of my pocket as it began to buzz with activity, like a cell phone on vibrate. “Got something to tell us, Calypso?”
She huffed as I flipped the locket open. “It’s quiet here because it’s still so close to the year-end solstice, you fools. You showed up during the week of the Horned King. This is the time that he and his beasties are most active. How did none of you realize that?”
The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, was always the first night the Dwimmer world celebrated the Horned King – god of many things, death chief amongst them. It was the day of his rebirth, and was followed by over a week of his magic ruling our lives.
The Solstice Games had started on 21 December. Strange to think we’d left on Christmas Eve, missed Christmas and now here we were, heading into the new year without a single moment of celebration.
Running for your life will do that to you.
Calypso was right. Lots of magic floated around during this time of year – in other words, weird shit happened, and you just had to roll with it.
“Eh,” Ross muttered. “That’s not great, man. I didn’t even think about it, not with everything else going on.”
No, it wasn’t great, but we’d deal, like always. Still, I couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding growing inside me with each second we stood still. “Let’s go.”
The pathway to Lairg darkened with every step we took, which meant it was less than ten minutes into the walk before the sky was black.
Easy enough with the deep cloud cover that it had started with.
Caterina, Ellie, and Marina were just ahead of me.
Fable was to my right and the boys brought up the rear.
“Harlow?” Fable’s voice shook and her hand smacked into my arm until I stopped.
“What is it . . . oh.” I turned to where she was looking.
Gary and Ross were standing stock still, staring off to the edge of the path. At the treeline stood a woman dressed in a deep-green gown, the material slit to her hip on either side, showing off her long, bare legs. With brilliant red hair, and skin that glowed nearly silver, she was stunning.
She swayed where she stood.
Eyes closed, a low hum rolling from her.
Face upturned to the dark sky.
“Guys?” Marina moved first and grabbed at Ross, but he didn’t so much as flinch. “Ross, look at me!” She snapped her fingers in front of his face to no reaction.
Well shit. I had no doubt that the woman wasn’t human. “What is she?”
“It’s a baobhan sith,” Ellie whispered.
“A what?”
Gary and Ross started to walk toward the woman, and I put my hand on Gary’s chest, blocking him as Marina did the same to Ross. “What the hell is a bao-bun sith? It sounds like a Star Wars dessert.”
“I wish,” Ellie said. “It’s a type of vampire that only preys on men. She won’t bother the rest of us.”
Part of me wanted to be surprised, the other part had fully expected at least one problem on our walk into Lairg. But did it really have to be a fucking vampire?
Of course it did.