Chapter 19
19
Mathayus looked over at Garrett as they made their way through the cave, trying to keep Morgan in their line of sight but not letting Bres know he was being followed. He dimmed the ball of light hovering in the center of his paw even more, not wanting the faint glow to give them away.
The Fomorian they followed was half-Fae and, according to what they heard earlier from Fáelán, mostly human. Not that Mathayus trusted what anyone claimed, much less ancient books. In his experience, most were only half correct.
Angel’s darkened figure ghosted along the ice cave’s far wall ahead of them. With the darkness almost complete, Mathayus nearly missed the slight rise of his head as Angel sniffed the chilled air, ensuring they remained as close as possible to Morrigan’s granddaughter.
Her scent was the only thing keeping them on the right path. Strangely, Bres had no scent, which was unusual. On the edge of his vision, Mathayus glared at Garrett and ground his teeth in frustration.
“You’re lucky I don’t flay you for this, Garrett,” he hissed. “We swore to protect her.”
“Flay?” Garrett shook his head. “What is that anyway? I’ve heard that expression for years and never really knew its real meaning.” Garrett said thoughtfully, not paying attention to Mathayus's increasing agitation.
“Would you like a demonstration? I’ve seen it done before—it hurts. Bloody, too, especially as the muscles and blood vessels are exposed,” he growled, noticing the downward trajectory Angel led them in as he descended through a hole in the ground to a deeper level.
Once there, a glance showed him nothing but limestone. The air in this cave seemed a few degrees warmer, which he liked. He drew in Morgan's fresh scent, which had grown stronger, reminding him of a picnic with lemonade and berry pie.
“Why don’t you just say ‘skin you alive’? It’s not so archaic and makes more sense. And no, I don’t think I want to be skinned today, thank you. I know you blame me for Bres taking her, but in my defense, I couldn’t smell or sense him—can you?”
Mathayus's temper snapped, which wasn’t like him, and his light ball flared. While he always had to keep a tight rein on his emotions, which leaned more toward anger and fighting, Garrett and Angel were his kin—and as close as brothers. They had been through too much pain and trauma not to have bonded. For him to react this way… His eyes widened. Something here wasn’t right.
He glanced at Angel, who stood near the far end of the tunnel and jerked Garrett down beside him. “There’s a spell here.”
Angel returned and squatted in front of the two wolves. “Her scent is concentrated ahead. The weird thing is the mist. The tunnel turns at a ninety-degree angle and has a shallow ceiling, so it isn’t easy to pinpoint where she may be. The mist begins at the turn but only rises when I approach it. I think you’re correct—the cave is spelled. It’s like an early warning to let Bres know someone is nearby.”
Angel stood quickly and disappeared into the darkened tunnel, his black fur blending with the darkness of the cave walls. Reaching the tunnel entrance, he glanced at them over his shoulder. “Are you coming or continuing your silly argument? It is no one’s fault. Morgan is strong-willed, and we all believed Rafael, Makari, and the demon could protect her. I’m afraid we all underestimated Bres’s abilities, and the emotions I’m picking up from the next cave are much more pressing than your little dispute.”
Garrett entered the shadowy clearing ahead of Mathayus, who hesitated when the eerie mist swirled and billowed like a miniature thunderstorm in front of them. He sensed the other two wolves, Garrett to his left and Angel in front, but he was worried about Angel as his cousin drew on the extreme sensations pounding at them the longer they stood in the tunnel.
“Morgan is close, but my gut is screaming at us to hurry and reach her,” Angel whispered. “There are also Soul Searchers here, so be aware of this at all times. Keep your mental barriers strong. I don’t think Morgan realizes what she’s stirred up.”
“As always, we are behind you,” Mathayus's deep voice rumbled in the quietness surrounding them. He no longer cared about Bres. His only worry was Morrigan’s granddaughter and saving her.
Angel raised his arms and mumbled something in a different language. The mist momentarily brightened and then fizzled away as if it were being sucked into cracks in the floor. He had seen his friend do strange things over the decades but had never asked him about his abilities. Now, however, it seemed very much like magic and the mumbling he heard, a spell.
They turned the corner, and the tunnel floor suddenly slanted downward, forcing them to slide along the slick rock on their hind paws. A heavy pressure wrapped around his chest like a thick blanket, and his lungs refused to work.
He tried to inhale but winced at the increasing pain around him. Angel gingerly stepped away from the wall, grimacing with each step. With his shoulders hunched, he held the sides of his head as if in agony.
Garrett was the only one who seemed unaffected. Reaching for them, he laid one paw in the middle of Mathayus’s chest and the other on Angel’s forehead. Closing his eyes, he stood still, his chest expanding and contracting with steady breaths until the pain released its hold on Mathayus’s lungs.
Mathayus inhaled, pulling in the dank oxygen as deep into his strangled lungs as he could, and then let it out in a rush, repeating it several times until the pain was entirely gone. The calming presence of his best friends soothed him as they stood beside him.
“What in the hell was that?” he rasped.
“A potent repellent spell,” Angel answered. “I don’t think Fáelán’s book contained everything about Bres. It is very evident he can perform spells and has some magic.”
“Unless it was gifted to him by the Dark Fae,” Garrett added thoughtfully. “We have no idea what Fer-Diorich can or cannot do, do we? All Bres would need is a talisman from a magical source. Depending on the power of the object, he could perform all levels of magic.”
Angel nodded. “He could. Doesn’t bode well for us, though. Morgan’s magic is still pulling me forward. Can either of you feel it?” Mathayus and Garrett shook their heads.
“I get a sensation…like an intermittent tug, but nothing more than that,” Mathayus clarified. “Lead us to her.”
They stepped into the next cave, expecting something small, but it was anything but. They were alone, so he let his light ball glow, the surrounding gloom disappearing. All three stared at the wondrous sight lying before them.
“Damnaigh!” Garrett exclaimed quietly, marveling at the enormous opalescent flowstone formation facing them. “Have either of you seen anything like this before? It’s an artist’s dream.”
A twinkling around the cavern caught Mathayus’s eye. Running his gaze around the cavern, he noticed what seemed to be gems scattered throughout the rough rock walls. He stepped closer to the wall and raised the ball of light, the stones’ rich colors sporadically blinking as he swept the orb in a wide arc.
Garrett lifted his paw to touch the wall, but Mathayus grabbed his thick wrist, holding his arm in place. “The less you touch, the better. The cave system has its own natural habitat. If we introduce even the smallest bacteria, virus, or fungus from outside, we can do irreparable harm to the creatures living here. Even the mountain itself would be damaged.”
Letting his light orb illuminate the winding path, he noticed it split: one side curved around the massive fall, while the other led to a chamber on his right. Narrowing his gaze, he heightened his wolf senses, relying on his enhanced hearing and smell instead of his vision to discern what lay ahead—especially in the direction Bres had taken Morgan.
While the orb amplified the caves’ red light, they didn’t rely on it to see. The wolf was a natural part of them, sharing its heightened senses and granting them sharper vision, including the ability to see in the dark.
According to Garrett, it had something to do with the rods in their eyes, but Mathayus had never been that into science; all he cared about was being able to see. After their blood had been tainted, transforming them into werewolves, their senses became even more refined, enabling them to track their prey relentlessly. It was a significant asset now.
Angel walked around him, ignoring Mathayus’s surprised glance at Garrett. The emotion quickly changed to concern at the urgency of Angel’s gait and the intense vibrations pouring off his body. Garrett nudged Mathayus into motion and nodded at their friend, who had already disappeared behind the fall.
“He’s on a mission again—something’s grabbed hold of him,” Garrett whispered.
Mathayus hesitated before answering. Only he knew the daily turmoil Angel lived with. Garrett didn’t know the depth of Angel’s empathy or emotional guilt from thousands of needless deaths over the centuries.
Garrett carried enough guilt from not being able to cure his sister and losing others to sickness or injuries, and Mathayus didn’t want to add to it. While Garrett could heal Angel’s body, he wouldn’t be able to do anything for his mental anguish, which is what ailed their friend.
“Whatever it is, it’s strong. I’m trying to filter some of the emotion, but it’s everywhere.” Mathayus picked up his pace as Angel rounded another corner and then disappeared. “I fear he senses the Soul Searchers and Morgan’s emotions. If I can sense them, they are extreme in this part of the mountain.”
With long, steady strides, he went after Angel, Garrett’s soft footfalls right behind him. Rounding the flowstone, he almost collided with the smaller black wolf facing the wall. It took Mathayus a moment to realize his gaze was focused on a crack in the floor next to the wall. A very narrow crack. Mathayus moved his large body around Angel, who was as still as a statue, continuing to stare at the dark opening.
“How in the hell are we going to squeeze through this? It’s tiny,” Mathayus muttered and bent to peer into the tunnel. The first few feet were nothing but chiseled rock and darkness. His senses, however, were going crazy. This tunnel wasn’t anywhere he willingly wanted to enter—but Angel wouldn’t give him that choice. Morgan was inside.
“We go down in there.” Angel’s voice echoed low and menacing in the darkness around them.
“Down?” Mathayus looked closer. Reaching inside, his claws scraped a descending wall. “That’s not good. I’ll never fit through this.”
“Damnaigh,” Garrett said, moving beside Angel and laying a paw on Mathayus’s shoulder. “I was afraid you’d say that. Morgan's in there, isn’t she?”
“She was. I sense her spirit beyond it now—farther inside the mountain, maybe?” He frowned and closed his eyes. “She is in a small, enclosed area. A cave perhaps, but it is hard to tell.” Angel responded without emotion. “It is a chance, but we must shift to our human forms to enter.
* * *
Rafael rushed into the room a mere second before Zhivko and slid to a stop when he caught sight of the three wolves. “Don’t any of you move,” he commanded. The three wolves twisted around, their immediate fighting stances relaxing when they realized who had spoken. “Where is she—what have you done with her?”
Mathayus stepped forward, shaking his head. “You are a better strategist than that, Rafael. Why would we do anything to hurt your mate when we have sworn to protect her? We gave you—and her—our word, which in our world still means something.”
Rafael inwardly cringed. They had sworn fealty, but his emotions were riding him hard, and since he had lost connection with Morgan, the frantic urgency to find her was escalating out of his control. And, he had never lost control. In battle, yes. That was expected, but not like this.”
He scrubbed his paw down his face and blew out a deep breath. “You’re right. My emotions are all over the place. Probably from the Soul Searchers, but something deeper inside me also pushes me forward, telling me I must find her.”
Angel nodded. “You are not wrong. The Soul Searchers are strongest in this area of the mountain. We must all erase any emotion. They feed on them, which gives them more power. As close as we are to Samhain, they can use it to escape the Veil, which is probably what the Dark Fae hopes for. Adding them to his remaining Ironclaws and Berserkers army would devastate our side. We would not survive their onslaught.”
Angel shifted into his human form, which was surprisingly slender compared to the musculature his wolf form had. His hair was black with dark auburn highlights, and, like in ancient times, he wore it long and intricately braided with stone and metal beads. “All of us need to shift, or we will not fit through the opening.”
Without waiting, Angel turned and slid down into the crevice or crevasse. Rafael wasn’t sure which it was, and the first wolf disappeared into the dark without waiting to see if the others followed.
Mathayus and Garrett also shifted, and Rafael immediately noticed the family resemblance between the cousins. All three shared the same hair color, though in varying shades of red. Mathayus’s was the darkest, with just a hint of color, and he wore his long hair in a single braid, complemented by smaller braids at each temple. His hair was also free of beads or adornments, which suited his muscular build. Garrett was slender like Angel and had the reddest hair of the three. He also appeared lighter in some way, more youthful and carefree.
The two cousins didn’t wait and followed Angel down into the crack, Mathayus struggling just a bit to fit his thicker chest between the broken stone shelf in the floor.
With a sideways glance at Zhivko, Rafael called up his human form, immediately wishing for his fur back. This deeper level in the mountain may not be ice-covered, but it was still freezing.
Suppressing a shiver, he met Zhivko’s glowing red gaze and moved toward the tunnel entrance. With one fluid move, he slid through and landed on the stone floor at the bottom, using his wolf’s agility.
With a glance at the cousins, who had already changed back into wolves, he once more called up his wolf, reveling in the rush of the change. The reshaping of bone and muscle, grinding of cartilage, and rushing blood as his human form changed to his beautiful white wolf.
Without a word, he padded behind, waiting for any sign from either Angel, who seemed to be a strong empath, or Morgan. They reached another tunnel much smaller than the others and were forced to crawl on their hands and knees to get through it. Halfway through, he noticed the sadness seeping into him, like a dampening of his spirits.
The closer he drew to the end of the tunnel, the sadness grew until it enveloped him. The overpowering emotion flooded his senses, and he heard the mixed wailing and sobbing swirling in the air around him. The Soul Searchers had found them and were unrelenting in their quest to escape the Unseelie Court.
Using his wolf’s sight, his gaze made out something in the middle of the room. In almost complete darkness, it resembled a statue, but there was something familiar about it. He stood and took a few steps closer.
Recognition dawned—it was Morgan. He raced toward her but was jerked back by an unseen hand. Snarling, he turned on whoever had stopped him to find himself pinned in Zhivko’s embrace.
“Trust me, Rafael, but you cannot touch her,” Zhivko said. “We will lose both of you if you do. Her spirit is no longer in her body. What you see here has been spelled.”
It took him a few minutes to pull himself back from the brink of madness in his need to get to his mate. To help her. To save her.
He tried to focus on the demon’s words and what he was trying to tell him, but even that was difficult. Instead, he closed his eyes and did the one thing he could to dampen his rioting emotions. It was a trick he had used during his captivity—a way to channel the fury from what Kristof and Fer-Diorich had done to him. He imagined himself in the body of an eagle, soaring through the night sky and letting the starlight soothe his troubled soul.
Slowly, his anger and fear for Morgan faded until he could, at the very least, control his anger, although he couldn’t say he was sane. He couldn’t live without her. After helping Nemain save her life, she had become his everything. His reason for breathing. He couldn’t go through losing her again. This was like a time loop—having to relive the worst moment in his life, just in different versions.
He refocused on the demon holding him, counting his breaths until even that had calmed down. “I’m okay, although how an incorporeal body can stop a full-grown wolf—a powerful one, I might add—needs to be explained.”
Zhivko dropped his arms with a chuckle. “I told you I have a few powers in this form, although the energy needed to hold you will force me to return to the court sooner than planned. Now, did you retain anything I just said?”
Rafael snorted and rubbed his aching head. “You might need to repeat the last part.”
Garrett moved to his side and raised his paw but hesitated, meeting Rafael’s gaze with his green one. “May I?”
Rafael nodded. Garrett laid his paw across the top of Rafael’s head, his claws between his upright ears, and closed his eyes. After only about a minute, Rafael’s headache eased, then completely disappeared. Garrett pulled back his paw and stepped away.
“Thank you.” He met the green gazes of both Angel and Garrett, then turned to Mathayus. “I owe you an apology. I reacted instead of thinking.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary there,” Makari chuckled, his black head appearing from the small tunnel at the far end of the room. He eased his large body into the room and stood, pushing his paws against his lower back and stretching. “I would have been here sooner, but getting through the crevice took some time.”
Rafael bit back his smile, noticing the dirt covering the black fur, and in places, the fur had been scraped away, leaving bare skin spots. He reproduced his ball of light. “From the amount of dirt on your coat, I doubt we will need to shift to return the same way we came in. Our wolves will all fit through the hole now, won’t they?”
Makari nodded with a widening grin, his black gaze sparkling in the orb’s blue-white light.
Rafael turned back to Zhivko. “Please repeat what you said.”
“You must leave Morgan’s body alone,” he explained. “If you touch her, she will whither away before your eyes, and her spirit will be trapped in the Unseelie Court…if she is still there. Fer-Diorich would not have taken a chance and kept her near him for too long, or Morrigan would know she had been taken. It has something to do with the curse he placed on her descendants.”
Rafael scrubbed his face again in frustration. “What in the hell are we supposed to do then? We can’t leave her here in stasis.” He threw Makari a quick. “Gwyn will kill me.”
His friend nodded. “Yep. She will.”
Rafael sneered. “Don’t look so smug. You will be dead, too.” He turned back to Zhivko. “Can you return to the Unseelie Court and find her?”
The demon thought a moment, then nodded. “I should be able to if I knew where to look. Knowing the Dark Fae, he had whoever took her here apparate her to his quarters somehow, but as I said earlier, he would not have kept her long. More than likely, she is in the dungeons where no one can be found. I hope she has eyes in the back of her head. Many evil beings have been condemned there.”
“You aren’t helping my anxiety,” Rafael muttered. He walked over to Morgan’s still form, staring at her beautiful face. Her eyes were open, staring down at the podium, but why? Had there been something there? He crept around the rock pedestal, studying it from all angles before noticing her fingers. The tip of her thumb was pressed against her middle finger, and the tip of her pointer finger was pressed against the middle of her thumb.
“What are you trying to tell me, pequeno?” he whispered. Narrowing his gaze, he studied her hand from various angles but came up blank. Neither the podium nor her clue was telling him anything.
He pointed at her hand. “What do any of you make from that? She’s trying to tell me something, but I have no clue what it could be.”
The wolves moved closer, each one staring at Morgan’s curled fingers. Garrett shrugged. “From where I’m standing, it sort of looks like a capital B.”
Rafael let out an angry exhale. “Bres. She’s trying to tell us it was that damned Fomorian-Fae who took her.”
Zhivko’s eerie red gaze never left the podium. “If he was here, and I never felt him, the Dark Fae has gifted the ex-king with a talisman. We will need to be very careful from here on out.”
“Why? Angel mentioned that earlier, but what could he do with a talisman?” Garrett asked.
The demon turned his red gaze to the young wolf. “He will be able to channel Fer-Diorich’s power and kill us all.”