Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
By the time we reached home, the triplets were almost ready for bed. Evershine brought them out to the living room, and I sat Ionie on my lap. Herne was holding Nightshade and Mara.
“Well, how was your day?” I looked down at Ionie. They were talking by now, though much of it seemed to be to each other and in a language neither Herne nor I could understand. Twins often developed their own private language, and so had our triplets.
“Mama,” Ionie said, her eyes pale gray, sparkling with lavender flashes of light. They were ringed with black, giving her a frosty look. She had hair the color of raven wings, and a feral look to her eyes that whispered of magic and the moon.
“What did you do today?” I asked.
“I talked to the moon,” she said, a faraway note in her voice.
“You did? And did the moon answer back?”
“She did,” Ionie said.
Over on the sofa, Herne was encouraging Nightshade and Mara to tell us about their day.
Nightshade, who had hair the color of golden wheat and brilliant green eyes, said, “Can we have a pony?”
Herne sighed. “If we were living in Annwn still, I would say yes. But here, it’s not that simple.” He looked over at me. “I wish we could still…”
“Live there? Yes, me too. But Cernunnos was adamant that we’re needed here. We could, I suppose, buy a pony and stable it somewhere.”
“We’ll talk about that later. What about you?” he asked Mara. “What did you do?”
“I learned a song,” she said.
I glanced over at Evershine. “She can sing? That wouldn’t surprise me, given her nature.”
“Yes, actually, and she does surprisingly well at remembering the words. Not many two-year-olds who can remember a whole song.” She urged Mara to sing for us, and Mara belted out a slightly off-key version of The Rolling of the Stones.
Impressed, both Herne and I spent the next half hour playing with them, and finally, I helped Evershine put them to bed. By then it was time for dinner, but I wasn’t about to cook, and I didn’t expect Evershine to make anything.
“I’m calling for takeout,” I said. “What do you want?”
“Anything’s good,” he said, stretching out on the sofa.
I called and placed an order for Chinese takeout.
“They’ll be here in about twenty minutes.
” I curled up next to him on the sofa, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Everything seems so odd now that we’re back here.
It’s like falling into old patterns, and it happened so incredibly fast. I never expected this,” I added.
I paused as my phone rang again. I glanced at it, but didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Hey, lady. How about grabbing lunch together? I’m back!”
At the sound of her voice, I let out a joyful shriek. Angel was back!
“When did you get back? Is Sejun with you? Are you here for good?” The questions tumbled out of my mouth as I came to a seated position and turned to Herne. “Angel’s back!”
He grinned, disentangling his arm from around my shoulder. “Well, did Sejun come with her?”
“Hold on.” I held the phone out and hit the speaker button. “You’re on speaker, Angel. Now, tell us all about it!”
“We decided yesterday to come back. I missed you so much, and Sejun missed Herne.”
The two had become good friends, given he and Angel were dating and always over at our private quarters in Annwn.
“Where are you staying? We’d love to have you here, but with the—”
“My house. What used to be your house, actually. I didn’t sell it.
After Yutani and Lyrical broke up and moved out, I thought DJ might want to live there.
We have a place to live, no problem. We have to unpack, of course, and Sejun will need to turn the third bedroom into an office, but that’s not a problem. ”
I smiled, thinking back to where things had really started.
I’d bought the house, and Angel had moved in with me.
We were like sisters anyway. It had been a murder-house, but we’d cleansed it and cleared out all the evil spirits.
When I moved to Annwn, I gave the house to Angel so that she would have it if she wanted to come visit DJ.
Since Herne had his own house, and we had been engaged, it seemed right to make certain Angel had a place to go.
Now, we were both goddesses, but still best friends. And here we were, back to where our adventures with the Wild Hunt had started. Everything seemed still the same, yet so much had happened during the intervening years.
“We’re on a convoluted case. One thing I will say is: don’t go swimming or boating in Puget Sound.”
“Oh? That sounds intriguing,” Angel said.
“Intriguing but deadly,” I answered. “Anyway, come over tomorrow night? You haven’t seen the girls for a few weeks,” I added.
Angel loved the triplets, and she was their unofficial auntie.
“I will. Tomorrow night, DJ’s coming over to hang with us for a while.
He’s so happy that I’m moving back. He’ll stay with Conner for now, but I’ll be able to see him at least once a week.
He’s growing up, Ember. It’s hard to believe,” she said, a wistful note in her voice.
“Mama J. would be so amazed by everything that’s happened. I miss her,” she added.
“I know you do,” I said. “I do, too. She took me in when my parents died. You asked if I could stay with you guys, and she didn’t even hesitate.
She’ll always be my second mother.” We sat silent for a moment, then I said, “All right, come tomorrow morning, and we’ll have a huge brunch at the office. Bring Sejun.”
“Of course,” Angel said. “See you tomorrow!”
And with that, I decided to call it a day while it was still on a high note.
I found myself wandering through a mist-covered land, and in the distance, barren trees gave off a ghostly green glow in the darkness.
Turning around, I saw that I was alone, and on all sides, the marsh spread out.
As I tried to figure out where I was, I saw the figure of a tall, dark-haired, and sloe-eyed man.
He was beautiful, but as I approached, the smile on his face turned into a sneer, and he began to laugh.
I realized he was a kelpie, and as I turned to run, forgetting for a moment that I was a goddess, he called out, “You can’t win. Not against us. Not against the ocean herself. You should feel her calling. Give in to her, give in to your shadows. It’s the only way you’ll survive.”
Frozen in my tracks, I could hear him walking softly through the marsh, one step after another, coming closer and closer. I wanted to scream because whoever he was, he transcended time and space.
“Who are you?” I cried out, trying to pull away, to run to where he couldn’t touch me.
But then he laughed. “They call me the God-Killer,” he said, and I knew we were all doomed…
I sat up, gasping, flipping on the light. Outside, the dawn was breaking, and the first hints of morning were creeping out from behind the clouds. Squinting, Herne mumbled something, then sat up, staring at me.
“What…Nightmare?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes. Remember the prophetic dreams I used to get?”
He shoved himself up into a sitting position. “I do. What of them?”
“This was like that. I swear, it felt like a warning.” I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, trying to make sense of it. Rambling a little, I began to tell Herne what I had dreamed.
“The God-Killer? And you say he was a kelpie?”
“I think so,” I said, nodding. “Remember when we ran into the kelpies and they tried to drag me away? This man, he looked a lot like them, but more than that, my Leannan Sidhe side knew what he was—just that gut knowledge that you get when you recognize what someone is like. He was a kelpie, but more than that—there’s something bigger behind him.
Something powerful. And I think he’s a messenger. ”
Those were things that hadn’t fully come through in the dream but that I recognized now that I was awake. And whatever he was—whoever he was—he was bringing great danger with him.
“I suppose we can do some research, find out if there’s ever been any entity known as the god-killer mentioned.
Meanwhile,” he said, glancing at his phone, “my mother will be waiting at work today. I told her we needed to ask her about something. We can get her take on the Whispering Lights and the gyanatar.”
“I suppose we’d better get dressed then.” I reluctantly threw back the covers. I was still tired and wanted to sleep in, but even if we had the day off, the girls would still be waking up soon and we’d have to get up for them.
“You take a shower. I’ll make breakfast and check on the kids.
” Herne began to get dressed, and I stared at him, longing to pull him back into bed, to spend a drowsy morning romping under the covers.
He was gorgeous. I knew every inch of his body as well as I knew my own.
But once we had the girls, we had to carve out time for each other.
Spontaneity was a thing of the past, and especially now that we were also back at work.
He caught my eye. “We’ll make time for us tonight, I promise.”
“I’d like that,” I said, heading into the bathroom.
By the time we reached the office, Morgana was waiting for us, keeping up an awkward conversation with Yutani and Talia.
Carrying our coffee cups—we’d stopped for breakfast on the way to work—I waved at Viktor, who had arrived in the parking garage at the same time we did.
Together, we rode the elevator to the first floor.
As we entered the foyer, Talia glanced up, a relieved look on her face.
Yutani jumped up from where he was sitting as well.
Herne gave his mother a hug. “Thank you for coming. We have a couple of ethical questions we need to run past you before we take any action.”
“Oh?” Morgana asked.
“Yes, come on back, please.” He led her to the breakroom.
Talia handed me the morning mail. “By the way, Raven called ten minutes ago. Wager’s awake.
He’s weak, but he seems to be out of the woods.
You can drop by later for a visit if you want.
But she and Kipa are taking turns today, keeping him company.
I chatted with him for a moment. He sounds really tired—probably due to the medication as much as the surgery—but he sounds better.
I told him you’d be in touch later today. ”
“Thanks,” I said. “I’m so glad he’s awake and aware.” I glanced at the envelopes. “What’s in the mail?”
“The usual, except for those two there,” she said, pointing out two of the envelopes. “A couple of the bills don’t seem quite right to me,” she said. “Do you want us to join you for the meeting?”
I tucked the mail away and nodded. “Might as well. This could apply sometime in the future, so come on back.” I glanced through the opened envelopes as I headed to the breakroom. Yutani, Talia, and Viktor followed.
Once we were there, Talia poured coffee for Morgana and Viktor. Viktor had brought in cookies that his wife Sheila had baked—chocolate with peanut butter chips—and he set them on the table. After everyone was settled, we got down to business.
“We have an ethics question,” I said. We told her about the Whispering Lights and the gyanatar.
“The question is, do we kill the gyanatar so the Whispering Lights will leave Nalina alone? Do we dispatch them, and if so, how? They aren’t exactly harmful, but we can’t let them settle in there, charming people so they can try to get help.
There are older and darker things in that park, and one night, Nalina’s going to run into one of them as the lights call her to them. ”
Morgana frowned. “That is an issue,” she said. “I know about the Whispering Lights and their enemy. But they’re rare, so I never thought to even mention them. Most often, it’s will-o’-the-wisps that present, and they’re dangerous.”
“What would you do?” Herne asked.
She thought for a moment. “I’d open a portal for them to go through. They’ll take it—Whispering Lights are conflict-avoidant—and then the gyanatar will leave on its own. The only food it’s interested in is the Whispering Lights. Ember, you can open simple portals now.”
I stiffened. “I can?”
“Yes, I was just about to teach you that, but now that this has happened, you might as well learn.” Morgana had been mentoring me in my emerging powers as a goddess. I’d gone from priestess to mentee since the Gadawnoin, learning how to be a goddess.
“So, what do I do?” I asked.
“I’ll go with you and instruct you. It’s really better if I show you how to do it, rather than just give you instructions.” Morgana glanced at her phone. “I have time now, so we might as well take care of this thing so your friend can return home.”
“One more thing,” I said. “I had another prophetic dream this morning. It’s been a year or so since I’ve had one, but this one was a doozy.”
“Save it for after we send the Whispering Lights home,” she said. “Gather your things and let’s go. Since they can come out in daylight, chances are they’ll be there now. Especially if they’re expecting help.”
She stood, motioning for us to follow her, and headed for the door.
“You stay here,” I instructed Talia and Yutani. “We’ll be back soon, I hope.”
And without another word, Morgana led us out of the building, down to the garage. I gave her the coordinates, and she said she’d meet us there, and vanished. I turned to Herne and Viktor.
“We’d better get a move on. No matter how fast we get there, it won’t be fast enough,” I said. But I laughed as we headed to our cars.