Chapter 9 #2
There was no way he could hear the voices of my sisters, it all happened inside me, but I’d seen W go into trances countless times in my life and I knew it could be alarming.
“I’m okay,” I said. “We need to move. I’ve found it, the source of the magic.
” I didn’t say Brigid’s name out loud. I wasn’t sure what my sisters would think of this, of what I was doing.
No, that was a lie, they wouldn’t like it, not one bit.
So as soon as I had a good idea where we were going, I needed to cut them off before they figured it out for themselves.
Fender’s eyes were a little wild, but he started walking, following me without question.
I hustled along the base of the rock face, the huge blue cliffs rising up beside us.
We had to climb over mounds of loose rock and work our way around areas of heavy growth, but I could feel the magical thread inside me strengthening as we got closer.
“Not far now.” I kept hold of the connection, not willing to release it just yet, not willing to release the Matildas, not until I was close enough to be sure.
There, up ahead, was a heavy shadow behind a group of large pines, and on the ground flowers bloomed in many bright colors.
Flowers that shouldn’t be there. “That’s it. Just ahead.”
Fender stepped in front of me, and I stopped. He crouched lower so he was eye level with me. “How about you come back now, peaches?” he said, his voice strange. “Tempest?”
He was staring into my eyes, concern etched on his face. He lifted his hand, brushing his thumb over my cheek. “Tempest?” he said again.
The male is touching her, Matilda O echoed through my head.
I released them, instantly. Letting go of the connection. Their voices faded, then vanished. “I’m here,” I said. “I never left.”
“The way you…your eyes,” he said roughly. “They were white. I thought you were…I don’t know, somewhere else. Or under some spell.”
“No spell,” I said, trying to reassure him.
“It’s more channeling really. I know it can be alarming to watch.
But everything’s fine.” My limbs felt a little wobbly after using my magic for as long as I had, but I didn’t have time to sit and sip sweet tea to recover.
We needed to do this now. “I don’t know what we’ll find in there, you need to be ready. ”
He nodded, then taking my hand, we worked our way over rocks and uneven ground. Fender took out a huge hunting knife and slashed at the overgrowth, cutting some of it back so we could reach the opening.
At the base, there were—I wasn’t sure how to describe them. There were stones in different colors, little figurines made of sticks, bunches of flowers, some old, some fresh, and other trinkets that had been collected from around the forest and left here.
“What is all this?”
“I’m not sure. They look like offerings of some kind.” I looked around us, searching for anyone who might be watching. I saw and sensed nothing.
“We’re alone,” Fender said, and I knew he’d just done the same.
This was unexpected, yes, but no reason to stop now. “There’s a flashlight in my bag,” I said.
He slid it off, handing it to me. I fished out a flashlight, and he took the bag back, flung it on his shoulder and took my hand again. As he approached the small opening in the cliff wall and stepped inside, cool air wafted over us instantly.
Fender scented it. “I can’t sense anyone else in here, either, but we need to stay alert. Something could be deeper in the caves.”
I didn’t need any help to track the magic now, I was close enough to the source of Brigid’s power that I could feel the strength of it pulling me closer.
There was only one thing that would still hold that much residual magic after all this time.
I followed it, so bright and vast even now.
But there was darkness as well, and despair, and so much grief.
The loss of her sisters had marked her so deeply that it transcended her mortal life.
“Stay behind me,” Fender said.
I didn’t argue. I had no desire to run into anything with claws and fangs, thank you very much, unless it was Fender.
I was quite happy having him as my shield.
The glow coming from the flashlight illuminated only a few feet in front of us before it was swallowed by shadow.
I shone the light at one of the cobweb-covered walls.
“What is that,” I said, my voice echoing through the cavern.
I used the flashlight to brush some of the web away.
“Oh, wow.” There were etchings on the cave walls. Sigils and glyphs intricately drawn.
“What do they mean?” Fender asked.
“They’re warnings. Wards.” I ran my hand over one of them, and it lit up under my fingers.
She was here. Brigid was definitely here.
She’d never left. “We mean you no harm, Brigid. My line is old, my roots deep, my coven respects you. I feel your anger and your pain. I would never cause you more. Will you let us pass?”
Wind burst from deep in the cave, swirling around me, yanking at my clothing, my hair.
A whispered voice, not the Matildas this time, echoed harshly around us.
Fender hooked his arms around me, as if he could shield me from her power, and pulled me against his body.
I hissed as something sliced my arm. The wind licked at my blood.
I gripped my arm, trying to staunch its flow, and jerked when her spirit moved forcefully around me.
If Fender hadn’t been holding me, I would have been knocked to the stone floor.
“I’m taking you out of here,” Fender yelled over the wind whistling around us.
“Not yet.” She wanted to know who I was, and she needed my blood to do that.
Matilllldaaaaaa. The whisper echoed around us.
The wind stopped suddenly, a calm filling the cave. The Matildas had been around a very long time, since the earliest days. Brigid knew who I was, what I was, and she knew I would never hurt her. Then the glyphs beside us lit up one by one along the cave wall, leading us deeper.
Not yet. I searched the floor with the flashlight.
“What are you doing?” Fender asked.
“My blood. I can’t leave any trace of it,” I said, again giving away more than I should.
He nodded, held out an arm, and opened his hand. Fire ignited on his skin. His eyes flashed red, and he aimed it at the floor. Hellfire burst from him, singeing the stone and burning away any traces of blood that could have dripped there, doing it without question.
“Thank you.”
His eyes glowed crimson in the dim light. “Whatever you need, Temp, you just need to ask and it’s yours.”
There he went again, saying things that were confusing and made my belly go all fluttery. “We should keep going,” I said.
“Give me your arm,” he said, taking it in his and inspecting it. “If you don’t want to leave any trace of your blood, we need to heal this. Will you let me?”
“How?” He wasn’t a healer.
“Hounds have healing abilities.”
I’d had no idea. “How quickly does it work?”
“For something as small as this? Minutes.”
I was a healer, but healing myself was different. “Then yes, please.” I couldn’t risk walking around dripping blood anywhere else.
He lowered his head, and his hot tongue darted out, swiping over the slice. I jumped. “What are you—”
He did it again.
“Fender?”
“Our saliva, it’s how we heal others.” He swiped once more and his eyes drifted shut.
I watched transfixed as he slid his tongue over the slice again. My skin warmed and tingled.
Finally, he lifted his head, and his gaze, now a beautiful gold, searched mine. “Better?”
I looked down at the spot where he’d licked me. There was a red line, but the wound was gone, and the pain along with it. “Yes, much.”
He lowered my hand but didn’t let it go. “Good.” We started walking, following the glyphs still glowing on the walls. Fender glanced my way. “So who’s Matilda?”