Chapter Eighteen
Mist swirled around us like eddies in a stream. The trees on the Peninsula behind me looked distorted, like I was viewing them through water, while the lights on the path to Scotland resembled fish swimming in a stream. I could only see a few feet in front of me then they disappeared into the mist.
“Whoa,” said Jace, “what the…?”
“It’s incredible,” Shae whispered.
I looked at Owen. He was already looking at me.
“Well done,” he said with a tip of his head and a squeeze of my hand, but there was a tightness to his expression. My stomach sank.
“How bad was it? Did I hurt anyone?”
He hesitated. “We’re okay. I saw Todd grab your hand, but you took care of him before I could step in. He seems mostly okay now. I suspect it was Sylvia’s plan to use him to make you angry.”
Owen’s eyes turned hard as he looked past me at Todd, who had a cut on his forehead and seemed even more stunned than the others. I winced.
I hated this magic. If the result was Owen looking at me differently or with fear, I wanted nothing to do with my powers or veil walking.
“Owen, I’m sorry.” That’s not exactly what I meant, but I didn’t know how else to express my regret. “Please don’t be afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you, Kira. Don’t ever think that. It’s just…I thought I felt something back there. But it must have been your magic.” He shook his head and gave me an encouraging smile.
The pit in my stomach didn’t lessen. “Sylvia spoke to me in my mind. I’m sure it was her voice. But I didn’t think she had magic.”
“Let’s wait until we’re off the Root Path, and then we’ll have a long talk with Sylvia about all of this.” I nodded in agreement, already feeling better.
“Remember, everyone,” Sylvia called out, “do not let go of each other. No matter what. Kira is our connection and she is keeping us on the Root Path. If you let go, there’s no telling where you might drop out.”
“So, we’re in the Veil?” Hope filled my chest. “Will I see my parents?”
“Yes and no. The Root Path is a part of the Veil, but they are not the same. You won’t meet your parents here.
The spirits of the dead reside in a separate area—the Empyrean, or Heaven as some call it.
One must die to enter that part of the Veil, and even then, it is only the spirit that goes while the body stays on Earth.
The Root Path, however, allows those the Tree Spirits deem worthy to travel in their physical body around the world without dying.
Think of it like a stepping stone to where the spirits reside.
Only a few Druids have ever been granted entry to the Root Path and allowed to veil-walk. ”
“Where are we supposed to go?” Jace asked, tightening his grip on Shae and drawing her closer to his side.
“We’ll follow the path ahead,” Sylvia replied. “We’ll walk for a bit to give Kira a chance to figure things out. Time works differently on the Root Path. To travel to the western shores of Scotland, it would only take a day. Well, Kira? Shall we?”
I nodded, squaring my shoulders and taking a deep breath, and then the six of us took our first steps together.
“This is weird,” Owen observed. I had to agree. Without solid ground beneath our feet, it felt like walking on clouds. If not for the lights appearing in the mist ahead of us, I would have had no way of knowing we were making forward progress.
Owen and Jace both looked resolute, and only a slight tightening of their faces told me they felt any discomfort with our current situation.
For the most part, Sylvia and Shae seemed like they had settled in for a long hike, and Shae continued to look around her in wonder.
But a fine sheen of perspiration covered Todd’s brow, and his eyes moved wildly back and forth.
“So, when you say we could drop out anywhere, what do you mean by that?” he asked, and I began to feel alarmed at the barely controlled panic in his voice.
“Todd,” Sylvia tsked, “haven’t you listened to anything I’ve ever told you about the Druids?”
“Hearing it and living it are two different things,” he muttered.
“Well, we’re travelling at a great speed right now,” Sylvia replied.
She didn’t seem to notice Todd’s current mental state.
Either that, or she didn’t care. “I’m not sure anyone has ever measured the exact speed.
At least, it’s not in any text I’ve read.
You could drop out and land in a field or on top of a building or even the ocean. ”
“Are we high off the ground or close to it?”
“The stories don’t say. Either no one knows or those with that knowledge didn’t live to tell the tale.”
Todd swallowed. Hard.
“Todd, look at me,” Owen called out, his voice calm and steady. “It’s going to be fine. Kira’s got us. Just keep holding on to Jace’s hand.”
My heart lurched as I suddenly understood why Owen was trying to help. Todd’s deteriorating mental state meant Jace and Shae were in danger. If Todd let go…
“There’s nothing out here, man!” Todd’s shrill voice betrayed his rising panic, and even Sylvia shot him an alarmed glance.
“Todd,” I said quickly before he could spiral more, “focus on the lights in front of us. They look like fish, don’t they?
It’s like we’re following a stream. And you can see the mist moving, right?
That’s something. And you can feel Jace’s hand.
Focus on those things. Trust me. We’re turning around now and going back to the Peninsula. We’re almost there. You can do this.”
Todd took in a shaky breath.
“Keep breathing,” said Owen. “Just breathe. In and out.”
“Okay! I’m okay,” Todd snapped, no doubt annoyed at being told by Owen how to do something. But his eyes were still wide, his breathing shallow.
The fear in Jace and Shae’s faces showed that they fully understood the precariousness of their situation.
“Could Shae take hold of Owen’s other hand, and let go of mine? Would that break the connection?” Jace asked Sylvia.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” she said, her brow furrowed. “The book doesn’t mention anything about switching hands.”
“Of course it doesn’t,” Jace muttered.
Owen and I exchanged a worried glance, but there was nothing we could do except arrive at our destination. Fast.
And then I heard it.
Kira?
I stopped dead in my tracks, halting the others as well.
“Charles?” I whispered.
“What?” Owen quickly turned to me. “Do you see him?”
Kira? Are you coming to save me? The voice sounded far away, but it was Charles. I knew it.
“We’re coming, Charles! Hold on!”
Why did you let me get taken, Kira? I thought we were friends.
Fear cut like a lance through my heart. “What? I didn’t mean for that to happen, I swear! I’m so sorry!”
“What’s happening, Kira? Talk to me.” Owen turned to face me as much as our clasped hands would allow.
You can’t do anything right. First your parents. Then Todd. Now me. Why does everyone keep leaving you, Kira? Have you ever thought of that? His voice was caustic now. Taunting. Belittling.
Oh God. I fell to my knees pleading for him to stop. Because he was right, and the truth tore through me, ripping me open. It was my fault. All of it. Every one of those people left somehow because of me.
My parents were in that car because of me.
Todd cheated because I wasn’t good enough.
I touched the stone and opened the portal and now Charles was in danger.
And one day I would no doubt do something to cause Owen, Shae, and Jace to leave as well.
I started to pull my hand away. My friends were better off without me.
“Kira!” Owen shouted. “Don’t let go!” He gripped my hand so tightly it hurt, and the pain brought me back to the present. What was I doing? I couldn’t let go. And I suddenly realized it wasn’t Charles speaking to me. He would never hurt me like that.
“Aed!” Shae screamed. “She’s found us. Run!”
Aed? The Druid who originally opened the portal to Craos’s realm was here? But Sylvia had said the dead didn’t walk the Root Path.
Owen hauled me to my feet, and we ran as fast as we could. My eyes watered and my lungs burned, but a sinister presence gained on us. Rapidly.
Kira, Aed called in a singsong voice. Where are you going? You always run.
“Stay with me, Kira!” Owen shouted. “Keep running. Todd? Don’t you fucking let go.”
Todd seemed to have snapped out of his panic attack and was pumping his legs as fast as the rest of us, but we weren’t going to make it. Now I would lose Owen, too, and I had only just found him.
I sensed Aed reaching for me, scraping the edge of my mind, her putrid breath filling my nostrils. We were all going to die.
Stop.
The six of us halted so abruptly that our top halves lurched forward while our feet remained glued to the mist beneath us.
The only sound was our panting. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move any part of my body except my eyes.
I slid them to the right as far as they could go as I desperately tried to see Owen one last time.
A shrouded figure glided toward us through the mist, her rotting black robe fluttering without any wind.
Beneath her deep hood, I glimpsed hollow eye sockets within a skull white as bleached bone.
Her skeletal fingers, peeking out from large sleeves, were clasped together.
As Aed stopped in front of us, one long, bony finger uncurled from the rest to point at me.
I’ve been waiting for you. Her voice was a low hiss, like a dying breath. As soon as you entered the Root Path, I could feel you. I needed to meet you…to be sure you were the one.
“What?” I spoke with a shudder. I could barely draw air.
You will release me soon.
Release her? Upon the world? I fought to strengthen my voice. “Never,” I ground out.
Aed regarded me in silence for a time.
Who are you? she finally asked.
“Kira Blackwell.”
No. You are more than that, but it seems you do not yet know. Although you may suspect. What do you seek?
“The Waterstone. The second stone of the seal of Craos.”
Aed laughed. You are not worthy.
My eyes narrowed in defiance even as my heart sped up. “I am worthy. I have the Rootstone already.”
The Rootstone Guardian remains hidden. He watches you. Judges you. He will reveal himself in time.
Well, that was disturbing.
The Waterstone Guardian will never let you pass. She requires one to know oneself, yet you do not.
“Who am I then? Tell me.”
Aed’s finger swiped across my face so fast I barely had time to register what happened. Wetness trickled down my temple and cheek, and I could taste the metallic tang of blood in my mouth. Owen’s breathing stilled.
Impertinent and insolent. Craos will teach you respect. You are unworthy, nothing. That’s why everyone leaves you. When you discover your true self, you will free me at last from this endless prison.
Aed studied me, her bony finger finally retracting. Blood dripped onto my shirt. A few of my teeth felt loose. I didn’t dare speak. Aed could kill us all with barely a twitch of her finger.
Show me who you are, and I will let you leave.
“How?”
Destroy.
“Destroy what?”
Anything. Start running and reveal your true self.
Our paralysis ended abruptly, and I fought the urge to collapse, willed my exhausted legs to start moving again.
“Run!” I screamed, and the others followed.
I lashed at the pines on the Peninsula with my mind like I was an anchor and they were the ocean floor, but I scraped along them as they rebuffed me.
I tried again, desperate. I would not lose any more friends.
But the Tree Spirits stood before me. Silent, resolute, and vigilant, they defended the pine trees from Aed—from me—and they would not let us pass again.
But if we didn’t find a way off the Root Path, Aed would kill us all.
A scream to my left had me whipping my head to the side. Todd had released Jace’s hand, and both he and Shae were now gone.
“Jace!” Owen roared, and he turned murderous eyes on Todd.
Todd’s eyes were wide with shock as he stared at his hand.
You were insolent, Kira. Now your friends will suffer.
Fuck that.
Without knowing how, I cast my mind outside the Root Path and spotted them. Jace and Shae were free-falling into the churning waters of Georgian Bay from such a height that they’d be dead on impact.
I reached within myself and opened up to the darkness over my heart. I would have to use my mind this time since my hands weren’t free. But I could do this. I refused to lose anyone else. I had mere seconds before my friends hit the water.
I reached deeper, feeding my terror for Jace and Shae, my rage at Aed for holding us hostage and striking me, my revulsion of Todd’s touch, my frustration at Sylvia.
I gathered every one of those feelings and fed them until black roots grew and twisted under my skin, and I became darkness incarnate.
If anger was how I accessed my magic, then so be it.
Yes. Show your true self.
I sent a tether of power toward Shae and Jace and wrapped it around their wrists just before they hit the water.
The abrupt end of their rapid descent yanked their shoulders free of their sockets, and they screamed in pain.
But they were alive. For a moment, they hung above the water, gasping in pain and shock, and then I dropped them.
The cliffs were within swimming distance, but in a raging storm with their injuries, it would be almost impossible for them to get there or tread water.
We needed to escape the Root Path as soon as possible. Every second counted.
“They’re alive!” I shouted to Owen, and he looked at me wide-eyed. I had no time to say anything else.
The Tree Spirits stood between us and the Peninsula, but I would pass. It was time to destroy. Jace and Shae were counting on me. I set aside my conscience and kept the faces of my friends in my mind instead.
I dove into the heart of the Tree Spirits, letting my darkness coil around them. Some screamed in agony while a few others disintegrated into black ash, and I knew I had killed the trees themselves. But I kept pushing, a path of death and destruction opening before me. The way was clear at last.
Enveloping the four of us in my mind, I reached for the Peninsula like I had jumped off a cliff and was straining to touch the other side.
Blackness overtook me like a heavy curtain, and I screamed in soundless terror as Aed said, Now you know yourself. We will meet again.