Chapter Thirty-Five

 

 

Shade

“We’re here.” I pointed toward the small entrance to a room-like cavern. It was pitch black, but the air coming from that direction was far different than in the rest of the caverns. We’d been walking for over an hour, deep into the mountain. This was The Heart of Fire and Ice; I could feel the magic pulsating into the air and giving off a sharp, ozone stench. It looked like it led into another room, but nothing could be seen beyond it, and the entrance appeared to be wavering.

“I can feel it beating in my head, like a headache without pain,” I added.

The others agreed and stood guard, waiting for some foreign creature to emerge. After all I’d seen in Faerie, I wouldn’t be surprised if one popped out of there and surprised us. But nothing came, which put us on edge even more. How was it possible that nothing lived in there, protecting The Heart?

I approached and reached out to touch the pulsating shield covering the door. Corb lunged forward and grabbed my wrist, shaking his head as he stared hard at me, a warning gleaming from his white eyes.

“You’ll die if you touch the barrier. You need the potion to enter.”

I nodded, paling at the realization that I had been that close to killing myself. It wasn’t unusual to touch a magical barrier to assess its strength and the kind of magic used to create it, and that instinct had made me forget where I was. I needed the potion made from the blood of three Ancients before I could enter. I cringed… did I have to drink it? It’d been bad enough drinking my grandmother’s and my own blood to restore my memories from the charms my mother and grandmother had given me.

I frowned, pulling my hand away from the barrier. Corb let go of my wrist but didn’t move away.

So The Heart’s domain didn’t need any protection. This place was deadly all on its own. I threw Corb a grateful smile before yanking out the vial of blood collected from the three Ancients who were present. I swirled it around and almost gagged as I brought it to my lips.

Arthas stepped forward and held out his hand.

“What?” I asked, confused.

“You don’t need to drink it, my dear Shade. You paint it on the five points of your body to make it work. Let me.” He held his hand out again, giving it a shake. I hesitated, hoping he wasn’t trying to trick me.

Try to kill me once, and you’re forever on my blacklist. Did he not know this? I couldn’t trust him, ever, even if I wanted to. He seemed to know this and leaned forward, grasping my arm and pulling me closer, his lips grazing the tip of my ear as I fought the urge to jerk away.

He grinned, and a twinkle flashed in his eyes. “Oh, Shade,” he whispered, “I never tried to kill you. That was Kilara. I wanted you very much alive.”

I flinched and stepped away as Dylan approached, glaring at the Ancient, a hunting blade in his hand. Without looking, Arthas backed up and held his hand out again, waiting patiently.

“I’ll do it,” Dylan snapped.

Arthas scoffed. “You don’t know what symbols to paint on her body. Do it wrong and she’ll die.”

Dammit. He was right. I hadn’t seen any symbols mentioned in Brendan’s grimoire. But maybe Arthas was full of it.

“How would you know what symbols are required, Unseelie scum?” Benton spat on the ground near the Ancient, his eyes searing into Arthas.

“Benton!” I hissed at my brother. Insulting Arthas wasn’t the way to get him to cooperate. Hell, now that he’d mentioned it, and knowing he hadn’t been the one to try to kill me, I felt conflicted. “It’s okay. I’ll handle this.”

Arthas rolled his eyes at my younger brother and turned back toward me to answer. “I know what symbols to paint because I helped Brendan the first time he was here. It’s an old Celtic symbol, forgotten to the world, but I’m older than that.”

We all stared at Arthas in shock. What? How had he met Brendan? My uncle had never written about it.

“What?” Arthas stated more than asked. “You think I didn’t track down my wayward offspring at all? Until I was put to slumber by Kilara, Rowan, and Corb—against my will, might I add—I knew who my heirs were, even the distant ones who barely held any of my blood. Don’t worry. It wasn’t Brendan who held my blood, but his wife. Their child was part faery, and they didn’t even know it. Apparently, the power was so recessive, it didn’t surface until Shade was born.”

I swallowed. The hell? My lineage was a big fat mess and made my head ache something terrible. “If this is true, why didn’t he write about any of this in his grimoires?” I asked.

Arthas licked his lips. It was a simple but grotesque action. “It was part of our deal. If I helped him, he promised to never reveal my role.”

I frowned. I didn’t want to know what else Brendan had agreed to in exchange for Arthas’s help. I slapped the bottle into his palm. “All right. Do it. Just don’t get too touchy-feely. You give me the creeps sometimes, you know? You’re practically my grandfather.”

He scowled, uncorked the bottle, and pressed a finger to the top of it. “I’m too far removed to be anyone’s grandfather, especially yours. All people in this world are that far removed from each other. Go back far enough, and everyone is related in some way, human and fey alike. It keeps the lineages strong to mix in a little human blood now and then. I am not your family, Shade. Don’t forget that, or I’ll remind you of it.”

Dark red blood dripped from his fingertip, and he reached out and began painting my forehead. Then he took hold of my hands, doing the same to the tops of them, before he made me remove my shoes to paint the tops of my feet. His finger glided gently across my skin, pressing with just enough pressure to let me feel his warmth. With the cold blood dripping down his arm, I watched him, mesmerized and unable to look away. His touch tickled slightly, but it felt good all at the same time. I shivered from the cool fluid dripping off his fingers as they brushed against me but tried my best to shake off the odd emotions he stirred up within.

When he was through, he recorked the bottle and grinned, standing back up to meet me eye to eye. “There. All gorgeous again.”

I frowned and stared down at the symbols painted on my hands. It was a star with a dot in the middle and two lines. One ran along the top of the star while the other sat just under the bottom edges of it.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“It means ‘Child of the Earth’ to the fey. ‘Human’ in English. You have five points to your body, the head, two arms, and two legs. You need to be human to enter, and this symbol makes The Heart recognize you as only human. You are disguised as a mere mortal, like your brother.”

I glanced at Benton. “You led me to believe no one could enter without the Ancient blood. You mean any human could have gone in at any time?”

Arthas laughed. “No, Shade. This barrier is Brendan’s, and he drew on the existing magic to erect it. Normally a human could go in with only fire and ice magic. It’d be difficult without the Ancient blood, but one with enough willpower could do it. Brendan saw to it that no one could pass his barrier without the symbols, not even a human.”

I nodded and dropped my hands to my side. “Okay, time to enter.”

Benton stepped forward. “Should I go in too?”

I was about to nod my head but changed my mind. “No. You’re my backup. It won’t do to have us both taken out at the same time. If something happens to me, you need to enter and get whatever magic is there and just hope it’s the right thing we need for Kilara. If we both fail to return, it’s over.”

He gave me a curt tilt of his head, but instead of moving away, he reached out and pulled me into a hug.

“Be careful, sis. That bad feeling we get when we know something major is coming, don’t let it win. We can get this done. We just have to hold on. You can do it.”

I nodded, tears stinging my eyes as I squeezed my brother back, hugging him tightly.

“Okay. I’ll be fine. I’ve got you here, right?” I choked out a nervous laugh and held him at arm’s length. “Mom would be proud of you, Anna, and James, you know?”

“Ah. She’d be puffed up like a proud mother hen at you. Look at you, sis, you best us all without lifting a finger.”

“Nah. I love you.” I hugged him once more, his eyes shiny with unshed tears.

“Love you too. Now, go get it.”

I turned and stared into the black doorway that seemed to absorb all the light, like a black hole. I closed my eyes and felt Dylan come to me and give me a hug. I turned and kissed his lips. I felt my tension ease when Soap came in for an embrace too, after Dylan let go. I wanted to be home at The Scren with them both, lounging under the sun and expecting our babies. But I couldn’t have that. It was such a simple life, not meant for a young woman like me. Faerie wasn’t about to let it be so easy.

Fate had something else planned for me, whether I wanted it or not.