Carrier 02: Shadow of the Mark (17 page)

“I’m fine,” I mumbled.

Rían made his way down the stairs, but not before glancing at me curiously. As soon as he was gone, I slumped against the banister and banged the back of my head on the wall. I had to get a grip.

“He feels the same, you know.” Chloe’s voice came from the room.

Crap. I turned around to face her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.” She pulled on a sweater and tied up her tussled hair. “I know you hate me. I can live with that. But what I can’t deal with is knowing that the guy I’m with wishes he was with someone else.”

I swallowed hard, not knowing what to say.

“I see the look in your eye when Rían’s around. I know what you’re thinking. I certainly know what he’s thinking when he sees you.”

“Chloe, I don’t hate you. I . . . I just, I find it hard to forgive you.”

“And it has nothing to do with the fact that Rían and I are together?” She walked right up to me, her face too close for comfort.

I dropped my gaze.

“Thought as much.”

“It’s not like that, Chloe. Rían and I are attracted to each other, but it’s our elements. Their pull is incredibly hard to resist. But we’re trying.”

She stepped closer and lined her mouth up with my ear. “Don’t take him away from me.”

I drew a sharp breath, staggered that Chloe thought I was capable of doing something so horrific. “I love Adam. I would never . . . anyway, I didn’t think you even cared.”

She shook her head. “I care, way more than I should. You can’t imagine the ache in my heart when he wakes up in the morning and rolls over to hug me, only to look disappointed.”

I softened a little, but I couldn’t bring myself to offer her comfort. “You chose the Knights over Rían.”

“I made that choice because of how I feel for Rían. You’ve no idea of the obligations I’m under. I have to see this through; it’s the only way.”

“We all have choices to make. If you really cared for him, you would have picked him.”

She laughed sadly. “You don’t get it. We don’t have choices, Megan. You, me, Rían, all of us, our choices are made for us. We’re following a path that’s already been plotted out. You still believe they’re your decisions, but you’ll learn.”

Her eyes searched mine for a moment before she brushed past and stood at the top of the stairs. “Look, I don’t need you to forgive me, or be my friend, but please, leave me him.” She trundled down the stairs without looking back.

My heart ached for the girl who loved the boy, and the boy caught in the confusion, but she’d stirred something else in my heart. Doubt.

In the kitchen, Adam and Rían had stuck the pages to the windows. Avoiding Rían’s bare torso, I went to the other side of Adam. “Where’s Chloe?”

Rían stared at the pages. “She’s gone to get Áine and Sebastian. We’ve got to ring this number.”

“Let’s wait until the others get back.” Adam glanced sideways at Rían. “And put some clothes on, for Christ’s sake.”

“Jealous?” Rían swung his arm up into a bodybuilding pose and laughed as he left the room.

The back door opened. I expected to see Áine, Chloe, and Sebastian coming in, but instead it was Matthew and Caitlin.

“Hey! What are you guys doing here?” I asked as Adam surreptitiously took the pages down from the window and stacked them on the counter behind him.

Matthew flushed and let go of Caitlin’s hand. “We were kinda hoping we could watch a movie or something. Do you mind?”

Adam raised his eyebrows. “Sure, whatever. But as soon as Fionn gets back, you’re going to have to tone this down.”

Matthew smiled broadly. “Sure. I’m going home tomorrow, anyway.”

Caitlin looked at him with her practiced puppy-dog eyes.

Matthew took Caitlin’s sad face in his hands. “Oh, Caitie, I’ll be back in a few weeks, I promise.”

“Caitie?” I mouthed at Caitlin, hiding my silent guffaw from Matthew. Caitlin gave me a sly kick and hooked her arm through Matthew’s.

“Eh, guys, the sitting room is that way,” Adam said, pointing to the hall. “Take as much time as you need.”

Caitlin skipped ahead, winking at me as she passed.

Adam scowled. “I don’t like Caitlin being with him.”

I laughed. “Why not? They seem like a good match.”

“This is all a game to him. He’s using her.”

“Caitlin has her head screwed on. She knows he’s leaving.”

“Yeah, but he’s too old for her. And he’s a player. You should talk to her.”

I put my arms around Adam and hugged him as tight as I could. Burying my face into his neck, I breathed in the smell of his warm skin. I think I loved him more in that moment than I ever had. “I’ll talk with her tomorrow. Promise.”

“Good.”

Rían wandered back into the kitchen, this time fully dressed. “Come on, let’s call this number. Maybe we’ll be able to track down Hugh.”

“I don’t think you should,” Chloe said, coming in the door with Áine and Sebastian. “I think we should leave this all alone. Cú will be back tomorrow. Let him handle it.”

Adam glared at her. “Do you know something you’re not telling us?”

Chloe shook her head. “What if someone is looking for you? Your number will lead them right back here.”

“Rubbish. It was a number that Hugh had. I’m dialing it.”

Chloe threw her iPhone on the table. “At least use my phone so it can’t be traced back to you.”

Adam dialed the number and hit the speaker key while we all waited anxiously. It rang three times before a female voice answered the phone with a curt “Hello.”

I held my breath, waiting for someone to say something, but no one did. We all looked at each other. Chloe rolled her eyes and stepped forward. “Hi. We’re sorry to bother you, but we were wondering if there was a Hugh at this number?”

Silence hung on the other end of the line for a few moments.

“I think you have the wrong number.”

I stood stock-still. I knew that voice. My eyes met Adam’s in a horrified glare.

Caitlin walked into the room talking. “Megan, does Adam have any crisps or—”

Rían grabbed her around the waist and put his hand over her mouth, while Adam dove for the end-call button. I wasn’t sure who got silenced first, Caitlin or the cell.

Caitlin mumbled something through Rían’s fingers and tugged his hand off her face. “What on earth is going on?” she gasped. “Why am I being manhandled by Rían?” She turned her eyes to him and smiled a bewitching smile. “Not that I’m complaining or anything.”

“Who was that?” Chloe asked, looking from me to Adam.

I picked the cell off the table and stared at it. “It was Petra.”

“Petra?” Sebastian asked.

“The woman who just moved into my house.”

C
aitlin glanced around at our startled faces. “Am I missing something here? Why did you just hang up on Petra?”

I sat down on the bench, stunned. Petra was using Dad to get to me. I scowled at Chloe. “She’s a Knight, isn’t she? You’ve been watching us longer than you’ve let on, haven’t you?”

Chloe took a step backward but held my eye. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Megan.”

Wind blew through the kitchen and whipped Hugh’s instructions from the counter, tossing them around the room. The doors slammed shut as my hair twisted upward.

“Áine, get Caitlin out of here.” Adam perched next to me and gripped my shoulders.

“What’s going on?” Caitlin demanded. But Áine was already dragging her away.

Anger flared inside me. “You might have been able to screw with me, but nobody screws with my father. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since he’s been with someone? Do you?” I strained against Adam’s hold on me.

Chloe backed up against the wall. “Megan, I swear, she’s not a Knight.”

Rían moved between Chloe and me, putting his arms up protectively. “Megan, you’ve got to calm down.”

“I don’t want to calm down!” I shouted. “She’s been going out with my dad for months. He loves her. And it’s all been a game!”

Sebastian edged forward. “Petra is not one of us.”

Power twisted and stabbed my chest, sparking in front of my eyes. I blinked hard, trying to see through the blur of the element obstructing my view, trying to fight the urge to unleash its strength on Chloe.

“Listen to them, Megan,” Adam whispered into my ear. “Petra’s been living in Kinsale for years. Long before you arrived. It wouldn’t make sense.”

I struggled for control, focusing on my breathing and the grounding sensation of Adam’s hands on my shoulders. Uncomfortable silence filtered through the thudding pulse that continued to hammer inside my skull. “So if she’s not a Knight, who is she working for?”

Rían started collecting Hugh’s pages from where they were scattered around the kitchen. “My guess is Order.”

“Really?” Chloe asked.

“Who else could she be with?” Rían said as he sat down beside her. “She can’t be Knox. We would’ve sensed danger from her if she was.”

Adam shook his head behind me. “Something doesn’t make sense. If she was Order, she wouldn’t have been keeping her nose out of our business. I hadn’t even heard of her until Megan moved here.”

Rían scratched his jaw. “Well, if she’s not Order, Knights, or Knox, then who the hell is she?”

Blood still pounded through my head, beating against my skull from the inside. I winced, wishing the pain would stop. Then, like someone had flicked on a flashlight in the darkness, I was standing in my sitting room at four thirty a.m., speaking with Petra. “I got an important phone call I had to take,” she’d said. Hugh had called her! Suddenly I knew where I’d heard the circle thing before.

“An Ciorcal Iomlán,” I said, cutting across their theories. “Hugh said it, the night he left, before he disappeared. Petra said it too.” I shook my head. “When I got back to my house the night that Rían went after Chloe, Petra had been on the phone. She’d been talking to
Hugh
—I know it. She said we had to stay together, that the Ciorcal Iomlán had begun.” I wriggled out of Adam’s embrace, grabbed the papers stacked on the table, and found the ones with the swirls and writing. “What did you say ‘Iomlán’ meant, Adam?”

He looked over my shoulder. “I’m not sure. I think it means f—”

Chloe interrupted. “It means the full circle.”

I swung around to her. “How do you know that?”

“It’s part of our Knights’ oath, from the original Irish translation. ‘Nourished by earth, warmed by fire, quenched by water, and enabled by air, bound are we until the circle comes full.’ An Ciorcal Iomlán.”

The pounding in my head slowed and released me from its painful clutches. “What is all this about?” I whispered.

Chloe glanced at Sebastian nervously.

“Caitlin!” I jumped back, banging into Adam. “Oh my god! I completely lost it in front of her.”

“It’s okay,” Adam reassured me. “Áine got her out of the room before the worst of it.”

“I have to talk to her.”

Adam wrapped his arms tighter around me. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do about Petra.”

“No. I need to talk to Caitlin first.” I shook off his arms and ran to find my best friend. I peeked into the sitting room. Matthew was there, glued to the TV. No Caitlin.

I went up to Áine’s room. Inside, Caitlin stood at the window. I followed her gaze over the lush farmland that spread in a green haze into the horizon. She drummed her nails impatiently on the windowpane and swung around as soon as my boots clattered on the floorboards of the room.

“I’m going to leave you girls to chat.” Áine jumped off the bed. She threw me a warning look before she closed the door.

“What was all that about?” Caitlin half laughed with a wild look in her eyes. “I mean, seriously, weird phone calls, Rían molesting me, you freaking out at Chloe, and all that friggin wind and slamming doors! It was like a scene from
The Exorcist
or something. Then Áine abducts me and keeps me in here against my will for half an hour.” She winced and rubbed her temples. “And now I’ve got a god-awful headache. What on earth is going on?”

Áine!
“Caitlin, I’m so sorry. This is . . . complicated.”

“What I saw downstairs was a lot more than ‘complicated.’ What are you hiding from me?”

“I . . . I can’t tell you.”

Caitlin flinched like she’d been stung. Her wide eyes suddenly narrowed, and her mouth settled into a tight line. “I see.”

“No, you don’t. Caitlin, there’s stuff going on here that you wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.” For a second, her eyes opened again, honest and accepting. The urge to tell her everything was almost unbearable. Then a knock sounded on the door.

“Mind if I come in?” Adam asked, popping his head around the door.

“Sure,” I said. Part of me was relieved he’d stopped me from spilling the beans, but it would have been so nice not to have to lie to her anymore.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Adam said. “We’d just discovered that Petra might be cheating on Megan’s dad.”

“Cheating?” Caitlin raised an eyebrow and looked uncertainly at me.

I sighed. “I didn’t want to tell.” I avoided her eyes as the lies sent prickling heat to my cheeks.

“That wasn’t what I was expecting.” She moved away from the window and crossed her arms. The gesture mirrored the barrier I saw going up in her eyes.

Adam’s mouth curled into a lopsided smile. “What were you expecting?”

“I don’t know . . . something major, like Chloe and Megan in a showdown over Rían . . .” She looked up at Adam nervously.

Adam’s eyes went dark. “No. We’re all good.”

“Oh shite, I should learn to keep my trap shut. I didn’t mean to—”

“Honestly, it’s okay, Caitlin. Now, Matthew is banging on about not getting crisps and Coke.”

“Okay. I guess I’ll go down and . . . hang on a second.” She paused at the door and then swung around. “If this is just about Petra, then why did you make Áine take me out of the room? And what was that stuff about Knights?” She looked back and forth between us. “You’re lying to me.”

I took a deep breath, preparing myself to be honest when Adam stepped forward.

“I’m sorry. We’re all sorry, but we need to lie to protect ourselves and you.” I stopped breathing. What was he doing? Caitlin watched openmouthed, saying nothing. “We can’t tell you the truth, and if you ask us questions, we’ll have to lie. So it’s best if you don’t ask.”