Infinite Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress Book 5) (18 page)

“Weird,” Del said.

I looked at them. Del was rubbing her temples, and Nix was blinking hard.

“I don’t think I like that kind of impromptu visit,” Nix said.

“Me neither.” I approached them, grabbing my golden cuff off the ground and putting it on as I walked. “And I don’t like what they told us.”

Nix grimaced. “Yeah, that sounded a lot like one of us would die.”

My skin chilled again, and it had nothing to do with the early morning breeze.

“But she said we would rise again,” Del said.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I sure don’t feel immortal,” I said.

“No, you’re right.” Del frowned. “We can’t focus on that now. Just on what needs to be done. It sounds like the greater power he seeks is underground. Accessed only through the broch.”

“Yeah.” I was glad to have a direction. “Let’s go tell the others.”

As we left, I glanced at the clearing behind me. My practice had been going well. Perhaps I’d snag another few hours later today, but right now, at least I wasn’t injuring my friends while using it.

CHAPTER TWELVE

No one liked hearing the news we had to share, least of all Aidan. While I’d been practicing my magic, he’d called the Alpha Council, and they’d agreed to speak to him again, but only in person.

“I think we should check out the broch first,” I said. We all sat around the kitchen table in Aidan’s cottage, coffee steaming away in mugs in front of us. “They could still imprison you for associating with a known FireSoul, so if you’re going to speak with them in person, you’re better off having more information on your side.”

“I agree,” Aidan said. “And the broch is on the way to Glencarrough. We’ll check there first, then I’ll meet with them on neutral ground, outside of the stronghold.”

“Smart,” I said. I hadn’t liked the idea of him walking into their fortress again.
 

“We can leave soon, if it works for everyone,” Del said. “I really think we need to move quickly on this.”

Everyone nodded. I stood and said, “I’m going to call Dr. Garriso and see if he can give me a better idea of where the broch is. He has maps of almost all the archaeological sites in Britain.”

I left everyone to gather up their things and went into the bedroom to call. I had to plug in my cell just to get some battery, and once the screen flared to life, I punched in the numbers.

Dr. Garriso answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?”
 

“Hi, Dr. Garriso. It’s Cass. How’s my favorite historian doing?” I asked.

“Excellent, my dear. Top notch. What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping you could tell us the location of a broch on Glencarrough land. To the east of the main compound.”

I heard him shuffling around, no doubt getting up to consult his maps. “I can do that. Not a problem. I believe that land was surveyed in the 1930s. Someone would have marked it down.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“My pleasure. I’ll send you the information by text when I find it.”

“Perfect. Have a good one, Dr. Garriso.”

“You as well.”

The line disconnected, and I hit
End.
I was glad to hear Dr. Garriso sounding like himself again. It’d taken him some time to recover after his abduction last month, but it seemed like he was back to normal.

Nix stuck her head in the room. “You find something?”

“I think so. Dr. Garriso will let us know. Shouldn’t take long. I think we’re good to head over there. The drive will take a couple hours.”

“Excellent. Let’s get cracking, then. I’m ready to get to the bottom of this mystery.”

So was I.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I frowned down at the text message on my phone. “Dr. Garriso says that the broch isn’t on the map.”

Aidan looked over at me from the driver’s side of his Range Rover. “But the land was surveyed.”

“Yeah. And Dr. Garriso confirms it. They did the survey in 1931. There are a few archaeological sites on the map that were created then, but no brochs.”

“That’s weird,” Nix said from the back seat.
 

She was piled in with Connor and Emile. Del and Claire sat in the fold-up seat in the very back.

“I trust Aethelred,” Del said. “He said we’d have help finding it, so I say we give it a go and see what happens.”

“Yeah.” I wanted whatever answers Aethelred said were at the other end of this broch. “We’ll just have to split up and look for it.”

I shoved the phone back into my pocket and looked out the window at the sweeping vista of mountains. They rolled softly into the distance, covered in late summer heather. It was now mid-afternoon, and we were close to the Alpha Council stronghold. As we neared the eastern side of the compound, the road dipped down into a valley.
 

I kept my eye on the compass indicator that flashed blue from the rearview mirror. When it showed that we were directly east of Glencarrough, I said, “I think we should pull over here.”

We were deep in the valley in a large section of woods. Aidan pulled the car over onto the side of the road, and we all piled out.

The light was dimmer here, cut off by the gnarled old trees on either side of the road.

“I’d say we’re on the right track,” Del said.

I glanced around at the forest, which had a distinctly ancient and creepy vibe.

“So, where is the help that Aethelred promised?” Emile asked.
 

Ralph and Rufus sat on each of his shoulders, their little noses twitching as they took in the woody scent of the forest.

“I have a feeling we have to look for it.” I peered into the dark forest. Whatever kind of assistance we could expect, I didn’t think it’d be hanging out by the roadside.
 

“Let’s split up then and look in different directions,” Aidan said. “We have a lot of ground to cover.”

“Nix, Del, and I have comms charms,” I said. “So we’ll each go with a different group. We can call if we find something.”

“Dibs on Emile and Ralph and Rufus!” Nix said, scratching Rufus’s little head.

“Good.” Del grinned. “I want Connor and Claire.”

Though I had no memory of it myself, I’d seen kids pick their sports teams this way on TV.
 

“Then I’m with Aidan.” I smiled at him. “We’ll set off directly west. Del, how about your group goes northeast and Nix, yours goes southeast? You find anything, you contact the rest of us.”

“On it.” Del saluted, then winked at Connor and Claire.

We split up, Aidan and I cutting west through the woods. The land dipped down as we walked until soon we came to a wide river. The water was clear at the edges, burbling over round pebbles, but deep in the middle.

“This feeds Loch Tummel, I think,” Aidan said. “If we follow it, it should take us roughly west.”

As we walked along the river, my gaze constantly scanned the forest, taking in the gnarled trees and dappled sunlight spotting the ground. Animals rustled in the underbrush and a few squirrels chittered, but overall, it was
 
weirdly quiet.

Splashing water sounded to my right, and I glanced over.

A head had popped out of the water in the middle of the river where it was so deep it was nearly black. The woman was beautiful, with flowing golden hair and strings of pearls wrapped around her neck. Weeds were woven through her hair, bright green and shiny, and they actually looked really good, considering the fact they were weeds.

“A Ceasg,” Aidan said.

“Yeah.” She had to be one of the highland mermaids, because I seriously doubted that a human would be out splashing in this river, her hair intricately decorated with weeds while she wore eighteen strands of her best pearls.

“Are you Cassiopeia McFane?” the Ceasg called.

I started at being called by my original, given name. I’d just learned it and hadn’t taken to really using it yet. But how did she know it?

“Maybe?” I said.

“You are!” Her voice was delighted, and she swam closer, her tail flashing pink as she neared. I remembered that Ceasg were said to have the tails of salmon. I wondered briefly how she’d got her pearls if she wasn’t an ocean mermaid. Perhaps she traded for them.
 

She splashed into the shallows, sitting upright on the pebbles. Up close, I noticed that her skin was slightly pink as well, glowing with a pearlescent sheen.
 

“About time you got here!” She splashed her tail. “I’ve been waiting ages.”

“For me? Really?”

She nodded vigorously, her green eyes bright. I tried not to make eye contact, remembering advice about not meeting the gaze of a mermaid else they compelled you to follow them to their watery home. Or something like that.
 

“Of course,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for you.
Finally
the time is here.” Worry shadowed her gaze. “Though perhaps I shouldn’t be so excited about that.”

“What are you talking about? And who is
we
?”

“The Ceasg of Loch Tummel, of course. It has been our duty for centuries to guard this river and wait for The One.”

The One
? Oh, hell no. “What do you mean, the one?”

“The fated one who will save us from the darkness.”

I was
so
not qualified to be The One.

“Explain,” Aidan demanded. “With detail.”

She sighed and flicked her hair back, flinging water droplets that plinked into the river. “Honestly, I’d expected you to be more knowledgeable about this whole thing. How else will you save us?”

“With your help?” I said.

She brightened at that. “Oh, I like that!”

“But you’ll have to explain at the beginning.”

“There’s not much to say. The time has neared for the darkness to awaken. Our prophecy says so, and we can feel it in the energy of the water.”

There seemed to be a lot of prophecies and fate lately. It made me nervous.

“The Ceasg do not want the darkness to rise,” she said. “To keep that from happening, I’m supposed to direct you toward the broch and warn you about the demon on four legs. The Nuckelavee.” She shuddered as she pointed away from the river toward a path that cut through the forest. “You must follow that path. Beware the Nuckelavee that seeks to intercept you. It is a creature of pure evil and would like the darkness to rise. You must escape it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. There is no fresh water to cross in that direction. That is all that will stop the Devil of the Sea.”

“The Devil of the Sea?” Aidan looked around. “Here?”

“He comes to land when he can,” she said. Fear glinted in her eyes, and her skin turned sallow. “Beware him. Send him back to the sea if you can. But whatever you do, you must reach the broch.”

That was all super mysterious. “Anything else?”

“You may trust the two-legged and the no-legged.” She gestured to her pink fin. “But not the four-legged. Follow the path to your answers.”

“This is all pretty cryptic,” I said.

She frowned and nodded. “That’s all I know, though. Prophecies don’t exactly come with instructions. But good luck. We are relying on you.”

I nodded and thanked her, then turned and set off for the path with Aidan. We were on an official quest now if a mermaid had given us instructions.

“That was weird,” I said.

“I think it’s going to get a lot weirder.”

I called Del and Nix on their comms charms to tell them where we were and that we had a lead. They were miles away from us, but would head in this direction and hopefully catch up. Aidan and I walked quickly through the forest, our footsteps crunching on twigs and leaves. Magic vibrated in the air, dark and light at the same time. As if good magic and dark magic filled the space, fighting for supremacy. This forest was alive with it. Something fueled this place, but I wasn’t sure
what.

Nervous sweat broke out on my skin as we walked and waited for the Nuckelavee.
 

“Maybe it won’t show up,” I muttered, thinking about how frightened the Ceasg had been.

“Maybe I’ll—”

Something crashed in the distance, branches breaking and wood popping, cutting Aidan off. All animals and rustling silenced as the crashing grew louder.

I tensed, glancing around. For a moment, all I saw was the forest.

Then an enormous beast crashed through the trees—a horse the size of a Range Rover, ridden by a grotesque man with a wide, gaping mouth full of fangs. It was the most terrible thing I’d ever seen, straight from nightmares I couldn’t have imagined.

Ice shivered down my spine. No, that man wasn’t riding the horse. He was
part
of the horse, growing straight out of the horse’s back. His arms hung down low, almost to the ground. Worse, the creature had no skin. Just shiny muscles and veins pulsing with black blood.

Shimmering gray light flashed around Aidan as he transformed into a griffin. His golden coat and feathers were a marked contrast to the Nuckelavee’s slimy inside-out appearance, but his huge beak looked vicious.

Aidan launched himself at the Nuckelavee, his huge wings carrying him into the air. He dived, taking a chunk out of the demon-horse’s side before the creature swiped at him with a long arm. The power in the punch sent Aidan flying through the air.
 

He crashed into a wide tree trunk and collapsed to the ground. As he rose unsteadily, I called upon my magic, letting the crackle and burn of lightning flow through my body. My heart pounded. When it had gathered enough, I released it, sending a cracking bolt toward the Nuckelavee.

Thunder boomed as it struck the creature in the chest. But instead of seizing and dropping, the Nuckelavee raised up on hind legs and whinnied ecstatically, glowing from within.
 

It was
feeding
on the lightning.
 

Of course. It was a creature from hell. Lightning and flame would only delight it. As my mind raced for a solution, Aidan charged the Nuckelavee again. The creature caught sight of him and turned to confront the attack.

They collided, a sickening clash of claws and teeth. The Nuckelavee tore at the griffin with his deadly claws while Aidan clamped his massive jaws around one of the creatures hind legs.