Luathara - Book Three of the Otherworld Trilogy (2 page)

I squatted down so I would appear less imposing to them.  Hah, me,
imposing
. . .

“I’m sorry guys,” I said, feeling only slightly guilty.  “But you can’t go faelah hunting with me.  It isn’t safe for you.”

“You go,” Bradley put in.

I rolled my eyes.  “I’m Faelorehn Bradley.  I have magic, remember?”

Not that it would make any difference.  Whatever power I managed to store up in
Eile
during my last visit had most likely burned out after my battle with the Morrigan.  I was running on empty and it would take another extended stay in the Otherworld to get me back up to a level where I could do some real damage.  But they didn’t need to know that.

“And I’m glad you didn’t come with me,” I continued.  “I encountered something really creepy today.”

And just like that, their scowls were replaced with wide eyes.  “What?” Jack and Joey, the twins, whispered together.

I grinned, despite the fact that the encounter had been more ghastly than usual.

“Well, I’m calling the faelah I killed a pocora, but I’m not sure what it’s called in the Otherworld.”

They remained silent, waiting for me to continue.  “It looked like a cross between a rabbit, a possum and a coyote, and I think it might have been mummified.”

I had explained early on, right after telling my family the truth, that anything concerning
Eile
would have to be kept top secret.  I made all my brothers double swear, spit and shake on it (tantamount to a blood oath, or in the Otherworldly sense, a geis).  They were not to repeat a single thing they saw or heard to their friends or classmates.  Having to keep this promise, and not being able to go on my hunting adventures with me, was practically killing them.  So, whenever I came back from one of my faelah target practices, I distracted their disappointment with a detailed description of whatever I happened to kill.  Worked every time.

“Did you shoot anything else?” Logan piped in, forgetting his previous irritation at being left behind while I got to have all the fun.

“No,” I said.

Their shoulders slumped, so I thought the conversation was over.  I started to stand back up and nearly fell over when Bradley blindsided me with a completely different question.

“So, when do we get to meet your boyfriend?”

After regaining my balance, I blinked down at him.  “What?”

“Your
boyfriend
,” he crooned, “the guy in the Otherworld you always talk about.  When do we get to meet him?  Or is he imaginary?”

I blushed and gritted my teeth.  I did
not
always talk about Cade.  Always thought about, yes, but I only ever talked about him with Mom, long after my brothers’ bedtime.
  Little, eavesdropping cretins . . .

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I grumbled, glaring at Bradley.

Then I paused.  Or was he?  Before the C
u
morrig had overtaken him, Cade had told me he loved me, but the last several weeks had given me plenty of time to think about it.  Did he really mean it, or had he only said so because he realized he wouldn’t survive the fight?  Did it mean he might have acted rashly?  Of course, it didn’t change the fact that
I
loved
him
. . .

“Sure he isn’t,” Bradley snickered.

“I bet you let
him
go hunting with you,” Logan muttered.

I scowled at him again.  I’d have to try and analyze my scattered thoughts later.  “He’s my friend, and he’ll meet you guys when he’s better.  He’s very sick right now.”

That’s right, because being brought back to life and recovering from what had killed you in the first place could be considered a sickness . . . sure.

To my immense relief, my younger brothers decided not to hound me about Cade anymore.  We all headed back up towards the front of the house, but before we even got clear of the backyard, Meridian dropped from her perch in the eucalyptus trees above and came to rest on my shoulder.

The boys all started arguing and crowded in again, forcing me to stop so I wouldn’t trip over them.  They absolutely adored Meridian.  She used to use her powerful glamour to keep herself hidden from them, but now she understood it was safe to be seen and she no longer bothered with the disappearing act.  Besides, I think she was rather infatuated with my little brothers as well, and I often wondered if she thought of them as her own little merlin chicks.

Chase game!
Meridian sent as she chittered excitedly, leaping off my shoulder and darting around the backyard as my crazy brothers ran after her.  She loved playing this game with them.  Even Aiden, all too often happy with simply watching from the sidelines, joined in.  My heart warmed at seeing him play like a normal boy, but a painful lump rose in my throat again.  This was all temporary.  I couldn’t stay with my mortal family forever.

Feeling rather morose, I reached into my pocket again and brushed my fingers against the thick paper of the Dagda’s note.

Be safe Cade and come back to me soon
, I thought.

I turned to sneak back into the house, but the sudden presence I detected near my leg made me pause and glance down.  Aiden.  Apparently he was done playing chase.  Yes, I would be leaving the family who took me in and raised me so I could live in
Eile
, where I belonged.  In Aiden’s own quiet way, he was telling me how we all felt about it: none of us wanted to let go.  I wasn’t human, though; I needed the safety the Otherworld and its magic would grant me, especially now that my power had shown itself.  Moving to
Eile
would be hard, and I think I would miss Aiden the most, but I had to be brave.

Fighting the well of pain in my chest, I removed Aiden’s hand from my shirt and curled my own fingers around his.  He looked up at me, his blue-green eyes trying to tell me something, but like always, his autism kept him from saying what he needed to say.  Luckily, I’d become rather good at reading his face.

Taking a deep breath, I stood with him as my other brothers kept at their game with my spirit guide.  I set my quiver down and leaned my bow against the house, then bent over and pulled Aiden into a rib-crushing hug.

“I know buddy, I know,” I whispered as he wrapped himself around me.  I managed to hold on a little longer before a tear escaped.  “I’ll miss you too.”

-Two-

Recovered

The next morning I woke up feeling groggy and slightly dejected.  I didn’t know exactly when I’d be going back to the Otherworld, but I knew it was inevitable.
  I wanted to go, don’t get me wrong, and not
just because it meant more one-on-
one time with Cade.  There had been something about feeling the full extent of my very own Faelorehn glamour that urged me to return, almost like a drug I couldn’t get enough of.  Despite the terror and anguish I had felt when facing down the Morrigan, the whole experience had been exhilarating.  It was almost as if the magic of
Eile
itself was crying out to me; coaxing me to cross over into the Otherworld and soak it in like warm sunshine.

Yet, there was also that part of me that hated leaving my friends and family.  Not that I would
disappear
and never come back, but to not wake up and see my brothers every day?  To find my dad reading his newspaper while the house erupted in chaos?  To wake up without the smell of my mom’s cooking filling the kitchen?  The ache that swelled next to my heart threatened to overwhelm me, but I quickly got a hold of it and banished it away.  All children left their parents’ ho
mes
at some point in time, whether to go to college or start a life of their own.  How was this any different?  Okay, most young adults weren’t going to live in a different dimension full of magic, monsters and goddesses bent on destroying them, but hey, most people my age were human.

Sighing to dispel some of my negative mood, I rolled out of bed and headed to my shower.  I took my time this morning, letting the steaming hot water pour over me, imaging it was washing away all of my worries.  After the shower I brushed my teeth, combed out my unruly hair and threw on a pair of old jeans, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt.

It was still foggy out and I planned to go down in
to
the swamp to get some more practice in with my longbow.  I wasn’t about to slack off, despite the fact that I’d found only the one faelah creature the day before.  I located the torque and mistletoe charm Cade had given me on my desk, placing them around my neck as if they were pieces of armor.  Ever since the day I’d returned from
Eile
in late spring, I’d been wearing them almost constantly.  I had been questioned by Robyn almost immediately about the torque (let's face it, the piece of jewelry kind of stood out and Robyn knew her Celtic stuff), but I had merely brushed her off and told her that Cade had given it to me.  She was still the only one of my friends who had actually met him.  Of course, she thought he was human, a conviction I wasn’t about to correct.  Soon I'd have to tell them the truth, or at least some version of the truth, but for now I'd let them go on believing the lies as long as possible.

I sighed and placed my hands loosely on my hips, scanning the room for my spirit guide.  Meridian, another gift from Cade, snoozed in the corner, making soft chirruping sounds as she slept.  I grinned.  I hated to wake her, but she was my bodyguard on mornings like these.

Meridian
, I sent to her.

She snoozed on.  I smiled and tried again.

Meridian!

She woke with a snort, well, her version of a mental snort. 
Up!
she sent as she ruffled her feathers and tried to act as if she had been alert the whole time.

I laughed, threw my quiver over my shoulder, grabbed my bow with my left hand and held out my forearm to her.

Ready for practice?
I asked

Yes.  Hungry.

She landed on my sleeve, then crawled up my arm to settle herself on my shoulder, tucking her head back under her wing.

I turned towards my sliding glass door, expecting to see the fog-dimmed vista of our backyard and the eucalyptus trees that trailed down into the swamp.  But something else was waiting for me and my heart nearly leapt out of my chest.  There, standing on the concrete slab that served as a small patio stood a huge, white wolfhound.

My bow thlunked to my carpeted floor as I dropped it, my eyes wide and my jaw hanging open in shock.  The dog panted and scratched at the door, his tail wagging.  But all I could do was stand there, frozen.  The memories of the month before flashed through my mind: the Morrigan, the faelah, Cade dying, Fergus nowhere to be found.  He had fallen somewhere during the battle, dying when his master had, and we’d been forced to leave him.  But if he was here now, alive and eager to get my attention . . .

“Cade!” I cried out, barely even a whisper.

My senses returned to me in a rush and I bent down to scoop up my bow, nearly tripping over its length in my rush to get to the door.  Meridian dug in with her claws as she got jostled about on my shoulder.  I dove for the handle of my door, flipped the latch, slid it open and tumbled out.  Fergus took a few steps to avoid me, but he wasn’t fast enough to escape the hug I threw around his great neck.

“I’m so glad to see you!” I proclaimed as he panted next to my ear.

I let go and he gave me a quick canine grin before trotting towards the horse trail.  I didn’t even hesitate to follow him, my heart lurching once again when he didn’t stop at the oak tree to indicate Cade had left me a note.  Could Cade really be here?  I shook that thought from my mind before I tripped over myself in a jumble of nerves, but the idea wouldn’t leave me alone.  My heart sped up even more.  The last time I’d seen Cade, he’d been lying in bed in one of the Dagda’s rooms, barely alive.  Would he be glad to see me?  Would he regret what he had done?  I bit my lip and tried to move faster to keep up with Fergus.

We came to the point in the trail where the path led over the small land bridge and between two thick rows of willow trees.  On the other side was the small meadow where my normal, well, somewhat normal life had all started to go downhill.  I passed it without giving the memories of my first meeting with the C
u
morrig a second thought.  I walked a few steps further down the road, and then stopped dead in my tracks. 
L
eaning
against a tall eucalyptus tree
stood a tall young man. 
Cade
.

For a few breathless moments I merely stood there, my eyes taking him in, my heart galloping in my chest as my emotions tried to settle.  He wore the clothing of the Otherworld; brown leather pants with knee-length boots and a loose, cream colored shirt beneath a beautifully worked leather vest.  Instead of the old trench coat he had worn when we’d first met, he wore a long green cloak lined with fleece, the hood thrown over his head.  But I could see his face well enough.  He was pale, but not as pale as he had been after fighting the Morrigan’s - his mother’s - monsters.  His green eyes met mine and he smiled, but it was guarded, as if he was unsure of how I would react to his presence.  He looked worn down, weary, older almost, but I had never seen anything or anyone more beautiful in my entire life.