Night Seeker (9 page)

I reached over and took her hand. “You are holding up remarkably well. And we’re grateful—and glad—you’re here.”

She crossed her legs. “It’s nearly midnight. I should call Zoey. It’s morning where she’s at.”

“Where are the Akazzani located?” Peyton asked.

Luna shook her head. “I can’t tell you that. I don’t even know myself. But I do know the time zone difference. It’s midmorning where she is.”

“Go ahead. I don’t think we should keep this secret any longer. Myst is determined to spread her contagion. If we don’t survive, someone outside of New Forest should know what’s going on. That’s why we’re going to the Consortium, too.” It was time to spread the word. If Lainule was right, Myst had other cells of the Vampiric Fae scattered around the world.

Luna moved to a quieter spot in the room and flipped open her cell phone. Not wanting to make her any more uncomfortable than she might already be about asking for her sister’s help, I turned to Peyton.

“Did your father say when he was going to be here?”

“Around eight or nine.” She rested her chin on her knees. “I really don’t know what to expect, so I’m trying to expect nothing.”

I stared at my feet, poking up under the covers, and wiggled my toes against the cherry stone warmer. It was toasty, and I tried to relax into the warmth and coax it up my body.

“This is just too bizarre. It feels like a million miles and a thousand years since I left La La land to return home, but in less than two weeks…everything I ever thought was true has been turned upside down. To say I feel lost is an understatement.”

Rhiannon nodded. “I’ve been getting used to the weirdness over the years, I guess. My mother…she kept track of the odd events going on. But now…” She pushed back a long strand of the coppery red hair that hung down her back.

My cousin and I were fire and ice. I had hair as black as the night, sleek and hanging straight just past my shoulders. My eyes were emerald, and I now realized their color came from my father. At five feet, four inches, and 140 stocky, athletic, curvy pounds, I was a fireball of muscle. Rhiannon was taller and willowy, lithe like a dancer, with long curling red hair and hazel eyes. She was the spitting image of Heather.

Aunt Heather used to call us amber and jet when we were little. But we called ourselves twins. We were born on the same day, on the summer solstice—Rhiannon under the sun, during the waxing half of the year, and me under the moonlight, after the year switched over to waning. We were twenty-six now, and I wondered if we’d make it to our next birthday.

“I promise you, we will put her to rest.” It felt horrible to say, but I knew the fact that Heather was now a vampire weighed heavily on her mind.

She nodded to me, her face a frozen mask. I wondered what she was thinking, but she chose to remain silent, scooting over to me. I lifted up my covers and let her slide beneath them. We pulled her blanket over the top of mine and the added warmth felt good. I wrapped my arm around her and she rested her head on my shoulder.

Luna returned then. “Zoey will be here as soon as she can. She’s breaking a lot of rules to help us, but she thinks there are some more texts hidden away and she’ll sneak out what she can. She said she can get away in a couple of days. I didn’t ask how. I got the feeling it’s another one of those things I’m not supposed to know about.”

As she crawled back under her covers, shivering in the chill night air, I glanced at the clock on the wall. “We’re well past the witching hour. We should get some sleep. And pray that tomorrow we start sorting out this mess. At least Lannan will be all beddy-bye then and I won’t have to deal with him. Honestly, if he were human, I’d slap him with a lawsuit for stalking.”

Peyton barked out a sharp laugh as Rhiannon and I snuggled down under our blankets, holding hands like we had when we were children. I hoped there were no spiders or rats around, but the long weariness of the day, the fear of returning to the Veil House—it all compounded to summon me into sleep.

As the soft sounds of Luna’s and Peyton’s breath came whistling by on the slipstream, Ulean swept around my cousin and me, a gentle shroud of protective energy.

Thank you. I’m afraid.

Ulean whispered gently next to my ear.
There is much to fear in the dark. There are monsters under the bed and in the closet, and now they walk abroad at will. But there is life here, and hope. I sense change on the wind. Others will offer help. As with Lannan, do not write them off simply because you dislike them.

Her voice—I say
her
loosely because Elementals truly have no gender—trilled lightly in my ears, blowing around me like a soft billowing cloud. I sank into her cadence, letting her words lull my mind.

“Cicely, sleep deep. Dream of the paths that are ruled by the Summer. Follow the sparkling lights, for they have much to teach you.”

Unable to tell whether it was my father’s voice or Ulean’s, or perhaps both in harmony, I finally let go of consciousness and slid into a slumber so hard and deep that it felt like I was melting into the earth.

The path stretched out before me like a golden dream. Summer had come again, and I breathed in the warmth of the day as the drifting light rippled through the air. Reaching out, I caught a sunbeam, holding the yellow prism in the palm of my hand, close to my heart like a precious treasure. The drowsy sounds of bees lighting from flower to flower and the shriek of the Stellar’s jays echoed around me. As I closed my eyes for a moment, the safety of summer washed over me like a cleansing wave.

The prism radiated heat through my hand. As I gazed into the brilliant gem, I saw Rhiannon, standing brilliant and tall and terrifying. Older than now, but still unmarred by time, she looked far stronger than I’d ever seen her and her expression was set, determined and fierce. She was cloaked in a velvet green dress, and she held out her hand toward me—and from the palm sprang sparks, flaring into flames dancing on her skin.

“Cousin,” she whispered. “My moon-born twin. I need to wake up. You need to wake me up from my dark night’s dream.”

As I watched, transfixed by her image, Chatter stepped
up behind her, wearing the green of summer, and he placed his hands on her shoulders. He leaned down to kiss her, and as I watched, the flames in her hand danced with joy, and the light around them grew so bright I had to look away.

The next moment, I was back on the path, heading into the woods. As I came to a huge, spreading cedar tree, I thought I recognized it but couldn’t place where I’d seen it before. And then Ulean rushed around me, dancing, and I could feel her joy in the whirl of leaves that went sailing around me.

Summer is rising again. Summer will not be lost
…

I looked around for Lainule, but couldn’t see her. As I closed my eyes, letting the warmth rush around me like a welcoming shroud, something tapped me on the shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw a green light, floating in front of my eyes. A pale ball of energy, it bounced at eye level, then floated over to the roots of the tree. I followed, Ulean guarding my back.

I knelt and parted the fronds of the maidenhair ferns that surrounded the trunk, and a deep reverberation chimed from the base of the tree. It began with a faint thunder, echoing the beating of my heart, but then slowly began to rise. I cleared the ground directly in front of the cedar’s trunk. A trapdoor emerged. It reminded me of the one hiding the tunnel through which we’d journeyed to visit the Bat People.

A bronze handle glimmered, and the bubble of light gently rested on it.

“You want me to open this?”

The light bounced once…twice.

I reached out and the light moved to the side. As I grasped the handle, a shiver raced through my fingers, up my wrist and arm. I looked in, and there was a vortex of color, a whirlwind of green and gold and brilliant red. The spinning colors caught me up and sucked me in, and I began to fall, the ground disappearing beneath me. As I careened downward, I knew that I was on the right path…I was heading toward salvation and hope, and for the first
time since I’d arrived home, the shadow of Myst could not follow me.

Cicely, wake—time to wake up.
Ulean’s breath hit my face and I woke to the gentle touch of her breezes gliding across me.

Squinting in the dim light, I pushed myself to a sitting position and shivered. Disoriented, I looked around, confused. It had been a dream—only a dream, yet I looked at my hand in which I’d been holding the imprisoned fire, and it was warm, almost glowing. As I yawned and glanced at the clock—it was six
A.M
.—Rhiannon stirred and rolled up, leaning on one arm. She rubbed her eyes with her free hand and shook her head.

In my dream, she’d been so much more powerful, so much stronger.

She squinted at me, quirking her lips into a smile. “Morning. Do we have to get up now?”

“I think we’d better. Peyton’s father will be here in a couple of hours, and I want to contact Ysandra as soon as possible.” Pausing, I stared at her. “Did you dream—anything odd, by chance?”

She frowned as she huddled under the blanket. “I don’t know…maybe.” After a moment, she cocked her head. “I seem to remember dreaming about somewhere…somewhere I felt safe. And…Chatter was with me. But that’s all that I can recall.”

I debated telling her what I’d seen, but it might just have been wishful thinking, and until I had time to think more about it, I decided to keep my dreams to myself. I slowly stood and stretched, wincing. The cushions we’d slept on may have been soft, but they weren’t the same as a cushy bed, that was for sure. Rhiannon grumbled as she pushed herself to her feet.

As the bracing air hit me, I rubbed my hands on my arms. “Damn, it’s cold.” My teeth were chattering and I craved a cup of steaming coffee.

Peyton and Luna opened their eyes at my words. They
yawned and then followed suit, dragging themselves reluctantly from beneath the covers. I sorted through the clothes till I found a fresh pair of jeans, along with a clean turtleneck and—best of all—clean underwear. At least we would have a few days’ worth of clean undies before having to do laundry in the sink.

Rhiannon wrapped a light throw around her shoulders. “I need to wash up.” She headed for the bathroom.

Peyton and Luna sorted through the clothes until they found their own things. Kaylin had no real sense of color or style coordination, but that didn’t matter right now. I shivered again and followed Rhia’s example, hugging one of the blankets around my shoulders.

“Are you ready to meet your father?” I glanced over at Peyton.

She shrugged. “Yes, though I’m so afraid things will go badly and then I’ll wish I’d never heard from him. I know everybody thinks it’s better to know than not know…but sometimes I wonder about that. Living in a fantasy land can be a lot easier than facing reality.”

“Especially with the reality we’re up against.” I gave her a soft smile. “I’m sure he’ll be wonderful. After all, look at Wrath. He’s not what I ever expected, but somehow…it fits my life that he’s my father.”

The werepuma/magic-born woman nodded. Peyton was tall and sturdy, muscled and with dark long hair and dark eyes. Her native heritage showed through her Caucasian side and she was a combination of the exotic and down-to-earth practicality.

“Should we plan out the trip to rescue Lainule’s heartstone?” Luna frowned as she held up a long skirt and a button up shirt. “This should do.” She began singing a faint chant over the clothes and—as she sang—the wrinkles vanished from the material.

“How did you do that?” I sat up, intrigued.

“Simple enough. Some of my magic is kitchen-witch-oriented. I can sing the wrinkles out of clothes, make sure a boiling pot never overflows or burns, charm seeds to germinate faster and grow stronger.”

I’d never known much about yummanii magic. The magic-born primarily worked with the elements, but I knew there were other types of spells, other types of magic. “What else can you do? Are your spells linked to an element?”

She shrugged. “My magic is all linked to song. If I get laryngitis, my powers are disrupted. I first discovered my abilities when I was young. I sang to my toys and one day they started dancing. Freaked my mother out. But my grandma was a spell singer—which is what they call it in my family, and one cousin also has the power. We’re not sure where it came from but Grandma used to talk about her grandmother being able to conjure with song.”