Shadow's Edge (20 page)

Tw
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-Sev
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So what are you going to do about Alex?” Brooke asked.

I shrugged, my heart growing heavy. “Not sure. I don't think he knows anything, but I'm not sure he'll ever accept me. Accept that I'm diff—” My voice cracked.

We stood silently, aware that the pulsing house music had stopped.

“I knew my stepdad was a jerk. I just didn't think he was a murderer,” Brooke said quietly. “I thought he was having an affair, not summoning evil spirits with that strange Melissa girl.”

I gave her a sympathetic look. “I'm so sorry you got involved in all of this.”

“She took the box, right?” she asked.

I knew her mind was still exploding all over the place at this new information, with good reason, but I really didn't have time to talk her through her lingering disbelief or run another Other Realm 101 lesson.

“The box, yeah. But not what was inside,” I said with a smile. I reached into my pocket and out floated a paper.

“Whoa,” Brooke whispered, looking at the glowing document drifting in front of me.

I gingerly leaned in to examine it. It was about the size of a loose-leaf page of paper, and seriously faded. I could only make out the depiction of four figures holding objects that reflected light. The light was directed toward a dark mass in the upper right-hand corner of the scroll. Written around the torn edges was faded, ancient
Créatúir language.

Moving closer and squinting my eyes, I read out loud:
“When the light turned to night, on the night of Samhain
—Samhain is Halloween,” I said to Brooke, then turned back to the scroll.
“Night of Samhain, the Fomoriians were seen. These four treasures here—the Stone of Fal, the Spear of Destiny, the Sword of Nuada, and Dagda's Cauldron—defeated the evil and drove it back to the sea. Peace was restored to the mystical realms.”

On each side of the page, there was a chant to invoke the treasures:
Stone, Spear, Sword, Cauldron. Let thy power come to me.

I leaned in further, until the four figures holding the Four Treasures came more clearly into focus. It was four women. A crest symbol was above their heads.

“That looks li—” I inhaled sharply and stood up. My hand flew up to my mouth as my head jerked to Slade.

“What? What is it?”

“But—what—I don't—” I leaned in closer and looked at the crest again.

It was a shield with long twig branches delicately laced around a sword. The letter
O
was faintly visible in the center of the shield. The O'Donough family crest.
My
family symbol—the same crest that hung in the foyer.

“Can you defeat the Fomoriians?” Slade asked.

I turned to him and squared my shoulders. “Yeah,
I can.”

“But where will you find the Four Treasures?” He raised his thin eyebrows.

“I won't have to look far at all,” I whispered.

The band had started playing by the time we left Embrace—a sort of punk rock band playing traditional Irish music. The lead singer was growling into the microphone as heavy guitar and bagpipes played behind him. A bunch of drunks were dancing around in front of the stage, attempting to do an Irish jig.

“I'm Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance!” one of the drunks shrieked as we walked by.

We were nearly to the front door when a wasted portly woman, dressed in a “Kiss Me, I'm Irish,” T-shirt covered in shamrocks, rubbed up against Slade.

“Heysh theeere, honey!” she slurred. She burped. “Whooshpe!”

Slade looked at me, ignoring the woman who was shaking her top half all over him. “You're Irish. How do you not find this offensive?” He pointed to her T-shirt.

I shrugged and gestured toward the door.

“Watch out for the trolls and faeries,” Brooke said to the woman. She winked at me.

“Honey, you're preachin' to the choir! Every guy here is either a loser or gay,” I heard one of Drunk Woman's friends say.

Tw
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-Eight

T
hank god you're home! I was so worried,” Gia said as she set the table for dinner the next night. “Did the Créatúir try to keep you there?” She placed a plate down on the table and shook her long blond hair out.

“Er, not really,” I said, walking over to the fridge. I pulled a bottle of water out and took a long swig. “Sorry I didn't say hi before school this morning.”

Gia nodded. “It's okay. I was busy helping a lonely author figure out how to write the climax of his book. It was awesome.”

I smiled at her and remained silent. Although her project sounded pretty intense, I figured that visiting the mystical dimension was slightly more stressful.

“Feeling better?” my mom asked as she walked into the kitchen and put her arm around my shoulders. She hadn't yet tried to talk to me about my visit to the Other Realm.

“Not really,” I admitted, slumping down into a chair.

“You look like garbage,” Rhea said as she shuffled into the kitchen, Slade trailing behind her. “Mom, he's staying for dinner,” she announced.

Slade and I made eye contact, then quickly looked away.

“Sonia, can we take down some of those blasted wind chimes outside? They're ringing all night long and driving me nuts.” My dad walked into the room, the newspaper folded under his arm. His face was red, his eyes were drawn and sunken.

“But honey, I need them all in order to pay tribute to my spirit—” Mom stopped when she looked at Slade. “For my work,” she finished awkwardly.

Yeah, probably no need to cover up any family weirdness in front of Slade.

I started laughing and everyone turned to stare at me. “Nothing, it's just—” I bent forward and broke down into hysterics.

“She's lost it,” Rhea said.

“Who's lost it?” Morgana walked into the kitchen wearing a long black robe with about fifty beaded, clinking necklaces. Heavy black eye shadow and purple fake eyelashes completed the Goth Girl look. “Leah, look who's here,” she said.

“Hey Leah,” I heard Alex say.

The laughter escaped me immediately as my veins iced. I sat up, my mouth open.

“I just wanted to stop by to see how you were doing since you haven't been at school the past couple days,” Alex said, standing awkwardly in my kitchen.

My mouth still hung open. “Erheekls,” I squeaked out.

“Is he staying for dinner?” Rhea asked my mom,
who shrugged.

“Sure, I'd love to,” Alex said with ease. I could tell he thought this would show me how he was okay with my family being “weird.”

He came over and sat down next to me while the rest of the family bustled around getting the food ready. Slade folded his arms across his chest and leaned back, watching us intently.

“Why haven't you called me?” Alex asked. “I've been really worried.”

“Um … ” I trailed off, searching for an answer that didn't involve realm-jumping.

“Let's eat!” my dad said, sitting down at the head of the table. “Alex, happy you're here to join us!” He clapped Alex on the back and grasped his shoulder. “Going to win tomorrow?” Alex nodded confidently.

“So Slade, where've you been the past few days? I tried to text you like a million times, but it kept bouncing back.” Rhea stabbed at her ravioli.

“My phone was off,” Slade said quickly. He glanced at me before looking back to Rhea.

Rhea's eyes flashed in my direction. I studied my plate while I felt my face grow hot. I could practically hear Rhea's brain clicking as she added up all the clues.

“All better, Leah?” she spat out.

I looked at my mom and gave her a pleading expression.

“That's enough everyone, let's just eat. Morph—” Mom looked at Alex and stopped herself again.

Yeah, it's okay to say something in front of him, Mom. For a psychic, you're not too quick if you don't realize you're eating with a shapeshifter and a guy whose dad summons demons.

We sat in silence and chewed while I prayed I could make it through the dinner.

“Are you cheating on me with Leah?” Rhea said to Slade.

“RHEA!” my dad exploded, dropping his fork onto his plate.

“No, no,” I said quickly. I turned to Alex. “I have no idea what she's talking about.”

His eyes narrowed and he gave me a suspicious look. “What's going on? You're acting really weird.”

I wanted to say,
Honey, you don't know the half of it. Let me take you into my mom's meditation room and you'll uncover a whole new definition of weird. Not to mention, let's have a little discussion about Créatúir, Fomoriians, and Four Treasures. Oh my!

I felt Slade kick me under the table.

“So, how's the new football stadium going, Alex?” Slade hissed quietly, his black eyes dilating.

“Really well. There were some freak accidents in the beginning, but thankfully those have stopped,” Alex said.

“Huh. Weird. Why do you think so?” Slade said sharply, staring at him.

Alex shrugged. “Just a few things we had to take care of, with the help of outside staff we hired. Everything's fine now.”

“Going to be a great place to play Wildcat football!” my dad chimed in, beaming at Alex.

I looked sadly at Alex's beautifully tanned forearms.
Maybe I'm confused
.
Maybe he doesn't care if my family is weird. Maybe he doesn't know anything about his dad, the Fomoriians, or Melissa.

Maybe …

I rested my head against one of my hands, which held my fork.

“Who would this ‘outside staff' be?” Slade pressed on.

The rest of my family was now listening keenly to the conversation. Probably since they'd never heard Slade say more than “Uh” and “Is Rhea home?”

Alex shook his head. “Just some … people.”

Slade nodded and speared a piece of broccoli. “Could it have been called Fomor? Or maybe it was … ” He paused and looked at Alex. “Fomoriian?”

Alex stopped eating and met Slade's gaze. The two of them stared at each other.

“Pass the potatoes,” my dad said, oblivious to everything, as always.

We ignored him and watched Slade and Alex, locked in their silent standoff.

“The potatoes?” my dad said again. Morgana shoved the mashed potatoes in his direction.

“I have no clue what you're talking about, buddy. It's my dad's company. Not really sure what the details are.” Alex reached up and stretched his arms above his head. “I should get going. Need to rest up before the game tomorrow.”

I nodded, and he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. For the first time, his touch felt empty, almost hollow.

Alex turned to Slade and gave him a long look before standing up and excusing himself.

“What are you going to do about him?” Slade asked me.

“I knew it! You guys are totally hooking up!” Rhea snapped, throwing her hands in the air.

“Not even close,” I told her.

Slade stood up and looked at me. “Figure this out,” he said, before sliding out of the room.

I nodded and met my family's eyes.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, so this is going to sound pretty crazy and I'll just give you the CliffsNotes version. But as Mom may have told you, I just came back from the Other Realm with Slade, and—”

“WHAT?” Rhea yelled. “You hooked up with my boyfriend in make-believe land?”

“He's a shapeshifter, Rhea. A Dark Créatúir,” I said, my eyes wide. I refrained from telling her that he only got close to her so he could keep an eye on me. She'd probably just whine about how she never had any stalkers, human or supernatural.

Rhea opened her mouth, then shut it quickly. “Oh. Yeah. He told me that. Of course.” She shrugged.

Right.

Morgana gave her a withering look before turning to me. “I can't believe you went back there. When I heard, I nearly had a heart attack.”

“I know, but I was desperate. Anyway, an ancient demonic force called the Fomoriians have killed two famous people there: Fiona—you remember her—and King Oran of the Dark
Créatúir
. Their goal is to incite a war between the Light and the Dark, and they're hoping that if the
Créatúir
are really distracted, they won't notice the demons slowly taking over the mystical realm. And the only way to stop them is to use these things called the Four Treasures, which have been lost for centuries and no one knows where they are. So I went to the Other Realm to try to find them.”

“This is my cue to leave,” my dad said, standing up to put his plate in the sink. “I'm going to watch TV.”

“Sorry, Dad. Anyway, this part really sucks. Melissa and Alex's dad's company are working together, since the
Créatúir
were getting in the way of the stadium
construction.”

“I knew it! I knew that Alex guy was a loser,” Rhea said. She looked off into the distance. “I didn't think he was actually evil or anything, but I knew he was bad news. He's always so fawkward around us.”

“I don't know. I don't know if he's in on it. Since he got together with me … ” I trailed off. “It's hard to know what to believe anymore,” I whispered.

“So, what are you going to do?” Morgana asked. I looked down at her wrist. On the inner part, she'd written the word
convergence
.

“We—” I started to say.

“Wait, so you and Slade aren't hooking up?” Rhea interrupted.

“Didn't you hear what I said, Rhea? He's a shapeshifter. He's not even human. No, we're not hooking up. And it kind of grosses me out that you guys did,” I said to her.

“Whatever. You totally made out with some weird Fomoriian guy.”

I shook my head. “Alex is human. I think his dad summoned the Fomoriians.”

“What can we do to help you, Leah?” my mom asked quietly.

I exhaled loudly. “Okay, so here's the thing. Those Four Treasures? It's us.
We
are the Four Treasures. They aren't objects. They're us. Four sisters. Four treasures.” I looked around the table and saw my sisters looking at me with You've Totally Lost It and We're Going to Commit You Immediately looks, much like Brooke's expression at Embrace.

I stood up. “No, really! The Four Treasures: the Stone of Fal, the Spear of Destiny, the Sword of Nuada, and Dagda's Cauldron. They're all just really symbols for the four elements. The Stone is earth, the Spear is fire, the Sword is air, and the Cauldron is water.” I looked around the table, but my sisters were still looking at me like I was five minutes late for my reservation in the looney bin.

“She's right,” my mom said quietly.

“What?” I said, my head snapping to her.

“You have the power of the elements on your side,” my mom said quietly. “Earth, fire, air, water. The number four.” She gestured around the table in a circular motion.

“I don't get it,” Morgana said, shaking her head.

“Four sisters,” my mom said. “Earth”—she pointed to me. “Air”—she pointed to Gia. “Water”—she pointed to Morgana, who nodded. “And you, Rhea. You are fire,” she said with a little laugh.

“Yes! Fire is the best one!” Rhea said.

“The number four is sacred. Four elements, four seasons, four directions, four archangels, four suits of the tarot. Think about all those numerology classes: four deals with stability, power, solidarity.”

“Exactly. And being the treasures, we need to invoke the elements to save the Other Realm.”

“Why do we have to help her? She's already ruined my life by telling me my boyfriend is some wolf guy,” Rhea muttered.

“Because it's not just about you, Rhea.” I rolled
my eyes.

My mom leaned forward on the table. “Use your gifts together. I knew your time to help one another in your journeys would occur; I just didn't think it would happen so soon.”

I nodded and looked at Morgana.

“What do you need us to do?” she asked.

“Tomorrow is Samhain, one of the most powerful holidays for the Créatúir. Tomorrow night, we will bring the power of the elements to the construction site and mix them together. This will break the Fomoriian magic that's holding the Créatúir back and let the Créatúir battle them directly.”

“Isn't Homecoming tomorrow night?” Gia said.

“Yeah, but that stuff isn't important,” I said quickly, and waved my hand around. “I've all but given up trying to appear normal to anyone.” I thought of Brooke and smiled. “I think I've realized that there are people who will be there for you, even if you're a freak.”