The Becoming Trilogy Box Set (Books 1-3) (81 page)

Ash sighed. She couldn’t
really blame him for that. ‘But now you know things about your brother that you
didn’t know before.’

‘Exactly, but one of us still
has to die, and it has to be me.’

‘Us,’ she corrected him. ‘It
has to be us.’

‘No,’ he said forcefully,
shifting her around so he could look at her. ‘I won’t let you die for my
mistakes, Ash. You must go back to Fomor, and live.’

‘I’m never going back there,’
she replied, ‘not without you. Besides, they want me dead.’

‘My brother is in love with
you. He’s bonded with you. He’ll find a way to protect you.’

‘Get this into your thick
skull, Connal Savage. I won’t live without you. I won’t go through that again,
and I refuse to just roll over and die.’

Connal exhaled and she hated
how resigned he sounded.

‘Maybe we could find a way
for both of us to live in Fomor,’ she said.

He didn’t even dignify that
with an answer, only popped an incredulous brow at her. She was grasping at
straws, and she knew it. Ash had more than outstayed her welcome in hell when
she’d sicced the raveners on MacTire’s men. Throwing Connal into that mix was a
recipe for all-out slaughter.

‘We go to the Morrígan then,’
she pushed.

‘Oh Gods, Ash,’ he said, ‘you
must believe me when I say that nothing good has ever come of my dealings with
that creature. Going back to her would be begging for more punishment. There
are worse things she could have demanded. Worse things than death. Grandmother
or not, she is hardened and ruthless and utterly self-serving. I never want to
live to see you bargain with her, Little Red.’

Her fingers twisted in his
hair, holding on like he’d disappear out from under her at any minute. She was losing
him. ‘So that’s it. You’re just giving in?’

‘There is no other way,’ he
said, ‘but if I can get Madden the
Skil
, maybe I can make this madness
count for something.’

She looked at him
questioningly.

‘Don’t you see? If the blade
works on Liath, then it has the potential to free all of the
thralls
.
It’s a chance to give them back their lives.’

She knew he must be thinking
of Red Shoes. She certainly was. And Josh and all the other families who’d lost
their loved ones to the wolves.

‘Killing has been my answer
to everything, the only way I knew to right the wrongs. Killing wolves, killing
thralls
. I'm no better than they are, Ash. I'm worse. I turned on my own
blood.’ His palms skimmed up her back. ‘Before I met you? Before all of this,
I’d have put a bullet in Liath’s head without thinking.’

She cupped his face and made
him look at her. ‘No. That’s not true. She’s your friend, and Madden is in love
with her.’

‘A true friend wouldn’t let
her live like that.’

Frustration growled in her
throat. She wanted to shake him. ‘But now we have other options. Like the
eitr,
and Madden’s magic scalpel.’

‘Exactly. Imagine, a weapon
that can heal. A way to neutralise the threat without the killing, a way to
break the cycle.’ His eyes were so sad, darkened by his emotion. The sight
brought tears to her own. ‘I’m tired of killing, Ash,’ he said.

She could see, he was looking
for redemption. He wanted to lay down the burden of guilt he’d been hauling
around for centuries. She’d take it from him, if she could.

Ash nodded. She understood,
and that understanding nearly killed her. Her heart
hurt
.

‘What if you don’t make it
back?’ She spoke so softly, if he’d been human, she doubted he would have heard
her above the pounding of the water.

He thumbed away the tears
that had escaped to trail down her face and cradled her cheek. ‘I will do
everything in my power to get back to you, Ash. If all I get is these few
weeks, I have every intention of spending them with you. If I have to dig my
way out of Fomor with my bare hands, they’ll be bloody stumps before I’ll ever
give up on us, and then I’ll use my teeth.’

Her laughter was a short
hiccup. ‘You fucking better. Otherwise, I’m going after you, even if I have to
follow your bloody trail to the underworld so I can kick your ass.’

‘That’s not real blood,’ Josh
proclaimed.

Madden paused, quill in hand,
and looked up from where he had begun painting a series of intricate red
symbols on the inside of the child’s forearm. Blood-runes, Connal had
explained, were used by the
thegn
to confer protection on the person or
object onto which they were drawn. They were beautiful: a blend of Celtic and
Norse calligraphy Ash had never seen before. They explained why an attractive
woman like Liath had been able to hold down a job in Form without falling prey
to the wolves. Until now. The creepy bartender, Doyle, who double-jobbed as a
thegn
,
had done something to counteract the repellent runes Madden had drawn on her
and the house. Now, Liath was lying in that hospital bed, hooked up to an
intravenous infusion of wolf-spit, being drip-fed the source of her addiction
just to keep her calm. Draped in a crisp white sheet, she’d looked so peaceful
as Josh bravely kissed her goodbye. It gave Ash chills. Liath could be a
corpse.

That could so easily have
been me,
Ash thought.

‘Not real blood? Is that so?’
The corners of Madden’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at the boy.

‘Yes,’ Josh replied, blowing
a blond curl off his forehead, ‘it’s just tomato ketchup, like in the movies.
My mammy told me it’s not real blood.’

‘Your mother is a smart
lady,’ Madden conceded. Dipping the quill into the vial of rust-coloured ink,
he added some final embellishments to the design.

‘That tickles,’ Josh
squirmed.

‘All finished,’ Madden
released Josh’s arm and offered him a reassuring smile. ‘You’ve been a brave
boy. Your mum would be very proud of you.’

‘Whoa. That’s so cool,’ Josh
turned his arm to the light, admiring the design, ‘but my granny might get
mad,’ he frowned.

‘No problem,’ Madden ruffled
his hair, ‘it’s like invisible ink. By the time we get you to your gran’s
house, it will already have disappeared.

Josh looked conflicted on
whether that was a good or a bad thing, but even as Madden rolled down the
boy’s sleeve, Ash could see that the runic patterns had begun to sink into his
skin, becoming less visible by the second. Five minutes later, the blood tattoo
was all but forgotten and the boy sat cross-legged in front of the hospital
television, engrossed in an episode of SpongeBob.

He was only a few years
younger than she’d been when her mother was taken from her by the wolves. Ash
didn't want that for him. She imagined that sweet, innocent, smiling little boy
turning into the emotional robot she’d become, and it only strengthened her
resolve. They'd find a way to bring Liath back. For Josh.

Hunting change from her
pockets, Ash occupied herself with getting coffee. On the notice board beside
the hospital vending machine hung the posters of missing girls, so commonplace
around the city that you could almost overlook them. One girl’s face stood out
for Ash. The birthmark on her left cheek, a Port-wine stain, reminded her of a
friend she’d had in middle school.
Where are you now
? she wondered. All
of these poor girls, torn from their normal lives into a life of sex slavery.
The lucky ones were the latents whom her grandmother spirited away to safety.
She could only hope they’d found peace, wherever they were. Their families
certainly had none. Connal was right, they could never have their happy ever
after knowing they’d let so many people down.

‘What do we tell Liath’s
mother?’ Ash asked quietly, handing Madden a paper cup of vending-machine
coffee. The doctor looked worn, and Ash figured he needed the caffeine more
than she did. She hadn't needed the kick recently.

‘The best lie is always an
approximation of the truth,’ he replied. ‘We tell her that her daughter
suffered a mental breakdown, that you found her at home and you were worried
Josh was being neglected, so you called me. I’ve had to have her committed to
hospital and sedated, for her own safety. We’re hoping for a turnaround in her
condition soon, but in the meantime, Josh will be better off with his next of
kin.’ He took a sip of the coffee and grimaced, shaking his head. She crinkled
her nose in apology.

‘Think she’ll buy it?’ Ash
looked over to Liath’s still form as Josh’s laughter sounded out.

‘She has to,’ Madden replied.

Mrs Murphy bought it, but Ash
suspected she didn’t think the doctor’s explanation was completely truthful.
Josh had been happy enough to be there, excitedly introducing the half-blind
wolfhound pup to his gran's dog.
A friend for Lady
, he’d beamed, leading
the dogs out to the garden while they smoothed over Mrs Murphy’s surprise. The
pup would look after them. Separating Madden from his son had been the hardest
part. She couldn’t know the pain he’d suffered walking away.
Well
, she
thought, glancing over at Connal, who was waiting in the car for Madden to show
him how to get to Fomor,
maybe I have some idea
. Ash was refusing to think
beyond her next step.

The drive was too short, too
silent and too tense to help calm her. Ash frowned when they passed Form, her
mouth opening to point out that they’d missed their stop, but Madden seemed not
to care. She settled back against the seat and stared confusedly out the
window. Curiosity and dread were itching under her skin when they finally
pulled up close to Dublin Castle. She could see the great walls and turrets
rising up in the evening darkness. She waited on the pavement with Connal,
enveloped by the chill, while Madden retrieved a crowbar and a stale bread roll
from the trunk of the car.

‘Are we breaking and
entering? Or having a picnic,’ Connal smirked.

Madden gave him a droll stare
as he patted down his suit-pockets. The doctor took the lead and Ash hung back
to curl her fingers through Connal’s wordlessly. The surroundings would be
pretty if she wasn’t hating every step they took.

When they arrived at a locked
gate, Ash looked around nervously for witnesses, expecting Madden to put the
crowbar into action. Instead, he produced a set of keys.

‘What is this place?’ Ash
asked as the doctor unlocked the gates and they filed into a small circular
green-space right at the foot of the castle.

‘The Dubh Linn Gardens,’
Connal replied. ‘This is the site of the original black lake, where the river
Saile met the river Liffey. It’s where the Viking invaders moored their
longboats and founded the city of Dublin.’

‘The river Saile,’ Ash said,
pensive. ‘That name is so familiar.’

‘It’s the nickname the locals
gave the river Poddle,’ Madden offered her a smile, ‘comes from the Gaelic word
salach
, meaning filthy.’

‘Back then, even the poor and
uneducated knew the waters here were teeming with filth,’ Connal said under his
breath.

Ash began humming a song
dredged up from childhood memory. First the tune resurfaced, followed by
snippets of the words. ‘
There was an old woman who lived in the woods … a
weila, weila, waile … there was an old woman who lived in the woods … down by
the river Saile …’
She stopped to find the two men staring at her.

‘That’s an old folk song that
Dubliners sing,’ Madden said.

‘I knew that name, Saile, was
familiar,’ she said.

Yes, Ash remembered now, the
song was about an old woman who stabbed a baby in the heart and was hung for
it. ‘My mother used to sing it to me,’ she said wistfully. At the time, the
macabre tale had fascinated and terrified her young mind in equal measure. ‘I
suppose it’s based on a true story,’ she shuddered. What with uncovering
werewolves and curses and becoming part of an ancient, immortal race, Ash was
officially beyond shockable.

‘Many evil occurrences are
connected with the black lake,’ Connal said.