Killian led us a few yards down the straight path toward the lake. With no light filtering from above, the thick woods on either side of us appeared impenetrable. Of course, it didn’t help that the nymphs’ motto to anyone visiting the Grove was Stay on the path. Don’t stray from the path. Could make anyone feel a bit anxious.
This time, however, our guide stepped off the stone path, between two burning torches, and led us into the dark woods. Our footsteps were muted by the soft ground. Sounds of the forest—rustling leaves, the snap of a twig, an owl call—were louder than I’d expected. Nymphs populated these woods, running free, letting their animal selves out to play, maybe even to hunt …
The land rose as we progressed and finally the trees thinned to give way to Oak Hill, crowned by a ring of enormous stone monoliths at least eighteen feet high and capped with lintel stones. Inside of this massive ring were five trilithons arranged in a horseshoe pattern. The center trilithon was the highest stone in the ring, rising even above the height of the outer ring. From this, the next two on either side dropped in height, followed by the outer two, which dropped as well, but all were taller than the outer ring.
I’d only seen the site from the main path, but even from that distance, the power emitting from the stone ring had coursed through me like a pulsating subwoofer.
The closer we came to the top of the hill, the more the power intensified. The constant, deep whoosh, whoosh, whoosh had a slightly nauseating effect on me, and the drop in air pressure clouded my hearing.
Pendaran, the Druid King, stood in the center of the horseshoe, where a large gray stone slab rested on two fat stones. The altar stone. And even though the stone monoliths rose several feet above him, it didn’t do a damn thing to diminish his stature or his presence. In fact, he fit right in.
He wore dark drawstring pants and a plain black T-shirt. His feet were bare. One hand was out, palm down on the stone. His head was bowed and eyes were closed, but even from this distance I saw that his profile was grim. His left side faced us, giving me a glimpse of the winding tattoo that ran up his neck, over his jaw, ear, and temple, disappearing into thick black hair.
I knew from seeing him—all of him—on an earlier occasion that his entire left side was inked with Celtic-style, interlacing symbols that ran from his toes all the way up to his temple. The guy was huge, solid, and brutal-looking. He’d earned his place as king and his title as druid, not by birth or vote, but by having indisputable strength, size, and power. He hadn’t been given his role—he’d taken it.
There weren’t many nymphs out there who could challenge a dragon and win. I’d seen the Druid King in action in his animal form. I’d watched his black wings stretch to the size of jet wings and I’d seen how deadly he was with his teeth and talons.
Good thing he was an ally; and that was something I wanted to preserve.
Killian cleared his throat, way too softly for Pen to hear, but the druid apparently had extraordinary hearing; he glanced over his shoulder. An abalone shimmer filtered over his irises and disappeared. His hand slid off the stone and with it went the intense power being conducted through the stones. The energy dropped to a low pulse.
Relief washed through me. Much easier to manage now, thank goodness.
Killian gestured us into the circle. As I walked over the cushy grass and closer to Pendaran in the center, the lines of worry on his face began to take shape.
“I’m afraid”—his head tipped back, mouth twisting into a brooding line as he scowled at the dark, moving sky; a troubled sigh parted his lips—“this is only the beginning …” With a quick glance flicked our way, he strode past us. “Walk with me.”
Pendaran’s manner wasn’t at all what I expected. A sense of sadness and foreboding surrounded his big form as he passed me, his long strides eating up the ground. Whatever was bothering him seemed to have an instant effect on my frame of mind, as though his mood engulfed everything in its path.
I shoved my hands into my pockets, trailing the Druid King down the hill and through the dark woods. My mood and the quiet air of the place made it seem like the weight of the world had settled over the Grove.
The air was cool and clean here, the tall trees filtering out the scents of the city around the park. I breathed deeply in an attempt to release some of the heaviness I felt.
As soon as I started to relax, a familiar gentle whisper glided easily into my mind. I smiled. Soothing. Feminine. An instant calm. My tension dropped like a stone. I acknowledged the voice without words, but with a smile, a welcome.
Only occasionally did I understand Ahkneri’s voice, sometimes through words, sometimes through emotion. And here, of course, it would be loudest.
Pendaran led us into the temple complex, which surrounded Lake Clara Meer. The temple seemed to grow from the ground itself; made of colossal carved timber, every precaution taken to honor nature, to incorporate it into the complex instead of destroying it. It felt sacred here. A church beneath the sky. Blessed and sanctioned by Mother Nature.
It wasn’t until we were through the main temple and into the common courtyard area with a view of the lake that Pendaran stopped, ordering the three female nymphs sitting at one of the nearby tables to leave. Once they fled, he parked his rear end on a similar table and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I take it you’re here about the Old Lore.”
“Have you found anything yet?” I asked.
“It’s a thick tome, written in the Old Tongue of Elysia. The translation progressing slower than usual. But if there’s a ritual to rid the city of darkness, I will find it.”
I inclined my head, my attention going to the lake and the faint whisper of the First One in my head. I could easily picture her in my mind, easily imagine her new resting place—in a cave at the bottom of the lake, warm and dry within her stone sarcophagus.
The reflection of downtown’s skyline and its lights twinkled and glowed on the surface of the dark water. “And our guest?” I asked Pen quietly.
When he didn’t answer right away, I withdrew my gaze from the lake and stared at him, but he wasn’t looking at me; his attention had also been pulled toward the water.
“What’s wrong?” I questioned.
“She speaks to you still?”
I gave a here-and-there shrug. “I wouldn’t exactly call it speaking. More like whispers or murmurs, most of which I can’t understand. Some dreams lately …”
He nodded thoughtfully. “It is the same for me.”
My eyes went wide. “You hear her, too?”
“I didn’t at first, but when I go beneath the water and into the cave … she whispers.”
Something about Pendaran’s expression, the way he stared so quietly out at the water, made him seem so conflicted and grim.
“The visions Charlie’s been having,” Hank said to him after giving me a quick glance, “are you having them, too?”
Pen’s black eyebrows dipped into a frown as he angled on the table and pulled up one knee. “What visions?”
“At first they seemed like dreams, recurring ones. Of landscapes, a temple, Ahkneri …” I bit the inside of my cheek, my gaze floating unfocused over the tops of the tall trees across the lake, and to the skyscrapers that ringed one side of the park like a steel mountain range. “On Helios Tower, when the lid of the sarcophagus was lifted, the power that went out … I don’t know … it’s like a warning. And I know that sounds stupid, but there’s an eye. It opens …”
All the hard angles on Pen’s face became starker. The hairs on my arms rose in response to the power that leapt in the air. A glimmer of abalone passed through his eyes, leaving behind a hard, calculating stare. “Agate masks power. Ahkneri and her weapon lie within the finest and thickest I’ve ever seen. It is not only a resting place; it is to protect them as well.”
A thought occurred, one that gave me an instant chill. I hugged myself. “What killed the First Ones?”
“The myths suggest that they decided their time had come, their purpose was at an end, and they … slept.”
“Anything in the Old Lore about that?”
“Not that I have read, but it is an ongoing examination. The Old Lore contains the only written account of the First Ones. Everything we have ever heard about them comes from this tome. But it is just a fraction of their lives. Stories. Written long after they roamed. The only one who could tell us all is Ahkneri herself.”
“What about Sachâth?” Hank asked. “Ever hear of it before?”
“It is an old Elysian term for destruction, ruin, death … From the Old Tongue as well. Why do you ask?” He looked at me. “Is this word in your vision?”
“No. I heard the word from the oracle, Alessandra. Whenever I use my power, it seems to draw this shadow being. He has no face, no physical form. His voice holds a lot of power, though, and he speaks to me, but hell if I know what he’s saying. Then he flies through me and I pass out.”
“It doesn’t attack?”
“No.”
Pendaran scratched his jaw and pushed off the table. “Odd. I will look for this in the tome as well.” He stretched his arms overhead. “You want a beer?”
A short laugh burst out. I shook my head. That was the thing with the off-worlders. Sometimes they came off as so ancient and knowledgeable, and the next they were ordering pizza and a beer. Just the way it was. “No, thanks,” I said. “Let us know if you find anything, okay?”
We turned to go, but Pen stopped me, his voice low. “Charlie. Does she seem … sadder to you? When you hear her?”
I glanced from him to the lake, surprised by the question. I hadn’t considered it before. I’d heard her cry, heard her plead, but those things I’d heard from her since the beginning. Sadder since then? “No more than usual, I think.” I cocked my head, waiting for him to say more, but he just dipped his head and strolled into the darkness.
I left the courtyard feeling no better about things or any more knowledgeable than I had before I’d gone in. Pen had the same sense of foreboding that I did. This is just the beginning. Who the hell knew what was stalking me or why, but first things first—await the fire sylph and hope like hell she’d just be quick and get it over with. Three down, one more to go.
Tennin is right, the bastard. Like a blind nithyn …
Hank and I walked in silence back through the gate and down the sidewalk to my vehicle. “I think I’ll head back to the station and check on Bryn, see how everyone is settling in.”
“Sounds good. Liz’s autopsy reports should be in. I’ll drop by her office and see if she’s learned anything.”
It wasn’t until after we were pulling into the back lot of Station One that I remembered asking Hank if he wanted to have coffee and talk.
Crap.
I slid a quick glance his way to find him staring out the window. His expression reminded me of a conversation I had with Emma when she was six years old and I found her sitting with her knees drawn up on the back of the couch, staring out the window.
“Hey, kiddo, what’s wrong?”
“I’m looking out the window.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s what people do when they’re sad. They stare out the window.”
Emma’s sadness had been because her kitten Spooky was at the vet getting spayed. Of course, I told her people stare out the window for all sorts of reasons, but her comment had been so thoughtful, so perceptive, that I hadn’t forgotten it.
I couldn’t tell from looking at Hank what was going through his mind or what his emotional state was. The last thing I wanted was to tap into my power to see his aura only to have Shadow Man come pay me another visit … But my instincts were telling me he wasn’t in the mood for talking right now.
I parked the Tahoe and decided to leave the talk for another time.
After a quick pit stop in the ladies’ room, I headed into the basement level, which contained our med units, cold cells, holding areas, and the morgue.
The holding area consisted of twenty cells, ten running down each side of the hallway. They were eight-byten, the back wall made of concrete blocks painted gray, and the sides and front made from a clear plastic as hard as steel. The only privacy consisted of a half wall that hid a small toilet. Everything else could easily be viewed by the cameras mounted in each corner, the other inmates, and the guards regularly walking the hall.
Granted, these cells were for criminals, not innocent people, but right now this was the best way possible to protect the ash victims.
After I showed my ID and headed down the hallway with one of the guards, nine happy faces greeted me. Most of those faces were familiar: known drug users who I’d seen on the streets in Underground or had arrested myself once or twice.
When ash hit the market, the jinn who’d been passing out the drug had targeted the users in Underground first. The only reason it had made it to Amanda was because of her father’s involvement in the manufacturing process, and the only reason my sister was now an addict was because she’d been exposed to the drug during our fight to destroy the ash farm. Otherwise every ash victim, even Casey and Mike, had been users before.
“Hey, Madigan.” A twenty-something former meth user named Kyle, if I remembered correctly, stood as I passed. “How long are we supposed to stay in here?” I really wanted to tell him that if he hadn’t been a drug user looking for his next fix, he wouldn’t even be here, but instead I said, “Until we know it’s safe.”
“Fucking cops,” he mumbled, going back to flop down on the small cot pushed against the wall.
Bryn was in the last cell on the left, sitting on the cot, back against the plastic wall, one knee drawn up and her fingers toying with the ends of her long purple skirt. Her hair was down, hanging over one shoulder in a mass of auburn brown waves. Seeing my sister sitting in a holding cell was beyond strange.
I drew in a deep preparatory breath as the guard unlocked the door. Inside, I pulled the small stool from beneath the table along the opposite wall, and sat down in front of my sister. My posture slumped a bit. I rubbed my face and then gathered my hair back into a very tiny ponytail, using the band around my wrists to tie it.
“Sorry about all this.”
“It is what it is,” she said, eyeing me in an enigmatic way. “How’s Amanda doing?”
“Got a text a little while ago. She’s the same. Have you taken your ash dose today?”
She nodded. “A little while ago.”
“Good. Has Aaron been by?”
Her gaze darted back to her skirt. “No.”
I managed to keep the frustration from showing. Their relationship was none of my business, but damn, I wanted to give Aaron an earful. “I don’t know why he’s being like this,” I finally said. Well, I did know why, but he didn’t have to avoid her, or make her feel even worse about what had happened. By withdrawing right when she needed him most … it would make it that much harder to reconcile.
“I do have some good news,” I told her. Since she was here in the cell and there was no way for her to do anything with the information, I wanted to cheer her up, to give her some hope. “There is a way to see inside of you, inside of everyone here, and hopefully fix things.”
Her fidgeting fingers stilled. Her coppery eyes lifted, round and hesitant as though she was afraid to believe. “You found an exorcist?”
“No. The oracle told me that there’s another way. Ever hear of a sylph?”
“A sylph? Alessandra must be inhaling more than just laurel leaves these days. Sylphs don’t exist.”
“Oh, trust me, they do.” I leaned back, bracing myself with my elbows on the table behind me and linking my hands over my stomach. “Not very pleasant, either.” I went on to explain my encounters with the vicious little females.
“So, one more,” she finally said. “Fire.”
“And then we’ll know. We could know by tonight or tomorrow. Then at least we’ll know how to protect everyone, who to keep here, who to let go …”
She was silent, digesting the information. The hope I’d wanted to give her seemed to have failed, but maybe it was too early yet to hope. Maybe better to be guarded.
“So how’s Hank? Is he awake yet?”
“Yeah. He’s over in the morgue talking to Liz.”
“And?”
“And what?”
A rueful smile lifted the corners of her full mouth. “I am your sister. Sisters know things. For instance, I know every time his name has been mentioned in conversation, you get this weird look on your face. At Christmas when Em was talking about him, you even turned red. It’s kind of obvious you’re developing a thing for him.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, I don’t exactly know what this ‘thing’ is, so …” I sat forward and draped my arms over my knees. “Temporary case of insanity, maybe? I don’t know 8230; something changed. We went from being friends to something more.” I shook my head, baffled by it all.
“You think it’s the whole siren thing? Why you’re into him?”
“No.” I stared down at the square block of tile at my feet. “If that were the case, I would’ve been into him the moment I met him. Before, I just would say, ‘Yeah, really hot guy who’s my partner, let’s get back to work.’ But now I get butterflies, actual physical responses.”
She chuckled. “I never thought I’d hear the day my tough, kick-ass sister admitted to ‘butterflies.’”
“Oh God. Did I really say that?” My head dropped into my hands. Laughter shook my shoulders. I straightened, trying to control the stupid grin that wanted to take over my entire face. “I swear, if you say a word of this …”
“I know, I know. You’ll inflict some kind of horrible pain.”
“Yeah. Bare knuckles and butterflies, that’s me.” Christ. When did this happen?
Bryn’s laughter rang clear as a bell. It had been such a long time since I’d heard that. Open and free. Nothing shadowing it. Her smile widened to a blinding grin. “Well, good thing is, he’s totally into you. Always has been.”
“Please. What are you, the new oracle?”
“Say what you want. I bet you he fell for you the moment you didn’t go all googly eyes for him and shot him in the belly. Remember that?”
How could I forget? I’d been so pissed about the new partner reassignments that no amount of male beauty could’ve affected me. And to make matters worse, prior to meeting him, I’d had two days’ worth of teasing by most of the station telling me I was going to be humping my partner by sundown. They could be such assholes. And I’d let them get to me. Hank had no idea what he was walking into.
When I questioned his ability to do his job and made a not-so-nice comment about his looks, he’d challenged me with an arrogant smirk that had me steaming. We’d stomped down to the gym, removed our weapons, set them by the mat, and went at it. The thing that had surprised me about Hank was that he didn’t take it easy on me, and my impression of him immediately rose.
But when he got me on my belly in a chokehold and threatened to take off his voice-mod and make me get on the police radio and tell everyone on duty how I wouldn’t be able to concentrate because he was so “awesome,” I flipped him over, kicked him off, grabbed my gun, and tagged him in the belly. I knew I’d get an earful for it, but I also knew it wouldn’t kill him.
Hell, we humans had to stand there and go through Hefty and Nitro-gun training, where we had to take low-level shots to our bodies, just like we used to do in the past with Tasers. Off-world officers did the same with bullets and their opposing world’s weapons. All part of the training.
The thing I hadn’t really considered at the time was how the whole thing had affected Hank. He’d acted like it was all a joke and that it didn’t bother him, but when I look back now, I know the other #8217; teasing bothered him just as much as it did me. He was there to do a job just like I was.
When the sound of the shot drew the chief and much of the station, Hank had stood up for me and said it was a training mishap. I still got a three-day suspension without pay. He apologized for the threat he made, and I apologized for shooting him. And I learned very quickly that Hank’s threats and teasing were all in good fun and no small amount of male bluster.
I suppose when one gets off on such a foot, the whole enchanted-by-siren thing kind of takes a backseat.
“Charlie?” Bryn said, bringing me out of my thoughts. She bit her lip and toyed with the hem of her skirt again. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Ask Aaron if he would … you know … drop by. Well, I mean don’t ask. Maybe just suggest.”
Her vulnerability made my eyes burn, but I smiled. “I’m sure he’s planning to already.”
Her look said she didn’t believe that at all, but she leaned forward and hugged me. I squeezed her tightly, breathing in the faint scent of fresh herbs and citrus. “I’ll be back to visit you later.”
We broke apart. I stood and pushed the stool back beneath the table and nodded to the guard to come open the door. Bryn resumed her former position on the cot along with her solemn expression. “Where are you going now, up to your office?”
“I don’t know. Think I might head home and get something to eat. Check on Em, see what kind of trouble Rex has gotten himself into … The usual,” I said with a shrug and a wry smile.
She let her head fall back against the plastic wall and her eyes closed. “Well”—a crooked smile that seemed out of place appeared on her face—“have fun.”
I slipped through the open door, my chest going tight and uncomfortable. Bryn was in another world, it seemed, so I shook the odd feeling away and left the cell quietly.
My boots echoed loud and slow in the stairwell as I climbed one flight to the ground level of Station One. Seeing Bryn sitting in that cell made me tired, weary of this whole thing, and, to be honest, a little hopeless.
Mynogan, Tennin, the Sons of Dawn … their push to start a war and regain control of Charbydon had set in motion a bundle of obstacles that continued to ripple across the city’s inhabitants as well as my professional and private life. If I could end this somehow, stop the insanity, then maybe my life, my family’s life, and the entire city could return to normal.
Instead of going up to the office, I texted Hank to let him know I was headed home for a bite to eat and then I’d be back. With our ash victims secure, and before the fire sylph leapt out from around the next corner, I wanted just a moment of quiet time in my own environment to think and regroup and feed my crazy metabolism.