Dark Isle (Celtic Legacy Book 2)

Dark Isle

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

I had n
ever felt such a yawning chasm of despair as
the one
that
open
ed
within me while
sitting in
th
at
helicopter
as it
f
lew
us
away from Ashling. My sister, the one person I loved better than any other,
had
just
been
left behind.
The only thing I had to combat the depression that threatened to roll me under its tide of pain
,
was anger. Anger at myself, Luke, my mother
;
a
ll
of us were
,
in some way
,
responsible for not getting Ashling out. My heart gripped that anger for all it was worth and held on;
I
let the fury burn away the pain in my soul.

“You know, perhaps I could come with you to Ireland
.
I mean, after all, this whole debacle has interrupted my vacation there
,
”
Mom
said.
As she spoke
,
I knew
I’d never call her that
again;
from
then
on
,
she’d be Darcy to me.

Luke answered
her;
I didn’t even hear the words
. A
low thrum
of anger rippled through me,
a
nd
I did everything I could to not lash out
and to
keep my hands still in my lap. Cora’s coils tightened across my shoulders and she let out a low hiss of irritation.

Ignore the fool, Quinn. She does not understand the great gift that
both
of you girls are.
Cora’s voice inside my mind did little to soothe the raging anger. If
Darcy
had been honest with us, if she had told us of our heritage, we wouldn’t be here now. Ashling would not have been captured by the Fomorii and I would not . . .
no
,
I would still have to face the prophecy, but at least I could have been prepared for it. Trained for it.

The last few days
had been
a whirlwind
.
F
rom
the moment our grandfather, Blake, had Quickened my blood, nothing had been even close to normal. Spinning the events through my mind, I tried to see where I could have changed things. Could I have stopped the Fomorii from kidnapping Ashling? Or could I have
done more to rescue her
? Then there was the
emotional
tug of war
as Bres pulled
my heart in
one direction and Luke another.
I glanced at
Luke,
taking in his perfect golden features and blue eyes
.
He seemed so a
rrogant
and
sure
that he was
the other person the prophecy spoke of
;
t
hat
he was t
he man I was supposed to fall in love with.
Bres
was the
son of Balor,
my
enemy
, but
h
e’d helped me survive the Labyrinth, and had been the only reason I’d
even
gotten
close to
rescu
ing
Ashling.
I
n the end
I
’d
still come away without her
. I scrubbed my hands over my face, my mother’s words finally reaching my ears.

“Quinn, you and I should go to the spa when we get to
Ireland;
I know this great little . . .”

Wrenching my seatbelt off, I stood shaking above her my voice low and controlled
,
yet still icy with intensity.
“Shut up. Right now, before I throw you from this helicopter.”

Darcy’s
green
eyes, so like Ashling’s
,
widened
,
and her hand fluttered to
the base of
her throat. “You
’re
threatening me?”
s
he
whispered
.

“No threats. I’ve had enough. As far as I’m concerned, you are not my mother.
No mother would sacrifice her children for her own safety
,
”
I said, the certainty of the words filtering through me slowly.
I could still see her face as she offered up Ashling for her own escape
;
the image wouldn’t leave me.
Her eyes filled with tears and I felt . . .
nothing. “That won’t work on
m
e
anymore
,
Darcy. You and I are done.”
I thought of the one moment that she’d attacked Balor and given Ashling a chance to get to me, and my heart softened a little. Of course, she’d never been in any true danger
;
Balor hadn’t wanted her. My heart closed over, the old wounds sealed off for good this time.

Darcy
let out a little sob and buried her face in her hands.
Even if the tears were real this time it was too late for remorse
.
S
he’d
lost her chance to be anything but the woman who gave birth to me, certainly not someone I would ever call mom again
.

That was harsh Quinn
,
Cora said
.
T
he pain in her voice nearly undid me
, but I steeled myself against the emotions that were swirling. Grief, foremost, but a keen sense of being alone
in this world
overrode even that.
A pang around my heart took me back to the days when I’d still dreamed of having a father. Someone who loved me unconditionally; unlike Darcy.

“I don’t care if it was harsh,”
I said aloud, spreading my legs for better balance as the helicopter dipped in an air current.
Fists at my side
,
I stared down at Darcy, a cold well of anger keeping any tears I would have shed at bay. She sniffled, her small shoulders shaking as she cried, and still I could feel nothing but the pain she had inflicted on me and Ashling. The years of neglect had finally burst through the damn of control I’d kept such a tight rein on. A part of me was relieved. No longer did I have to try to make her love me.

Luke stood up and his hip brushed mine as he bent to speak
into my ear
. “Ease up, we’ll drop her off
,
and you can be done with her then. No need to rub salt in the wound, Quinn.”

G
lar
ing
,
I shoved him away from me
. “Did either of your parents betray you to the enemy? If it was a choice
of their child’s life, you, and themselves, would they have handed you over?”

He didn’t
answer;
he didn’t have to
.
W
e all knew what he would say.
No parent who truly loved
his or her
children would do as
Darcy
had, and we all knew it.
He reached for my hand, his eyes soft.

My anger took a new direction. “Don’t touch me. It’s your fault we left her behind.” Luke’s jaw tightened.

“Balor would have killed you
,
”
h
e
said.

I blew out a sharp puff of air. “You don’t know that.”

Luke threw his hands above his head
. “I DO know that. Damn it, why can’t you listen? Balor is your enemy. You are destined to kill him, which means it is in his best interest to end your life.”

“Then why didn’t he when he had the chance?” I yelled.

All the fight seemed to go out of Luke
;
his shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “I don’t know.”

I turned my back on him. That was just it
;
nobody really kn
e
w what was going on, not Luke, not Cora
,
and
seemingly
not even
Balor.
Luke wasn’t the only one confused about Balor’s actions towards me
.

The helicopter dropped
without warning
and my feet hovered above the floor for a split second before gravity yanked me back down. I tumbled to one k
nee as the pilot’s voice came
over the speaker. “Hang
on;
we’re getting a bit of
turbulence.”

Stumbling to the window
,
I peeked out to see the east coast of Vancouver Island
speeding towards us
. Except for a few spots where there were buildings right on the coast,
a
t
hick
line of
forest met the ocean and even this high up I could see the spray from the waves. I squinted and looked closer
. The wave
s shouldn’t have been so visible
; they usually didn’t get very big within the Strait of Georgia.

I realized another e
arthquake
was occurring
. They hadn’t let up and now they were
causing
miniature
tsunamis t
hat raced into
the shore
.

My thoughts turned back to Ashling.
I didn’t really want to leave
;
this was where Ashling was
,
and I felt in my heart that if I was to have any chance at finding her, it wouldn’t be by trekking half way across the world for training
. I needed to stay here, close to where she was.

“You should buckle up Quinn
,
”
Luke said as he put his hand on my elbow. As if I
was
an invalid. I jerked my arm away from him
as the helicopter dipped yet again
and
we were both thrown
back a few steps
.

“No, I don’t want to see anything!” Darcy shouted, startling me. I spun around to see her gripping her head in her hands, her face twisted up as if she were in pain.

Cora slipped from my shoulders and slid over to Darcy. “What is it? What do you see?”

The wind buffeted the helicopter, yanking us around as if we were marionettes; our limbs
jump
ed
and
jerk
ed
in seeming spasms. For a moment it stole the attention from Darcy and whatever it was she was experiencing.