“Off we go,
then,” Callum said, and began cutting his way through the brush beyond the
group of boulders. The others fell into their order, following his path. When
Marduk walked past Brynna to take his place in the line, she tensed when he
leaned close to her ear.
“’It is in Men
that we must place our hope,’” he said and grinned. She would have laughed at
his
Lord of the Rings
quote, glad that he hadn’t taken her dig
personally, if her knees hadn’t gone all rubbery from witnessing the wicked
smile. Was he flirting with her?
Silently
admonishing herself for being distracted
again
by the charming boy, she
resisted the urge to smile back. Steeling her expression and giving him a
scowl, she waved her hand to signal that he should keep moving. “Let’s go,
there’s work t’be done.”
The group had
to cross one more cluster of boulders before reaching the game trail, which
they did, thankfully, without further incident. Finally the eight of them stood
on the narrow ridge at the foot of the cliffs, surrounded by thick brush that
towered above their heads, completely obscuring them from onlookers. Branches
and thorns snatched at their clothing and hair as they made their way quickly
along the game path.
Jeremiah turned
back to look at Isla. “Feel anything?” She closed her eyes, he assumed to open
up her energy receptors, as she’d taken to calling them, to see if she picked
up on anything out of the ordinary. “Not a thing. At this point, I’m not sure
if that’s good or bad.”
They had hiked just
over a mile on the game trail when Callum stopped so abruptly, Jeremiah grasped
the other man’s shoulder to keep from slamming into him from behind. In front
of Callum, the terrain plunged down into a deep valley between the hill that
they were on and the smaller, rolling hills below.
“Looks like
we’ve run out o’ road, mates.”
Peering over
Callum's shoulder, Jeremiah raised a silent prayer to whoever was listening
that they all made it through this in one piece. This descent would be
treacherous.
“Safest way to
do this will be to use gravity to your advantage. Slide or crab-walk your way
down. Don’t try to walk completely upright or you
will
fall. Got it?”
When they all
agreed, Callum sat down on his backside and began to edge toward the drop off.
“Alright girls and boys, hang on to your nut sacs. Here goes nothin’!”
After Callum
disappeared from view, Jeremiah pulled Isla to him for a quick, hard kiss,
before he slid over the edge after him. One by one, the searchers began the
descent. Some slid on their feet, leaning back with a hand braced on the packed
dirt to steady them. Others abandoned appearances, and coasted down on their
asses.
Cal, Jere,
Isla, Amy, and Marduk all made it safely to the flat ground at the bottom of
the valley. Brynna skidded down the last few yards and hopped up beside them,
dusting herself off. “What a rush!” she exclaimed happily.
Her excitement
died as a scream bubbled up in her throat. They watched in horror as Kieran’s foot
hit a large rock about halfway down, flipping his body forcefully until he was
sliding down the hill on his back, head first.
Jeremiah saw
Jack reach for the boy and miss, barely catching himself before he went
tumbling down as well.
“Shit!”
Jeremiah shouted, and lunged toward the foot of the hill. Kieran was sliding
wildly and beginning to get bounced around between the trees that lined the
small trail, a bit like a pinball. Jeremiah ran as far up onto the path as his
momentum would carry him, which was farther than he’d have thought, and
anchored himself with a small tree.
As Kieran
rolled past, Jere snaked out an arm and caught the boy around his middle. He
knew that Kieran impacting him at the speed he was going would probably break
his arm, so instead of trying to stop the motion, Jere let go his hold.
Wrapping his body around the boy and holding on tight to shield Kieran from
further injury, he allowed their combined body weight to straighten out their
trajectory.
When they hit
the bottom, Jere turned so that he would take the impact, and then rolled
several times before coming to a stop. Both men lay completely still.
His eyes were
squeezed shut against the pain exploding in his skull, but he heard Isla's
strangled scream. She knelt beside Jeremiah and began running her hands over
his body to search for injuries, while the others closed ranks and looked on
with worry.
With a pained
groan, Jeremiah released Kieran and rolled over onto his back with one arm
thrown over his eyes. "Ow," he said in a gravelly voice, surprising a
burst of hysterical laughter out of Isla.
"No
kidding," she answered, and he tried not to wince as she continued to
check him over. He was completely covered in dirt, most of his exposed skin was
covered in scratches and quickly forming bruises, and he had a gash on his
temple. But he was awake and breathing.
"What
hurts? Can you tell if anything's broken?"
"I'll be
fine," he said, taking several deep breaths before sitting up. He looked
over to where Jack was leaning over Kieran and talking softly. "How's the
kid?"
"A little
banged up, but he'll live. Looks like you took the brunt of it," Jack
answered. "If you hadn't done that, we might have lost him."
Oh, so
carefully, Jeremiah got to his feet with the help of Callum and Isla. He
shifted his weight, testing to see if anything was going to buckle, and he was
proud of himself for only staggering a little. Jere looked down at his shaky
but surprisingly sturdy legs. “Ain’t gonna be pretty in the morning, but
they’ll do.”
Callum let out
a shaky breath and laughed. Before Jere had a chance to speak again, Isla’s
hand shot around his neck and she pulled his head down to seal her mouth over
his in a ferocious kiss.
Her entire body trembled in his arms
as she slid her hands up under his shirts to hold
on tight. Jeremiah allowed himself to sink into the kiss, reveling in simply
being alive and here with her.
He launched his
own attack of nips and licks, until she let him in. Groaning, he wrapped his arms
around her and pulled her against him tightly. When a chorus of whistles and
catcalls reminded them that they weren’t alone, they broke apart reluctantly,
though Jeremiah kept her closely tucked against his side.
Kieran walked
over them to stand in front of Jeremiah. He wore a sheepish grin on his dusty
face, but his eyes betrayed the abject terror of the situation he had just
escaped. “Sure I would’ve broken me neck if it hadn’a been for you, mate,” he
said, his accent obviously thicker from the adrenaline.
Kieran reached
out a hand to shake Jeremiah’s, and squeaked when the big man pulled him into a
tight hug. “Don’t scare me like that again, hear?” When he felt the boy nod,
Jere released him.
Jeremiah
searched Kieran’s eyes as he spoke softly to the young man. “You good to go?”
“Yes, sir,” he
said, eyes fierce and determined.
Jeremiah
nodded. “Alright then. Let’s go.”
Isla’s hand on
his arm halted his departure. “You two may need medical attention. I think we
should turn back—“
“Like hell,”
Jere said, turning on his heel and walking off.
Isla sighed,
staring at Jeremiah's retreating back.
Cursed manly pride
, she thought.
She started after him, only to have Marduk block her path. His eyes were eerie,
opened wide as if he were looking through her instead of at her.
“We have to
keep going. Something is happening at the caves. Feel it.” It was an order, not
a question. Isla closed her eyes and expanded her energy receptors, and she
felt it. A sizzle in the air, a crackling static that could only be caused by
big power. Her hairs stood on end and the back of her neck tingled.
“Yeah, I feel
it,” she said, and watched as he cleared himself from his trance-like state.
She motioned for him to join her with the others. “Okay, we’ll go on. Brynna,
Jeremiah, Kieran—I am trusting you to tell us if you need to stop for any
reason.”
Still a couple
of miles from the caves, the group pressed on. They traveled a walking trail
that had been worn into the rolling hills along the shore, and again they were
sheltered by the bracken. As they were no longer climbing, they broke ranks and
clustered together. Jack and Callum took the lead, while the younger searchers
followed them. Isla, Jeremiah, and Marduk hung back to talk strategy for
fighting Alastore.
“I don’t know
what we’re going to find,” Isla whispered, not wanting to alarm the others. “I
can sense the presence of extremely powerful magick, but I have no idea who’s
in those caves.” She flicked her eyes to Marduk, and he shook his head.
“I can’t tell either.
I should be able to sense the different beings, but it’s like something
is…scrambling the signal.
Jeremiah was
ever the practical scientist. “Why don’t we come up with the most likely
circumstances and figure out how we’ll handle them. Then when we get there,
we’ll improvise.
“Alastore has
appeared to you a couple of times, but only in dreams or as an astral
projection, am I right?” Marduk asked.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think
he’ll come at you himself at first. What’s the point of being an evil entity if
you don’t use your minions?” he said with a half-smile.
“Hardy har
har,” Jere said. “Get to the point.”
“Most likely he
will funnel all his energy into his
auchrim
, so that they can
materialize. They may try to fight you physically, or through magick, but they
will most certainly try and get into your head to control you.”
“Do you think
the cave is a gateway?”
“There’s no way
to tell. Isla may be able to sense it if we get close, since she is connected
to Alastore. But obviously that theory hasn’t been tested.”
“If the
auchrim
are in corporeal form, can we kill them?” Jeremiah asked.
“Sadly, no.
Although you can cause them a great deal of pain,” he said with a wicked smile.
“Anything you do that would normally cause death—beheading, a break to the
neck, stab to the heart…you get the idea—will send them back to the
locus
.
So it gets rid of the immediate threat.”
“So what if
Alastore does decide to come at us?” Isla asked. Alastore hated her, so she
felt sure that the demon wouldn't miss an opportunity for a personal
appearance.
“Only you will
be able to stand against him. If anyone else tries, he will use them against
you. You can’t let that happen.”
“What about
you?”
Marduk shook
his head sadly. “I can fight
auchrim
until kingdom come, but my powers
will be ineffective against the
Lochrim
, I’m afraid. When it comes to
Alastore, I can’t help you. I can only help you help yourself.”
“Gee thanks,
Yoda,” Jeremiah interjected.
“’Much to
learn, you still have
,’
” he said with a grin.
Isla rolled her
eyes and kept walking. For being an ancient mystical creature, the kid sure was
a walking movie encyclopedia. “So if we do find any of the missing persons, we
need to get them clear of the
auchrim
as quickly as possible, so they
don’t get caught in the crossfire—so to speak.”
“We must be
careful though,” Marduk answered, “because they can make you see things that
aren’t there, and make things that are there invisible to you. Trust nothing,
question everything, because things will most definitely
not
be as they
seem.”
Each lost in
their own thoughts and worries, they traveled along the walking trail until
they saw the cliffs begin to taper off into smoother, rounder sandstone
structures that curved toward a point of shore that stuck out into the sea.
The rocky outcrops
in this area were as smooth as marble from constant crashing of the sea. Near
where rock met shore, Isla could barely make out the yawning mouth of the first
cave in the cave system.
Callum stopped
just ahead and turned back toward the group. “Oi, up ahead is the Drumadoon
promontory. Beyond that westernmost point will be the King’s Cove, but the
three caves are right there at the tip of the promontory. We'll be able to see
all of them when we get closer. Final destination, kids!”
As they
approached the point of the cove, the other caves came into view. The holes
created in the sandstone by the mouths of the caves looked eerily like the face
of a human skull. The trail ascended up a small hill that led to a grassy
knoll, flanked on the east by the caves and on the west by jutting stones.
The first cave
they came to was small and shallow, so much so that it couldn't even fit all of
them in at once. Quickly realizing that nothing could possibly hide in a space
that size, Isla urged them to keep going.
As the others
shuffled out of the opening, Jeremiah was distracted by the ancient paintings
and carvings on the walls of the cave. Running his hands along the walls,
fingers dipping into the ruts made by carving tools, Jere felt as though he
could almost feel the spirits of those who had come before them.
This is a
place of great power
.
Jeremiah blinked, confused. Where the hell had that thought come from? Shaking
his head as if he could clear it, he walked out to join the others. He still
couldn't shake the prickling sensation that something had been in there with
them.
As they
approached the second and third caves, Jeremiah realized that these were
actually two openings to one enormous cavern. The shape of it sort of reminded
him of half of a doughnut. Filled with the same sea smoothed stones that
populated the shore, the floor of the cave sloped up slightly while the ceiling
tapered down to meet it.
There were even
more archaic carvings, as well as interesting geological structures like
stalactites and stalagmites, and a strange mineral calcification that turned
certain parts of the cave walls a deep, blood red. It was certainly creepy, but
fascinating.
Callum dropped
his pack and turned in a slow circle. "This is as good a place as any to stop
for a quick rest and some food, yeah?"
"Sounds
like a good idea to me." He eased himself down to a flat stone, wincing as
his bruised body protested, and Isla sat down beside him. She opened her pack
to pull out their food supply. The rest of the searchers followed suit.
They had packed
small sandwiches bought from a tearoom in town, along with fruit and some
energy bars. After eating, Jeremiah lowered himself to the cave floor and
stretched out his legs, closing his eyes.
He sighed
contentedly when he felt Isla's fingers begin to comb through his hair.
Climbing accidents, shapeshifters, and crazy homicidal demons be damned. He was
alive, and he had his woman working her magic on him. Life was pretty damn near
perfect.
That was the
last thought he had before the earth began to shake. The whole cave began to
rumble and quiver, causing the stones on the ground to bounce around like
jumping beans. Cursing a blue streak when dust and pebbles began to rain down
on them, Jeremiah leapt to his feet and tugged Isla up to meet him.
"Get a lot
of earthquakes in Scotland?" Jere asked, only half kidding.
Isla shook her
head and cast a wary look at the ceiling of the cave. "Uh, no. Not many,
and definitely not like this."
"Must be a
freak quake," Callum said, not sounding convinced. "Maybe there's an
undiscovered fault line or something.
"Yeah, I'm
sure it's something like—"
Isla hadn't
even finished her sentence when the cave began to shake more violently, and a
feral, unholy growl rose up from the bowels of the earth.
"Aaaaaand
time to go, folks," Jeremiah said, hustling Isla toward the mouth of the
cave. The others were right behind them as stalactites began crashing down on
all sides.
Just when he'd
thought they were home free, as soon as he crossed the threshold of the cave,
he slammed into an invisible wall. The impact propelled him back so forcefully
that Jack had to catch him.
Well didn't
that just rattle his brainbox!
“The fuck?”
Jeremiah shouted once Jack had set him back on his feet. He reached out to
touch the empty space at the opening and his hand contacted the invisible
barrier, as solid as if it were a concrete wall.
“We’re
trapped.”
The growling
rose again to a near deafening pitch, while the walls around them shook
violently. Amy screamed as a stalactite crashed down from the cave ceiling to
land inches from her foot. “What do we do?!”
Isla looked
around the cave desperately, trying to think of a way to get them out of this
situation. They were trapped in a cave that was coming down around their ears.
Think,
damn it, think!
She couldn’t help but feel responsible for the others,
since she was the one Alastore was after.
Seeing the
column of rock that separated the two openings of the cave, she noticed that it
curved up and out into a low overhang that was fairly smooth. That was their
only hope for protection from falling rock.
Grabbing
Jeremiah’s hand, she pulled him to the small alcove. “Come on guys, get under
here,” she shouted above the hideous growl. When they were all huddled
together, sheltered from the debris, Isla racked her brain to find a way to get
them out.
“What kind of
magick is this?” she asked Marduk.
“I am guessing
some kind of containment spell. He would lose too much energy from literally
trying to form and hold it. He wouldn’t be able to maintain it long enough.”
“Are you sure
it’s Alastore?”
Marduk nodded,
his ice-cold eyes sharp and deadly. “I already tried to counteract the spell.
Couldn’t budge it, which means only you can.”
“I don’t know
how,” she said while the sharp edges of panic dug into her stomach.
“Yes you do.
You just have to say the words, and just let go of your power. It will do the
work.”
“What are the
words?” she whispered.
She gasped as
thoughts that were not her own insinuated themselves in her mind. “
Quid
contineat oportet solvi. Sic fiat semper
.
What was once contained must
now be set free. So mote it be.
”
Gathering her
resolve, Isla drew strength from Jeremiah’s hand grasping hers tightly,
grounding her. She took in a deep breath, was preparing to gather her power, when
something snapped inside her head. It was like a switch had been flipped, a
door had been opened, and hundreds of anguished cries flooded her ears.
Screaming,
crying, pleading…all rocketing around inside her mind. All the souls of all the
people trapped inside Alastore’s
locus
, begging to be freed. To be
ended. It was too much. Too much pain, too much noise. Isla sank to her knees
with a moan as a searing pain flashed through her skull.
Grabbing her head
in her hands, she doubled over—in such a position that she almost looked like
she was praying—and she screamed. And screamed. She screamed until she no
longer had a voice, and still they came, her mouth gaping open to form the
silent syllables.
Jeremiah knelt
in front of her, placing his hands over hers and pulling them away from her
head. "Isla, look at me," he said with a calmness she couldn't fathom
in that moment.
When she
finally opened her eyes to look at him, his face swam in her sight. Her eyes
burned and her vision was hazed in red. Jeremiah cupped her face in his hands
and tipped it so he could look in her in the eyes. "What's happening? What
do you feel?"
"I
can't...the people...screaming. So many...people," she stuttered, nearly
incoherent.
Not sure what
people she meant, Jere took a chance anyway. "The missing people?"
"Them...and
so many...more," she said, breaking off with a strangled moan. When her
eyes started to flutter closed, he shook her gently.
"I know it
hurts, baby, but if you want to help those people, you've got to push
through."
"I
can't!" she wailed.
"Isla!"
he said, punctuating it with another light shake. "Don't let him win.
Don't let that evil win. You need to get mad about it. Use your anger. Fight!"