Dark Fae (14 page)

I saw the moment that Nuadha made his decision, saw the calm acceptance that he would end this now.

Crap, crap, crap. I pushed Darcy down and sprinted towards Bres. Darcy screamed behind me, “Nuadha, no!”

It was the only warning I had. I dropped to the ground as a power bolt sizzled over top of my head. Leaping to my feet
,
I made it to Bres and smashed through the Barrier with Carnwennan.

Bres shoulder
ed
me aside
,
“Stay out of ta way!”
as Nu
adha rushed us.

Three strides behind Nuadha was Luke, pulling his sword free of his scabbard. Nuadha glanced over his shoulder. “Good, Lu
ke
, keep Bres busy.”

Nuadha never saw the blow coming. Luke smashed the hilt of his sword into
the back of
Nuadha’s
head
, dropping him to the ground in an
unconscious
heap.

“What the hell was that about?” I gasped out, adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Luke snapped his fingers. “Guards, put him in chains. Now.” There was no arguing that voice
.
T
he power and Charm that he put into his words made doubly certain that he was obeyed.

Guards milled about, putting Nuadh
a into chains before he came to
.

Luke
stare
d
after Nuadha
. “He’s been off the whole time I’ve been back.
He’s not the leader I remember him to be.”

Bres shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I know what happened to him.”

Everyone paused what they were doing, looked to Bres for the understanding of Nuadha’s sudden madness.

“Chaos.”

With Nuadha in chains, we made our way to a tent city the Tuatha had set up. The largest structure in the middle of the makeshift camp was the Council
’
s and Nuadha’s. The Council hushed us all on the way there.

I tried to query the Council as we walked, but the only response I got to my questions was
—
“
We will discuss all behind the walls of the Council.”

Darcy gripped my hand the whole way, and Bres and Luke stayed right behind us, guarding my back.

As we walked, my hand gripped in Darcy’s, I realized it was the first time in many years she’d willingly taken my hand, or touched me at all.

It’s because she is the oracle and her visions one day
will cease
,
and yours will start
.
T
hat is why she wouldn’t touch you
,
Cora said, surprising the hell out of me.

I thought you
had left me,
I
said
, unable to keep the bitterness out of my
mind
. Cora had kept so much from me, so much that could have helped me understand
,
and maybe
could have
stop
ped
some of this hurt and madness.

I can’t remember everything anymore, Quinn. It’s why I came to you when Ashling and you first came to the West Coast. It’s why I’m with you now. I am doing my best, with what I have left, even if you don’t believe me.

Ah, a punch in the gut would have been preferable to the shame that filled me.
I’m sorry. Why did you keep Wil and Darcy apart?

I felt her shift as if adjusting herself.
Because he wasn’t good enough for her. A smith! She was to be the oracle
;
she needed a strong man, like Lir
,
to love her.

This conversation would take us nowhere.
Okay, fine. Whatever. Tell
me
about why she wouldn’t touch me, hug me
,
or hold me
,
even as a child.

Cora let out a sigh.
Because as you saw in the helicopter, her visions can be passed to her offspring, as one or both could become an oracle in their own right.

I squeezed Darcy’s hand. She looked over at me and gave me a half smile. “I’m so sorry
,” she
whispered.

I untangled my hand from hers and slipped
Wil’s
ring off my thumb and pressed it into the palm of her hand. “I understand better now. He still loves you.”

Everything seemed to shift in that moment. Years were stripped from her, the bitter woman I knew
who
was full of anger and pain was gone, le
aving
only a woman who looked strikingly like Ashling
, young and vulnerable
.
The resemblance was true
,
right down
to the innocent
wide green
eyes, and the hope that filled them. “How . . . I don’t understand.”

“It’s the last thing I’ll ever ask of you. Go to him, be happy.” I
stopped walking, forcing the Council to stop
,
too. I didn’t care about the audience as I
pulled her into a hug
,
and she clung to me, crying.
Her body shivered as I let go, her eyes squeezed shut as if she were holding back
,
o
r more accurately, as if she were in physical pain.

“I was a terrible mother.”

I answered simply. “Yes. But I think I understand why. I don’t know what I’d be like if you forced me away from the man I loved and made me bear another’s child, not once, but twice.”

Cora shifted again inside of me, and the wash of shame I felt was not my own.

“It was for the prophecy
.
I knew it h
ad to be done
.
I just couldn’t
love you two girls like you should have been
, not knowing what was coming
,” she
whispered.

I shrugged. “It’s made both of us stronger. Which is what we need now.”

We stepped inside the Council’s tent to see Nuadha chained to a chair in the middle. He wa
s just starting to come around, his head lolling from side to side.

The Council of twelve, six men and six women
,
were huddled in the far back of the tent.
Surprisingly, my mother strode to the front of the room and raised her hand for silence. “I will speak, and you will listen. I have shirked my duties as oracle for far too long. Nuadha has been spelled by Chaos.”

She crouched down in front of Nuadha and beckoned me closer. He was blinking up at her and she tipped his head backwards
, her fingers trembling, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face
. “Do you see that there, Quinn?” A dark spot was growing on the corner of his eye, not unlike the blackness I’d seen in Ashling’s eyes
,
and I said so.

“Yes, it is the mark of Chaos. Search the troops
.
T
here can be none with this mark left to roam free. They should not be harmed, but they cannot be allowed to
cause
harm
,” she
said.

The Council leapt to her command, again surprising me. They filed out, almost running to do her bidding. “They used to listen to my mother like that
,”
Darcy whispered
. She swallowed hard and wiped her hand over her face, brushing away the sweat on her skin
. “Until she no longer gave them the visions.”

We stood, Darcy, Bres, Luke and I
,
alone in the tent with Nuadha
,
who was fully recovered. There was shouting outside, the clash of men and metal. How many had already been taken by Chaos?

“Should we make a Barrier?” I asked.

Both boys went to the door and stepped outside. I could hear them discussing the situation and trusted they would make a good call. I crouched down in front of Nuadha. “Do you know why you are tied up? Do you understand that Chaos is making you do these things to split apart the Tuatha?”

He snorted and spit at my feet.
“There is no such thing as Chaos, a boogeyman of the old gods. Your sister has spoken to me, in a dream. She told me that she has taken the throne of the Fomorii from her father and she wants to join with the Tuatha, just as the prophecy has foretold.”

Darcy asked
. “And what of the great evil that must be overcome
, hmm? How
did she explain that?”

His head bobbed, “She told me that a woman claiming to be the Chosen One would ride into camp on the back of an Aughisky
, and so you did.”
He glared at me.

“What has that got to do with anything?” I asked, before I realized what he was implying.
“You think I’m the evil that
needs to be destroyed
?” He nodded
, his eyes glittering with hatred
.

Darcy put her hand on my arm. “You will not be able to convince him of anything, not while Chaos holds him in sway. But there may be a way to save Ashling, Quinn.”

“Tell me.”

“You have to offer yourself to Chaos, make a trade. She will take it believing that you have the better power for her to use.”

I nodded, that made sense. “But how will I fend her off? I saw how she devoured Ashling, and she’s as strong as I am.”

Darcy shook her head. “No, she’s not. She was always the weaker one.
”
She shuddered and her body crumpled to the floor. Laying there, she sobbed out,
“
I am sorry, I’ve tried to fight this.
”

“Mom, what’s wrong?”
I bent to help her, wrapping my arms around her. 

Her eyes rolled in her head and she let out a short gasp. “Don’t listen to me
,
she’s
so strong, I can’t keep her at bay any longer
.”

Luke and Bres rushed back into the room.

“What happened?” Luke asked.

“I don’t know
.
S
he was telling me how I might be able to stop Chaos and save Ashling and then she just started to shudder
,”
I said, smoothing her hair back. Her eyelids flu
ttered and I pulled my hand away
, then pressed it to her face, opening her left eyelid.

There, next to the center of her eye
,
was a dark spot.

The Mark of Chaos.

She started to scream and I held her down at the shoulders, then flipped her over onto her stomach. “Bres, help me tie her
;
she’s got the mark.”

“Ironic that she showed it to u
s, don’t you think?” Luke asked, he crouched down beside her and held her shoulders to the ground. His voice got soft and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me, or if he was speaking his thoughts out loud. “She looks so much like Ashling, even her eyes.”

“
S
he was trying to fight back
;
I thought maybe she was sick
,”
I said.
I looked at Bres.
“It was right after I gave her the ring from Wil
.
I think that gave her the strength to fight Chaos off for a few minutes
.”

Luke gave a “huh?” which I chose to ignore. We didn’t have time to re-hash my mother’s sad love life.

As we finished tying her up, the Council filed back in, minus three members. “We have them all rounded up.” The older gentleman
,
who seemed to be the speaker
,
announced. Then his mouth dropped
upon seeing
Darcy tied on the floor.

“Not the oracle
,
too!”

“Yes, though I believe she was trying to fight for us, showing us the mark
,”
I said. I let out a deep breath
, bending
at the waist, my hands on my knees.
Bres
put his hand on my lower back.

“Just breathe, Quinn. You can do this
,
love
.”

The silence in the room took me a minute to absorb. They were waiting on me to lead them. Well
,
crap.

“Okay, put all those with the mark somewhere safe
. When
Chaos is defeated, I think the mark should go with her
,”
I said
, hoping I was right
. I picked out two of the
younger-
looking council members and sent them to do that. Guards came and moved a screaming
,
ranting Nuadha and a sullen Darcy.