Dolmarehn - Book Two of the Otherworld Trilogy (13 page)

Too irritated, and embarrassed, to respond, I hurried away to my next class, muttering under my breath about presumptuous friends.  Let Robyn think what she wanted, especially since she had a point.

Too my immense relief, Robyn didn’t pester me any further that day and by Wednesday she’d dropped the subject completely.  I guess my moodiness had finally worked its magic.  Without Robyn breathing down my neck, I retreated back into my shell to spend the rest of the week festering in my own turbulent emotions.

The weekend helped recharge me, and although I still hadn’t received word from Cade, I was feeling like a whole new person.  So he kissed me and acted distant afterwards.  So what?  Happened all the time to other girls, how was I any different?

But by Monday morning I crashed back down into my old emotional abyss, and at lunch time I might as well have been eating alone.  In a huff of frustration, I crunched my soda can up and tossed it towards the closest recycling bin, missing by a yard, of course.

“So anyways,” I heard Robyn say.

Oh.  I guess she had been telling us something.

“I wanted to have a bonfire, but my dad says there’s been some strange activity going on down in the swamp.  Maybe Meghan could tell us,” she shot me a wary glance, “if she wanted to be part of the conversation.”

I glanced up, my mind backtracking as I tried to remember what they’d been talking about.  Um, when we first sat down Thomas had mentioned something about his family being gone for most of the winter break because they would be visiting relatives in Mexico . . .  Will had said he should be available, Tully too . . .  Oh, right!  Robyn wanted to have a winter solstice party.  Okay Meghan, you can do this.  You can pine after your crush and be a good friend at the same time . . .

“Yeah, I think someone’s been killing animals and mutilating them,” I lied.  “My parents won’t let me go down there anymore.”

Another lie, but honestly, ever since the events of last year, I thought keeping my friends away from the swamp and the dolmarehn hidden in the shallow canyon might be the best safeguard against the faelah.

“So, will you be free then Meghan?”

“Huh?”

Robyn rolled her eyes at me and sighed.  “On the twenty first?  For the solstice?”

I gritted my teeth.  Sure, I hadn’t been the greatest friend in the last week, but it didn’t give Robyn an excuse to treat me like an imbecile.  I pushed my annoyance aside and grinned.  “Should be.”

She clapped her hands and beamed.  “Excellent!  Now all we need is the ingredients to make soul cakes and some cider for wassail . . .”

I let Robyn’s voice trail off as I got back to my lunch.  A party would be a welcome distraction, but at the moment I needed a little more time to crawl out of my pit of self pity.

* * *

School let out the next week for our winter break, and Robyn’s solstice party fell on Saturday night.  I wasn’t in a festive mood, but I had to put on a good face or they would suspect something was up.  They probably already did.

I borrowed my mom’s car to drive into town since my parents and brothers planned on staying home that night to make cookies.

“Be back before eleven!” Mom shouted as I headed out the door.

“I know!” I said.

When I got to Robyn’s I found everyone crowded in her small bedroom.  I endured the suspicious glare of her mom and dad as I crossed their living room and walked down the long hallway.  I smiled but received no warmth from them.  Oh well.  I’d grown used to their apathy.  Robyn’s parents had never liked me very much.  I think their ultra-religious personalities detected my Faelorehn essence.  A year or so ago, that would have terrified me.  Now, having become aware of the truth and knowing I’d come from somewhere outside this realm, it didn’t bother me as much.  I was from Eilé, strange yes, but only in their eyes.  Yet, how Robyn managed to continue her Wiccan tendencies in such a household was a mystery.  Perhaps because no one, not even her own parents, could control her.

Smiling, I opened Robyn’s bedroom door and stepped into a room buzzing with new age music and Robyn’s voice droning out some solstice story she’d dug up from somewhere.

Tully and Will were already there and they turned to grin at me.  “Hey Meg!” Tully said, patting a place next to her.

I smiled and sat down.  I’d been terribly neglectful of my best friend lately and the guilt washed over me like a cold wave.  Tully, however, didn’t seem to notice.  Sometimes I imagined she had a sixth sense and could discern when I needed to talk or when I needed to just be alone with my worries.  She was nothing short of a blessing in my life.

Simply spending time with my friends suddenly made me cheerful and grateful.  I enjoyed having something to think about, other than the mysteries invading my life, the biggest one being Cade, for once.  The last few months had been trying; my existence split between two worlds, here and Eilé.  How refreshing to only focus on one of those worlds tonight.

The party ended up being rather fun and for the first time in two weeks I didn’t feel depressed about Cade.  At a quarter to eleven I told everyone goodnight and headed out to the street where I had parked.  The evening was cold and dark with a clear sky full of stars.  For a moment I leaned my head back and exhaled, my breath misting above me.

I fumbled in my purse for the keys to my mom’s car, having some trouble in the dark.  A street lamp glowed orange halfway down the street, but hardly offered much help.

As I searched, something in the bushes beside me rustled and growled.  I froze, my entire body flushing with fear.  I recognized that sound, and so did my magic as well.

A tiny pinprick of heat burst in my chest next to my heart.  With my mouth becoming dry and my palms growing clammy, I turned to study the black clump of plants several feet away.  The darkness hindered my sight, but there was no mistaking those glowing eyes.

Before I could so much as scream, the creature burst from the hedges and charged me.  Crying in fear, I lurched to the side and the faelah slammed into my mom’s car, snorting in outrage.

Without giving it much thought, I rolled under the car and willed my heart to slow down.  That pinprick of magic throbbed and the odd sensation of Otherworldly glamour spread throughout my body.  Crap.  How much did I have and how the hell was I supposed to make use of it?

The creature snorted and bellowed in frustration as it tried to get to me.  Like all the others, the faelah was grotesque, the sickly light from the distant street lamp displaying just enough features to send terror through my heart once again.  If I had to describe the animal, I’d say someone had killed a wild boar and let it rot for a week before stretching it out to match the size of a large dog.  The stench permeating the air only helped back up my theory.  I was aware of only one person, no,
goddess
, who would do such a thing.  The Morrigan.  So, she still wasn’t giving up.  I wondered, as I lay on the cold, gritty, oily asphalt, watching the creature’s sharp, cloven hooves scrape at me, if she knew of my recent visit to Eilé with Cade.

I shuddered.  Just thinking about the Morrigan made me ill.  Instead, I focused on getting out of my current situation.  Wouldn’t anybody hear the noise this thing was making?  Oh, wait, faelah, duh.  I’d probably be the only one to hear any of this.  Perhaps the ugly creature would manage to kill me after all.

I gritted my teeth and tried to probe the well of magic living within my ribcage.  That made the warm spot begin to sting, as if someone were driving a hot needle into my chest.  I
really
needed to learn how to use this stuff.

I released a huff of breath and wiped away the tears running down my cheeks.  To my surprise, I realized they were a result of my frustration, not my fear.  I didn’t know if I should be proud of myself or not; for managing to gain control over my terror of the faelah.  Of course, it could just be a sign of my impending insanity.

I lay still for at least another ten minutes before a familiar screech filled the air.  Meridian?

The scratching stopped and a blast of brilliant, bright white light slammed into the car and dissipated in the dark night.  I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots from my eyes.  By the time I recovered I noticed something black and charred lying beside the car.  The faelah.  Had Meridian used some spirit guide power to incinerate it?

The light flutter of wings and a friendly chitter forced my attention to the other side of the vehicle.  Meridian sat on the sidewalk, eyeing me curiously.

Safe
? she sent.

Yes, thanks to you
, I replied with a heavy sigh of relief.

She chirruped as I crawled out from my hiding spot.  I didn’t even look at the creature, well, whatever remained of it.  But I did catch a glimpse of the side of the car.  I winced.  That was one heck of a dent.  The faelah might be able to make themselves invisible to human eyes, but there was still substance to them.

Taking a deep breath, I dug through my purse again, finally finding the keys.  I got into the car, whistling for Meridian before I closed the door.  She settled down on my shoulder and soon fell asleep.

Drained
, she sent, her psychic voice sounding very weary.

I’ll bet
, I returned.

I had no idea a spirit guide could wield so much power, especially one as small as Meridian.

As I drove home, I formulated an explanation for my parents: a deer had leaped onto the road and managed to glance off the side of the car.  Yes, that story would work perfectly.

All the lights were off when I got home, so I entered the house in silence and headed to my room, washing off the grit before collapsing onto my bed in exhaustion.

Before falling asleep, I thought about how I needed to be a little more vigilant.  I should have known after the demon bat incident at the football game that the Morrigan hadn’t forgotten about me.  Now, with tonight’s attack, I knew for sure she was back to her old tricks again.

* * *

I woke the next morning to the sound of my mom shrieking about the huge dent in her car.  When I fed her the deer story, she went from livid to concerned in two point five seconds.

“Oh Megan!  Were you hurt?”

She quickly started checking me for bruises and cuts and clucked when she found nothing worse than a small scratch from when I had crawled under the car.

“Um, got them last week at school.”

Mom gave me one of those looks she used like tweezers to extract information.  I wasn’t about to budge.

“Well, do drive more slowly from now on, especially at night.”

Sighing in relief, I returned to my room and glanced around, marveling at the lack of clutter.  The long narrow object wrapped in a towel in the corner caught my eye.  My longbow.  After last night, I thought some practice couldn’t hurt.  I got dressed and threw on some shoes, grabbed my bow and arrows and shouted up the stairs that I was going for a walk.

“Come on Meridian,” I called to the white ball of feathers in the corner, “I need you to keep me company while I practice.”

Most of my winter break passed this way: working on my archery skills when I wasn’t hanging out with my friends or being pestered by my brothers.  I had almost forgotten about Cade and the awkward way we had parted, but during those last few days before school started again, Fergus showed up at my door right before dawn.

He led me to the oak tree and inside the knothole I found a note.

Meghan,

I apologize for not contacting you for so long and once again for my inappropriate behavior in the Otherworld.  I hope you’ll forgive me.  I was wondering if you would like to visit Eilé for a couple of days.  There are two people I wish you to meet.

-Cade

My heart fluttered and gave off a pang of hurt.  So he still regretted kissing me.  I must be terrible at it.

I slumped against the tree and squashed my disappointment. 
Well Meghan, at least he still wants to be your friend
.  Yeah, I could live with that.  Maybe.

I called Robyn later in the day, hoping she would cover for me, again.

“Oh sure, but you know the price.  Details my dear, details,” she crooned over the phone, a hint of malicious glee in her voice.

“If there are any details to spare, then you will have them,” I promised, well aware there would be nothing to tell this time.

I finished the call and wrote a return note to Cade, informing him I’d be available on Tuesday.  In the mortal world we would be celebrating New Year’s Eve, so I had a valid excuse to go over to Robyn’s and spend the night.

The next morning I got a response.  Cade would meet me at my door once again, before dawn.

On Monday night I had an awful time falling asleep, most likely because I was excited about going to the Otherworld again.  Ever since returning from the last trip, a small part of me yearned to go back.  Perhaps because my magic now knew where it belonged, or maybe I was nervous about seeing Cade again.  Either way, I didn’t drift off until after midnight.

-Ten-

Cauldron

Cade met me the next day in his usual, unobtrusive way.  Before stepping through my bedroom door, I grabbed my overnight bag and whistled to Meridian.  We made our way silently through the woods of the swamp, the dark morning adding to the general gloom.