Reunion (51 page)

"That doesn't matter. We just need to be there."

Annad was no fool. He figured it out in a few seconds. "You think Darragh is there, don't you? And maybe even Ren." Pete might have been impressed by his quick wit, if he hadn't caught Annad's gaze flickering over to the phone on the wall by the kitchen door. He had to remind himself that Annad, even though he seemed to be a friend, still worked for the Gardaí and they had probably just given away the location of the dangerous fugitive every cop in Europe was looking for.

The psychologist's face softened and he shook his head sadly. "My God, Pete, what happened? You used to be a cop. You were a rising star in the Gardaí. Now you're hiding out here, trying to find a way to aid a couple of deluded criminals who are responsible for at least one death we know of, and probably many more."

"Definitely more than one. Don't forget the girl they kidnapped and killed," Stella reminded him.

"Actually, it turns out she wasn't killed. She came back."

"Really?" Trása asked in surprise. Pete realized that with everything else going on, he hadn't had time to tell Trása and Nika about that.

"When did that happen?" Stella asked.

"A few days ago," Annad told her.

Trása threw her hands up impatiently. "Then why don't you believe us? Surely Hayley told you where she's been."

"She says she doesn't remember."

"Can't blame her for that," Nika said, "given the reaction of people in this realm to the truth."

"This is ridiculous," Stella scoffed. "I don't know what you people are on, or what you slipped into my tea to make me see things, but there is nothing for you at Cambria Castle. It's a private clinic, that's all. There are certainly no escaped prisoners lurking in the halls."

"We're wasting time, Pete," Logan announced impatiently. "Just have Toyoda glamour her and be done with it."

Pete shook his head. "She has to talk us through more than the door," he reminded his brother. "A glamouring won't last more than a few minutes."

"Isn't this place a hotel?" Trása asked, as if she agreed with Logan. "Why don't we just check in?"

"Because we need to get to the clinic part of the castle."

"Why?"

"That be where Renkavana and his brother be," Toyoda announced. "That be where the
Matrarchaí
be taking them."

Everyone was silent for a moment. It was Nika, impatient and practical as always, who broke the tense silence. "Oh, please! You are all acting as if anybody here is surprised to know that our purpose in this realm is to find Ren and Darragh. You," she said, pointing to Annad. "You will wait here with Trása and me. Pete and Logan will go -"

"Absolutely not," Annad announced.

"I wasn't asking."

"But I am telling you," the psychologist informed Nika with quiet confidence. "Under no circumstances are you bringing more trouble to our home."

Nika glared at him for a moment and then she seemed to concede the point. Pete thought he understood. The loss of Nika's home still galled her, even after all these years. Annad was much more perceptive that Pete gave him credit for.

"Very well ... in that case you will take Trása and me back to the stone circle where we entered this realm. The midwife will go with Pete and Logan to this castle. They will find Rónán and his brother, and meet us back at the circle."

"What's the point?" Trása asked. "We can't open the rift from this side."

"Actually, we might be able to," Pete said, thinking Nika might be on to something. "Ren's managed to wane in and out of Portlaoise to rescue Darragh. He's packing some powerful magic to do that in this realm. He might still be charged up enough to get us home."

"If he has the power to wane, then why doesn't he just wane out of Cambria Castle?" Logan asked.

"The
Matrarchaí
be using
Brionglóid Gorm
on Renkavana and his brother," Toyoda told them. "They not even be awake when they be taken. And they still be asleep when me and the pixie be seeing them last."

"But when he does wake up, waning out of there is likely to be the first thing Ren does, so if we're going to find him and our way out of here, we need to get to the castle and find our boy before he uses up all the juice for our ticket home." Pete turned to Stella. "Can you ring the clinic and let them know you're coming to do a checkup on the woman who delivered last night?"

"I'll do no such thing," Stella announced, folding her arms across her body. She seemed to be avoiding looking at Toyoda or Echo, as if by acknowledging their presence she'd have to accept the rest of their crazy story was true, also. "And there is nothing you can say or do that will make me take part in this."

There was a moment of tense silence before Nika strode to the kitchen counter and grabbed a framed photo of a boy and a girl dressed in private school uniforms. "I will hunt your children down and kill them if you don't."

Pete stared at her in surprise. He was certain she wasn't capable of doing anything of the kind, but she sounded frighteningly convincing.

And apparently it was enough to convince Stella. The doctor snatched up the framed photo, glowered at Nika for a moment, and then glanced at her husband. She was blaming him for bringing these people - and this threat to their children - into her house. "Fine. I'll call them. I'll take you there. I'll even get you inside. But it won't do you any good. Nobody is harboring any escaped fugitives in the Cambria Castle birthing suite. This is a waste of time, and when the Gardaí catch you, as they inevitably will, you're all going to wind up back in Portlaoise alongside your friends."

At first, Teagan didn't know what had happened to Brydie. One minute she was there, the next she was gone. The incomprehensible truth took a little time to register.

When she did realize what had happened, when she looked down to find herself covered in blood and bits of gore, she bent over and was violently ill, her vomit adding to the stench of fresh blood that made the walls glisten in the moonlight.

Will you be our mother now?

Teagan wiped her mouth and looked up, wondering who had spoken. "What?"

Will you be our mother now?

You won't try to hurt us, will you?

"Oh, my God," Teagan muttered, putting her hands over her ears.
It's the babies. How can it be the babies?

Teagan turned for the door, but it slammed shut before she could take a step.

Don't leave us. Come back to us. Be our mother. We're hungry.

"How ... how can you ..." she couldn't finish the sentence. The idea that these babies, barely a day old, were inside her head, that they were ...

That they are killers
, she realized.

Teagan glanced down at her jeans and realized what the blood was.

Or rather who it had been. She felt her knees go weak and her stomach clenched again, but she fought back the nausea. If they were in her head, did they know what she was thinking?

You'll be good to us, won't you, mama?

I'm not your mama.

Our mama tried to hurt us. You won't try to hurt us, will you?

Teagan wanted to walk to the door. She tried to think about walking, running, even crawling toward the door, but for some reason her legs wouldn't obey her. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. She didn't know if she was rooted to the spot out of fear or because of something the babies were doing to her. She just knew she wanted out of there and that she couldn't move a muscle ...

And then the door opened and she cried out with relief as Ana stepped into the room and took in the nightmarish scene before her.

The old nurse frowned but didn't otherwise react. "Where is Brydie?"

Teagan raised her hands, although she wasn't sure why. It was part shrug, part "look around you". She didn't have the words to answer Ana coherently. The same torpor robbing her of the ability to flee this room seemed to have also paralysed her tongue.

"Are the babies all right?"

"They're ... fine ..." she managed to squeeze out.

It was hard to know what Ana was thinking. Teagan closed her eyes, trying to block out the horror she had witnessed.

And the knowledge of who had perpetrated it.

Ana loves us.

Maybe Ana could be our mother.

Our mother tried to end us.

Will you try to end us, Teagan?

We're hungry.

Teagan's eyes flew open. It was worse with them closed.

"What happened?"

"I ... She ..."

"Out with it, girl," Ana snapped.

"Brydie had a pillow ... she tried to ..."

"Oh dear lord," Ana said pushing past Teagan to get to the cradle. She leaned over it and began to fuss over the babies. The voices quieted a little in Teagan's head as they vented their anger to Ana, telling her about their evil mother who had come in here and tried to suffocate them.

And apparently about how Teagan had tried to intervene.

Teagan found she could move again. She took a cautious step through the blood on the floor, and then another, and another. She was almost to the door before Ana stopped her.

"Teagan!"

She turned slowly, afraid to look, afraid not to.

"You did well."

"I ... I didn't know what else to do. She tried ..." Teagan pointed to the cradle and shrugged. "They're just babies ..."

Babies who can explode people with a thought
, a dangerous voice in her head reminded her, but she quashed the traitorous thought ruthlessly. Teagan had seen what these babies would do if they were threatened. Thoughts like that would have her splattered over the walls beside Brydie, if they caught a hint of it.

Fortunately, the twins seemed to be focused on Ana. For the time being, Teagan was safe.

"I want you to fetch Mother for me," Ana said. "She will want to know what's happened."

"Okay."

"She's in the dining room entertaining some guests. Don't let them see you like that. Just ask Mother to come here."

Teagan glanced down and realized she was soaked to the skin.

"Go now, Teagan," Ana ordered. "There's a good girl."

Teagan looked up, still dazed, still not sure if what she thought she'd seen had really happened or if she was having some sort of hyper-real nightmare.

"Will you ...?"

"I'll be fine with my girls," Ana assured her. "You run along and fetch Mother."

She nodded and did as Ana ordered because it required no thought and right now, her thoughts might get her killed too, if she allowed them to escape.

Teagan headed downstairs, first at a slow stumbling pace which gradually picked up until by the time she reached the formal downstairs dining room she was running. She couldn't really pinpoint what she was running from: whether it was from the horror she had just witnessed, or the voices she could still hear faintly in her head as they scolded Ana for leaving them alone with someone intent on doing them harm.

It was a very one-sided conversation. Teagan didn't know what Ana was saying to the babies to calm them down. Or indeed if she was calming them at all. Her answers might be antagonizing the girls.

If Ana answers the wrong way, will they kill her too, or do they just disintegrate people trying to smother them?

Teagan stopped when she reached the dining room, a little surprised she'd managed to get from the nursery down to the ground floor without running into anybody else. Down the hall to her right was the reception area, where the staff who worked the hotel side of the
Matrarchaí
's operation would be getting ready to change shifts, she supposed. Off to her left were the kitchens, but she couldn't smell any enticing aromas of cooking over the stench of the fresh blood in which she was drenched.

Taking a deep breath, Teagan turned and knocked on the thick oak door. She waited a moment, wondering if Ana had been wrong and Mother wasn't here at all.

And then the door opened. Mother was dressed in a gorgeous, long red evening dress and was wearing her ruby necklace. Whoever her guests were, they were obviously important.

"Teagan?"

"Mother ... I ..."

"Dear God, is that blood?" she asked in a low voice.

Teagan nodded. "The babies ... Ana said ..."

"Are they hurt? Is that their blood?"

She shook her head. "It's Brydie."

"Brydie's blood?"

"No ... I mean it's Brydie."

Mother stared at her for a moment before saying anything. When she did speak, she was all business.

Why am I the only one here who thinks this is horrific?

"This is marvellous news."

"Excuse me?"

Mother smiled at her. "Don't you realize what this means?"

She shook her head. "Not really."

"The babies can wield magic in a realm that only has what's left in the Enchanted Sphere. With them, we can finally achieve Partition." When Teagan didn't light up with happiness at the prospect, Mother sighed. "I need to see to my guests. Go to your room. Have a shower. And say nothing to anybody. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Mother closed the door on her. A few minutes later - presumably after making her excuses to her important guests - she emerged from the dining room, hurrying past Teagan without even noticing that she was still there.

Teagan leaned against the wall, tears welling in her eyes again, although she wasn't sure why she was crying. It might be for Brydie. It might be from fear.

Or her tears might be for hopelessly wishing they'd never taken her from her own realm.

Whatever the reason, she crumpled against the wall and sank to the floor, unable to stop her tears. She pulled her knees up, folded her arms across them and wept for the horror she had just witnessed and the dread realization that with the arrival of Hope and Calamity, her world was probably going to end.

The
Matrarchaí
had their tool to force Partition and it was more than they had even imagined.

Unless Isleen found her way to this realm before Partition, her twin would die when all the realms collapsed in upon each other.