Rua (Rua, book 1) (9 page)

She curled herself into a tiny ball and collapsed to the ground. Dust, noise, and feathers filled her lungs.

Think, think.

But the birds made that impossible. Their wings batted against her face and hair, flew into the folds of her nightgown. They surrounded her, filled her with their cries.

“Celeste!” Rylan’s voice sounded so far away.

She curled more tightly, using the hem of her gown to block her mouth as the violent torrent swirled around her.

“Rylan! Where are you?” She tried to see her surroundings through the birds, but just saw more birds. She was surrounded by layers and layers of birds.

He burst through the flock, rolling onto the ground near her side. Dirt and feathers coated his skin and a line of blood dripped down his temple. He pulled her into him, crushing her against his body, protecting her with his arms.

“They’re yours. Command them!” he shouted over the cacophony of the birds.

“What?”

He put his lips close to her ear. “Tell them what to do.” He stood, pulling her up with him. “Hurry.” Another bird had flown into him, causing another torrent of blood, this time dripping down his shoulder, turning his shirt a gruesome, sickly purple.

“How do I—” She dropped her hem. Screw it. She had to try. “BACK OFF!”

In an instant, the mad swarm stopped. The birds’ frenzied flight turned into lazy circles, far above her head. Hundreds settled into the trees surrounding his house, some blanketed the cars. Stillness settled over the night.

She tipped her head up to sky. “Oh, wow. That’s actually kind of cool.”

“See?” He smiled, which was gross because the river of blood from his temple touched the edge of his mouth.

“Oh, my God. Are you okay?” She pulled the hem of her nightgown up to dab the blood off his face.

His eyes traveled down to bare white legs and pink panties. “Oh.” She dropped her hem. “I guess I forgot.”

He pulled his head back. “It’s, um, fine. I’ll heal up in no time. So will you, by the way.” He pointed at her feet. The deep red scratches from her earlier run in the forest had transformed into barely visible pale pink lines. “It’s a fringe benefit of being us.”

A crow flew to her side, landing near her ankle.

She looked up again. Giant masses of black bird shapes flew in lazy circles over her head, still blocking the stars. She cleared her throat. “Um, disperse. Go away. There’s too many of you.”

As soon as the thought formed in her head and before she’d finished speaking, all the crows remaining on the ground lifted to the air, rocketing to the sky at breakneck speed joining the others. They merged together into one swirling mass, then disappeared. One instant the sky was filled with their shifting darkness, the next it was its normal palette of dark blue sky and celestial light.

She returned to Rylan, who used the sleeve of his shirt to dab at his bloody face.

“Where did they go?”

He shrugged. “Away. To the other side.” He pushed his sleeves up. “You know, for most of the myths floating around out there, there’s some sort of factual basis. There’s a reason crows and ravens are associated with the death and supernatural.”

She dropped her arms to her side, letting the cool night air wrap around her bare skin. “Thanks for the history lesson, but why are they obeying me?”

Another shrug. “Dunno. I assumed since they’ve been following you, you somehow called them to you. I’m not sure how all this works.”

“This,”—she pointed to the sky—“cannot be happing. This can’t be real.” Her parents, the shadows, the voices, the birds all echoed around her head. She forced herself to focus. “My parents. I left them there all alone with those things. I need to go.”

“No.” Bloody as he was, he was still freaking handsome, damn it. “We need to stay until we know what we’re going to do. They’re not interested in your parents, it’s you.”

“Figure out what? You just said I can’t trust anyone, and you don’t know everything.” She turned away from him. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder.

She ran, straight back into the trees. Her feet pumped with the need to be home and safe. She’d follow the tree line down to one of the side streets that would take her home. She’d avoid the main roads since she was, you know, in a nightgown and scratched and bleeding.

She didn’t make it very far before they found her again. Shadows shifted in the trees around her, merging and bumping together. “Go away!” she yelled at them. Maybe it’d work with them as well as it’d worked with the crows.

No such luck. They came out of the trees. Shadows filled in with shapes: skin, hair, eyes, and teeth. Most looked human, but some did not. She recognized some from her room, others she hadn’t seen before. Some crawled, dragging themselves through the foliage with their arms. They begged and pleaded, gaunt with big, pitiful eyes.

They’re sick.
There were hundreds surrounding her, filling her head with their voices. She couldn’t tell if the voices were spoken out loud or not. The familiar pounding started inside her head.

“No.” She put her hands over her ears, but it was still loud in her head. “No, please. Go away.”

Purple flames licked her palms, working their way up her arms. The light of the flames grew brighter and brighter. As it did, the shadows closed in on her. They pulled on the hem of her dress, caressed her hair, steely cold hands wrapping around her ankles and wrists, pleading with their sick, empty eyes.

She frantically kicked and waved her arms, tried to break free, to run away, but she couldn’t move.

“Celeste!” Rylan appeared, forcing his way through the crowd. “Damn it, I told you!” He fought through the crowd, sending the sick
Sidhe
flying in his path. He grabbed her arm, roughly kicking one of the crawlers off her leg. Her hand was in his. Warmth flushed up her arms, and purple flames wrapped around his hand. He paused, closed his eyes, and wavered on his feet.

She put her arm around his waist to steady him. “Rylan. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” he said. His eyes popped open, rippling, blending green with gold, flashing with light. “Careful,” he said. “You almost pushed me over.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to—”

He pulled her through the mass of
Sidhe
, pushing and kicking his way through the strange crowd around them. Once he freed them, he let go of her arm. “Run. We need to get back to my house.”

She obeyed, following him through the trees. He ran so fast his legs were blurry, but he constantly glanced back to make sure she was behind. She was getting close to the edge of the tree line, out of the painful foliage, when two hard jabs punched her on her upper back. She managed to shoot her hands out in front of her, but the force of her fall still pushed her face into the dirt.
What the hell?
She flipped over, hands up.

It was floating a few feet in the air, but it gracefully landed in front of her as she watched. She was about Celeste’s height, wearing black spiky boots and black clothes. She had long, black hair pulled into a strange series of knots around her head. She was shadowy, almost see-through. Half there, half not.

Celeste’s stomach twisted as she took in the strange form in front of her. The thing radiated evil.

“Celeste?” Rylan’s voice floated through the woods, barely discernable. Good, he’d finally realized she wasn’t behind him.

The thing glanced up at the sound of his voice. She twisted her face into a sick copy of a smile. She crouched down and held out a shadowy hand, complete with long, black fingernails. She put her palm up and bent her fingers forward twice in rapid succession. An invitation.

Celeste scooted away as best she could on her butt. She kept her palms down in the dirt, feeling the need to hide her purple flame.

The thing’s smile faded. She dropped her hands, then grabbed Celeste’s ankles and pulled Celeste with surprising force. Celeste arms gave out and she hit the back of her head on the ground.

It pissed her off. She kicked her legs to free herself, managing to kick the woman in the head. The woman backed off, holding her head, a quizzical look on her face.

“Oh, shit.” Rylan’s voice came from right behind her. Two strong arms wrapped around her chest and pulled her to a standing position, backing her away from the creature. “We need to get away.” He grabbed her hand and they tried to leave, but the evil woman was in front of them in an instant.

As she stood, she wavered, almost turning completely translucent, then solidifying again. She shot out one slim leg and kicked Rylan in the gut. He dropped Celeste’s hand and doubled over.

“No!” Celeste stood in front of him. “Stop!” She held up her hand, purple flame blazing.

The creature reached for her hand.

Rylan batted it away.

Anger flashed over her strange features. After a blur of black motion, she sent Rylan rolling. He landed several feet away, entangled in the crowd of
Sidhe
ringing them.

Celeste ran to him, wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. She left his side momentarily to jog a quick circle around him, begging the light to go into the ground.

It did. The jagged purple circle she made with her footsteps formed a glowing ring around them. “Go away!” She walked in another circle, strengthening the original line. Purple flames wrapped around her arms, her legs, danced across the earth whenever she took a step.

The creature stormed in their direction. She came to the edge of the circle, smiled, and lifted a spiky boot. As her foot tried to cross the line, a strange sensation pricked Celeste’s conscience. She pushed back. “No!” A surge of force spilled through her hands and radiated out the circle like a shock wave. The creature disappeared first, then a few seconds later, the
Sidhe
were also gone.

She dropped to her knees, panting with effort. Her eyes landed on Rylan, who tried to stand up, one arm still wrapped around his torso.

She stood then helped him up. “You okay?”

He nodded. “I’ll be fine. She wasn’t at full power, just a fraction.” He cocked his head to the side. “No more running away from me, please.”

“What was that?” she said.

“Bad apple. They call her Fayga. She’s very, very old and very powerful.” He dusted off his shirt.

She examined his face in the bright moonlight. His scratches from the birds were nearly healed, but dried blood bathed half his face in gore. “That was just a fraction?”

“Yes, thanks to you. I was worried she might show up since you’re new, and you’re not, um, trained. She probably thought she could bully her way through to our dimension.”

He took her hand. “Come on. There are more like her. We need to come up with a game plan. You’ve bought us a few minutes.” His expression bordered on admiring.

“Okay.” She stared at their pale, entwined hands.

He pulled her through the forest and led her down a narrow alley. “We don’t want to be seen.”

She nodded in agreement. It was crazy stupid given all the things that had just transpired, but the only thing she could think about was him touching her. His long, strong fingers were wrapped up in hers, and it felt good. He wasn’t letting go, and she wasn’t either.

She pondered this and many other things as they slipped through an open gate and through the back door of his house. He led her straight down to the earth cellar, releasing her hand as she climbed down to the dirt room.

“I’ll be right back.” He came back in a few minutes with two bottles of water and a bundle of clothes for her. She thumbed through them; gym shorts, a t-shirt, and a fuzzy pair of socks.

“I know they’ll be way too big, but hopefully you’ll be more comfortable. I’ll leave you for a moment.”

She waited until the cellar door closed, then stood and pulled her nightgown over her head. She was shocked at the transformation it’d undergone. The once gently scooping collar was torn and the long skirt and ruffles were shredded and covered with dirt, blood, and feathers.

She pulled on his clothes then sat cross-legged on the floor while she waited for him to come back.

He brought two oversized square pillows with him. He put one down, sat on it, then tossed the other to her.

“What do I do?” she asked, as soon as he was seated. “I need to go home. My parents are freaking out. They’re going to call the police.” She pushed her hair off her forehead. “Will those things follow me home?”

“Yes, but your parents won’t be able to hear or see the vast majority of them.” He took a long drink of water. “Humans cannot see most of the
Sidhe
.”

“Oh.”

“But, I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to see the purple stuff on your skin.”

“That could be problematic.” She held up the palm of her hand. Even now, a tiny, pea sized purple flame danced across her skin.

“We’re only active in this world at night. Maybe it won’t be there during the day. I’m just not sure.”

She sat up. “You mean, during the day, I’ll be fine? Voices? No shadows? Visions? Flames?”

“Not really, it’ll be a lot quieter. I’m not sure about the visions and stuff. We need to find someone who knows more about the
Tuatha
. I’ve only met one other one before, so I don’t know. I wish I knew how to find her again.”

“So what do I do? I can’t live down here,” she asked.

He leaned against the earth wall, and closed his eyes. After a moment, his green eyes opened, gold flecks flashing at her.

“Who set the salt ring around your house?” he asked.

“Tink.”

His eyebrows rose. “Interesting. He could have some natural inclinations. I could feel it when I stepped over circle’s edge. He may be able to help us with protection.”

She nodded. “Okay, what else? What do I do about the pressing problem of shadow people following me everywhere I go, and this Goth Fayga chick who apparently can still kick my butt even if she’s not all the way here?”

“I guess we have to risk it. We need to call that shrink tomorrow but we need to meet her in public, during the day, until we know whether she is friend or foe.” He stood. “You already know how to make them go away. Make the circle around your house at night, banish them, like you did tonight.” He paused. “Can’t do that forever, though.”