Traitor (21 page)

It was my turn to be silent. The static between us seemed to magnify. I whispered my response, but not out of fear. “Are you threatening me?”

“Are you that thick? Do I need to spell it out for you? Yeah, you git, I’m threatening you. Get her back. I don’t care how you do it, but you better get her back. I’m coming over there now.”

Click.

He hung up on me. Seriously? I sighed and put the phone back in my pocket. Aiden glared at me. “Happy now?”

“Dude, you told me to call him!”

“Because he deserves to know!”

I scoffed. Aiden had a point, but it wasn’t his place to tell me what needed to be done. I didn’t even know this guy. Plus, there were enough reasons to not tell Liam that I wasn’t sure whether telling his really was the best idea. With my back against the wall, I just said what came to mind without thinking it through. “Why? Because he’s always been there for her? He left her when he first found out what she was! He tried to kill her! I’m pretty sure he doesn’t deserve to know anything. What he deserves is a punch in the mouth. You weren’t there to see how hurt she was when he kissed Krista last year, or when he straight up blew her off without even waiting for an explanation. Don’t tell me what I need to do. Just because you’re Liam’s brother doesn’t mean you know anything about this situation.”

Aiden flew off the couch and got in my face. His nose was only a hair away from mine, and his breath was hot when he spoke. “Don’t you dare talk about my brother like that!”

His persistence made me even madder. I wasn’t even sure why I was yelling, but Aiden had no right to be raking me over the coals. “I’ll talk about him any way I want! We both know I’m better for Ashlyn anyway. It’s only a matter of time before she realizes that. I would never leave her, and I will always take care of her.”

He laughed derisively. “Oh, like you are right now? Just letting her go off to Neamar with no protection or plan?”

I cocked my arm back to throw a punch, but was caught in mid-motion. “Boys, calm down. We’re on the same team.”

Tess was behind me, holding me back. Her calm tone didn’t reach her eyes, which were fierce. I tried to shrug out of her grasp, but her grip was vice-like. She gave us each a long stare, and only then did she relinquish her grip. I didn’t go at Aiden again. I’d save it for when we were alone and his mom couldn’t bail him out. We glared at one another.

Aiden turned on his heel and stalked away. “Liam is twice the guy you’ll ever be, immortal or not.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Emily was in front of me a moment later. She blocked my view of Aiden as he disappeared down the hallway. I craned my neck around her just in time to see Aiden take the steps two at time to go into my room. That just felt wrong; this was my place, but here he was, acting as though he could tell me how to manage my duties as a Protector and then retreating to my room like it was his own. I could almost see red. Emily filled my vision once more as she waved her hand in front of my face. “Reese, drop the testosterone level a notch or twenty.”

Frustrated, I pushed through her and headed out the back door. No one came after me. Good. I didn’t feel like dealing with anyone right now. Honestly, I half-expected Emily to beat me senseless for pushing her out of the way like that. I would have deserved it. My mom taught me to treat women better than that. Immediately a pang of guilt stirred in my stomach. When I got back, I’d have to apologize. It wasn’t Emily’s fault I made the decision to allow Ashlyn to leave, and it wasn’t her fault that Aiden and I saw things differently

I stalked across the street and headed back to the little church that was Ash’s favorite spot. I wandered into the woods and wondered where the crack to Neamar was.

Dangling her feet ten feet above in a tree, Roslin made her presence known by hitting me in the head with a rock. She jumped out of the tree and landed silently in front of me, lithe and graceful. A playful smile danced across her face. “Whatcha doing out here?”

“Rozz, this isn’t a good time.”

“’Course it isn’t. When is it ever a good time with you?”

“Shut up.”

I continued through the woods silently, but there was no way Roslin could let go that easily. Her footsteps were nearly impossible to hear, but I could just barely make out the crunch of fallen leaves under her feet.

She sidled up next to me and put her arm through mine as she slowed us to a leisurely walk. “You know, you weren’t always this angry. When I first watched you, you were happy. I honestly thought you’d implode from being carefree. It was kind of weird.” She chuckled as she put her head on my shoulder.

I shrugged out of her embrace. “Yeah, well, now I know that crazy faeries roam the earth, trying to take out the girl I love. I’m also dealing with another guy who is great for her and I have no reason to think they’ll ever break up. But still, he can be a jerk. He’s moody, argumentative, and really not all that good at anything.”

“And you’re calling him moody and argumentative? Did you just hear yourself? You sound like the poster boy for teen angst.”

She had a point. I sighed. “I just don’t know what to do.”

Roslin laughed lightly, reassuming her position underneath my arm. “You have all of eternity. Be the bigger person.”

I nodded. “So what’s going on, anyway?”

She shrugged underneath my embrace and pulled out a phone. She waved the pink camouflage adorned phone it as though it were an explanation in and of itself. The case was ridiculous, which made me laugh. She shot me a dark look, and I shut up. “Liam called me and I brought him over. He’s back at the house on a warpath because, according to him, you suck as a Protector.” I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up a finger and smiled as she continued on. “Ash is probably off saving MaKenna, if she hasn’t been kidnapped – which will be your fault, by the way – or worse, killed. You want her, so does Liam, and probably a few guys from the high school. That’s neither here nor there, though. This isn’t what you’re asking about, is it?”

“Not really, but thanks for making me feel even better about myself,” I said with a sarcastic laugh. “I guess the better question is why is everything always happening to us?”

“Emily kind of started it all a couple hundred years ago. You’re just the lucky ones to be caught in the crossfire,” Roslin said, sighing. Her shoulders slumped for the first time, and I saw her as being a little more human than I had before. She stopped, picked a purple flower from beside the path, and twirled it between her fingers as we continued on our walk. She pulled petals from it absentmindedly and led the way as I fell in step beside her. “Ashlyn is way more into this saving the day nonsense than I thought possible. She really wants her dad back.”

“Is that even possible?”

Roslin bit her lip. “There are ways, but none of them are good.”

I nodded. Nothing seemed too unbelievable these days. “And why are they not good if it’ll bring her dad back?”

“Because it would make Ankou stronger. That’s something none of us want.”

That made me pause for a moment. “Are you talking about that necklace that Ash has been harping on? How would it make Ankou stronger?”

Roslin pulled the gum from her mouth and twirled it around her finger before putting it back in her mouth. She eyed me for a moment, then popped the gum behind her teeth. “Memaw and a…friend, shall we say…may have cursed him and not allowed him to die. If we negotiate with him, if we give him what he’ll want in exchange for Ashlyn’s father, he’ll be closer to being able to cross to the other side. I don’t think Ankou would really cross over anymore, though. No one does. That’s why we have protected the ways that would give him the ability to cross. That way he won’t ever come to full power. Ankou at full power would be truly terrifying. His abilities are beyond anything I could ever explain to you. I saw him before Memaw cursed him. It’s something no one should ever have to experience again.”

“And just for argument’s sake, what if we gave him what he wanted and he crossed over? What then?”

Roslin shrugged. “There’d need to be a grim reaper. Someone would have to take his place, and no one is going to want that job, now are they? But like I said, if we thought it’d be so simple as to replace the person who ferries souls, we’d probably risk it. The fact of the matter is, we’ve gone and made him so mad, he would probably stay. He’d have his full power back, and he’s truly immortal at this point. We’ve just watered down his abilities. It’s the lesser of all the evils he’s capable of.”

“Makes sense why he’s so grumpy, though.”

She laughed. “Yeah, it does, but it doesn’t make giving him the option to cross over any better. He’s angry. He’d take it out on the entire Glaistig race before he crossed over, if he ever did at all.”

“Gotcha. I just think that if Ash had her dad back, things might be easier on her. She’s really hurting, and I don’t think there’s anything that any of us can do to fix what she’s going through.”

Roslin put her head down. “Well, it’s not that I disagree with you. I think everyone longs to have their families intact. The thing is, once someone is dead, even if you can bring them back like Ashlyn technically can, bad things will come of it.”

My head snapped to look at her. “What do you mean, bad things will come of it?”

“I just mean there are some things that aren’t natural. Aren’t supposed to happen. Coming back from the dead is one of them. If Ashlyn brought him back to this realm, it would cause more harm than good. For her, her family, and us. She could lose her chance to be immortal, or worse.”

“Worse?”

“Let’s just say I’ve heard of not so nice things happening to those who tamper with the otherwise departed. That’s something best left to the reaper.”

I nodded my head in a noncommittal way. In my opinion, it made sense to just give Ankou his soul back and kick him to wherever souls went when they were gone. It seemed like the Glaistig were scared of something that might not even happen, but Roslin hadn’t led me wrong yet, and if she thought it was better this way, maybe it was. I just didn’t get it personally. As for Ashlyn, I didn’t think she needed to be bringing any dead folks back, even if it was her dad. If it meant she could get into trouble, it was better if it was left alone. She seemed to attract a big rain cloud of crap and destruction anywhere she went as it was.

Roslin seemed to notice my mood and ruffled my hair in a affectionate fashion. It felt weird, and I blushed. She smiled at my reaction. “Come on, kid. There’s a ton to learn. Plus, you need to try to keep track of Ashlyn.”

“How do you suggest I do that?”

She grinned and took me by the hand. “I’ve got tricks, and I’m willing to teach you, since you’re my little grasshopper and what not.”

Roslin was a little weird, but I liked her. It wasn’t even strange to hold her hand, and I liked the way she looked out for Ashlyn and I. She seemed genuine, and she was really the only person I had to help me figure out this new life besides Memaw. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Memaw, she just honestly scared me a bit with the Rambo-grandma thing she had going on.

I’d take lessons from Roslin over Memaw any day. At least I’d come out with all my limbs still intact.

I
WOULDN’T ALLOW
myself time to think about what I was doing. Not like it would matter, anyway. What
was
I doing? There was no plan, no escape strategy. I had two days to find a way to get MaKenna home and save my dad. Two days. How in the world would that happen?

Then there was Reese. He was my Protector now, yet he willingly let me leave for Neamar with no backup or plan. Was he insane? Liam would have never been okay with this. I could see it now: I would come home and both of them would be at each other’s throats. Guys.

I stumbled over the dense underbrush as I attempted to think through everything going on. Thorns scraped against my scraggly clothing and I felt them gain purchase against the papery skin of the Changeling body I had shifted into. The prick and familiar feel of blood dripping along my skin gave me shivers. I’d grown too accustomed to bleeding and having injuries in varying states of healing. I laughed at the thought. This mission was going to make me crazy. Laughing at my own internal jokes was the first step to insanity.

What did it all mean? Was Reese a better Protector than Liam? Was it really true that he loved me? Everyone thought so. Why would he let me leave if he loved me so much? Or was Liam too overbearing? It all swam in my head and made no sense. No matter what I did, it would be bad. I was going to hurt my boyfriend or my best friend. It wasn’t an “if”, but a “when.” I just had to find the guts to really do what needed to be done.

If only I knew what that was.

Before I knew it, the sun had set and I was still wandering mindlessly through the inky-black forest. There were no stars to guide my way, just a vast, unending sheet of black. It was depressing. Then it hit me: I’d wasted a solid half a day just thinking over things that wouldn’t change between now and when I returned.

If I returned.

No, I would return. With my mind focused on providing light, a purple sphere erupted into existence in the palm of my hand. The warmth licked my fingertips and despite the bleakness of my surroundings, I smiled. Maybe this wasn’t completely hopeless.

I looked around for a suitable tree to open a crack to Neamar and found a dead, gnarled oak in the midst of a beautiful cluster of trees. Its limbs looked like arthritic fingers that reached skyward. No leaves grew on it, but thick clusters of Spanish moss hung limply and waved gently back in forth in the slight breeze. The purple ball of magic cast just enough light to cast shadows across the thick bark. The tree was so out of place amongst the rest of the vibrant and lush forest, that I knew it couldn’t be there by mistake. Even in death, the Oak exuded strength and a magical aura.

This was where the crack to Neamar would be the strongest.

I sighed and walked up to the tree. Before I could even begin to open a crack, the typical red haze of a crack opening began to appear. I jumped back in fear and was tripped by a tree root.