The Silver Mist: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 6 Page 22

  The room fell silent. There were only a handful of us who had been in on the plan, and most of us were here. That meant we had an informant.

  Herne paled. “Who? It can’t be one of us.” He gazed around the room. “Who else knew?”

  “Cernunnos, Morgana…did we tell Névé and Saílle?” I asked.

  “I honestly don’t remember at this point.” Herne’s expression clouded. “We obviously have a mole, and before we do anything else, we have to figure out who it is. Yutani, could someone from the Tuathan Brotherhood have followed you back on the Dark Web?”

  Yutani paused, his gaze thoughtful. After a moment, he shrugged. “I’m not sure. It would be one thing if we weren’t dealing with the astral web as well, but when you factor in magic and the ability to scry, I can’t guarantee that it didn’t happen.”

  “It doesn’t help that we’re going to have to go further out on the Dark Web to trace them,” Herne said. “It’s a dangerous game, this is.”

  “Life is dangerous,” Viktor said. “We have no choice. We can’t turn away. Your father and mother made it clear this is our task to figure out.”

  “Before we say anything more, we should figure out if they put a trace on him,” Talia said. “Yutani, can you check for that now?”

  Yutani nodded. “I’ll get my gear. It’s in the car.” He jogged out of the room.

  After he left, Talia turned to Herne. “I’m going to ask you something, and I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but it’s something we have to consider. Do you think that Coyote could be spinning some shade our way? Not deliberately, but Yutani is his son, and chaos falls in the wake of his journeys.”

  Herne raised his gaze to meet hers, a solemn look on his face. “That’s also something we must consider. But keep the thought quiet for now. I don’t want to make him feel like he has to run. He was cast out by his village when he was young. I won’t have that experience repeated.”

  I caught my breath. The joy over saving Rafé’s life was rapidly dwindling. Herne’s phone rang and he glanced at it.

  “My mother. I’ll be right back.” He moved to the other side of the room.

  Yutani returned with his backpack, and he pulled out an odd-shaped device that reminded me of a Y-shaped piece of metal. He pressed a button on the handle and held it out, scanning Rafé from head to foot. A moment later, a red light flared at the end of the right fork. He turned to me, nodding and pointing to Rafé’s arm, where the GPS trace we had inserted had been ripped out. I motioned for Angel to man the door, and she reluctantly moved to watch over it.

  Talia joined me as Rafé held out his arm. It was the one that wasn’t broken, and so Talia gently unwrapped the bandages where the doctors had stitched him up. She eyed the wound, and then turned to Rafé. He simply nodded, bracing himself.

  I pulled out my dagger. I had recently sharpened the blade, so it was razor-sharp. Viktor silently handed me a bottle of disinfectant and I wiped down the blade. Herne returned and started to say something but Talia held her finger to her lips and he fell quiet.

  I motioned for him to take hold of Rafé’s arm and hold it steady. Viktor rolled up a towel and handed it to Rafé, helping him put it in his mouth. We couldn’t wait till we were back in Seattle.

  Cautiously, I slid the blade through the stitches, and the blood began to weal up through the gash as I reopened the wound. Rafé bit down on the towel, sweating as I grimaced and pulled back the flaps of skin. Yutani held a magnifying glass over the area and sure enough, there was a tiny wire inside. Given the doctors had merely thought they were sewing up a gash, I had no doubt they had missed seeing it.

  Viktor motioned to Talia, who found a pair of tweezers, and she very carefully plucked out the wire as I held the flaps of skin back. Yutani nodded, holding the gadget over the wire. We had found the trace. They had removed ours and inserted their own. Talia handed it to Yutani, who took it over to the sink and washed it down the drain. He held out his detector, then let out a loud sigh.

  “It’s out of range. It can’t hear us now. But everything we’ve said around Rafé since we found him is likely to be common knowledge among the Tuathan Brotherhood. They know we’re searching for them on the Dark Web, and they’ll be watching.”

  “That still doesn’t tell us how they found out in the first place.” I turned to Herne.

  “So they had the gall to put a counter-bug in Rafé’s arm.” He frowned. “That was my mother on the phone, by the way. She wants to see Ember and me tomorrow, as soon as we get back to Seattle. Which means we better get on the road as soon as possible. I don’t want to leave Rafé alone, so she’s sending guards to watch over him till he can be transferred back to the city. They’ll be here within an hour. Then, we head out and catch the ferry.”

  “I’d like to stay with Rafé—” Angel started to say, but Herne shook his head.

  “No, sorry. I can’t allow that. I don’t want anything happening to you, and right now, things are just too dangerous. There are guards from the compound out there, looking for us.”

  Angel started to argue, but stopped as he gave her a stern look. I motioned to the others. “Let’s leave them alone for a few minutes while we wait for the guards. We can sit outside in the hall.”

  Herne agreed to that, and so we waited for half an hour until Cernunnos’s Elven guards arrived. As they took up their places in Rafé’s room, we headed out to the parking lot. The snow was softly falling, but the wind had died down. I gazed across the street at a thicket of trees. For a moment, I thought I saw Fiona dancing in the stark splendor of ice and snow, but then she vanished.

  As Herne opened my door for me, he whispered, “I saw her too. Isella. She’s free and she’s exploring her powers. Who knows what she’ll become?”

  I stared at the trees again, straining to catch another glimpse of her, but all I saw were snow-clad trees and a field of white. How many people could say they had been present at the birth of a goddess…or the creation of a Luo’henkah? The thought chilled me and I quickly ducked into my seat. All the way to the ferry terminal, I kept my eyes on the road, afraid that if I looked out to the side, I’d see something that reminded me of things and experiences I wanted desperately to leave behind me.

  THE NEXT DAY…

  * * *

  HERNE AND I were walking through Cernunnos’s grove. A clearing surrounded by oak and ash and thorn, circled by a ring of fly agaric, the grove was near his palace in Annwn.

  Here, spirits danced, and earth elementals lumbered through the land, shaking the rock and soil with their massive footsteps. Cernunnos’s grove was magic incarnate, alive and ever watchful. In the center of the grove, two thrones rose, one formed from the trunk of an ancient oak and the other from the trunk of an ancient willow. Their roots were still buried deep in the ground, and the seats of power had been formed by no hand, but by the trees themselves. Pockets of emerald and peridot and smoky quartz glimmered from knotholes in the oak throne, and in the willow, sapphire and moonstone glistened, peeking out.

  Cernunnos was sitting atop the oak, his chest bare. His olive skin shimmered, every muscle defined and taut, a massive map of the eons through which the Lord of the Forest had ruled. He wore a bearskin fastened at the neck by a knotwork brooch, and black jeans spanned his tree-trunk thighs. His eyes glimmered, green with gold flecks, wide-set like those of a cat’s, and his hair was draped down to his thighs in coiled braids. His headdress was feathered in the shape of a hawk’s head.

  Beside him, on the willow throne, sat Morgana, her dark hair cascading down her back. She wore a diaphanous gown, violet with threads of dark blue running through it, so sheer I could almost see through it to her rounded breasts. Her eyes mirrored the silver of the moon. The diadem on her head shimmered with diamonds, and a faint mist rose around her, like the mists that came in off the ocean waves.

  I went down on my knees before them and beside me, Herne did the same.

  “Rise, children, and be seated.” Morgan
a’s voice was ethereal, reminding me of the chords of a hammered dulcimer. “You have had a weary chase. Brighid told us of your friend Angus, my son.”

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to stop the Cailleach before she spun off a child.” Herne raised his head as he stood, holding out his hand to me. A bench sat behind us and we took our places, sitting hand in hand.

  “So Brighid said—Isella, the child of ice and snow. She’s free in the world now. We’ll have to keep watch on her, but Brighid has volunteered to take care of that. Unless she causes too much havoc, we will not intervene.” Cernunnos cleared his throat. “Some days, the mission schools you rather than the other way around. And the Cailleach is not an easy force to contain. Had we known about this in advance, I would have sent help with you before you even ventured over to the peninsula, but too little, too late. Angus must have known what was going on, but he didn’t want to admit it.”

  “Who is guarding the stone now?” I asked.

  “His daughter will watch over it, as she was raised to accept would happen.” Morgana let out a sigh. “Now, onto other, more serious, matters. Something has happened that sheds even more urgency and worry on the issue of the Tuathan Brotherhood.”

  Herne let out a groan. “What more could happen?” He had told them about the trace we had found on Rafé.

  Cernunnos grunted. “Corra’s awake. Your mother and I are traveling to Scotland next week since she refuses to come here, but she’s asked for us to attend and, given it’s Corra, of course we must.”

  Herne paled. “Oh cripes.”

  I glanced at him, confused. “Who’s Corra?”

  Cernunnos answered me. “Corra is an ancient Scottish serpent goddess. She only wakes when there are major shifts coming to the land or the country. She’s an oracle for the gods, you might say.” He waited for me to say something, but I merely nodded. There wasn’t much to say.

  After a moment, he continued. “While we attend her and find out why she’s waking, you are to find out everything you can about this Nuanda. I contacted Lugh the Long Handed, but he has no clue, or at least he’s not saying. I’ve never fully trusted him, but there’s no way to know what the truth is save for the Triamvinate forcing him to swear an answer and that’s not going to happen any time soon.”

  The only thing I knew about Lugh the Long Handed was that he was yet another Celtic god. Herne had never really talked about him.

  Herne cleared his throat. “Lovely. All right, we’ll dive into it. We’re also having to delve deeper into the Dark Web—into the magical workings of it.”

  “Be cautious, my son,” Morgana said. “There are powers there that are best left sleeping. You don’t want to wake up one of the nameless ones who haunt the etheric caverns.”

  Herne nodded. “We’ll do whatever we can to be careful. I assume after you find out what Corra wants, you’ll tell me?”

  “If need be, yes.” Morgana paused. “Ember, I also have a task for you. I don’t think you’re going to like it. You must go into the cities of Navane and TirNaNog and seek out the remaining members of your family lineages. There are two items that they have kept from you—one on each side. While I can order Saílle and Névé to allow you entrance to the cities, you are the one who must retrieve your rightful heirlooms. You will need them in the coming months.”

  I stared at her. I had never been in the great Fae cities—I wouldn’t even be allowed in if I tried, given I was a tralaeth. And now I was supposed to waltz in and demand they give me family heirlooms?

  “What are they?” I asked, not even attempting to bargain my way out of her demand. Over the past months, I had learned that when the gods ordered you to do something, you did it.

  Morgana stared at me for a moment. Finally, she said, “A crown and a bow. The crown is with your great-grandmother in Navane. The bow is with your great-uncle in TirNaNog.”

  My lips went dry. “My grandfather’s brother?”

  “The same, yes.”

  I began to shake. I didn’t want to set foot in either city, let alone face the families who had contrived my parents’ murders. I sought Morgana’s gaze, pleading silently for a reprieve, but she slowly shook her head.

  “I’m sorry, but you must do this, Ember.” And so it was set.

  AFTER WE LEFT THE GROVE, Herne took me to another, just as lovely but smaller in size, with one throne in the center of the clearing. It was a throne of oak, similar to Cernunnos’s, but smaller in stature.

  “This is yours, isn’t it?” I turned to him.

  He nodded. “I thought you might like to see it.”

  “It’s beautiful,” I said, running my hand over the ancient oak. “I never would have imagined you sitting on a throne, and yet now that we’re here, I can see it so clearly.” I turned to him, suddenly hungry for his embrace. “I need you. It’s been too long, and so much has happened.”

  He pulled me into his arms and, without a word, kissed me, his lips warm on mine, his arms encircling me, shielding me from the storms that were running rampant in our lives. As our kiss deepened, he tugged at my shirt, and I pulled away, letting him slide the sweater over my head. I shivered in the chill mists around us, but then he embraced me again and his body warmed me through. We shed our clothes, and there, under the rising moonlight of Annwn, he pulled me down to the grass and made love to me, his hands sliding over my body, his lips caressing me, his gaze focused solely on me.

  “I love you,” I whispered as he entered me, suddenly aching to hear those words in return. There was a wistful feel to the grove, as if time had stopped and here we could say anything, and could hope for anything, and as long as we remained within the borders, the universe was ours.

  “Ember,” he whispered, slowly moving inside me, his chest pressed against my breasts. “You are my love. You are my heart.”

  To my core, I felt the truth of his words. And as the moon continued to rise, he kissed me and loved me until everything else faded and we were the only ones in our little world.

  YULE—MIDWINTER…

  * * *

  THE NEXT NIGHT we all gathered at my house, including Rafé, who was in a wheelchair given his broken arm and leg. Yutani had built a makeshift ramp so he could enter the house easily.

  I had spent the day decorating the tree and it was shimmering under the firelight, glowing with soft hues of blue and silver and sparkling white. I glanced outside. The snow had stopped, but it was still cold, and across our side yard, the blanket of white looked comforting rather than fearsome. The lights on the trees outside the door were glowing against the night sky, and I found myself humming an old song my mother had taught me when I was little.

  “Greensleeves was all my joy, and Greensleeves was my delight…”

  Yutani joined me by the window and lent his voice to mine. I glanced at him, surprised he knew the words, but he just smiled and sang a counter-balance to my melody.

  “Greensleeves was my heart of gold, And who but my lady Greensleeves.”

  As we finished, I turned to him and impulsively gave him a hug. He seemed surprised, but hugged me back.

  “I’m glad you found your father,” I said.

  “I am too. Would you do me a favor? Would you tell Raven that…I won’t bother her? I’d like to be friends, but I won’t pressure her.”

  I nodded. “I’ll tell her, but you might want to tell her yourself. I think that would ease some of the tension.” I patted his arm and turned back to the party.

  Angel had outdone herself in the kitchen. A crockpot of wassail was steaming away on the counter. A massive prime rib roast sat on a platter, surrounded by roasted carrots and brussels sprouts, while a turkey and stuffing sat on another. Dinner rolls, cranberry-raspberry sauce, and mashed potatoes and gravy completed the sides. For dessert, she’d made a chocolate-peppermint Yule log, divinity, and coconut cream pie.

  Everybody was there—Herne, Talia, Yutani, Viktor and his girlfriend Sheila, Charlie, Raven—who was walking with a cane—and Kipa. Ki
pa and Raven were obviously getting cozier—it was easy to see, just watching them. They sat together and grinned at each other in that way that belied new relationship secrets.

  “Have you decided what to do about Lazerous?” I asked Talia as we set the table for dinner. “Or is that still up in the air?” It had been awhile since she had found out that the liche who stole her powers didn’t live very far from us, and we might be able to get her powers back if she wanted.

  Talia shook her head. “I’m still thinking. I don’t know what I want, and until I do, I’m opting to just put the matter on the shelf.”

  “Probably best that way.” I winked at her. I headed back over to where Angel was setting out dishes of food on the long kitchen island. While the table in our large eat-in kitchen was big enough to seat all of us, the food needed to be served buffet style. “Everything ready?”

  She nodded. “I think we’re good. Go ahead and call everyone to dinner.” She gave me a soft smile. “I’m so glad we made it back in time for Yule. And that we have a family to spend it with. I miss DJ, but he texted that he’s having fun with Cooper and his foster family. They’re staying up at Mission Ridge. I never thought my little brother would learn to ski.”

  “Did you tell him about DeWayne calling?”

  She held my gaze for a moment, then shook her head. “No. There’s no reason. DeWayne isn’t interested in knowing his son. He just wants to get as much as he can out of him. Don’t you say anything, either.”

  “I won’t,” I promised. “But I have an uneasy feeling this isn’t over yet.”

  “So do I,” Angel said. “But until we know for sure, let it be.”

  As we gathered around the table, with me on one end and Herne on the other, I tapped my water glass and stood. “Angel and I just want to say thank you, everyone, for joining us on this Solstice night. Life hasn’t been easy lately for any of us, but you are all family. For the first time in years, we don’t feel alone in the world, and we have the Wild Hunt to thank for that. So, that being said…Blessings to everyone on this, the longest night of the year. Let’s drink to the return of the Oak Lord, and the death of the Holly.” I held up my glass and everyone followed suit.