BRIDGER (34 page)

My knees buckled.
 
I grabbed Liam’s shoulder for support, the room beginning to spin. This was too much.
 
How much time had I wasted spouting off at the mouth with Jamie?
 
It had cost Memaw precious time.
 

“How do we get to Adaire?” I asked. Memaw had never mentioned how to get to Adaire, although it seemed that getting through a crack to Neamar was child’s play.
 
I looked at Memaw, hoping she was still conscious to answer the question because Liam looked like he was completely at a loss.

Memaw gasped again, grabbing her wrist now.
 
Pulling her hand away, blood began to rise underneath her ivory skin as though she had a blood blister.
 
It was blossoming along the palm of her hand now.
 
The blade was doing its silent damage with terrifying efficiency.
 
“Adaire can only be accessed by a Glaistig through their one portal they’ve created,” Memaw rushed out the words, pain distorting her beautiful face.
 
“Mine is downstairs in your bathroom, Ashlyn.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.
 
There was definitely nothing mystical or portal-like in my room.
 
If anything, the room was a black hole.
 
Things went in and never came out.
 
Memaw was going to end up dead because of my refusal to pick up after myself.
 
That would be par for the course.

“In your shower,” she said, her arm falling limply away from her body.
 
She moaned in pain.
 

Liam grabbed my wrist.
 
“Ashlyn, we need to go now!
 
The worm just cut the muscles connecting her arm to her shoulder.
 
It’s going to go on to the next body part.
 
We don’t have time to talk.”
 
He was shaking as he watched Memaw twitch in his arms. I was in shock. This couldn’t be happening.
 
Not to Memaw.
 
She was indestructible. One foot in front of the other, we reached the stairs to the basement.
 

Reaching the foot of the stairs, I looked around the room frantically.
 
Liam pushed past me.
 
He made a beeline for the bathroom.
 
He disappeared, the lights flicking on.
 
I followed him, all of us squeezing into the small bathroom.
 

Liam pushed me to the shower, shoving Memaw into my arms.
 
She winced in pain as I saw the worm making its’ way through her right arm now, doing perfect spirals down her forearm.
 
The blade was making a bloody trail underneath her skin in its wake. “Ashlyn, you have to take her.
 
I can’t cross over.
 
I’ll be here when you get back.”

I looked at Liam, terrified.
 
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Emily will show you.
 
I can’t be here for this.
 
I’m human, nothing more.”
 
His voice was frantic. As he went to exit the bathroom, he turned back quickly.
 
“Please be careful.
 
I’m going to be here the minute you get back.”
 
With that, he snapped the door shut behind him.

Memaw was passed out in my arms.
 
I shook her gently, trying to get her back to consciousness.
 
The blood loss was causing her to slip away, which was making it harder for me to concentrate.
 
The whole scene was quickly becoming a horror film. “Memaw, what am I supposed to do?”

She looked up at me for a moment before her eyes rolled back in her head.
 
“Focus on Adaire.”

“I don’t even know what Adaire is!”

She was fading fast as I stood in the shower almost as clueless as I was ten minutes before. “Then focus on…me.”
 

I had gotten as much of us into the shower as possible.
 
Not knowing what to do, pulling the shower curtain shut behind us seemed like a good idea.
 
Frantically searching for the worm, I found it near her right knee.
 
That meant both arms were no more than rubber hoses now.
 
The thought kicked my brain into high gear, yanking me out of my stupor I had been in since breaking the window upstairs. “Memaw!
 
What’s next? How does this work?”

Nothing.
 
At wits’ end, I closed my eyes tight, thinking of Adaire.
 
It became apparent that wasn’t going to work not a minute after beginning.
 
I had no clue what or where Adaire was.
 
Thinking of Memaw terrified me.
 
All that came to mind was Memaw’s broken body I currently held in my arms.
 

Impulsively, I turned on the shower, hoping that was the catalyst.
 
Instead, ice-cold water burst from the showerhead, causing me to gasp in shock.
 
I choked on the water, shaking Memaw back from her unconsciousness.
 
She shook her head and screamed in agony, her leg now a bloody crimson from the knee down.
 
“Ashlyn, you’ve got to get us there!
 
Bridge the gap!
 
Focus!”

I smashed my eyes shut once more, imagining Memaw in all her beauty.
 
I tried to imagine what Adaire might be like, hoping to get some miniscule detail correct.

After thirty seconds of pure nothing, I kicked the shower wall in frustration.
 
Instead of connecting with the wall, the kick went full force through air.
 
Slipping on the wet porcelain with the one foot still on the ground, I fell backward, smashing my head against the back wall.
 
I tucked Memaw in tight to avoid injuring her any more than what Jamie had already inflicted.
 
When we hit the ground, though, there was grass underneath us instead of porcelain.
 
Opening my eyes, we had somehow ended up on a sprawling lawn.
 
Sopping wet and completely disoriented, I struggled to get up and found a bare foot on my forehead, pushing me back down onto the grass.

“You might want to just stay down there, child,” a man’s voice said dryly.
 
“I’m not sure who you are or how you got here, but you’re carrying very important cargo in your arms.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

“Please, take her, she has a worm blade in her and it’s chopping her up alive!” I gushed, not even bothering to inhale.
 
“Her name is Emily McVean and she’s your assassin!
 
I’m Ashlyn McVean, her granddaughter.
 
Please take her and get the thing out!”

The voice still sounded disinterested, as though I wasn’t holding a woman who was internally bleeding.
 
“I know who she is, love. I've know her longer than you have. A worm blade, eh?
 
Emily must be losing her edge if she let one of those take root.
 
You’re the Assassin’s granddaughter, you say?
 
Very interesting that you made it over without the Glaistig’s approval or knowledge.
 
Obviously Emily didn’t cross you two over in her condition. You shouldn’t have even been able to come over. I’m curious to see what the committee makes of this.”

I leaned my head back in attempt to find the man.
 
His big toe nearly poked my eye out as it slid down my forehead.
 
“
Dude
, if you don’t take her now, I will shove my foot so far up your – ”

Another voice cut me off.
 
By the sound of it, a woman this time.
 
“Now, now, no need to resort to threats.”
 
I felt the weight of Memaw lifted off my chest.
 
“Take Emily to her room.
 
The healers will be able to mend her from there.”

The man was clearly bored. “She’s already lost both arms and a leg.”

“Nothing worse than when she came here after her fight with the Morrigan.
 
Take her now before the young one tries to hurt you.
 
We don’t need two McVeans in the infirmary tonight.”

The pressure of the man’s foot was suddenly gone from my face. Memaw's weight had disappeared as well.
 
I pulled myself up immediately, searching for where Memaw had been taken and who had taken her.

“It’s fine, little one.
 
Emily will be fine.”

I turned around to follow the sound of a southern drawl from the woman who had been talking.
 
I hadn’t known what to expect in this faerie land, but she wasn’t what I had in mind for a faerie.
 
For one, she didn’t have wings.
 
She also had no pointed ears.
 
In fact, she looked amazingly plain. She wouldn’t have stood out on the streets in Fairborn at all.

She wasn’t an unattractive woman by any means; she just wasn’t a memorable face, either.
 
She looked like she was in her late teens, early twenties. Athletically built, she had her hair cropped short and spiked all over her head.
 
At the roots it was a beautiful blonde like Memaw’s when she was in her immortal form, but at the tips she had dyed it bright purple and pink.
 
Her eyes were hazel and she smiled a gentle smile.
 
Her clothes reminded me of my own; she was wearing faded jeans and a black Aerosmith tour t-shirt dated 1973.
 
I instantly dropped my guard.
 
Her presence exuded safety.
 
I felt as though I had known this woman my entire life, although I didn’t even know her name.

I was unsure as to how to begin a conversation with someone that was probably older than my grandmother, which was saying something. “You like Aerosmith?”

The woman smiled as she posed in the t-shirt. “Oh, definitely.
 
I like a variety of music, but Aerosmith is one of my favorites.
 
You have good taste for a human if you like them.”

I nodded.
 
“I’m not exactly human, but I’ll take the compliment anyway if you don’t mind.”

The woman laughed.
 
“I didn’t think you were.
 
Your eyes changed to about six shades of red when Antony was refusing to take you seriously a moment ago.
 
That means you’re a Changeling, right?
 
But if you are, how’d you get across to Adaire?”
 

She looked me up and down, taking in what I’m sure was a sight to see.
 
I was drenched from head to toe, my jeans cut up and bloody from my bout with the window.
 
I shook my head, answering both her voiced questions and the ones that lingered in her eyes. “It’s a long story.”

Smiling, she swept her arms wide, looking to each side of her as if to invite me to do the same.
 
“Well, little one, welcome to Adaire. I’m Roslin and you’ve now met the Daoine Maite, or called Glaistigs among our faerie brethren.
 
We’re the faeries of Irish folklore that Emily’s told you about your whole life. We have eons of time on our hands, so I’d love to hear your story.
 
Probably won’t feel too long to me.”

My eyes roved over the new surrounding.
 
The countryside seemed Tuscan; hills of vivid green, orange, and red trees ranged out on all sides except for the east, where there was a pristine lake that was as smooth as glass.
 
White houses the size of small mansions speckled the land as far as I could see with cobblestone roads connecting them in spider web fashion.
 
Across the lake, settled on the high mountain that cut into the water, was a great stone estate.
 
It was easily six times the size of the largest mansion on this side.
 
The walls around it were made of the same large stones and it was obvious that the land behind it was even more expansive than the countryside we were currently standing on.
 
A waterfall fell from one of the two openings into the estate, causing a fine mist to throw rainbows into the air.
 
The other opening was through the beachfront that led into the walls.
 
A high, wrought-iron gate was closed where the sand met the green grass.
 
I assumed this was where the committee that Memaw and Roslin had spoken of resided.
 
A small boat was tied to a dock on either side of the lake.