Awakening (Book One of The Geis) (29 page)

“It was my pleasure, little one.” Ansul dipped his head toward Zoey’s. His voice was deep and had a celestial, musical quality unlike anything I had ever heard.

“Rourke, Ansul,” I said, moving swiftly over to Josh’s motionless form. “Can you help him?”

Something impossibly cold and sharp wrapped itself around my neck. I froze. Cliona stood behind me, her claws digging into my flesh.

“If I can’t stop you, I will take what is precious from you!” she cursed at Rourke. “You, too, will feel what it is like to have everything you love ripped from your hands.”

“Cliona, let the girl go,” Rourke pleaded. “Take me instead.”

Rourke’s words swam in my mind. He had taken the place of someone once before, and lived out centuries of banishment as a result. I watched helplessly as history repeated itself.

“No geis will save your family this time,” Cliona spat.

“Cliona,” Ansul’s voice boomed. “You will not survive this. Let her go and I’ll spare your existence.”

“You cannot kill me, Ansul, and you know it!” Cliona’s voice was high-pitched and desperate. She laughed, and her claws began digging into my throat. A sickening, syrupy smell filled my nostrils as the banshee whispered despair into my ear.

My blood turned to ice, and I could no longer feel my body. I felt so tired. The world would be better without me, I thought. I spiraled downward as layer upon layer of hopelessness folded in on me. I could feel my life’s cord being drawn thin. Soon it would snap, and I would be lost forever. Part of me welcomed a release from the torment.

Josh’s motionless body lay at my feet. He would miss me—somehow, through the thickness I was mired in, I knew that. He would be devastated at my loss.

I clung to that spark of light and felt the goodwill of my friends flowing over me like a spring thaw. My strength returned. As the feeling returned to my hands, I realized I still held the dagger Aunt Avril had given me. I pooled the emotions inside of me and thrust them behind me, at the banshee. She faltered, and then moved to grip me tighter. I saw my chance. With a quick, fluid motion, I rammed the dagger into Cliona’s body behind me, a blind move borne of desperation.

Cliona screamed and released her grip. I fell forward and caught a glimpse of Cliona with a dagger protruding from her hip. Then Ansul’s flames engulfed her.

The blue fire pinned her body to the mountainside. I backed away. Once or twice I thought I saw a ghostly form try to escape, but Ansul’s fire reacted to contain it. The fire intensified, burning a brilliant yellow. I turned away from the light and heat that seared my face. When Ansul let his fire die, there was nothing left of Cliona except ash and the pain she had caused.

I buried my head in Zoey’s hair and breathed in the smell of her, all sunshine and lilacs. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again, Squit.”

With Zoey hanging onto me like a monkey, I sat next to Josh in the snow. His eyes were open, but his face was pale. Josh’s eyes found mine. “Hi,” he murmured. I shushed him, alarmed at the heat radiating from his cheek as I put my hand to his face.

Rourke knelt next to him, and Leah looked at me with concern.

“Can you do anything for him?” I asked, hopeful. Josh looked terrible. I was afraid that he wouldn’t make it down the canyon to the hospital.

With sure hands, Rourke stirred the air around Josh, forming a ball of air above his chest. My eyes widened as a blue mist escaped the cavity Rourke made with his hands. It settled over Josh’s chest, filling him with life-giving breath. Rourke straightened, alarm evident in his eyes.

“Cliona was not trying to kill you,” Rourke told Josh. “She was trying to make you one of her own.”

Josh closed his eyes and clenched his fists. I slid Zoey off of my lap and onto the snow next to me, covering one of his hands with mine. The shock of everything we had been through hit me all at once. Cliona had tried to take Josh from me—not through death, but in the way she knew would hurt me most—by turning him against me. The thought made me lightheaded. I clung to Josh’s hand.

“Will he be all right?” I asked Rourke.

Rourke looked first at Josh, and then at me, before nodding. “He will live. But that kind of magic leaves its mark.”

Using his elbows, Josh pulled himself up to a sitting position. Already the color was returning to his face, and the sickly purple veins receded.

“What is that?” Leah asked. She ran a finger along the part in Josh’s hair. I leaned forward. Along Josh’s hairline, a thin streak of grayish-white hair stood out against his brown coloring—a physical reminder of the pain he had endured. For me.

Ansul perched above the spring, waiting for Rourke. The brilliant sunset had faded to a dusky glow. The time for traveling between worlds was almost past. And now the way was clear.

Rourke limped heavily across the rocky streambed to the spring opening, stopping only to put a hand on the arm of Officer Bassett. His healing touch stirred the policeman from his slumber. Rourke motioned for Leah to step into the water. She waded into the stream without hesitation.

Rourke stood next to Leah in the water. He put a hand to his mouth, and lowered it toward me until both of his hands were cupped together. “Thank you,” he said as he signed, placing his cupped hands over his heart. I smiled through tears that threatened to fall.

Rourke nodded to Ansul.

Water churned and bubbled around Rourke and Leah’s ankles, as if it were boiling. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the spring water crept up their legs, covering their bodies until they were surrounded with a bubble of liquid. The water suspended Rourke and Leah for a split second, and then it crashed back into the stream, flowing with the rest of the water down the mountain.

When I blinked, Rourke and Leah were gone.

Zoey put her arms around my waist. I draped an arm on her shoulders, and together we walked to where Aunt Avril had fallen in the stream. I searched the snow on the bank of the stream, holding on to a slim hope that she might have escaped the weight of the enormous stone. We gathered pieces of her necklace that had burst from the pressure of the banshee’s wail, and I put them in my satchel.

Josh came from behind us. His ashen face looked pale in the waning light. Without hesitating, he stepped into the stream and walked around the boulder. I chewed on my fingernail, waiting for him to circle from the other side.

Josh shook his head. Aunt Avril was gone. I fell to my knees with Zoey, not caring if the cold snow seeped through my jeans. Aunt Avril had only been a big part of my life during the last few months, and yet I felt bound to her in a way that I’d never felt with anyone else. Tears streaked down my face, and I didn’t bother to wipe them away. I squeezed Zoey tighter to me. Even with Aunt Avril gone, the magic remained in us.

Josh knelt next to me, heaving for breath. I turned my head into his shoulder and sobbed. Zoey sat between us on my lap.

Now that it was over, a mixture of relief and disappointment swirled through me. Rourke did it. He finally returned to his home in the land of youth, and with Leah, too. Now that Rourke was gone, I would be on my own to learn more about this newfound power that I could wield with my emotions. And the dance school didn’t even exist anymore—not without either Rourke or Leah.

“I’m so sorry.” Josh searched my face.

“Are you all right?” I asked, tracing the streak of white in Josh’s hair.

He looked drained, but he gave me a weak smile. “I’m feeling better already.”

This wasn’t the first time he had attacked a banshee for me.

I remembered something. “You signed to me.”

Josh raised his eyebrows, as if supplicating forgiveness.

“How did you know it?”

“I picked it up here and there,” he whispered.

“Here and there?” I couldn’t believe him. All of the times when Rourke and I had had conversations that I didn’t want anyone else to understand . . . “That’s so not fair.”

“About as fair as you not telling me that you can summon a dragon.”

“That’s different. I didn’t know I could do that.”

His lips were pinched with pain, but he focused his eyes on mine. “You are amazing, do you know that?”

I looked down at Josh’s hand in mine, leaning into his embrace.

Josh looked over my head. “Someone is waiting to talk to you.”

I turned to see Ansul, his leathery wings folded under him, still standing guard over the spring ledge. Josh squeezed my hand and let it go. Zoey put her little hand in mine, and we walked to the dragon.

Ansul towered above us, fifty times larger than the lizard we were used to. Blue and green scales reflected what little light was left in the canyon from the setting sun. Ansul’s golden eyes were as large as billiard balls. In their reflection I could see an image of Zoey and me, small and vulnerable in the snow.

Zoey reached her hand out and stroked Ansul’s leathery underbelly.

“Hello, little one.” Ansul’s voice boomed through the canyon. I tried not to flinch at the sound. Zoey answered him with a tiny voice.

“I told you he was a dragon,” Zoey said to me, tipping her head back to see all of him.

“You were right.” I squeezed her hand. “I’ll have to listen to you more often.”

“That is good advice,” Ansul agreed.

“Without you, we would have been lost,” I said. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” The dragon bent his head low.

“Why did you stay and protect us?” I asked. “When I set you free, you were no longer bound to protect our family.”

“Service does not always mean slavery. I have served your family for many centuries. Through that service, I learned to love. I will gladly serve you whenever you are in need.”

I smiled, grateful for his loyalty, even now. “You saved us—you killed the banshees.”

“All but one. I could not harm Cliona as I could the others. Cliona is an Arbitor for the geis,” Ansul said.

“But the geis is fulfilled,” I protested.

“No. The geis is a complicated curse, one filled with counter-oaths. This geis is only awakening.”

“That’s what Cliona said. Is that why Aunt Avril’s bullets could kill the other banshees, but not Cliona?” I asked.

“Yes. The protection of a geis is both a blessing and a curse,” Ansul responded. “I did the only thing that I could manage—I made sure that Cliona could no longer dwell on this earth.”

I stood close enough to the dragon that I could see the individual scales of his armor. His enormous blue tail wrapped behind us and down the empty streambed

“Rourke needs you now, doesn’t he, Lizard?” Zoey asked.

Ansul lowered his head until his eyes were level with hers. “Yes, little one. I must go home.”

“Will we see you again?” Zoey asked.

“It is certain.”

Zoey wrapped her little arms around Ansul’s neck. As she pulled away, a scale loosened, fluttering to the ground. As large as a salad plate, the scale reminded me of an abalone shell, with inky swirls of blues and greens dancing across the surface.

“Goodbye.” Zoey gripped the scale with both hands. Josh came and stood behind us.

Ansul, the dragon who once was a lizard, leaped into the air. He flew over our heads, down the canyon. As he circled back around, I worried how his enormous body would fit into the cavern. Right before he hit the mouth of the spring, Ansul roared, bathing the opening of the spring with fire. He sailed right through the flames and vanished from view.

Officer Bassett stood, mouth gaping in disbelief. A few short months ago, I would have had the same reaction. But now I knew there was more to believe than what I could see with my own eyes. I closed my eyes and felt for Josh’s hand in mine.

From deep inside the spring, water gurgled and churned. I opened my eyes. Seconds later, water spilled from the opening until it became a roaring spring, spilling down the mountain, bringing the waterfall to life again.

“You don’t look so good.” A dazed Officer Bassett put his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “We should get you checked out. Do you want me to call an ambulance?”

“No, it would draw too much attention,” Josh said. “I don’t feel like answering any questions.”

Officer Bassett looked relieved. “I was hoping you would say that. I don’t know what all of that insanity was, but I can’t call it in. I’d lose my badge.”

I pulled the paper Aunt Avril had given me from my satchel. “Aunt Avril said if something were to happen to her that I should contact Crew Madison of the FBI. She said he would believe in banshees.”

“How about badass blue dragons?” Officer Bassett shook his head.

“Aunt Avril said he would clean up the legal issues,” I said, smiling at his bewildered expression. It seemed to satisfy him.

Officer Bassett escorted us down the mountain. When we got in cell tower range, I called Crew. He wasn’t surprised to receive my call, and said that a team was already on its way due to a call from Aunt Avril an hour earlier. I was exhausted, but I relayed everything to him as we drove down the canyon, well aware of how crazy it sounded. Crew took it all in stride, asking questions as if I were reporting a petty theft—but when I told him about Aunt Avril, the phone went silent.

Crew asked us to wait at Canyon View Park until a team of agents arrived. Officer Bassett was whisked off for debriefing. A pleasant-looking Agent Johnson, who introduced herself as a para-psychiatrist, interviewed us from the back of a black van.

“I deal in the paranormal,” Agent Johnson said matter-of-factly, brushing a speck off of her immaculate navy suit. “I’ll believe anything you tell me.”

I relayed everything that had happened, with Josh and Zoey inserting facts. I thought I was fine until I started telling her about the rock crushing Aunt Avril. I started shaking, and the thin blanket someone had provided wasn’t enough to keep me warm. Josh put his arm around me and finished telling Agent Johnson what happened.

“Your parents have already been contacted. We informed them of the news of your aunt’s death.” Agent Johnson paused, her expression never changing. “There was no one like her. Avril will be missed.”

Agent Johnson asked if we had anything that connected us to the off-worlders, which I assumed referred to Rourke, Ansul and Cliona. I gave her my dagger, and the broken amulet that Rourke had given me, but I didn’t say anything about the dragon scale that Zoey hid underneath her shirt.

A funeral would be held for Aunt Avril, and a missing persons report was on file for Leah. Agent Johnson told us not to talk about what had happened to anyone. We were encouraged to speak freely within our family, but she implied that we would be sent to an internment camp if we went public or posted anything online.

I spent the next few days at home in Aunt Avril’s apartment, recovering. I curled up with her calico cat, expecting her to burst into the room, chatting with Theron. But she never did. The FBI cordoned off the springs while they searched for additional evidence. Agent Johnson paid us a visit several days later to see if our story had changed. Either they couldn’t find Aunt Avril’s body, or they considered it evidence, because she told Mom and Dad that Aunt Avril’s casket would be empty at the funeral.

The day before the funeral, Josh and I were sitting in his living room on the couch. He was in his wrestling sweats. The white streak in his hair had spread to cover most of his head. The combination of his young, handsome face and white hair made me laugh.

“You look like an old man,” I joked.

“Do you have a thing for older men?” Josh asked, raising one eyebrow.

“I do for this one.” I snuggled into his side.

“Do you think I should dye my hair?” He put an arm around me. “You know I’m going to take all kinds of crap for this.”

“I like you just the way you are,” I said.

Josh’s mom came in the side door, her shirt filled with eggs that she had just collected from the hen house. She smiled as she slid past us into the kitchen.

Josh shifted to look at my face. “You know, there is another feis in Utah coming up in a few more weeks.”

My heart sank. “We don’t have a teacher.” Losing Rourke and Leah was still too painful to dwell on. I missed them a ton.

“I called Taminy a few days ago.”

“Really?” I said, surprised. “How did
that
go?”

“Her teacher offered to sponsor us for the rest of the season. She said she would start coming down twice a month next year if we all agreed to switch over to her school.”

I was floored. “How did you get Taminy to do that?”

“It turns out that underneath that crusty shell, Taminy isn’t that bad.”

I made a face.

“Especially if you are not pining away trying to steal her boyfriend.” Josh winked.

I hit him. “Stop it!”

“That means we’d be taking lessons with Taminy. Could you handle that?”