Haunting Desire (35 page)

“Stop,” he said, holding up a hand. “Think. What were you doing just before?”

“Bathing. Ellie and I were washing away the blood. And I was worrying about Dad. I felt this . . . I don’t know . . . spark between me and Ellie and then everything went . . .
thick
. And the next thing I knew I was there.”

“Right,” Kyle said, with a look of triumph. “You were thinking of him and you went to him.”

“But I wasn’t thinking of you. Why did I bring you back when you hadn’t even crossed my mind?”

“When I saw you, Shealy, I couldn’t believe my own eyes. I remember reaching out to touch your shoulder right as you disappeared.”

“That’s right, you touched me. In the dungeon, too—that’s what you were doing. You were trying to reach Dad while you held my hand.”

He nodded.

“But Kyle,” she said, “I wasn’t thinking about Tiarnan when we were attacked and I certainly wasn’t thinking about Cathán.”

“Maybe Cathán was thinking of you,” he said simply. “You already know he was looking for you. And Tiarnan, well, let’s just call that destiny.”

He winked at them both and moved away. Tiarnan came to stand beside her again and his fingers twined with hers, anchoring her to him and giving her the strength to believe that she might be able to do this crazy thing they had planned.

Kyle went on. “Earlier today, right before you did your thing and took us to the dungeons. You saw me—”

“And thought of my father again. I was thinking of the study and seeing you with him. I thought if you were here, he must be near.”

Kyle nodded. “So maybe it’s as easy as that, Shealy. Maybe all you need to do is focus.”

Could it be? Could it seriously be as simple as putting her mind into it? Was this why she’d shied away from exploring her ability for so long? Why her father had kept so many secrets from her?

Frowning, she closed her eyes, thinking to test the theory, but Tiarnan stopped her.

“Wait,” he said, giving her a slight shake. “Not yet. If this works, we want to go together, yes?”

He looked up at each man in turn. His own people, Jamie, Zac, Reyes, and Liam, didn’t need the sharp nod they gave him. Eamonn did not hesitate to join, though he looked as anxious as a man could. Each of his men made their own decision and not one of them looked to Eamonn first. All but Nanda bowed out and stepped away.

Tiarnan put his hand in the middle of their circle as he’d done when they left the banks of the small islet where they’d lived. Jamie’s hand went next, then the others added theirs until the entire group was clustered close, shoulder to shoulder, hand on hand. Eamonn’s wolf nudged his nose into the group, and Eamonn curled his fingers into the soft fur, connecting the canine to the circle. Nanda still held Ellie, and Shealy wished there were some way to leave her little sister somewhere safe, but she knew there was no such place. Shealy squeezed forward and put her hand on the top of the pile.

Jamie looked back at the group of men who’d opted to sit this one out.

“Last call,” he said.

But they’d made their decisions, and with resigned glances, they faded into the forest.

“Think of yer father, Shealy,” Tiarnan said. “Take us to him. Now. Take us now.”

That soft voice had whispered pledges of loyalty, words of love. Those lips had covered her body with kisses, had opened her heart to a world beyond her own selfish pain. She wanted to answer that voice. She wanted to please the man who used it. She wanted to do something right for once in her life.

But she was afraid.

Her father needed her. These people here needed her. They were trapped, and she might be the key to get them out. She’d been a coward for so much of her life, hiding behind her makeup, her injuries, her guilt. Now was the time to be more. If she really was
idir eatarthu
, then damn it to hell, she needed to embrace that.

She stared deeply into Tiarnan’s eyes, seeing within the golden brown a faith in her she’d never had in herself. He had pledged his heart to her. She would show him that he hadn’t made a mistake.

“The dungeons again?” she asked.

“No,” Kyle said. “Not the place. The person. We want your father, wherever he is.”

She closed her eyes once more and pictured her father. In her head, she heard his voice calling her name. As she had before, she felt a small spark against her skin, a sense that now, like the first time, something amplified it and made it bigger, more powerful, and she knew that was Ellie, reaching out with a bond that surpassed sisterhood. It boosted the tight coil of power inside of Shealy. The misted gel world closed in on her so quickly she was disoriented, but beneath her hand she felt Tiarnan’s and the others, locked in the oath to come, to help. To save . . .

She cast herself out and felt a vortex suctioning the air, pulling her through, and she held on as they flew through the thickness.

T
HEY hit the ground like missiles, scattered among trees that towered impossibly high. For a moment Shealy thought they must have only blacked out and were still in the forest where Eamonn had been camped. But no, these trees were different and the air . . . A strange, zoolike stench filled the night and covered them in a new kind of dread.

“Holy fucking Jesus,” Shealy heard Jamie say.

Beside her, Tiarnan took her hand. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, glancing around quickly, searching for her sister. She saw Ellie with Nanda and Liam.

“Y’ all right, honey?” she asked. Ellie looked dazed but she nodded. The others stumbled to their feet and shook off their confusion, doing a quick inventory of body parts and weapons. Shealy looked from one to another. They were all here—even Eamonn’s wolf had made it. Somehow she’d managed to move them but it still seemed impossible, and she had no idea where, exactly, she’d brought them.

Liam waited at Tiarnan’s side, now holding Ellie as Nanda brushed the dirt and leaves from his clothes. Her sister looked pale but strangely determined. She met Shealy’s eyes with a sparkle that seemed to speak to something deep in Shealy’s mind and she felt a hum of energy surging toward her. The same she’d felt before, when they’d been attacked by the three-headed monsters and later, when Shealy and Ellie had traveled to her dad’s study, and yet indefinably different. What was it?

Ellie leaned forward, put her hand over Shealy’s eyes, forcing Shealy to close them. Then her small palm moved up to rest against Shealy’s forehead. An image formed in Shealy’s mind of darkness so great and vast that it was terrifying and unending. In that black tapestry there was no glimmer of light, no sound, no scent, and then suddenly, like a bright star, a light gleamed, radiating possibility with its silver bright glow. The pulsing glitter of it seemed to wink at Shealy, to coax her forward. It urged her to reach for it.

Ellie removed her hand, and Shealy opened her eyes. She didn’t understand what had just happened, but there wasn’t time to figure it out because the men were moving. Ellie gazed at Shealy for another moment and then laid her head down again on Liam’s shoulder.

They inched to where the others had begun to gather and looked out to a clearing that stretched from the edge of the forest to the rocky cliffs above the sea. Mulling around as if trapped by invisible cages were creatures more bizarre than anything Shealy could even imagine. An enormous lionlike animal seemed to be sprouting a vicious-looking goat from its spine and its tail flicked with a fanged snake hissing at the end. There were the three-headed monsters they’d fought just yesterday, snapping and droning among the others. A huge boar standing on its hind legs roared and swiped bear claws at a lizard the size of a hippopotamus.

“Salamanders,” Nanda said with a shudder.

She’d thought salamanders to be quick and harmless little reptiles, but the creature she stared at was far from that. It reared and spat at the boar, which screamed with rage. Flitting at the circumference of the field was something else that moved so fast she couldn’t make out what it was. In the distance she could see the sea, and bathed in the silver moonlight there seemed to be a dark shadow wading in the waves—something too big to comprehend.

“Don’t look at it,” Tiarnan warned. “It’s too terrible to behold.”

Shealy pulled her gaze from the undulating shadow and looked at Tiarnan. “What is it?”

“Nothing y’ want to know more of.”

On three sides the looming forest towered around the clearing and the creatures. No visible cage confined them, but the tree line acted like a natural enclosure and they seemed to have no desire to leave it. Straight ahead were two rocky hills that rose like mountains and held balanced between them a stone structure—a temple shaped like a spaceship. It seemed to hover in the sky, rising like something created in the time of myth, a horribly twisted bird’s nest of polished marble that shone like bone in the moonlight. A balcony ran the entire half, open like a twisted grin to the field below. The structure was neither man-made nor nature’s creation. It was ghastly and terrifying.

And that was where her father would be. She knew it.

Tiarnan motioned to the others and they gathered round. “We can reach the balcony if we approach from there—” He pointed to the spill of boulders and rocks that made up one side of the eerie, elevated structure, leading to a point where the edge of the opening nudged the hillside. “Once we get there, we find Shealy’s father and then . . .”

He faltered for a moment.

“And then we pray,” Kyle said simply.

They nodded in consent. It was as good a plan as any.

Quietly they cut through the trees, keeping low and silent to avoid the attention of the creatures, and then they moved to the rough hillside rising above them. Jamie, Zac, and Reyes went first, climbing with agility and confidence. Ellie scrambled onto a rock and then onto Liam’s back, clinging like a monkey as he ascended. Nanda was a few steps behind, watching the child with concern, looking like he’d be ready if she should lose her grip and fall. Eamonn and his wolf followed, though the canine kept stopping and looking back at the monsters milling below with a cross between alarm and glee.

Tiarnan and Kyle both stared at Shealy for a moment.

“Are y’ ready?” Tiarnan asked when she knew what he really wanted to say was “stay here and wait.” She saw the fear in his anxious expression—not fear for himself, but fear for her.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Without waiting for him to help, she followed the others, finding handholds in the boulders and clambering steadily up. Behind her, she heard Tiarnan and Kyle following.

They reached the point where the bright balcony seemed to hover in midair. Zac was in the lead now and as soon as they’d all gathered, he made a graceful, silent leap over the chasm and onto the side. Bracing himself, he reached back, and Reyes went next, then Jamie. Liam handed Ellie over before making the jump himself. Moments later they were all safely on the smooth surface. Below them the creatures paced and roared, unaware their fortress had been breached. To their left the balcony opened onto what appeared to be a large circular chamber. Huge tiles made a shiny patchwork on the ground and climbed the walls to the ceiling, making the room like an optical illusion. There were voices coming from inside.

“Where is your daughter?” a man asked with disdain. His voice had a strange, musical quality that enticed. Shealy took a step forward without even realizing.

“ ’Tis Cathán,” Tiarnan said with revulsion, holding her back.

“Safe in her bed, dreaming of a bright future,” came the answer from another man. Shealy recognized that voice. She bit her lip, fighting the instinct to charge forward.

“That’s my dad,” she breathed.

Beside her, Tiarnan took her hand, as if he’d heard her thoughts and wanted to be sure to restrain her.

“I will find her,” Cathán said, “and you will see how futile it is to defy me.”

Her dad didn’t reply to this and the quiet stretched for a long moment. Zac inched closer to the door and peered around it. When he looked back, he held up five fingers and then made a motion that indicated two people waited on either side of the entrance and the other three were in the middle.

“My men are out searching for her. I will find her. Make no mistake.”

The satisfaction in Cathán’s tone was ironic. He should have left his men behind to watch the back door.

“It sounds too good to be true,” Tiarnan breathed. “We outnumber them.”

From the chamber, Cathán raised his voice again. “And you, Meaghan Ballagh. Who brought you here?”

Meaghan Ballagh?
Shealy looked around to see if any of the others recognized that name. Kyle stepped forward and said in a low voice, “When I escaped Cathán’s men, I saw a woman. She was captured.”

Shealy suddenly remembered the woman she and Liam had seen. She’d wanted to help her but there’d been no chance of a rescue.

Shealy heard another man speaking now, and his voice was deep and soft, as seductive as Cathán’s but somehow more . . . human. He said, “When you answer, tell him
he
brought you.”

“You brought me,” Meaghan parroted.

Shealy frowned. That was strange. Surely Cathán had heard that deep voice prompting Meaghan. But when Cathán spoke, it was with breathless awe.

“How?” he said. “How did I bring you?”

“Tell him you cannot begin to comprehend his powers,” the silky deep voice murmured.

“How the feck should I know how?” Meaghan said. “You did it. You figure it out.”

“Get ready, Shealy,” Tiarnan whispered.

Before Shealy could begin to understand what went on in the chamber beyond them, Zac and Reyes moved like the fighting unit they were. They whipped around the corner as one, blades at the ready, and charged. Liam shucked Ellie from his back, ordered her to stay with Shealy, and then he, Jamie, and Nanda disappeared. She felt Tiarnan’s fingers trail over her shoulder and then he rounded the corner with Kyle on his heels.