The Fallen Stars (A Star Child Novel) (28 page)

Willock grabbed my wrists tightly. Refusing to let my pain show, I looked him straight in the eye, my mouth a firm line as he spoke. “No, sweetheart, I’m not a bastard. I had a life once, parents who loved me. Then my father gave up on me.”

Dillion intervened. “No—”

“Silence!” Willock glared at Dillion for a moment before turning back to me. “I did nothing with your beloved, as I said. I planned to take him to Arawn, but the Children of Danu, who I’ve manipulated to unknowingly support our cause, took him. Don’t worry about Mr. St. James, though. He seems to have persevered,” Willock said this last with a measure of disgust in his tone.

“What do you mean? How do you know this?” My voice tone leveled out as I tried to keep my desperation from showing.

“Because he’s standing at the door listening to our conversation.” He looked up to the door as he spoke.

“Wha—” My eyes flew in the direction of the front door and rested on Kellen, who stood with the door a
quarter of the way open, his hand resting on the frame.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

KELLEN—
LAPDOG

My hand rested on the side of the door that I’d so carefully pried open in an attempt to make as little noise as possible. Though I tried to be quiet, Cali, Dillion, and William all stood staring at me, the latter with a sardonic smile that I wanted to knock off of his face with a solid punch.

My gaze trained on Cali for a moment. I’d picked a good time to come back. When I found Gabe’s car I realized that I couldn’t continue alone. I needed help, but it looked like Cali did too.

“Nice of you to join us, St. James. I’m impressed. I thought for certain you’d be stuck in the Cusp forever, or at least until Arawn got to you,” William said.

Arawn.
My heart slammed into my chest. I’d thought I’d killed that monster. Yet, I remembered stepping back after I’d plunged my sword into him, and Lugh and Brigid warning me that it could happen. That he could come back. Unfortunately, I’d imagined that it would have taken longer, rather than happen almost immediately. Taking a step into the room, I moved swiftly over to Cali and faced William.

“Arawn? I’m surprised, William. I thought you were working for Cana.” I tried to keep the combination of surprise and dread out of my voice and instead opted for a nonchalant approach. If this guy wanted to mess with me, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him see how freaked out I was.

William shrugged. “Actually, I usually go by Willock, and I like to play the field. Cana thinks I work for her. I’ve been doing everything in my power to make her think that. However, I’ve simply been using them as a back-up plan. If I lost sight of you then I knew that the Children of Danu would search for you and find you.”

“What do you want with me?” I asked.

William/Willock smiled. “Why you’re the key to Danu’s amulet.”

“The amulet!” Cali gasped, her face white. Her mind seemed to be in overdrive.

“What amulet? I don’t’ have an amulet,” I said.

“Why Danu’s amulet of course. It contains a greater power than you could ever imagine,” Willock said.

“But I don’t have it,” I said.

“I know, but I needed to use you in order to get it from the one who does.”

“And who is that?” Cali asked, touching my arm.

Willock didn’t answer her. Instead, he smiled at her and gave her another one of his appraising glances, which he knew would piss me off.

“Stop,” I said in warning, placing my hand over Cali’s eyes to break the connection. The back of my hand burned like I’d bumped it into a hot pan. “Don’t use her like that. She doesn’t want you.”

Willock seethed, staring at me like he contemplated killing all of us right then. I’d pushed too far. I had to stall.

“If Arawn wanted me so badly, why did you save me in the woods? What did you have to gain?”

Willock smiled. “Because Arawn does need you…I feared that Cana would have slaughtered you. They have no idea why I really set them on you. And I couldn’t have you dying prematurely,” Willock said.

“Why do they want this amulet so badly?” I asked. Cali’s hand turned over in mine. I swallowed, trying to play it cool.

“The Children of Danu believe that you have total control over them, that you are the only one standing in the way of their freedom. In fact, they have no idea that Arawn is still alive. I doubt that they would have been as cooperative had they known.

“You killed Arawn. They think that you have stolen his power, thanks to me.” Willock’s eyebrows rose, as though he too found this information hard to believe.

“What does he need with me? Whatever it is, I won’t help him. I decide my own fate,” I said.

“You are now the only one standing in the way of Arawn realizing his full power.” Willock sat on the edge of a chair, his voice taking on a conversational tone. “My plan was to leave you out there and let you run around for a while, you know, losing your mind,” he raised his hands in the air and used air quotes in conjunction with his words, “in the Cusp. Since you’re here, though…well, it’s a win-win. You can just come with me.” Willock stretched his arms out in front of him.

Adrenaline pumped through my body. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re just a pawn in Arawn’s game yourself, a two-bit hack.”

Willock’s eyes flared at me. With his being a warlock, I probably should have been afraid. He could probably fry or impale me or something messed up like that. But I didn’t care anymore. I was tired. Tired of being on the run, tired of the danger, the hassle. Every fiber of my being wanted to take Cali and run away somewhere. Preferably somewhere warm that didn’t remind me of fall in Maine.

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Kellen.” Willock wrapped his princely fingers around his own neck and gave a squeeze. “You’ve been the pawn all along.”

“My son appears to have plotted against you from the beginning,” Dillion said.

“Your son?” Where Willock had failed to shock me a moment ago, Dillion succeeded. My mouth hung open just a fraction of an inch until I remembered my manners and closed it. “How is that possible, Dillion?” I looked at the little man who stood weary, in between Cali and Willock.

Cali touched my arm. “I think it’s been difficult enough for Dillion to share his memories. I’ll tell you another time.”

Willock sneered. “You assume that you’ll
have
another time with Kellen. These are your last moments together. Shouldn’t you be holding one another?”

Before I could get a grip on what was happening, my body slammed into Cali’s of its own accord as Willock controlled us like puppets on strings. Pain shot through my arm where it smacked against hers. We were crushing one another.

“How about a kiss, lovebirds?”

“Willock, enough!” Dillion raised his arms and in the next instant, we were thrown apart, just as Willock was slammed backwards through the front door with enough force to leave a cartoon-like hole in the wooden structure. Cali and I gasped for air, taking stock of the other’s condition before we turned to look at the door. Willock took several moments to get up.

“Wow.” I looked at Dillion with newfound respect. He had powers like that? Incredible.

Willock stood and took out a wand. With a flick of his wrist, he suspended Dillion upside-down by his feet. Dillion dangled in the air for only a second until he extended a hand and did the same to Willock, binding his arms again so that Willock hung suspended by his feet, his arms and legs bound. The magick did not hold, however, and in an instant Willock was free and Dillion was bound. Willock laughed, taunting Dillion.

Dillion threw his arms down at his sides. “Enough!” Raising his arms into the air again, there was a terrible rumbling and with a mighty series of crashes, the house that we stood in effectively came down around us. Crash after crash, it came down in pieces. Dust and rubble clogged the air, making me cough.

Blinking to clear my eyes, I looked around and realized that everything had been destroyed save the small circle in which we stood, dust-covered but otherwise free from harm. The darkness formed a halo around us as dust settled. The moon made an appearance at that very moment, its bright rays illuminating the incredible scene before me: Gabe’s beautiful family home destroyed in an immense pile of stone and wood.

“Very good, Father! Impressive magick!” Willock applauded, but he stopped in the next instant when Dillion reversed the magick, returning everything to its former state. One moment we were in the middle of a glorious amount of wreckage and the next we stood within the house exactly as it had been.

I’d seen some unbelievable things in Faerie, breathtaking magick to be certain. Dillion’s magick wasn’t even the most impressive that I’d witnessed. However, what concerned me the most about what Dillion had done was the magnitude of his magick and the fact that it had been focused on destruction. Neither the intense power nor the destructive element to it seemed to reflect the immortal that Dillion was. Was it simply Willock that provoked him, or was there more to it than that?

“You won’t be taking the boy anywhere.” Dillion’s voice contained an unveiled threat. He moved himself to stand in front of both Cali and me.

Willock took a step further. “I will, and you’ll give me the amulet.”

Cali’s breath hitched. She looked at Dillion, horror etched onto her face like a Gothic statue. “Uncle,” she whispered. Her mind seemed to be working overtime, a machine searching through all of the possibilities.

Dillion looked at her, his face sad. He seemed to age another twenty years right in front of us. Turning back to Willock, Dillion spoke in a soft voice. “You know I do not have it.”

“Of course you do.” Willock’s expression changed to one of regret for a split second as he looked at his father. If I hadn’t been watching his every move, I wouldn’t have believed it myself. “You know why he wants the amulet, too. Don’t even pretend that you don’t.”

“You believed in the cause once. She asked you to help her too. You knew what we signed up for,” Dillion said.

“That was before my father gave up on me.” Willock’s voice sounded childish, hurt.

Dillion stared at Willock with what seemed to be a tenderness that was so contradictory in nature to what had just happened, that I looked to Cali to confirm what I’d seen. Her grim, knowing smile indicated her understanding, and I edged even closer to her now that Willock’s attention had shifted from us to Dillion.

“That’s what Arawn wanted you to believe. He specializes in creating a mirage for those he entraps. Nearly all of Faerie is made up of beautiful, stunning vistas, but it is not real. It is trickery!” Dillion said.

A tear leaked down Willock’s face and he continued as if Dillion hadn’t spoken. “Arawn warned me that I shouldn’t waste any sadness on you. He told me that you weren’t ever going to come for me, that you didn’t even look for me.”

Dillion stepped forward, gripping his son’s arms. “He lied. I love you. I always have.”

“No,
you
lie! You think me a fool, Father. I know that you never wanted me, that it was always Mother who did. When she died, you decided to abandon me. I won’t listen to such nonsense!”

“I never gave up on you, Willock. Not once.” Without ceremony, Dillion rolled up his sleeves. Dillion looked directly at Willock. “The battle scars that I endured trying to find you. Arawn’s minions fight well. I did search for you. Though I imagine that Arawn treated you in much the same way that a normal father would treat a son.”

Willock shuddered. For a moment, his eyes were empty, twin ghosts haunting a million memories. When he spoke, it seemed as though it pained him. “At first…but then his other son became his favorite.” Willock stared at me then, almost as if I was the other son that he spoke of. A chill swept through me. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be Arawn’s son.

“Let go of the hate inside of you, Willock. You were not made of hate. Our job was always to protect the Crown. In doing so, we protect Kellen,” Dillion said.

What? What Crown? What did that have to do with me?

Willock stared at him, as if searching for the truth in his eyes. Dillion nodded, perhaps confirming whatever Willock might have found there. “I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he said. Dillion took a step further and wrapped his arms around his only son. Willock stood ramrod straight in Dillion’s embrace, tears streaming down his glistening face. “Father—”

Dillion looked at both of us. “Go. Go now.”

My heart seemed to jam itself into my throat so that I couldn’t swallow. I wasted no time. Without looking back, I grabbed Cali’s coat from the hook by the door before the pair of us ran through the kitchen and out a little side door onto the balcony and down the stairs, trying not to slip on the wet steps. I had Cali’s hand gripped tight in my own, maybe a little too tight, but I couldn’t let her go. I’d already lost Gabe. I couldn’t lose her.

We had no place to go. We didn’t have a car or a plan. The house behind me seemed too quiet. “I’m worried about Dillion. Maybe we should go back,” I said.

Cali pushed me ahead, hard, prodding me to run faster. “We can’t. Mortals have no chance against a warlock.”

My body shook as it hit home how much danger we’d been in and the danger that we were still in.

The dog waited for us, whining almost impatiently. Mounting his back, I gripped his fur once more. Cali jumped on behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “Skyler, go! Just go!” she cried. The beast immediately began to run, its thundering footsteps breaking the quiet of the night.

“His name is Skyler?”

Cali firmed her grasp around me. “Dillion sent him.”

Focusing on the road in front of me, I gripped Skyler’s neck more firmly. “What did Dillion mean about Willia—I mean Willock being his son?”

“Dillion and his family were in the great battle. Arawn took Dillion’s wife’s head and his son when Willock was only sixteen. Dillion’s been looking for him ever since.”