The Fallen Stars (A Star Child Novel) (31 page)

“Ugh.” Thoroughly disgusted, I spat mud out of my mouth and brushed myself off as I stood up. So flying was definitely out. I started running again. Closing my eyes almost all the way, I whispered, “Water, I call upon you.”

Looking around I glimpsed and experienced nothing different.
Water: no.

My feet pounded on the ground and I wondered if I hadn’t been giving the elements enough focus. I had to get away from the voices that I’d heard before. I also needed to find out what gift I’d been given.

Stopping, I whispered, “Earth, I call upon you.” But as I stood there, no scents or smells or sounds came to me.
Earth: no.

“She came this way.” New voices were fast approaching.

You’re a fool, Cali.You need to get away from here and you’re just walking around like a lost little girl.

Turning, I ran, fearing that I would trip at any moment. I tried to be aware of my surroundings, but with only the thin moonlight for illumination, that was next to impossible.

Giving up, I took to a nearby tree, climbing its large branches. With no foliage to hide me, the hiding place was risky, but what choice did I have? Upward and onward I climbed, gripping the rough bark. The night had grown still around me. Too still. Not two seconds after I reached the tallest branch, they arrived. There were three of them this time.

“This way! Do not let her get to the mountain!”

Another voice—the greedy voice of Cana—pierced the night air. “I can sense her.” How was that possible? Was it because I’d called on Fire?

“You did not ask for her! I don’t know why we’re wasting time with the girl.”

“Oh please, Walter. You are a dramatic one, aren’t you? I want her. She’ll lead me straight to Kellen St. James and then the amulet will be in my possession.” Cana’s voice made my skin crawl. “Plus there is the added benefit that once she has been killed, my brother will finally suffer for all the pain that his failure has caused us.”

“I did not agree to capture the goddess,” said Walter. Walter seemed like a very nice faerie.

“But she is a goddess no longer. She has no powers. She will be ours for the taking.” Even in the darkness, I could see Cana’s grin in her words.
This was my aunt.
I shuddered.

“How do you know?” Walter said.

Cana laughed. “Because we’ve had a spy.”

“Wil’k.” Bob’s confirmation earned a chuckle from Cana.

“Of course. Young Willock has definitely earned his keep. Once the St. James boy turns over the amulet, we will have our freedom and I shall have my beauty back,” said Cana.

My heart pounded in my chest. Willock deceived everyone. Now he would die, like his father, but having chosen the wrong side.

“We have our freedom here already. Bob and I are not like your kind,” said Walter.

Cana cleared her gravelly throat. “Maybe you have your freedom
now,
Walter, but you won’t for long if St. James uses the amulet against us.”

“Maybe we should spread out?” Bob suggested.

“We could…” Cana’s sly voice caused my heart rate to jump a couple of notches. When I’d climbed, I’d tried to pick the most secure branch. However, any weight on the treetop of such a tall, thin tree could throw it off-balance. The fronts of my legs were shaking from the effort of crouching in my spot in the tree. I looked over to the tree next to me before looking down. Could I make it without giving myself away? No.

Then Cana looked straight up into the trees and right into my eyes. Her smile widened.
Pure evil
. “Or we could simply…look up.”

Swallowing, I decided to try the only element I’d had yet to test. “Fire, come to me!” I whispered.

Cana waved at me. “Hi, princess! It’s Auntie!”

“Oh, no.” The whispered phrase left my mouth before I could stop it. Hands cramping from holding the tree in such intense cold, I stayed exactly where I was. Even if I could reach another tree, it would do no good.

Perhaps if I shouted it instead of whispering?
“Fire, I call upon you!” I shouted into the still night. Nothing happened.

“Ha! You waste your time, mortal! You have no more power.”

“I am the daughter of Lugh and Brigid. I will
always
have power,” I said, forcing as much animosity into my voice as I could muster.

Something remarkable happened then. As I spoke, I noticed that my fingers, once frigid with the cold, were now warming. Quickly they heated up as if my entire body were defrosting. Soon the warmth grew and spread, but more important, so did my strength.

Fire had come to me.
With this realization, I knew that I had only to call upon the element and I would be able to command it to do my bidding.

Careful not to let on, I kept the news to myself as Cana nearly cackled beneath me. “You have nothing, and your parents will have nothing too. We’ve made it impossible for them to even assist you, my dear.” Gritting my teeth, I held my tongue. “Then once we kill you, we’ll have had the ultimate revenge on Lugh. We’ll also have our freedom,” Cana declared. “Because you will lead us to Kellen St. James.”

“I don’t know where he is, but more important, Kellen doesn’t have the amulet.”

There was a collective gasp from Walter and Bob below. Cana was the first to regroup. “Of course he does, you silly girl. Once he gives it to me, we’ll be free.”

“Willock has it now. Kellen never did. Willock used you to get information. He’s been siphoning it to Arawn, you foolish woman.”

Before I could prepare, I found myself propelled downward through all the levels of the great tree until I reach the ground, my bottom rapping smartly on each branch as I descended against my will. When I found myself face-to-face with Cana’s hideous single eye, I let out a slow breath. Though she sneered at me, I could tell that what I’d said struck a nerve.

Walter spoke up, moving closer to the group’s leader. “See, Cana? Bob and I don’t really want—” The ground exploded beneath Walter’s feet and he was tossed into the air. Up, up he went until he’d gone even higher than the tree and out of sight.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back.” Cana’s voice sounded almost apologetic as she looked at Bob, who had both hands extended and a horrified expression upon his face.

Then, as quickly as he’d shot up, Walter came down. Bob placed a hand out in front of him and seemed to slow down Walter’s progress. Walter too seemed to employ the same strategy, so that he landed unscathed.

Walter gave Cana a murderous look. “You try and repel me from the Earth for speaking my mind?” He looked like he wanted to say more, but one look from Cana appeared to silence him.

Bob shifted from side to side. I wanted to turn and run, but I found I couldn’t move my legs.

“Going somewhere?” Cana said.

“Go to hell.” The words again slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.

“Ha! I’ve already been there! Once you’ve done Hell in the spring, well, then its just passé, if you know what I mean.” With the flick of a wrist, Cana propelled me backwards into the same tree I’d just climbed. I tried not to react to the white-hot pain in my back, but instead held my head up high. Cana stood there, simpering. Straining, I tried to see her as the beautiful woman she once was. Her tone condescending, she said, “Respect your elders.”

Cana turned her back to me for a moment and that’s when I realized that I’d lost the partial paralysis. Though moving my limbs brought discomfort, even pain, it could be done. Not wanting to give myself away, I said nothing.

“How does it feel to be held captive? Unable to move?” she asked. Again, I refused to give her the satisfaction of a response. Cana jerked her head toward me. “This one won’t be able to call for help as long as we keep her tied up. Once we have the young St. James, we’ll be free for good.”

Shuddering, I spoke up. “My father came for you, more than once, you know. To save you.” Cana, who had turned to me the moment I spoke, didn’t say anything. Buoyed, I continued. “It’s true. He came more than once to help you. He even pleaded to Danu and Bile for help before Arawn murdered them. My father only gave up when you all tried to imprison him with you. He could no longer help you at that point.”

Shock registered briefly across Cana’s face, but then it disappeared.

“Maybe we’re acting too hastily,” said Walter.

“No.” Cana approached me like she walked upon eggshells. “You know nothing, child. Nothing! Look at what I once was!” She closed her eye, seeming to concentrate as if it took every ounce of her strength. I gasped as she returned to a vision of her former self. She easily could have been the most beautiful woman that I’d ever seen. Thick, long blonde hair flowed down her back. We shared the same blue eyes; a family trait. Her unblemished porcelain skin practically glowed in its radiance.

Then she opened her eyes and the glamour evaporated. She couldn’t keep that image up and she reappeared as her hideous self. I could tell that showing me what she used to look like had cost her, for she looked visibly weakened. Walter and Bob remained silent.

“You were very beautiful once. If you help my father, you could have your beauty again,” I said.

Cana stared at me and I imagined I’d swayed her, that what I said made a difference. Then a sly smile spread across her face. No, I hadn’t swayed her. She simply didn’t consider me a threat now that I’d become mortal.

“Kill her, Walter. I’ll find a way to get Kellen St. James without her. If I have to chase her down later, then I’ll know where your true allegiance lies,” Cana said. In a flash, she was gone, leaving Bob and Walter and me standing in the clearing.

Walter seemed terrified. “You do it, Bob. I can’t kill her.”

“It’s your assignment,” Bob said. Then Bob too was gone and that left Walter and me.

Walter seemed to be the more logical of the two. Maybe I could reason with him. “Walter, listen to me. You know she’s wrong,” I said.

“I have to protect my own. I have children…” He broke off as he stared at me.

“Kellen St. James is my fiancée and I speak the truth when I tell you that he never had the amulet. You would be murdering me for no reason.”

That struck a chord. Walter’s face clouded over.

“Do you really want to involve your family in this?”

Walter stared at me for a long moment before he spoke. I didn’t want to have to kill him, but I would if it meant protecting myself, getting to Kellen.

“Young lady, I do believe that you are telling the truth. You need to get help from your family,” Walter said, looking around as he spoke.

“Please tell me what I have to do.”

“Cana spoke of Cadillac Mountain. She is right. There is a portal there. Enter it to get past the barrier and to your family. You have skepticism on your side. No one is expecting you to be successful,” Walter said.

“What do I do when I get to Cadillac Mountain?”

“Look for the portal and jump into it,” Walter said. “A fisherman lives just through those trees. He has a car, and he always leaves the key in it. Take a piece of paper from the dashboard and leave him a note that you borrowed the car. He loans it out to people all the time.”

“Walter…”

“Go!” With that he pointed his own hands at himself and knocked himself unconscious.

Turning, I ran in the direction of the clearing that Walter had described. He’d been right. In no time at all, I reached the small cottage with an old beat-up car parked in front. I grabbed the notepad and pen from the dashboard and left a hastily scrawled note of thanks, wondering at my never-before practiced ability to write.

Leaving the note on an outside table by the cottage door, I ran back to the car, opened the door, and sat down on the seat with the round thing in front of it. Then a colossal concept entered my mind.

Oh my goodness, I don’t even know how to make it go.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

KELLEN—
STEPHEN

Staring hard at Tai, I sat on the cot in the cottage, shaken by my dream and memories of Cali that wouldn’t stop. Though I’d asked before, I needed to repeat my question: “Are you one of them?”

Smiling, he chuckled. “No.” He took a sip of his morning tea. “You want some?”

“Yeah.” Getting up, I followed him to the kitchen. “Then what did you mean about an offer I can’t refuse?”

“You’re gonna be challenged, Kellen.”

“And what role do you play in that?”

“I’m just here to help.”

“And what do you get out of it?” Accepting a cup of tea from him, I took a sip.

Chuckling again, he smiled. “Eternal salvation. It’s what I do, you see. I save lost souls.”

“I didn’t know my soul was lost,” I said evenly.

“It could be.” Tai sipped his tea.

Taking another sip, I walked back to the fire. “I need to know everything that you can tell me about the second part of the prophecy.

“I don’t know if you are ready to hear it.” He sat beside me and raised his hand into the air as if to put his arm around me. Then he lowered it, seeming to think better of it.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m ready or not, Tai. I need to know. All I know is that it exists and it says that I might turn evil.”

“What was your dream about?” He shifted in his seat to give me his full attention. He seemed very different from my gruff rescuer of the night before.

“My father was actually nice to me. He cared about me. Let’s just say he hasn’t exactly been the best father.”

Tai sipped his tea. After a few moments, he got up and walked to a small bookshelf in the corner. He thumbed through the spines of the many books on its shelves for a moment before he selected a title. When he returned, he dropped a book on my lap.

I looked at the title:
On the Immortals and the Great Prophecy
.

“Go on. Read it.” Tai gestured to the book on my lap.

“Someone has written a book about this?”