The Rabbit and the Raven: Book Two in the Solas Beir Trilogy (22 page)

After all the fighting about the divorce and then their separation
when Esperanza moved overseas, it had been a long time since Marisol had hugged her mother. It felt good, like maybe there was hope for mending what had become a very strained and painful relationship.

Marisol pulled back and saw that her mother was weeping. It surprised her. She tried to remember the last time she had seen her mother cry, and she couldn’t. “Oh, mom—I’m
so
sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

Esperanza wiped her face with the back of her hand. “It’s all right,
mija
. Everything will be okay now. But we can’t stay here—this is an evil place. Can’t you feel it?”

Marisol nodded. “Yes,
Mami
. It’s a very scary forest.”

“
Sí.
Muy
malo
. But the mirror—it must be magical. It brought me to you, so maybe if we go through it again, we can get out,” Esperanza suggested. Taking Marisol’s arm, she tugged her along further into the dark rainforest.

Marisol looked back toward camp as she trailed behind her mother. “But
Mami
—I can’t leave. My friends need me.”

“They
do
need you,
mija,
” Esperanza agreed, tightening her grip on Marisol’s arm. “Monroe has been worried sick. She called and told us that Michal was dead, and oh, my daughter…we thought you were too. But I knew, I knew
en mi
corazón
, that it wasn’t true. We must go—everyone will want to see you. They will be so happy.”

“I know they will, but you will have to tell them I’m al
l right. My friends here need me more,” Marisol insisted. Her arm was starting to ache where her mother was holding onto her with an iron grip. “I can’t just abandon them.”

Esperanza stopped abruptly and turned to face her daughter, letting go of Marisol’s arm. “I see. But you can abandon your own mother?”

Marisol flinched like she had been slapped across the face. Then her shock was swallowed up by the anger she had been fighting to control since her mother left town.
Yeah. Just like you abandoned me and Dad for a guy closer to my age than yours,
she thought. But she could never say that out loud.

That was the thing about Esperanza Garcia. Even if Marisol were to voice her anger, her mother would still get her way. There was no escaping it. In spite of all the anger and hurt, even in spite of those moments when Marisol thought she might truly hate her mother, she still loved her. Some bonds could not be broken.

“All right, Mom,” she sighed. “Show me this mirror.”

Jon woke reaching for Marisol. She wasn’t there. Then he remembered it was her turn to be on watch. He sat up.

She was nowhere in sight. “Sol?” he called.

No answer. Something was wrong. Jon leapt to his feet. In the soft dirt near the fire he could see scuff marks in front of the log where she’d been sitting, and that she had walked to the edge of the camp. Her tracks were among the scattering of leaves littering the ground. Definitely her boots, judging by the markings on the soles. She had stopped there and looked out into the trees. He could tell by the way her feet had left tracks—the perfect outline of her soles standing side by side, imprinted in the dirt. Then? He could just make out the tracks she’d left as she stepped into the trees.

“Sol!” he shouted into the darkness.

No answer.

Jon turned to David. “David! Wake up!”

David was in a deep sleep, his head still in Abby’s lap. But Abby opened her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Marisol’s missing,” Jon explained. “I have to find her. Wake him up,
will you?” He grabbed a branch sticking out of the fire and rushed into the darkness, waving his torch, trying to follow Marisol’s trail. “Sol!” he shouted. “Marisol! Answer me!”

“
Mira,
mi hija
,” Esperanza said. “The magic mirror.”

Marisol had not been sure what to expect, but she was certain it wasn’t this. In front of her was a perfectly ordinary-looking oval mirror framed in plain dark wood, and inside the glass, she could clearly see the corridor of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Across the hallway, hanging on the wall, was a Warhol. This was no dream—the painting was real. One step through the glass, and she could touch it.

Jon was seeing things clearly too. But the scene before him was one of horror, not wonder. Some lady was trying to convince Marisol to step into the yawning oval of a mouth, one that belonged to a nasty-looking carnivorous plant.

Once those fang-fringed jaws enveloped her, Marisol would slowly be digested in the plant’s acidic juices. It would not be a pleasant way to die.

“Sol!” Jon screamed. Dropping his torch, he launched himself at her, knocking her to the ground.

The plant’s jaws snapped shut, and Marisol seemed to waken from a daze. The torch still burned faintly where it lay. In the light from its embers, she took in the plant with wide eyes, not quite understanding.

“
Mami
?” Marisol asked.

“
Sí, mija
. I’m right here,” the lady replied.

Her mother?
Jon thought. There
was
a resemblance there. It wasn’t that he didn’t know who Esperanza Garcia was. He couldn’t stand in the checkout line at the grocery store without seeing her face plastered on the cover of some sleazy tabloid magazine. But Marisol almost never talked about her, so in his mind, the Esperanza Garcia who had been a model, and the woman who was his girlfriend’s mother, were not the same person.

Esperanza reached out for Marisol, beckoning to her, and the hairs on the back of Jon’s neck stood on end. Something about this woman was all wrong, and it wasn’t just because she had tried to lure her daughter into the maw of a flesh-eating plant. Following his instincts, Jon got to his feet and blocked the woman from putting her hands on Marisol.

The woman glared at him. “Do
not
keep me from my daughter,” she said.

“That’s not your mother, Sol,” Jon said. “It just looks like her.” He drew his sword and held it out in front of him with both hands. Marisol got up and stood behind Jon, looking unsure.

“Don’t listen to him,
mi hija
. You know it’s me,” the woman said.

A dark shadow passed over the woman’s face, and she looked up into the canopy, her attention drawn away from Jon and Marisol. Then she let loose a high-pitched shriek that made Jon’s blood run cold.

Marisol covered her ears with her hands and pressed against him.

He shifted his grip on his weapon, moving to hold the sword in one hand and wrap his other arm firmly around Marisol.
La Llorona,
he thought, tightening his grip on the sword’s hilt.
The screamer has returned.

The woman’s form seemed to waver and blur as though she were standing in a column of mist. Then Jon’s view of her was obscured when a solid mass of blackness crash-landed on top of her, something that came from the trees.

“David, wake up! We need you!” Abby cried. She would have shaken him awake, but with her arms bound, the best she could do was stretch out one
finger to tap his forehead.

David opened his eyes and looked alarmed when he saw Abby’s face. “What’s going on?” he asked. He scrambled to his feet, fully alert.

“Marisol is missing and Jon ran off to find her. You have to help him,” Abby said.

“What about you and Cael?” David asked.

Abby looked over at Cael. He had not awakened—he seemed to be in a feverish, fitful sleep, fighting the infection ravaging his body.

“We’re fine. Just go!” Abby said.

“Okay—be back as soon as I can,” David called out as he sped off into the darkness, changing form mid-leap.

Between the shrieking and a low growling noise, it was impossible to hear anything else, and Jon’s view of the woman was almost completely blocked by the dark shape doing the growling. Something about the woman’s form had changed though, because she had sprouted a long, serpentine tail. It uncoiled, disappearing into the trees beyond, and then reappearing suddenly in a blur of black and white, smashing into the creature on top of her.

Jon pulled Marisol to the ground and lay on top of her, shielding her as the tail whipped around wildly, knocking into the trees around them. Jon couldn’t hear the crack of the breaking branches over the woman’s shrieking, but he could see the tree limbs falling around him.

The end of the tail slammed into the dark shape again, and the creature leapt away, clinging to the trunk of a tree. It seemed to be some kind of giant panther, with jet black fur and glowing golden eyes.

Esperanza Garcia was gone and in her place was a horror—something with a grey, dappled upper body like a toad and a face that vaguely resembled an old woman’s. Below her waist was the tail of a snake. The
lamia had raised her paddled tail above her head, preparing to smash the panther, when the big cat launched itself at her face.

Jon seized the opportunity to jump up and pull Marisol to her feet. “Run,” he said.

The white
lion David joined the battle just as Jon and Marisol disappeared into the trees. The first thing he saw was a black, panther-like shape attacking a snake woman.
Tierney,
he thought. He growled and took a swipe at the giant cat, digging his claws into the creature’s shoulder.

The cat yowled in pain. It turned its head, looked at him, and ran off into the forest.

The lamia watched it disappear and turned to David, smiling. “Thank you, Solas Beir. He
was
rather annoying, wasn’t he?” Then she whipped her tail at David, flinging him against the trunk of a tree.

“Cael!” Abby cried. “Cael, please wake up.” If Cael weren’t so sick, he would already have been on his feet, sword drawn.

She was terrified—she could hear someone screaming in the trees. It had to be whatever had kept them awake that first night, and it sounded like it was getting closer. She had no idea where David and the others were, or if they were okay.

If only she weren’t bound. If only Cael would just wake up and untie her. She strained against the vines, but it was no use. David had been very thorough.
Exactly which evil spirit possessed me to think being tied up in a haunted forest was a
good
idea?
she thought.
Not one of your brightest ideas, Abby. Not bright at all.

She heard a low growl and saw a dark shape approaching from the other side of the camp. It looked like a huge jaguar with black-on-black spots, and it was slinking toward Cael’s still body.

“Leave him alone!” Abby shouted. The cat turned its gaze toward her, and again, she wished she weren’t tied to a tree. It was coming toward
her
now, and there was nowhere for her to hide.

The jaguar crept closer until she could feel its hot, feline breath. Then the vines went slack.

David’s head was spinning, but he got to his feet. The lamia packed quite a punch with that scaly tail of hers. He saw the tail whizzing back toward him and crouched low before it could give him another lashing. It crashed into a section of tree trunk above him, raining splinters of bark onto his mane. The tail seemed to be her primary weapon—the rest of her, the more human-looking parts, seemed pretty weak. If he could just take the tail out of the equation, he would have the upper hand.

The tail was coiled up, ready to deliver the next blow.
It’s now or never,
he thought, as the tail uncurled again and came flying toward him. She was aiming low, so he leapt up, launching himself off the trunk of a tree, and landed on top of the tail as it swept past. She whipped her tail back angrily, but he sank his claws into her reptilian flesh and held on.

This is going to be one wild ride,
he thought. And he was right. He felt himself slam into a tree again, and heard the snap, crackle, and pop of breaking branches as she tried to shake him off. The trunk of the tree was mercilessly unyielding against his back, but after several minutes of being thrashed against it, David could feel things changing. The snake woman’s enthusiasm and vigor lessened, as though she were tiring from trying to lift her tail with his weight on it.

David smiled grimly to himself.
Taking the wind out of your sails, am I, sweet pea?
He sunk his claws in deeper and bit the tail. He could feel a heat building in his paws, searing her flesh. The lamia started shrieking, and her tail slumped to the ground like a dead thing, twitching slightly.