Traitor (10 page)

Dalbach didn’t seem to get it. His rangy fingers prickled my skin as he hurried me along in a tone that almost sounded bored. “We need to keep moving.”

His inability to feel finally got the better of me. I stood up and looked hard in his eyes. “No, we don’t. You need to explain what my father is doing in Neamar and why you didn’t tell me about it in the first place.”

He sighed, but didn’t argue. “When Jamie realized who it was, she didn’t kill him in your sense of the word. She brought his soul back here. You and your brother tried to bring him back, but his soul was already gone from his body. He wasn’t dead; he just didn’t have a ’home,’ if you will. Jamie knew Ankou would prefer him to be alive. When Ankou realized whose soul Jamie had brought back, he didn’t let him cross to the other side. Jamie went and retrieved his body later, and Ankou reunited them. Your father is alive in a sense, but only because Ankou won’t let him pass on to the other side. Ankou is manipulating the system for his own purposes.”

There wasn’t much that could creep me out after everything I’d seen the past few months, but the thought of Jamie taking my father’s body anywhere was a notch above horrible. My voice cracked under the strain of all I’d seen since arriving here. “We need to get him out of here.”

Dalbach didn’t respond. When I looked at him, I realized he was biting his lip. He had to know something. I pushed his shoulder. “We can’t leave him here. Let’s get him and go.”

“You can’t just get him and go, Ashlyn. It’s more complicated than that.”

“Why? That’s what we’re going to do with Aiden.”

He sighed. “Ankou has tied your father here. The only way to get him out of here that I know of is to give Ankou something in return.”

That didn’t sound good. “Like what?”

Dalbach said nothing. Instead, he continued to lope along at a leisurely pace as though we were taking a mid-afternoon stroll. It irritated me.

“Dalbach, I’m talking to you. What aren’t you telling me?”

Still nothing.

“Changeling, you’re not helping your cause for when we return.”

Dalbach spun around and got right in my face with speed that I hadn’t seen a Changeling possess. “Ashlyn, there’s a lot you don’t know. There’s a lot that your grandmother is keeping from you. If I were you, I’d question a lot more than why no one in your family knows that your father is here.”

He didn’t realize that he’d rooted me to my spot with that comment. About a hundred yards away, he turned around to find me in the same place. Huffing, he walked back and pulled me forward. “You’re useless sometimes. Gifted, but useless.”

I didn’t acknowledge the biting comment. “What’s Memaw keeping from me that you know so much about?”

“Haven’t you ever wondered why she wants you to be with that mortal of yours so badly? He’s even more useless than you are, and that’s saying something.” He kicked the carcass of something out of our way. There was no way to tell what it used to be, and I probably didn’t want to know anyway.

“Liam is my boyfriend, so get over it. He swore to protect me.”

“He hasn’t done much protecting, has he? More like you protect him.”

Dalbach was overly annoying when he wanted to be. Right now was one of those moments. I jerked my hand away from his, causing us to both come to a stop. “He can’t help it if his life is in jeopardy by being with me. There’s no way to avoid it.”

Dalbach smiled. “Ah, but there is. Like I said, there’s much that you don’t understand about the faerie world. No faerie is completely honest, not even your grandmother. You should have learned long ago to never completely trust a faery –
any
faery.”

D
ALBACH HAD TO
be lying. “What do you mean, ’No faerie is completely honest?’”

He laughed coarsely. “Exactly what I meant. No faerie is completely honest. We all have ulterior motives. No human is completely honest. Do you know of anyone you’ve ever met that told you the absolute truth no matter what? You haven’t always told the truth, this I know. Look at poor Liam. He’s a victim of your dishonesty.”

I looked down, unable to argue with him there. Although it wasn’t my fault completely, I
had
hidden things from Liam. It had nearly killed me and in turn, him. He took on every injury I sustained, be it a simple paper cut or the time Rebecca had slashed my wrists and throat. He bore scars to remind us both that his mortality was directly connected to my ability to keep myself out of trouble. He hadn’t known he was signing on to protect someone who was an industrial sized magnet for trouble when he agreed to be my Protector.

Of course, I wasn’t going to concede that to Dalbach. “Liam understands what he got himself into. Don’t make him play the victim that he doesn’t want to be.”

Dalbach looked at me, his eyes almost taking on a sympathetic look. “Would you free him of the responsibility if you could?”

“Of course I want to free him from what’s probably certain death.”

Dalbach smiled. It wasn’t a gloating smile, but one of understanding. It was almost worse. “That’s what I thought. Now would you like to know how you could do that?”

“Memaw would have told me if there was a way.”

“Not if she wants you to stay with Liam.”

“Why would she care who I’m with?”

Dalbach laughed. “Maybe because of the fact that you’re the only Bridger who can actually do anything? She may be disgusted with Ankou for attempting to breed MaKenna, but here she is, playing the role of mad scientist herself. She’s wanted you with Liam from the start, because Liam is
human
. His mortality cloaks your magical abilities. She was hoping to keep you out of Ankou’s grasp by putting you with the most mundane person she could find. Liam fit the bill. I would venture to guess that she’s hoping if you ever marry, a human would squash out the magic in your offspring. Like I said, she’s got many little projects of her own that directly involve you.”

Inside I was fuming. There was no way that was possible. Memaw would never do such a thing. But I did want to know how to get Liam out of his death sentence, so I ignored the remarks that Dalbach was making. “How do I relieve Liam from his duties?”

Dalbach looked at me simply. “Get an immortal to do the job. When an immortal agrees, it won’t kill Liam. If another mortal agreed, it would. Think of it as trading up, if you will. The only problem is, no immortal wants to be tied to that lowly of a job. Protecting a mortal? Stuck in one place when the world is yours? That’s insulting. Good luck with that one. Any immortal that has tasted their abilities at all will say no.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “Then why tell me?”

He shrugged. “Because you deserve to know the truth.”

After that, we walked in silence for a long time. Discussing honesty with a Changeling seemed like an oxymoron to me.

When we finally reached the foot of an enormous crater, Dalbach sighed and pointed down into the explosion site. “We’re here.”

“Where’s ’here’?”

“The last place anyone – including Changelings – want to be. We’re going to see Ankou.”

With that, he pushed a massive boulder as though it weighed nothing. Behind it was a staircase. He dropped onto the first stair that was four feet below and disappeared, leaving me no choice but to jump in after him.

I
T’D BEEN THREE
weeks since I’d last heard from Ash. Three weeks was way too long. I was worried about her but had no idea how to get in contact with her. The last I’d heard, she was in Ireland beating down crazy faeries. Things had definitely changed since the winter break last year.

I was trying to eat the cereal Mom had put out before she left for her “ladies’ day out,” but it felt like shredded wheat paste in my mouth instead of mini wheats. Ladies’ day seemed like it was basically an estrogen-filled day – they’d go out and shop, complain about stuff, then come home all relaxed because some guy had given them a way too expensive massage. Dad seemed to be a happier guy on these days. I didn’t want to know why. I was just thankful today wasn’t Mom’s turn to host. Those days were a nightmare if I didn’t have anything planned. Loads of women in one living room equaled shrill laughter and a constant butler service free of charge, starring me.

The thought made it even harder to swallow the now soggy cereal, so I gave up and dumped it down the disposal. I leaned against the kitchen counter and sighed. I shouldn’t care what Ash was up to or if she was okay. Still, there was part of me that wanted to make sure she was doing all right. She was my best friend. Most of the good memories I had of the past few years were with her, and try as I might, I couldn’t just let her run off without worrying about her.

I turned my phone over and over in my hand and brushed the lock switch just to see her picture on the screen again. There she was – brown eyes, brown hair, smiling as she leaned against me and we took a million stupid pictures by “the rock” in front of the high school. It was hard to tell how big that rock started out, but now it was the high school tradition to spray paint it. Layer upon layer, memory upon memory, the rock grew. Kind of like every time I was around Ash, I couldn’t help but grow to…I don’t know…like her? I shook my head. That would never happen.

The picture made me smile. Her eyes were alight with excitement, contentment. I’d put that there. It was right before she and her Irish idiot got back together. Liam. What she saw in him I’d never know. Sure, he had the accent girls seemed to go nuts over. Yeah, he had the height and he wasn’t ugly. Still, I kicked myself internally for not going after her earlier. Maybe if I’d made a move before she went to Ireland and the world went nuts, we’d be together.

I glanced across the room to where my grass-stained football gear was thrown in the corner. I had practice later today, and I couldn’t wait. It’d take my mind off of wondering what Ashlyn was up to.

Today was the first day with full pads. It’d be nice to hit a few guys. I’d take out the annoyance with everything else by knocking a few of the underclassmen around. The thought brought a slight smile to my face, and my mood improved.

Dad startled me by putting a hand on my shoulder. “Hey bud, what are your plans for the day?”

“Nothing but practice later, why?”

“You think you could mow the lawn for me before it turns into a jungle? I swear we’re gonna have the Discovery Channel people out here trying to document their next African safari trip if you don’t cut it soon.”

I locked my phone and the screen went black once more as I pushed away from the countertop. “Sure, Dad. I’m on it.”

“Good, good,” he said, clapping me on the back once more. “Say, have you heard from Ashlyn lately?” A smile played across his face.

“Nah, I haven’t,” I conceded.

“I see. Well, you know Mary’s been calling, wondering what you’re up to. Maybe you should call her back.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course Mary had been calling. She always called. When I didn’t answer my cell phone, the home phone would ring not too long after. She just didn’t get that I wasn’t interested. Not that she wasn’t cute, it was just, well, I didn’t see her like that. “I’ll text her later. Thanks for letting me know,” I slipped from under his embrace and gestured to the garage. “I’m gonna go mow and get it done with.”

Dad smiled and nodded. “Good man.”

When I escaped Dad and got to the garage, I turned on my phone once more. There she was, the constant reminder of my stupidity. I opened up the email icon, just to make sure something hadn’t slipped past without my noticing. I deleted the hoards of spam and shot her a quick email.

Ash, just thinking of you. Ohio’s kinda boring when there’s no nutso faeries trying to kidnap my best friend. Wish I could help. Hope you’re all right in Ireland. Miss you. —Reese

I stuffed the phone in the pocket of my dirty jeans and pushed the lawnmower out to the backyard. Dad wasn’t kidding about the grass; it was up to my shins. I’d kind of slacked off lately. The football guys said I was whipped. Could be. If it was true, I didn’t know how to fix it. Didn’t know if I wanted to fix it.

As I started to push, a girl appeared out of literally nowhere and stood on top of the lawnmower. “Hey there, big guy.”

I totally freaked. I fell backward, landing in one of our dog’s “gifts,” as Mom would call them. It was disgusting. The girl laughed and hopped off the lawnmower. “You need some help? I’m Roslin.”

She stretched out her arm and pulled me up off the ground with way too much strength for a chick. Of course, it was obvious she wasn’t normal since she’d just shown up out of nowhere. I took her in. She looked like a rocker. Cool. “You’re a faerie, aren’t you?”

She laughed. “How’d you guess?”

I rolled my eyes. “Your pink hair gave it away. No normal person runs around with that mop on their head.”

Roslin punched me and laughed. “Ash said you were quick. I already like you.”

My stomach did a flip at Ashlyn’s name. “You’ve talked to Ashlyn lately?”

Her face turned down a hair and the left side of her lips puckered. She put her hands on her hips as she spoke. “Well, not for a week. She went to Neamar without telling me. She’s in for a very angry faerie when she comes back.”

“Neamar? Isn’t that where creepy death dude lives? Why would she go there?”

Roslin shook her head. “She wants to help. She wants to save everyone in the world, it seems. Which is kind of why I’m here.”

I cocked my head, unsure as to how any of Ashlyn’s nutty do-gooder ideas related to me. Still, I was willing to help any way I could. “I’m listening.”

“She wants to stop Liam from having to be her Protector. She can’t become immortal with him as her Protector, not to mention he’s a bit too mortal to protect Ashlyn as it is.”

The mention of Liam’s predicament put me on edge. I still remembered how hurt Ash had been when he left her. It was too fresh in my memory to think about giving him too much help. Ashlyn, yes. Liam, well, I didn’t dislike him, but it wasn’t like I was going to send him a Christmas card or anything. “And that’s my problem, why?”