Secret Origins, page 10
part #1 of The Courtless Fae Series
“Well, I sent the cow back to her so nothing to worry about.” I wasn’t sure my nonchalance fooled the child … or maybe being? Creature? Whatever she was, when she straightened, she gave me an annoyed look. “What?”
“I can feel your powers, girl. They are still as locked as they were from the start.” While my eyebrows crawled to my hairline, she grinned, her expression stabbing me like an ice pick between my breasts. “If you bested Donn Cúalinge, it’s only because they were testing you. You would’ve proven to be as capable as a lamb headed for slaughter.”
“This is bullshit.” Pissed that she was insulting me, I glared at her, and that only broadened that messed-up grin of hers. “Isn’t this supposed to be my memories? It means either the mage is fucking with my head, or I’ve finally lost it and I’m making shit up myself.”
“Ah, you have sought the truth on your own. This is good. Very good. Perhaps it is time.” I frowned at her. Maybe everyone in this place, including myself, was insane. It would explain a lot. “You are smarter than you look,” she decided.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Taken aback, I was ready to slap her—whoever she was.
“For a moment there, I thought hiding your memories might’ve addled your brain. You did not strike me as very smart.” She looked so serious I did take a step closer, bringing the tip of my sword to the center of her chest.
“You blocked my memories?”
“Who else has the power to do it if not me?” It was her turn to take offense.
This was ridiculous and I was tired of everything. Rubbing a harsh hand over my face, I let the sword drop down, the tip clinking off the floor. It looked like this was a bust, my memories still hidden from me by some invisible barrier. This creature was too nuts for me to make up, so it might be a failsafe or something. A trap to discourage me, maybe? Whatever it was, I didn’t want any part of it.
“Okay, I’m good to wake up now,” I shouted to the hidden roof above our heads.
“Who are you talking to?” The girl also craned her neck while squinting toward the ceiling.
“The mage. I don’t have time for this.” Placing the sword at my back where it belonged, I slapped both hands on my hips and raised my gaze. “Yo! I need out of here, like now! Or I will kill you.”
“You will not leave unless I allow it.”
“Fine, I can kill you.” Dropping my head to pin her with a glare, my fingers brushed the leather bracelet on my wrist. Something that didn’t go unnoticed and even earned me an approving nod. “You never said who you are.”
“Exactly.”
“Who are you?” I pushed the words through clenched teeth. I was way past annoyed at that point.
“The better question would be … do you know who you are?”
“I love this game. I’m Myst. A hot chick with a mean sword and a bad attitude. Now your turn.”
It happened so fast I had no time to blink little less attempt to protect myself. What felt like a meteor slammed in my chest and propelled me head-over-heels through the air until my poor body hit one of the far walls with the crunching of bones. I was desperately trying to reach for my hound, but no part of my body could move when it dropped on the blood-red floor, which was still twinkling merrily as if I wasn’t about to die here. I was a ball of pain and misery, my face numbing from my shattered cheekbone, which was resting on the cold ground. Apparently, it wasn’t enough. My body was flipped over, the girl looming over me before she snatched me by the neck with a surprisingly strong grip. The cow could learn a trick or two from this bitch. My hysterical laughter sounded suspiciously like a pathetic moan.
“You think you are ready to know what I hid from you to protect you, girl?” she snarled, her nose an inch from mine while her face twisted in a horrifying grimace.
Power brushed over my skin, familiar and welcomed. I could feel Fenrir trying to reach me, hopefully successfully pulling me out of this shit storm. The creature in a girl’s body smiled, a chilling tilt of her thin lips before she pushed Fenrir’s energy away as if it was nothing. A faint, pissed-off roar could be heard from very far away, and of course that made her chuckle.
“Well aren’t you a real surprise.” With her free hand, she patted my face, which sent a new wave of agony through me. “You just might be worthy. You might even survive to take your rightful place.” Twisting above me, she sat on my chest, though she didn’t the grip on my throat. “If memories are what you want back, who am I to deny you. Watch.”
She twirled her hand in front of her, pushing my face to the side in time for me to see swirling shadows condense and start pulsing in the middle of the huge room. My eyes watered when ice-cold wind blasted us from the center of it, before plunging us into a different room.
And a different time.
16
If there was one thing good about the situation I found myself in, it was the fact that the pain from my broken body was gone. As a matter of a fact, I wasn’t sure I had a body in this place and time, although I still felt the girl holding me by the throat. Weird, and unsettling to be sure.
My attention was pulled to the two large thrones made of dark green stone speckled with black dots and yellow lines twining through it at random places. One was taller than the other, both of them with dark red pillows positioned on the seat. Six large rock stairs led to the raised dais, a runner a shade darker than the blood red floors covering the middle of it and going all the way across the room to intricately-carved double doors. Statues about ten feet tall of a creature covered with a cloak holding a pointed spear stood on either side, the face covered with a wide hood. At least I assumed it was statues, but the slight shifting of the fabric said otherwise.
I chose to ignore that face for the sake of my sanity.
Everything else was just like the previous room, shiny black stone walls rising high enough to prevent anyone from seeing the ceiling, and blood red stone with winking specks covering the floor. The air was different here, tension and expectancy that would’ve made me fidget if I had a body and that body was not broken thanks to the girl. I didn’t have to wait long to understand why the room was charged with so much tension. The double doors crashed open, slamming on the walls an inch from the hooded statues.
A male, tall, regal, and dressed in dark red robes with a golden sash tied around his narrow waist rushed a female and a young girl inside the room. His golden hair with platinum streaks, very similar to mine in color streaming behind him as he darted from side to side before pulling the doors closed and tugging a metal beam across them. The female was dressed similar, but it was more like the other-side-of-a coin fashion. Her robes were gold and the sash dark red, her long hair darker than night falling in waves down to her hips. She clutched the little girl to her chest, bunching up the gold and red dress the young child was wearing as she pressed the small head to her chest like she didn’t want the girl to see what was happening.
I had the strangest urge to scream at them to leave the room.
“Wait and watch,” the creature who dragged me here whispered inside my head like she could read my thoughts, freaking the hell out of me. It was the same voice from my nightmares. “This is what you wanted, is it not?”
Trepidation left me mute, so I didn’t answer.
“This should hold them back for a while.” The deep voice of the male as he waved his hands over the doors to make runes flare over them soothed my heart, but it also broke it into a million pieces at the same time. My entire world stopped when he looked over his shoulder and revealed his face for the first time. “It won’t be enough to stop them,” he told the female.
“I should’ve known it was too good to be true. I should’ve realized Danu wouldn’t keep her word and leave us alone.” The female’s voice tinkled like chimes, surprisingly calm despite the horror tightening her pretty features.
“Mamaidh,” the young girl whimpered, clawing at her mother’s dress. That’s when everything I was trying to deny hit home for me with indisputable clarity.
The little girl was me.
Greedily, I absorbed my parents, trying to etch into my mind every little detail I could see. Until that moment, I never knew how starved I was to at least know how they looked. The body I couldn’t feel was on fire, waves of heat wafting from the spot me and the creature were occupying. My mother’s face snapped in our direction, her eyes so much like mine darting around in search of something. I wanted to call out to tell her I was there, but no sound came out.
A serene smile tilted her red lips at the corners and her tense shoulders relaxed.
“Bi sàmhach leanabh.” Telling me to be quiet, she locked eyes with my father, and he rushed to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Bidh a h-uile càil gu math a dh ‘aithghearr.”
I knew she lied saying all would be well soon or I wouldn’t be here then, so messed up in the head I couldn’t think straight. The double doors rattled, sending a shower of the black rock surrounding them to pepper the blood-red floors. It was like a ram was slamming from the other side and trying to break them open. The young version of me screamed and buried her head in her mother’s stomach.
“I am ready. Show yourself,” my mother said calmly to the empty room.
“Is this wise, mo chridhe?” Hearing him call her his heart shriveled what was left of mine.
“I knew it would come.” She smiled at him with so much love it almost killed me. “I just did not expect it to be so soon.” The doors were blasted again, that time creating cracks like spiderwebs on the walls. “Go. I will join you shortly.”
I watched my father, helpless to stop or help him, as he walked up to one of the hooded statues. Bowing low, his long hair swept the red floors as he murmured something under his breath, then he faced it with his arms spread wide. The hood of the statue shifted, the hand holding the silver spear moving slightly to the side.
“I come freely. A life for a life.” His voice rang out strong and clear.
The spear glinted as it sliced through the air before piercing him through the center of his chest. He didn’t even make a sound, not even a gasp, but I was raging and screaming in my head. The doors bowed inward rattling the room again just as his body was engulfed in flames that reached for the unseen ceiling. At the same time, my mother shoved my younger self away from her, and I burst into an inferno, too. Both fires burned bright and hard for a long moment before blinking out. There was nothing left of my father.
I tried to understand what I was seeing, where my younger self last stood.
Me as an adult—just like I’d known myself to be as far as I could remember—was curled at my mother’s feet. A tear trickled down her face as she looked at me, but she didn’t reach for me. The creature that brought me here popped out of nowhere, creeping closer to my mother in the same gingerly fashion she did when I first met her. Again as a young girl with those freakish eyes.
“You will protect my child,” my mother said without looking at the creature.
‘You know what you have to do,” the creature answered, greed sparkling in her gaze.
“I do.”
“That is not all.” The young girl licked her lips and rubbed her bony hands together. “I will need a stone from your throne as well.”
“Mine and my husband’s lives are not enough?”
“She will need help when the time comes. I shall only help to make her allies.”
I watched numbly my mother walked to the thrones and punched the smaller one, breaking the top part like it was made of paper. A small rock rolled to her feet and she swiped it, shoving it at the creature’s face. The bony hand snatched it immediately, tucking it in the folds of the night shirt she was still wearing. I wasn’t sure if that was how she always looked, or if she was manipulating me to see her like that no matter what.
My mother grabbed her long golden robes, ripping the bottom part away. Her sun-kissed legs were left bare, the robe covering her enough to not flash her ass at the creature. Two vicious-looking swords materialized in her hands when she turned to face the rattling doors. In one smooth move, she lopped off her long hair up to her ears. The black curls pooled at her feet before bursting into flames as well, leaving a pile of coal when the fire died out. The creature rushed forward, collecting them all in a pouch that also disappeared in the folds of the night shirt.
“I’m not sure this is wise, Ernmas,” the young girl told my mother, using her name for the first time. “You are a goddess, yet you are still one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. You cannot best the one that gave you life.”
“I am Érenn, this is true. I am also the wife of Delbáeth, the fire shaped. The rightful owner of the Courtless throne.” A chilling smile spread over my mother’s lips. “I will join him, but that does not mean I cannot have fun before I do.”
“You always loved a good battle, dear.” The creature chuckled creepily, which made my mother grin.
The young girl snatched my arm where I was still curled unmoving on the floor, dragging me away as if I weighed nothing. A gasp passed my lips when she reached the spot I was watching from, and I suddenly had a body and was standing next to her in the same room. My muscles locked when I tried to rush and embrace her, but I couldn’t move. My mother looked around, but I knew she couldn’t see me either.
“You are the last one left, my girl. The heir to the throne. Make me proud. Tha goal agam ort, Myst.” And although she was looking just left of my face, I knew she could sense me there.
“I love you too, màthair,” I told her in a choked whisper.
I almost swallowed my tongue when a child came to existence right next to her, making me think I imagined the whole thing. It was me again, so I turned to glare at the creature standing next to me.
“I have a sister?”
“You do not.”
“What the fuck is that then?” I stabbed the air angrily, and that only made the bitch laugh.
“You will not see, but you will hear.” As soon as she said those words, I was blinded.
Darkness met me, but I knew I was still standing in the same place, in the same room. Shouts and weapons being drawn were singing through the air while my heart was hammering so fast and hard, I had to press both hands at the center of my chest to stop it from breaking my ribcage. The creature’s voice whispered from behind me, “You have to run where no one knows who you are. You must forget until it’s time.” It was followed by a splitting headache that caused the eyes to roll to the back of my head. The pain from my broken body returned tenfold, doubling me over.
“Hand over the child!” a female’s voice snapped with so much power I screamed.
“Come and take her mother,” my own mother spat in anger.
Laughter mingled with the maddening noise of a battle. Then nothing. The screams, the shouts, the clinking of metal. The silence was choking me, shriveling my lungs while my mouth was open in a silent scream. The voice whispered again, only this time from inside my head, “You must forget until it’s time.”
A weight settled at my temples and I bolted upright gasping for air.
17
“Myst.”
My arms were sore where Fenrir had an iron grip on them while shaking me for all he was worth. I was still gasping and choking on my own saliva too much to be able to answer him or tell him to butt out, so I hung limply and allowed him to play with me like I was a rag doll. My head had developed its own heartbeat, and even my hair hurt. At least my body was only sore and not broken.
Small victories.
“Myst!” Fenrir growled loudly in my face.
“If you don’t stop screaming, I will kick you in the balls, Fenrir.” I groaned.
“Thank the Fates you are awake.” Yanking me to his chest, he tightened his arms until I was suffocating again.
“I’m not sure being awake is a good thing right now.” Voice muffled in his chest, I wiggled to tell him to release me. He didn’t. “I can’t breathe.”
My ass bounced on the armchair when he dropped me like I was hot, but he didn’t move away. The fear on his face was replaced with shock while I squinted at him, the light in the room burning my retinas after all the darkness. Fenrir took a step back, his jaw dropping to his chest. He opened and closed his mouth enough times that it was agitating.
“Are we playing pantomime?” With great effort, I even snapped my fingers at him. “Let me guess, a fish. No, wait! An asshole. That’s it. What the hell is the matter with you?”
My answer was an accusing finger stabbed at the top of my head by the gaping Fae royal. Marius was also in on the game and playing a fish, only his face was devoid of all color and he was holding himself in a standing position by a tight grip on the back of the sofa.
“The two of you should become a couple. You are perfect for each other.” While I eyed them warily, my hand reached up to gingerly prod at my head. “Oh …”
The moment my fingertips brushed over cool-to-the-touch metal, I didn’t have to look in the mirror to figure out the new shit I’d gotten myself into by not leaving things alone. Not to say I regretted knowing who and what I was, but really? Things couldn’t get much worse, could they? Bolting upright, I rushed out of the living room, teetering peculiarly on my high heels as I searched the house for a bathroom.
Brushing past the General, who jerked back as if I was a demon, I could feel Fenrir right behind, Marius following, albeit from further away. Pushing doors open, I finally found what I was looking for and, flicking the light on, I planted myself in front of the mirror. The ceramic sink cracked when I tightened my hold on it, crumbling into dust between my fingers. My dusty hand reached up again to touch the silver circlet on my head with three deep red stones at the center.
“For fuck’s sake.” I groaned miserably, tugging hard without moving it an inch.
“He was telling the truth,” Fenrir accused as if I knew everything and was hiding it from him on purpose.
The three of them were crowding the door, each of them wearing a different expression on their faces. Fenrir looked pissed like I’d killed his puppy. Marius looked like he was about to either shit his pants or faint but couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. The General looked calculating and, dare I say, reassured. Why that was, it was anyone’s guess.
