Guardian of the Moon Pendant (22 page)

Lainahwyn swept across the luxurious grass, her emerald gown trailing behind her, soaking up the wet mist, her lithe silhouette crouching besides my powerless body, her fingernails flicking out like a sharp-edged steel blade. “Torturing her, using her magic, draining her powers,” her silky voice turned into a low seething growl, sliding the edge of her nail beneath the Moon Pendant’s silvery chain. “Now, it
i
s payback time, MacAlpin!”

A crackling noise came from the cover of the forest. My body tingled, sensing it was, Izzy. Where had she been this whole time?

Her voice cried out over the canopy of the trees, “Pull!”

My eyes twinkled gazing into Lainahwyn’s silvery moon orbs. I knew what Izzy’s call meant, a sweet smiled crawled across my face.

Shifting my eyes upward, I saw the Bloody Baron’s iron pike skyrocketing through the air. I summoned up all my strength from the Moon Pendant, painful as it was, my body tensing and quaking in agony, steering the iron pike with all my residual energy toward Lainahwyn’s head.

Lainahwyn eyes bulged, alarmingly, she wailed out a horrifying shriek, its sound piercing the silence of the grove, and then she vanished into the mysterious night in a plume of black smoke.

She was gone.

I turned onto my belly, scrapping across the thick grass until I reached Blane, my hand reaching out to touch his face.

His eyes met mine. “Doona love me, lass,” Blane pleaded.

“I’ll do whatever I like,” I said, choking back on a sob.

“Nay, you are the Guardian of the Moon Pendant. I am a Sentinel of Light.”

“So?” I said, stroking the blood off his sweaty brow.

His finger inched over to my hand, intertwining with mine, clasping around them tightly. “You doona know, lass,” he muttered under a labored breath. “I am no longer mortal, I doona age. My soul belongs to the Otherworld. I can never be released, unless by Danú herself.”

“I’ll find Danú and have her release you!”

His head dropped low, pressing his forehead against mine. “Lass, Anabel …A long time ago, I was on a great battlefield, men slashing swords, arrows showering down from the sky, blood and guts everywhere.”

“Sounds dreadful,” I said in a whisper, still recovering from the Moon Pendant’s last drain.

“I should’ve died,” he added, wincing in pain, “but I was whisked away by some unknown magic. I awoke on a golden boat alongside a dozen other warriors, chained together. We arrived in the Otherworld, summoned by Queen Maeve herself.”

“Queen Maeve?”

“Aye, pray you will not
e’er
see that demon. She stole warriors from the realm of man to create an army to do her bidding in the Otherworld.”

“But who is, Danú?”

“Aye, she is the Queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann. When I escaped from Queen Maeve, she found me and placed me here to protect the borders of the realm of the Fae and the realm of man. I am to stay here, until I go to Eternity.”

“If I keep the Portal open, we can go find, Danú,” I said desperately, “have her free you from your post.”

“We can never keep the Portal open, sweet lass,” Blane said, his eyes beginning to glaze over.
“Aye
, other demons will come, worse than, Lainahwyn.”

“I won’t let you go,” I said swallowing a painful sob.

“You must,” he said, coughing up a mouthful of blood, “your world depends on it.”

My heart sank. My hands cupped his cheeks. “I don’t love him, you know,” I cried, tears streaming down my eyes. “I thought I did. I thought if it were all perfect. I’d be…”

Blane’s fingertips softly lingered over my cheeks, “Aye, lass.”

“I’d be happy,” I blurted out, his eyes grew dim. I couldn’t control my emotions anymore. “I love…”

“You mustn’t,” he said cutting me off.

“But, I do…”

Blane’s eyes closed shut and I began to weep, throwing my arms over his bloody chest, shaking him violently to wake up, and to come back to me.

Chapter 17

♦♦♦

Izzy

Pushing through the prickly bramble, its thorns tearing against my skin, I made my way back to the Ghillie Dhu, stopping on the edge of the thicket, spying on Lainahwyn hovering over Blane’s wounded body. Here we go again, shaking my head. This demon just does not give up!

Swiftly, I ran back toward the Dryads, leaping over fallen logs, tree branches slapping against my face, landing next to the Bloody Baron’s pike, entangled in the curled branch of a Dryad.  My eyes skirted over to the Bloody Baron’s impaled body, gushing out ebony blood, giggling like a drunken sailor. I sighed. At least he was happy and not hurting anyone. That was the logic I used, wondering if leaving him there was the right thing to do. No time to think about that now,
I thought,
snatching the heavy iron pike out from the mangled branch.

I darted back into the dense green copse, the iron pike clasped in my hand. This time when I peeked through lush brush, Lainahwyn was hunched over Anabel’s body.

I hoisted up the weighty iron pike over my head, straining to keep it up in the air, arching my body back. “Pull!” I screamed into the clearing, hoping that Anabel would have some wits about her, and hurling the pike into the heavens.

Poof!

Lainahwyn disappeared into a cloud of dark smoke, just as she did in the labyrinth. Thank goodness, I said to myself, heaving out a deep sigh of relief.

Anabel crawled over to Blane, cuddling up to him and saying some mushy love stuff, like
I love you or
What
would I be without you?
You know all that heartfelt crap that you watch on Lifetime.

I had two wounded patients on my hand. Basically, I was screwed. I knew there was no way I could carry both of them back.

The bark of the Ghillie Dhu’s tree began to vibrate, crackling as he peeled off its trunk, morphing into a small man, callous and rough like a tree. I blinked in astonishment, amazed as he stood before me.

“You have done a great service to my people,” he said, holding out his crusty hand.

I raised my brow. How about that? This Ghillie Dhu can walk? My hand met his in a rather rigid handshake.

“We aim to please,” I said with a wink.

“You must leave our sanctuary now.”

“Yeah, I have just a bit of an issue with carrying these two back,” I said, throwing my thumb back at the two love birds, not knowing how to get them back to Leigheas in Dunvarghan Castle.

He snapped his timber fingers in the air. Two massive Dryads crept out of the grove, stomping on gnarled rooted legs, one in the shape of a massive oak, and the other in the form of a flaking white birch tree. Their faces soft, nymph-like, molded into the bark of
the tree, they shifted their branch-like arms under Anabel and Blane’s body, raising them up to their bosoms.

Blane’s body fell limp. I cringed inside, hoping I wasn’t too late.

Anabel reached out to me. “Thank you, Izzy,” she said softly, creeping in and out of consciousness.

I was in utter disbelief. Did I just get a “thank you” from her royal highness? Someone pinch me now, because I think the end of the world must be upon us!

A smile was plastered across my face as we left the grove, following the massive Dryads, pounding across the grassy knoll.

Edgar was staring out into the hills toward Lainahwyn’s lair, his suspenders dangling down at his waist.

“Edgar!” I yelled, smacking him hard against the back of his head. Really, it was more like a love pat than a smack.

He turned around slowly, dazed, unhindered by my thump on the crown of his head.

“I just saw the most beautiful woman. More beautiful than Lara Croft, Tomb Raider,” he said with a snort, wiping his index finger across his nose.

I shook my head, wrenching back his forearm, urging him to follow the Dryads to Dunvarghan Castle, thundering through the hillside.

“It’s just a matter of time before that one goes,” I laughed observing Edgar, staggering along the high grass, torn between following us and going to Lainahwyn’s lair. Mindlessly, he stepped on a bright bluebell, its stem poking up out of the earth like a lollipop, his heel crushing the bluebell’s silky petals, destroying its hopes of seeing the sunrise in the morning, its fragrance now gone forever.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my stomach rumbling, spewing acid violently as it churned.

“Fergus!”

Chapter 18

♦♦♦

Izzy

The Dryads had laid Blane and Anabel’s bodies onto the ancient cobblestones near Dunvarghan Castle’s moat. Luckily, the Heathers were able to carry them back into the
c
astle, lassoing their thick rope-like vines out from their flowering purple feet, twirling them around Blane and Anabel’s arms and legs, elevating them high above the moat, flying them into the Great Hall, and laying Anabel down on one of the chunky sofas and Blane on the other.

A rage began to bubble up through my blood as we entered the Great Hall. After seeing Edgar, stomp on that bluebell. I had Fergus on my mind. I needed to get him out of the Baobhan Sith’s lair, instead of babysitting Anabel all the time.

Edgar stammered around the Great Hall, all
googly
eyed, his neck straining back to study the gold-framed portraits lining the stone walls. I think he was finally coming out of his trance, because I believe he peed himself when he saw Slu hopping out of the shadows on one foot, a crooked tooth snaring on his bottom lip, bobbing toward his master, bleeding on the couch.

Edgar shook his head and then snuggled next to Anabel. Her veins had turned to a blackish green, stemming from the Moon Pendant, its putrid coloring threading throughout her body, slowly subsiding as she rested. 

Leigheas materialized in a twinkling cloud of stars and stood next to Blane’s side. She laid her gnarled hands over Blane’s shoulder wound, emitting a brilliant glowing aura into his gash.

Blane moaned, his eyes fluttering open as Leigheas continued to heal him. His hand shot out, clamping down on Leigheas’s white shimmering hands. “Heal the Guardian first,” he ordered, choking on his breath.

Leigheas flinched, abruptly stopping the white light, coursing through her hands. “There are too many wounds, Sentinel; I cannot heal you both fully,” she argued with a furrowed brow.

“We are all here to make sure she succeeds.”

Leigheas nodded her head and approached Anabel, placing her wrinkled hands atop of her chest, a white healing light appeared, flowing over her like a wave, bringing Anabel back from her slumber.

Edgar stepped away while Leigheas began to heal Anabel, straying down the low lit corridors, snapping pictures of the faeries with his iPhone, observing the ancient antiquities looming in the
c
astle.

Anabel awoke, shifting her weight around, sitting up straight as Leigheas glided over to Blane.

My lips tightened, biting down on them hard, holding back as much anger as I possibly could, until I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “This is insane, Anabel!” I hollered.

Anabel took a deep breath. “You know, that’s the first time you used my name.”

“I’ve downgraded you to peasant girl,” I scowled, steaming inside, a boiling pot ready to spill over, knowing I had to do something and I had to do it soon! “Since, I keep saving your arse!”

“You didn’t save
anyone’s
arse!” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Really?”
My eyes flashed angrily. “Who got rid of the Bloody Baron and used his pike to get rid of that demon?”

“Who hurled the pike at her?”

“Stop it!” barked Blane, stumbling to his feet, limping over to Anabel’s side.

“Blane!” purred Anabel.

“We have time to save, Fergus,” I pleaded. “Let’s go now and then we can have an extra hand to fight the Nuckelavee.” I was hoping my logic would make sense to them, but they looked at me like I had two heads. I continued anyway. “Heck, we can have two. I’m sure his dad will help. Leigheas can heal them and they’ll be as good as new.”

Blane looked over his shoulder. Leigheas body lay crippled in the corner, her skin a pasty grey, her body flaccid with her arms curled around her knees.

“Leigheas has limitations,” he said, wincing as he moved his bandaged right leg, where the Bloody Baron ripped through his calf, “as do I. She won’t be right ‘til dawn.”

I couldn’t believe these two. “I helped you both,” I conveyed, the pot bubbling uncontrollably, beginning to spew water onto the stovetop. “And you can’t even have my back? Fergus could be dead!”
My nostrils flared as I pounded my hand down on a mahogany table, pieces of fruit went flying through the air. “You’ll have his blood on your hands!”

“I have everyone’s blood on my hands,” whimpered Anabel, crying into her fleshy palms. “The weight is too much.”

I scoffed.

Anabel was too much, now she’s playing the victim part? She doesn’t care for anyone else, except for what she wants. She couldn’t give a rat’s arse of what the Baobhan Sith will do once the Portal was open, she doesn’t care about Fergus, or Edgar, or even Blane. All she cares about is what is good for her. Control of the Moon Pendant equals power.