Lichgates: Book One of the Grimoire Saga (an Epic Fantasy Adventure) (9 page)

“The Grimoire brought you here,” Adele insisted. “Whether you like it or not, you can never go back to the life you had. Creatures like that will hunt you anywhere you go, even if you leave Ourea.”

“This is who you are.” Garrett looked down at her over the brim of his nose. “You are the Vagabond. I think you better understand what that means, now.”

The remaining color in Kara’s cheeks faded. Even her pink lips flushed white. She stared into the now-empty meadow, and Braeden wished he could help her somehow.

Garrett sighed. “The fact of the matter is you are the only one powerful enough to read the Grimoire. Yakona and isen alike are willing to kill to control the magic in that book, so any shred of the normal life you had is gone. Leaders from every race will hunt you for wealth and for power, and anyone who helps you risks dying because of it. That means if you returned to your human life, you would be found and your family and friends would become leverage against you.”

“That’s why Carden wanted you to invite your family to the Stele,” Braeden added. “In case you hadn’t figured that one out already.”

“Won’t they find out where Dad is anyway?” Kara rubbed her temples and took deep, useless breaths. “Shouldn’t I warn him about all of this?”

Adele set a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “If you returned to even say goodbye, Kara, they would follow you. They have your scent and they will find you, wherever you go. Carden wants that book. He wants you and he wants Braeden. If you stay away from your family, they will be safe.”

“I have to at least tell Dad that I’m okay. If I just disappeared—and so soon after Mom—” She slunk against the cave wall, cradling her head in her hands. Her eyes glistened, but she bit her lip and winced from the effort.

Adele cradled Kara’s chin and wiped away a tear. There was a thin cracking sound, like ice breaking, and the water crystallized on the muse’s fingertips until it glistened like a diamond. Adele wove her spidery fingers around it and, in a matter of seconds, created a small silver pendant that looped twice over itself. The glimmering tear-diamond shone from its center.

“This pendant will tell me if you are in trouble,” she said. “I can’t replace your father, Kara, but this stone will help me keep you safe.”

The muse draped the circular pendant around her own neck. Kara examined her over the brim of her nose, eyes narrowed and confused.

“Why are you all helping me?”

“You remind me of someone I lost.” Adele took a deep, steadying breath. “I failed him. I will not fail you.”

Kara looked at the floor. “Thank you, but I’m sorry. I just can’t leave Dad. Not now.”

“You should never say that you can’t do something. There are always choices, even in a situation like this: you can go home and lead Ourea’s demons to his door; you can run away from the responsibilities you took upon yourself by opening the Grimoire; or you can embrace this world and conquer the challenges the Vagabond left for you. Someday, you will see your father again. I promise.”

“Abandon my dad or get him killed? Adele, that’s not a choice.”

Kara ran her hands through her hair, pulling on the roots. Braeden leaned against the wall and suppressed a sigh. This would take some time, then.

“I guess I would rather he think I disappeared than get him killed. I just—” Her voice cracked and the rest came out a whisper. “I just hope he forgives me.”

Garrett set a hand on her shoulder. “You should focus more on what lies ahead. You’re lucky to have the Grimoire to help you. Do you know what its clover symbol means?”

She shook her head, but wouldn’t look up.

“The Vagabond told me once that it represents the four primary roads you can take in life: happiness, hatred, success, and failure. They are balanced choices, always intertwined with each other, and whichever of the four paths you take will lead you down another. The stone in its center is experience, a Mecca of wisdom bred from the lessons learned and mistakes made. Keep that with you and you will never be lost.

“And prince”—Garrett turned to Braeden with a scowl—“whether or not it’s wise to do so, I trust your intentions are good. We need you to take Kara to Hillside. She will feel the most welcome there, I think, and you know the way. Will you do this?”

“Of course.”

Braeden wanted to tell himself he was helping her because it was the good and selfless thing to do, but that was a lie and he knew it. He hadn’t been able to find the Grimoire, true, but its keeper had found him instead. It was possible he could still use the book.

Adele whistled, and a shadow trotted through the wall. Braeden jumped. Its blurred edges made it almost impossible to see, but when he did find the angle at which it became visible, he couldn’t help but grin.

It was a flaer: the only creature in Ourea that could walk through walls. Its narrow face and sleek body made it look like an oversized dog, except that it was as tall as a horse. Its long fur coat glistened, and its tail rocked from side to side like a pendulum.

Adele introduced the flaer as Rowthe and explained what it could do, but Braeden’s mind was busy phrasing how he would ask Kara for help. She seemed to be naïve, so a straightforward approach might work. The longer he waited, though, the more she would learn and the more careful he would have to be with his request. Then again, if he—

“It’s Ourea,” Kara muttered. Her voice pulled him from his thoughts and back into the cold little cave with the long scratch on its wall. “There are dragons and monsters. Of course this thing can take us through walls.” Her voice was so low that neither muse acknowledged she’d said anything at all.

Braeden grinned. At least this new vagabond was fun.

“If you ever need Rowthe, simply whistle for him. He will come to you,” Adele said.

The flaer crept up to Kara and lowered its nose into her hand. She was calm, breathing steadily once more, and scratched its ears in a withdrawn welcome. Rowthe stood still as she used a boulder to climb onto its back, but it pranced and pinned its ears against its head when Braeden tried to do the same.

“Be kind, Rowthe,” Adele muttered.

The flaer flicked an ear toward her as she spoke and rooted itself in place at her command. It craned its neck toward Braeden as he walked around to hoist himself onto its back. It stomped as he mounted.

“Go directly to Hillside and don’t stop,” Adele commanded. “Once my trust is broken, prince, you will never get it back.”

He nodded from his perch behind Kara, avoiding eye contact to quell the rising tide of sarcastic rebuttal. He turned to wish Adele the best, despite their cold welcome, but she and Garrett were gone. The cave was quiet, empty and still, and Kara nudged his side.

“Which way, Braeden?”

He paused. She was still pale, her eyes downcast and conflicted. Adele had told him not to break the muses’ trust, but he didn’t care about them. If he wanted anyone’s loyalty, it was Kara’s.

“Do you want to see your father?” he asked.

She twisted around and scanned his face. “Are you testing me right now?”

“You made me relive losing Mother. I would give anything to have spoken to her once more, to tell her that I would find my own way. You have that chance.”

“I don’t want to get him killed, Braeden.”

“Then we need to hurry. We can take him with us to Hillside before anyone finds him. He will be safe there. You, however, need to be prepared with a quick explanation of what’s going on so that he comes with us. We will not have much time to explain.”

Her hands tightened into fists as she weighed the consequences of this new option. Her gaze flitted around the room, no doubt waiting for the muses to appear again, but it was calm.

“My Camry is in a parking lot on Salish Mountain in the Montana Rockies,” she said.

Rowthe’s ears pricked backward, as their destination must have flashed across Kara’s mind. The creature took a few short steps and bolted through the wall. A sharp kick twitched in Braeden’s stomach as they passed through the rock, and before he could blink, they were racing through an underground cavern somewhere in the mountain’s depths. Their sprint left him no choice but to wrap his arms around Kara in an attempt to grab the beast’s mane, but she hardly seemed to care that he’d touched her. Her eyes shifted out of focus.

Doubt panged in his gut. He hoped this wasn’t a mistake.

CHAPTER SEVEN

HOME

Kara could barely see in the dark tunnels and caverns through which Rowthe ran. The walls blurred by, passing too quickly to appreciate. Guilt and panic wrestled in her stomach when she thought about seeing her father. But, despite the nerves, the adrenaline keeping her awake began to fade. The sleep in the lumbering cage was, apparently, not enough to sustain the constant rush of excitement Ourea offered. Her eyelids drooped, only snapping open with each kick to her stomach that came from passing through yet another wall.

Eventually, her eyes glazed over and the deep exhaustion won. Her last thought as she fell into a deep sleep involved the hope that Braeden would keep her from falling.

Kara awoke to a sudden, cold breeze. They were in a parking lot staring at her borrowed multi-colored Camry as the calm night chirped around them. Leaves rustled in the wind. A sprinkling of stars dotted the dark blue sky above. Braeden dismounted, and she slid off as well. She didn’t notice he’d offered her a hand until she landed on her feet.

She studied the night sky. “Wasn’t there daylight when we left Ourea? How long was I out?”

He shrugged. “Lichgates take you to a pocket of the earth, so that was a different place, in a different—well, I guess you could call it time zone. I would say only about six hours have passed since Deidre threw you in that cage with me.”

She walked toward the car and shook her head, restraining a sarcastic comment about where Ourea could stick its time zones and monsters.

The Camry wasn’t actually hers. She rented it from a local couple each summer for next to nothing. It was their extra car, rusty and dented, which she assumed had long ago been paid-off and kept only out of convenience. It had only one headlight. Though mostly green, it did have a blue hood and a yellow passenger’s side door. Oh, it was a thing of beauty. It was also the only car in the lot. It wouldn’t jump alive any second. It might not start, but that had nothing to do with magic. It was just old.

She shoved her hands into her jean pockets and looked out over the poorly lit gravel lot. The hikers who came here every day had normal lives that came and went. They didn’t know a thing about Ourea or the lichgate on the secret trail.

Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe she was about to wake up in the gazebo, or even better, in her car, never to see Ourea again. Then, she could get back to her life.

“Kara?”

Her eyes sprang back into focus. She was leaning on the car, looking out over the parking lot. Braeden stood by the passenger’s side door, one hand resting on the hilt of his broadsword. She laughed and simultaneously stifled the urge to cry.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded and reached for her keys, the metal rattling as she pulled them out of her pocket. A dawning realization made her pause with one hand on the door handle.

“Of all the—my keys survived those roots, but my seven hundred dollar phone didn’t? Are you kidding me?”

“What about roots, now?”

“Nothing.” She sighed and unlocked her door.

She had to fiddle with the cracked handle until it opened, and when it finally did, she slipped into the driver’s seat. The cloth chair rubbed her bruised back through the tears in her shirt. She reached across the passenger seat to unlock the other door, but paused halfway. She could probably leave Braeden. Nothing was stopping her from driving off and pretending that this had never happened. Her fingers hovered on the handle, but she ultimately reached across the final inch of space and opened the door with another sigh. He unbuckled his scabbard and held it as he climbed in.

Kara glanced through the rear-view mirror as Rowthe slunk into the forest with a swish of his shadowy tail. She said a little prayer to the engine, held her breath, turned the key, and breathed again only once the car started. Braeden’s sword hilt rattled against the window, and the prince in her passenger’s seat fidgeted with his seatbelt.

“That doesn’t work. Just hold it if we pass a cop.”