Spirit Prophecy (The Gateway Trilogy Book 2) (29 page)

“I’ve been keeping an eye on you,” Carrick said, and then added hastily, “At Finvarra’s request, of course. Fairhaven has a long history of welcoming rituals, not all of them very welcoming in nature. We had a feeling that something like this might be in the works; although,” and he shook his head, “I must admit that I never imagined they would have the nerve or indeed the information to actually try the summoning of the Elemental.”

“That wasn’t part of their plan,” I said. “At least, they hadn’t agreed on it. That part was Peyton’s extra special touch. The rest of them went running when they saw what she was trying to do. Peyton didn’t think it had worked. The Elemental makes a quiet entrance.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Finn said. “Peyton always has had a flair for the dramatic. It’s only gotten worse as she’s gotten older.”

Carrick glanced sharply at Finn. “Finn, I realize that Peyton is your cousin, and so there is a certain degree of familiarity, but it is not in our code to speak ill of the Durupinen.”

Finn hung his head. “Yes, sir.”

“Anyway, I saw the others emerging from the woods and had a hunch about what might be going on. By the time I reached this place, the Elemental had already begun to feed. There was nothing I could do to help you without a true physical form, so I went for Finn. Protecting you is, after all, his duty now. But he was already on his way. One of the girls panicked and went to fetch him.”

“You’re kidding!” I said. “Who was it?”

“Róisín Lightfoot,” Finn said. “She showed me where to go and went back to the castle. I think she was too scared to come back near here. Then Carrick found me at the edge of the woods and showed me what to do.”

“Right” I said, somewhat stiffly. “Well … thank you.”

“Yes, thank you,” Hannah added. “I don’t want to think what would have happened if you hadn’t showed up.”

Finn just grunted and waved us off. We all trudged up out of the clearing together and onto the path, Finn lighting the way ahead of us with the torch lifted over his head.

“I don’t want you to have a false impression of what the Elemental would have done to you,” Carrick said briskly as we walked. “It is a physical manifestation of negative emotions — specifically, pain and fear. It takes hundreds of years to form, usually in places like the príosún, where negative emotions constantly run high. If feeds off of these emotions, as I told you. As it strengthens, it can project these emotions back on to you, causing you to experience pain and fear that isn’t even your own. This of course only heightens your own terror, creating a cycle that can sustain the Elemental indefinitely. But it cannot really harm you, not in a physical sense.”

I scowled at him. “I was feeling pretty damn harmed.”

Carrick very nearly smiled. “I don’t mean to minimize the horror of the experience. But the pain was an illusion. How do you feel now?”

I considered. “Completely fine. Tired, but fine.”

“Hannah?”

She nodded. “The same.”

“The Elemental was used to force confessions many centuries ago. It was an ideal form of torture. The prisoners always gave in, and since the Elemental did no lasting damage, the prisoners were always able to participate fully in the rest of the penal process.”

“That’s barbaric,” I said.

“The Medieval ages generally were, I understand,” Carrick said. “My point in telling you this is to help you understand that you were never in any real danger.”

“Really? Because it sounds like you’re trying to make excuses for what those girls did,” I said.

“I do not want to make excuses for them,” Carrick said. “I merely wanted you to fully understand what just happened to you.”

“Yeah?” I snapped. “Well, why don’t you go a few rounds in the ring with that Elemental, and then talk to me about how much danger we were in.”

Carrick definitely smiled this time. It only elevated my temper.

“I’m sorry, is something about this situation funny to you?” I asked.

“No, not at all,” Carrick said quickly, though the smile lingered almost imperceptibly around the corners of his mouth. “You just reminded me of someone.”

“Who do you —”

But Carrick was no longer paying attention to me. We had reached the front steps of the castle. “Finn, I’ll see that the girls get safely to their room. You should head back to your quarters before someone misses you.”

“Yes, sir,” Finn said. He gave an odd sort of slouchy nod in our direction. “Good night.”

“Good night, Finn,” Hannah said. “Thank you again.”

He turned without another word and loped off in the direction of the

Caomhnóir quarters, a long, low stone building I’d mistaken for stables during our first week.

We trudged back up to our room in silence. Fairhaven’s staircases had never seemed so long or been so hard to climb. Whatever Carrick claimed about there being no lasting damage, I felt utterly drained from the experience, and desperate for sleep.

“Just one thing before I leave you here,” Carrick said in a hushed voice. “I would appreciate if you didn’t mention my role in your escape tonight to anyone. I told you I was watching out for you on Finvarra’s orders, but the truth is, she does not know I have been doing so.”

“Why would you lie about that?” I asked.

“It was for Finn’s benefit. Caomhnóir are not supposed to interfere in situations like this, and I don’t want it known that I got involved without Finvarra’s consent,” he said.

“Well then, why did you do it?” I pressed.

Carrick didn’t answer right away. He seemed to be weighing his words carefully. “I see and hear much in my current state that I was not privy to when I was alive. I may be Bound to the Durupinen High Priestess, but that will not stop me from seeing to it that all the Durupinen are protected, whenever it is in my power to help.”

I opened my mouth to question him further but Hannah cut me off. “We won’t say anything. Thank you again.” Carrick clicked his heels together in a military stance, and faded from the spot. I put my hand on the door handle, but Hannah reached out and pulled it back.

“What?” I asked.

“I think we might be missing an opportunity here,” she said. She was looking at the shadow of the graffiti that no amount of scrubbing had quite been able to remove. Then she looked at me and I was shocked to see that she was grinning.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, smiling a little myself. “What’s the opportunity?”

“Peyton and the rest of them obviously think we’re going to be stuck out there until they come to get us in the morning,” Hannah said. “And Carrick doesn’t want us to reveal how he helped us get out.”

“True.”

“So why don’t we just let them think we did it ourselves?”

My smile widened. “I like where this is going. Keep talking.”

“There should be no way that we could have gotten out of that circle, even if the Elemental hadn’t turned up. Let’s give them a little dose of fear, too.”

And she told me her plan.

“Can you actually do that?” I asked in awe.

“Yup.”

I bowed and stepped aside for her. “Lead the way. I’ll take my cues from you, oh devious one.”

Hannah giggled, a welcome sound after the night we’d had, and crept across the hall to the door of Peyton’s room.

“Oh, hang on. Let me call Milo. He won’t want to miss this. He’s wanted us to get back at these girls since we first laid eyes on them,” she said, and closed her eyes. After a minute or so of silent conversation, Milo popped into existence between us.

“They did what to you?” he shouted.

“Shh! I’ll give you details afterwards. I just thought you’d enjoy watching this.”

“Watching what?” he asked.

“You’ll see,” she said, and without hesitating at all, she knocked forcefully on the door. Milo faded from view, but I knew he was still there —he was drawn to drama like sharks to the scent of blood.

After a few moments, and a muffled commotion from behind it, the door swung open a crack, and Peyton poked her head out.

Her jaw dropped.

“Hi, there!” Hannah said cheerily.

“What’s the matter, Peyton?” I asked. “I’d say you look as though you’ve seen a ghost, but well…that cliché doesn’t carry the same kind of meaning around here, does it?”

We pushed our way into the room. Olivia and several of the other girls were sitting around. I spotted hastily stashed paper cups and liquor bottles poking out here and there. One girl was actually still grasping her cup, half-concealed behind a throw pillow. I noticed that Róisín and her sister Riley were not among them.

“Oh, sweet, you guys are still drinking?” I asked. I strode across the room, snatched a cup from behind the vanity mirror, peered into it, and gave it an experimental swirl. I shrugged and swallowed the contents in a single gulp. Then I spotted another cup and scooped it up, offering it Hannah. “Cheap wine?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Hannah said, taking it from me and emptying it in one go. “I could use a stiff drink after that little excursion.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You haven’t got something with a bit more kick, do you? Maybe a nice Scotch?”

“Or Absinthe? That’s what the really hardcore kids drank in the last mental hospital I was locked up in,” Hannah said. “Y’know, when we weren’t high on stolen narcotics.”

No one spoke. The girl sitting closest to the fireplace looked like she might cry.

“No real booze? Okay then,” I said. “We just wanted to stop by and congratulate you on a prank well-pulled.”

“Yes,” Hannah said. “A very good try, honestly.”

Peyton finally became the first of them to recover the power of speech. “How did you get back? That circle should have held.” Her tone was boldly accusatory for someone so obviously in the wrong.

“Oh, that?” Hannah said, and snorted with laughter. “That was the easy part. Seriously girls, was that really the best trapping circle you could produce? Keira would be horrified. I’d get studying if I were you.”

“We’d have made it back for more of your little party if that had been all we had to deal with,” I said, peering into another empty cup and tossing it aside. “The Elemental was the interesting challenge.”

Everyone froze, as though the Elemental itself had silenced them with its approach.

“The …” Olivia swallowed something back and cleared her throat. “The summoning worked?” She shot a terrified look at Peyton. “We didn’t think it worked.”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Yeah, it showed up not long after you left. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t freaked out. Anyone stuck in a circle with that thing would have had the longest and most horrifying night of her life.”

Hannah nodded solemnly. “Oh, yes. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.” We both paused to admire the effect of these words. The pall of guilt was palpable. “But there is one thing you girls really need to take into account before you go trying to plan something like this,” Hannah said.

The other girls all looked warily at each other, each wanting to ask what that thing was, but none of them with the guts to do it. We let the silence spiral until finally, the girl sitting closest to the fireplace asked in a breathless voice, “What is it?”

“A Caller is never alone,” Hannah said, and pointed to the windows.

All the girls turned to look. A few screamed. Those nearest the windows scrambled away in panic. Even though I’d been expecting it, my heart thudded at the sight of at least a hundred ghosts, their faces pressed to every inch of the three floor-to-ceiling windows. The overwhelming cold that accompanied them seeped into the room like a gas, extinguishing the fire and turning the remaining booze to crackling ice in their bottles.

“And those are just the ones she found while we’ve been chatting,” I said brightly.

“So I guess what we’re saying is, nice try girls. You might think you run this place, but you really have no idea what you’re dealing with,” Hannah said. She flicked her hand to the right. Every ghostly face behind her turned to follow its progress. Her tone was entirely friendly, but the effect, with a hundred seemingly hypnotized spirits under her control, was terrifying.

She reached behind her, clenched her hand, and opened it again. The horde of ghosts vanished instantly.

“Ooh, snacks!” she said, grabbing a bag of potato chips off of the bed. “Thanks! I’m starving.”

And she turned and practically skipped out of the room.

“Sweet dreams, girls. Really fun night. We should do it again sometime,” I said, and followed Hannah out. I laughed quietly as I closed the door behind me, partly at the stunned expressions we were leaving in our wake, but also because, however damaged she may be, my sister was a hell of a lot tougher than she looked.

KARMA SHOULD HAVE DICTATED THAT WE EMERGED the next morning from our rooms, fresh-faced and full of confidence in our new reputation as the resident badasses of Fairhaven Hall, tossing our artistically tousled hair and walking with a new swing in our step. Instead, we both caught monstrous colds and spent the next two weeks coughing and sneezing miserably all over each other. We did our best to look as un-miserable as possible at breakfast the next morning though I, for one, would rather have spent another hour with the Elemental than give Peyton the satisfaction of knowing her prank had any lasting negative impact, even if that impact was only a cold.