The Aetherfae (7 page)

Candace and Ronnie walked by, quickly, and headed into the little store. I watched until the door closed behind them. “Two days. He was there right after it happened.”

Doug smiled. His crystal blue eyes locked onto mine, and tiny lines formed along his forehead. “I’m happy for you.” He ran his fingers though his blond hair and walked to the store letting his hands drop to his sides.

My heart felt like it was filled full of lead. It told me to go after him, to say something to make him feel better, but I worried anything I might say would only make him feel worse. So I said nothing and let him walk away.
Crap. I totally suck.

* * *

We drove through Gloversville, Saratoga Springs, Schuylerville, and Greenwich, then southeast to Cambridge, New York, and through the wooded mountains and narrow green valleys on Batten Kill Road. When we passed a covered bridge on the right, Ronnie chuckled. “If we have to hide, at least it’s pretty here.”

An hour later, past Manchester and Dorset, we turned down the narrow paved lane and towards our new hiding place. When the car stopped, Mom walked out on the porch and stared. Her jaw was cocked to the side, and her arms were crossed. Yep, she was furious. She wouldn’t talk to me last night, so I didn’t bother to tell her I was leaving. We made eye contact just long enough for me to get the point. She spun on her heel and walked through the front door, not bothering to shut it.

“Your Mom looks so angry,” Candace whispered.

“She is. And she’s sad, and she feels alone, and she’s confused. She’s a little bit of everything right now.”

“And you won’t let the Ohanzee compel her?”

“No,” I said. “The feelings are hers. I can’t stand the thought any of them in her head, even if it would make it easier on me.”

Candace bumped her shoulder into mine as we carried her bags to the house. “Sounds an awful lot like you want to be blamed.”

“I do not,” I protested.

“Not convinced, girl. I bet, deep down, you’re thinking having someone to blame will make it easier for them to deal with.” She bumped me again.

She was absolutely correct, and we both knew it. “So, you’ll be sleeping in my room. Hope you don’t mind,” I said.

Candace snorted. “Surrender so soon? Remember who you’re talking to. We might as well be sisters. I know you like we grew up together.”

I bumped her back.

Doug seemed to brighten up when Mitch and Justice bolted out the front door, the former ready to talk his ear off. Gavin had kept his distance from Mitch and Mom. I had a feeling that I wasn’t the only one playing the blame game. Gavin displayed his emotions right out in the open. He keyed in on everyone else’s, too.

With my friends settled into the rooms, I went looking for the Ohanzee. Mom stopped me in the hall. She didn’t look at me. She turned her gaze to everyone else in the room. “I talked to…them. Your father’s funeral will be tomorrow. I expect you to be here.”

I felt like she’d punched me in the stomach. Of course I’d be there.

“Afterwards,
they
are going to cremate his body…” Her lower lip began to twitch and her voice cracked. “…Just like Aunt May—it’s what he wanted.”

“Mom?”

She ignored me and walked out of the room. My heart ached.

“Mom?” I yelled.

Grandma came around the corner. She looked tired. “Honey, what do you need?”

“I need her,” I said.

“You’ve got her, baby. She’s always here for you. You know that, right? She was frantic when she woke up and you were gone. Billy—he’s such a nice young man—he told us you’d be back by dinner.”
Nice young man? He’d love to hear that.

“It’s not fair to you, but she needs space right now.”

“Is she at least talking to Mitch?”

Grandma’s eyes misted. She rubbed the wrinkled skin under her glasses and nodded. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean a thing, you hear me?”

“Grandma, it’s okay that she’s mad at me, as long as she’s there for Mitch. I’ve got you, right?”

“That’s right,” she said with a gentle hug and a little rocking motion. “You need to talk about it?”

“Not right now.”

“You sure about that?” she asked, looking over her glasses.

“Yes, ma’am.” I forced a smile.

“Okay, then. But you let me know if you change your mind.”

Tse-xo-be and the rest of the elders were exactly where I’d left them the night before. I passed through the veil of Clóca and took a seat next to Faye and Drevek.

“Thank you,” I said.

Tse-xo-be nodded. “You are welcome. Your friends are no worse off for it, I presume?”

“They’re rattled, but they’re alive. They want to say thank you.”

“That will not be necessary,” he said, but he didn’t know Candace—she’d insist anyway.

“Maggie, do you have time to counsel with us.”

“Yes, of course.”

“The Seelie Clan, as you knew it, is no more.”

“What?” I said breathlessly, my heart skipping a beat.

“We learned a great deal while you were gone. Not all is good news, but not all is bad. After you shared the vision of the Second attacking the Council, we made contact with one of our own.”

“A spy?”

“A source.” Tse-xo-be nodded. “Two nights ago, Ozara proposed combining both clans—forming one Council to govern one new clan. Anuket, Ix Chel, Toci, Hariti, Kapo’pi’i, and Ekoi agreed. Asharyu, Ostara, Sherman, Victoria, Avery, Calis and Guanyin disagreed. Ozara forced the dissenters off the Council, accusing them of collusion with the Second. They were allowed to leave and then Ozara destroyed the Seoladán at the Weald.”

I slid off the stool and heaved for air.

“The Weald has been abandoned, deemed indefensible.”

“What about the Pembreys? The new steward, Dylan?”

“They were killed during the attack you witnessed,” Billy said softly.

I wrapped my arms around my legs without thinking about it. “Where did Ozara and the Seelie Council…Unseelie Elders, whatever—where did they go?”

“We don’t know yet. We hope that you can find them,” Billy whispered.

“Of course I can. But what happened to the clan? There were hundreds of Seelie. Who did they follow?”

“There were two thousand three hundred and fifteen Seelie the night the second attacked. Thirty-one died. Our informant claims that nearly two thousand have followed Ozara, fearful of falling prey to the Second, who can attack unseen. During the Second’s assault, those inside the Aether barrier were spared. The rest are either here, with their original clans, or…dead. ”

I sat back and brushed my hair off my face. “Everyone outside the barrier died instantly.”

“Yes. That is a powerful recruiting tool. Before the attack, we estimate that there were nearly two thousand Unseelie in the world. The new clan is the largest ever. It now outnumbers the original Seelie clan at its strongest, before the first war.”

“Are they Seelie or Unseelie? Do they want to exterminate humans or not?” I asked.

“That we do not know.” Tse-xo-be said.

“We are led to believe that the new clan has been formed for the sole purpose of eliminating the threat of the Second and the Rogues,” Billy said.

I looked up to Tse-xo-be. “How many Rogues are there?”

He shook his head. “We do not know.”

“Wait, how is that possible?”

“Maggie,” Billy said, “Ozara believes that some of the Original clans have aligned themselves with the Second, but she does not know which or how many. Besides the original clans, and some independent Fae, not all of our kind belong to clans. Do you remember the night in Fayetteville when Sara and I told you about the Original clans and the Independents—about the defections?”

“Yes. You said they existed, but you never said how many. When I took the Earth trial, Devin and Sara told me there were tens of thousands of Fae. She said that thousands had given up experiencing the physical world.”

“Yes, that’s true, there are thousands who could potentially be aligned with the Second.”

A chill ran down my spine, leaving my nerves raw. “Thousands...” The word slipped past my lips and my voice left. It all seemed impossible. A new clan of four thousand—
four thousand
—all led by Ozara, a paranoid schizophrenic on the best of days, and Zarkus, a human-hating psychopath. And worse, there was another Aetherfae with an army of Fae who had tried to kill me already.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. It felt like a no-win situation. If Ozara prevailed, what would happen to humanity afterwards? Could she put the old Seelie clan back together? Would she want to? The Second had already killed tens of thousands of people.

It struck me that everyone was quiet. They were watching me, waiting for my reaction. I wanted to appear strong and confident, but I didn’t have the strength to pull it off. I tried to calm myself, but my usual device—visions of lying on the beach—reminded me of Dad. Instead, I imagined being in the Weald having tea with Aunt May. I focused on memories of my parents sitting in the garden, smiling at each other in the summer sun. My heart rate slowed, but the pain I’d felt for the last two days seemed to grow. I looked up at Tse-xo-be. His normally stoic face bore telltale signs of concern.

“We fully intend to follow your wishes and hide your family so that you can learn how to create Aether,” Tse-xo-be said. “But we need you to help us first.”

Something else to focus on, that’s what I needed. “Of course. Anything.”

“We need you to locate Dersha as soon as possible. There are ways to track Fae, and we need to know whether she is tracking us.”

“I can do that, but first, there is something you need to know--what really happened at Caer Bran.”

Tse-xo-be lips curved downward, and he nodded.

“It will probably be easier if I show you.” With that, I played back everything I could remember. Flying across the English countryside, arriving at Caer Bran, the Aether shield floating into place, and finally, the Ozara’s attack.

All were stunned. Not one of them said a word when I stood. “I’ll go find Dersha.”

SEVEN

PANDORA’S BOX

I
settled on the bed. Candace wasn’t in the room—she was probably hanging out somewhere with Ronnie and Doug. My body ached from exhaustion. I hadn’t slept more than an hour or two in the past three days. Really, all I wanted was sleep, but I had to find Dersha. I closed my eyes and projected, concentrating on her.

I floated off to a warm place, a bright place. I could hear Candace’s voice gently calling my name. She sat across from me at a wood table. Beside her, Rachel twirled her hair, her blue-green eyes shifting between my face and a cinnamon roll she was slowly picking apart. She smiled as I talked about Lizbeth and Megan back in Boca Raton. I told her she reminded me of Megan, my best friend. Rhonda sipped a latte, feigning interest in my story. She wasn’t glaring like usual—she was actually being pleasant—for Rhonda.

In the back of my mind it all seemed odd: Rhonda being nice, Rachel sitting with me, talking about Megan and Lizbeth. My eyes drifted to a table behind Candace. Just over her shoulder, I could make out the back of a woman’s head. She was blonde and sat with her back perfectly straight.

“Maggie, what are you looking at?” Rachel asked.

“Nothing…I thought I recognized someone, but it couldn’t be. She wouldn’t be in Eureka,” I replied.

Candace turned to the blonde woman and tapped her on the shoulder. “Ma’am? Ma’am?”

“Don’t bother her, Candace. It couldn’t be.”

“Yes,” the blonde woman answered, turning her face slightly. Her profile seemed familiar.

“My friend thinks she knows you.”

“Maggie O’Shea does know me,” the woman responded. Her melodic voice seemed familiar, too. The woman turned to look at me.

“Candace, back away. Now!” I cried.

“Why?” Candace asked, rolling her eyes at me.

“She’s afraid I’m going to kill you, and she’s right. I am.” Dersha grabbed Candace by the throat with one hand, Rachel with the other. They gasped for air. I reached for her hands, but Rhonda grabbed me, pushed me back. Some how she was stronger than me.

“They’re going to die because of you. We all are,” Rhonda snarled.

Candace struggled, tugging at Dersha’s arm, and she called my name over and over in little more than a strangled whisper. “Maggie…Maggie…”

Rhonda shook me. I could feel her hands on my shoulders, but I couldn’t get her off me.

“Maggie…Maggie!”

The dream faded and I sat up on the bed in the darkened room. Candace had me by the shoulders. “Bad dream? You’re sweating like a pig.”

“I was with you, Rachel, and Rhonda…it was the day we met. We were in the coffee shop across from the Basin Park hotel. Dersha was there…”

“Calm down, Mags. It was just a dream.”

“How long have I been asleep? What time is it?”

“You really need to wear the watch. It’s 8 p.m.”

“Crap, I must have dozed off. I need to find Dersha.”

“You need to sleep, you have dark circles under your eyes. I didn’t want to say anything, but you look terrible. Dersha can wait ‘til morning.”

“No, she can’t. She might be tracking us.”

Candace’s eyes grew big. “Can they do that?’

“Like supernatural bloodhounds. I can’t afford to sleep right now. If she finds us, the entire clan finds us.”

“Will coffee help?”

“Maybe.”

She hurried out of the room and returned in a few minutes with a large mug steaming away in the cool night air. “Try this, but be careful, it’s really hot.”

I gulped a burning mouthful, and began coughing when it scorched my tongue and throat. She protested when I forced another down my throat. My eyes watered.

“I’m awake now,” I said, wiping my eyes.

She shook her head, cringing. “Do you need me to leave?”

“No, just be perfectly quiet.”

She nodded. “When I read about Pete O’Shea doing it, astral projection, I tried to learn myself—like you and Mom.”

“Any luck?”

“Not yet, but I’m going to keep trying,” she said. She was the most persistent person I knew. I guessed it would only be a matter of time before she was teaching me things about it.

With the burning sensation forcing adrenalin through my veins, I reclined and tried again. Candace focused intently on me as I closed my eyes. The familiar floating sensation took over my senses, and I felt Candace below me, sitting next to my body. In the room next door, I sensed Ronnie and Doug chatting with Mitch. There wasn’t time to linger, but I felt happiness seeing them together. Before I concentrated on Dersha, I focused on Mom. She sat alone in her room, a lamp burning next to her while she read. I realized that she was reading a journal—my journal.
Oh, Candace. Well, it’s too late to worry about that now.

I expected Mom to be even angrier when she realized how often I had deceived her. In my defense, I tried to explain it all to her when we arrived at the house, but she wouldn’t listen.

I forced any thoughts of Mom out of my mind, and concentrated on Dersha. She stood in a clearing surrounded by trees, drawing deep breaths through her nose. The clearing looked familiar. I followed as Dersha moved toward the east. Her nostrils flared and her chest expanded near a set of tire tracks in the grass. I fought to keep my thoughts suppressed when she bent down and ran her hand over the crushed blades of grass. She closed her cold eyes and smiled. “She was here—they all were,” Dersha said. She appeared to be alone.

“Fae were here. I recognize one of them, an old clansmen of mine,” she continued. “You are correct—most extraordinary that you found them this quickly. They are hiding the humans, Gavin is among them.”

“He has returned for her. Predictable,” came another woman’s voice. “It is her scent. It is the same as in Florida.”

The other voice startled me. I couldn’t see or sense her. She must have been concealed in Clóca.

“Shall I go after her, now?”

“Yes, as quickly as possible. Do not fail us,” Dersha said.

“I will deliver her heart.”

“Hers and the other three.”

Panic gripped me. I could feel my chest tighten back in Vermont. The other three? Was she talking about Ronnie, Doug, and Candace, or Mom, Dad, and Mitch? We had Dad’s body, but Dersha might not have known he was dead. I tried to concentrate on the origin of the second voice, willing myself to it. If I could catch a glimpse of her essence, break through the Clóca, I could track her—I had found Billy behind Tse-xo-be’s barrier, after all. My mind moved within a few feet of Dersha, but that didn’t help. I began searching in a pattern, trying to make contact. Nothing. A few seconds later Dersha shot away in Naeshura. I concentrated again on the woman’s voice. “I will find her,” I said to myself. Nothing. Instead I concentrated on Ozara.

* * *

I sat up next to Candace, her eyes wide. “What did you find out?”

“Plenty,” I said. “What time is it?”

“You’ve been out for hours—it’s five thirty in the morning. It’s nearly dawn.”

“Come on, we need to talk to Tse-xo-be,” I said.

“Do you think they’ll mind if I tag along?”

I grinned at her. “I don’t care. I need you.”

Somewhere in the east, light filter through a dense layer of fog and cool morning air. My visibility was limited to about thirty feet, but I knew where we were going. Candace grew nervous as we crossed the field, her eyes darting left and right. At the edge of Tse-xo-be’s barrier, I heard Amadahy’s silent protest. “
She brings a human among us…this cannot be permitted.”

“Enough, Amadahy, Maggie does not answer to us.”
Even though his reply was silent, I felt his booming voice in my bones.

Candace gasped and froze in place when the Fae came into view. I reached back and pulled her forward. Tse-xo-be created a stool for her next to mine. Amadahy slowly transformed from a deer into a Sasquatch, and she glared at Candace. Candace backed up a step. I dragged her shaking body to the seat next to me.

“Did you find Dersha?” Tse-xo-be asked.

“I did. She isn’t tracking us, but someone is.”

“Anyone you recognize?”

I shook my head. “She was hidden behind Clóca—I tried, but couldn’t pierce it.”

The Fae exchanged looks. “The Second?” Tse-xo-be asked me.

“I don’t think so.”

“And how would you know?” Amadahy snapped, causing Candace to shudder.

I turned to her. “The other Fae answered to Dersha, like a subordinate would. It had a female voice—very deep, very raspy, with a strong accent.”

“Arustari,” Wakinyan said, looking to Tse-xo-be.

“Mara.” Tse-xo-be nodded.

“The blood drinker?” I asked.

Candace drew in a sharp breath. “Vampires?”

I squeezed her hand. “Can she track me across country?”

Tse-xo-be nodded. “Yes. Every human has a unique chemical composition, a unique scent. That scent lingers for days.”

“But we were in a car.”

“That doesn’t matter—it wasn’t sealed—there was no time. The vehicle leaked your scent like a rusty bucket. Absent days of torrential rain, she can locate you,” Billy said. “We sealed the truck when we moved your family from Florida, and with the rain, it wasn’t likely any could have followed. She will find this place.”

“Are we in danger?”

“It will take her perhaps two days to find us. But you’re not in danger from Mara alone,” Tse-xo-be said.

That made sense. She wouldn’t stand a chance against Tse-xo-be, but she could lead the rogues back to us. “What do we do?”

“We move to the next location.”

“And when they track us there?” Amadahy asked.

“Then we move again,” Wakinyan growled.

Amadahy turned her stare from Tse-xo-be to Candace and me. Even though I’d seen a Bigfoot before, it was unnerving.

“I found Ozara,” I said. “She’s in a desert area with no trees. It’s flat, mostly, with mountains to the northwest—there aren’t any people, but there were hundreds of Fae, maybe a thousand. I searched miles of the area around them. It’s very desolate…I couldn’t figure out where they were until I let my tether slowly pull me to the North. I crossed over Interstate 10, and many miles further north I found a road—Highway 180.”

“That sounds like the northern border of Ometeo territory,” Wakinyan said. “Did they say anything? Provide any clues to what they were doing?”

“Several were working on something—I don’t know what they were doing exactly, though. They were drawing immense energy and directing it toward one place deep in the earth. I thought they might be trying to change the land, but nothing happened for a long time. Then more of them showed up.”

“What does that mean?” Gavin asked Wakinyan. “Have they created a new Seoladán?”

“Yes. Gavin, you were not alive when we created the Seoladáns of the world—most Fae take them for granted. Each Seoladán has been in existence for millions of years. Young Fae are taught where each is located, taught how to navigate from any location to the next. Ozara is thinking tactics—it is a brilliant move.”

The Fae all seemed to understand what Tse-xo-be was saying. I didn’t. “I’m sorry, I don’t get it.”

Gavin said, “The Seoladáns allow energy to pass from one portal to another the instant the boundary is crossed. It’s simple physics. The Seoladáns bend the fabric of space. Fae cross back and forth by harmonizing with the desired destination—think of it as dialing a telephone number. Each Seoladán has a unique number.”

“Interesting analogy. Gavin is correct,” Tse-xo-be said. “Think of this new Seoladán as an unlisted number. The only Fae who can use the new Seoladán are those who know the number. Attacking Ozara’s clan in North America becomes more difficult. All Fae knew the Seoladán at the Weald. Attacking the Seelie Council and escaping was simple. Now, Fae will be forced to traverse the distance. It makes Talemn Alainn easier to defend. Tactically, until the new Seoladán is discovered, it allows the Seelie-Unseelie clan to attack anywhere in the world and withdraw without the possibility of pursuit. A counterattack will take time to achieve. Based on that, it wouldn’t surprise me if they move on the Ometeo. Ozara will secure a southern buffer zone.”

“Sherman said Ozara couldn’t track Gavin through the Seoladán at the Weald, so you can’t just follow them back through, can you?”

“No, we cannot.”

“Can’t you sneak through it on their end, when you’re in Clóca, and learn the address?” Candace asked.

Wakinyan smiled. “Yes, and that is precisely what I intend to do.”

“Since we’re talking strategy, can I ask a question?” Candace asked.

“Yes,” Tse-xo-be said.

“This tracker, the vampire. I assume it will be easier for her to track all of us—Maggie’s family, Doug, Ronnie, and I—while we’re all together?”

“Yes, you’re combined scents are like a glowing trail in the night air leading the enemy right to you—and us,” Amadahy said.

“That’s what I thought. When Sherman healed Mitch O’Shea, he made him stronger than he’d ever been. When Sherman and Gavin healed me, they made my scars disappear…”