The Secret Trinity Unearth (21 page)

“So fiery, Aria, I like this side of you.” He looked me over in a way that used to make me blush. Now it made my stomach retch with acid.

“Let’s get you cleaned up while Chad prepares your things for our trip,” he said, snapping his fingers, and Adam started to untie my wrists.

“Now I must warn you to behave yourself or you will be spending a lot of time tied to a chair,” Liam continued as Adam finished loosening my wrists. I nodded slowly while Adam bent down to work on my tied ankles.

“Chad, fetch something more comfortable for Aria to wear. We have a long drive ahead,” Liam ordered, and Chad went to the large wardrobe on the opposite side of the white poster bed. When he opened it I saw racks of women’s clothing. Chad opened a drawer, and pulled out some yoga pants and a tank top.

“I am not wearing anything Shannon touched,” I spewed out with an acid tongue. Chad crossed the room and stuck out the clothes to take from him.

Liam threw his head back and laughed, “I bought these all for you, my love. After all, you will be with us for some time. I only thought it appropriate that you have all the comforts of home,” he said taking the clothes from Chad and shoving them on my lap. I shivered. That wardrobe was full of clothes. How long was he going to keep me here, alive?

At that moment the last tie was loosened from my ankle, and I kicked my foot up clipping Adam in the nose. He moaned, clutching his face, and I sprang up trying to make a run for it. Without getting more than two steps I felt Liam from behind, wrapping his arm around my waist with an iron hold, and he chuckled in my ear.

“Nice try,” he laughed and he tightened his grip on my waist.

“You should apologize to Adam. The poor lad already got the wrath of my temper tonight, and now you go and break his nose,” but there was no trace of remorse in his voice. I looked over at Adam, who was wiping his bloodied nose with his sleeve. His face was covered with cuts and bruises, and his clothes were disheveled.

Liam must have beaten him up for failing to kidnap Morgan and Kayla. I suddenly felt grateful for Adam. He was Fae and had some sort of conscious because he had spared my friends. He must have a soul, and I wondered what he could have done to get himself enslaved.

“I am sorry, Adam. I was aiming for Liam,” I said in a quiet but sincere tone.

Liam made a sound of disgust in his throat, “I was kidding, Aria. As I said before, pathetic.” He was referring to an earlier remark of his distaste for Fae having compassion, as though it was a bad character trait.

“Are you going to behave, or will you be spending the evening tied up?” Liam asked for my choice.

It was no use trying to escape. He was too strong, and I was outnumbered. I let the tightness of my muscles relax from his grip, indicating I would stay put if he released me. Liam slowly let go, holding my black cardigan in anticipation, but I remained still and he dropped his arm.

“Feel free to shower in the powder room while we finish our preparations. Do not take too long. We don’t have time to waste.” I wondered where they were taking me, maybe hell? But I was pretty sure I was already there! I walked over to the chair and reluctantly picked up the clothes that had fallen from my lap.

“Just so we save ourselves some time, there are no windows in there, and Chad will be right outside the door. So please, do not bother wasting your energy trying to escape,” his threatening tone made my shoulders slouch in defeat. Then I closed the door to the huge en-suite bathroom, turning the lock.

Chapter 27: The Tunnel

The granite tile of the bathroom floor looked similar to Liam’s grand foyer. I wondered if we were in his house. The double vanity sink had a long mirror, but I could not bring myself to look in it. I did not want to see my reflection. I was a con-artist, but the only person I had conned was me.

I dropped my sweater to the floor and turned on the shower. Waiting to let it warm up, I leaned against the sink facing away from the mirror looking at the floor. I closed my eyes trying to stave off the tears when I felt a rumble under my feet, and I instantly snapped them back open. I felt it again and jumped off the tile in surprise.

I stared in disbelief as the tile slowly began cracking around the edges. My heart started to race sending an electric chill through my body. Recognizing that sensation I quickly turned on the sink faucets and flicked on the exhaust fan, trying to make more background noise as the tile shook loose. The granite gently broke free disappearing through the floor, but the sound of it crashing below never came.

I peered through the hole in the floor and the Eartha’s sky blue eyes stared back, sharp and alert. My heart skipped a beat in relief, and I eyed the bathroom door afraid Liam would somehow sense my elation. The Eartha brought his index finger to his mouth indicating that I should be quiet. He put his hand back up and the second tile fractured. I watched in astonishment as the huge chunk of granite and cement made its way to the floor below. It landed slowly and controlled as he lowered his hand and it only made the slightest thud when it rested in its place.

He looked back up to me, and when our eyes locked, his expression held something behind it that made my breath seize. He waved for me to jump, and then held out his arms like he would catch me. It looked to be a dangerous drop but taking the risk was better than remaining Liam’s prisoner.

The hole was just barely wide enough to inch through, and I dangled for a moment, looking down at the Eartha and his outstretched arms one more time before I released. I slapped my hand to my mouth to suppress a scream during the fall and I closed my eyes until I felt his strong arms underneath me.

He set me down and I scanned the room. It looked like we were in a study. A black lacquer desk was in front of the wall that held endless shelves of books. The Eartha waved for me to follow him as he went around to the sleek desk chair. When I peered around him I saw that underneath the desk there was a big hole in the floor.

He jumped through gracefully, and I looked down after him. He must have carved out some kind of underground tunnel. His abilities were much more precise than I previously realized. How amazing. I clumsily climbed down the hole and followed him through the tunnel until the last bit of light was gone from above.

My heart was still racing. I could not see a thing, and with no light I had trouble keeping up in my heels. I swiftly kicked them off when the silence was broken by a deafening crash echoing through the tunnel.

“You can hide, but you cannot run. You are mine!” Liam’s voice thundered down the tunnel with such power that I ducked, thinking his words would knock me over.

The power of his anger made me freeze, and the Eartha grabbed my arm sending an alarming pulse through my body, “Run!” He yelled, and he broke into a sprint pulling me with him. The ground cut through the bottoms of my bare feet, but the adrenaline coursing through me masked the pain. I tried to keep up but it was so dark in the tunnel I could not see where to step. Then, from behind, I could hear what sounded like a raging waterfall, and the Eartha yanked on my arm urging me to go faster.

Up ahead I saw the dim moonlight piercing through from above, giving the tunnel enough light for shadows. I dared to look back as I ran and all I could make out was a wall of darkness closing in on us, fast. I focused on the moonlight and dug my feet into the rough terrain running as fast as my legs would allow.

When we reached the opening to the tunnel, he hoisted me up through the hole easily. Behind me, just as his last leg pulled out of the tunnel, a geyser of water spewed up through the opening so powerful it could have ripped his leg off cleanly. The icy water sprayed as high as a skyscraper, and then began swirling wildly, into a funnel. I felt like I was caught in a wintery hurricane. My body was frozen on the ground staring up at the impossible display. I was incapacitated by a mixture of awe and fear.

“Get in!” the Eartha shouted, as he picked me up from the road and practically threw me in the passenger seat of a car parked beside the tunnel’s opening. Through the windshield I saw him slide across the hood of the car in one fluid movement, and a second later he was in the driver seat with the engine roaring.

As we sped off I turned to look through the back window just in time to see Liam rise up through the tunnel with the geyser of water hovering above his outstretched arm. A terror alarm went off in me when the swirling tornado of water started in our direction, simultaneously morphing into a giant liquid boulder. It was rolling toward us, gaining velocity. I looked at the Eartha, the whites of my eyes bulging, and again his distinct jaw muscles sprang to life.

“Put your seat belt on!” he barked. Startled by his harsh tone, I spun forward and fumbled for my seatbelt. He pressed the accelerator and we propelled forward, faster than I had ever gone before in a car. I looked in the passenger mirror and the water sphere was still coming, but it had turned into an opaque boulder of ice blocking my view of Liam. The Eartha opened his window and stuck out his hand. The ground rumbled below, and I watched up ahead as a mountain of rock exploded from the street, creating a fortress wall twenty feet high.

We were suddenly playing chicken with this rock wall and all my muscles tensed, waiting for the impact. He took a hard turn onto the shoulder clipping the tail end of his car on the wall, then swerved back onto the road avoiding the deadly collision. I clutched onto the seat not wanting to hit my head again when I heard the crash of a thousand chandeliers shattering at once as the ice boulder made contact with the rock wall.

Then my hands involuntarily flew to my ears when a deafening firecracker went off until I quickly realized it was shards of ice hitting the car’s ceiling. I leapt back in my seat when an icicle spike sliced through the windshield stopping short, only a few inches from my neck. I was afraid if I breathed the spear would pierce my jugular, but the Eartha yanked it free from the windshield and tossed it out his window before rolling it back up. Again he pressed down on the accelerator and I felt my head pushed back from the momentum taking me away from this nightmare.

Chapter 28: Draíochta

I sat there silently for a few minutes taking shallow breaths until finally I dared to turn and look out the car’s back window. I could no longer see Liam or any unnatural water object coming at us. I faced forward again letting out a hollow sigh of relief.

“Do not feel relieved. This is only the beginning. If Liam wanted us dead, we’d be dead. That display was simply a warning,” the Eartha said, and his low velvet accent rang with a grave truth. I had never been in such close visual proximity to him, and I instantly felt nervous because all my instincts before this had warned me to stay away from him.

“Where are we going?” I asked quietly.

“Somewhere safe,” was all he replied. I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. Cold air swirled in the car from the puncture in the windshield where the icicle had cut through. The arctic water of Liam’s geyser had soaked through my clothes.

Now that my adrenaline was wearing off I realized I was wearing jeans and a sequin top, with no shoes, in the middle of winter. I shivered, lacing my fingers together attempting to hide it. He glanced sideways at me and cranked up the heater. He then reached to grab something from the backseat and dropped it in my lap. It was a chestnut leather pilot’s coat, with O’Flaherty embroidered on the patch.

When I slung my arms inside the coat, my fingertips did not even reach the wrist openings. I took a deep cleansing breath in an attempt to stop trembling, and I found that his coat smelled wonderfully of dewy pine with a hint of cinnamon, spreading instant warmth through me.

He reached across me opening the glove box and pulled out a clear plastic bag that looked like it contained sand. He opened it with one hand and the sand granules swirled up and out of the bag. They fluttered like ribbons set free in the air as they covered the hole in the windshield. He leaned forward and pressed his hand over the sand covering the hole. It made a crunching sound like he was compressing it and his fingertips glowed with golden light.

I could feel my adrenaline kick in again as I stared at this spectacular gift. He was turning the sand into glass. It began to turn translucent, melting seamlessly onto the windshield. It looked flawless when he was done as if it had never been broken at all. He returned the bag to the glove box and stared straight ahead. I guessed this wasn’t his first run in with the Famorii.

I peeked over at him. His black hair was wet and glossy, his bangs slightly curled at the ends, almost hanging in his eyes that held tight and intense, focused on the road. I had a million questions and for once I was confident I would hear the truth.

“Who are you?” I asked meekly, hoping this time he would tell me. He breathed deep in his ribcage, and he straightened in his seat causing me to retreat into mine.

“I am your Keeper,” he stated. I shook my head. He had misunderstood I did not ask what he was. I wanted to know who he was.

“No, that is not what I meant…What is your name?” I corrected. He turned his head so sharply in my direction that it startled me. His eyes were narrowed and full of confusion, as if he had not understood the question.

“I assume you have a name, right?” I tried to clarify, becoming equally confused by his expression.

He rolled his eyes returning them to the road, “Of course I have a name. I just expected a different question. Clay O’Flaherty,” he answered. I sighed in relief. I finally knew his identity. His blurry face was now a clear picture in my head and one puzzle was solved. Maybe I would be able to sleep again without dreaming of him… Clay.

“Well Clay, thank you for saving me tonight, and I guess, many more times before,” I spoke with as much warmth as possible, even though I was still shivering with nerves.

“Save your breath on “thank you”. I was just doing my job,” he answered in a hard tone. I looked at him and furrowed my eyes, annoyed by his cold demeanor.