“After what that announcer said? Miss, I would sure hate to see something bad happen to you kids.” His face was crinkled with concern. I patted his arm. “We’ll be okay. If the police aren’t concerned then we don’t need to be; I haven’t been to see the grove before. I think I’ve been missing out.” I gave him a wink and he slowed down, pulling to the side of the road.
“Alright then. You two take care of each other.” Luke stepped out first, and as I slid across the seat to follow him, Don touched my hand. I paused and looked back.
“That boy, he looks at you like I used to look at my Mary, God rest her soul. Love, it’s precious; don’t let it slip past you cause you are looking for something perfect.” He gave my hand a squeeze then let me go. I shut the door with a lump in my throat, and waved to him as he merged with traffic.
“For a two lane highway, this place is awfully busy,” Luke said.
Cora let out a low hiss and a thrill of alarm went through me, freezing me to the spot. “What is it?”
“This forest, it feels strange. Luke, is it just me, or do you sense it too?” she asked.
He opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a long low rumble and the ground heaving under our feet. “Damn it!” I snapped as I grabbed at a cement barrier separating the highway from Cameron Lake.
The earthquake passed, a low aftershock chasing it deep into the mountain range behind us. Luke held a hand out to me. I took it, our fingers intertwining. “Tell me about this area, Quinn. I think I know what Cora’s getting at, but I am hoping we’re wrong.”
He sat down on the cement barrier beside me.
I frowned as I thought about what I knew of the region. “Well, Cathedral Grove has some of the oldest trees on the Island, first growth. So it’s a protected park. The range it butts up against is Beaufort, I think.” I put my fingers to my forehead. “Um, there have been a lot of accidents on Cameron Lake, and it’s really deep. I don’t think anyone’s gotten to the bottom.”
Luke nodded, “Anything else?”
“Well, some people believe there’s a lake monster.” I thought they would laugh, but really I should have known better.
“Crap,” was all that Luke said; Cora muttered a curse that made my eyes widen.
“You don’t think the monster is real do you?” I asked. Luke stood, and helped me to my feet.
Cora shifted across my shoulders and said, “Wait. We should leave the side of the road I think. I feel like something is headed our way.”
Her eyes stared out across the lake, and I followed her gaze. I had to scrub my eyes, not trusting what I was seeing. A large humped back was undulating towards us. Fast.
Before I could take two steps, tentacles burst out of the water and streaked towards us.
“Run!” Luke shouted. He didn’t have to tell me twice. I bolted for the safety of the trees a few yards away.
A tentacle wrapped around my left ankle midstride and yanked me off my feet. Cora was thrown from my shoulders; I wrenched my dagger out. I slashed at the black, leathery tentacle that was dragging me back towards the water, but the hide was too thick.
I heard Luke yell to my right and a tentacle that was flying towards my face was sliced open, spraying me with blue blood, thick like oil. The creature let out a gurgling cry, its parrot-like beak breaking the water for a split second. Determined not to draw Luke and Cora into more danger, I drew my power forward, preparing to hit the water beast with a blaze of fire.
“Quinn, no!” Luke shouted as I released the flame, but nothing happened. A small streak of light and then a puff of smoke. The creature blinked a single eye at me, and smiled.
I felt my power suddenly sucked out, as if the monster had a tentacle deep inside me. My body weakened fast; I dropped my dagger in the dirt as my hand went limp. My eyes rolled; I could feel the darkness reaching for me when I was suddenly jerked free of the creature’s grasp, its suction cups releasing me with an audible “pop.”
Someone lifted me over their shoulder and ran. The world bounced crazily; the trees, sky and water blurred together in a kaleidoscope of blues and greens.
“Put me down, I’m gonna puke.” I gasped out, feeling the bile rise in the back of my throat.
Hands gently lowered me to a moss-covered mound where I promptly heaved until my stomach was empty. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I coughed and turned around.
“Thanks Luke,” I said, then blinked and stared. It wasn’t Luke who’d rescued me; in fact, I wasn’t entirely sure that I had been rescued at all.
5
The girl looked to be no more than twelve or thirteen years old, and had long brown hair that trailed to the ground. But it was her eyes that held my attention. The pupils were shaped like a cat’s, and they were two different colours, the left one blue, the right a vibrant spring green. She smiled at me, showing pointed teeth like a Fomorii, though to be fair they were much smaller and more dainty in appearance. I scrambled backwards, and Called my knife. In a split second the bone handle warmed under my fingers. We were deep into the grove; I had no idea where Luke and Cora were.