Luke stood up and his hip brushed mine as he bent to speak into my ear. “Ease up, we’ll drop her off, and you can be done with her then. No need to rub salt in the wound, Quinn.”
Glaring, I shoved him away from me. “Did either of your parents betray you to the enemy? If it was a choice of their child’s life, you, and themselves, would they have handed you over?”
He didn’t answer; he didn’t have to. We all knew what he would say. No parent who truly loved his or her children would do as Darcy had, and we all knew it. He reached for my hand, his eyes soft.
My anger took a new direction. “Don’t touch me. It’s your fault we left her behind.” Luke’s jaw tightened.
“Balor would have killed you,” he said.
I blew out a sharp puff of air. “You don’t know that.”
Luke threw his hands above his head. “I DO know that. Damn it, why can’t you listen? Balor is your enemy. You are destined to kill him, which means it is in his best interest to end your life.”
“Then why didn’t he when he had the chance?” I yelled.
All the fight seemed to go out of Luke; his shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
I turned my back on him. That was just it; nobody really knew what was going on, not Luke, not Cora, and seemingly not even Balor. Luke wasn’t the only one confused about Balor’s actions towards me.
The helicopter dropped without warning and my feet hovered above the floor for a split second before gravity yanked me back down. I tumbled to one knee as the pilot’s voice came over the speaker. “Hang on; we’re getting a bit of turbulence.”
Stumbling to the window, I peeked out to see the east coast of Vancouver Island speeding towards us. Except for a few spots where there were buildings right on the coast, a thick line of forest met the ocean and even this high up I could see the spray from the waves. I squinted and looked closer. The waves shouldn’t have been so visible; they usually didn’t get very big within the Strait of Georgia.
I realized another earthquake was occurring. They hadn’t let up and now they were causing miniature tsunamis that raced into the shore.
My thoughts turned back to Ashling. I didn’t really want to leave; this was where Ashling was, and I felt in my heart that if I was to have any chance at finding her, it wouldn’t be by trekking half way across the world for training. I needed to stay here, close to where she was.
“You should buckle up Quinn,” Luke said as he put his hand on my elbow. As if I was an invalid. I jerked my arm away from him as the helicopter dipped yet again and we were both thrown back a few steps.
“No, I don’t want to see anything!” Darcy shouted, startling me. I spun around to see her gripping her head in her hands, her face twisted up as if she were in pain.
Cora slipped from my shoulders and slid over to Darcy. “What is it? What do you see?”
The wind buffeted the helicopter, yanking us around as if we were marionettes; our limbs jumped and jerked in seeming spasms. For a moment it stole the attention from Darcy and whatever it was she was experiencing.
The pilot’s voice crackled over the radio. “Hang on folks. It’s too rough to land. We’re going to have to ride this out.”
Luke grunted he gripped a handle above his head, and we were tossed about inside the cabin. Darcy did nothing to stop her body from being thrown around. She just continued to hold her head, her lips moving silently. Cora had wrapped herself around Darcy’s neck. Quinn, come take your mother’s hand.
My fingers found a handle on the edge of one of the seats and I held tight. “Kinda busy at the moment!” I shouted back as yet another gust of wind hit us hard, spinning the helicopter about like a top.
Now, Quinn! Cora’s command compelled me to loosen my fingers and inch my way across the floor to where Darcy remained strapped in her seat. I thought it was just so I could give her comfort.
I was wrong.
As our fingers touched, Darcy’s mind seemed to slam into mine and I saw what she was seeing. Below us, on the edge of the coast and partially hidden by the thick forest, were two figures. One, I recognized. Tall, imposing, pitch-black hair and violet eyes marked Balor as easily as if he had a sign above his head. The other, though, was no one I knew. Shrouded in a cowl, the other figure hovered above the ground.
“I thought you had mastery over the winds, Banshee Queen,” Balor said, his voice dripping with disdain.
The Banshee Queen raised her arms and let out a long, low hiss. “Question me not, Fomorii. They will die.”
Outside of what I was seeing I could feel the helicopter shaking and shuddering as the winds continued to increase.