Not wanting to be be-spelled, even by accident, I dropped my gaze. “I have to go, I have to get Luke out of here, to get him help,” I said.
The Queen was shaking her head. “I’m afraid I cannot let you do that.”
Ah crap, was this never going to end?
“Please, I know that I made a mistake. I believed Aednat, trusted her, but Luke doesn’t deserve to die because of my mistake. You said you’d let him go!” I pleaded with her, hoping she would show some mercy; there was no way I could fight all of them.
She lifted her hand to silence me. “He will die if you move him, and you have tasks yet ahead of you that no one else can do. Tasks that you must do.”
I ran to Luke’s side, crouched down beside him. “Luke, please, I can’t do this on my own. I don’t know enough, I don’t have enough training. Cora’s gone—”
I’m right here.
I ignored her. “I can’t lose you too.”
He blindly lifted a hand, and I took it, pressing his fingers against my cheek. He loved me, more than I deserved, and this is what his love had given him. A death sentence.
“Leave me here. I won’t go anywhere, I promise,” he whispered, his fingers curling around the edge of my jaw.
I looked up, my eyes meeting Fianna’s. “Will you care for him, until I can get back?”
Quinn, the earthquakes have stopped. I’ve not felt one for far too long.
“We will care for him, until the end,” Fianna said. Her words were not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but they would have to do.
Standing, I looked around the clearing; the other Banshees were gone, melted into the forest. Aednat’s body was gone too, nothing but a pile of ash in which a single, glittering gem stone lay.
“Take it,” Fianna said, motioning to the gem. “You earned it.”
The stone was warm in my hand, one side the exact shade of Aednat’s blue eye, the other the shade of her green. Tears welled up; I had begun to think of her as a little sister, someone I would protect, not unlike Ashling. A cold wind seemed to tear through my heart. If I could kill Aednat, maybe the prophecy was right. What if something happened that forced my hand against Ashling? Would I do it? Would we end up like Aednat and Fianna, enemies willing to kill one another?
My hand clenched around the stone so hard the edges bit into my skin and then I dropped it to the ground. I didn’t want it, no matter what its value. “I don’t know what to do, where to go,” I said, slowly turning around.
The clearing was empty.
I was alone.
17
Without a direction in mind, I started to walk. Cora was right; the earthquakes had stopped. Either we were too late or Lir had made it in time and had stopped Card. But which was it?
It wasn’t long before I found myself at the edge of Cameron Lake, looking out over the clear surface. Like a giant mirror, I could see the mountain on the far side in the water, a perfect reflection.
The water began to ripple in the middle of the lake and I tensed, expecting Morty to emerge, enraged and hungry. For once, my luck showed up, instead of a monster.
Lir swam towards me but I didn’t wait for him to reach the shore. I ran into the shallows, not even registering the icy cold water. “Lir!” This was it, he was going to tell me he’d made it in time; he’d stopped Card. From behind him came a second ripple of water and a dark head emerged. I skidded to a stop, the rocks under my feet suddenly unsteady.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped, emotions swirling through me. Bres lifted his head, then ducked it low, unable to meet my eyes. My heart sunk to the bottom of the lake with a dark premonition. Nothing good could come of this meeting.
Lir reached me first, but neither answered my question. “Tell me what’s going on. What happened?” I asked, panic beginning to ride up my spine.
My father caught my hands with his own, covering them up and holding them tight. “I didn’t make it in time to stop your brother, even with your help. He’d already reached the box that contained Chaos,” he took a deep breath, one that seemed laboured, and it was then that I saw the wound in his chest, blood trickling out in a steady stream.
“You’re hurt!” I yelped, attempting to pull my hands out of his. Lir only shook his head.
“I’ll be fine, the wound is healing already.” Pausing, he lifted his hands to my shoulders, squeezing them as if to hold me in place. “There is more news, Quinn.” He half turned to Bres, who’d come up behind him, his eyes not lifting, his chin touching his chest. It was like before, when we were in the Labyrinth. I could feel his emotions, almost as if they were my own.