Dark Isle(5)

Darcy squared her shoulders, but her voice shook and her body quivered. “I didn’t see anything, I don’t know what you are talking about. Now leave me the hell alone.” She spun on her heel and strode back down the hill, her hand out, thumb extended to the vehicles passing by.

Luke called out after her, tried to get her to come back, he even tried to Charm her. The effect of it, though, was lost on her retreating figure. I watched her go. It was no surprise to me that she left as soon as I questioned her. Just like always, she ran the minute things got hard, when she might have to do the difficult thing. Like be honest with her daughter. As we watched, an older BMW pulled over and she jumped in, gone once more from my life.

Anger blossomed through me; I clenched my hands, but managed to keep the emotion out of my voice. “Well, can’t say that was a shock.” We stood on the side of the road, heat waves baking the salt into our skin. An apple tree, thick with the start of little fruits, was just off the side of the road up against a rusted old barbed wire fence. The shade would be worth a few scratches. I made my way through the long grass and plunked myself down, a breeze off the ocean cooling the sweat on my face. The sirens had stopped, leaving the air free of any noise except the birds.

Cora tightened around my shoulders, a comforting presence. Some of the anger drained away. “Tell us what you saw, Quinn. Your mother . . . there is no excuse for her behaviour. Even when someone has a good family, they can still turn out bad.”

I tipped my head back so I could look her in the face. Her dark eyes were unblinking, but it was the regret I heard in her voice that caught my attention. “Did you know my family?”

One bob of her head is all I got. I guess even Cora didn’t want to admit to know the people I’d grown up with. I couldn’t blame her. I plucked at the long grass and ran it through my fingers. I just needed to sit a minute; the adrenaline had disappeared and without it my body was fatigued beyond belief.

Luke followed us into the shade, shaking his head; his blond hair standing up as if he’d spiked it on purpose. “Did you really see Balor and the Banshee Queen?”

“Yes. She was the one controlling the wind,” I said, twisting the grass in my hands into a braid.

Then he asked the question I’d been wondering myself. “Why didn’t they just kill us?”

I took a deep breath and blew out slowly. “Balor said he made a promise. That was why he didn’t let us just fly away or kill us.” I paused and thought about that conversation. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it was like he was sad.” Neither one of them had anything to say to that, though my own thoughts continued to swirl around the brief conversation between Balor and the Banshee Queen. I finished the braid and began to loop it into a noose. “Who is Chaos?”

Cora sucked in a sharp hiss, and I lifted my eyes to hers. Luke looked confused, but not freaked out, which by the way Cora tightened up on my shoulders, she was.

Luke does not know about Chaos, few outside the old gods do.

I thought on that a minute. Why can’t Luke know?

Luke was watching us, his eyes narrowing. “It’s rude to speak mind to mind when there are others around.”

Lifting herself off my shoulders into a cobra stance, Cora bared her fangs at Luke, shocking me and sending Luke back a step.

“Cora,” I said, keeping my voice low. “It can’t be all that bad, can it?”

She whipped around, her fangs now in my face. What the hell was this all about? I kept very still, and she lowered her head, snapping her mouth shut. “It is not something I ever thought I’d face again, I do not want to believe that Balor would be so stupid as to seek Chaos out.”

Again her tail flicked and she began to bare her teeth, though I didn’t think her actions were directed at me or Luke. She was afraid.

“In the old days, long before the Fomorii, long before the Tuatha, the old gods ruled. We were, for the most part, good—but arrogant. We believed that we could rule all; rule forever. We were worshipped by all peoples, everywhere, and were known by different names. But we were the same gods. But humans, they were arrogant too, and they wanted the power of the gods. So those who sought to replace us made a deal with a demon from the furthest reaches: Chaos. They summoned her with blood and fire, thinking they could control her. All they did was unleash her on the world.” Cora paused, I nodded for her to go on.

“A few of us saw how truly dangerous her powers were to everyone, human and gods alike, so we decided to trap her and lock her away. Her pride and ego made it easy to trick her. We thought her prison, once hidden, would hold her for all time. But it was not to be. It was found by a particularly cunning human. He seduced Morgana, the only one who knew where the prison lay, and gained the knowledge he needed to once more free Chaos.” Cora’s tongue flicked out; a soft sigh escaped her.