Dolmarehn - Book Two of the Otherworld Trilogy Read online

  “Do we need to say anything special?” I blurted.

  He shook his head. “No. Just let your senses become aware of the presence of the earth around you.”

  I did what I was told. I closed my eyes and let myself drift, soaking in the gentle, cool caress of the fog and the spongy softness of the moss below my feet. I let my nerves take in Cade’s presence and my fingers and toes began to tingle. The forest was silent, until a soft chant, not terrifying or demanding, but celebratory, began floating through the air. The scent of old woods, wet stone and deep earth surrounded me, and when Cade sighed and gently pushed me away from his body, I almost fell on my face.

  I looked back at him and blushed.

  He smiled, his eyes so dark green they appeared black.

  “Did you sense anything?” he asked, his voice a whisper.

  “I, I think so,” I croaked. “I noticed the presence of nature, but nothing else.”

  Cade’s brow furrowed and his intensity seemed to lessen. He drew a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair, stepping closer to me.

  “You would’ve known if you felt it.”

  “Felt what, exactly?” I wanted to know. Perhaps I did perceive it, whatever it was. Or maybe my glamour was a dud.

  “Your own magic awakening, but don’t worry. Sometimes a person’s magic will stay hidden and safe within them until something profound happens. I hoped coming here would do the trick.”

  He shook his head and the corner of his mouth curled up.

  “What?” I said, nervous.

  “I might as well tell you what to expect, just in case your glamour decides to wake up when I’m not around to explain.”

  “Or perhaps I was right. About not having magic,” I mumbled, disappointment hitting me like a load of bricks.

  Again, Cade shook his head. How could he be so confident I carried any glamour when I couldn’t even sense the magic myself?

  “The sensation is like a warm blossom, opening up and sending fire through your blood. Not an unpleasant experience, but one that can be uncomfortable at first. One day you’ll learn to welcome the flow of your magic, and to wish for it.”

  Okay, I’ll bite. “And where exactly does this magic reside?”

  He took another step towards me, that dangerous look gathering in his stance and flashing in his eyes again. I found the simple act of breathing difficult.

  “Here is where you’ll sense your power growing.”

  Cade placed his hand on my chest, right below my collar bone, slightly above and to the right of my heart and against the bare skin where my shirt collar had fallen open.

  I tensed and my heartbeat sped up. I was almost certain the tingling of my nerves was due to Cade’s touch and not the result of any power or magic awakening, but I’d stayed the night in the middle of the woods in the Otherworld. I must have been ‘recharging’ even before this early morning visit to the ruined henge. Surely I would have detected something by now.

  And then it started. A tiny itch that soon turned into something else, something sharper, clearer. The sensation began as a small pinprick and soon unfolded within my chest cavity, as if I were growing a second, more permeable heart.

  The experience wasn’t unpleasant, just different. I imagined I had a tiny sun lodged within my ribcage, keeping my heart company, and it had grown so large its brilliance began spreading throughout my whole body. I felt light on my feet, as if I could fly by simply spreading my arms and reaching towards the sky.

  I met Cade’s gaze, and noted the grin on his face.

  “Now, here is something you can do with that power, should you wish to.”

  And before my very eyes, he dissolved into our surroundings. I gasped and started when his hand left my skin. I reached out, grasping nothing but thin air.

  “Cade?” I whispered.

  The mist in the trees had lifted a little, but the woods were still so ethereal; so Otherworldly, and the few stones that remained standing resembled sentinels watching my every move.

  “Cade?” I asked again, louder this time.

  Meridian chattered from her watch above us, breaking the relative silence. I stretched out a hand, trying again to touch an invisible Cade. I imagined I looked like a little kid at a party, blindfolded and wandering aimlessly as I tried to locate the piñata. I also felt foolish and a little annoyed. Why was Cade messing with me?

  “Glamour has many wonderful uses,” he said from somewhere behind me.

  I turned around and began groping in that direction.

  “Invisibility being one of those uses,” he continued from a different location.

  I growled and started heading the other way.

  “Makes it easy to sneak up on people,” he whispered next to my ear, his warm breath sending goose bumps down my neck.

  I whipped around, partly in reaction to being startled, partly because I wanted to catch him. My hand brushed his . . . shoulder? His arm? Then he managed to slip away again.

  I huffed a breath of frustration and just walked, full force, towards where I thought he might have headed.

  Halfway across the stone ruin, someone grabbed my arm and spun me around.

  Before I could voice my protest, a gentle hand came to rest on my shoulder, and then on my cheek. Something warm, soft and inviting pressed against my parted lips, and I realized Cade was kissing me. My eyes widened and I gasped, inadvertently deepening the kiss. Moments seemed to pass by and I barely recalled wrapping my arms around my indiscernible companion, returning the kiss with equal strength.

  Cade pulled me closer and ran his fingers along the back of my neck and through my hair, as if he feared I would run away. I lost track of all sensations except for the touch of his skin, his unique scent and the glowing joy that was my very own Faelorehn power, now a pleasant warmth coursing through me.

  Eventually, Cade broke the kiss and stepped away from me. I opened my eyes, not realizing they had been shut. I was too overwhelmed to speak or even think, but it didn’t matter. Cade materialized before me, a slow, eerie process, and I found the expression on his face to be almost heart-breaking. He looked guilty, remorseful, regretful. Disappointed.

  My own elated joy vanished in a heartbeat. What was wrong?

  “Forgive me Meghan.”

  His voice was ragged and he ran his hands through his hair, keeping his eyes lowered. I should have been grateful, for my own were filling with tears.

  “I got carried away with the moment. I’m sorry for my behavior.”

  I’m not! I wanted to scream, but clearly he believed he had made a mistake.

  He held out his hand and smiled, but he still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Let me return you home before you are missed. I can teach you how to channel and use your glamour another day.”

  Fighting the tears of hurt and confusion, I stepped ahead of him and followed the trail out of the woods. Meridian swooped down to dart in and out of the oaks in front of me.

  Sorrow? Her mind brushed against my own.

  Yes, I returned, but it will fade. I hoped.

  She released a mournful cry for my sake, but sped on ahead, keeping a lookout for hostile faelah while we made our silent, somber way back to the dolmarehn through the misty woods. Fergus came up from somewhere down the path and trotted past us, leaving Cade to trail behind. The hound seemed relaxed, his ears pressed back against his head. I wondered, as we moved further towards the stone gate that would take me home, what conversation he was sharing with his master.

  -Nine-

  Solstice

  I was stuck in a bad mood all the following week, snapping at my friends or simply ignoring them when they asked me menial questions. It was stupid and selfish of me, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Cade’s kiss and why he had been so eager to disregard it. Had I disappointed him somehow? Would he completely forget me now and leave me to fend for myself?

  Coming up with the ‘juicy details’ Robyn insisted on learning the moment she saw me on Monday morning had
been even more trying on my nerves.

  “I want to know everything!” she hissed in excitement as she pulled me off to the side so our other friends wouldn’t hear.

  I had to thank her for that much, at least. I wasn’t ready for the boys or even Tully to know about Cade, especially since I sought out Robyn’s help and not hers.

  I shrugged, forcing the bitter disappointment to go away.

  “Did you kiss him?”

  I blushed so hard it sent Robyn into a fit of hysterics.

  “Spill Meghan!”

  “Spill what?” Will asked as the bell warned us to get to class.

  “Nothing,” I grumbled as I shuffled away from them. Robyn’s giddy laughter chased me all the way back to class.

  At lunch time she bullied me into giving her more details, so I made up some story about how, yes, we kissed, but the experience hadn’t been all that exciting and rather disappointing. Well, it hadn’t been disappointing on my end, but I wasn’t about to tell Robyn that.

  Robyn crossed her arms and scowled. “Well, if you spend the night with him again, I hope you get a whole lot more out of him than a kiss.”

  I gasped in shock, hitting her on the shoulder.

  “Ro-byn!” I hissed.

  She only grinned impishly as she rubbed the spot I had smacked. “What? Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”

  Too irritated, and embarrassed, to respond, I hurried away to my next class, muttering under my breath about presumptuous friends. Let Robyn think what she wanted, especially since she had a point.

  Too my immense relief, Robyn didn’t pester me any further that day and by Wednesday she’d dropped the subject completely. I guess my moodiness had finally worked its magic. Without Robyn breathing down my neck, I retreated back into my shell to spend the rest of the week festering in my own turbulent emotions.

  The weekend helped recharge me, and although I still hadn’t received word from Cade, I was feeling like a whole new person. So he kissed me and acted distant afterwards. So what? Happened all the time to other girls, how was I any different?

  But by Monday morning I crashed back down into my old emotional abyss, and at lunch time I might as well have been eating alone. In a huff of frustration, I crunched my soda can up and tossed it towards the closest recycling bin, missing by a yard, of course.

  “So anyways,” I heard Robyn say.

  Oh. I guess she had been telling us something.

  “I wanted to have a bonfire, but my dad says there’s been some strange activity going on down in the swamp. Maybe Meghan could tell us,” she shot me a wary glance, “if she wanted to be part of the conversation.”

  I glanced up, my mind backtracking as I tried to remember what they’d been talking about. Um, when we first sat down Thomas had mentioned something about his family being gone for most of the winter break because they would be visiting relatives in Mexico . . . Will had said he should be available, Tully too . . . Oh, right! Robyn wanted to have a winter solstice party. Okay Meghan, you can do this. You can pine after your crush and be a good friend at the same time . . .

  “Yeah, I think someone’s been killing animals and mutilating them,” I lied. “My parents won’t let me go down there anymore.”

  Another lie, but honestly, ever since the events of last year, I thought keeping my friends away from the swamp and the dolmarehn hidden in the shallow canyon might be the best safeguard against the faelah.

  “So, will you be free then Meghan?”

  “Huh?”

  Robyn rolled her eyes at me and sighed. “On the twenty first? For the solstice?”

  I gritted my teeth. Sure, I hadn’t been the greatest friend in the last week, but it didn’t give Robyn an excuse to treat me like an imbecile. I pushed my annoyance aside and grinned. “Should be.”

  She clapped her hands and beamed. “Excellent! Now all we need is the ingredients to make soul cakes and some cider for wassail . . .”

  I let Robyn’s voice trail off as I got back to my lunch. A party would be a welcome distraction, but at the moment I needed a little more time to crawl out of my pit of self pity.

  * * *

  School let out the next week for our winter break, and Robyn’s solstice party fell on Saturday night. I wasn’t in a festive mood, but I had to put on a good face or they would suspect something was up. They probably already did.

  I borrowed my mom’s car to drive into town since my parents and brothers planned on staying home that night to make cookies.

  “Be back before eleven!” Mom shouted as I headed out the door.

  “I know!” I said.

  When I got to Robyn’s I found everyone crowded in her small bedroom. I endured the suspicious glare of her mom and dad as I crossed their living room and walked down the long hallway. I smiled but received no warmth from them. Oh well. I’d grown used to their apathy. Robyn’s parents had never liked me very much. I think their ultra-religious personalities detected my Faelorehn essence. A year or so ago, that would have terrified me. Now, having become aware of the truth and knowing I’d come from somewhere outside this realm, it didn’t bother me as much. I was from Eilé, strange yes, but only in their eyes. Yet, how Robyn managed to continue her Wiccan tendencies in such a household was a mystery. Perhaps because no one, not even her own parents, could control her.

  Smiling, I opened Robyn’s bedroom door and stepped into a room buzzing with new age music and Robyn’s voice droning out some solstice story she’d dug up from somewhere.

  Tully and Will were already there and they turned to grin at me. “Hey Meg!” Tully said, patting a place next to her.

  I smiled and sat down. I’d been terribly neglectful of my best friend lately and the guilt washed over me like a cold wave. Tully, however, didn’t seem to notice. Sometimes I imagined she had a sixth sense and could discern when I needed to talk or when I needed to just be alone with my worries. She was nothing short of a blessing in my life.

  Simply spending time with my friends suddenly made me cheerful and grateful. I enjoyed having something to think about, other than the mysteries invading my life, the biggest one being Cade, for once. The last few months had been trying; my existence split between two worlds, here and Eilé. How refreshing to only focus on one of those worlds tonight.

  The party ended up being rather fun and for the first time in two weeks I didn’t feel depressed about Cade. At a quarter to eleven I told everyone goodnight and headed out to the street where I had parked. The evening was cold and dark with a clear sky full of stars. For a moment I leaned my head back and exhaled, my breath misting above me.

  I fumbled in my purse for the keys to my mom’s car, having some trouble in the dark. A street lamp glowed orange halfway down the street, but hardly offered much help.

  As I searched, something in the bushes beside me rustled and growled. I froze, my entire body flushing with fear. I recognized that sound, and so did my magic as well.

  A tiny pinprick of heat burst in my chest next to my heart. With my mouth becoming dry and my palms growing clammy, I turned to study the black clump of plants several feet away. The darkness hindered my sight, but there was no mistaking those glowing eyes.

  Before I could so much as scream, the creature burst from the hedges and charged me. Crying in fear, I lurched to the side and the faelah slammed into my mom’s car, snorting in outrage.

  Without giving it much thought, I rolled under the car and willed my heart to slow down. That pinprick of magic throbbed and the odd sensation of Otherworldly glamour spread throughout my body. Crap. How much did I have and how the hell was I supposed to make use of it?

  The creature snorted and bellowed in frustration as it tried to get to me. Like all the others, the faelah was grotesque, the sickly light from the distant street lamp displaying just enough features to send terror through my heart once again. If I had to describe the animal, I’d say someone had killed a wild boar and let it rot for a week before stretching it out to match the si
ze of a large dog. The stench permeating the air only helped back up my theory. I was aware of only one person, no, goddess, who would do such a thing. The Morrigan. So, she still wasn’t giving up. I wondered, as I lay on the cold, gritty, oily asphalt, watching the creature’s sharp, cloven hooves scrape at me, if she knew of my recent visit to Eilé with Cade.

  I shuddered. Just thinking about the Morrigan made me ill. Instead, I focused on getting out of my current situation. Wouldn’t anybody hear the noise this thing was making? Oh, wait, faelah, duh. I’d probably be the only one to hear any of this. Perhaps the ugly creature would manage to kill me after all.

  I gritted my teeth and tried to probe the well of magic living within my ribcage. That made the warm spot begin to sting, as if someone were driving a hot needle into my chest. I really needed to learn how to use this stuff.

  I released a huff of breath and wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. To my surprise, I realized they were a result of my frustration, not my fear. I didn’t know if I should be proud of myself or not; for managing to gain control over my terror of the faelah. Of course, it could just be a sign of my impending insanity.

  I lay still for at least another ten minutes before a familiar screech filled the air. Meridian?

  The scratching stopped and a blast of brilliant, bright white light slammed into the car and dissipated in the dark night. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots from my eyes. By the time I recovered I noticed something black and charred lying beside the car. The faelah. Had Meridian used some spirit guide power to incinerate it?

  The light flutter of wings and a friendly chitter forced my attention to the other side of the vehicle. Meridian sat on the sidewalk, eyeing me curiously.

  Safe? she sent.

  Yes, thanks to you, I replied with a heavy sigh of relief.

  She chirruped as I crawled out from my hiding spot. I didn’t even look at the creature, well, whatever remained of it. But I did catch a glimpse of the side of the car. I winced. That was one heck of a dent. The faelah might be able to make themselves invisible to human eyes, but there was still substance to them.