Stone Song: The Isle of Destiny Series, page 13
“Oh, it does look like a bit of a gift, doesn’t it?” Bianca asked.
“Card or tissue first?” Clare murmured.
“Card first. It’s only polite,” Bianca said automatically, and Clare chuckled.
“Does it matter when the person gifting it to you isn’t here to see you open it?”
“Well, I never thought about it like that.”
“She is an all-knowing being,” Seamus pointed out. “She certainly could be watching you.”
“Better read the card first,” Bianca and Clare said in unison.
Clare laughed as she picked up the card, then paused for a moment. It seemed like ever since she’d seen the silver-eyed musician in the pub, her life had been a series of moments that were forever changing her. This felt like another one of those moments. A small trickle of panic seized her stomach.
“What if it’s bad? What if I can’t come back from this knowledge?” Clare whispered.
“I think it’s a little too late for that,” Bianca said.
Clare nodded, her thumb under the slit of the gold envelope. Taking a breath, she slid the flap open. Inside, a card was tucked away. Clare gently pulled the card free, not wanting to harm the paper.
“Love is the light that shines its truth in darkness,” she read aloud.
Clare looked up at Bianca.
“That’s it?” Bianca asked.
“That’s it,” Clare said, oddly disappointed. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting but she felt a little let down.
“It’s another clue!” Seamus said, excitement radiating from him as he got up and bounced around the room.
“Sure and you don’t think this is a clue?” Clare asked.
“It is! It has similar language, doesn’t it? Truth, light, all of that… you know what we’re looking for is the truthstone, right? So now we’ve just got to figure out the riddle,” Seamus said, a wide smile splitting his face.
“All fun and games until the Domnua get us,” Bianca agreed.
Clare began to unwrap the tissue paper, the hum of power a seductive caress upon her skin. She gasped when she saw what lay inside.
“Why, it’s positively lovely, isn’t it? Right shiny too,” Bianca marveled.
An intricate gold ring, delicate vines weaving together to hold a beautifully cut aquamarine, lay on the paper. The stone, the purest of ocean blues, seemed to glow from within.
“It’s stunning,” Clare breathed, gently picking it up.
“Do you think it will fit?” Bianca asked.
Clare slid the ring on the ring finger of her right hand. It seemed to morph and meld to her skin, becoming one with her instantly. The power she felt from it seemed to hum up her arm and then settle in her core, having found its home.
“I think it just transferred power to me or something,” Clare whispered, staring in awe down at the ring.
“Good, we need all the help we can get,” Seamus said.
“Breakfast is on,” Mary called from the kitchen, startling them away from thoughts of magick powers and ancient quests.
“There’ll be time for this,” Bianca said, patting Clare on her arm as she stood. “For now, let’s make your mother happy and enjoy a good home-cooked breakfast.”
And so Clare tucked the card in her back pocket, the ring humming on her hand, and went to make her mother happy.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It was mid-morning by the time they left the farm, Clare hugging her parents extra-long on the way out with a promise to stay in touch. Neither of them had asked for more details on what had prompted Clare’s visit, and Clare hadn’t elaborated.
Sometimes, ignorance really was bliss.
Or in this case, a restful mind so her parents didn’t worry too much.
Clare ran her finger over the ring, watching the play of light on the stone, as she thought over her morning. Sure, it had been filled with some pretty deep revelations about who and what she was. But the simple pleasures of life – eating food cooked with love around a table full of people you love – reminded her of just what was important to her. And if having to conquer the Domnua and find the Stone of Destiny meant keeping those she loved safe, well, it was no question what she would do.
Clare slid a glance over to where Blake drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the rock music that pumped from the speakers. She’d seen a different side of him today – one that had both surprised her and charmed her at the same time. Peeking out the window from time to time had given her glimpses of him working side-by-side with her father as they went about the morning chores that every farm had. At one point, her father had said something that made Blake throw his head back and laugh, and Clare hadn’t been able to stop herself from smiling at the picture he made.
Then he’d gone and sealed his place in her mother’s heart by helping her set the table and revealing his grandmother’s soda bread recipe – on penalty of death if she ever shared it with another soul.
Clare hadn’t missed the look her mother had given her.
He’s a keeper.
It wasn’t looking like she was going to get out of this quest with her heart intact, Clare mused as she twisted the ring on her finger and considered the power she felt pulsing from it. What was Danu trying to teach her? And where should they go to next?
“Where are you taking us?” Clare asked.
Blake reached over and turned the volume on the radio down a few notches.
“Wherever the wind may blow, pretty one,” Blake said.
Clare looked out the window and bit her lip to hold back a smile. She needed to remember that he was the one who had requested they keep their distance from each other.
“Your parents are nice,” Seamus said from the back.
Clare turned and smiled at him.
“Aren’t they? Just really good people. I had a lovely upbringing with them. Frankly, I don’t care that they didn’t give birth to me – they are my parents through and through.”
“Absolutely. You can see it in their love for you. It just shines right through,” Bianca agreed and Clare smiled at her too.
“And we’ve got another clue and you have more power,” Seamus exclaimed, bringing his fingers to his chin and stroking thoughtfully. “I wonder what kind of power it is.”
“Maybe it makes my freeze thing last longer?” Clare said, still feeling mildly uncomfortable about this power she held. Less than a week ago her biggest concern was gathering more research for her dissertation. Now she was considering her powers and trying to save the world.
Not a typical day.
“You’re about to find out,” Blake said, his voice sharp.
Clare had a moment of sheer panic as he jerked the steering wheel to the right and sent them bouncing off the road into the field next to it. Clare’s head almost hit the roof as they careened over another grassy knoll and Blake picked up speed.
“What’s happening?” Clare gasped, turning to look back at the road.
“Domnua,” Blake bit out, his eyes focused on the uneven terrain ahead of them. Bianca screamed as Seamus rolled down the window and slid out until half his body was hanging outside of the SUV.
Clare blinked her eyes, afraid for a moment that she was just seeing things, but then gasped as a wall of silver seemed to streak across the land, like a dust storm being blown by angry fairy winds, closing in on the SUV.
Seamus, a bow and arrow mysteriously in his hand, shot arrow after violet arrow into the cloud of Domnua, but it was evident that his arrows could only do so much.
“Drive faster,” Bianca screeched; Blake didn’t turn his head from the path in front of him.
A trickle of sweat slid down Clare’s back as panic threatened to overtake her. It was then that the ring pulsed against her palm, reminding her of the power that lay within her.
“Hang on, Seamus, I’m coming,” Clare screeched. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she clambered into the back seat, and then over one more seat until she sat on top of the luggage in the back and stared directly out the back window.
“Does this window open?” Clare yelled, unsure if her magick would ricochet off glass. A more seasoned practitioner might have known the answer to that question, but Clare was only a few days into this whole fae-seeker gig.
Amazingly, the window slid down and a cool breeze blasted Clare in the face. Kneeling, she braced her left hand on the side of the car and leaned out, holding her right hand in front of her. For a moment, the world seemed to still as panic clawed at her throat. The car was racing across uneven terrain and a thousand Domnua were charging after them, moving faster than any car could go. And she was supposed to do something about it? Glancing back, she caught Bianca’s terrified expression.
“Get ’em, Clare!” Bianca yelled, putting on a brave face.
Clare turned back around to face the storm. Reaching deep into her mind, she focused on the ball of power that formed in her core and, pulling it up, she unraveled it until it shot out from her hand like a whip cracking. There was no light, no theatrics, nothing – and for a second, Clare thought her power hadn’t worked.
Then the storm disappeared.
“Holy hell,” Seamus shouted.
Two Domnua riders remained, though they had slowed in their approach. Perched high atop silvery steeds, they glowed far brighter than the cloud of Domnua that had been surrounding them.
“Must be the generals,” Seamus shouted, raising his bow.
In a flash, they too had disappeared, leaving nothing but a rolling green field and the beginning of winter rain in their midst. The droplets fell in flat plops, hitting the silvery puddles that lay splattered amidst the grass, the earth seeming to reach up and swallow its own.
“What the hell just happened?” Blake called back to them, his speed still bordering on terrifying.
Clare eased herself back into the car, allowing herself to fall back onto the luggage for a moment and look up at the ceiling of the car as they bumped along. Her heart hammered in her chest as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. The ring on her hand still glowed with an almost ethereal light; its heat trailed up her arm and coursed through her very core.
If this was the one gift she could have from her biological mother, well, it had proved to be a worthy one.
“Clare!” Bianca popped her head over the back of the seat so Clare was now looking at her best friend’s upside down face.
“Bianca,” Clare said evenly, still trying to catch her breath.
“Tell me you didn’t just go and level an entire army of Domnua in one fell swoop,” Bianca said, her eyes alight with excitement.
“It seems that perhaps I did indeed,” Clare managed to say before Bianca squealed and planted a series of kisses on her forehead and cheeks.
“It’s better than having Wonder Woman as a bestie, I tell you,” Bianca crowed, pulling herself back over the seat.
Seamus popped his head over to look down at her.
“Sure and that was quite brilliant, if I do have to say. Far more effective than my bow and arrow,” Seamus said cheerfully, but his eyes were shrewd. “Sure you’re doing all right then?”
“I’m just processing what happened.”
“I’m thinking Blake’s a wee bit worried, so if you wouldn’t mind popping up and reassuring him…” Seamus said gently, and Clare nodded.
Sitting up, Clare turned so she could see the front of the car. Blake’s eyes met hers in the mirror, the startling blue of his gaze seeming to burn through her as he assessed her in the rearview mirror.
“I’m fine,” Clare called.
“That’s fine, then. I’m still going to get us to a safe place,” Blake said evenly, not reducing the car’s speed. Clare did catch a relieved look pass across his face before she lay back down on the luggage and wondered what he meant by a safe place.
And tried not to crow over the fact that she’d just leveled an entire army with one puff of magick from her hands. One thing she’d learned in life already was that getting cocky always led to downfall. Clare held up her hand and studied the ring again, reminding herself just where that flash of power had truly come from.
It was always best to remain humble.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Blake kept his eyes on the field ahead of them, doing his best to dodge any major dips and potholes. He scanned constantly, reaching out with his senses to see if any other Domnua were about to spring an attack.
Though his eyes were on the landscape ahead of him, his heart was in the cargo with Clare. He wasn’t entirely sure if he would ever forget seeing her hanging out of the back of his car while a thousand Domnua streaked like the hounds of hell across the hills.
Blake wasn’t sure exactly when he’d fallen for Clare.
Part of him thought it might have been in the first instant he saw her, tentatively exploring the Trinity campus, her wild curls whipping around her head in the wind. Or perhaps it had been when he’d finally tasted her – the very essence of her searing its way straight to his core.
Seeing her with her parents – being both quick to protect them and, at the same time, vulnerable with them – had opened his eyes to a new aspect of her. And when he’d finally decided he’d seen all sides of Clare, she’d all but thrown herself out of his car to protect them from evil.
Yeah, it was hard to not love a woman like that.
It was his destiny to protect her, his goddess-given duty to assist her on her path, and only when she had fulfilled her own destiny would he be free to truly love her.
And hopefully, when that time came, she’d love him right back. Because there was one thing Blake was certain about.
He would die without her in his life.
For Clare, finding the stone was her destiny.
For him? Clare was his.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Where are you taking us then? Where is this safe space? How do you know it’s safe?” Bianca asked as they tore along the road. Blake had deemed it safe to get back on the gravel path and they now proceeded at a breakneck pace to whatever destination Blake had decided upon.
“We’ll be there shortly,” Blake said and turned the music back up.
Clare sat up and peered over the seat at Bianca, who turned and rolled her eyes at Clare. Slapping her hand over her mouth, she pushed down a giggle. It felt a lot like a father telling his children to stop asking ‘are we there yet?’
But in this moment they did feel like a family, Clare thought as she smiled at her friend. Bianca’s cheek held a smudge of dirt and Seamus’s hair stood on end. They were all unshowered, a bit rough around the edges, and far more serious about their mission than they had been yesterday.
There was nothing like having your lives on the line to put the seriousness of the situation in perspective, Clare thought as she looked down at the aquamarine ring again.
Clare glanced up as the car turned right, bumping off of the gravel road onto an uneven dirt lane that wound its way up a hill. The hedges grew tall, surrounding the path, and blocking the view.
“What if someone is driving from the other direction?” Clare asked Blake.
“You crack the window and listen,” Blake said, having turned the music off and rolled his window down. They proceeded down the lane at a snail’s pace, twisting and turning before finally cresting over one last hill.
“Oh!” Clare exclaimed, and blinked. She hadn’t been expecting this.
A large home, reminiscent of an old castle, sat proudly on a ledge, the hill at its back, the world unrolling beneath it glorious green hills. Even on this grey day, Clare could imagine waking up here every morning and drinking tea while looking over the surrounding fields.
Dark grey stone wound up to a turret, and paned glass lined all the windows, with rooms sticking out in all directions from the main two-story section. It looked like it had been added on to over the years, and the house was hodgepodge mix of old and new.
“Is this… a castle or something?” Bianca asked.
“The turret and the great hall were once part of a castle. The rest of the castle crumbled to the ground. My grandfather decided to save the turret and the great hall, and then built rooms onto it to make it a house.”
Clare swallowed past a lump in her throat.
“Your grandparents. This is your family home?”
“Aye, though it’s just my grandmother now.”
“What about your parents?” Bianca asked, as the car rolled to a stop by two wooden doors that formed an arch.
“Dead,” Blake bit out and the car went silent.
One side of the arched door opened and a tiny woman, whose head barely reached above the handle of the door, poked her head out. Seeing the car, a joyous smile split her lined face. White hair was braided into a bun at the nape of her neck, and she wore a pretty red paisley apron over a bright turquoise blouse and a striped skirt that reached her calves.
“She looks like a doll,” Bianca breathed.
Blake shot her a look over his shoulder.
“Her name’s Esther. And she’s my favorite person in the world.”
“I can see why,” Bianca agreed and opened the door. Clare sat where she was and watched as Blake rounded the car and snatched his grandmother up, twirling her in a big hug while she laughed and hugged him back. Clare’s heart seemed to sigh a little as she watched them.
“I know,” Bianca said, opening the back of the SUV and looking in at Clare. “It’s enough to make your ovaries sit up and beg.”
Clare snorted, shaking her head at her friend as she climbed over the luggage and snagged her bag on the way. Looking around, she could just make out the thin line of magick that surrounded this place. Of course Blake had protected his grandmother.
Just like he’d protected her parents.
Clare shot a look over her shoulder at where Esther smiled up at Blake, her heart in her eyes, and tried to remain unaffected. He’d asked her to keep her distance, hadn’t he?
