The Geis: Awakening Part 30

Zoey wrapped her little arms around Ansul's neck. As she pulled away, a scale loosened, fluttering to the ground. As large as a salad plate, the scale reminded me of an abalone sh.e.l.l, with inky swirls of blues and greens dancing across the surface.

"Goodbye." Zoey gripped the scale with both hands. Josh came and stood behind us.

Ansul, the dragon who once was a lizard, leaped into the air. He flew over our heads, down the canyon. As he circled back around, I worried how his enormous body would fit into the cavern. Right before he hit the mouth of the spring, Ansul roared, bathing the opening of the spring with fire. He sailed right through the flames and vanished from view.

Officer Ba.s.sett stood, mouth gaping in disbelief. A few short months ago, I would have had the same reaction. But now I knew there was more to believe than what I could see with my own eyes. I closed my eyes and felt for Josh's hand in mine.

From deep inside the spring, water gurgled and churned. I opened my eyes. Seconds later, water spilled from the opening until it became a roaring spring, spilling down the mountain, bringing the waterfall to life again.

"You don't look so good." A dazed Officer Ba.s.sett put his hand on Josh's shoulder. "We should get you checked out. Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"No, it would draw too much attention," Josh said. "I don't feel like answering any questions."

Officer Ba.s.sett looked relieved. "I was hoping you would say that. I don't know what all of that insanity was, but I can't call it in. I'd lose my badge."

I pulled the paper Aunt Avril had given me from my satchel. "Aunt Avril said if something were to happen to her that I should contact Crew Madison of the FBI. She said he would believe in banshees."

"How about bada.s.s blue dragons?" Officer Ba.s.sett shook his head.

"Aunt Avril said he would clean up the legal issues," I said, smiling at his bewildered expression. It seemed to satisfy him.

Officer Ba.s.sett escorted us down the mountain. When we got in cell tower range, I called Crew. He wasn't surprised to receive my call, and said that a team was already on its way due to a call from Aunt Avril an hour earlier. I was exhausted, but I relayed everything to him as we drove down the canyon, well aware of how crazy it sounded. Crew took it all in stride, asking questions as if I were reporting a petty theft-but when I told him about Aunt Avril, the phone went silent.

Crew asked us to wait at Canyon View Park until a team of agents arrived. Officer Ba.s.sett was whisked off for debriefing. A pleasant-looking Agent Johnson, who introduced herself as a para-psychiatrist, interviewed us from the back of a black van.

"I deal in the paranormal," Agent Johnson said matter-of-factly, brus.h.i.+ng a speck off of her immaculate navy suit. "I'll believe anything you tell me."

I relayed everything that had happened, with Josh and Zoey inserting facts. I thought I was fine until I started telling her about the rock crus.h.i.+ng Aunt Avril. I started shaking, and the thin blanket someone had provided wasn't enough to keep me warm. Josh put his arm around me and finished telling Agent Johnson what happened.

"Your parents have already been contacted. We informed them of the news of your aunt's death." Agent Johnson paused, her expression never changing. "There was no one like her. Avril will be missed."

Agent Johnson asked if we had anything that connected us to the off-worlders, which I a.s.sumed referred to Rourke, Ansul and Cliona. I gave her my dagger, and the broken amulet that Rourke had given me, but I didn't say anything about the dragon scale that Zoey hid underneath her s.h.i.+rt.

A funeral would be held for Aunt Avril, and a missing persons report was on file for Leah. Agent Johnson told us not to talk about what had happened to anyone. We were encouraged to speak freely within our family, but she implied that we would be sent to an internment camp if we went public or posted anything online.

I spent the next few days at home in Aunt Avril's apartment, recovering. I curled up with her calico cat, expecting her to burst into the room, chatting with Theron. But she never did. The FBI cordoned off the springs while they searched for additional evidence. Agent Johnson paid us a visit several days later to see if our story had changed. Either they couldn't find Aunt Avril's body, or they considered it evidence, because she told Mom and Dad that Aunt Avril's casket would be empty at the funeral.

The day before the funeral, Josh and I were sitting in his living room on the couch. He was in his wrestling sweats. The white streak in his hair had spread to cover most of his head. The combination of his young, handsome face and white hair made me laugh.

"You look like an old man," I joked.

"Do you have a thing for older men?" Josh asked, raising one eyebrow.

"I do for this one." I snuggled into his side.

"Do you think I should dye my hair?" He put an arm around me. "You know I'm going to take all kinds of c.r.a.p for this."

"I like you just the way you are," I said.

Josh's mom came in the side door, her s.h.i.+rt filled with eggs that she had just collected from the hen house. She smiled as she slid past us into the kitchen.

Josh s.h.i.+fted to look at my face. "You know, there is another feis in Utah coming up in a few more weeks."

My heart sank. "We don't have a teacher." Losing Rourke and Leah was still too painful to dwell on. I missed them a ton.

"I called Taminy a few days ago."

"Really?" I said, surprised. "How did that go?"

"Her teacher offered to sponsor us for the rest of the season. She said she would start coming down twice a month next year if we all agreed to switch over to her school."

I was floored. "How did you get Taminy to do that?"

"It turns out that underneath that crusty sh.e.l.l, Taminy isn't that bad."

I made a face.

"Especially if you are not pining away trying to steal her boyfriend." Josh winked.

I hit him. "Stop it!"

"That means we'd be taking lessons with Taminy. Could you handle that?"

I thought about the alternative-going back to teaching myself to Irish dance. After all that I had been through, my issues with Taminy seemed pretty trivial. "As long as I could keep dancing, I'd take lessons with a banshee."

Josh laughed.

"So, you will keep dancing too, right?" I asked.

Josh s.h.i.+fted so that he could see my face. "I'll be there."

I relaxed, leaning my head on his chest. I felt warm and safe, satisfied to be here in Josh's embrace. The sensation was the same one that I'd read in Aunt Avril's emotions the night she brought tamales home for dinner. Peaceful contentment.

The day after the funeral I was restless. I didn't have school until Monday, and everyone else had gone back to their normal lives. I tried practicing my dances, but it only made me miss Rourke and Leah. I decided to get out of the apartment to clear my head.

I grabbed my keys and drove down Main Street, past the elk horn arch. Before I knew it I was heading toward the canyon. It was unusually cold, but the sun sparkled on the snow, lighting up the valley like a thousand twinkling Christmas lights.

When I drove past the burned-out sh.e.l.l of my house, I slowed. Only one blackened wall remained, looming over where the kitchen used to be. Snow blanketed the bas.e.m.e.nt concrete so completely that I could almost pretend the night of the fire was a figment of my imagination. But it did happen-so much had happened since then.

I felt a tug from inside of my chest, like an invisible rope pulling me to where it all had ended. I turned the car around and headed back up to the springs, alone. I needed to say goodbye to Aunt Avril in my own way.

I parked the Vette, smoothing my hand along the orange paint. I couldn't believe that my aunt would entrust to me one of her prized possessions. Learning that Aunt Avril had willed her Corvette to me was a bright spot in an otherwise difficult day. It made me feel connected to Aunt Avril-like a part of her was still with me.

The funeral had been a bit strange. Not many people in the valley knew Aunt Avril, but the FBI leaked a story that she was killed while in the line of duty and had helped rid the valley of a murderer. The church was full of law enforcement and FBI agents. Before the service even started, I overheard Agent Johnson asking Officer Ba.s.sett if he had ever considered a career with the FBI.

We talked about how funny and quirky Aunt Avril was. Mom reminisced about better times and said her tearful goodbyes. For my part, I wore the solo dress Aunt Avril had sewn for me. It was a little bit strange, I knew, but Mom said it made her feel better that someone could carry on Avril's quirks, as long as I didn't start hearing voices.

I hiked up the trail to the spring. The cool air cleared my head. As I got closer to the spring, footprints in the snow reminded me of what had taken place in that same canyon only a week earlier.

The stream was empty of water, and there was no trace of the large rock that had fallen on Aunt Avril. It must have been destroyed when they'd moved it. I stood by the bank and waited for the spring to breathe life back into the stream, searching for the spot where Aunt Avril had fallen.

She's not there.

A voice no louder than a whisper stopped me in my tracks. It sounded like a pleasant old man. I looked in every direction for its source, but all I could see were snow-covered trees and the rocky trail leading up to the springs.

"Who are you?" I said out loud.

I miss her, McKayla.

"Theron?" I asked.

She was there one second . . . and then she was gone.

Theron was talking to me, inside my head. So Aunt Avril really had been talking to him, all this time. It felt horrible to have to break the bad news to him. "I'm sorry, Theron, Avril didn't make it. She was killed in the battle."

I've been waiting fifteen years for Avril to join me so that we can enter into our rest together. If she had pa.s.sed, I would know.

Then it hit me. Aunt Avril wasn't dead.

When the ma.s.sive rock had fallen on her, there'd been a flash of light. I'd thought it was more of her protective trinkets bursting from the banshee's attack. She'd been standing in the water when the rock fell. And the casket at the funeral sat empty. Was it possible . . . ?

I saw the energy build up, opening the gateway to another world. But the dead cannot follow. Theron's voice was filled with despair.

"What are you saying, Theron?" I asked. "That Avril went through the gateway before she died?" My heart leapt within me. She could still be alive.

She needs me.

"What do you want me to do? Go to Tir na nog and find her? I can't just leave. I don't even know how."

A rus.h.i.+ng sound came from above me on the trail. I scanned the crevice in the mountain where the spring emptied. Water spilled over the ledge and flowed down the waterfall.

Someone is coming. He will help you. Theron's voice began to fade. Find Avril, McKayla, and bring her back to me.

The water that pooled near the spring opening swirled upward in the air until it formed the rough shape of a person. Then with a pop, the water exploded, leaving the dripping figure of Rourke standing in its place.

When he'd left, Rourke had been wearing jeans, boots, and a pullover jacket. Now he wore the same jeans over his boots, but a poufy white s.h.i.+rt stuck to his wet skin, and a tartan sash draped from one of his shoulders to the opposite side of his waist. Rourke's stormy eyes swirled with the same mixture of worry and excitement that I had found in them the first night I'd seen him dancing in the gym.

"Rourke!" I yelled, running into the stream.

Rourke smiled and hurried to meet me. All traces of his limp were gone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Christy Dorrity lives in the mountains with her husband, five children, and a c.o.c.ker spaniel. She grew up on a trout ranch in Star Valley, Wyoming, and is the author of The Geis series for young adults and The Book Blogger's Cookbooks. Christy is a champion Irish dancer, and when she's not reading or writing, she's probably trying out a new recipe in the kitchen.

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SUGGESTED READING.

Awakening: Book One of The Geis is the beginning of a series combining Irish culture and dance with Celtic mythology. It is a work of contemporary young adult fiction, and is ideal for all audiences with an interest in Irish and Celtic culture. If you enjoyed reading this book, look for the sequel in 2014, where we follow Zoey to Tir na nog, the fabled land of youth, to search for her lost sister.

But if you can't wait for the sequel, here is a list of books Christy thinks you will enjoy.

Christy recommends all books featured in her Book Blogger's Cookbooks:.

The 2011 Book Blogger's Cookbook by Christy Dorrity.

The 2012 Book Blogger's Cookbook by Christy Dorrity.

Here are some other books Christy recommends:.

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand.

Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton.

Everneath by Brodi Ashton.

Nightingale by David Farland.

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini.

Descendant by Nichole Giles.

Shrilugh by Myndi Shafer.