Gold: A Bandia Novel Part 33

The howls get louder. Closer.

Micah walks up behind me. "So that's it? We're all going to die in here anyway?"

I run my hand along the wall looking for any opening even though I know I won't find one. "There's another way out."

Dr. McKay looks around the vast wasteland. There's nothing but rocks and cliffs, and water and waterfalls. Nothing alive but us.

A growl echoes in the wind. Us and a trio of very angry h.e.l.lhounds.

"We don't have much time." I make my way to the edge of the ravine. I take a breath, afraid to look down. I know there won't be anything down there but water. The current should've dragged Austin halfway to the underworld by now. I force myself to look. Just water. Water and giant boulders I don't remember seeing before. The water is at least fifty feet below where I stand. Jagged rocks line the walls of the ravine, like teeth ready to rip and tear me up on the way down.

The last time I did this it was easy. It wasn't by choice. Austin pushed me. Plus, the water had been rising then, so the fall was only half as far. Still, I remember the way the water grabbed and spun me, nearly choking me as it spat me to the beach. And that was in the comparatively calm surf at Del Mar. This coastline is far less forgiving to a human body.

Austin isn't here to push me now. He isn't here to get me out of the currents at the beach. Why was it so important to keep me alive then? So someone will be here to mourn for him?

I look over my shoulder at the five remaining Sons and Portia. "The river will dump you into the ocean on the other side. As soon as you hit the waves look for the beach. You'll have a better chance if you can dematerialize out and get to the sh.o.r.e."

I'm just going to have to take my chances.

The howls turn to barking as the three dogs lumber around a boulder. We're out of time. I back up a few steps, then run as fast as I can to the edge of the ravine and jump.

FIFTY-SEVEN.

I close my eyes as I fall, concentrating on leading with my feet. The air rushes by so quickly that the sky feels like a part of me again. My stomach floats into my throat, but I force myself to breathe, sucking in the oxygen I'll need once I'm underwater.

My left foot hits the water first, slapping against it with enough force that I'm thrown to my side. The impact on my hip is hard, but the shock of the cold water as I plunge downward is worse. I have to fight to keep from opening my mouth to scream. It's several seconds before I feel the current move around me. It pushes me and drags me deeper, spinning me around until I'm no longer certain which way is up. I resist the urge to kick. I could just as easily be kicking myself deeper instead of moving to the surface.

My lungs start to protest, searching for their next hit of oxygen. A rock appears out of nowhere. My knee slams against it. My mouth opens before I can stop it. Water rushes in. I close my mouth, but it's too late, the water pushes down my throat. I can't stop the cough, which only causes more water to come in.

My body fights to breathe. To live. But all I can do is panic.

I reach out and my hand finds something soft. Not rock. I can't make out anything more than the color white in the blue darkness, but I grab hold of a handful of coa.r.s.e white hair, and cling to it with all the strength I have left.

One.

Two.

Another cough bubbles up in my lungs. I fight it even as water starts to fill my lungs.

Then I break the surface. I open my mouth and cough. Water comes out even faster than it went in, in one ma.s.sive retch. I gulp the air, taking it in in giant watery breaths as a weight below me keeps my head above water.

I collapse on the beach, lying on my stomach in the sand. When I'm convinced I am going to keep breathing, I push myself up on my elbows.

Braden kneels beside me, his hand tapping between my shoulder blades. "That was a dangerous stunt, even for you."

"You are such a smart a.s.s." Another coughing fit keeps me from thanking him. I don't need to tell him what I'm feeling. He already knows.

"Who's winning?" He gets right to the point.

I turn over onto my back, sitting up to face him. "I should've known you didn't save me out of the goodness of your heart."

"What can I say?" Braden grins. "I'm a multi-tasker."

There's a silver light on the beach behind us. Blake lands in a heap on sh.o.r.e. He kneels in the sand, retching until all he takes in is the cold night air.

"I guess that answers my question." Braden raises his eyebrows. He holds out his hand, like he wants to shake. I place my palm in his. He presses something into my hand. "If anyone asks, you didn't get this from me." Then Braden turns and leaps into the water, disappearing into the waves.

"Who was that?" Blake's hands are buried in the sand, his arms bracing himself as he recovers from the near drowning.

"A friend," I say. Braden risked enough by coming here. I don't feel guilty for keeping his secrets. I have my own. I keep my fist closed tight, but I know exactly what Braden gave me. I can already feel the ocean water flowing in my veins. My body is no longer fighting it, but embracing it, calling to it. "Where are the others?"

"They thought you were crazy." Blake pushes himself into a sitting position.

"Didn't you?" I ask.

"No." Blake shakes water and sand out of his hair. When he glances at me, I see a hint of the old Blake, a dimple, appear on his cheek. "I always knew you were."

A scream breaks through the darkness. Then it's gone, swallowed by the waves.

Blake is on his feet and running back into the water. Before I realize what I'm doing, I'm calling the water, feeling it, pulling it. The silence is the first thing that tells me that it's working. The waves no longer crash against the rocks. They no longer crash against the beach. The water is smooth. Calm. Like a lake with giant rock islands.

Jonah breaks the surface.

My enemy. My enemies are out there. The people who ostracized me, who wanted me dead. I could turn around, walk back up the hill, and leave them to fight the ocean and the rocks as the tide comes in. Some may survive. Some may not. But none of it, none, would be my fault.

Or I could end it all. Make the current stronger, the waves more powerful as they bash against the rocks. Prevent the Sons from ever catching sight of the sh.o.r.e.

The thought scares me so much I drop the silver wolfsbane charm onto the beach. The waves start to churn again just as Blake reaches Micah, who struggles against the current. I drop to my knees. I run my hands along the rocky sh.o.r.e, becoming increasingly or frantic as I hear the yells from the water.

My fingers close around a rock, then another. No. I have to find it. I won't let them die. At last, I grasp cold silver. I hold the charm tight and stop the waves once more.

Three, four, five heads pop out of the water. All the Sons. No Portia. Blake pulls Micah the rest of the way to sh.o.r.e. Jonah and Levi follow. Dr. McKay comes in next.

Still no Portia.

"Where is she?" I ask Blake, as he helps Micah lay on the beach.

Blake shakes his head. "I guess she didn't want to jump."

"She has to jump. The dogs-"

Blake looks back out at the ocean. It's eerie in its calmness. "I still feel her."

Then, as if he's called her to him, Portia's head bursts though the water. Blake dives back in, while I keep the waves at bay.

And I wonder, not for the first time, if I'm doing the right thing.

FIFTY-EIGHT.

The three giolla still stand at the top of the trail. Joe nods at me, a hint of a smile on his lips. I want to hit him. People are dead. Jeremy.

Austin. If Joe cared so much about ending the war, he should've ended it himself.

I march up to tell him as much, but Mick steps forward, searching my face. I shake my head, answering the unspoken question that pa.s.ses between us. Mick's face crumbles. He falls to his knees, and I kneel beside him. He hugs me to him, ignoring the sand and the water and blood that still clings to my hair. By the time he lets go, everyone else has moved up the trail, leaving us to mourn in peace.

We sit and stare at the ocean for hours, holding hands as we watch the moon fall across the sky.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take." Mick finally breaks he silence, just as the sky turns from black to a dusty gray that beckons the sun.

I just nod. There is nothing left to say.

"He wasn't supposed to die," Mick says.

It's my fault. Austin was mortal because of me. "What will you do?"

"I don't know. You?"

I turn the wolfsbane charm over in my hand. "I don't know either."

Neither one of us moves until the sun breaks through the darkness. In the gray minutes between night and day, I watch the waves build and crash against the rocks, destroying them one tiny pebble at a time. The rocks stand strong, oblivious to the tiny cuts that will be their undoing.

I stand and walk to the edge of the bluff. Wind blows through my damp clothes. I push it away without thought, letting fire fill my veins, warming me from the inside. Blue flame arcs between my fingers, dances along my skin. I let it grow, let the fire burn until I don't think I can stand to hold it in another second.

But I do. I hold on to it until I can't see anything but blue spots, until I can't feel anything but fire. I let the heat consume me until I pa.s.s out. I let it carry me to Avalon. The field appears before me in sunny splendor, flowers swaying on a light breeze. The field is empty, but I am undeterred. I walk toward a stone wall in the distance.

"Austin." I say his name, as if I can conjure him from thin air. "Arawn."

Nothing.

The wind picks up. Flowers beat across my legs. There's howling in the distance, but it grows closer. A tendril of mist curls along the ground ahead, swallowing the field as it goes.

I've never come here intentionally before, and now it doesn't seem like the best idea, but I still hold out hope that he is here. If Danu and Killian reside in Avalon, why not Austin? I call his name again.

Shapes move in the distance. At first, I think they are people and I move toward them. As I get closer, I see they stand on four legs, huge beasts moving in a pack of three. I don't need to hear the snarls to recognize Arawn's hounds as they move in the mist.

I back up a step, then another, fighting the instinct to run. The three dogs get closer, close enough that I can see their lips curl to reveal sharp canines.

"Sit." They keep coming. Apparently, Austin didn't bother with obedience training.

I startle at a tug on my wrist. Killian leads me toward a large rock on the side of the field. I follow without questioning. The dogs snap their teeth behind us.

Killian gives me a leg up onto the ma.s.sive rock, encouraging me to keep climbing. I climb at least twenty feet before I reach a ledge large enough to sit on. Killian climbs up beside me. The three wolfhounds circle the rock at the bottom, teeth bared, but they can't chase us here.

"Thanks," I say.

Killian nods and looks down at the dogs. "They're harmless unless you try to go somewhere you don't belong."

"That would be me they're after."

"So I surmised."

I kick the rock with my heel. "Have you seen Austin?" When he wrinkles his forehead, I add, "Arawn."

Killian sighs and looks out across the field, which is now entirely coated with a layer of fine mist. "You waste your talents."

"What?"

"Arawn is no help to you now. The gateway is sealed. You would be better served to focus on what's going on topside."

"I'll tell you what's going on. A truce. The Sons and Daughters have broken the curse."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because Portia is aligned with the Sons. She didn't kill anyone when she had the chance."

Killian laughs. "There is time enough for her to kill."

One of the dog howls from beneath us.

"Portia didn't fight with Liam. She was devastated when her father was killed. Blake protected her. That has to mean something."

"They are still bound?"

"I guess so."

"Then they are still cursed." He looks at me. "And you still live."

"But the G.o.ds can't return. The gateway is sealed."

Killian's smile makes him look more G.o.d than human. "Don't confuse a victory in battle with a victory in war."

The fog closes around us. I can't see the three wolfhounds circling below us. I can barely see Killian. And then I'm lost in the mist, floating, spinning. "Wait," I call to no one in particular. But I can't stop it.

When I feel solid ground again, it is dawn. Mick stands over me, holding out his hand to lift me off the wet gra.s.s. "You want to tell me what that was about?"

I shake my head. "Later." I reach for my cell, but it's been soaked in the ocean, and is completely useless. I start to run back to the house.

Mick follows. "What?"

"Blake," is all I say. I don't stop running until I get to the garage. I grab the keys to the sedan from a hook on the wall and jump inside. I'm probably doing permanent damage to the leather interior.

I drive as fast as I can, considering I've had no sleep. I burst into the Cath Pub. A few local fishermen eye me over their morning mugs, but don't say anything. I take the stairs two at a time until I get to Blake's room.

I knock on the door. Once. Twice. Three times, before I hear footsteps from the other side.

Okay, okay. Footsteps are good.

Blake opens the door partway, his eyes wide as he takes me in. My hair is tangled and damp. My clothes are still stained with Liam's blood. Blake rubs the back of his neck with his hand. "Is everything okay?"