Duck, Duck, Noose Read online

  “Um,” Sophie began in reply. “Remember how I told you there’s a woman named Madeline in the future, made in your image?”

  The Morrigan nodded sharply.

  “She summoned her, you, um,” she paused. “She summoned Mara back to our time.”

  “Why?” the Morrigan snapped.

  Alaric moved to stand near Sophie’s side. He was worried his presence might make things worse, but he couldn’t stand to see his sister acting so unsure and afraid.

  “They’re friends,” Alaric answered. “Madeline probably needed her help.”

  The Morrigan sneered at him. “I take it you are this one’s brother?” she nodded in Sophie’s direction.

  “Yes,” he replied simply.

  “And the father of this Madeline’s child?” she pressed.

  He shifted nervously. How much had Sophie told her? “Yes,” he answered again.

  The Morrigan seemed to think for a moment, then turned on her heel and started walking back to the castle.

  He was just about to call out to her when the Morrigan shouted, “Come with me!” in a tone that left little room for argument.

  Alaric and Sophie both obeyed. When a woman like the Morrigan told you to do something, you didn’t make her say it twice.

  20

  “How did this happen?” I gasped, still stuck in a state of disbelief.

  Shortly after Mara had stopped glowing, the banshees had shown up. I hadn’t summoned them, but they’d been drawn to the power Marcos and I had manifested all the same. They now gathered around Mara. She blended right in with the crowd.

  Ignoring the banshees around her, she eyed me tiredly, though coming from her ghostly face, it was more unnerving than guilt inducing. “Madeline, I was in the process of returning Alaric and Sophie to you,” she explained. “You couldn’t have summoned me at a more inopportune time.”

  “What!” I shouted, then clamped my hands over my mouth. I glanced around the shadowy park, but it didn’t seem any strangers had heard me. “What?” I asked again more softly, lowering my hands.

  Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You don’t even realize where they are, do you?”

  I shook my head. “At first we thought they’d be in Estus’ Salr, but we couldn’t find them.”

  “They’re in the past,” she explained patiently. “In the year 1707, in Ireland.”

  I shook my head rapidly, feeling like I might faint. Mikael was suddenly beside me with an arm around my waist, keeping me from falling to my knees.

  “How?” I croaked. Tears began to fall down my face.

  “The key,” she replied like I was being stupid. “It’s holding them hostage in a place you cannot reach. It’s quite clever, really.”

  A whole myriad of emotions hit me at once. Alaric and Sophie were trapped in the past. It was confusing and horrible, but also wonderful, because at least they were alive. At least we might stand some chance of rescuing them. We’d gone back in the past before. There had to be a way to do it again. Even if it took regrowing Yggdrasil, then using the tree’s power to go back myself.

  Mara sighed. “Well it’s too late for me to go back now. Hopefully she will find it in her black little heart to help them.”

  “She?” Mikael and I questioned in unison.

  Marcos had moved to stand at my other side, but I didn’t see Silver anywhere. Faas was still in the same place, only now he was alone. I’d been so distracted I wasn’t sure at what point Silver had left.

  “The Morrigan,” Mara explained, drawing my attention back to her. “We were on our way to ask for her help. She still had the key in that time. In fact, it was only months before she destroyed herself. I can’t help but think there was some meaning to the key sending them back to that exact point in time, but I haven’t been able to figure it out.”

  I held up my hands to stop her from speaking. It was all too much. “Rewind a little. You were somehow in the same time as your previous self?”

  She tapped her incorporeal foot impatiently. “I’m just energy, Madeline, or at least I was. I was able to exist more strongly in that time because my physical form was still anchored to the earth. Of course, now you’ve gone and anchored me to the earth in a whole new way. Or really, you’ve anchored me to you.”

  I frowned, wiping at the drying tears on my face. “What do you mean? I was just trying to summon you back into my mind.”

  She huffed in irritation. “You’ve turned me into a banshee. You’ve anchored my soul in this time to yours. I’m just like the others now.”

  “I didn’t mean to do that!” I argued, unable to help the shrill tone in my voice. Had I really taken her away from Alaric just moments before she would have helped him return to me?

  Now that I was steady on my feet again, Mikael removed his arm from me and stepped forward. “What do you mean, she anchored your soul to hers?”

  Mara sighed. “I mean exactly what I said. My soul is now permanently connected to hers.”

  I shook my head. Fresh tears dripped down my face. What had I done? “I don’t understand,” I muttered.

  Mara hovered closer to me as she explained, “The banshees exist because they were unable to let go of their old lives. They were all women who were wronged in some way. Murdered, tortured, or worse. Unlike normal ghosts, which are just residual energy of souls that have moved on, the banshees’ souls have remained in this realm. They cling to their graves, unable to let go of what happened to their bodies. Before I was more like a ghost. My energy was here, but I did not exist entirely in this realm. You brought me fully over, including my soul, my anchor, into this world. I have resided, at least in part, in the spirit world since my mortal body perished. Now I cannot go back.”

  Marcos, who had remained silent through the entire exchange, finally cleared his throat to speak. “That’s not quite true. If you are anchored to Madeline, then you will go back to the spirit world if she dies.”

  Mara glared at him, and with her spectral face, the look was twenty times more terrifying than it normally would have been. “Drawing my attention to you is not a wise choice.” She turned back to me. “Why is he even still alive?”

  “Um,” I began nervously. “We need him to return the key to me,” I bit my lip. “And he helped me restore the banshees,” I added quickly.

  She turned her glare back to Marcos. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

  He smirked. “You never had the chance. You possessed my body to kill Aislin, but you only accomplished that task because I also wanted her dead.”

  Mara’s sudden rage was palpable.

  “Now, now children,” Mikael interrupted. “There’s no sense arguing, as these are the cards we’ve been dealt, and we have more pressing concerns. It will be morning soon, and Madeline needs to rest before we can face Estus.”

  “But what about Alaric?” I argued. “We have to figure out how to bring him and Sophie back to the current time.”

  “There’s no way for you to do that now,” Mara explained. “Perhaps the Morrigan of that time will aid them. If not, they need only stay alive long enough for you to regrow Yggdrasil. Once that is done, you can use the tree’s power to retrieve them.”

  My shoulders slumped in defeat. I finally knew where Alaric and Sophie were being kept, and I was powerless to save them. At least in the past, the key wouldn’t kill them on a whim, but the Morrigan might.

  Mikael laid his hand gently on my shoulder. “Time for rest.”

  I nodded, then turned back to Mara. “I—” I hesitated, unsure of what to say.

  “I know,” she said with a soft smile. “I’ll be fine. We’ll figure everything out after you’ve had some rest.”

  I smiled back and nodded. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done, and I’ll do my best to fix it, but even so, it’s nice to see you again.”

  She nodded her agreement. She was taking the whole being made into a banshee thing like a real champ. Of course, she’d just been fluid energy before, s
o maybe it wasn’t a huge change, except for being stuck in this world.

  She glanced back at the other banshees, who watched on silently. “I guess I’ll wait with them until you wake up.” She turned her gaze back to me. “It serves me right for how I used them in the past. A taste of my own medicine, I suppose.”

  I cringed. “Sorry.”

  She rolled her eyes at me, then turned away to join the banshees. Once she’d reached them, they faded from sight.

  Mikael put an arm around my shoulders, urging me back in the direction of the hotel. Marcos walked ahead of us. Faas fell into step on my other side, but didn’t speak. He was being unusually silent about this whole ordeal.

  I was too tired to think about it. Instead I turned my gaze toward Mikael as we walked. “Where did Silver go?”

  He chuckled. “He once encountered the banshees in his distant past. It was a rather . . . unpleasant experience. He probably ran all the way back to the hotel when they arrived.”

  I smiled, feeling somewhat satisfied. Even thousand year old empaths had fears. I glanced forward at Marcos’ thin frame, wondering if he had any fears. What did someone with power over the dead fear? Sunshine? Flowers? Who knew. Maybe he was afraid of bunny rabbits. I sure hoped so.

  Alaric had lived long enough to visit many castles in his time. In fact, he’d been alive in the current year, so he didn’t find the imposing stone structure terribly awe-inspiring. That was, until they reached what could only be called a throne room. Of course the Morrigan would have a throne, but that wasn’t what held his interest. The candlelit friezes and tapestries adorning the room were marvelous. If he weren’t in such a dire situation, he would have loved taking the time to observe them more extensively. As it was, his full attention was demanded by the red-haired woman glaring at him from a few feet away.

  “Tell me again,” she snapped.

  They’d already told her everything. She was particularly interested in Madeline, which unnerved him. What was her true motive? Both he and Sophie had assured her that she’d meet Madeline in the future, although they failed to mention what form she would be in when that meeting occurred. How do you tell someone that they will soon destroy their human form after growing no longer able to cope with their human emotions? The answer, you didn’t. They couldn’t tell her she would soon die, else they might alter the course of history. They might have already altered it, but hopefully not. Mara had assured them it would be nearly impossible to sway the Morrigan from her path.

  “There is no more to tell,” he stated once again. “We need to return to the future to aid Madeline, and since she has summoned you, we’ll be helping you as well.”

  She pursed her lips in thought. “Okay,” she agreed slyly, causing Alaric’s heart to race. “But I want a favor in this time first.”

  His heart sank. He didn’t have time to go around doing favors. He needed to get back to Madeline.

  “What favor?” Sophie asked suspiciously.

  The Morrigan smiled sadly, surprising Alaric. “I will not remain on this earth much longer,” she explained.

  Alaric and Sophie both gasped. She knew?

  She eyed each of them in turn. “I have committed many crimes since my creation, but there is one I simply cannot bear. Though he wronged me, what I did was unnatural.”

  Alaric had no idea what she was talking about. He knew the Morrigan wasn’t fond of men because of some past betrayal. Was all her ire truly due to one individual?

  “Cúchulainn,” she muttered. “I trapped his soul in his remains, and sealed them within a barrow. If I leave this earth without releasing him, he will be trapped forever. I cannot expect him to atone for his crimes for eternity, when I can face my own no longer.”

  “You trapped his soul?” Sophie balked. “Talk about a woman scorned.”

  The Morrigan eyed her sharply, wiping away all traces of previous emotion as if the sadness and admission of guilt had all been a brief dream.

  Alaric stepped forward. They needed to get this over with so they could get the hell out of the past. “Where is the barrow?”

  “I will send you there,” she stated simply, not answering his question.

  “Why can’t you go yourself?” Sophie asked.

  Alaric groaned. Did she really have to choose now to regain her bad attitude?

  Worry crossed the Morrigan’s face, then was gone in the blink of an eye. She sighed. “I trapped him on sacred ground. Land protected by the old gods. I have toyed too much with death, and can no longer travel there.”

  He knew he shouldn’t ask. He knew he should just go to this sacred ground and get the task over with, but . . . “What’s stopping you?”

  The Morrigan was suddenly angry again. “Will you truly require me to lay all of my indignities bare? Can you not simply accept that I have been rejected by the land from whence I came?” Before he could answer, she snapped, “Fine. The place you are to go was where Yggdrasil once took root. That land created me, but I have tainted my energy to the point where I cannot set foot there.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment.

  Alaric heard his sister audibly gulp before she asked, “And we can? We are mere mortals. Can we truly step foot in such a place.”

  The Morrigan seemed to deflate. She walked wearily to her throne, then slumped down upon it. She held a hand to her eyes as if warding off a headache. “You are Vaettir, the children of the gods. Even though you destroyed Yggdrasil, the fates and the gods still love you. You are welcome in what remains of their pathetic earthen kingdom.”

  The bitterness was clear in her tone. She’d been rejected by the gods for her crimes, but the Vaettir were still accepted, even after all they had done.

  “We’ll find his remains for you,” he said softly.

  He was surprised at the compassion he felt for her, but there it was. She’d never had a family or a true home, and the one she’d loved had betrayed her. It might change history if they helped her, but it was a risk he was suddenly willing to take.

  She sighed in relief, then stood. “I am prepared to send you now, but I’ll leave you with a warning. I do not know what sort of creatures may roam the lands near the barrow. Though the pathway to the gods has been destroyed, their energy still lingers. It attracts many things. Be careful.”

  Alaric nodded as his sister moved to stand at his side.

  The Morrigan lifted her hands toward them.

  “Wait,” Sophie implored. “Once we have Cúchulaiin’s remains, how will we return here?”

  The Morrigan’s hands dropped an inch. “Return to where you will first arrive. I will place you near the border of the sacred land. Once you cross back over that border, I will be able to retrieve you.”

  Alaric took Sophie’s hand in his. “We’re ready.”

  The Morrigan raised her arms again.

  “Like hell we—” Sophie began, but her words were cut off as the castle’s interior blurred around them.

  He gripped his sister’s hand tightly, overcome by an odd floating sensation. He felt stationary, but with a dizzying feeling of momentum. Like the world was zooming past him while he remained in place. The movement was too fast to make out much with his eyes. Everything was a blur.

  Suddenly the world seemed to stop, and they both went tumbling forward, as if they’d been in a moving vehicle only to have it completely halt, flinging them both onto the ground.

  Alaric lifted himself off the rocky earth to a sitting position, nearly falling back over with dizziness.

  Sophie slowly sat up beside him. “Why do I have the feeling she made that ride more . . . exciting than necessary?”

  Alaric groaned, then forced himself to stand. A salty smell pervaded his nostrils. They were near the sea. “Because you’ve spent enough time around both Mara and the current Morrigan to understand their irksome natures.”

  “I wouldn’t say that too loud,” Sophie grumbled, rising to her feet. “One of them can probably hear us right now.”

&n
bsp; Alaric wouldn’t have been surprised if the Morrigan was somehow magically looking in on them, but at the moment he didn’t care. He was more focused on not throwing up.

  Feeling unsteady on his feet, he glanced around, attempting to get his bearings. The Morrigan had claimed that she would place them near a border, but it apparently wasn’t a visible one, at least as far as he could tell in the first hints of morning. The trees in the area were sparse, unlike the dense enchanted forest they’d travelled through to reach the castle. Looking around, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. He spun in a slow circle until his ears pinpointed which direction the ocean was. Judging by sound alone, they were maybe a mile or two off.

  “This way,” he stated as he began to walk, his boots crunching on the rocky soil.

  Sophie jogged to catch up to his side. “How do you know which way it is? Everything looks the same.”

  “Madeline told me about her encounter with Yggdrasil,” he explained. “She claimed it was within sight of the sea. Therefore, we follow the sound of the surf.”

  “Then what will we do once we get there?” she pressed.

  He shrugged and continued walking. “Beats me.”

  “We should probably have a plan,” she stated dryly.

  His eyes scanned the scenery around them, searching for signs of life. “We have no idea what sorts of men or beasts might dwell on this sacred land. Any sort of plan we might formulate will be worthless without knowing what we’re up against.”

  Sophie stopped walking.

  He halted and looked back at her, taking in her desperate expression, framed by her long black hair fluttering around her face in the breeze.

  “Alaric,” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. “The Morrigan claimed the energy of the gods still resides here. How on earth are we supposed to face that?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “All I know, is that we must.”

  She looked like she might cry. “But aren’t you scared?”

  “Of course I am,” he replied. “But I will find my way back to Madeline no matter what. Even if I have to face gods to do it.”