This chapter is a pretty long one but we're in the final stretch now, hope you enjoy!
Breena
I gasp and go to lunge for it, not exactly sure what I am going to do but feeling as if I have to do something. Kean catches me around the waist and holds me back, "There's nothing you can do," he murmurs in my ear. I fight him for a moment before slumping back against him watching as my whole life goes up in flames.
He lets go of me and holds the little slip of paper up to the fire light and suddenly it is not blank, it is covered in flaming scrawl. His jaw clenches in anger and he crumples the paper in his fist. "I know where your sister is," he says with barely contained rage.
I look up at him but his face wavers and swims and I realize my eyes are full of tears. I blink to clear my vision letting them run down my cheeks. Kean's face is sharp and hard almost inhuman in the flickering glow of the firelight. "Where is she?"
His jaw tightens "She's on one of the islands," he says, "Northern Point Island."
My stomach drops further, "Why would she be there?"
"She got mixed up with the wrong Sidhe."
Kean
Breena's face is pale, pinched and streaked with soot and tears as she looks up at me waiting for an explanation. And she deserves one, she deserves to know why her sister is missing, why her house is currently in flames, why her life is falling apart. She deserves to know it is my fault. But I can't bring myself to tell her, I don't want to see her face when she finds out that I caused this. I am a coward.
I pull her behind me to Allard's truck. There is nothing we can do for her house and her barn is far enough from the house that it should be alright but we can try to do something for her sister. In fact I'm pretty sure that Ciná won't do anything to her until Breena and I show up; we are going to be walking right into a trap but what else can we do.
I usher her into the truck and jumped in behind the wheel. She is silent as I explain what I can to her, I figure I should at least tell her a bit about what we're up against before we dive in headfirst. I tell her about Ciná; what he is and what he can do and I tell her what I know about Northern Point Island; which isn't much. The truck bumps and jerks on the dark, dirt road as I head to the north; if I am right there will be a small boat on Pebble cove waiting for us.
In the glow of the headlights I can see strange elongated shadows of Sidhe running in the high grass but I don't have time to even look into what they are doing.
We reach the North Cliff in record time. Outside the truck the wind off the water whips viciously battering our cheeks and tangling Breena's curls. "We have to get down to the beach," I tell her.
She nods, "How do we get down?"
I motion for her to follow and lead her to the small path carved into the face of the cliff that leads down to Pebble Cove. On a calm summer day the path is dangerous which is part of the reason people rarely visit the cove but on a windy autumn night the path is downright treacherous. But we don't have a choice if we're going to get to her sister. "We have to climb down."
Her lips press tightly together but she just nods determination etched deep in the lines of her face.
I start down first. The ledge is narrow and the wind is brutal, the best way to get down without getting blown off the edge is to walk sideways facing the cliff way so you can use it for a hand hold. Breena follows my lead creeping along after me. Progress is slow and exhausting but desperation pushes us to move faster than should be possible and we reach the bottom recklessly fast.
The surface of the beach is a whole new problem. Rocks ranging from the size of my torso to my fist litter the surface of the beach and in the dark they make it easy to twist an ankle. However sitting just out of the waters reach is – as I suspected – a small motor boat. I point it out to Breena and we begin picking our way over. I check my watch; it's eight o'clock.
The boat is just big enough to fit the two of us in it. We push it into the surf, frigid water washing over our ankles and soaking our shoes. I climb in and help Breena in after me, it takes a couple tries but we get the small motor going.
The water is fairly smooth, it makes me nervous. We are in a small boat on waters known to be infested with Formorians, Merrows, Aughisky and other water Fey. Ciná must have something to do with the calmness of the water and why we aren't being attacked. Still we stay quiet hoping not to draw attention to ourselves. The only sound is the quiet hum of the motor, is our soft breathing, the lapping of water on the sides of the boat and the whistling of the wind.
Northern Point Island rises up before us quickly as the motor propels us through the water the moon illuminating our path. We wash ashore and I put my hand on Breena's shoulder to stop her as she begins to climb off the boat. "The ring I gave out, are you wearing it?" I ask, she'll need the protection it can offer.
She starts to shake her head but her hand flies down to her pocket, "It's in my pocket."
"Please put it on. We're about to walk into the most dangerous situation I have ever been in and I would prefer that you have it on."
She bites her lip but complies, pulling it out of her pocket and slipping it on her finger. I feel a bit better knowing that she at least has that protection, as long as she doesn't take it off nothing on this island will be able to touch her.
We get off the boat and leave it on the smooth sandy beach. "Where are we going?" she asks expecting me to have the answers seeing as I am the one that brought us out here.
I rub the back of my neck, closing my eyes to recall what the note had said, "My best guess is we will find him right in the center of the island," The words of the note blaze behind my lids as if I am still holding the paper up to the flames You will lose your heart at my heart. The heart of the island is the only thing I can think of and it makes a chill work its way down my spine.
"So into the forest?" she asks pointing to the woods that border the beach.
"Into the forest," I agree although I hate the thought of shrouding ourselves in the trees, we are on their territory now, they reign supreme here.
Breena
I gulp down my fear and head for the trees Kean following just a bit behind me. I steal a glance at him out of the corner of my eye; he looks ashen in the moonlight, his shoulders more stooped than usual. He surprised me by asking me to wear the ring, when he first mentioned it I thought he was asking for it back. I would have given it to him willingly but I did feel a bit better with it warm against my finger.
We step into the forest and the difference is obvious; the darkness is heavier and more watchful under the boughs. The thick undergrowth makes it difficult to navigate and within just seconds we cannot see the ocean behind us, we are surrounded by darkness.
I can hear Kean crunching through the branches and dead leaves on my left. I can also hear something rustling the nearly bare branches above us and the eerie high pitched calls that echo around us. We head straight as we can figuring that we will end up in the center of island soon enough.
The sound of water trickling to my left by Kean lets me know that there is a small body of water by us. As we continue the sound of the water morphs into a light tinkling laughter and I freeze, "Kean, what is that?" I ask.
There is no response, in fact outside of my own heart pounding and the laughter that has now transformed into a melodious humming there are no sounds. "Kean?" I try again my voice shaking.
Still no answer. I start to my left holding my hands out in front of me to avoid bumping into anything. As I get closer to the water the air seems to glow with a soft, blue light getting brighter and brighter the closer I get. When I see the source of the music and the light I stop short. There is a female leaning just her upper body out of the water, her eyes locked on Kean who is walking towards her. Her hair is the color of ripe wheat, her eyes glow green and her smiling lips move seductively in song, she is beautiful outside of the cat ears that poke out of her hair and the black tail that curls and twitches behind her.
I call out to Kean again but he just keeps walking slowly towards her entranced by her voice. I am shocked, he is a Keeper, the powers of the Sidhe rarely have any effect on him yet here he is completely entranced by her voice, his eyes are even glazed over.
I don't know what this particular Fey is but I know that this can't end well if I don't stop him. I jog forward to catch up with Kean and put my hand on his shoulder to stop him but he just shrugs me off and continues. I follow him unsure how to stop him.
He kneels by the bank of the small slow moving water just before the Sidhe. She stops singing the wordless melody and strokes her fingers along the back of his hand and her eyes flit to where I stand just behind and to the side of him.
Her voice is sweet and pleasant like a bubbling brook when she speaks but her words are cruel, "What are you doing here Halfling? The Keeper is mine, you must let him go, his blood is mine."
"No," I snap thoroughly annoyed tired and scared, "I'm not leaving my," I hesitate, I'm not even sure what he is to me, "friend," I settle on.
Her smile is as evil as it is beautiful, sharp canines glinting wickedly in the blue glow, "You silly girl, you think he cares for you, he cares for no one, he can't care for anyone, it is his curse," she trills a laugh. "I know things about our Keeper that would send you running for the hills. If he acts like he cares for you he is simply signing your death warrant."
I shake my head trying to make sense of her words. I notice that as she was speaking she managed to wrap her hand around his right wrist and pull him to his knees with his hand into the water. Her poisonous words are distracting me from the real problem, snapping Kean out of his trance.
She must see the resolve in my face, "You can't snap him out of it. Once he has fallen into my trance he is trapped unless I let him go which is not something I plan on doing."
Fury races up and down my spine and lights a fire in my gut and I don't even think about it before reaching out and slapping her in the face. She lets out a shriek and recoils her hands flying up to cover her cheek where my ring left a nice red welt.
I drop to my knees and use the lapse in her attention to grab Kean's face in my hands and pull his face toward mine; I press my lips against his without thinking. For a second he freezes and tries to pull away then I feel his arms wrap around me and he pulls me closer kissing me back. We pull apart breathing hard and wide eyed look at each other until an enraged shriek rises up from the water beside us. We glance over just in time to see the Faery's tail slip beneath the water.
Slowly we rise to our feet, Kean still holding onto my hand. I take a deep breath, "What the hell was that?" I ask shakily.
"A kiss," he says with a weak smile.
I roll my eyes, "No I mean I thought that you weren't affected by the Sidhe but she had you totally entranced."
He lets out a sigh and runs his free hand through his hair, "On the thirty first the Sidhe are at the peak of their power," I nod. "Well, while they are at the peak of their power I am drained of all the protection and power of my bloodline."
Looking closer at his face I can see the exhaustion in the planes of his face and the grey tinge to his skin. Before I can respond he tugs my hand and starts off for the direction we were heading in before. We walked for maybe five minutes when he stops suddenly and turns to face me, "Thank you by the way."
I squeeze his hand and we continue. I don't entirely understand my own actions, I acted on instinct and am lucky it worked.