Carrier 02: Shadow of the Mark (21 page)

I fought the tears that stung my eyes, and I gently moved Adam’s head to the side to inspect his Mark. The beginning of the fifth arc was stark against his ashen skin.

“I’ve an idea!” Áine shouted, bursting into the room, bringing with her a draft of cold air and a small brass box.

I sat up. “What do you mean?”

She winced as she opened the box. “The amulet!” She held it out to me. “It glows when it’s close to the elements, right? That’s how the Knox used it to track the Marked.”

“Yes,” I said, exasperated. “We know that. What about it?”

“We can use it to track the fifth.”

“You think there is one?”

“It would explain the new Mark.”

“But I thought the fifth was supposed to be created using all four elements. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Doesn’t it? You’ve already got two of them, Megan, and I don’t know about Rían, but I have a constant urge to give you mine.”

I looked from Adam to Áine. “What
is
the fifth element?”

“Supposedly, spirit.”

“And you think it’s connected to what’s happening with me?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but if there’s a link, we might be able to help Adam.” She held the amber stone to herself, and its glow intensified. Then as she moved it away, it faded. “Did you see that?”

“Of course I did.”

She slowly moved the stone from one side of her body to the other. As the stone passed over her chest, the glowing really illuminated, so much that it was hard to look at. “The source of the element must be in our chests. It’s actually kinda freaky.”

I looked down at the stone, feeling the strength of its binding as my hand got closer. I carefully moved it to my chest, watching it grow brighter and brighter, then stopped. “You think there’s another one of us out there?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you think that girl whose voice I heard could be the fifth?”

“The ticktocking one? I have no idea, but you should let me listen.”

“I only heard her once.”

“Maybe you’re just not listening hard enough. Let me in.” Her eyes were already flickering black and green. “Only for a minute, okay? If it is the fifth, I might be able to figure out where to start looking for her. Do it for Adam.”

I glanced at him. “Okay, but make it quick.”

“Clear your mind.”

“Wait, don’t you need me to put the amulet back in the box?”

“Nah, I’ve learned to work around it. I’m way beyond that sucker. Now, focus on me.” She stared at me with her alien-like eyes and cocked her head to the side. Then it jolted in the other direction. She rushed at me, gripping me by the shoulders, her black, piercing eyes so close to mine that I couldn’t concentrate on both. I looked from one to the other, seeing my own horrified expression. I felt weird . . . almost like air was swishing around inside my head. Then her eyes suddenly flickered back to their normal appearance, and she pulled away from me.

I winced at the ache she’d left in my head. “Did you hear anything?”

“Sort of. It was more like a feeling than a sound. They’re not voices, but more like . . . audible messages stamped into you.”

“What kind of messages?”

“It’s the elements—air and water. It’s like the previous generations of Marked Ones who had those elements have left a calling card. There’re so many.”

“But that doesn’t help us, Áine.” My eyes drifted to Adam as I sifted through the hazy memories of what had happened. “The Sidhe said the answer was in the stone, right?” I moved the amulet over my heart and watched it glow bright and intense. “Maybe we should look for those answers with it.” I lifted the heavy chain to put the amulet around my neck.

Áine grabbed my wrist. “Wait! Hugh told us never to wear it.”

“Look, we’re at a dead end. If I put it on, we might get some answers.” Áine’s worried eyes glanced between Adam and me, and then she slowly released my wrist. I dropped the chain over my neck. Before I could utter another word, pain ripped through me. I fell back on the bed, frozen by the vicious stabbing in my chest.

“Áine!” I managed to gasp through the searing agony. “What’s happening?”

Her frightened eyes washed over me. She leaned forward and then slumped to the floor, groaning. “I can’t get to you. Look! Look at the amulet!”

I rolled onto my side, willing my pain-seized arm to move. The amber glowed brightly, an intense light burning my skin where the pendant rested. I moved the chain and drew a sharp breath. The light wasn’t shining from the amulet. It was coming from my skin. The burning sensation eased slightly as I moved the amulet, so I pushed it toward my left shoulder. The white heat burrowed through my body, looking for an outlet, burning everything in its path. I screamed out to Áine.

“Megan, I can’t help you!” she cried. “It won’t let me near you. I’m going to get someone.”

I couldn’t get beyond the pain to respond. I stared in horror as a great light burned to the left of my chest, just over my heart. It made its way to the amulet, which radiated the light through its amber, illuminating the room. I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I reached over and held Adam’s limp hand. The pain felt tight within me, like it had filled the space and had nowhere else to go. Then suddenly it broke free.

I watched as the ribbons of gold slithered from my skin and snaked their way along my arm onto Adam’s. They dived into Adam’s chest, and his whole body arched upward, only his head and feet remaining on the bed. Then just as quickly as the light had appeared, it disappeared into Adam’s body, and he flopped back onto the bed. My pain was gone.

“Megan?”

“Adam?” I mumbled, wiping my eyes and trying to focus on his face. Adam was back. The answer
had
been in the amulet. It had released the water element and returned it to Adam. My pain forgotten, I threw myself in Adam’s direction, but fell short as Fionn swooped in and caught me before I made contact.

“Let me go!” I shrieked. I struggled in Fionn’s arms, but it was useless. I was still too weakened from what had just happened.

“Get it off her!” Fionn shouted at Rían, who’d followed him in.

Rían removed the amulet and stepped back. “What was that? What did she do?”

“The Marked should NEVER wear the amulet. Don’t ever do that again. Rían, put it back in the box.”

I struggled against Fionn’s grip, and the air whipped up around me, but I reined my power back in and surrendered. I allowed myself to droop in his arms. “The Sidhe was right about the stone. It worked. Adam got his element back,” I whispered.

Fionn relaxed his grip and turned me around to face him. “Yes, but you should not have survived that unscathed. You just went through the elemental stripping and kept your power.”

“Megan, are you all right?” Adam called, pushing himself up in the bed.

Relief made me dizzy. “I’m fine.” I tried to shrug off Fionn’s arms, but Fionn tightened his grip again.

“I’m sorry, Megan. But you can’t. You can’t touch Adam . . . you can’t touch any of them.”

“What? Why?” I asked, turning my head to Rían, Áine, and Adam. “I would never hurt them.”

“You won’t, but your element will. Megan, ‘Cluaín’ means ‘deception.’ The Cluaín’s sole purpose is to remove and combine the elements to enable the release of the fifth.”

“You know what’s happening to me?” I managed to croak before the sting of tears gripped my throat.

He nodded sadly. “That’s what we were coming down to tell you.”

“We?” I asked.

“Hugh, Cú, and me.”

“You found Hugh?”

“We did. When Hugh suspected what you were, he abandoned the alignment training and started gathering all the information he could. It’s what he’s been doing since he left here. He’s activated An Ciorcal na Fírinne.”

“The Circle of Truth,” Rían said.

“Yes.” Fionn turned his gaze back to me. “Cú, Petra, Hugh—they’re all part of it. The things I’ve learned . . . I’ve so much to tell you. All of you. Megan, I’m so sorry, but you’ve already started the cycle of the fifth. I have to find a way to stop it. You can’t be near them anymore.”

With my world crumbling, I looked in Adam’s direction. “You’re okay?”

He nodded, his color returning to normal. My eyes dropped to his chest, to the burn the element had left on his skin, and I gasped. The scar was just like one of the swirls from the Cup of Truth and Hugh’s notes. I pulled open a few buttons of my blouse and traced my fingers over an identical mark burned into my chest. I couldn’t help but realize we’d just witnessed the end of all our hopes and dreams. My heart pulled me to him, and my conscience wrenched me away. Tearing my eyes from his, I walked toward the door.

“No, wait!” Adam called after me, but I didn’t dare look back. With each step, my determination grew. I would never allow myself to inflict that kind of pain on him again. A bitter resolve seeped through me, infecting every cell in my body, chilling my heart and binding my emotions in layers of self-hatred. Fionn was right; I could never touch any of them again. I bolted for the door and didn’t stop running until I got to the road. I caught my breath and looked back at the DeRíses’ house.

It was over.

I wrapped my arms around me and gazed, unseeing, at the road ahead. Randel swooped down and landed on the ground in front of me. I stepped around him. He hopped alongside me, trying to get under my feet.

“Randel, Áine! Leave me alone. I can’t . . . I just can’t do this right now.”

Randel shuffled to the side and dropped his head to his chest. I walked past him and didn’t dare look back.

Reminders of the destruction I’d caused littered the ground. Swirling paths of sand and smashed vegetation lined the road where the last of the tidal water had drained from the land. The water in the Bandon estuary, now a murky brown, looked dark and sinister as it raced toward town and the mouth of the harbor. Why hadn’t I listened to the warnings? How could I ever have thought I was stronger than the element within me?

A car pulled up next to me. I ignored it for a few minutes, hoping whoever it was would leave me alone. But the car continued to crawl at my pace. I eventually glanced up, ready to tell Chloe, Áine, or whoever it was to go away. But the flash of red in my peripheral vision triggered the breakdown I’d been predicting. Caitlin.

She braked, swung open the door, and got out, closing the gap between us. “Oh, Megan!”

I sank into her arms and cried. We stood in the middle of the road for what seemed like forever.

“I know.” She ran her hand down my hair. “I know. Come on, Megan, we’ve got to get you home.” She guided me back to the car, and we climbed in. “Look at me. I’ve more snot and tears on me than you have.” She handed me a wad of fast-food napkins. “My place or yours?”

“I thought you weren’t my friend anymore.”

“Megan, it would take a lot more than secrets to get rid of me.”

“How did you know where I was?”

“Rían called. He said you needed me right now. What’s going on?”

The secrets and lies pounded in my head, looking for an escape. “Yours.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go to your place. We need to talk.”

She raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Talk, talk?”

I nodded.

“My place it is.”

C
aitlin leaned forward and clutched my knees. “You’re taking the piss outta me! I can’t believe it.”

“I swear it’s all true.” I held my mug of sweet tea in my hands and tried to absorb the warmth as a chill ran down my spine.

“How could I have not seen any of this?”

I closed my eyes and winced. Hours of crying had left them raw and dry. “We keep it well hidden. Nobody else knows, not even my dad.”

“So all the rumors were true! The DeRíses are druids.”

“We’re not druids!” I tried to open my eyes, but one caught, my lashes stuck together from the tears. I rubbed it and forced it open. “The Order and the Knights kinda are, though.”

“You’re a mess,” Caitlin said, getting up and opening a cabinet. “Here, try some of these.” She threw a bottle of drops at me. “I used half the bottle yesterday. They work a treat, see?” She pointed at her crystal-clear eyes.

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you the truth.”

“I can understand why you didn’t. My head is still spinning. You’re like a magical creature from the dawn of time!”

“No, I’m just a normal girl from the twenty-first century who
inherited
a magical power from the dawn of time.”

“Still, it’s amazing! What a gift.”

“I used to feel that way. Now it seems more like a curse.”

She shook her head. “I used to see stuff happening around you, and I’d tell myself I was imagining things. And all that other stuff! Birds, Orders, Knights. It’s like I’ve entered an alternate universe.”

“I’m impressed you didn’t run screaming from the room.”

“Hey, we’re only into hour number”—she looked at her watch—“three of this conversation. There’s still plenty of time for me to throw a complete fit and get you committed.”

“You believe me?”

“How can I not? It explains so much. Don’t get me wrong, I think you’re delusional, but I still believe you. Hang on a second . . . that makes me semi-delusional as well, doesn’t it?”

“Welcome to my world.”

She threw her fist in the air and laughed. “Woo!”

“Caitlin, you have to promise to keep this to yourself. It really is a matter of life and death. Many Marked have died at the hands of the Knox.”

“I won’t breathe a word, I promise. I feel like the ‘cool best friend’ in the movies, the girl who gets to know everything. Don’t they usually get superpowers too? Maybe I’ll become a witch.”

I laughed. “Oh, please don’t. I don’t think I could take much more magic in my life.”

“Fine. But if Danu calls on me, I’m answering it!” She crossed her legs, sat in the lotus position, and started chanting while rolling her eyes and fluttering her eyelids.

I thumped her gently. I’d hoped telling Caitlin would make me feel better, but it didn’t. Her thrilled acceptance of this magical world just reminded me of my own excitement when I first learned of it, before the elements showed their darker side.