Niall
Niall carried Aisling back to her own bed, leaving her clothes abandoned on the forest floor. He lay her on the sheets, running his hands over her beautiful soft skin. He couldn’t get enough of her body.
When he’d first entered the Hollow – even though he’d been intrigued by her, and her appearance in his dreams – he’d seen Aisling the same way any fae saw another they were attracted to: a conquest to be won, by seduction or guile or coercion or force. But now, he saw her as something else entirely – as a bond, an unbreakable promise, a shining beacon that made him want to be better, for her. She was his, and he was totally and utterly hers.
All we have in this house is each other.
Niall lay down beside her, stroking her face. She smiled up at him, her skin glowing. The aura of her magic danced around her face, the blue fire radiating out from her like a supernova about to burst. She’d taken in even more than he’d realized. Her body positively surged with untapped power, and she seemed completely oblivious to it.
“I never thought I’d be happy in this house,” she said. “Until you came along.”
Niall’s heart thundered against his chest.
“I’ve wanted you ever since I saw you through that glass,” he told her. “Since I realized the girl in my dreams was real. But you’re not her – she’s just a dream figure. You’re even more amazing.”
“You came here to save me,” she whispered. “And that’s exactly what you’ve done.”
And just like that, with a single thought, all Niall’s happiness drained away. All this, everything they’d done together, it was based on a lie. His great lie, the kind of lie all humans loved, because it was wrapped in a heroic story. Aisling thought he was there to save her, her dream boy. If she knew the truth … if she knew about the ray, and the letters he’d been sending to Odiana …
The words were on the tip of Niall’s tongue. He could tell her, rid himself of the guilt that stabbed at his heart, the guilt a fae should never have to carry.
As he opened his mouth to speak, Aisling leaned forward and kissed him, and all the words tumbled away.
* * *
Niall and Aisling didn’t leave her bed for a day, save for when he took a trip down to the kitchens to collect food for dinner. Between bouts of furious sex and tender lovemaking, they lay with their bodies entwined and talked about everything and anything. Niall even told her about his ability to see the aura of atern around people and objects, a secret few outside his family and Odiana knew.
“So I look blue to you?” Aisling’s smile lit up her whole face. “Like a weird blue alien?”
“All humans are a bit alien to me.” Niall grinned back at her. “I think you look beautiful.”
The only secret Niall didn’t share was the one that gnawed at his stomach. As the gray sky faded into darkness, Aisling’s eyelids started to droop. Her head nodded against Niall’s shoulder, and she began to breathe rhythmically.
As soon as he was certain she was asleep, Niall gently eased his arm out from beneath her, placing a pillow beside her to simulate the bulk of his body. Feeling like a complete bastard, he collected the ray from his room, crept up the staircase to the dining room door, aimed the ray at one of the long cracks in the wall, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
Niall. Come to me, Niall.
The voice from the cracks called louder than ever. It was no longer a whisper, but a melodious singsong pulsing inside his brain. It was a woman with an enchanting voice, backed by a chorus of echoes that made it seem as though there were a hundred of her. She spoke to him every time he passed the doorway, and called to him from the crack behind the dresser in his bedroom.
“What do you want?” he murmured into the door, trying not to make a noise AIsling could hear.
The voice didn’t answer. She never did. She just kept calling his name, over and over.
Ignoring her, Niall moved to the library. He pulled out the thin volume he’d found the previous night, tucked behind one of the larger books of domestic spellcasting. It wasn’t a grimoire, but a diary. From the dates written above each entry, he could see it had been begun only a few months before the fae had opened the rift. This must be Aisling’s grandmother’s handwriting, he realized. He turned to where he had stopped reading last night.
The news reports are bleak. Elsie phoned this evening. The city is being evacuated, although they’re moving all the richer suburbs first, so of course my girls are right down at the bottom of the list. They’re supposed to go to a refugee camp, but Elsie thinks those aren’t as safe as the government is making out. She doesn’t like the idea of all the witches being herded together into one place. It makes things to easy for the fae.
So she’s bringing Dan and the girls here, which might be the most sensible idea she’s ever had. I’ll go to the store tomorrow and buy as much food as I can. I have a feeling we’ll be hiding here for a while.
Another entry, dated the following day:
I went to the store, but there was no food to be had. Old Mabel wasn’t even working the till. The shelves were empty, and people inside shoved what little was left into huge rubbish sacks. A man at the door waved a tire iron at me and told me to move on. I gave him a lecture about speaking with proper respect to his elders, which he took in good stride, but he still wouldn’t let me inside.
Fine. I have other ways of feeding my family. It’s taken me all morning, but I’ve figured out a replenishing enchantment for the food stores I already have. I’ll need to wait until Elsie and Dan get here to use it, as it will take our combined power to make it work. It’s one of the most draining spells I’ve ever concocted. But if it keeps us safe, it will be worth it.
The news reports are looking worse and worse, and the fae are descending in droves. We’ll be making our last stand here, I know it. I can’t stop them, but I do have an idea on how to keep my family safe.
I tried to phone my sisters. We need as many witches as we can to make this work. The phones are down, so I’ve had to resort to enhancing their typewriter. Much less accurate, but still effective. Alice says they’ll come as soon as they can.
Something tugged at Niall’s mind, something about the words, the memories seemed wrong, but he couldn’t place what it was. Niall turned the page, his eyes darting across the neatly-formed lines of text.
The fae have come. We’ve barricaded the house as best we can, but I fear they will break through in a matter of hours, if the radiation does not kill us all first.
There’s only one thing left to do – we sisters will bind our magic into the house. It will leave us defenseless, but if the fae cannot breach the walls, it does not matter. Alice and Dan and the girls will be safe.
If the fae do get inside the Hollow, they will never be able to strip us of our power, for we will have none.
Following those words was a strange scribbled diagram. A box in the center, with a triangle on top and a long row of teeth. Niall guessed it was meant to be the Hollow. Around it, four alchemical sigils were scrawled, with arrows corresponding to different areas of the house. And finally, several small circles were dotted around the page, some with different areas colored in.
Of course. Niall realized with a start exactly what he was looking at. The phases of the moon.
He knew witches worked their magic according to natural cycles. Fae didn’t care about such things. For them, magic was not something to be worked in tune with the world. It was something to be harvested, bartered, and spent when they saw fit.
This is the spell they worked to place their magic inside the Hollow. Niall knew how big this was. He had in his hands the key to understanding how witches were able to transfer their magic into objects. Which meant if he could reverse-engineer the spell somehow, he could collect the atern from the house, and save his brother.
And, not just that, the house contains enough atern, it could stop the Eternal Winter. Scitis would have all the magic it needed, and Aisling would be free. She’d be able to go outside these walls, and see the world. She’d be able to go to a beach, dig her toes into the sand, feel the waves lapping at her feel. And I could go there with her.
We could both be free.
That settled it. He’d do it for Aisling. Niall studied the image, his mind whirring with possibilities. More than anything, he wished Odiana was here. Within a minute, she would have the whole puzzle straightened out.
The moon is the key.
Niall grabbed another book from the shelf, an almanac showing the moon phases for dates fifty years in the past and a hundred years in the future. Niall turned the book to the day of the spell’s date, and found several notations in the almanac that were clearly used for magical working. Niall compared some of the notations in the book to the scribbles in the diary: they were identical.
This is the combination, he realized. This is how to break the lock. Odiana was right, but she was just wrong about what created the combination. It’s the position and phase of the moon relative to the Hollow on the day the spell was worked.
Excitement bubbled through him at the discovery. But how could he hope to use it? He didn’t have the skill to reverse the spell. But if Odiana had this information, she could redesign the ray, and collect all the energy from the house. Then they’d be able to save his brother and free Aisling, and end the suffering of his people. Scitis would have enough atern to power her for the next hundred years, not to mention the ability to extract atern from all the magical objects they’d collected. Instantly, their faction would become the most powerful in the fae realm. The fae would have all the atern they needed, and there would no longer be a need to hunt and harvest witches.
Winter – the eternal, damnable winter – would at last be over.
Excitement hummed through his veins. Niall grabbed the ray from the desk, and turned it over in his hands. Would this work? It has to work.
Niall tore out another blank page from Aisling’s ledger book, and scribbled a note.
Odiana,
I’ve figured it out. The key was wrong. It needs to be aligned to the lunar cycle on the day the spell was cast. That’s why it was such a foolproof method of storing magic – only a witch would know which day they cast the spell. Try this:
Niall copied the diagram of the Hollow, the sigils and the moon phases from the diary, exactly as it was written down. Satisfied, he went out into the hall, crossed the wide entrance, and tapped the mail slot in the front door. It opened easily, as it had every other time he’d sent Odiana a note.
He tried the handle, but once again, it wouldn’t budge. There was no way for him to see if his previous notes had been removed, if Odiana had even found his correspondence. He’d never seen anyone close to the house, but then, he didn’t watch all the time. She might have chickened out at the gate, or turned away when the iron burned her hand.
Niall settled for a silent prayer to the Hollow.
Please let Odiana find my note. Please let it work so we can end it all, forever.
Niall shoved the letter through.
As soon as the paper released from his hands, a rush of sickening guilt overwhelmed him. What was he thinking? He’d just handed Odiana – and whoever else she might be working with, including Laneth – all the knowledge they needed to strip the house of atern. In the right hands, this could end the fae reign of terror over the witches, as he’d hoped. But that wasn’t how fae thought. Niall only thought like that because Aisling had got under his skin.
Fae thought only of obtaining more power, more magic for themselves.
In the hands of the fae, Aisling’s only protection would be gone, and the fae would not be merciful to her, not after all the lives the Hollow had taken. Even Odiana would kill Aisling first, ask questions never – she’d do it gladly, assuming that was what Niall would want, as vengeance for the death of his father.
Panic surged through him. I’ve got to get that letter back. He grabbed the door handle again, twisting it with all his might. It wouldn’t budge. Niall planted his feet on both sides of the doorframe, braced himself, and leaned all his weight back. The door didn’t give.
Breathing hard, Niall backed up to the other side of the entrance hall, in front of the ballroom doors. He ran at the door, getting up as much speed as possible. He angled his shoulder at the center of the door, and slammed into it, throwing his whole body behind his shoulder, like a ram.
The door didn’t even creak.
Niall staggered back, pain ricocheting through down his arm. Panic rose in his chest. Niall tried to shove his hand through the mail slot. Perhaps he could twist his arm down and grab the corner–
His fingers slammed against an invisible barrier. The Hollow wouldn’t let him even attempt it.
Anger bubbled up inside of him. Listen to me, you stupid house. I made a mistake, but I want to fix it. I have to protect her. I’m protecting you, too. Just let me outside and Aisling will be safe.
As if in response, a great fork of lightning crackled across the sky, lighting up the windows like an air raid. The house groaned, but the door didn’t budge.
Niall slammed his fist into the frosted glass beside the door. Pain arced up his other arm, but the glass didn’t even crack. It was as if he’d just punched a brick wall.
Niall sank to his knees, clutching his aching fist. For the first time since his father had died, tears prickled the corners of his eyes, as he thought of what he’d done.
Aisling was his dream girl, and he’d all but handed her over to the fae.