1AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Striker growled from beneath the kitchen table.
Startled, Kelcie’s grandmother dropped her cup of tea. Her favorite ceramic mug crashed to the floor, breaking. “Oh, for the love of diamonds. Why won’t they leave us alone?”
“I’ll get it this time,” Kelcie said, irritated. Striker crawled out to go with her as she threw her napkin on the table beside her plate of eggs that would be cold by the time the soldiers finished their search.
For the past two weeks, at random times of the day and night, Summer soldiers had entered Kelcie Murphy’s grandmother’s home on Moon Bay to hunt for Draummorc. Going room by room, they rummaged through closets, checked under beds, opened every chest and cabinet, and broke precious things like her father’s spyglass and the picture of Kelcie’s grandfather, who passed away before she was born.
“That’s it!” Doyen had declared, and chased them out of the house with a wooden spoon. In the worst kind of irony, on the way out, a Cat accidentally bonked her grandmother’s favorite turquoise vase off the kitchen counter.
Kelcie was surprised they risked entering again so soon. With Ravens posted on the roof, it wasn’t as if her father could sneak into the house anyway.
“This should be fun,” Brona said, racing after her. “I left a few surprises for them.”
By the time they reached the door, Striker’s growl slipped into an excited whine.
“Don’t go soft on me now!” Wearing her deepest scowl, Kelcie yanked it open. “Can I—”
Smiling lavender eyes cut her off. In her wildest dreams, Kelcie never thought she would find Niall O’Shea standing on her doorstep.
After the ball for the Ascension that never happened in Summer City, Kelcie and Niall had been inseparable. Those weeks were some of the best in Kelcie’s life. Full of blush-inducing smiles, holding hands between classes until Brona made fun of them, and the occasional kiss when no one was around. But all that changed the day Draummorc’s letter arrived, telling Kelcie he was going to escape from prison.
Queen Eislyn and Casper Thorn had arrived an hour later, informing Kelcie that her father had accomplished what he set out to do. After interrogating her for hours, and learning nothing, they forced Niall to return home to Summer City before finals, claiming it was for his safety, but there was no place safer than the Academy.
No, Queen Eislyn had pulled her son out of school to keep him away from Kelcie.
Since then, Kelcie had heard nothing from Niall. Not surprisingly, her letters were returned with a High Command stamp on top that said UNDELIVERABLE. She’d only just gotten her best friend back, a best-friend relationship that had blossomed into something more, then was cut off from ever speaking to or seeing him again. But here he was, looking as handsome as ever in his school uniform, with a weary grin on his face and the strap of his Academy duffel bag falling off his shoulder.
Kelcie let out an uncharacteristic squeal of utter delight and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
“They let you leave?”
He smelled woodsy, as if he’d been outside a long time.
He let the duffel bag fall and clung to her. “Not exactly.”
Making a fuss, Striker screeched and jumped up on her back. Kelcie grabbed Niall tighter to keep from falling down the stairs and felt something in his pocket crunch. “Uh oh.” He wasn’t wearing his glasses.
Cringing, Niall patted his cloak pocket, pulling out the same black-rimmed style glasses he always wore, and sighed, relieved when they weren’t broken. “Pretty sure this is the last pair my mother will ever give me. I don’t even know where she buys them from. Not that I have any money to get a new pair. I just left.”
He laughed softly.
“You ran away, Adder?” Brona smirked, impressed.
“I did. Took me most of the night to find your house. Moon Bay is much more remote than I expected. Quite a walk from the Sidral.”
Doyen appeared in the doorway. “Is this the famous Niall O’Shea?”
Kelcie wanted to die.
“It is. And he’s homeless,” Brona chuckled. “Shall we take him in?”
“We took you in,” Kelcie’s grandmother said with a wink and a devious smile. “He can’t be nearly as much trouble.”
Brona shrugged. “Can’t argue with the truth.”
Doyen pulled the door open wide. “You are very welcome in our home, young man. Come inside. Breakfast is getting cold.”
Sitting down at the kitchen table, Niall, Brona, and Kelcie tucked into a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, and bowls of pink cherries Kelcie had picked from the trees around the house yesterday. For all her blustering, Doyen fawned all over Niall, refilling his plate three times, watching with pure joy on her face as he politely ate every bite.
“How did you get out of the Darling Palace?” Kelcie asked.
Niall shifted to face her. “Same way I did after the ball. That was a fun night.”
Her cheeks warmed, remembering. It was a night Kelcie would never forget. There was the overwhelming relief when Niall told her he had wanted to ask her to the ball all along, but didn’t think she’d say yes. Then the walk out of the palace, holding hands in front of everyone. Kelcie wanted to run when Queen Eislyn and Casper Thorn open-mouthed stared.
“Ignore them,” Niall had said, leading her to the middle of the dance floor. He had let go of her hand to bow. Kelcie had attempted a small curtsy. Forever a klutz, she’d tripped herself on the hem of her dress, and would’ve fallen if Niall hadn’t caught her. Later Brona would tell her that a few of her classmates giggled. Others commented it was about time. The two who had asked Niall to go with them to the ball left the dance floor. Kelcie had never noticed any of that. She was too nervous about the idea of dancing.
“What’s wrong?” he had asked.
“I don’t know what to do.”
He’d smiled confidently. “That’s okay. I do.”
Niall’s arm had clasped Kelcie’s back. His hand raised one of hers to his shoulder, and then he took her free hand and held it almost too tightly. Maybe he’d been nervous too. But unlike Kelcie, who had two left feet, Niall could dance. Every turn, dip, and spin was timed perfectly to the rise and falls of the music. She shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d probably taken lessons since birth.
At the end of the ball, Niall had been forced to remain at the Darling Palace when the tram took the Academy students back to the barracks. A few hours after everyone had gone to bed, Niall woke Kelcie up. They snuck out of the barracks, running into several eye-rolling soldiers on guard duty on their way to the park. Striker had found them right away, and lay down in the burgeoning grass blades, soaking up the full moon’s rays. Kelcie and Niall had found a rock to sit on. He explained that there were old sewer tunnels running beneath the city, like the ones they entered during the bodach attack under the library of the Darling Palace. He used them frequently to get to the College of Mystical Beings. He’d walked from there.
Their night together ended at sunrise with two soft kisses. The first was slightly awkward. She had peeked at him and found him peeking too. His purple eyes were the lightest Kelcie had ever seen them. She closed her eyes, feeling his smile before he kissed her again. That kiss far exceeded the first. She felt the zing all the way down in her toes. It would’ve been perfect if it hadn’t been interrupted by their teacher, Roswen, who had no idea they had just saved the Lands of Summer (it was confidential) and gave their whole fianna two days of cleaning stables when they got back for sneaking out. Brona was angry. Zephyr had only laughed, happy they got caught instead of him and Willow.
Before the kisses, Kelcie and Niall had talked everything out. He apologized for his behavior, explaining that arriving at the Academy last year he was angry at how his mother had spoken to him when he brought up Kelcie’s unanswered letters to her father, dismissing him as a fool as she always did with everything, and had taken that frustration out on Kelcie. For her part, Kelcie apologized for asking him to talk to his mother about it in the first place. It was unfair. She never wanted to come between Niall and his family.
Yet here she was again, coming between them. He set his hand over hers under the table, making her stomach backflip.
POUND-POUND-POUND.
“That will be the soldiers,” Doyen sighed, pushing her plate away.
“Soldiers?” Niall asked.
“Looking for my father,” Kelcie explained, taking her last bite of eggs.
Doyen waved a dismissive hand and started clearing the dirty dishes. “You three take Striker and go outside.”
On her way out of the kitchen, Kelcie heard Brona say, “Okay, but make sure that they open the drawer to Kelcie’s desk, not you. And fetch a mop. Every time I’ve used a crying jinx on a Cat, they’ve wet the floor.”
Kelcie’s grandmother laughed. “You are a wicked girl, Brona Lee. Don’t you ever change.”
* * *
KELCIE, NIALL, AND Brona spent the day swimming until they could barely move. After, lounging on the shore, eating from a picnic basket Doyen brought out, they talked about their adventure in the Lands of Winter. About the vampire seer’s vision of when the Never-Ending War would finally be over—when the Abyss was gone and Alltar reborn—and about Lexis and Swappy Toots and Jack Postal, the cousin Brona and Kelcie never knew existed.
“When Mother insisted I return to the Darling Palace, I made use of the time by going to the College of Mystical Beings and researching the Abyss. Diaries of crossing attempts proved it was impossible. The gas above it is toxic.”
“Something I mentioned first year,” Brona pointed out.
“But more than that, poisonous or not, nothing that ever went in ever returned. Not Ravens in protective gear, or flying ships.”
Brona rolled her eyes. “That’s why they call it the Abyss, Adder.”
“But nothing about how to get rid of it?” Kelcie asked.
Niall shook his head. “So I went to see the Tiniest Speck.”
The mention of that evil Speck made Kelcie flinch.
Brona rolled her eyes yet again, crooning a sarcastic, “Sure you did.”
The corner of Niall’s mouth quirked. “I brought her my mother’s favorite yellow diamond ring. I told her it was in recognition for what she had done to save the Lands of Summer when the Heart of Danu was stolen.”
Kelcie laughed.
The Zinger bottle heading for Brona’s mouth stopped. “You didn’t!”
Niall waggled his eyebrows. He reclined, leaning on his elbow. “I did. But she only had one thing to tell me about the Abyss. That it was a lost cause. Many before us have tried to understand how it came to be, traveled to every resource in Summer, from the obvious, like libraries to off-the-beaten-path antiquity shops. Not a single thing has ever been found that was linked to the creation of the Abyss.”
Kelcie lay down, letting the sun warm her face. “I bet she said it that way for a reason. Like something or someone needs to be found that hasn’t been yet.”
Niall hummed his agreement. “But what, or who?”
2A FATHER’S REMEMBERED
THE LINGERING QUESTION of how to find out about the creation of the Abyss left Kelcie, Niall, and Brona quiet and contemplative for the rest of the evening. At bedtime, Doyen gave Niall her room to stay in.
He protested, of course. “Ma’am. I can’t put you out like that.”
“Niall, we only have three bedrooms,” Kelcie explained. By the look on Niall’s face, she didn’t need to finish that thought—that the only other one to sleep in was her father’s room.
The silence heavy, it grew heavier when Niall went to bed with a nod and a softly whispered, “Goodnight.”
Sometime after midnight, Kelcie woke to Niall yelling. Rushing into her doyen’s room, she turned on the light and saw he was thrashing about, in the throes of a nightmare.
“Niall!” Kelcie shook his arm.
“What?” He startled awake, his gaze filled with confusion that morphed into something else—frustration and anger, maybe? He raked his fingers through his sweaty hair that had grown past his ears. “Oh, sorry. Was I screaming?”
“Yes.” Kelcie sat down on the edge of the bed. “What was the dream about?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
He didn’t look at her when he said it, an obvious sign he was lying. She didn’t press. She knew what it was like to have nightmares, having been plagued her whole life by the one of her mother abandoning her in Boston Harbor. Kelcie suspected that being in her father’s house brought back memories of the fire that killed Niall’s father. She worried he wished he’d never come.
Copyright © 2024 by Erika Lewis
