Secrets of Sealgaire, Chapter 9 part B
Secrets of Sealgaire, chapter 9 continued...
Heather was continuing to struggle in Bruno’s grasp, keeping him from taking aim at Niall with his ring. ‘I will not lose him again - I WILL NOT!’ she thought. Polina’s words broke through to her, and automatically, she recited the same spell that Frances has tried on the stairs. The ring disappeared from Bruno’s hand, and reappeared on Heather’s finger.
Before anyone else fully realized what happened, Bruno, Cyd, Polina and Frances felt the magic jump and saw the ring on Heather’s finger.
“Let me go!” shouted Heather. A red mist from the ring formed between them and pushed her and Bruno apart. Bruno forgot Niall and only had eyes for his ring. He leveled his wand at Heather.
“Niall, now!” Cyd yelled, “His wand is useless!”
Niall sprung forward, as Bruno tried and failed to fire off a spell from his wand. Niall’s jaws were around Bruno’s throat in an instant, ripping and tearing flesh in an angry red haze.
Heather and the others watched for only a moment, remembering Giselle in the kitchen. She ran past the gruesome scene, and the others in the room followed her, leaving Niall to devour Bruno in privacy.
The rest of the wolves now entered the house through the broken windows. Some gathered at Raule’s side and transformed, preparing to take his body out of the house, keeping a respectful distance from Niall. Others rushed past to get to the kitchen to help the Goodies.
When Alexa got inside, the pack moved off to give her a moment alone with Raule before they took him home.
‘You big, stupid idiot!’ she thought. ‘We all heard Normund telling you to calm down, but would you listen? No! You never listened to anyone! And now look where it got you.’ Tears filled her eyes as she thought back over their stormy relationship. She would never commit herself to him because of his temper. ‘Oh, you’d swear you were working on it; that you were getting better. And it kept us apart all this time. All this time we could’ve been happy together, wasted. And now it’s too late.’ Finally, she could hold back no more and wept openly. Hilary Drake led her away while the pack took care of their own.
Frances and Polina lagged slightly behind the others who headed for the kitchen. Both wanted to leave the room as Niall tore Bruno apart, but wanted to speak to each other privately.
“I take it you have what you want?” Polina asked Frances, as they stood apart from the crowd.
“All but one thing.” Frances replied. “That ring. It belongs to me. I have no quarrel with you or the wolves, but I intend to have that ring back. And I would’ve had it back, had Roseland not interfered with his stupid little spell!”
“You saw Bruno blast that wolf with the ring. Cyd was working that spell the whole time. Clearly his spell had no effect on that ring. I think you have a bigger problem, Frances. I think you’ve just met Midir’s true heir.” Polina studied the look on Frances’ face, so she would always remember it as she revealed Heather’s identity. “Heather O’Roarke is descended from the child of Angelica and Midir. She comes from Maeve, Midir’s firstborn. You were descended from Marguerite, his last Queen. Heather is the true heir, and it was her magic, not Cyd’s - her birthrite that blocked your spell. And, once the dust settles, she might just have something to say about the rest of Midir’s things.”
“So Bruno wasn’t just being crazy, the ring really did show him Heather?” Frances asked. “Because she was the true heir?”
“That’s right. The memories that came with Midir’s magic gave him the name ‘Angelica’, which he somehow took to be ‘Angela’. He was shown the true heir, but misunderstood what the ring was telling him, or twisted it to fit his own warped fantasies.”
Frances lost her composure for only a moment, then began a new plan. “I would like to get to know Midir’s heir. Do you think she would speak with me?”
Polina was not fooled for a minute. She leaned in towards Frances and whispered,“I think you can count on it.”
“Queen Heather! My brother! My brother is dead!” Giselle left her brother Herbie’s side for the first time.
Heather wrapped her arms around the girl, holding on tight. She looked at Balin and said, “We’re going to wait outside while you check everything out. I’ll call Dr. Drake and tell him we’re on our way from out there.”
Balin bent down and kissed Giselle’s head. “We’ll see to your brothers, lassie. Uncle Jack will take good care of them.”
For the first time, Giselle realized that Balin was there, and let go of Heather for just a minute to give him a hug. “Uncle Jack! I knew you weren’t dead!”
Balin wished he could say that was true. Instead, he just smiled as he broke the hug and with a tweak of her nose, said, “You can always count on your Uncle Jack, now.”
Giselle attached herself to Heather again, who walked her out the front door, making sure to keep herself between Giselle and the gore in the living room.
Back in the kitchen, Frances and Polina joined the others. Cyd and Balin checked the wolves, and Marta sat in the corner on the floor, muttering “Cassandra hates me. Cassandra hates me.” Her eyes were unfocused, staring at nothing. She had dropped the knife, and Balin pushed it from her reach.
Frances startled everyone out of their shell-shocked silence. “Excuse me. I’m going to need to put her down. I just wanted to let everyone know what I was doing before wands started flying. Would it be better if I took her out back?”
Before he answered, Cyd looked at Polina, who nodded at him. “Yes,” Cyd said, wrapping a kitchen towel around the severed artery of Herbie’s rear leg. “Take her out back where Giselle won’t see.”
“Marta Glencoe, rise. Come with me now.” Frances ordered.
Marta didn’t seem to hear her; didn’t seem to hear anything except Giselle’s words, echoing in her head, ‘I hate you! You killed my brothers! I hate you! Get away from them! I hate you!’
Frances tried again. “Marta, come with me now. Cassandra is waiting for you.”
Everyone in the room immediately went into defense mode, before Frances waved them off. “She’s out back waiting, and she wants to go home. It’s time to go home now, Marta.”
No one relaxed until Frances and Marta and left via the back door of the living room. Cyd followed them, making sure that they did indeed head towards the beach and not Heather and Giselle in the front.
With a ‘pop’, Marta was gone, and so was Frances.
The first wave of pack members who had come to Bruno’s had left their cars parked on a nearby block before transforming and surrounding the house as wolves. They retrieved their cars now, getting the injured to Dr. Drake’s clinic, and taking the humans back to the safehouse. When they returned to finish cleaning the scene, they found Bruno’s study open and all his books missing.
Back at the safehouse, Faith and Giselle sat cuddled on the sofa, waiting for news. Cyd and Polina had taken Heather to the regular hospital, where her broken arm was being set. She didn’t want to take any of Dr. Drake’s attention from the Goodie boys.
Balin was calling with regular updates from the Drake’s clinic. Shioban, who had gotten the news of the disappearances before she boarded her plane turned around and headed right back to the Goodies. She was making tea, bringing blankets, fielding phone calls, and doing everything she could to help out.
Niall worked side by side with the wolves at Bruno’s cleaning up the mess so there would be no crime scene. It would appear that Bruno and the wife that no one had ever met had left town. A scandal was being created to explain it.
The pack argued with him, ”Go to Queen Heather, we’ve got this!”
Niall wanted nothing more in the world, but said, “I would not ask my pack to do anything I would not do myself.” His look made sure no one else approached him on the subject.
Once he was finished there, he cleaned up and visited the clinic to check on the Goodie boys. Raule had brought his own fate down on himself, and if he hadn’t died, Niall would’ve killed him for risking Heather’s life. But these boys were only following Niall’s orders. He was having a very hard time with that. Especially as he looked down at the still body of Sebastian Goodie.
Balin assured him, as did Herb Goodie, that the boys were proud to serve their king, and if they didn’t make it, they died an honorable death. These words brought no comfort to Niall. Balin put an arm around his shoulder and walked him to the waiting room.
“The doc thinks they got Herbie’s bleeding stopped in time, but what about Sebastian? I smell death on him.” Niall asked, once they were out of earshot of Herb.
“The boy took quite a blow to the head, which has him in a coma for now. We think the real problem isn’t the blow, but that he bit the zombie. We just don’t know enough about them to know what it means. The only expert we know of is Frances, and no one knows where she went.”
Niall sat himself down, resting his head in his hands. Balin plopped down beside him.
“You need to be with your lass.” Balin told him. “You’re stalling here. Do you think she won’t love you, seeing what you did to that monster?”
That was exactly what he feared, and leave it to his best friend to get right to the heart of it. “Gee, Balin. Don’t you hold back now, just tell me what’s on your mind. And speaking of your mind, has the doc had a chance to look you over? Will you get a craving to eat brains anytime soon?”
“Your concern touches me deeply, but I’m the last thing you need to worry about. Now, before it’s you I decide to take a chunk out of, go to her, lad. She needs you now. I’ve got things handled here - you’ve done you Kingly duty to the pack. The pack respects you for it. You can’t possibly be dense enough to doubt how the lass feels. Now you get gone before you make her doubt you.” And with a shove, Niall was outside the clinic, looking at Balin’s rental car that someone had dropped off at the curb. He was surprised to find Balin’s car keys in his hand.
At the hospital, Heather waited for her name to be called, shooting glances at the entrance, hoping to see Niall coming through the doors. Once they got to the waiting room, she had time to reflect back on the events of the day. It wasn’t until then the fact that the ring sat on her finger, Bruno’s ring - Midir’s ring, registered with her. She pulled it off with enough force to aggravate her broken arm, and threw it at Cyd.
“Please, keep it away from me. I can’t stand it touching me.” Heather said with a shiver. She rubbed her arm as she continued to look at the big glass doors at the entrance. Then she had another memory. “Polina, you healed me. You healed this break. Before Bruno got a hold of it again, it was bearable. How did you do that?”
Cyd turned to Polina. “A healer? Do you know rare a healer is? And you did it without a wand? Even I can’t do much without a wand, and here you are, healing broken bones in the middle of a war zone.”
Polina flushed. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I just wished so hard that I could heal it. I wasn’t even thinking.”
“Can you do it again?” Cyd asked.
She immediately moved next to Heather and laid her hands on the break.
Cyd and Polina tried to keep Heather’s mind off the fact that Niall hadn’t arrived yet, but she was doing enough on her own, getting updates from the clinic, Normund’s pack house and the safehouse. Whether or not she realized it, she had fully stepped into her role as Queen. She’d already spoken to Giselle three times when her name was finally called and she headed to a back room with a nurse.
While she was there, Niall burst through the entrance, rushing to the counter to find out where she was, but was stopped by Cyd and Polina. Once he was updated, he went to the desk and told them he was Heather’s husband, and they brought him back to the room where they were working on Heather’s arm.
She was alone, waiting for the doctor when he came through the door. He hesitated for only a moment, until she held her good arm out to him. He rushed to her, wrapping her in an embrace she would never forget. He kissed every inch of her face before burying his own in her neck, breathing in the scent of her.
“I was ashamed,” he began, before she cut him off.
“You did what every one of us in that house wanted to do.” She told him. “If I wasn’t so worried about Giselle in the next room, I might have joined you.” Her smile was interrupted by another kiss, this one slow and meaningful.
Niall pulled back, taking her hands to look her over, but dropped them quickly when she winced. Lifting her bruised and swollen hand to brush it with his lips, he raised an eyebrow when he asked, “How did this happen?”
“I broke his nose.” Heather answered. “Right before he broke my arm.”
“I’m sensing an alarming pattern here. We might have to look into some anger management classes for you. Or maybe some nice boxing gloves.” Niall smiled while she shot him a playful glare, then took her into his arms again, kissing her until the doctor showed up.
Back in the waiting room, Cyd looked over at Polina. He was crashing from his adreneline high, and knew Polina had to be exhausted as well. He moved a stray hair that had fallen into her eyes back from her face with his finger, and continued to trace her cheek.
“You were amazing back there. You’re still amazing. Anyone else would’ve passed out by now.” Cyd told her. “You really saved the day when you told Heather to repeat the spell.”
“It just made sense.” Polina answered. “If she was Midir’s heir, then she should have some residual magic in her blood. Turns out she did. It was something we all knew might be true, but for some reason, I wasn’t able to put it together until exactly that moment.” With a weak smile, she looked into his eyes and continued, “It was you that was amazing. You held off Bruno’s magic all on your own, all that time. You were the one who saved us all.”
Cyd laughed at that. “Let’s call it a draw and just say we make a great team. Come here, fellow hero.” Cyd put his arm around Polina, and they cuddled in comfortable silence until the King and Queen came back.
When all the tests and X-rays were done, Niall walked a very rough-looking Heather through the doors of the waiting room. She wore a cast on her hand, a bandage wrapped around her upper arm, and a smile on her face.
Cyd and Polina rushed to them, asking how she was.
“ I’m fine. It turns out that we have quite a gifted healer in Polina.” Heather laughed, then told them what happened. “We had to tell them we were playing baseball in the park, and I walked in front of the batter and was hit.” Heather gave a weak chuckle. “They said the batter must not have been taking a full swing, because the break in my arm should’ve been much worse. It was much worse, until Polina put her hands on it,” Heather smiled at her friend. “The x-rays only show a hairline fracture there now. They said the break in my hand was the worse of the two!”
As the group prepared to leave, Heather turned to Niall. “I’d like to go to the clinic and see the boys.” With a look at Polina, she added, “And if Polina agrees, I’d like her to come with us.”
“Absolutely!” Polina agreed. “I don’t know if I can help, but I have to try.”
Niall went outside to transform, and off they went.
Cyd had checked the boy over, and spoke with the doctor who believed a werewolf should be able to heal the head injury over time. Not knowing much about death magic, they feared whatever was in his bloodstream from the bite he gave Marta was too much for Sebastian to survive.
Polina insisted that she try. While Heather held his hand with her good one, Polina stood at Sebastian’s bedside, hands over his chest. As his chest barely rose with his shallow breaths, she looked up at Cyd with panic in her eyes. “I don’t think it’s working!”
Seeing her so upset was breaking Cyd’s heart. He came up behind her, took her hands from Sebastian and held her to his chest. “Let’s take a break. You’re exhausted.” He whispered. “You can try again in a bit, but you need to rest for now.”
“How can I rest when he might die?” Polina asked in a shaky voice. “This pack was more like a family to me than my own - I have to save him!”
Cyd rocked her in his arms, trying to calm her. “Polina, this magic may be beyond yours. I don’t have the knowledge of death magic I need to help. We need to get home to my books, and you need some sleep. You’ve done all you can for now; no one blames you for not healing him, and you certainly can’t blame yourself!”
Heather stood quietly, holding Sebastian’s hand, and tried to imagine telling Giselle her brother didn’t make it. She had an idea. A horrible, awful idea. From what she was hearing around her, it might be the only way.
Niall had been standing behind her, arms wrapped around her and chin on her shoulder looking down at the boy he had almost certainly sent to his death. He felt Heather stir in his arms and released his hold. She didn’t move away, but turned to face him, wrapping her arms around him.
“And you can’t blame yourself, either.” She told him. “He saved his brother’s life. If we could ask him, he’d have no regrets. Any other pack member would’ve done the same. The only person to blame in all of this is Bruno. Whether Bruno was insane and twisted on his own or if it was Midir’s magic that did it to him, we’ll never know. But we know where the blame lies, and it lies with them.” She looked over at Polina, who was listening and added, “Someone very wise told me that.”
Heather let go of Niall and turned to face Cyd. She put her hand out and said, “And maybe the only way to fix this is with the power that started it all. Let me have that ring.”
That's it until next time. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to Tina G for photoshopping favors and HolleyB for plot help!