Broken Mate, Unbroken Bond

CHAPTER 5 - ASH

I wrapped my hands around the warm mug as the soothing smells of ginger and lemon wafted upward. The tea would not fix this headache of mine, I knew, but it was soothing nonetheless. Perhaps what was helping the most was Dee’s willingness to talk; to explain away this weirdness with something normal, something that would make complete sense.

Then I can lock it away and get back to living my life.

“Your mother did not die in a car accident,” Dee began, finally sitting down across from me at the kitchen table.

Or maybe not.

“She was murdered.” The flash of grief across Dee’s features was clear for me to see, but she cleared her throat and continued, clearly determined to get through this. “The Ó Mordha - The Moores, were a highly respected, very well-known family within certain circles. Had been that way for a thousand generations.”

“Moores?

“Your mother Clodagh was a Moore. She came from an ancient line, traced all the way back to the time of the kings and the old gods. The time of the wolf and the sword. Your father could not make such claims. In fact, he’d always been quite amused by Clo’s insistence, but he was an historian himself, his area of speciality pre-Medieval, pagan Ireland. They’d met at a Celtic History symposium; she the bright-eyed and out-spoken student, he the curious scholar. They spent months debating. Clodagh had this way about her when she spoke about the things she was passionate about. John used to say her words would reach out and grab you; entrance you.” Dee’s smile was so wistful, her gaze so far away that for a moment I forgot all about names and family lines and I felt my heart just break a little for my aunt. And for me, for never having the opportunity to know these people.

“She was my best friend. I loved her very much. She was like a sister to me.” She looked up to meet my gaze, and a tear coursed its way down her cheek.

“Like a sister.”

“The bond we shared was not of blood, Ash. But it was just as strong.” Dee’s voice wobbled just a little and her expression suggested that she was preparing a defense for my reaction.

My sense of my world was crashing down around me, yet I gave none. And so, the woman who had raised me continued.

“From the first day that I had met her I knew. We were just children, really, but Clodagh was my soul sister.” A brief pause and a small smile softened Dee’s face, and then her eyes took on that far-away look of someone caught up in the remembering. “We were both different, in different ways, but neither of us cared. We understood each other. When she asked me to always look out for you, it was not a promise I could turn away from.”

“Why would she ask you that?”

“Because she was Mac Tíre. Because Mac Tíre have enemies.” Dee’s hands tightened around her mug. “They were once celebrated. Revered. Talented and fierce, great warriors and fair rulers. For centuries they were a culture unto themselves, yet managed to balance their nature in such a way as to fit with human civilisation. And then, the Hunters came.”

She took a sip from her mug, her movements a little bit disjointed. I remained silent, part of me fearing that if I interrupted, the story would stop. Because that’s what it felt like: a story. Things that had happened long ago and had nothing to do with me.

But that was wrong, wasn’t I? This did have something to do with me.

“They claim their sacred duty is to rid the world of what they call aberrations. These people will hunt anything they consider not to be of the natural world, though there is one particular branch of Hunter that focuses on the wolves. The Pressor. There hadn’t been word of any of their kind in Ireland in decades; giving the Celtic wolves some space to breathe, to recuperate. Perhaps the absence of the Pressor allowed them to grow complacent.”

Dee took a breath, eyes cast downward, and continued. “The Ó Mordha had historically been very careful. That’s why they’re one of the oldest families on this island. But Clodagh - she wasn’t. It’s not that she flaunted her differences, but she didn’t deny her nature, either. It wasn’t until her father - your grandfather - disappeared that any of us really started taking the old threats seriously. You were only a couple of months old when your mother brought you to me and asked me to keep you safe. That was the last time I saw Clodagh alive.”

“What happened?”

“The eile community were on alert after Eamon Ó Mordha went missing. There’s nothing like a Hunter turning up on our turf to get us all on the same page. Another pack, one of the Midlands ones, found Clodagh and John near the site of a car crash, just outside of Ballina.” The tears were falling freely down Dee’s face now. She didn’t bother to wipe them away. “Your father was human. He had nothing to do with the Mac Tíre, other than a passion for folklore and learning. But they killed him anyway.”

The atmosphere in the small kitchen was heavy, filled with emotion, both mine and hers. But my mind was also running a mile a minute, filled with all of the questions that I had. It might almost feel like I was doing the memory of my parents a disservice by not pausing for longer, but this was about more than just them. It was also about me, what I was. I felt no closer to figuring that out.

“I’m assuming these Hunters didn’t know I existed.” Clearly, if they had, I’d have been killed along with them.

“No.” Dee shook her head. Her eyes had been closed, squeezed shut, and when she opened them they were still glistening with tears. Her shoulders, however, were squared. “Clodagh had ideas about how things should be and how her life should be lived, but she did not take chances when it came to you. Children of Mac Tíre had become quite rare, you see, so it was not unusual for them to be kept a secret until they matured a little…”

“So you hid it from me.”

“I hid it from everyone, Aislinn. I am sorry.” One of her hands reached across the table, searching for mine. She gripped my fingers, which were lifeless in her grasp. “But I would do it again.”

Aunt Dee’s eyes searched mine. I don’t know what she was looking for in my expression; perhaps forgiveness. Maybe even just understanding. I was feeling only loss in that moment. I felt as though I had lived my life lacking so much. Lacking this knowledge of my parents, of their lives together and how those lives had so tragically ended. Most of all though, I’d found out why.

It was because of what my mother was. This was something in me, too.

“They said I have a wolf in me.”

“The Mac Tíre have the ability to shift. They have strength, heightened senses and a variety of other abilities.”

“Shift.” I swallowed, my mind automatically returning to the conversation I’d had with Mac Nessa the evening previous. “Into a wolf.”

“Yes. Aislinn, please understand, allowing that part of you to surface would have been putting a huge target on your back. Removing it as an option meant that you had the strongest kind of deniability.”

I yanked my hand from Dee’s grip. My emotions were a snarl. Sorrow, grief and loss, and betrayal. Intellectually, I knew what my Aunt was saying to me, I understood her reasons for doing what she had done. But the rest of me… The rest of me was angry.

“How. How did you do it to me?” My tone was accusatory, and the hot, frustrated tears in my eyes punctuated it.

Dee sighed.

“Magic.”

I had been sitting on the sofa in the living room for some time, staring at a point on the wall. I’d grown cold, still wearing the shorts and t-shirt that the Spanish summer climate had demanded, but Ireland mocked. I shivered and drew my arms around myself, my discomfort at the drop in temperature pulling me from deep thought.

My eyes moved toward the mantelpiece and found the photograph of my parents together. Taken the day they’d been married; they seemed happy, smiling at each other, looking as though they were sharing a private joke. I tugged on my auburn locks, curling them around my fingers as I studied. I often wondered about that, as both of my parents had dark brown hair. I’d asked when I was younger, a curious little girl, and if memory served, Dee had called it a recessive gene. Later, through my studies, I realised it was a little more complicated than that. Perhaps now that I knew my true family name this would be one small mystery I could put to rest.

I sighed and it felt as though it had been the first time I’d taken a proper, deep breath in hours. Above me I could hear Dee moving around in her room. After outing herself as a magic user, or a hedge witch as she had laughingly called herself, she had explained the process behind the block she’d placed inside my mind. She told me she’d had assistance in erecting it all those years ago when I was a teenager, and would need assistance again in order to safely bring it down. She did not want to do that, that much was clear. She told me she didn’t know if it could be done, and if it was done, how much damage it could potentially leave behind. I insisted. She said she needed to prepare.

Something hit the window. Something large and entirely unexpected, causing me to almost leap out of my skin. My head whipped toward the end of the room where the large bay window was obscured by heavy gray drapes. As I stared, suddenly all of my senses were alert and alive. I rose from my seated position and began to move slowly toward the source of the loud noise. Above me the quieter thumps, yet still equally as insistent, heralded Aunt Dee’s appearance at the top of the stairs.

“Do not go out there!” She yelled down, her shrill voice echoing off the high ceilings and walls of the hallway.

“Why not?” I called back, my hand reached out to grab a hold of the curtains. I could hear a hushed conversation. Not mine, nor Dee’s, but coming from a group outside. They were whispering to each other and it was something I had no business hearing. At least, that’s what I would have told myself before yesterday.

I knew who it was before Dee even said it. I could feel it.

“There are wolves at the door.”

Despite myself, I felt like laughing. It was such a bizarre and dramatic thing to say. Yet somehow, completely accurate. There were wolves at the door. Or more precisely, somewhere down around the end of the driveway, at the gate. For some reason, they hadn’t approached.

I pulled the curtain back in one smooth, decisive swish.

“Aislinn!”

Dee was at the door of the sitting room, her face pale.

My eyes immediately found Dominic Mac Nessa’s. For what felt like a very long moment, we were locked in stare. My body stilled, my breath held. He somehow looked even darker under the dimmer light of the Dublin sky. Bigger next to the others who stood with him outside of my house, though I knew each of those other men were over six feet, easily. His gesture broke the spell and my stare flicked toward his hand, which was beckoning me to him.

I arched a brow in response, and finally, felt as though I could look elsewhere. I recognised two of the men as those who had been in the bar. They were joined by two more, and a dark-skinned woman with beautifully styled hair. They were all positioned in a semi-circle in front of my house. On the ground, near the window, was a handful of earth, molded into a projectile.

“Why is Mac Nessa throwing stones at my window?” I asked Dee, my confusion clear.

Suddenly, my view was blocked. Dee had stepped right up next to me and had torn the curtain from my grasp, and then pulled it shut. The room plunged back into semi-darkness. “Mac Nessa is the one you met yesterday?” She asked, some sort of anxiety, or perhaps even fear, making her voice crack toward the end.

“Yes,” I responded, looking at her with a frown. Somehow, I had neglected to mention any of those details. We had been distracted, I suppose. “Dominic.”

“Conn’s son.”

I shrugged. Another ball of earth and pebble hit the window again, but I didn’t jump this time. This time I’d known it was coming. Outside, I could hear someone reeling off numbers.

“They’re not safe, Ash.”

The sound of a phone ringing in the hallway did nothing to detract from the tension. It was an odd sound, truly, I hadn’t known anyone to use our home landline in almost a decade.

“Don’t answer that.”

“Why not? Dee. I can’t go outside, I can’t answer the phone, there are really big wolf-men outside the door. What’s going on?”

“The house is spelled. It is warded, protected. Anyone who is eile, that means of something other than human, cannot enter unless allowed to do so by me. Those whose intent is to harm are automatically barred from getting close.”

“Their intent isn't to harm.”

“Yes it is. They’ll take you away, and as the one who kept you hidden from them, my punishment will be severe.”

My eyes narrowed, then flashed toward the hallway, the source of the irritating sound of the phone. I moved toward it, but Dee reached out a hand and grabbed my arm. “Don’t. We’re safe for now. I have someone coming to help, we can bolster the wards. They can’t come in, Ash.”

“They can’t stay out there all day and night, either.” Somehow, I knew they would. “The neighbours will react, call the police. Answer the phone, or I will.”

Dee’s breath exploded out of her, sounding just as irritated as I was. She stomped into the hall and ripped the phone off its receiver. She said nothing in greeting.

“Who is this.”

Though I was several feet away from where Dee stood, next to the hall table, I could hear the voice that was coming through the earpiece as clearly as if he was in the room. That was new.

“You come to my home and make demands?”

My brows raised again, conceding that Dee made a good point. Who just turns up to someone’s house with an entourage of muscle men and starts throwing things at you?

“You are the one who keeps Aislinn.”

“I am the one who keeps Aislinn safe.”

In that moment, I realised both statements could be true. But Dominic Mac Nessa didn’t buy it. “Put Aislinn on the phone.”

Again, the ease of giving the order, suggesting that most people did not tell this man ‘no’. My Aunt Dee, however, was not most people.

“She’s not leaving with you.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” I shot out, starting to feel rightly pissed off.

Dee turned to look at me, while Dominic spoke again. He raised his voice. “Aislinn, I know you can hear me.” I could, I could hear him through the phone and now from outside in the front garden. That was new, and still weird. “You belong with your own kind. Let us help you.”

Dee hung up. Still with the now dead phone in her hand, she moved toward me, reaching for my arm once again. “They will try to release your wolf, Ash. They don’t know what they’re doing. You have to let me do it. I put that block there, I have to be the one to remove it. Then we’ll need to leave. You’re not safe with them, pack life is not an option for you.”

She stopped, her eyes wide, beseeching. “This pack in particular has an aggressive reputation. And a dying line.” She looked at me with meaning and I recoiled a little, disturbed by what she was getting at.

The phone began to ring again, but Dee didn’t seem to notice it. Her grip had suddenly loosened on my arm and her eyes lost focus. “They have a witch with them. She is testing my work.”

Dee took in a deep breath through her nose, and held it, like she was savouring a smell. “Earthy. Strong. Her magic is chaotic. Asymmetrical.” She began to move back toward the sitting room, though she looked so far away that she had to have been moving through the house by sense and memory alone. “Beautiful.”

Aislinn.

I was about to follow, when that voice poured into my mind. It beckoned, it wanted. Unlike when he was giving orders, when Dominic wanted something else, even without being present in front of me, he was somehow irresistible.

How are you doing that? How am I…

I was answering. I knew that he could hear me in return. A link between us, perhaps tenuous before, was strengthening.

To be honest, I’m just as surprised. It shouldn’t be possible. You’re not pack, you’ve never been.

Rude. I made a face. I could sense his amusement. How we were having a conversation like this when all around us magic and chaos reigned, I had no idea.

We will get in there, Aislinn. Dante and Colin are already positioning themselves at the back of your house. Just as he said it, I could hear them. They were quick and stealthy but still, I knew. It would just be easier if you came out of your own free will.

You’ll hurt my Aunt if I do.

Silence was Dominic’s response, and I realised that what Dee had been saying had truth to it. I can’t allow that, Dominic.

We have laws, Aislinn. We have rules.

So do I.