Arcane Rising: The Darkland Druids - Book One, R Nicole [suggested reading TXT] 📗

and her features gave her a feline appearance—an angular brow with almond-shaped eyes. To me, she felt predatory and my guard immediately went up.

Sensing my appearance, she lifted her head and stared at me with cool annoyance.

She glanced at Ignis, who prowled by my feet, and kicked her feet off the chair. “So, you’re the one who almost killed Rory.”

I opened my mouth, but my throat tightened, stopping me from replying. I didn’t almost kill anyone, I wanted to say, but old tendencies had me shrinking away.

The woman sighed and rose to her feet. Walking towards me, I felt the air ripple around her—that was probably her Colour. She peered at me and picked up a strand of my hair.

Finally, I managed to move. “Hey.” I jerked away.

The woman’s expression didn’t change. “Your hair is turning green.”

“What?” I picked up a fistful of my auburn locks and found the ends were, in fact, turning an odd shade of mould. “What is that?”

“I think we know what your other half is,” she said, her lip curling. She picked up the end of my scarf. “The Black Watch goes well on you.”

Her thinly veiled insult barely registered and I blinked. “Other half?”

She smiled sweetly and fluttered her eyelashes, letting my scarf fall back into place. “Didn’t Rory tell you?”

“At least he told me his name.”

“Vanora,” she stated. “And you are Elspeth.” She said my name like she was spitting a bad taste out of her mouth. “What else could it be.”

“Half what?” I asked again.

Vanora laughed. “You really are a clueless little mouse. Half Fae, bò bhrònach.”

Half Fae? I stared at my hair, numb and unable to move.

“You’ve been here all of five minutes and already you’ve put Rory in danger no less than three times and almost killed him once.”

“I-I didn’t ask for his help, he—”

“He may have appointed himself as your neach-gleidhidh, but he is promised to me,” she snarled. “Don’t forget that.”

There was movement behind me and her expression turned sweet. Swatting me out of the way, she slunk across the kitchen to where Rory stood in the doorway.

“Rory,” she purred. “I’m glad to see you doing so well after what had happened yesterday.”

“Thanks,” he said, glancing at me.

“No doubt the Elders will want to see you both,” she added. “I have duties of my own to attend to.” She looked at me, her expression darkening. “I’ll see you later.”

She sauntered down the hall and out the front door. It slammed a moment later, making the whole house shudder—a feat considering it was built out of stone.

Rory glanced after Vanora and from the look on his face, I knew he could see through her theatrics.

“What’s her problem?” I asked with a scowl.

“It’s complicated.”

“Like everything else around here.”

Rory sighed. “There are those amongst us who believe we aren’t worthy of reaching the homeland. Vanora is one of them. I fear it’s turned her heart hard.”

I shook my head. “Why wouldn’t you be worthy?”

“Those who don’t make it through the Darklands are deemed unworthy and taken by the guardians of that place. They become shadows, doomed to wander the darkness forever.” He grimaced. “Our people never made it.”

Ignis leapt onto the table and let out a loud meow.

“Oh, I see you’ve found your way back to the food again,” he said to him. “Did you give him a name yet?”

“Ignis.”

“Ignis?” He scratched the construct on the head. “Latin for fire. Cool.”

I shrugged. “It seemed like he wanted a name that started with ‘I’ and I was cold.”

“Priorities.” Rory turned to the fridge. “Have you eaten yet? We’ve got milk.” He opened the door and immediately closed it with a disappointed grimace. “Maybe not.”

“I don’t feel hungry anymore,” I told him, thinking about what Vanora had said. Half Fae. “Rory?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“What does bò bhrònach mean?” I stumbled over the unfamiliar language, my cheeks heating.

“Don’t worry about Vanora,” he said, inadvertently revealing it was an insult…and not a pleasant one. “Us Druids are a tight knit lot. There aren’t that many of us, so your appearance has caused quite the stir. There’s talk of prophecy and mutations and all kinds of nonsense.”

“Mutations?”

“Old wives’ tales,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I wouldn’t believe anything you hear.”

I lifted up a handful of hair. “What about green hair suddenly meaning that I’m half Fae?”

Rory shuffled nervously. “Uh, I didn’t think it was my place to say anything. The Elders wanted to speak to you first.”

“So, it’s a thing that everybody knows except for me?” I let out a cry of frustration.

It felt like high school all over again. Make yourself small, Elspeth, so no one notices you. Don’t excel, it’ll only make you a target. If they can’t see you, they won’t bully you. Too bad it made me almost fail all my final exams, so all I could apply for at university was a useless Arts degree. I needed an overall mark of eighty-five to scrape in the bottom of the Bachelor of Science intake, but the number I managed didn’t bear mentioning.

“Take a deep breath,” Rory urged. “You’ll get some answers from the Elders.”

“They want to see me? Now?”

He nodded and patted Ignis again. “C’mon. It’s time to show you where we really live.”

10

Rory led me to the basement of the house.

He clicked on the light and a dusty bulb illuminated the cold, damp room. I shivered and rubbed my hands up and down my arms, more confused than cold.

There was nothing down here except for the old boiler, a few broken chairs, and a trapdoor set into the floor. And spiderwebs, lots of spiderwebs.

“Is this the part where you murder me and cut me up into little pieces?” I asked. “Because I don’t get it.”

Rory laughed. “No, it’s not nearly as dramatic as that.”

I glanced at the trapdoor. “You’re not going to make me go down there, are you?”

“Ach,” he muttered and pressed his hand against the wall.

My breath caught as the stone began to ripple. Splotches