Someone cared enough about this place that they wanted to carve a specific design into the rock here. I wondered what it was for.
“I can feel something,” I said. “Though I’m not sure if it’s a magic thing or just my bowel movements.”
“There’s a bush over there.”
“Real funny.” I rolled my eyes. “But I think we’re close. Something feels… It feels like it’s rushing past me.”
“Let’s have a look around. It’s likely off the path someplace. The rock is a good sign.”
“Do witches have a link to the earth?” I asked as we ventured off the track and made our way down the slope.
“Maybe. I don’t really know.”
“When I focus, I can kinda feel things. Like back there at the rock.”
“I suppose it’s possible,” he replied as we searched. “The Crescents are linked to the hawthorns.”
Liking the idea I could talk to nature, we fanned out in our hunt for the spring. There were a lot of outcroppings of rock, lonely windswept trees, and grassy knolls but no sign of water. The day was dragging on, and we still hadn’t found a single thing. Maybe after all this time, all the water had dried up.
“Here!” Boone cried, appearing from behind a rock.
Scrambling down the incline, I rounded the boulder and saw nothing but a wall of gray limestone splattered with yellow lichens.
“It’s a rock,” I drawled.
“It’s a pretend rock.” He waved his hand through the stone, and my eyes widened.
“Cool… Let’s go inside.” I stepped forward, but Boone held me back.
“I’ll go first. We don’t know what’s in there.”
“Stop trying to freak me out. Just because I’m a woman, doesn’t mean—”
“Don’t complain, Skye. ’Tis nothin’ to do with bein’ a woman.” He took a deep breath and stepped through the rock, disappearing from view.
My skin tingled, and I glanced over my shoulder, but we were still alone on the side of the mountain. Below, the world was spread out, looking more like a painting than actual reality.
“I can hear water,” Boone called out, his voice echoing out of the rock. “There’s a cave back here.”
“Can I come inside?”
“Aye. Come in.”
I stared at the rock with an uncertain feeling in my gut. I knew it wasn’t real, but it looked like it. I just had to step through and… Lifting my hand, I poked the rock, and the tip of my finger disappeared through the surface. I was touching air, but my mind was freaking out, not able to join the two realities together.
“Close your eyes and walk through,” Boone said. “I’ll catch you.”
I snorted and shook my head. Ignoring him, I waved my hand through the rock, and feeling bolder, I stepped through into the mouth of a cave. The air was cool, the earthy scent reminding me of the druid’s cave back in Derrydun, and in the distance, I could hear the trickling of water.
Glancing over my shoulder, I scowled. The illusion was one sided, so in here, I could see right out, and my cheeks flushed. Boone must have had a good laugh at my fumbling.
“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s find the spring, and see if this works.”
Delving into the darkness, I held up my phone, using the torch app to light our way. Shadows lengthened as we stepped carefully, descending into the earth. The further we went, the colder it became, but finally, the passage expanded until we stood in a little cavern. One end was made up of fallen boulders, and through the cracks, we could see the sky peeking through, but the ancient cave-in wasn’t what panicked me the most. It was the mass of shadows that wriggled around a large pool of water.
That was definitely the spring, but I had no idea what those things were. They looked like inky black worms in the midst of a feeding frenzy.
“Ugh,” I declared. “What are they?”
“Sluagh,” Boone said.
“Sluagh? It sounds like you’re hocking a loogie.”
He glanced around the rock, looking for something while keeping well away from the edge of the little pool.
“Boone, what are they exactly?”
“They’re shadow fae,” he explained. “They’re known for snatchin’ souls.”
“That’s not ominous at all.” I scowled at the shadows, who seemed more interested in hanging around the spring than they were in us. “We’ve got to get them out of the way.”
“Any ideas?” Boone was as mystified as I was.
“Poke them with a stick.”
“I’m not pokin’ them with a stick,” he grumbled.
“We need to distract them so I can get in there. What do they like to eat other than souls?” I asked.
“I don’t know everythin’, you know.”
“Can you change into something, and lure them away? Just for a moment?”
“No, they’ll swarm me.” He glanced at me and then looked around the cave. “I’ve got an idea. They want magic, so we need to give them some.”
“You want me to cast a spell?” I wasn’t sure how I was meant to do that when I didn’t know any spells and had been told to not be so frivolous away from the hawthorns.
“Aye. Unless you have another idea.”
Glancing at the sluagh, I narrowed my eyes. They were a disgusting sight with their wobbly human forms, neither solid nor transparent. If that were a thing. They were all face first in the spring, their legs flailing in the air, and if things weren’t so dire—and they didn’t eat souls—I would’ve made a dirty joke.
“Okay…” I murmured, racking my brain. “What do shadowy inky fairies like more than fresh spring water?” Picking up a palm-sized pebble, I held it up toward the light. “How about a game of fetch?”
Boone tilted his head to the side, clearly confused. Focusing on my magic, which was still an unknown—I wasn’t sure what I was reaching for, or what it felt like—I closed my fist
