Page 14 of Rise of the Melody
“You’ll learn to control it.” Aunt Lorna pulled my attention back. “I swear, the urge itself doesn’t make you bad. It’s what you do with it, and Iknowyou. Youwillcontrol it. You willnothurt anyone.” Her voice thickened with emotion. “They’ll have no reason to distrust you.”
I nodded. She was right. I wouldn’t hurt anyone. We would take a little trip to the place I was born, the place my parents had disappeared, and I would entrance a terrifying kelpie with my voice so that it could be destroyed. Yep. That sounded normal and totally fine. And then I’d return to life as usual. I grasped the back of my aching, tense neck.
“Why did he call my dad bullheaded?”
She kind of smiled as if remembering. “Henry and Bryant were both natural leaders, but they butted heads, always in competition. Your father was the stronger druid, strongest on the island, so I’m sure there was some jealousy there. Your dad also had big aspirations. He would have joined the Synod someday.”
I nodded, trying to soak all of it in and make it feel real.
“So?” Aunt Lorna’s voice was careful. “How does it feel to know your long-lost gran is a queen?” I let out a barking laugh and we both looked at the picture above the register again.
Queen of Elphame, a wild countryside province in Faerie away from the courts.
I shook my head in disbelief. “All this time, you’ve been a Scottish witch.”
She chuckled but hadn’t relaxed by any means. “Indeed. They say the Scottish dialect came from Elphame. The queen would pass through the Scottish portal during Samhain and take human lovers or bless humans that she fancied with her gifts.”
“What kind of gifts?”
“Divination, healing, hexes, shape-shifting…let’s see, oh, yes. Power to transform the landscape of land and seas.”
I pulled back, shaking my head. “You can do all of that?”
“No.” She chuckled. “I can divine, although it comes when it wants to, but mostly for protection. And healing potions. Never tried my hand at hexes, though I’ve been tempted. But hexing is prohibited.”
I wanted to pull apart every single word she said and analyze it but there were a million other questions to ask first. As I stared at my aunt, a crowd was growing so large outside that I could hear them chattering and laughing out there.
“We should open,” she whispered with disappointment. I knew how she felt. We were about to open our shop like it was a normal day and we were normal people, even though I was filled with a buzz of adrenaline.
“I think I need a gummy,” I whispered.
Aunt Lorna stood. “I’ll have one too.”
Chapter4
Welcome to Shehan, Maine
Three days after that fateful visit, CooShee was the proud owner of an Emotional Support harness just in time to accompany us on the train to Maine. The largest harness didn’t fit. We had to rig it with some string and duct tape. He took up a whole aisle of seats across from us, along with four cat carriers of mewling kitties, but thankfully the train wasn’t full and he kept people away so we could talk.
The past three days had been insane with trying to get the shop ready for us to go. Aunt Lorna was frenzied and dealt with constant headaches. As much as I wanted to bombard her with all the questions, I held off. But she seemed calmer today, so it was on.
“So,” I said. “Portals….”
“Yes.” She grunted and snuggled back into her blue and red seat. “The island of Shehan is home of the portal to H’trae.” She pronounced it Huh-tray-uh. “Earth backwards. It’s, quite literally,the bad place, where banished creatures and fae-blooded criminals are sent. A hellscape prison on the realm of Faerie run by an ancient fae named Kronos. And though it’s guarded on both sides, on rare occasions creatures escape, hence the kelpie in town.”
A sickening shiver passed over me the whole time she spoke, but at the mention of the kelpie I felt truly ill. If all I had to do was sing, I’d be okay, right? I could do that. But what if it didn’t work for some reason? I’d literally be a virgin sacrifice handed up to a homicidal horse.
“We’ll make a plan,” Aunt Lorna promised, as if reading my face. “I won’t let you go out there unprepared.”
I let out a breath slowly and opened a bag of pistachios. “Okay. So there’s a random portal in Maine. Any others?”
Aunt Lorna chuckled and reached in the bag for a handful.
“Faerie and Earth are parallel realms, yin and yang. On an island in Scotland is a portal to the Elphame wildlands of Faerie where lesser fae creatures reside.”
“And that’s where Nicneven lives?”
“Yes, good job! And then in the countryside of Ireland there’s a portal into the main courts of Faerie where the higher fae live.”
