Page 32 of Call of the Ride
Hearing an impatient cough, I glanced up to find Ulysses had already ascended the mortar and was enthusiastically patting the space next to him. I climbed aboard, positioning the pestle behind us like a rudder before turning to the man next to me. “Where to, He-Who-Calls-Himself-Ulysses?” I sighed, resigning myself to whatever path lay ahead.
The Fae smirked. “Now, Vasilisa, you must know I cannot tell you my real name. If I did,you’dhave power overme…and we couldn’t have that, could we?”
I yelped in surprise as the mortar took off of its own accord, decidedly faster than it had ever flown before. The waxing moon had risen, illuminating the landscape, but we were moving so rapidly, I could only catch glimpses of forest, fields, and farms as we sped past at a dizzying pace.
“So, where, oh where do you think the water might be?” Ulysses sang from where he lounged beside me, perfectly relaxed with not a hair out of place. “Because I haven’t a clue.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be my guide?!” I snarled, glaring at him through the strands of hair whipping across my face.
He slyly grinned. “You don’tneeda guide, Vashka—you changed your fate.”
I growled at his blasphemous use ofNox’snickname for me, but dutifully refocused on the task at hand. With no other tools at my disposal, I slipped my hand into my pocket again, clutching my mother’s doll and calling upon my oldest friend.
Intuition.
This inherent ability to tune in to a wisdom I couldn’t explain had been a part of my being since I was a girl. My subconscious nudges and deep inner knowing had served me well for long before I became Yaga, but with the excitement of the past few weeks, I’d barely had a quiet moment to reflect and reconnect.
It’s never too late to access the well.
I closed my eyes and steadied my breath, allowing the outside world to fade in favor of my internal one. At first, I felt nothing but the rush of wind over my skin, but soon, I registered a familiar tugging sensation, deep in my gut, urging me to steer us slightly to the left. After several minutes of traveling in this direction, I somehowknewour destination was just up ahead. Apparently, back under my command, the mortar obediently came to land in a moonlit field that looked no different from the dozens of others we’d flown over.
“Interesting…” Ulysses murmured, pointing at a sagging stone marker planted on a knoll by a tree. “It appears your witchy intuition knows exactly where Thames Head spring is located.”
Sliding off of my mount, I approached the marker, finding that someone had decided this spot was the “official” source of the Thames. In a very human-like manner, they’d declared it as such, with a proclamation carved into a stone surface.
I did it!
Smiling triumphantly at Ulysses, I allowed the iron to flash over my teeth, wondering if the tales of faeries and cold iron were true. “Well, it appearsmyjourney for the night is almost at an end. Now I simply have to, ‘drink the sevenfold source to see what you seek”before returning to my men.”
“Yes, you are a very clever girl,” Ulysses smiled affectionately, pointedly ignoring my metallic threat. “There’s only one teensy problem. The Sevenfold Spring is an 11 mile ramble to the north.Thisis Trewsbury Mead, and it’s dry as a bone this time of year.”
Chapter 25
Nox
The first thing I registered, after waking up face down in the dirt, was the sound of rushing water. Realizing I was no longer in the hobbit mansion under the hill, I scrambled to my feet, desperately looking around for the others. My gaze immediately landed on Ace, who was on his knees, looking dazed as fuck, but I couldn’t see Vasi or Tan anywhere.
As soon as I took a step in Asa’s direction, I collapsed to the ground again, my head swimming worse than the time the guys and I went on a three-day Biergarten binge in Germany. Obviously, that fairy fucker had laced our food withsomething,although it was beyond me why he felt the need to drug us before teleporting Ace and me to this...this...
Where the fuck are we?
Securely seated in the dirt, I gaped at the cavernous space around me. It was obviously a cave, although we had to be miles underground for how enormous it was. I suspected we were nowhere that could be found on a map, probably no longer on earth at all, judging by the weirdness surrounding us. The walls were covered with glowing images—mostly hand prints layered on top of each other, but also ancient looking murals. A raging river cut through the center of the cave, pulsing with enough supernatural energy to tell me I didn’t want to take a dip.
We’re clearly not in Kansas anymore.
“This is the Great Womb,” Asa rasped. “Which means ourmotheris somewhere nearby…”
As if on cue, Mokosh swept in from a side passageway, wearing an outfit that was much too fucking fancy for a dusty cave in the middle of nowhere. She was beaming at us, as if this were nothing more than a Sunday visit, but I was in no mood for forced politeness and absolutely done with letting the gods push me around.
“What thehelldo you want?” I growled, finding my footing again and hauling Ace up to stand along with me. “You got what you needed from us, so why not wipe your hands of it already?”
The goddess cocked her head at me, like a raptor might examine a mouse in the field. “Is that what you think, Noxy?” she murmured, her overly familiar use of my name making me angrier, if that were possible. “Are you truly so shortsighted to believe this is anywhere near over? Must I remind you, the earth isdying!”
“What Nox is trying to say, ma…Mokosh, is that the way you’veusedpeople—including your own sons—for personal gain, is unacceptable.” I was caught off guard by the venom in Asa’s tone, and judging by Mokosh’s expression, she was just as surprised he’d taken a stand.
I’m not the only one who’s hurting here.
My dislike for this woman stemmed from a lifetime of her absence, but what Ace was grappling with was a lifetime of lies. He’d grown up with Mokosh as his mother. She’d wiped his ass as a baby and waited for the school bus to drop him off in the afternoons. She’d sat across from him at dinner every night, pretending to care about his insignificant human life, but knowing full wellthisshitshow lay ahead. Yet she never felt the need to explain the truth to her own son, despite how close they supposedly were.
