There! After a seven week break, two chapters in a row. And more coming!
Jelly Babes 101, once again I owe a chapter's life to you and your reviews. Thanks so much!
And also to KCtheWICCAN. Your threat was very inspiring.
PLEASE REVIEW! It is nice to know that I'm not up at one in the morning, braving the aftershocks, for nothing.
Enjoy!
A month passed away swiftly. Mary K. started school as soon as the papers were in, a week after she'd arrived. Isaac's company raised a whole load of money for a nursery in Cambodia. And I did very little. Each morning I would wake up with a horrible headache, which would immediately cease when Isaac brought me a cup of tea. Then I would get up and make breakfast for everyone. Then I would kiss Isaac goodbye and they'd both leave – Mary K. biking and Isaac driving. Then I would clean the house or shop in Redkill. I was itching to go out and do something, but I was still settling into the whole idea of being married and living with Isaac; I didn't want to screw up the sanctuary I was in, even if it was a little tedious. And so I spent the day cleaning and cooking like a good old-fashioned housewife. And then when Mary K. came home we'd trawl over her homework or she'd drag me out and we'd go and see a movie in Redkill, although I was always worried about seeing Bree or Robbie there. Then I'd cook dinner and finally Isaac and I would go up to bed.
"There have been several reports of bad flooding in the New York area, as it gets its longest period of rain in history..." Mary K. and I were watching the news on a stormy Saturday night when I heard the front door open. I got up and went into the hall. Isaac was taking off his wet coat, thunder rumbled outside.
"Hey," I said, going up to him.
"Morgan," he acknowledged gruffly, hanging the coat on the stand. "How are you?"
"Fine," I said, unsurprised by his sharpness. He'd been getting increasingly irritable these past few days. I wondered if it was something with work...
"Right," he muttered, and went upstairs, his footsteps echoing in the cavernous hall. Lightning flashed up every darker corner of the hall.
"Jeez," whistled Mary K., coming out of the lounge. "He really is cranky at the moment."
"I know," I sighed, "and he doesn't exactly confide in me." God, that was true. We didn't talk a lot; he was usually at work, and when he was home, conversation was still sparse.
"Hmmm, I reckon that man is hiding something," Mary K. told me. I raised an eyebrow.
"A detective now, are you?" I grinned. "Come on, I have a lasagne to burn." We went back into the warm kitchen and I began the tedious task of cooking dinner. Cooking something different every night had become a bit of a challenge, and now I was experimenting. However, lasagne seemed to be pretty simple.
Mary K. sat herself down on one of the stools by the kitchen counter "Maybe he's having a secret affair with someone,' she suggested, waggling her eyebrows.
"M.K!" I exclaimed, swatting her with a tea towel, "he's my husband!"
"Yeah, well husbands cheat all the time!"
"Had a lot of experience with husbands and marriage, have you?" I asked her with a grin as I dumped a tray of mince into a frying pan. Another roll of thunder came through the walls.
"Well, it's not like you have either," she pointed out.
I nodded, "but I've had more than you. And Isaac's not the kind of guy."
"Yeah, admittedly I can't see him and his glum face turning up at a strip club."
"Maybe if he got drunk," I suggested.
"Can you even see him getting drunk?" Said Mary K. "There's a reason why that wine cellar's locked, you know."
"Gah, enough of insulting my husband," I said smiling, "come, make yourself useful and chop up some mushrooms."
She rolled her eyes theatrically and slid off the stool.
"I'll find out Isaac Cheldon's little secret someday," she said, getting a chopping board, "not all of those magazines with his face on the front are about business, you know. I bet I can get all the gossip."
"Sure, sure. I – " Suddenly we were plunged into darkness. Thunder rumbled outside.
"Ugh, freaking storm," Mary K. muttered into the black, "lightning must have hit a pole somewhere." I heard a click and the pale light of Mary K.'s new phone lit us both up an eerie white
"Right. You find some matches; I'll go check that Isaac's alright."
"'Kay," she said, and set up opening kitchen drawers. I felt my way into the porch and up the stairs, gripping the cold banister. Then I slid my hand along the wall, counting the doors along to Isaac's. I opened it up. Isaac sat at his laptop, which must have been running on batteries, as his face and the back wall and window were lit a pale white.
"Hey, you alright?" I asked, coming in.
"Yes," he said blankly, still typing in his laptop, "it's just a power cut, Morgan."
"I know, I was just checking..."
His dark eyes flickered to mine, "well thank you for your concern." He went back to typing.
I took a step into the room "Isaac...what's been going on?"
"Very little," he said, "why do you ask?"
"Because you've seemed kind of down lately," I had a sense that I was sailing on very dangerous waters.
"Does it seem that way to you Morgan?" He murmured.
"Is there a problem at work?" In the dim light it was hard to gauge his reaction.
"Did it ever occur to you that it might be you causing the problem?" His voice was dark.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
He sighed gruffly, "It doesn't matter."
"No really, I want to know," I said sincerely, "What am I do – " A shriek suddenly pierced the air. "Mary K.!" I yelled, bursting out of the office and manoeuvring down the stairs in the dark as fast as I could. Isaac was right behind me. I could see her phone light in the hall. She screamed again. "Mary K.!" I repeated, reaching her. In the phone light, I could see tears streaking down her cheeks. "What is it?" I tried to reach for her, she pulled away. She spotted something behind me and screamed again. It was Isaac.
"We have to get out of here!" She cried. It bounced off everything in the hall. "Morgan, we have to go!"
"MK. Why? Calm down." I tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder again. She shook it off jumpily, and instead grabbed my wrist with a sweaty palm.
"We have to leave!" She screeched again, tugging on my wrist, "Now! He's-"
"Morgan!" Isaac's voice, suddenly loud and powerful behind me. "Let her go."
"What?" I asked.
"He's dangerous!" She shouted, pulling me to the door. "Come on!" She sobbed.
"Morgan, this is ridiculous! Let her leave" Isaac commanded.
"Mary K." I tried to be consoling, "come on, is it the storm?" I tried pulling her into a hug.
"Let go of me!" She shrieked, yanking herself away from me. With a last pleading, angry, flustered look, she threw open the door and ran out into the rain.
"Mary K.! Where are you going!" I yelled to her, but she was already consumed by the darkness. "Mary K.!" I tried to follow her, but Isaac's hand reached out and shut the door.
"Morgan," he said quietly, "she's gone." He put his hands on my shoulders. "She didn't want to be here, Morgan."
"But she did!" I told him. "Why wouldn't she? Oh God, Mary K..." I fumbled in the dark to the kitchen phone and punched in her number. There was nothing, of course. "Freaking power cut!" I yelled, throwing the phone to the ground. I ran back out into the hall, heading for the door.
"Morgan, calm down," Isaac blocked it. "You need to relax."
"My sister is out there right now! I want to follow her and you won't let me!" Suddenly the lights flicked back on. I tried looking out the door's window. She was probably at the main road by now. "Oh god, Mary K.!" I looked defiantly up at Isaac. "Let me out!"
"No, Morgan," his voice was calm, "she's already gone."
"Let me through!" He just shook his head. I pushed against him, but he was like rock. Wait, the power was back. I ran to the phone again. It was smashed on the ground. "Oh shit, freaking...ugh," a wave of nausea washed over me and I grasped my stomach. "Jesus..." and then I was running for the toilet.
I knelt, grasping the bowl as I threw my guts up. "Gawwwd," I groaned before another load came. After it all seemed to be out I slumped against the bathroom wall, feeling as pale and feeble as a corpse.
"Morgan?" Isaac knocked on the door.
"Mmmmm?" I returned in answer. He came in and looked at my current state.
"Do you think it's finished?" He asked mildly.
"Maybe?" I replied. He offered me a hand and pulled me up.
"Brush your teeth and get to bed," he told me.
"Mary K." I groaned as I felt another wave come through. I slid back down to the bowl and threw up again.
"I'll take care of it," he told me blankly, "come on." I managed to brush my teeth and get upstairs into bed.
Isaac tucked me in as if I were a child, and kissed me on my forehead. "I take back what I said earlier, Morgan." He told me, "None of my bad mood was due to you."
I would have let out a sigh of relief, but there was something too big worrying me, "do you promise you'll try and find Mary K.?"
"I'm going to call the police straight away, Morgan," he told me.
"What do you think got her like that?" I asked quietly.
"I don't know," he said. "Probably the power cut, like you said. Some people have fears of storms like that. It was quite unexpected."
"She seemed perfectly calm," I said, "she's getting good at hiding things, typical teenager." Says I, also a teenager.
"Don't worry about it, Morgan. You're ill, you need to relax and sleep."
"Right, Doctor Isaac," he gave a short – rare – smile and switched off the light.
"Goodnight, Morgan,"
"Night," I said back, as he shut the door, leaving me in the dark.
Hunter
The windscreens wipers pushed away the drops of rain from my vision of the road. I was past my rage now; I was past even logical thought. Now I was mourning. For I knew that Hadrian now had me in a tight, unrelenting grip. Morgan would never forgive me or herself for sacrificing Killian. She would never condone it. So I could not get anywhere near enough to save her. I could not get anywhere close enough to help her. And with each passing moment, Hadrian got closer to whatever he wanted out of Morgan. He said he wanted 'someone'. But I was left with the same list as I had before, though I could take myself out of the equation. If he had wanted me, he would have come to me as soon as he'd sensed me in Widow's Vale. And that just lead me to another problem; he'd sensed me because I'd scried for Morgan. His connection to her now would be strong; he would be able to feel my magick. So now I could not even scry for my Morgan without risking Killian.
My cell phone rang on the seat next to me. No doubt it was Sky or Bree again. I hadn't bothered to answer them up until this point, but I realised that I probably should, just to warn them against doing anything stupid. I pulled over into a lay-by. "Yes?" I sighed.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sky's voice demanded immediately on the other end.
"Driving, Athar," I muttered bluntly.
"Killian was in the middle of a fit and you just left!"
"Yeah, that's why I left,"
"You better explain yourself, Giomanach, and pretty fast," she snapped.
"Tell me," I said, "after I left, did Killian calm down?"
"Yes," she admitted. "But that doesn't explain what's going on."
I sighed again, "look, I scried for an answer to saving Morgan and Hadrian sensed me. He entered my vision and told me that he had control over Killian and that I had to leave Morgan and Widow's Vale. My vision ended, and then Killian started having his fit."
"So you can't come back in?" Asked Sky.
"Not unless I risk Killian's life," I told her.
"Well, Morgan wouldn't forgive you for that," She sighed.
"Exactly," I said.
"So what are we going to do?"
"I just don't know..." I said tiredly.
"We can't give up," Sky said sharply.
"She doesn't even know I'm alive. She's happy. Hadrian hasn't done anything yet."
"Yet. Giomanach, you know that you are talking crap. We'll work something out."
"We can't beat him, Sky."
"Yes we can, Hunter! For the Goddess's sake! You are the heir of Gawain! You can beat him and you will."
"Not if I can't see him. And you keep on forgetting that he has gained power, Athar."
"We'll work it out."
"We might," I told her, and hung up. I started the car again.
And as I drove through the deep puddles on the road, a tear slid down my own cheek. I had failed my Morgan. I had failed and I didn't even have the solace of knowing that she knew I had failed her. She just thought I was dead.
My hand gripped the steering wheel. I had never felt such a pain in my chest. There was just nothing, nothingness.
A month passed. Every second of it was pain for me. I was at an impasse and there was no way of getting around it. The knowledge that my Morgan was still with Hadrian, still believing she was safe with him, that he was fine, hurt me so much. And I could still not save her.
I'd been staying in a flat in New York. It was far enough away for Hadrian not to be able to sense me, close enough...well, I realized, it didn't matter if I was any further away. I would never be close enough to save my Morgan. My flat was pretty basic, but I was lucky to get it – lucky that the council hadn't cancelled my credit card yet. I knew they had been trying to contact me, but I ignored their calls. I had thought about going back and doing my job as a seeker, but now I knew who Morgan was with, I just couldn't. Even if I could do nothing, I would stay.
I wandered through the wet streets, as I did every day, and thought back to when we'd come here to check out a cell of Amyranth, remembering Morgan's excitement at having four days pretty much to ourselves...and then I remembered saving her from Amyranth, and I remembered her discovery of her real father, Ciaran, and how she'd tried to cut herself off from me. Goddess, I had been stubborn in getting her back. I had known I would get her back, because I had known that she still loved me. Now it was too hard to reassure myself. Cut off from her for such a long time...what if she didn't love me? What if she couldn't forgive me? It doesn't make any difference, Niall, she's never going to have to forgive you, she's never going to know you were even here. My damned seeker voice. And it was right. She wouldn't.
I headed for Central Park, which, despite being very muddy, was nicer than walking along the busy, crowded streets. I wasn't a city guy. Thrusting my hands deep into my pockets to keep them warm, I trudged through the park, breathing in the cold air. I had searched for a solution at first; some sort of concealment spell which would ensure than Hadrian didn't sense me, but I couldn't find one, and I gave up. Hadrian was unstoppable.
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