“I’m worrying myself,” Rhys said, quickly telling his brothers the thoughts he was having.
Reikart was the first to respond. “You’ve lost it.”
“Probably,” Rhys agreed.
“Jesus, Rhys,” Greyson growled. “Pull it together. It’s bad enough that Dad has embraced this fantasy. Don’t you dare even entertain it.”
“I don’t want to, but… Reik, you feel it, don’t you? That freezing metal and the wind?”
Reikart looked down at the cross in his hands. He looked like a man caught, who couldn’t deny the truth. After a long, tense pause he finally said, “Yea, damn it, I feel it.”
“Let me have it,” Greyson said, holding out his hand. Reikart passed the cross to his brother. Greyson reacted almost immediately. “Jesus H. Christ, the damned thing is like ice!”
“You’re all crazy,” Ian muttered. “I always knew I was the only normal member of this family, not to mention the smartest.”
“Touch the cross,” Rhys said.
“Hell no,” Ian replied.
“Scared?” Rhys taunted, purposely choosing the very word he knew would drive his brother to do what Rhys wanted. Ian was not one who liked to appear scared.
Ian glared at Rhys but reached out and touched one end of the cross. His blue eyes widened, and he said, “Damn. It is cold, but that does not mean—”
Rhys cut in. “The simplest way to end this nonsense once and for all—and to get on with helping Dad—is to try the chant,” he said.
“Sure,” Ian said, a smirk coming to his face. “I’ll try it. Why the hell not?” He swept a challenging gaze over Reikart and Greyson. “It’s not as if it will work anyway. If you guys are scared, Rhys and I can try it alone.”
“This is stupid,” Reikart muttered, “but I’ll do it because if I don’t, you guys will never let me hear the end of it.”
They all fixed their gazes on Greyson, who scowled. “Fine. Waste of our time and damn stupid, though. If any of you ever tell anyone we did this, I’ll pound you into the dirt.”
“You can try,” Rhys said with a wink, feeling a sense of relief that his brothers were willing to try the chant with him, even if they were humoring him. There was no logical way the supposed spell was actually going to work, so then they could put it to rest for good. “I guess we should all hold an end of the cross since, um, Mom said her sister told her to hold on to it.”
“This is so damned ridiculous,” Reikart grumbled, but he grasped one of the two remaining open ends of the cross anyway.
“I agree in principle,” Rhys said, “but I made Dad a promise, and well—” he motioned to the cross and the book “—these are sort of unexplainable.”
With that, he went to the desk, snatched a piece of paper and a pen, and set the book down, opening it to the Traveling Chant. He wrote it down, substituting the wordhimforher. He then found a thumbtack in the top desk drawer and tacked the chant to the wall where they could all see it. He walked back over to his brothers, who watched him warily, and took hold of the last end of the cross. “Ready?”
They each nodded in turn. “See you on the flip side,” Ian added with a wink, to which they all chuckled.
“Just say the words,” Rhys said, wanting to hurry this up and put this crap to rest. He frowned, though, when the smell of salt and the feeling of the wind grew stronger.Your mind is playing tricks on you.“Now,” he urged.
As he opened his mouth to say the words, his brothers did, as well.“Talamh, èadhar, teine”—their voices joined the rush of air in his ears, and the light in the office seemed to dim—“usage, ga thilleadh dhachaigh.”And on the last word, he rolled theghhard, as he’d been taught to do when studying Gaelic.
It hit him then that he’d not told the others how to do that, but before he could say anything, he jerked feeling as if he’d been struck by lightning. Something had hit him and the room and split both in two. He floated away from what he was, feeling weightless and tied to nothing, able to simply slip away. And hewasslipping. Through a hot inferno. It was as though the room was on fire and all the light was gone, save a single bright spot. A cacophony of sound was all around him, battering him, clawing to get out of him. He clamped his hands over his ears and sucked in a breath that would not come. The blood pumping through his veins hurt, and his heart beat so hard his chest ached. Around him was an invisible storm of swirling destruction.
Something slid over him like water, but he could not see it. He sucked in a breath and blinked. Something swished, and his balls hardened with the iciness of the water.
Actual water?
He broke the surface, and cold air hit him as a woman’s scream filled the night.
Chapter Three
Now if you’ll listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
