Born of Fire - Kella McKinnon Page 0,1

made his heart beat faster. He would remember that dream…that sweet scent of woman, and the way his heart had pounded with what felt like pure joy, for a very long time.

“Angus, wait!” Nessa grabbed for the hem of her uncle’s rumpled button-down oxford and missed, her fingers closing around nothing but cool, damp air. He was already scrambling out of the water just ahead of her, while she was still sputtering and clawing wet tangles of hair out of her face. Even though her mind hadn’t caught up yet with the sudden change of circumstances, she knew in her bones that something world-shattering had just happened— something that had probably just changed her life, irrevocably, forever. She also knew that sometime in the next minutes or hours, she was going to know exactly what that something was.

Only a few heartbeats ago, she and Angus had both been quite definitely inside the passage grave on top of Clough Hill, which had been as dry as a bone. This place—wherever it was—was most definitely wet. In fact, she now found herself nearly up to her waist in icy cold water. She looked around, her heart pounding in her chest and her mind still dizzy with the sudden turn of events, trying to make sense of things. They were in a small stone-lined room, not much bigger than the pool of water it contained, and Angus was already at the far end, climbing a set of narrow steps towards a shining sliver of daylight. Sudden fear made Nessa’s breath hitch in her throat and she slogged through the pool as fast as she could after him. Who knew what was up there?

“Angus, wait!” She scrambled clumsily out of the dark water, pulling herself up onto a narrow stone ledge. Her clothes were heavy and dripping. She stumbled forward, barely catching herself as she lurched towards the stairs. Swearing under her breath, she hurried after her uncle, feet slipping on the damp, moss covered steps, her fingers grabbing the moist rock that made up the walls. She emerged from the narrow passageway only seconds after him, soaking wet and shell-shocked, momentarily blinded by bright sunshine. She reached again for Angus, and this time her fingers found purchase in his wet shirt. She curled them tightly into the fabric and held on, as much to steady herself as to keep him from running off into god-knew-what. This wasn’t good. Not good at all. Something had just happened that shouldn’t have happened.

The last thing she remembered she was crouching on the ground in the passage tomb next to Angus. The dusty, dry ground. How could they possibly have ended up in the water? Was there another exit to the tomb that she hadn’t known about? Her mind raced, trying out possibilities and just as quickly discarding them. Could she have had a seizure? Blacked out? Hit her head?

But as her eyes adjusted and her vision cleared, Nessa knew she had much bigger problems than a bump on the head. A bump on the head would have been simple. Easy. A visit to the doctor, maybe a few days off work, and everything would have been normal again.

Nothing was ever going to be normal again.

Her fingers curled even more tightly into the fabric of her uncle’s shirt, until her short nails dug painfully into her own palm. Her heart was suddenly beating way too fast, or was it not beating at all? She couldn’t seem to draw a breath. The swift rush of adrenaline pumping through her veins made her legs tremble and her vision seem far too bright. She swayed slightly before catching herself on the doorway of the stone passage, holding onto it for dear life, and inadvertently letting go of Angus. The air that wafted out of the tunnel behind her smelled of cold water and moss and damp earthiness.

“Angus… what have you done?” Her voice sounded breathless and far away to her own ears. Her instincts had switched over to some sort of dreamily lucid survival mode, and she was grateful that full-blown panic probably wouldn’t come till later.

But Angus—he was grinning from ear to ear and bouncing on his toes like a little boy at a carnival. Didn’t he notice that their whole world had just been flipped upside-down?

“It worked!” He whisper-shouted near her ear.

He couldn’t have sounded more pleased with himself.

“It worked Ness, we’re here!”

“Where…” But she stopped short, eyes fixed on a drop of fresh blood on the ground.