Chapter 39

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

C arys stood in the shadow of the trees, staring at the dried hawthorn branch and its bright red berries. She reached into her pocket and grabbed an acorn, then knelt down and dug into the ground at the edge of the meadow and planted the acorn, marking the spot with the hawthorn branch.

"You never know." Cadell looked down at the stick. "It could grow."

She stood and brushed off her hands. "Why not?"

"Why not indeed." Cadell stared through the trees. "I love them."

"The trees?"

His head craned back as he looked up and up and up. "The redwoods."

Carys smiled and looked at the giant who had learned to wear flannel instead of leather armor. "There's finally a tree proportional to your height, dude."

He growled. "For the love of all fire gods, stop calling me that."

Carys grinned. "You're in California now. You must learn to speak dude. "

"I do not." He turned and walked toward the shed, which he had taken over.

In the weeks since her return from Scotland, Cadell had managed to settle in well enough, though he was still searching the forest behind the house every day for the fae gate, which seemed to be hiding.

Cadell was standing in the middle of the meadow, his face turned to the sky as the sun broke through the clouds. "Have you talked to either of your suitors today?"

Carys sighed. "Please stop calling them that."

"There are two men vying for your romantic affections. What is the correct terminology in the Brightlands for this situation?"

"A pain in the ass."

"I don't think that is correct."

Duncan texted her every few days, mostly sending her pictures of truly adorable cows, things he was working on at the smithworks, or occasionally a very bad selfie. Once, he'd called, but he was so awkward on the phone she told him that texting was fine, and she could tell he was relieved.

She invited him to California for a visit. To see Cadell, of course. He was looking at his calendar.

Lachlan was more complicated. Somehow he managed to send her letters nearly every day, delivered to her door with no return address, no envelope, and no sign of how they were being delivered, sealed with wax and often including flowers.

They were gorgeous love letters that included poetry that made her toes curl, and she had no way of responding.

"I'm going to have to figure that whole thing out eventually, aren't I?"

"Not if you don't want to." Cadell stared at the trees. "You don't owe them anything."

"It's not that." She didn't know her own feelings, and it irritated her. "I don't want to ignore them, it's just…"

"You have time. "

"And I'll have to go back to the Shadowlands eventually, right?"

Cadell cast her a dark look. "You owe the Crow Mother a favor, Carys. She's not going to forget it."

"Right."

"But as I said, you have time." He scanned the forest. "I'll find the fae gate soon, and then we'll be able to travel much more easily."

"I am going back to work, you know."

"We can get around that." He eyed her up and down. "We should start running in the mornings."

She winced. "Oh God. The training montage is coming."

"Perhaps your friends will want to train with us." He stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. "It will be… fun."

Cadell hadn't met her friends yet, but Carys had warned them she'd found a cousin from Wales who was coming to stay for a while. She'd have to wait and see if Laura and Kiersten bought the fiction when they came over for dinner that night.

"You remember that they're coming over for dinner tonight, right?"

"Yes." He closed his eyes and turned his face back to the sunshine.

Sometimes she found him sitting in the middle of the meadow, lying on the ground and baking like a cat, and the only words she could find to describe his expression were "confused wonder."

Cadell loved the sun. He was currently figuring out how to use all of her father's power tools so he could build a roof deck on the barn. Probably so he could lay out naked and sunbathe.

"Hey, Cadell?"

He was silent, and Carys realized he was probably speaking with his mind even though she couldn't hear him anymore.

"Cadell?"

He blinked and looked at her. "Yes, Nêrys?"

"You need to come in the house." She held out her hand. "Come on. You can't keep lurking around every night while I'm sleeping without ever going inside. Even my very-not-nosy neighbors are going to start asking questions."

"I'm guarding you. "

"It feels like lurking. And I should show you around before my friends come over. If you don't know where the bathroom is, they're going to look at you weird."

He frowned. "I don't care."

"I do."

Cadell hadn't been in her house once, and Carys still wasn't sure if the man was sleeping in the forest at night or in the shed. He said he was sleeping in the shed, and he'd taken the cot and sleeping bag she gave him, but she had no idea.

Could dragons sleep inside? Any interior space felt too small for him, but until they found the fae gate, Cadell was forced to adapt.

She'd offered to fly him back to the UK twice now, but he declined. He followed her everywhere but refused to learn to drive. Officially he had a passport, a green card, and a Social Security card, but he seemed to have no intention of using them.

If he didn't start working or hunting though, she was going to have to take out a loan to feed the man. He put away more barely charred meat than anyone she'd ever seen.

Cadell eyed the deck and the back door with trepidation. "How tall are your ceilings?"

"Are you claustrophobic?"

"I don't know what that is."

She took his hand and dragged him toward the steps leading up to the deck. "My ceilings are normal-sized. You're not going to hit your head, but you'll probably have to duck through the door. They're taller inside."

He halted in his tracks. "Oh."

She spun around. "Oh my God, did you think the height of the door was the height of the house? No wonder you haven't wanted to come inside."

"I don't know anything about Brightkin dwellings." He looked a little embarrassed.

"It's fine." She squeezed his hand. "I know everything is new. You can stay on the deck when they get here if you want. "

It was going to start raining though. Kiersten and Laura might have questions.

"I will adapt." He set his face into a determined expression. "Let us go inside."

Carys suddenly realized something else. Kiersten was going to hit on him. He was exactly her type, and he was almost a foot taller than her. Her tall Scandinavian friend would be in raptures.

"Why are you smiling?" Cadell asked.

This was going to be hilarious. "Nothing. I'm just really looking forward to you meeting my friends."

"Very well." Cadell eyed her with suspicion, looked at the door, then took a deep breath. "I will go inside the human dwelling now."

Oh yeah. Laura and Kiersten were going to have a lot of questions.

"Great." Carys opened the door. "Okay?" She crossed the threshold. "Come on inside. It doesn't bite."

Cadell ducked his head and walked inside, looking around the kitchen with suspicion. "It is not as small as I imagined."

"It's cozy." She stepped to the side and leaned against the counter. "Go ahead. Look around. You can go anywhere you like."

"I don't want to violate your privacy, Nêrys." His words belied his curious staring. Cadell ran his hands along the fridge and pressed them to the side as the machine hummed. He walked to the sink and moved the lever around until the water came on, and then he moved it again until it shut off. "An indoor well."

"Wait until you see the toilet."

Cadell muttered, "So much metal."

"And this house is made of wood."

He frowned. "What else are houses made of?"

"Brick. Stucco."

"Brick I know. I don't know what stucco is."

"You'll find out."

She watched him wander through the house until he came to the wall of paintings her mother had finished. She'd just finished hanging them in a beautiful arrangement on the largest wall in the living room. It was a mix of large landscapes, smaller portraits, and fantastical botanical studies.

Cadell froze when he spotted the wall of paintings. "Where did you get these?"

She walked over with a smile. "Those are my mother's work. They look like the Shadowlands, right? Duncan thinks maybe she dreamed?—"

"This is Cair Goch." He pointed at a painting of a stone fortress high on a snowy mountain. "This is Gareth's Ring." He pointed to another painting of a stone circle.

"That's cool." She smiled. "Gareth was my dad's name."

Cadell turned to her with wide eyes. "These are places in Cymru. Specific places." He looked back at the wall. "These are cliffs in Kernow."

She frowned. "Kernow is Cornwall, right? Maybe the cliffs are the same in both?—"

"How did she see these places?"

Cadell stared at the pictures of the castles and the dragons. The bright fae and the dark kelpies. They were all things that Carys had seen with her own eyes now, so seeing them through her mother's paintbrush was even more special.

Cadell seemed a little freaked out. "These things do not exist in your world."

Carys felt a twist in her gut. "I told you, Duncan said that sometimes Brightkin dream of the Shadowlands through the eyes of their twin."

He shook his head slowly. "Like this? Did you ever dream like this ?"

"Well… no." Carys felt a chill creeping over her skin. "I don't know what you mean."

He stared at Carys. "We need to speak about your mother. You were born in the Brightlands, Carys."

"I know. I have a birth certificate from a hospital in Caernarfon and?—"

"It's very possible" —he looked at the paintings, then back at Carys— "it's probable that your mother was not."

"No. She couldn't…" Could she?

Cadell raised one eyebrow. "It would explain some things."

"Like what?" Carys let out a harsh breath. "How would she even?—"

There was a sharp rap at the door, and Kiersten's bright voice sang through the house a moment later. "Hello-o!"

"They're here," Carys hissed. "We'll talk about this later."

"Yes, we definitely will."

Kiersten walked into the living room, a giant smile on her face. "Oh my gosh, you have a cousin!" Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. "You have a cousin ." She blinked. "Hi. I'm Kiersten."

Cadell stared. "Hello."

Laura was right behind Kiersten. "Hey! I brought Jim again so your cousin isn't the lone male in the estrogen soup—I hope you don't mind. He brought some fish he caught this morning so…" Laura froze when she saw Cadell, and her eyes went wide.

Cadell squared his shoulders and faced both Laura and Kiersten, straightening his posture in a way that made the giant man look even taller than he had before.

"Hello," he said awkwardly. "Dudes."

Kiersten blinked, then grinned. "I love the accent."

Laura didn't seem to be able to speak.

"Laura, Kiersten, this is my cousin Cadell. He's a cousin on my father's?—"

"Mother's."

"My mother's side," she said. "Right. He's a cousin on my mother's side, and he decided to come to California for a visit."

Both her friends were still silent and gaping.

"Please don't be rude," Carys said through a tense smile. "He's still getting used to it here."

Laura looked at Carys, then back at Cadell. "Carys Morgan, why did you bring a dragon to Baywood? "

Kiersten frowned. "A what?"

Carys blinked. "What did you say?"

Cadell repeated, "What did you say?"

Laura opened her mouth, shut it. Looked at Carys, who was giving her "what the hell" eyebrows, then back at Cadell. "Right," she finally said. She looked back at Carys. "Okay, this is awkward."

"Yeah." Carys nodded, then turned to Kiersten, who was smiling uncomfortably.

"What's going on?" Kiersten asked.

Carys looked at Laura, then at Cadell, and back to Kiersten. She walked over to her friend. "So… do you believe in fairy tales?"

Book Two of the Shadowlands

The Shadow Path

is coming April 2025!

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