Emerald Isle by Barbra Annino Read Free Book Online Page B

herb-and-flower-petal salad.
    “I’ve got the door, Fiona,” Birdie said as Thor trotted through.
    Fiona’s emerald eyes grew wide, staring past Birdie, into the dark night.
    “What?” Birdie asked, and twisted her head to follow her sister’s gaze.
    Instantly, she spotted it. A fluorescent-green trail snaked from the woods all the way to the house.
    “Fairy fire,” Birdie whispered.
    Fiona asked, “Did you bring the Green Man back to the covenstead?”
    “I thought you did,” Birdie said.
    The salad plate slipped from Fiona’s hands and smashed to the concrete step. Both sisters looked up to the window where Anastasia was changing.
    Birdie said, “We have to stop them.”
    Thor was already charging up the back steps.
    I paced back and forth in the hallway in front of the painting of my so-called goddess, who, for one reason or another, never gave me a break. She was sitting in that chair with the lion’s-head feet, sipping from the jewel-encrusted chalice, looking ever so smug.
    “So not only did they all lie to me, but Birdie made some sort of underhanded deal with the stupid council to retrieve a freaking cauldron while my mother is sitting in a castle—Goddess knows where, because there are agazillion bloody castles in Ireland—probably going out of her mind waiting for someone to unlock the damn door.”
    I couldn’t stop moving. I wanted to punch something. I never wanted this, never wanted to be Seeker. And now, because of it—because of Birdie’s incessant desire for me to be every bit as much a witch as she is—my mother might pay the ultimate price.
    Would they really keep her imprisoned?
    Could they?
    I didn’t know these people, didn’t understand their laws, but I did know they wielded power over this family. Enough power to pull it apart.
    “So now I’m a pawn in this stupid organization’s games? I’m just another piece on their chess board?” I faced the portrait of Danu. “Is that about the gist of it? Well, Birdie and the council and whoever the hell else thinks they can play God can forget it. I’m not bargaining with my mother’s life, and I don’t give a flying fairy’s fart who it hurts. Hell, I don’t even know if the Tuatha are my people, do I, Danu?”
    I put my hand on my sword, felt the heat there, the charge it held, and knew I had the strength to leave tomorrow and stand before the council, demanding my mother’s release.
    “That’s it. No more of this Seeker nonsense.” I reached into the bodice of my dress, opened the locket, and pulled out the dedication I’d written.
    Behind me, I heard Thor, the only family member I could trust, galloping down the hall.
    I crumpled the paper in my hand and spiked it at Danu’s face.
    That’s when she stood up from her chair, tossed the cup, and yanked me right through the frame.

Chapter 8

    Birdie moved up the stairs as fast as an old woman draped in a cape could move. Fiona kept pace directly behind her.
    Fiona said, “All the emotion of the day, our bickering. It must have summoned them. And with today being Mabon and Stacy’s rewitchening, well, it was the perfect playground—”
    “We don’t know that for certain,” Birdie said. “Perhaps we aren’t too late.” She lifted her head. “Anastasia!”
    Birdie reached the landing and rushed down the corridor, swinging open every door she passed along the way. Fiona’s room, Lolly’s room, the linen closet.
    “Stacy!” Fiona called. She stuck her head into Birdie’s bathroom and turned on the light.
    Birdie searched her bedroom. “Anastasia, are you in here?” She flung open the closet door, yanked the duvet off the bed, and pulled the curtain back. There was no sign of her granddaughter.
    Her sister called to her. “And where is Thor?”
    Birdie clicked off the lamp and stepped out of her bedroom. She swung her head first to the right and thento the left. She stood there for a moment and tapped her foot. An eerie feeling settled in her gut as she did.