Page 35 of Back in the Hunt
“Out with it,” Bryn said and beat his fist on the table. “Give us a name and let’s put a stop to them.”
“You are hopped up on hormones, hound,” Merlin scolded as he reared back in his seat. “Hugh Dùbhghlas is a cunning and deeply disturbed warlock. And I do not use that term lightly,” he said in a low, vibrating whisper, causing Nox to sit forward.
“You think Hugh Dùbhghlas is still around and that he would try this again?”
“Who’s Hugh Doogloss?” Nelson asked, mangling the old Gaelic name, but Bryn caught Nox and Merlin’s pinched flinches.
Nox looked like he had smelled something rotten. “I heard horror stories about him when I was a kid. He was run out of the community for necromancy.Willfulnecromancy,” he clarified with a quick look at Merlin who nodded.
“Hugh sought out dead beings to practice with and there were suggestions that he might have…come about some of those dead beings thewrongway. Not that there is anything right about desecrating a grave and molesting a corpse,” he added and Nox hopped to his feet, shuddering as he went to the mantle and held his hands out to the fire.
“Only the darkest of practices condone that.”
Merlin hummed in agreement. “He was shunned and he retreated to the wilderness of the Garden Mountains, but there were a few who followed and some stayed behind to carry on his work in secret. We run them out whenever we find them and thankfully none were as driven or as unscrupulous as Hugh Dùbhghlas,” he said, humphing angrily but Bryn held up his hands.
“Don’t see what the problem is. Arawn and I know that country well,” he said with a grin at Arawn.
He nodded but made a hesitant sound. “It’s been a while though, B. We were born down there and ran wild in those mountains until the war. We were what they called ‘Cohee’ and abolitionists so we migrated west with the others to fight for the Union as West Virginians. We came back to Virginia after a different war. But we never went back to that part of the Appalachians because it’s as rough as it gets.”
Bryn waved it off. “It’ll be a…challenging hike, but it’s been too long since we went for a run in the country,” he urged, making Arawn roll his eyes. Bryn ignored him. “We could probably handle this douchebag ourselves, but we’ve got a weird, little witch and a sun god on our side,” he boasted.
“You don’t see the problem?” Merlin parroted as he stood, then gestured at himself. “Iam a master of potions and there isn’t a spell I cannot break. I am the Terror of Tara, the Flame of Uí Néill,I am the Coire Ansic of the Lord of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the keeper of the glorious light,” he declared, his voice rising to a booming bellow that made the walls rattle before he calmly lowered into his chair. “And I am telling you that Hugh Dùbhghlas is a dangerous warlock.” he said sweetly to Bryn. “Heed what I am telling you andthink.”
Bryn held up a hand. “I’ll bite. What’s the difference? I assumed Nox was a witch and you were a wizard because you were older. But aren’t witches, wizards, and warlocks pretty much the same thing?”
“The difference?” Merlin rocked back in his seat and Nox and Nelson whispered prayers. “Every day you remind us of how little you have learned in the two-hundred-and-twenty-odd years since you were born,” Merlin said with a sarcastic chuckle. “You’ve barely met a witch, yet you think you’re ready to lead their druid king into battle.” He raised his glass to Bryn, then snorted and took a long drink. “Witch and wizard can be used interchangeably... Nox and I are druids and call ourselveswitches, regardless of gender, and we tend to think of wizards as characters from fairy tales. But a warlock is a very different and often a far more malevolent thing. They are likely to practice white and dark magick and make pacts with demons.”
“Fine,” Bryn said and sat back, tucking his hands under his armpits. “I’m heeding. What do you suggest?”
Everly was afraid of Hugh Dùbhghlas but he knew how scary Bryn could be when he was a hellhound. “I think you could beat him,” he whispered so only Bryn could hear.
He winked at Everly, making the rest of the room disappear. It was just the two of them and Everly opened his mouth to ask if they could leave when Nox whistled from the mantle.
“Merlin and I will head to the Garden Mountains to check Hugh out while Nelson holds down the fort. We’ll take one of the twins with us,” he said, glancing at Arawn and Bryn. “Which of you has a better chance of fooling someone who actually knows what a spectral hound is? Who can pass as human better? We need to fool a warlock.”
Arawn slouched in his seat, grumbling. “I’ll stay behind and babysit,” he said, earning a chuckle from Bryn.
“He’s bigger and stronger and smarter when it comes to science, and he’s the man you want in the trenches and the operating room. But Arawn’s clueless around most humans and has always played the bumbling professor.”
“I think it’s sexy,” Fletcher stated as he raised Arawn’s hand and kissed it. “And beneath that shy, brainy shell is a terrifying hell beast.”
“I saw him too!” Everly told everyone, breathless as he remembered it. “We should take both of them with us,” he said and Bryn hissed and shook his head.
“He’s staying here to babysit you,” he explained slowly.
“No!” Everly shook his head. “You can’t go without me!” he said to Bryn, growing louder. His anxiety spiked at the thoughtof how much he would miss Bryn and the danger the three of them might find themselves in. “I don’t like when you leave me. The Garden Mountains are far away, aren’t they?” He looked at Nox for confirmation and he nodded, sending Everly into true panic. He turned back to Bryn, reaching for his face. “You can’t leave me!”
“Shhh!” Bryn pulled Everly onto his lap and held him tight, rubbing his back soothingly. “It’s a little more than five hours away. Arawn and I know that land well but it’s as primitive as it gets. It'll be a challenging hike for me and Nox and we’ll have Merlin to cope with. The thing that wants to kill you might be there and this Huge Douchebag sounds like he could be dangerous for everyone. Except for me, Arawn, and Nox. We’re mostly going to protect Merlin so he can snoop and be a pest. Arawn is staying here with you because he’s the biggest and strongest and because you’re important to all of us, but mostly me,” he added as he kneaded Everly’s shoulder.
“I’ll miss you. I don’t like it when you leave me. Even when you go for your runs.”
“I know but absence makes the heart grow fonder and it’s better for us if we take little breaks. Remember how it was before? We don’t want either of us to get fae sick,” he said carefully and Everly nodded, recalling how scary obsessive love was.
“You promise you’ll come back?”
Bryn snorted at Everly, his bright green eyes glowing fiercely. “I told you, you’re mine and nothing will keep us apart,” he said, earning a swooning sigh from Merlin.
“I have never wanted so desperately to be an old shoe or a chew toy. You know what they say about a dog and his bone, Everly. That Abhartach could suck the soul out of you and shuck your corpse to the far end of the Nothing but this hellhound would run to the end of time to get you back.”