[Fosswell 01.0] A Brush With the Moon Read online

  Against a background of piped music, still audible in the vacant room, I drifted around the circumference, appreciating the brightly painted abstracts on every wall. I stopped at a particularly pleasing piece to read the artist’s information printed inside an adjoining glass frame and breathed deeply of the clear air.

  A musky scent wafted into my nostrils, and a familiar feeling warmed my back. Mmm, Sebastian must have been missing me as much as I was him. I instinctively reached behind to pull his body closer. A pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist, and I snuggled in closer against his chest.

  After I’d finished reading, I glanced down at the hands cradling my stomach and saw a gold ring with the Lovell family crest adorning the little finger of a hand that did not belong to Sebastian. Shocked, I swung around and found myself facing Connor, whose grin I promptly smacked off his face.

  “What did I do?” he protested, but I was already halfway across the room and heading for the exit. “Hey, you started it by grabbing my ass,” he shouted after me.

  I whirled around and strode angrily back towards him. “I thought you were Seb. You smell the same.”

  “Yeah? You wanna take a deeper sniff?” he said softly, taking my waist again and leaning in provocatively closer.

  “Ahem.” The cough came from the doorway, and Connor’s hands immediately fell from my waist.

  “Something I should know about?” Sebastian asked as he approached, closely followed by Lara, who strolled straight up to me and threw her drink at my chest.

  Connor didn’t answer. He simply walked past them, snagged Lara’s arm as he went, and left with his eyes guiltily glued to the floor.

  Sebastian removed a blue silk handkerchief from his breast pocket and lovingly dried the wine splashes from my face.

  “She can be a bit volatile. Sorry.”

  “Oh, really? You don’t say.”

  “Try to be nice to her, for me?” His boyish smile began to melt my icy demeanour. “She doesn’t know you two like I do, and you can understand how she would have felt seeing her date with his arms around you.”

  “It was nothing. I thought he was you.” I reached for his hand, hoping that my probable ruby flush didn’t give me away.

  He smiled. “I understand, and I should have told you Lara was coming.”

  “Yes, you should. You know how much she hates me.”

  “Let’s go back. With all this excitement, you must be ready for another drink. And then we’d better head home. We have an early start in the morning.”

  Thoughts of asking why we would be rising early evaporated as we turned to leave, just in time to witness a dark shape vanishing through the doorway.

  Chapter Seventeen

  APPROACHING THE gigantic door, I noticed on the stone steps the huge, damp footprints left by previous visitors. The nearby forest floor was still damp from the rain that morning, but who or what would have come from that direction? Cautiously, I rang the bell, and after only a short pause, the hinges groaned open.

  Muffled voices sounded behind me as I entered the hallway, and I stole a quick glance over my shoulder in time to witness the next visitors approaching. A whole assortment of beasts and monsters gracefully ascended the steps, like animals moving into the ark. I stepped aside and held the door open in welcome as lions, vampires, trolls, and unicorns paraded past me. But I couldn’t see an end to the procession, so I abandoned my post and entered the meeting room.

  The huge hall of stone arches was filled with row upon row of white linen covered rectangular tables, each decorated with an elaborate flower arrangement. A pungent aroma infused the air.

  Instinct led me to a table in the middle, and I sat down expectantly on a high-backed wooden chair.

  ***

  The next morning I awoke to a tickly sensation on my ankle, and I peered curiously under the covers to discover a mound of blond hair hovering over my feet. The tickle turned into feather-soft kisses and strokes of a spongy nose tip. My stomach began to knot and my eyes re-closed as my head sank back into the pillow to enjoy the sensation. Caresses continued upwards onto the soft skin of my inner thighs, then crept further towards the centre as Sebastian’s ardour intensified, and his encircling tongued teased and tasted me until I shuddered.

  I reached down to draw his face level with mine. “Wow,” I panted. “That was like…the best alarm call ever.”

  Sebastian beamed. “I aim to please.” He rolled onto his back and sighed.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Sure. Just thinking about today.”

  I was fully awake now, and the previous night’s conversation during our journey home came flooding back. It had been very illuminating and had explained, somewhat, Sebastian’s recent disappearances to the city. I had listened intently and tried to absorb all the information he was relating. I recounted the conversation in my head.

  “In another realm, a dark force is growing that threatens every one of us. These creatures have plundered their earth until it lies barren, and now they seek a more fruitful land to conquer. Our world is such a land, and they threaten to strike here, eradicating anyone who opposes them,” Sebastian had begun. “Everybody’s tail is twitching, and we’ve been gathering our forces, meeting with the heads of great families all over the world. Aside from humans, werewolves have the largest population and form the strongest opposition. Our sources have informed us that we are the dark force’s first target. Their aim is to eradicate as many of us as possible, paving the way for an easier victory.”

  I’d broken my stare into the headlight beams ahead and turned to study his face. Frown lines had formed on his forehead. He’d continued, “Unbeknownst to his father, Tyron Reith has been enlisted to lead the battle for supremacy here. He’s already instigated the proceedings.”

  “How?” I’d asked.

  “There’s a disease, a plague, and it’s spreading. I can’t pretend that we know what we’re dealing with; we don’t, but we believe it originates from a virus created by Reith Technologies. To begin with, it was restricted to the occupants of the tunnels, but it’s started to leak out. It’s spreading through our community, and the deaths have begun. We cannot allow this to continue. It would leave the humans unprotected and the world ripe for takeover.”

  At that point, Sebastian had hit the steering wheel in anger. “We’re doing everything we can, but so far, our scientists have failed to find a cure. Father can’t get away from work at the moment, so he’s asked me to travel to the Alician realm to seek an audience with Mathanway in the hope that she may be able to conjure a magical cure to eradicate this scourge.”

  I’d asked if I could go with him, and, surprisingly, he’d agreed.

  My thoughts were brought back to the present when Sebastian rose from our bed and ambled into the bathroom.

  I decided to get dressed, but I had no idea what I was supposed to wear. Finally, after much deliberation, I stumped for a failsafe pair of skinny jeans and a lightweight but cosy cream jumper. I finished my outfit with Tokala’s necklace.

  As I ran a brush through my hair, I stood at the window, staring dreamily through the condensation-covered glass and out over the overgrown front lawn. A bunny skipped gaily over the mist-soaked grass, and a blackbird bobbed up and down, pulling its wriggling breakfast from a patch of barren ground.

  In the distance, a flash of light caught my eye, like the sun glinting off a lens. Without looking at it, I placed my brush to the side, peered towards the distant hills, and called to Sebastian. “Seb? I think we’re being watched.”

  He emerged from the bathroom fully dressed, with one hand rubbing his hair dry with a towel. “Shouldn’t think so. As far as I know, the charm’s still in place.” He came up behind me, wrapped his free arm cheekily around my waist, and stared out at the horizon.

  “I didn’t imagine it. There was definitely something or someone up there behind that tree on the overhang.”

  “I don’t see anything. You’re probably just a bit tire
d after last night. Are you ready? I’m starving.”

  After we’d had a light breakfast, Connor joined us, and then in a decidedly cool atmosphere with the awkward dial turned to full, we all descended a small flight of stone steps near the kitchen and headed to the basement. Connor led the way into the darkness with Sebastian and me following, hand in hand.

  “I hate the dark.” I cringed. “And God knows what I just stood on. It had better not have been a rat.”

  “Nope, just my foot,” Sebastian said.

  “Oops…sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve got a spare.”

  It wasn’t long before flames sprang to life from an old-fashioned torch in Connor’s hand and a warm flickering glow lit the passage.

  As we dropped further into the depths of Lovell Towers, I began to feel a little claustrophobic, so I clung to Sebastian for comfort. We passed through a large, empty room with peeling white paint on the walls and a low ceiling held aloft by old stone pillars, and the further we travelled, the more the temperature dropped. I wished I’d opted for a warmer jacket.

  Eventually, we arrived at another room, bare apart from a huge carved-wood column in the centre.

  “Welcome to your first experience of the terraplunger,” Sebastian said.

  “What’s a terraplunger?” I asked, puzzled.

  “This, my darling, is Lovell Towers’ best-kept secret, a portal to practically every other known realm.” He squatted down and beckoned me closer. “See these grooves here, and these carvings? Each mark represents another world. You simply twist the column to line up the correct combination of symbols for the land you wish to be transported to.”

  I watched him grip and manoeuvre the heavy wood, which must have been three feet in diameter, and didn’t think it looked simple at all.

  “And then you climb on top.” With one bound he leapt up, closely followed by Connor, and they held out their hands to pull me up. “And tread on this knot here.”

  Sebastian stamped his foot on a raised nodule of wood.

  The room turned black, and we began spinning, reminding me of a particularly nasty ride on the waltzers, when I had thrown up in the booth. I was certain a repeat performance was due, but luckily, before I could reacquaint myself with the contents of my stomach, we came to a halt.

  We had arrived in a rocky crevice on a mountainside overlooking a village of quaint houses, nestled in a vale near a glassy lake. The boys jumped down from a wooden column identical to the one in the cellar, and then helped me to the ground. I wobbled, still dizzy.

  “It’s always a rush the first time, but you get used to it,” Sebastian said. “I think Mathanway’s cottage is at the bottom of this slope, through those trees.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah. Dad gave me directions. I’ve never travelled to this particular realm before. Looks simple enough, though.”

  The sky was bright and clear, but there was a cold nip in the breeze, and I held the sides of my jacket together for warmth.

  After clambering down over the tricky terrain, and my living up to the stereotypical girl who couldn’t even look at a rock without tripping over it and hurting herself, we waded through the long grass and dead bracken of the lower hillside and headed for the cover of the trees below. I was quite relieved at the familiarity of the landscape. This land didn’t seem so different from ours. In fact, it could well have been England about a hundred years ago, before motorways and high-rises existed.

  “So,” I said breathlessly, “you never elaborated on the disease last night. Why is it so bad?”

  “It’s like a form of rabies,” Sebastian began. “There are no initial symptoms. You don’t even know you have it at first, but slowly you start turning mad and dangerous. And then you get sick, physically. You sweat profusely, forget who you are, and become mentally disturbed and aggressive. But it’s when you start foaming at the mouth that you know you’re a goner within forty-eight hours.”

  To my amazement, I was able to sidestep a jagged rock protruding through the dry earth. “Ugh, that sounds awful.”

  “It is. Works quickly, too; only a few weeks between exposure and death. That’s why we must find a cure, and fast.”

  After a short yet exhausting trek, we reached a wooded area. I thought I felt the earth tremble slightly, but I didn’t know why, so I convinced myself I’d imagined it.

  I shivered slightly in the shadow of the trees. Only small areas of dappled sunlight filtered through the leafy canopy, and a low mist lay amongst the damp ferns and rotting leaves. This was quite different from my leisurely jaunts through Fosswell woods. I felt relaxed there, safe. I didn’t feel safe here. Every branch, every leaf, every dark crevice seemed to be watching us as we quickly wove through the thick undergrowth.

  I was beginning to tire when a small clearing materialised, and I grabbed Sebastian’s arm.

  “Can I have a minute to catch my breath, please? I usually take my morning constitutional at a more leisurely pace,” I pleaded breathlessly, rubbing an aching knee that had begun to sting. Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t unfit, but the guys were moving faster than cheetahs at chow time.

  “I’m sorry. I forget you still have your human body,” Sebastian said. “We’ll try to slow it down a bit, but we need to keep going so—”

  Suddenly, out of the swirling shadows of the undergrowth, a weird chattering, rattling sound interrupted his sentence and rapidly increased in volume. I definitely hadn’t imagined that!

  “What the hell is that?” I asked, searching around for the sound’s source.

  “It’s probably nothing,” Sebastian said unconvincingly. “Keep moving. We’re nearly there.”

  “I wish we were already there. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies. Oh my God, what’s that?”

  Before Sebastian could reply, a large shape materialised out of an opening in a nearby mound of earth, and we were confronted by a giant black beetle. Its eyes, as big as oranges, focused threateningly on us, and its mouth looked large enough to swallow my head whole. Now I’m a typical girl, and I hate creepy crawlies. All those legs…ugh. So I did what any girl would do: I screamed.

  “Shh,” the boys said in unison, sandwiching me between them for protection and each producing long, rather menacing-looking daggers from inside their jackets.

  More creatures emerged from the mound until an army of four-foot-long beetles surrounded us. The air filled with the sound of vicious snapping claws and angry squeals.

  “Remind me again why I came,” I said, staring like a rabbit in a headlight at the first creature’s huge mouth pincers as one swung alarmingly close to us and missed snagging Sebastian’s jeans by inches. “You could have warned me.”

  “Do you think I’d have brought you and put you in danger if I’d known?” Sebastian said.

  “You knew enough to bring weapons.”

  “Good boy scouts are always prepared…except maybe not for this. Keep still.”

  I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to be at home, troughing chocolate and listening to Beth chat aimlessly about boys.

  The sea of black crept closer, and I panicked. “Do something! Can’t you trip us out of here? I don’t fancy becoming beetle breakfast.”

  “No passengers.” Sebastian’s voice became a grunt of strength as he lashed out, swiping at the nearest creature.

  I turned my face and buried it against his chest, but not soon enough to prevent my hearing a squelching screech followed by a thud as the creature’s head hit the leaf-covered earth. I cringed, and my necklace snagged on Sebastian’s jumper, so I grabbed at it to free it, wishing we were safely at Mathanway’s cottage—wherever that was.

  “What the hell? Sophie, what did you do?”

  “Me? Huh?” I lifted my head and took in the scenery. Not a beetle in sight. We were standing in a pretty garden on a path leading to a small house nestled in the side of a hill.

  Connor uttered his first words of the trip. “Dude, that was awesome.”
/>   Sebastian grinned down at me. “Looks like someone’s gained herself a new power.”

  “I-I think it was my pendant,” I stammered, remembering the dream.

  Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, whatever it was, it saved our butts.” He picked a dock leaf and wiped the beetle gunk from his knife before storing it back underneath his jacket. “I think this is it—Mathanway’s cottage.”

  Our knock on the door was answered by a very small, portly man in a crumpled khaki suit. He eyed us suspiciously. “Don’t take kindly to strangers ’ere. What ya want?”

  “We’re in need of help and would like to meet with your mistress,” Sebastian said.

  The man’s screwed-up eyes surveyed his visitors. “Can ya fulfil the requirements?”

  Sebastian reached inside his jacket and pulled from its depths a small, string-wrapped brown paper bundle. “I believe this will suffice.”

  The man grunted and snatched the parcel. “Wait ’ere,” he said, closing the door in our faces.

  As we waited patiently for his return, I stole a glance at the boys, who were both studying their feet, and then I surveyed my surroundings.

  It wasn’t winter here. The disorderly garden was filled to the brim with rambling wildflowers and herbs, all vying for the same amount of precious earth to nourish them before spilling out between the posts of the enclosing white picket fence. The front of the house blended so perfectly with the rock face on the side of the hill that if it hadn’t been for the front door—hiding behind an old sycamore tree—and the garden path leading to it, you wouldn’t have known the house existed at all. I was pondering just how far beneath the hill the living quarters might extend when the front door opened once more, and we were ushered inside.

  Although well lit, the interior of the cave house was quite gloomy, with no windows or natural daylight. There wasn’t a corner in sight. The curved plaster walls were painted white and looked as if they were made of marshmallow. We were standing on a huge, faded Turkish rug in a hallway dotted with many dark wooden doors, and directly ahead, matching wooden balustrades denoted more than one level to the cottage-style interior.