7. Dare You Join Up?
Your mind spins from all the possibilities contained in the secrets Bodach shared with you. As you inhale the scent of rain and step onto the damp sidewalk, the old man steps out of the alley to join you.
Bodach tips his hat. "Did you put the pieces together?"
With a long inhale and a hard gulp, you offer your would-be paranormal mentor your summation. "The kind of Fae powerful enough to ward an entire island seem to live only in the Underworld, a place that's been cut off from our world. That “recruiting poster for t he Unseelie Army. You think its Unseelie gentry on that island, but it’s not possible that they’re actually there.”
With a rumble of assent and a rolling gesture with his hand, Bodach suggests you continue.
"But it may not be Fae at all, the strange mist and even weirder way Sauvie, itself, is behaving suggests someone more powerful than even the strongest Fae. Since you gave me pages about both Nuada and the Morrigna, perhaps specifically Badb Catha of the Morrigna, given her doom and gloom prophecy. But why, and are Fae and Badb working together?”
Bodach rubs a grisled hand along his snowy beard. "That's the million-dollar question, my friend. But you missed a certain slippery, shapeshifting something."
"Robin Goodfellow. But doesn't he point right back to the Unseelie Fae on Sauvie?”
"And yet he is not actually on Sauvie. Rather he's been in center city Portland long before any of this started. Seemingly waiting.”
You chew the inside of your cheek. "And he knows a little too much about what's happening there."
"Precisely. Which is why I need your help. My Order have sworn some particular oaths. Of these I cannot yet share with you, but recently people we are bound to protect are being killed. What few clues we can gather always lead to Sauvie Island. Our hands are full keeping that bloodline safe, which is where people like you come in."
You have the distinct feeling you are being recruited. "What could I possibly have to offer your mysterious order?"
"You're uniquely suited, really. You have the Sight, and clearly you have both curiously and nerve. I won't mince words with you, but we could use another set of eyes."
While you mull your reservations, you admit to yourself all this hidden knowledge has been fun. "Okay. I'm in. For now."
"Jolly good! Your first official assignment is to follow Selina and that phooka to Sauvie, but do not try to cross onto the island. You there only to observe the actions of that phooka. He's long been a wild card in this whole mystery. Stay out of sight, and when you can, return to the vault and give me your report."
From your spot behind the parked car, Selina's exchange with Robin Goodfellow looked bad. Like a battle of magical will, but you dared not intervene. Bodach’s warnings surfaced: the phooka may be evil. But then again, hadn’t he been kind to the girl? That kindness complicates everything.
Was the shapeshifter’s promise to glamour Selina to bury her vision another kindness or something far more sinister? Just when one of the phooka’s actions places him on one side of a moral divide, he does something to put him on the other.
You hurry back to the vault on Burnside.
As he promised, Bodach was waiting. The man perched on a tall chair hunched over an open book one hand curled around a steaming cup of tea. You tell him everything.
He sets the mug down slowly. Tea slides down the porcelain like sweat.
“And Robin Goodfellow?”
"He absolutely knows something huge is brewing, and may even know whether gods or Fae are the drivers. I'd assume if he were part of whoever is messing with Sauvie, he'd not need Selina and Charlotte’s quest to alert him that events were in motion.”
Licking your lips, more pieces slide into place. “He knew already Fae were plotting, taking over Sauvie. Something ‘Bond-villain’ big, to quote the phooka. If he were behind the changes on Sauvie, wouldn’t he have stayed? Or killed Selina and Charlotte outright?”
“Hm. True. And if he were acting on behalf of the Fae Courts, he’d have had no reason to bring them to the island in the first place. Too risky.”
A pause.
“But he did warn her not to interfere with what’s coming.”
You nod. “You were right, he’s a wildcard.”
Bodach’s voice drops. “With known allegiance to the Unseelie King of Air and Darkness.”
You shiver.
“My young student,” he says, rising, “this phooka is now your ongoing assignment. But for now, I have Order business that cannot wait.”
He dons his coat in one practiced sweep, grabs his hat, and steps to the threshold.
“Whatever’s gathering on that island it isn’t just Fae. And it isn’t going to wait for us to catch up.”
With a wink, he’s gone leaving you alone in the elaborate room, heart pounding, with one thought you can’t shake:
Whatever’s coming… it’s already here.
___
Is this the end or just the beginning?
You made it.
You’ve walked through a tear in the Veil, faced down secrets, shapeshifters, and smokewrapped bargains, and come out the other side.
Wiser? Maybe.
Entertained? I hope so.
You’ve probably guessed by now: Shadows to Stars is a prequel novella that opens the door to an Urban Fantasy series that’s what you’d get if American Gods stopped being polite and actually burned things down.
Only this time, it’s drenched in Celtic myth.
What if the legends of Celtic myth continued into the present day?
When the Tuatha dé Danann, the Celtic gods, arrived in Ireland, they fought two great battles; the First and Second Battles of Moytura. The first war was against the ancient inhabitants of Ireland, the Fir Bolg, and the second was against the wicked Fomorians.
The ancient Celts had a bit of an obsession with things occurring in threes. Triple goddesses, three worlds, and it's always the third prince who makes the right choice. He kisses the withered hag and wins the beautiful bride.
There’s a third battle.
It didn’t happen in the past.
It’s happening now.
This series is that story.
And yes—you’ve already glimpsed Harper O’Neill.
You saw her in Selina’s vision. You felt the pulse of something bigger building on Sauvie Island.
Now it’s time to step onto the battlefield.
Her life was hardly the stuff of fairy tales… until the fairy tales came to kill her.
Harper O'Neill’s life has been unraveling ever since the unsolved murder of her father shattered her childhood more than a decade ago.
Every time she sleeps, the same night terror plays out.
An imposing man wearing an antlered mask.
A woman’s dark laughter.
Creatures with jet-black eyes, dripping wet.
Her mother screaming while ten-year-old Harper hides in the shadows.
She convinced herself the dreams weren’t real.
Then rumors start to spread, about the Dark Boys. Strange black-haired teens have been seen around Portland, always soaked to the bone even in dry weather. People are vanishing, including Harper’s best friend. While searching for him, Harper stumbles into a mass abduction by the same black-eyed creatures from her nightmares.
And they whisper her name.
That night, magic erupts from her chest.
Now Harper is being hunted. Not only by the Dark Boys, but by every Fae minion of the Celtic goddess Badb Catha. The goddess is raising an army to save the world from humanity’s destruction, and Harper is the key to her victory.
The fate of humanity depends on one young woman’s ability to survive a rising war of gods and monsters. Does Harper have what it takes to stop Badb's genocide, or will her own inner demons destroy her first?
The Last Battle of Moytura has begun.
It started on Sauvie Island.
It ends with Harper O’Neill.
Will you follow her?