Corina Douglas
Winter’s Mantle
(Daughter of Winter, Book 2)
DEDICATION
For my beautiful family:
Jonny, Cooper, Bailey, Piper, and Jasper
I love you x
1
Gage
Eve of Samhain, Scotland, One Week Ago
I only just caught sight of Nora as she walked past the library window. Her face was pale, her eyes unseeing of what was in front of her.
I knew that look. I’d seen it on my father’s face when I razed our house to the ground. I’d also seen it on my grandfather’s face moments before he died. A realization so profound that all sense of rational thought had fled.
Something had happened.
Without hesitation, I jumped up and ran after her. Flinging open the large, cavernous double doors that led out to the picturesque back lawn of the castle grounds, I raced after her like the devil, my feet silent across the dew-touched grass. Dusk had fallen and a frigid breeze rent the lengthening shadows as the sun slowly lowered in the sky.
What the hell had made Nora forget all sense of safety and leave the Estate?
Tonight, on the eve of Samhain, the veils between the worlds were at their thinnest. Tonight, the wind carried whispers of the dead, and untold evils that were waiting to cross over from their world into ours. Tonight, all hell would break loose, and one of them would be our greatest enemy—Talorgan.
The only relative safety tonight was within the walls of the castle, for the wards that usually protected the lawn area and surrounds weren’t as stringent as the wards woven into the very stones of the castle itself.
As I followed after Nora, I could feel the air changing around us, sense the darkness drawing near. My eyes scanned the lawn, piercing the shadows that lingered around the forest to the north, and the ornamental gardens with their carved statues to the left and right. There was no one around, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way. Not tonight.
Conscious of the inevitable fall of darkness, I called out to the one treasure I had to protect at all costs. “Nora!”
She didn’t hear me, her attention focused inward. But as I drew near, I caught sight of the paper she held clenched tightly in one hand—the letter that had arrived earlier today. I’d recognized the harsh, slashing strokes, smelled his scent all over it. It was written in her son’s hand.
Which was impossible given Andrew had been dead for the last three years.
The letter had sparked my suspicions, but I didn’t push Nora for what was in it. Not after I’d thoroughly checked for some sort of enchantment before giving it to her. My curiosity burned, but given there had been no sniff of foul play, I had no right to push her for what was inside.
However, something within that letter had shocked her. Enough so that she had forgotten to stay inside the walls of the castle tonight. Which begged the question: What the hell was in the letter?
I sensed another change in the air then; the frigid breeze now carried more than just whispers and icy fingers from the snow-capped peaks of the Cairngorm mountains. The hair rose on the back of my arms.
“Nora!” I shouted again.
But although she was only twenty meters ahead of me, Nora neither heard me nor slowed. Her stride was automatic, oblivious to the otherworld senses around us, oblivious to the change that hovered in the air.
I could feel it as I sprinted, understood with certainty that the scales of nature were about to turn, and death would arise triumphant once the sun finally dropped behind the horizon. Even now, its last rays of light were sinking, inevitably plunging the world into darkness.
In the next breath, I was upon her. And as my hands grabbed hold of Nora’s arm, the sun’s light was extinguished. The tattoo at my nape burned as if scalded by hot water. In the same moment, the stretch of lawn in front of us was abruptly distorted as the silence in the air was fractured by a victorious whine of power.
I knew that sound. I knew its portent. And that omen became truth as the fabric between our world and the Underworld was viciously ripped apart by a red portal on the edge of the forest. It twisted and turned with a turbulent velocity that propelled us backward.
As if becoming aware of her surroundings and what was happening, I heard Nora give a startled cry. She didn’t fight me, and I managed to keep hold of her arm as I dug my heels into the damp lawn. The urge to protect the Daughter of Winter was a pounding mantra in my head, a boiling in my blood. Everything in my being clamored to keep her safe. Shrieking wind whistled past my face, no longer cold and frigid, but hot, smoky, and arid.
I raised my hands, squinting against the parched wind, trying to discern what threat was coming through the portal. A large, lumberous shadow moved, and a beast with shaggy, dark green fur stepped through. My heart froze as the portal abruptly snapped closed behind it, trapping it within this world. The beast’s glowing eyes immediately fixed on us, and in the sudden shocked silence, it let loose a deep, bone-chilling howl that made my flesh crawl.
The creature was unmistakable.
It was a Cù-Sìth, a beast that was supposed to be myth rather than reality. But the large, shaggy hound that stood before me clearly wasn’t a myth. It was said there were only three of them, three favored hellhounds who ruled the Underworld alongside their master—the Dark God Arawn. The god who our greatest enemy worshipped, the god with whom Talorgan had made his fatal deal, confining countless generations to a prophecy that chained us all to its knees.
It was said that a Cù-Sìth was a harbinger of death—an executioner on behalf of its master. And it was said that if the hound howled a third time, death would fall to its prey. The beast had already howled once. If the stories held true, it was a reckoning of what was to come.
I knew then that this visitation wasn’t pure chance. This was a planned execution, and Nora, the last surviving Daughter of Winter, was the prey.
I didn’t hesitate to wrench Nora behind me, shoving her in the direction of the Estate.
“Get inside!” I whipped out, low and urgent, not taking my eyes off the large hound who mauled the ground with paws the width of a man’s hand. “Alert the others.”
Its lips peeled back from its muzzle in a parody of a ruthless smile as it watched Nora sprint for the sprawling castle behind us. As if it knew that it had time to play before catching its prey—time to maul me.
I knew the castle’s protective walls were one hundred meters away, but I didn’t look back to make sure Nora arrived safely, for even though she was sixty-five, age would not be a hindrance. Her countless years of physical training would kick into gear. Besides, the danger lay in front of me, not behind me, and my role was always to be her shield.
The hell hound howled again, an echoing roar that assaulted my eardrums. There was no more time to lose. Taking a deep breath, I centered myself, tunneling into the well of my power. My magic responded instantly, siphoning the natural energy from the land around us. This area was a vacuum of power, a sacred site that had once been home to the Winter Goddess, Cailleach. Her prophecy dictated my actions, and my role as Guardian was enhanced by drawing on the power that resided in the trees around us, and the still waters of the mountain pool hidden from view.