I shook my head, the truth undeniable. “I believe you, it’s just so much to take in at one time. Why didn’t you tell me when I first arrived in London?” Why did you lie to me?
“And reveal my identity to an unknown girl from the Colonies?” She raised her brows in speculation. “Unlike Julian, I take the time to evaluate a person’s character instead of rushing in head first. That’s why I offered my home once Henry told me your name. If Cailleach hadn’t forced my hand tonight, I would have waited even longer before telling you. One cannot be too careful with secrets.”
There was that name again. Cailleach. The beginning hard, the ending guttural. Kailoch. It sounded strangely familiar, in an unpleasant sort of way. I shook as gooseflesh rose up on my arms. “Who is Cailleach?”
She gave me an incredulous look. “Good gracious, Selah, didn’t you learn any of the old stories when you were younger? Cailleach is the goddess of death and disease, and that enormous white hound was one of her pets. She keeps a whole pack in the Otherworld to guard the gates of death. Your mother should have taught you all about them.”
Death and disease...an opposite to all things. These words offered a shadowy memory from my past. “I hated the scary stories when I was a little girl. She was probably waiting until I grew older.” But then she died, and my father knew only bits and pieces of the old stories. It had been the blind leading the blind.
“Well, one of Cailleach’s descendants is currently running around London spreading the pox, and it has been all I can do just to keep up with the little chit.”
Her words jumped inside me and I nearly choked on my own breath. “I...I thought only Brigid had living descendants.”
“Oh dear,” Cate said, shaking her head. “I forget the sequestered life you’ve been living in the Colonies. Many of the Tuatha Dé left offspring in the human world. Cailleach’s just happen to be our mortal enemies. For the past month this one has been leading me a chase through London, and the most I’ve learned is that she goes by the name Deri.”
My head felt near to bursting. I rubbed my temple, to no effect. Just a bit ago, I had been worried about having Amelia for an enemy. Now I had a mortal enemy. With a pack of angry hounds.
“If I’m not mistaken,” Cate continued, “you’ve already met her at the docks the day she grabbed your arm and left that nasty burn.”
The memory came tumbling back, how we had both gasped the moment her fingers tightened around my bare arm. For the past week, I had tried hard to deny the possibility of frostbite for fear that I was losing my mind. Or worse yet, that she had some connection to Mr. Chubais. Everything has its opposite. Deri was cold as death, born of ice as I had been born of fire. Opposing elements and mortal enemies.
She pursed her lips in thought. “You ought to consider changing your surname as I did when I first left Ireland. With how people were talking this fall, she must have known exactly where to find you. My guess, she wanted to gauge your strength and received a similar burn in return.”
Yet I wasn’t her only target. “She also attacked the boy outside your house.”
“I figured it was her. She has been leaving similar calling cards for me all over the city. Poor Charlie is still shaken up over the incident, though at least he has the benefit of being alive. Hannah wasn’t so lucky. Deri got to her when no one else was around.” A heavy weariness crept into Cate’s voice. “I can only pray that the sickness took her quickly.”
No matter how quickly, my heart clenched at the thought of any child dying alone, covered in pox and fighting for every breath. “Why is she doing this?”
“Because it is in her nature, just like healing is in our nature.”
“But why go after children?”
“Death has always favored the very old and the very young. Besides, Deri is just a child herself and most likely hasn’t the strength yet to kill a healthy adult quite so readily.” Cate sighed, signaling her frustration. “The question isn’t so much her attacking children, but why these children in specific. Rather than choosing victims at random, she has purposefully gone after those in my care, and with a maliciousness I have not seen in a very long time. Cailleach’s descendants tend to infect people, and then allow the disease to take its natural course whether that be life or death. This girl is an anomaly, even to her own blood. She has resorted to outright killing for the pure joy of it.” Cate laughed darkly. “The last person I knew like this carried blood from both Cailleach and Arawn, the god of death and terror. Not a good combination by any account. This particular descendant started the black plague and kept it raging for years until a third of Europe’s inhabitants were dead. If I were to guess, this girl has a similar ancestry.”