"Guys," I shout. "I'm going to the passage tomb."

"Don't be stupid, we need to check the river first." Felice's voice cuts angrily through the silent dark.

"I think he's up there," I scream back.

"And if he isn't?"

"We're wasting time," Spike catches Felice's arm. "Let Kit go if she wants."

"Alright." Felice shakes off his hand. "We'll do the river."

I tear across the field, away from them, the dewy black grass soaking my runners.

The passage tomb looms ahead, mysterious and otherworldly, almost as if it really does hold Aonghus captive, deep in an enchanted sleep.

Full moon.

A chill runs through me as the realisation hits me.

Tonight is the true date of Lunasa.

I'm right, I know I am. The Celtic calendar followed the lunar cycle. The ancient festival of Lunasa was held on the night of the full moon. Changing the date to August 1st came later, in the middle ages, an attempt to Christianise the old pagan tradition.

Wings flapping, a solitary crow rises into the sky, scaring the life out of me.

His harsh squawk is a warning.

Go back.

But then I remember Tully, frozen and helpless.

Heart in my mouth, I struggle through the hedge, branches scratching my face, trying to keep me out. My jeans catch and tear on the barbed wire fence, but I keep going.

"Tully," I scream, "I'm coming."

The megalithic mound glows with ancient power.

Tully is in there, I'm sure of it.

So is Aonghus.

Under a solitary hawthorn, skeletal in the moonlight, a jagged opening gapes at me.

A second entrance.

It doesn't exist. Rationally, I know that, but it doesn't matter.

The darkness is poised, waiting with intent, ancient and weary. Aonghus calls me and I can't resist his summons.

I clamp the torch between my teeth and, half crawling, half wriggling, creep inside the cavity.

Fear is hot. It warms you, but I am cold, numb. I no longer know what I am doing, or why.

The tunnel closes tight around me.

There is no backwards, only forwards.

I crawl slowly, losing track of time.

This tunnel is my life.

The air is so stale I can hardly breathe. It reminds me of the decrepit house that's my home. The whole place is so moribund I could die of asphyxiation, weighed down by generations of legally minded Lawless sons. My parents have no idea they are burying me alive with their plans and ambitions for my future. 

Ahead of me, a tiny pinprick of light hovers in the darkness. As I edge closer, it moves ahead, a golden moth, its glow guiding me through the tunnel. The stories of my childhood come back to me, tales of the unwary traveller who strayed from the beaten path, called by enchanted lights, songs and music beckoning them ever closer.

It no longer matters where the moth is leading me, all I can do is follow spellbound. Time has stopped. Past and future mean nothing, there is only an endless present.

Random memories float through my mind.

The way Tully's brown eyes twinkle when he looks at me, the way he believes the world can be better, the pain I felt coming from him when he hunched his shoulders and turned away from me, a pain that only I can fix.

That's why I have to find him.

The cramped passage widens out into a low chamber, the sides ribbed with stone. I raise myself to my knees and look around.

In the dim light it could be a cage and slumped in the middle of it...

Tully.

I crawl over and turn him gently towards me. His face is blue, his breathing shallow.

His eyes flicker open.

"Kit," he whispers. "You must get out of here."

"No." I lift my head and swing my torch around the chamber.

"Let him go, it's me you want," I yell at the top of my voice.

"No, Kit. It's too late." Tully's voice is so weak I can barely make out the words.

"I'm here." My voice is calmer. I have his attention, Aonghus, or his spirit, lurking in the darkness. "Do with me what you will."

You are the traveller who went down the unknown road, the one who followed the lights that twinkle on the bog, the one who disappeared. If you are lucky, you could be the one who returns, but when you tell of the wonder you've seen in the land beyond the veil, nobody will ever believe you.

"No." It's barely a whisper and then Tully's eyes close.

Through my tears, words came to me, words to share with Tully, words he will never hear.

He won't remember any of this. 

And then the darkness enters me.

This is the end.

I thought I could sacrifice myself for Tully, but Aonghus wants us both.

I feel him course through my blood, turning it black, invading me, possessing me. And for a blissful moment, the universe is laid out in front of me and I hold its secrets in the palm of my hand and I understand the key to infinity and that there are fragments of eternity everywhere. This is the magic of Lunasa and I abandon my fears because they no longer seem to matter, the space around me expands filling with light, filling with peace, with presence. 

I am more powerful than any king, older, stronger, deadlier and I have love greater than any mortal but it is hidden deep inside me and I have forgotten where I come from but when I hear the music, I remember. It stirs me. It's never love and music. It's always a choice, love or music. You can't have both.

I tumble back to earth, light shining in my face.

"You scared the crap out of us," Felice says, her torch pointed straight at me.

"Check out the lovebirds," Spike smirks.

Tully and I are curled around each other in the hollow on top of the mound. I sit up and look down at him. The ghastly blue pallor has left his face and his eyes flicker open.

I've no idea how we got out of there, but he's alive. We both are.

"There's another passage," I whisper. "The entrance is under the hawthorn."

"No way!" Spike runs off to investigate.

Felice lights a cigarette as Tully and I scramble awkwardly to our feet, unable to look at each other.

"There's nothing here." Spike's voice comes from over the crest.

"Yes," I say, "there is."

We half-tumble, half-slide down the slope of the hillock.

I scrabble at the spot, pushing aside leaves and twigs, but Spike is right. The opening has disappeared.

"Look," Felice says, "it's a full moon and this is an old place, loaded with atmosphere. You probably just had a really vivid dream."

"Yeah, maybe you were bewitched," Spike says with a laugh. "What do you think, Tully? Did you wake Aonghus?"

"I don't know." Tully scratches his head. "I don't remember anything. I've no idea how I got here."

"You ever sleepwalk?" Felice asks him.

"Yeah, when I was younger, but that was years ago."

"There you are, Kit," Felice stares me down, convinced she's proved her point. "Just as well Tully didn't go down to the river, isn't it?"

Could it really have been a dream? When it felt so real?

As we cross the field, I turn to look back at the passage grave silhouetted against the dawn.

A surge of darkness, a presence older than time, rushes through my veins, his voice echoing inside my head. Love or music, you can't have both.

No, whatever Felice and Spike may think, it was Lunasa last night.

And Aonghus woke.

Author's Note

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