I hobbled into work the next day on crutches, doing my best to get in through the front door without calling the fire department for help. Margie appraised me with one look, and after feeding her my fabricated story of tripping off a curb the night before, she insisted I go home and not show my face again until after Christmas. I wanted to argue, because the last thing I needed was free time to do nothing but sit around my apartment and think about Devlin and the Daramorr and all of those entangled in this sticky web. In the end, I obeyed my boss, grumbling the entire way home. It was only a few days, after all. I would survive.
On December twenty-sixth, I showed up at the cafe more than ready to start my shift. My ankle was feeling a lot better, and I couldn’t wait for the distractions work would bring. The past three days had been split between daydreaming about Devlin, contemplating whether or not Evan was planning a second attack, and feeling sorry for myself on Christmas Day when I didn’t have a family to spend it with. It had been torture.
Now that I was back at work, however, I had the upcoming New Year’s Eve party to think about. I never received an official invite from Mikael himself, only a few casual mentions from Moira. And I still didn’t know how this was all going to play out after Evan’s fumbled attempt at kidnapping me, but as soon as the crowd thinned out about halfway through my work shift, I got my answer.
“My brother wanted me to pass on a message,” Moira said, giving me a sly grin as she pulled a small envelope out of the front pocket of her apron. “Forgot I had it.”
A little surprised, I took it from her and slipped it into my own pocket, my mind burning with curiosity and a little bit of trepidation. For the remainder of my shift that letter nearly burned a hole in the seat of my pants, but a healthy stream of customers kept me from reading it.
At nine o’clock we cleaned up and locked the store. To my great surprise, Jonathon showed up to escort Moira home. The look they exchanged told me everything I needed to know. Wonderful. Another conquest of Moira’s had arrived. Would she and her brother brainwash all of my friends? By the time I reached my apartment, my mood had darkened, so it was no shock that my heart turned with irritation instead of joy when I saw a familiar figure striding toward me.
Devlin, resplendent as usual in his simple Otherworldly garb, was the last person I wanted to see at the moment. I was still agitated about seeing Moira with Jonathon, so I wasn’t too eager to spend time with the young man who had recently kissed me senseless then accused me of being a distraction.
I strode past Devlin, who stood on the sidewalk with his arms crossed, and secured my bicycle for the night. I had failed to acknowledge his presence, so naturally he followed me. Once back out on the lawn he stepped in front of me, impeding my progress. Tilting my head back, I blinked up at him. Oh, yay! Looked like his mood was the same, if not worse, than mine.
“Excuse me,” I said drily, “you’re in my way. Oh, wait, I’m sorry. That’s your line.”
It was childish, throwing his own accusations at him, but I didn’t care.
When Devlin didn’t move, I sighed and made a show of stepping around him.
He surprised me by reaching out and grabbing my arm. It wasn’t a violent act, but his grip was strong and it hurt a little.
“What are you doing out so late?”
I gaped at him. Really? In the handful of days since I’d last seen him, had he forgotten I worked for a living?
“I have a job, remember? At the cafe? Sometimes my shifts last until we close.”
I pulled my arm away from him and kept moving toward my door. “Besides,” I shouted over my shoulder, my anger growing into something fierce, “what I do with my time and my life is none of your business.”
The sound of his footsteps behind me announced that Devlin wasn’t quite done with our conversation.
“I thought we agreed you were going to avoid going out at night as much as possible,” he growled.
I laughed as I began searching for my keys, a high, breathy sound that anyone with half a brain would have recognized as sarcasm. My door was still a good distance away, but I didn’t want to be trapped against it with Devlin breathing down my neck while I looked for my keys. I’d have them ready this time.
“Unfortunately, here in the real world, we females can’t afford to sit around and wait for a knight in shining armor to come rescue us from dangerous things,” I spat. “If I want to keep my apartment, feed myself, and pay for my education, I have to earn a wage, and sometimes that means doing so at inconvenient hours. I don’t expect some Otherworldly forest dweller to understand that.”
My words were cruel and cutting, but Devlin was really pissing me off right now. He was acting like one of those idiots in high school who was only interested in girls who had no brains and no desire to aspire to anything grander than becoming a homecoming queen or a trophy wife. Oh, no. I was not some simpering damsel in distress, and although Devlin had helped me with the monsters that had harassed me, it didn’t mean I was completely helpless.
He must have realized my thoughts because he let out a sigh and said, “Robyn, I’m not saying you are incapable of caring for yourself. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
And that’s what did it. Those words threw me over the edge and yanked the reins on my temper right out of my hands.
Devlin reached for me and I spun on him.
“Get away from me!” I shouted.
In the next fleeting second, I felt those last few strands of sanity unfurl. The nuclear reactor that resided within my soul, the same one that had received one hairline fracture for every traumatizing event I’d experienced so far this year, finally reached its limit. It had begun with the Noctyrnum and their kitten-sacrificing party, but every strange and terrible occurrence that had followed since only added to the eventual downfall of my mental stability. The worst had been that letter from my dad, the final proof that my parents didn’t love me spelled out in plain English. I had always considered myself mentally, if not physically, strong. Nothing had ever fazed me throughout high school. Always, I found a way to resist any threat that dared to annoy me. Until now. And if I were being a hundred percent honest with myself, I would have had no problem admitting that it all had to do with fear. Mikael and Moira were a prime example, despite my tough-girl attitude toward them. I no longer had any doubt what they were capable of, and that frightened the hell out of me. But what scared me most was the knowledge that, one way or another, all of this was finally coming to an end and it meant Devlin would be gone out of my life forever. So yes, my anger was directed toward him at the moment but it was mostly aimed at myself, for being stupid enough to let my guard down around him. I had let Devlin burrow his way so deeply into my heart that there was no way for me to remove him without doing some major damage.
So, naturally, since I was in such a stable state at the moment, I continued my tirade.
“I had everything figured out before you showed up,” I shouted. “I’ve got a decent job, an apartment I can afford, a career I’m working toward. Then you waltz in with your Otherworldly charm and I somehow get entangled in this huge mess. Yes, it was overwhelming and wonderful at first, being a part of something I’ve only ever dreamed about, but that isn’t reality, Devlin! This can only end in two ways and both don’t look good for me. Either you’ll fail and Mikael and his sister will be free to continue with their plans, whatever those may be, or you’ll succeed and traipse back off into the Otherworld where you belong. In both situations I get screwed. I become their next victim or I get left hanging in the real world, going back to the boring routine us mortals must slog through in order to survive. So, I’m done. I’m so done with all of this. I no longer care if the Morrigan’s evil minions are after me. Bring it on, because at least a death by sacrifice will be far less painful than watching you walk away after all of this is over!”
When I was finally done, my heart was pounding in my ears and my head was spinning. As I drew in deep breaths of cold winter air I tried hard to remember half of what I had said. Crap. What had I just admitted to him?
Devlin stood away from me and remained absolutely still. He didn’t say a word, didn’t twitch or shift his weight. Which was both infuriating and a relief. As the effects of the raging storm of my emotions wore off, I felt drained and utterly depressed.
After a display like that, I thought it most prudent for me to go inside. Turning my back on Devlin, I crossed the final distance between him and my apartment door. Numbly, I turned my key in the lock and let myself into the dark, familiar cavern of my basement home, with Devlin remaining where I’d left him the entire time.
With the lights still off, I let the darkness overwhelm me as I leaned back into my front door, my head resting against the worn-out wood. I closed my eyes and took one long breath, wondering if Devlin still stood on my lawn. More than anything, I wanted him to just turn and leave, to go back to the Otherworld where he belonged. But even more than that I wanted him to knock on my door until I had no choice but to let him in.
* * *
I couldn’t cry that night, though I desperately needed to. Instead, I took a long, hot shower and did my best to clear my head of thoughts revolving around Devlin, an almost impossible task considering what had just gone down outside.
When I had successfully steamed myself into a prune, I shut the water off, gathered up my old clothes, and proceeded out into the living room. As I stuffed my shirt and jeans into the hamper, something lodged in the back pocket caught my attention. I pulled it out and felt my stomach drop. It was the letter Moira had given me, the one from Mikael. The last thing I wanted to do at the moment was read anything Mikael had written to me, but putting it off wasn’t going to do me any good either. I had set myself up for this and besides, if Devlin was to complete his task, the sooner it was done the better. That whole rip the bandage off instead of removing it slowly procedure might be just the thing to get me out of this funk.
Sitting down on my bed with my towel still wrapped around my body, I carefully peeled open the letter, trying not to let my wet hair drip all over it. A bold, masculine script dominated the thick paper, and I began to read:
Robyn,
My sister informs me that you might be interested in joining me for my New Year’s Eve party at Noctaine this coming weekend. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to have you as my special guest. I will send a car to pick you up.
He jotted down the time I should be ready and then signed it with a flourish. In the postscript below, he indicated how pleased he was that I had changed my mind about him.
Feeling slightly sick to my stomach, I let the paper drop to the floor. So, perhaps Evan had been acting on his own those several nights ago. Either that or they were setting me up. I narrowed my eyes and stood up from the bed, careful not to lose my towel. I marched back into the bathroom, rubbed away the fog on the mirror and gave myself a long, hard look. Pale eyes in an equally pale face framed by wet strands of black hair gazed back at me.
“Robyn Dunbarre,” I said in a firm, authoritative voice, “you are nothing if not resilient. Devlin is your friend, even if he is being a total ass right now. You will meet with Mikael, and you will not cower in front of him. You will do your best to help Devlin because he has helped you all this time.”
Gritting my teeth and feeling my heart burn with a new determination, I continued, “You will do this for Devlin, and Evan and Jonathon. You will not let Mikael and his bitch of a sister ruin any more lives.” I took several deep breaths, then added, “And you will do this for yourself, too. You are strong, and you will not back down.”
Feeling somewhat empowered by my little pep talk, I dried off, slipped into my comfortable pajamas, and slinked into bed. Of course, I didn’t fall asleep right away. I was too fired up. But when I finally did manage to drift off, my dreams were black and empty.
For the next several days I passed through my routine in a stupor. Despite my eagerness to take on the world, I found myself sleeping in late and simply going through the motions at work. Kelly hadn’t returned from her vacation yet and Jonathon had fallen into one of his unsocial moods, so most of the time I was left to my own thoughts, which proved to be a bit dangerous.
Now that I’d had time to cool off, I was reviewing all the recent events from a whole new perspective. I didn’t like that the last few encounters with Devlin had ended with me yelling at him. Wasn’t I supposed to be helping him track down the Daramorr, and shouldn’t I be making good use of what little time I had left to spend with him? Instead, I kept pushing him away. Of course, that’s how I’d always dealt with my sorrow. Attack it with a fierce attitude and maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much in the end.
Sighing, I glanced up from my perch above the cash register at the Green Tea Leaf. Business had been slow all afternoon, and it was easy to get lost in a daydream. Since no one seemed to be on the way in for a coffee fix, I let my thoughts wander again. The animosity between Devlin and me was eating me alive. I needed to make peace with him. When my meeting with Mikael was over and I was ready to deliver whatever bit of information I could glean from him, I’d have to offer Devlin an apology. I only hoped he would be willing to listen.
“Nervous about your big date with my brother?” Moira's chirpy voice cut into my reverie.
I yelped and turned to face her.
She arched a perfect, dark brow at me.
I only glowered in response. “Not that nervous,” I grumbled.
A wicked smile graced her face. “Oh, I hear Noctaine always has the best New Year’s party! I’m trying to talk Jon into going, but he’s adamant about some boring meet and greet at his parents’ house. Ugh, what college student wants to spend New Year’s with his mom and dad?”
She rolled her eyes and walked away, presumably to get back to cleaning off tables and restocking the spices and cream on the other end of the counter.
I gritted my teeth as my inner voice reminded me that tomorrow evening I’d be in the position to bring her and her brother down.
Later that night, I tossed and turned, eventually falling asleep well past midnight. I woke up groggy and feeling sick to my stomach. Due to a change in my work schedule, I had the entire day and half of the coming week free to do as I pleased. This morning, however, I chose to go over all the possible scenarios regarding my date with Mikael. When every single outcome ended with me getting sliced open by a troupe of evil Faelorehn men, I ditched my scheming and attempted to get lost in one of my favorite books.
Eventually, five o’clock rolled around and it was time to get ready. After eating a quick dinner and showering, I stood staring into my closet, trying to decide what to wear. If I wanted to catch Mikael’s attention and distract him, I’d wear the dress from the Christmas dinner with my co-workers. The only problem with that was the dress had been ruined the night I was attacked and one of the heels on my matching shoes was broken.
Pursing my lips, I considered my options until I finally decided on a look. Pulling out my best pair of dark, slimming jeans, a slinky, silvery top and a black leather jacket I hadn’t worn in three years, I got quickly to work. A wicked looking pair of high-heeled, black faux leather boots completed the outfit. The boots had been part of a Halloween costume a year or so ago, and they hugged my calves, stopping below my knees. They screamed wicked seductress, so they were perfect for the occasion.
For the next hour I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, curling my hair just enough so it hung above my shoulders like an ominous rain cloud, the violet streak to the left resembling a highly charged lightning bolt. I applied my eyeliner and mascara with unfettered abandon and changed out all of my earrings to match my dark ensemble. Finally, I added a touch of deep red lipstick to complete my transformation. When I was done, I glanced at myself in the mirror. My dark hair, usually straight with a bit of a wave in it, framed my face in soft, loose curls and the black eyeliner and mascara gave my look a dangerous edge. The streak of color in my hair was a nice touch, and I added some deep violet eye shadow and nail polish to match.
When I stepped back to admire myself, I couldn’t help but smile impishly. I hadn’t gone this hardcore Goth since high school, and the few tattoos that now adorned my arms would only heighten the effect once I shed my jacket at the night club. I looked positively fierce.
By the time Mikael’s car pulled up outside my apartment, I felt like some demented female demon ready to wreak havoc upon a troupe of bikers. I imagined ordering them around with malicious glee as I recalled everything I knew about the Morrigan.
You once idolized her, Robyn, my inner voice told me, before you knew that she truly existed and that she wished to kill your best friend. Now would be a good time to put all that knowledge to good use; to use what you know of the Morrigan to convince Mikael you aren’t interested in anyone but him.
It was a slightly ridiculous notion. Okay, a really ridiculous notion, but if it meant taking control of the current situation with the Daramorr, then so be it. If it meant tapping into my dark, ambitious side in order discover all of Mikael’s weaknesses and hiding places for Devlin, then it was a sacrifice worth making. Time to shift into high gear, Robyn.
The familiar sound of pop music blasted into my ears as I left my apartment behind, the narrow heels of my boots threatening to wedge themselves into the gaps of the sidewalk. My housemates were obviously throwing a party of their own, and it was in full swing. The drunken laughter of their male guests followed me as I made my way toward the street. I glanced up and took note of the black car waiting for me. A luxury model, of course.
“You Robyn?” a middle-aged man in a uniform asked through the open window on the passenger side.
“Uh, yeah.”
He nodded and waited for me to climb into the back. Once I had buckled myself in, he pulled away smoothly and headed west. The light flutter of butterfly wings brushed against the walls of my stomach. I clenched my teeth and breathed deeply through my nose. Oh no, none of that. You are not going to let your nerves overwhelm you tonight. Fierce Robyn, be fierce!
To my delight, my little pep talk worked and the butterflies disappeared.
About ten minutes later, the car turned one last corner and rolled to a stop in front of what appeared to be an old abandoned warehouse wedged between the freeway and the edge of downtown. I had seen the building before, had suspected what went on inside, but I’d never been curious enough to stop by. Of course, I was pretty sure I’d have been turned away at the door. Oh well. Now I had a VIP pass of sorts and I was going to make the best of it.
Thanking the driver, I stepped out of the car, then turned and straightened myself before approaching the two daunting bouncers standing on either side of the obvious entrance, their thick arms crossed over their large chests. Probably some local college football boys or a couple of recruits from the track team’s throwing squad.
Swallowing back my apprehension, I gamboled over, trying to keep my pace steady. My legs seemed to be fighting hard against me.
One of the men eyed me, his gaze traveling up and down my body. I only arched an eyebrow and mimicked his stance, mentally daring him to make some suggestive comment. Instead he said in a gravelly voice, “You looking for someone girly?”
A tiny spark of indignation blossomed in the pit of my stomach. Instead of tamping it down, I let it unfurl a little.
“I’ve been invited by Mikael,” was my cool answer.
“Mikael?” the bouncer prompted.
For a second I nearly panicked, then I remembered Moira’s last name. “Mikael Barry,” I said, tilting my nose upward.
The young man’s eyes widened a bit, then he spoke quietly into a handheld radio, presumably checking to see if I was to be permitted. A second later, he faced me again.
“I’m to escort you in.”
He moved aside, and I stepped inside the door. Immediately, I was overwhelmed with too many sights, sounds and smells to focus on just one. The deep, reverberating beat of heavy metal music assaulted my ears and vibrated within my chest cavity. The cloying scent of perfume, cologne and aftershave, combined with sweat and desperation, stung my nose while the flashing blue, red and violet of a strobe light hurt my eyes. All in all, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. My shoes stuck to the ground as I pressed through the writhing bodies on the dance floor, and I only hoped it was the residue of spilled beer and other beverages that made the floor gummy, not urine or vomit.
Off to the side and seated in one of the raised booths, I spotted Mikael, his handsome facade cool and collected beneath a single hanging lamp. He looked like a haughty prince, enthroned above the commoners, and this night club was his realm. Straightening my shoulders and drawing in a deep breath, I nodded to the bouncer who had been so kind to help me across the crowded floor before stepping up onto the ledge where Mikael’s booth rested.
He turned to acknowledge me as I came to stop beside the booth, his fingers resting casually against the stem of a martini glass. Immediately, his calm face took on a look of surprise. For several long seconds he looked me up and down, taking in my wardrobe, my makeup, my general aura of determined confidence.
“Well, Miss Dunbarre, you certainly know how to dress for the occasion.”
His words were punctuated with a charming smile that would knock the air out of any girl’s lungs. Fortunately, I had my conscience there to remind me exactly who, and what, this young man was.
“Well, it isn’t every day that a successful young man asks me be his date for the evening at an exclusive club,” I said in my most seductive voice. Mikael’s eyes lit up and he gestured toward the bench across from him.
“Hungry?” he asked.
I nodded and he waved a hand, immediately catching the attention of a waitress. He ordered a few things and when the girl sauntered away, he returned his attention to me, smiling in that way that sent tingles down my spine and a chill through my blood.
“So, do tell me about your life since last we saw one another.”
Immediately, the memory of his stolen kiss flared in my head, and I almost suspected he had somehow placed it there. Grinding my teeth together, I adopted a contemplative look. “I was busy with school before winter break. Now I just have work and a lot of free time on my hands.”
The waitress returned with a drink Mikael had ordered for me. It was sweet and had an after taste of alcohol. For a fleeting moment I wondered if he was the type to drug me. Concluding he was more likely testing my trust, I continued to drink. Mikael looked satisfied, and I only hoped my instincts proved correct.
“I feel I must be completely honest with you, Robyn,” he said suddenly, his voice lowered so that I had to lean in to hear him. “I didn’t just invite you to join me this evening because I’m interested in you, although that plays a large part.”
His cool smile took away the sting of his words. “Is that so?” I responded with just as much disinterest.
“And I’m not the type to skirt around a problem,” he continued. “Given your connection with that neo-pagan group and your association with Devlin O’Brolaigh, I suspect you are very much aware of what my sister and I are.”
There was a brief pause in the blaring music between songs, and the fierce beating of my heart filled my ears. Of all the things I had expected him to say, that hadn’t been it. Doing my best to cover the look of shock that surely dominated my face, I cleared my throat and said, “Very perceptive of you.” Because really, why deny it?
Mikael nodded once and then narrowed his gaze on me again. “I take it by the fact that you showed up here tonight that you have at least some interest in me and my presence in your world. You are well aware of Eile, Robyn, and those who live there, both Faelorehn and faelah. Am I correct?”
I reached for my drink, taking a slow, languorous sip so that I could think of how to best respond. This was an unexpected turn of events, Mikael up and admitting to what he was. I would need to handle this carefully if I wanted to stay in control of the conversation.
Finally, I glanced back up at him, trying to assess his expression without being too obvious about it. He wore that placid mask of his, though I was certain he was studying every inch of my face, looking for the tiniest detail that might betray me as a threat or a deceiver.
Making a decision, I shrugged and said, “You’re right. I am interested, though I only have Devlin’s side of the story to go on.”
Something akin to fire flared up in his eyes, those changeable eyes I hadn’t noticed before now. “Oh? What has he told you?”
Keeping up my act of the girl bored with her meek little Lorehnin watchdog, I shrugged, then sighed and waved my hand around. “He told me he was from the Otherworld and that he was here looking for a Doormore or Darmore or some such thing. According to him, this character is guilty of murdering people in order to steal the Morrigan's magic.”
I gave a light little laugh. “If you could hear him say it, you might come away despising this Dormar person. But Devlin was pretty confident about tracking him down and capturing him.”
Mikael, who had remained a dark statue on the other side of the booth, shifted forward an inch.
“And has he done so yet?” His voice was a harsh whisper, both seductive and dangerous.
I lifted my eyes to meet his, my mind awhirl with thoughts about Devlin. If I recalled all the good memories I’d had with him, the times he had smiled at me and helped me through my sorrow, that time he kissed me and set my blood on fire, then Mikael would know me for what I was: a fraud. A sheep in wolf’s clothing. Instead, I forced those blissful memories away and conjured up an image of Devlin arguing with me and demanding that I stay cooped up in my apartment. Although I had been more than ready to forgive him and beg his forgiveness for the past few altercations we’d had, I hung on to the fresh anger I’d felt when he’d hurt me. It must have worked because Mikael’s eyes softened ever so slightly and the corner of his mouth curled up.
“No,” I piped with an air of haughtiness. “He keeps saying that he’s oh-so-close, but frankly, I’m tired of his claims. And all this time he’s been convincing me that it is you I need to look out for, that it’s your Otherworldly monsters that have been after me.”
Mikael looked absolutely predatory, but before he could say anything more the waitress brought our food. I glanced at my plate, appreciating the expensive cut of meat and perfectly sautéed vegetables. Suddenly, my stomach growled and I dug in. Just extending the trust, I convinced myself.
“He is wrong,” Mikael snarled.
I blinked up at him, my mouth full of seasoned rice.
“Devlin O’Brolaigh is nothing more than a fatherless Lorehnin man with no sense of honor. He hunts me and my sister merely to prove that he is worthy of some imagined glory.”
The words stung me like the lash of a whip, but I maintained my composure.
“Really? So all those things he said aren’t true?”
Mikael scrutinized me once again, this time his face impossible to read. Beyond our little booth, the music thundered away while the throng of people fell victim to its ghastly charm, and the strobe light painted the room in the dismal colors of death and doom. It was a wonderland of edgy college students who believed they were a part of some other realm beyond our own.
Mikael took a breath and leaned back, his fingers tracing the stem of his martini glass. “I will not lie to you, Robyn. Many consider me a dangerous man, and I do seek out the glamour the Morrigan has left behind. But I am honest about it. I have not sent the faelah after you. They are attracted to you of their own accord.”
I gave him an incredulous look. Devlin had once suspected as much, but as soon as I told him I wasn’t Otherworldly, he’d tried to come up with other explanations.
“Devlin told me it was because of the unique magic I have. Not Otherworldly glamour, but the magic every mortal thing contains. He said it might be stronger than others, not as potent as that from the Otherworld, but enough to make me stand out a little more than the rest.”
Mikael smiled, his eyes flashing to pale gold. “In that aspect, he is correct.”
“And is that why you are interested in me? Because of my strong earthly magic?”
It was a risk, asking such a bold and accusing question. But if I wanted Mikael to believe my ruse, I needed to be just as blunt as he had been earlier.
The Daramorr surprised me by barking in laughter, his eyes dancing with pure amusement. “My dear girl, your glamour is of no interest to me. Yes, I wouldn’t mind adding it to my cache, but it would expend far too much energy to get it from you.”
The casual way he talked about extracting my magic sent chills over my skin, but I did my best to hide my disgust.
“Then why the interest? You can’t be surprised that I should want to know.”
Mikael shrugged and took a sip of his drink, his previous mirth having faded. Once he set the glass back down he looked me in the eye.
“The truth?”
I nodded.
He gestured for me to lean in. I felt a little bit like I was in high school again on my very first date, waiting with bated breath to find out if my crush really liked me as much as I liked him. Only, in this situation, I was hoping for information, not seductive words.
“You fascinate me, Robyn Dunbarre,” he drawled with smooth, liquid precision.
Fortunately, I managed to suppress my sigh of disappointment. Had Mikael not been a bloodthirsty, Otherworldly villain, and had Devlin never stepped into my life, I might have been drinking this up like a freshman getting asked to senior prom by the star quarterback. Instead, I returned Mikael’s lazy smile and batted my mascara-laden lashes.
“Then I have a secret to tell you,” I murmured, “I am fascinated, too.”
The smug look on Mikael’s face was the first sign that I was making any progress tonight. The music shifted again, changing from heavy metal to a lighter rock mix. Mikael cast his eyes over the dance floor below and then glanced back at me.
“Would you care to dance?” he asked.
Fighting a shudder, I said, “I’d love to.”
As he led me down into the middle of the throng, everyone stepped away from him, in apparent deference to the power he wielded.
When his arm wrapped tightly around my waist, I forced myself to relax and imagine he was Devlin. Only Devlin would never be so forceful with me. A pang of guilt spiked through me. I really hoped he would return in the next few days so we could patch up our shoddy friendship. First you must complete this task Robyn, my conscience reminded me. Focus, or else all your work will have been in vain. Yes. Right.
“Do you come here often?” I asked Mikael by way of distraction.
“Yes,” he murmured all too close to my ear. “I own the place.”
Of course he did. I wondered what other secrets he was ready to tell . . .
I was preparing myself to push in that direction when he spoke again, “You know Robyn, I’ve been thinking. Ever since that Samhain bonfire, I’ve wondered what it would be like if you hadn’t recoiled from my advances.”
I swallowed and pulled slightly away from him. His gaze was intense, and for a fleeting second I thought I’d lose control of the situation.
“What do you mean?” I breathed.
He leaned in, his lids lowered and his mouth curving in a self-satisfied grin. I hissed in a gust of breath when his lips brushed my neck.
“The two of us, together,” he whispered. “I could protect you from the faelah, even bring you to the Otherworld with me if you wish. Have you ever wondered what the Otherworld is like, Robyn? It’s a place of magic and wonder, far more enchanting than the mortal world. In Eile, I am a powerful man. You would be like a queen beside me.”
All of a sudden, a cool rush of emotion swept over me and I could see exactly what he was talking about. The green, verdant hills and the deep, wild forests. Dark, heavy storm clouds floating over snowcapped mountains and the brilliant, indescribable tingle of magic coursing through my blood. I felt a little dizzy and light, something I had attributed to the alcohol in my drink, but perhaps Mikael was using his glamour on me.
Fight it Robyn, fight it! I told myself. If you hadn’t been so sure of his lies before, you most definitely know now. His promises of taking me to the Otherworld were false. I knew for a fact that mortals couldn’t cross over, or else I’d be hanging out with Meghan in her castle every weekend.
“That does sound amazing,” I breathed, doing my best to come off as a hapless mortal enchanted by his words.
He smiled against my skin and continued to kiss me. Squirming would send some really bad signals right now, so I closed my eyes and once again imagined Devlin holding me in his arms. We made a few turns on the dance floor, swaying along to the music, the other people surrounding us offering just enough room to maneuver.
At some point, I opened my eyes, my gaze settling on someone near the far end of the crowd at the club’s entrance. At first, I thought I was hallucinating, especially because my brain could not conjure up a good reason for him to be here. But then the strobe light paused and there was no longer any doubt. Devlin O’Brolaigh was standing just inside the entrance to Noctaine, his attention pinned to me, his eyes practically on fire. It was at that moment that my senses returned and I realized Mikael was still kissing his way up my neck. Panicking, I pushed away from him while turning him gently so that his back was to Devlin. I still hadn’t learned as much about the Daramorr as I’d wanted to, but I had to get out of here.
“Sorry,” I muttered breathlessly, giving Mikael a coy smile. “But where is the ladies’ room?”
Mikael seemed to pull himself out of his own daze, the slight scowl on his face proof that he didn’t like my sudden retreat.
“I just need to check my makeup,” I rasped as I pulled further away.
That slow, dangerous smile that often frightened and thrilled me made an appearance. “No you don’t,” he drawled, his voice as smooth as silk. “You are perfect.”
He leaned down and nuzzled my neck once again, his tongue caressing my skin. I gasped and shivered, and every instinct in my body encouraged me to move closer to him, but I resisted. Not tonight. Not now. Not ever.
I shook my head. “Please, I’ll only be a few minutes. Besides,” I added with a flirtatious smile, “I need a break. You overwhelm me.”
He seemed pleased by this and at last relinquished his hold on me.
“The ladies’ room is in the back, behind the bar.”
Mikael gestured in the opposite direction of the club’s entrance and I nodded, too terrified to check and see if Devlin was still standing near the front of the building. When I made it to the hallway that led to the bathrooms, I spotted a set of double doors with a neon sign reading EXIT posted above them. A quick glance over my shoulder informed me that Mikael had returned to our booth and become distracted by a set of young girls who had cornered him into a conversation. Good. I returned my gaze to the front of the club, where I found Devlin again. He was impossible to miss, what with his height and the aggression streaming off him. By some miracle of the Celtic gods, Mikael hadn’t seen him yet, but that would definitely change. Devlin seemed intent on reaching the Daramorr, and with the purpose of his stride I knew if the two had a confrontation, it wouldn’t end well.
Devlin! No! Look at me, over here! I screamed in my mind.
Several desperate heartbeats later, his eyes found their way to me. I wave one hand, keeping it low so as not to catch Mikael’s attention, then inclined my head toward the exit. My jacket was back in the booth with Mikael, but keeping Devlin away from him was far more important than keeping warm once I exited the building. Besides, I planned on heading home as soon as I was out. My purse and my jacket weren’t as important as Devlin’s life. And besides, there was nothing in there I regretted losing except maybe some cash. My driver’s license, house key and cell phone were in my jeans pocket, so there was no need to return to the booth.
With slight apprehension, I wondered if the back doors were alarmed and if opening them would announce my escape. The music from the club could drown out a police siren, but I was jumpy from the events of the evening. One last look into the dark, noisy building informed me that Devlin had seen my intent and was headed back toward the entrance, presumably to meet me once we had both escaped this crazy place.
Dizzy from the noise, lights and Mikael’s seductive glamour, I slammed my hip against the club’s back door, stumbling out into the night air like a fish dumped onto a ship’s deck. For several minutes, I merely stood in the back lot taking deep, soothing breaths of icy air. As soon as my senses returned, dread pooled in the pit of my stomach. Where on earth had Devlin come from? He’d looked like a warrior pulled from an ancient battlefield, his eyes sharp and his stance aggressive. And he had seen me dancing close to Mikael. I groaned and covered my face with my hands. He would view it as the worst kind of betrayal. My head shot up as the last vestiges of Mikael’s seductive glamour fizzled away. Devlin wasn’t inside the club anymore. He had been heading back toward the entrance and might even be making his way to me right now.
I was about to turn and sneak around the side of the building when a low snarl reached my ears. Oh crap. Not more faelah. But tonight wasn’t my night. I peered down the dark alley and locked gazes with a great white wolf. Double crap. Mikael’s spirit guide. I would have braved going back into the club, but the door I’d escaped through was locked. Swallowing my fear, I glanced down the alley once more. The wolf had lain down on the ground, its intelligent eyes watching me. I took a step backward, then another. The spirit guide didn’t move. Okay. Maybe it was just meant to guard the old warehouse. Or the Faelorehn man inside of it. My boots weren’t really meant for long strolls, but it seemed I had no other choice.
Gritting my teeth and making a decision, I leaned down and pulled off my shoes then headed toward the footbridge spanning the gully behind the building. Cold, scraped feet were much better than sprained ankles, in my opinion, and if I was really lucky I wouldn’t run into anything else tonight. I only hoped that Devlin didn’t go back into the club looking for me when I didn’t show up in front of the building.
Half an hour later, I turned down my street only to remember that my housemates had invited half the city over for their raging New Year’s Eve party. Lovely. That’s all I needed to end this harrowing night, a bunch of drunk guys making suggestive comments as I tried to sneak back into my apartment. Well, at least the wolf hadn’t followed me but maybe it had more important things to do than chase after foolish mortal girls who thought they could trick Faelorehn men into giving up their deepest, darkest secrets. I bit my lip in frustration as I limped across the lawn, my feet sore from my barefoot stroll.
I was about a hundred yards from the house when someone stepped out of the shadows, scaring me nearly half to death.
“What in Donn’s dark underworld were you doing in that building!?” Devlin hissed, moving toward me like an angry boar.
Blinking in surprise, I stopped dead in my tracks.
Devlin took one aggressive step forward and grabbed my arms. “And what were you doing dancing with the Daramorr!”
His grip tightened when I didn’t answer right away and my anger boiled over. I flung my arms down, breaking free of his hold.
“I was trying to discover where he’s been hiding in the mortal world! Trying to get him to spill his secrets so that you can fulfill your duty to the high queen. And I almost had him, Devlin! A little bit longer and he would have been telling me all sorts of useful things. But then you appeared out of thin air and ruined it all!”
Boy was I ticked. To think, I’d been all ready to forgive Devlin, and here he was acting crazy again.
“No,” Devlin snapped. “You didn’t almost have him. He almost had you. You would have fallen under his spell, and then I’d be back at the beginning, only this time he would be stronger because he would have secured that strange magic you carry around. The gods and goddesses only know what that might do to his own glamour.”
My stomach began to churn, and suddenly I wanted to be anywhere in the world but right where I was. He was only worried about me because if Mikael succeeded, then he’d be harder to defeat, not because I might be dead. I was just another mortal, an unfortunate loss but a necessary sacrifice.
Devlin must have sensed the sudden change, because that hot anger radiating off of him cooled. “Robyn,” he said in a softer voice, reaching out a hand.
“No,” I rasped. “No, stay away from me.” Time to throw away all of my foolish ideas about mending our friendship. Clearly, it was over.
I tried to finish the short journey to my door, but Devlin cut me off. Oh, no way was he going to stop me. I was so angry that I lifted my hand and with some degree of horror, watched as it flew through the air to make contact with his face. Only thing was, he was faster. He caught my wrist and turned burning eyes on my own. My other hand decided to finish the job. With a fierce growl, I threw all my weight behind the attack, but curse Devlin, he caught that one too.
I struggled to get free, my rage so fierce my skin felt impossibly hot. Devlin easily held me off, pinning my wrists behind my back so I couldn’t attack him. That’s when I started kicking. I managed to connect my heel with his shin, and he grunted. I took advantage of this small reprieve and shoved him hard against his chest, managing to make him move to the side. Brushing past him, I pulled my keys out of my pocket, finding them right away for the first time in my life, and shoved my house key into the lock. The turmoil rolling off of me should have been enough to knock out an elephant, but something told me that no amount of energy I could muster would be enough to overwhelm Devlin. I barely managed to unlock the door before his hand descended onto my shoulder, turning me around to face him. I ended up with my back pressed against the door. It was time to put an end to this childish confrontation of ours. Devlin obviously wasn’t through with our argument, but I most definitely was.
I took a breath to scream obscenities at his refusal to leave me in peace, but I never made it that far. Devlin’s mouth found mine and in a flash second, my anger scattered as instinct took over. The kiss was not, by any means, gentle. His lips pressed hard against mine, hot and demanding, and his body trapped me against my apartment door. My anger raged on, only now I recognized it as something else: intense fear quickly burning away into desire. Forgetting about my vulnerable heart and my irritation at Devlin and everything that had gone wrong that evening, I gave him back just as much as he was giving to me. My hands shot up and I groaned as my fingers raked through his silky hair. Oh, how long I had wanted to do that.
During this whole ridiculous, immature tirade, neither of us spoke a word to the other. We were running on pure emotion and passion. All the tension that had built up between us finally breaking down the barriers we had constructed with our own stubborn pride.
“Get a room!” someone shouted rudely over the din pouring from the house above.
As the guy’s friends added their own bawdy laughter, Devlin pulled his mouth from mine. I felt suddenly cold, and only his tight grip on me kept me from collapsing to the ground. Devlin leaned in and pressed his lips to my ear.
“Well?” he asked, his voice deeper and huskier than usual, the heat from his body nearly suffocating me. “Should we take his advice?”
My neurons were misfiring like nobody’s business, but somehow I managed a nod.
“Y-yes,” I murmured. I lifted my eyes to meet his, their pale blue color almost glowing.
Devlin smiled softly, all the anger gone from his face. He leaned in and kissed me again, this one softer, more sensual than the one from before.
When the kiss was finally over, he whispered, his hand reaching behind me and turning the knob on my door, “I think I know just the place.”
Once inside my apartment, with the door shut and locked behind us, any remaining ties to caution and rational thought were washed away. Devlin lifted me so that our faces were on the same level. I wrapped my legs around his waist and clasped my hands behind his neck before leaning in to kiss him again. Tomorrow, a week from now, next month. Any day, he could leave and never come back, whether he finally cornered the Daramorr and completed his mission or got called back to the Otherworld to resume his life there. I had to enjoy his company while I could.
Yes, if I let this night continue in the direction it was heading, it would hurt like hell when Devlin left. But by the gods of the Otherworld, I would worry about that pain later. There was too much to feel and see and breathe in at the moment, and all I wanted to do was get lost in it all.
Eventually, we made it to my bed and Devlin brought both of us down gently, never once breaking our kiss. Between my sophomore year in high school and now, I’d had my fair share of boyfriends, so it wasn’t as if I was inexperienced with the opposite sex, but this was an entirely different world Devlin was opening up for me. The tempo of the music and general clamor of the party above raged on, mimicking the rhythmic, primitive pulse of my heart as Devlin and I worked together to expose bare skin. I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper, and there was nothing in this world or the Otherworld that was going to stop me.
* * *
I woke up the next morning practically smashed against the back wall of the closet that acted as my make-shift bedroom. My eyes shot open and I stared at the wall that held me captive, only inches away from my nose. As I tried to unwedge myself from whatever had me trapped, I realized I’d also lost my pajamas during the night. Oh wait, I hadn’t lost them. I’d never put them on to begin with.
Cursing, I flung my arm out to pull myself away from the wall and ended up smacking something big, warm and solid. For a fraction of a second, I was completely dazed but then I realized what it was that had me pinned against the wall. Devlin. I bit my lip, the memories from the night before crackling through my mind like electricity.
The scene at Noctaine, Mikael’s seductive and unwanted touch; Devlin’s sudden, unexpected appearance and the argument in front of my apartment; his possessive, unyielding kiss followed by . . . I groaned and ran my hands over my face.
Devlin must have heard me because he stirred, his huge frame stretching across the entire bed. No wonder I was so cramped. I guess it could have been worse. Had I been on the other side of him, I’d probably be on the floor. Devlin turned his head and his eyes fluttered open. For a few terrifying seconds his expression was one of confusion.
Oh dear gods, I thought as my heart raced, he regrets last night.
Then he smiled, a lazy, satisfied smile, baring those perfect teeth that nearly lit up the dark room.
“Your bed is far roomier than your futon, and much less lonely,” he murmured, picking up a strand of my hair and playing with it.
I returned his smile, my apprehension dissipating. “Well, roomier for you maybe.”
In response, he scooped me up and rolled the both of us over so that I faced the outside edge of the bed. I released a squeal of delighted outrage as he pulled me in for another kiss, his warm, bare skin pressing so comfortably against mine.
For a few moments, we simply lay there, studying each other. I lifted my hand and ran my fingers over his face, memorizing each detail so it would remain always in my mind. His straight nose, his well-formed ears and the silver hoops in them, his strong chin and the suggestion of a collection of tattoos that adorned the skin that remained mostly hidden under the sheets. As my fingertips trailed over his lips, Devlin opened his mouth and playfully nipped at them.
He reached out his own fingers and mimicked my actions, then sighed ever so softly. “I understand now why my mother did it,” he murmured.
“Did what?” I asked sleepily.
“Traveled here to the mortal world to be with my father.”
Pleased by his comment but unwilling to analyze it any further, I sat up a little and brought a corner of the sheet with me. “You never did tell me that story.”
Devlin propped his elbow up to match my position. “You already know that I’m Lorehnin, that my mother was of the Otherworld and that my father is of this one.”
I sighed and curled even closer to Devlin, pressing my back against his broad chest. It kept me from falling off the bed, but more importantly, I was determined to be as close to him as I could. Our recent disagreements had not been resolved with what had happened last night. Devlin had not completed his task here in the mortal world and in the end he would still leave for Eile, and I would still be left behind, wondering if I’d just been a fling in the mortal world; wondering if I’d ever see him again. But at the moment I didn’t want to think about any of that.
“Tell me more about your parents,” I whispered, glad that I had my back to him.
Devlin sighed, and I felt the heavy weight of his arm settle around me. When he spoke, his warm breath brushed against the top of my head.
“She was a free spirit who was fascinated by the mortal world. But she wasn’t like the Morrigan, focused on taking advantage of a place that stood no chance against her magic. She loved growing, living things and she was interested in how they managed to thrive here in this world without the stronger glamour of Eile. She discovered that the trees of the mortal world had their own kind of magic, a power most of humanity couldn’t sense. She would spend days in the great forests of the north, just listening to what the trees had to say. She learned that people had lost the ability to hear them.”
His voice had turned sad, but I yearned to hear this story. My heart needed this.
“It was in those times she met my father. He was a naturalist, a scientist who studied the old forests and from what I remember, he fell almost instantly in love with my mother, and she with him. If things had turned out differently, I think she would have stayed by his side until he died.”
Devlin remained quiet for a small while.
“What happened?” I whispered, dreading to hear the end of what must have been a sad tale.
He sighed. “I never got to meet my father, but my mother continued to visit him. After my brother was born, she…”
He paused and I murmured, “It’s okay. You don’t have to go on.”
I felt Devlin’s lips press against the spot beneath my ear, and I shivered.
“No,” he said, “I just need a moment.” He released a heavy breath and continued, “She was one of the Morrigan’s many victims. I was barely ten when she died, my brother was eight. The Morrigan’s faelah and the other Faelorehn she had warped to her will had discovered her and chased her from our home. They were right on her heels when my mother found a small cave on a wooded hillside. I remember her giving us one last forlorn look before she ran out to greet them, sacrificing herself for us. Somehow, my brother and I managed to escape their notice. I have a feeling my mother used her glamour to disguise us; put a geis on us.”
“Geis?” I prompted. “I remember reading about those in some of my Celtic mythology books, and Meghan and Cade have mentioned them before.”
“A geis can either be a curse or a blessing, depending on how it is applied and on the intention of the one providing it. Sometimes I wonder if my mother managed to use up the last of her reserves to form that geis of protection for my brother and me. I hope she didn’t.”
Devlin’s voice had grown quiet and I shifted in his comfortable embrace.
“Why do you hope that?” I asked.
“Because if her glamour was all used up, the Morrigan would have kept her longer. Held her as a slave until her glamour grew strong again before stealing it from her.”
Carefully, so as not to fall off the narrow bed or break free of his welcome embrace, I wiggled around to face Devlin. A deep sadness lingered in his eyes, as if a hollow space had grown inside his heart. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be the one to fill it.
No Robyn, stop thinking like that. He has to leave and return to the Otherworld. Just because you slept with him last night doesn’t mean he’s head over heels in love with you. Too bad that wasn’t the case for me.
Devlin’s gentle touch drew my attention back to the here and now. He was running his fingers over the small tattoo on my forearm, just below the elbow.
“This looks oddly familiar,” he said softly.
I looked down at the patch of skin he was caressing then gave a light shrug.
“That’s the first tattoo I ever got. A friend of mine was studying to become a tattoo artist, and he needed someone to practice on. I’d always had that image in my mind and it was a simple design, so I drew it on with a pen and he tattooed a permanent image over it.”
He continued to trail his fingers over the black, swirling cloud shape and the tiny lightning bolts beneath it. The image had always been lodged in the corner of my mind, almost like a memory, and I’d often found myself doodling it in my notebook in high school when I should have been listening to the teacher.
I released a small laugh. “It does look rather Celtic,” I commented, glad the conversation had turned to a happier topic, “maybe that’s why it seems familiar.”
Devlin shook his head. “There is something unique about it. Celtic in suggestion, yes, but not quite. I wonder why I never noticed it before.”
I shrugged and pulled a little farther away from him so I could examine him the way he was studying me. His own tattoos were larger and far more intricate than mine. I ran my fingers over the one that covered his shoulder and upper arm, sighing in wonder when the ink shimmered, changing from blue to green to violet and back again.
Devlin’s roguish grin nearly knocked the wind out of my lungs.
“Otherworldly tattoos hold their own magic,” he murmured as he leaned in to press his lips to mine again.
I forgot my curiosity and gave in to his affection, yet before things could get out of hand, Devlin pulled away and cupped my face with his hand.
“As much as I’d like to spend the day with you, I have to get back to Eile. Danua will want a report, and then I’ll need to gather those willing to help me confront the Daramorr.”
That snapped me right out of my bubble of euphoria. I shot up into a sitting position, bringing half the sheet with me.
“What do you mean?”
Devlin smiled again, this time more smugly as he reclined with his hands tucked behind his head.
“As much as I loathe the idea of you spending any time with Mikael, your curiosity did lead me straight to his lair.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Noctaine? Really? Isn’t that a bit too obvious? I mean, considering it has been linked to the Noctyrnum forever. Shouldn’t his hideout be tucked away under some random freeway bridge or something?”
Devlin continued to smirk, his eyes studying me very closely. “I agree with your reasoning, however, he has been using magic to disguise it from other Faelorehn. Remember how I told you his own glamour had diminished and seemed hidden from my view? The empty magic around that building last night had the same feel to it, and then I realized that although I’d been by that area many times, I’d never really noticed the place.”
I furrowed my brow and Devlin laughed. “I know it sounds odd; it feels even stranger when I experience it, but that is the best way I can describe it.”
“If that’s the case, then how did you find it in the first place? And how did you get in? When I arrived there were two bouncers even bigger than you ready to turn me away. If it hadn’t been for Mikael’s invitation, I would have been shunned too.”
Devlin’s look suddenly grew dark, and I regretted bringing it up.
“Is that how you nearly ended up under his spell?” he asked quietly.
I bit my cheek and looked away. Yes, I had almost been ensorcelled, hadn’t I?
The gentle brush of Devlin’s fingers against my cheek brought my attention back to him. He no longer looked angry, but calm.
“I was very angry last night when I saw you there, Robyn, but it is not for the reason you are thinking. I was terrified he had finally gotten to you, and I had no idea how to break you free of his hold. Fortunately,” he added with a wry grin, “you are far more tenacious than I have given you credit for.”
I smiled at that, my pride stretching and purring contentedly at his compliment.
“I wanted to help you,” I murmured. “And I thought if I showed interest in Mikael he might be willing to share some of his secrets. I thought I’d failed at securing any of them last night, but it looks like I distracted him long enough for you to sneak in.”
Devlin’s smile was pure delight and he said, “Ah yes, I never answered your question about that. First, I stumbled upon the building while tracking your trail of magic. Imagine my surprise when I got to the end of that trail and, out of nowhere, this building stands looming over me. As to how I got in, well, Enorah has a wealth of handy spells meant to cause a distraction.”
I didn’t ask him which particular spell he used, because at that moment he reached up and pulled me against him, our bare skin heating between us.
“Have you changed your mind about leaving?” I managed once I had a chance to catch my breath.
Devlin trailed calloused fingers down my back, and I arched against him. He sighed and nuzzled my neck.
“I have no choice,” he said gruffly. “Danua expects me to report later today, and I don’t want to risk angering her into revoking the deal we made.”
“But what about all the work you’ve put in? Surely that counts for something.”
Devlin pulled away from me but left his arms loosely wrapped around my waist.
“I only get my reward if I deliver the Daramorr or evidence of his destruction.”
That didn’t seem fair, but it made sense. After all, when a cash prize was up for grabs, the contestant didn’t get a portion of it for almost winning.
I reached up and stroked his cheek, brushing his hair back gently with my fingers.
“I don’t want you to lose your castle, Devlin, but do you really have to go this morning?” It was still dark outside, and I was guessing it was sometime after five in the morning.
“Yes,” was his answer. “The sooner I leave, the sooner I can request more help from Danua. There is still a chance Mikael saw me last night despite my efforts to remain unseen, so I need to act fast.”
We both tried to put off the inevitable, but eventually we had to leave the warm comfort of the bed. I offered him the shower, but he insisted I go first. As I headed for the bathroom I made him promise not to leave until I was out.
“I’ll give you a ride to the dolmarehn,” I said before closing the door behind me. “It’s the least I can do.”
To my relief, he nodded without arguing.
Forty minutes later, we were chugging along in my old car, heading north for Reservoir Canyon Road. White sheets of frost decorated rooftops, and the sun seemed like a distant light in the east. Devlin and I remained silent, unable to come up with anything to talk about. Eventually, we reached our exit, and I found myself pulling off to the side of the road. Up ahead, a sign marked the start of a trail.
“The dolmarehn is just a short walk from here,” Devlin murmured.
I snapped out of my melancholic daze and glanced at him, nodding my head.
A dirt trail meandered away from the road and we took it slowly, moving through the patch of mist that had settled in the area. Mixed oaks and other shrubs stood on the edge of a small clearing, and up ahead I could hear the telltale rush of water. We skirted a small hill, and then the source of the water made itself clear. A broad stream tumbled down the side of the hill, some of the falling water blocking a portion of the entrance to a dark cave. The stream continued over a pile of rocks before disappearing into the distance. I merely stood there gaping.
“That cave leads to the Otherworld?” I asked, glancing up at Devlin.
He nodded, his eyes glued to the spot.
The silence began to grow again, but before it could continue too long, and before I lost my nerve, I whispered, “When everything with Mikael is taken care of, will you ever come back again?”
Devlin took a long time to answer, and when he did his voice had softened even further.
“I will try.”
The corner of my mouth tugged up into a small smile, despite my morose state of mind. “That’s no guarantee,” I teased.
Devlin turned to face me and used his hand to tilt my face toward his. He planted a gentle kiss at the corner of my eye and whispered against my skin, “Nothing in life ever is. You can only ever find what hope you can and hang on to it for as long as possible. It may be like trying to keep hold of a Dotarbh with a single strand of thread, but you must never let it get free of you.”
“What’s a Dotarbh?”
Devlin smiled so brightly his eyes crinkled. “One of Donn’s magical bulls.”
Ah. Some massive Otherworldly creature then.
Devlin continued talking, “But eventually, something will come along to strengthen that hope; to transform that fine thread into a steel cable.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked. I had held out hope for many things throughout my life, and most of the time it had amounted to nothing but bitter heartache.
“Because it has happened to me.”
“And what has turned your thread into a steel cable?” I said flippantly, pulling away from him and crossing my arms.
Devlin’s pale blue eyes met mine, their coolness unusually warm. In a low, harsh voice he said with conviction, “You.”
Before I could take another breath, he moved in, taking my face in his hands so that he could tilt my mouth up to meet his. The kiss was no less passionate than all the others he had given me, but this one held urgency and promise, as if he was giving me something to hold on to while he was away. That thread that would transform itself into a steel cable perhaps. Too soon, there was distance between us once again.
“Goodbye, Robyn,” he murmured. “I will return again when I can.”
I reached up and pulled him down for one last kiss before turning on my heel and walking briskly back up the trail. The fog was making it hard for me to breathe, and the light mist unfurling from the waterfall clung to my hair, leaving me damp and cold.
Up ahead, I spotted my car resting on the other side of the fence, a dark blotch of metal standing out in the mist. Now I could only wait and hope that Devlin did return and that everything with the Daramorr went as planned. He’ll be fine, my conscience told me. He’s getting help from the high queen’s soldiers, and then you’ll see him again. I just needed to keep telling myself that.
Stepping through the gap in the fence, I stuck my hand in my pocket, looking for my car keys. When I glanced up again, I noticed an odd lump on the hood of my car. Furrowing my brow, I moved closer. Folded neatly beneath a familiar purse was an equally familiar black leather jacket. For about a second, I was completely confused; then recognition set in.
A sharp yip distracted me, pulling my attention to the top of the slope on the opposite side of the road. A pale wolf with rust-colored ears stood gazing at me from between two oak trees, its tongue lolling from a mouth full of long teeth. Then another wolf, a mirror image of the first one, joined it. As the blood began to drain from my face, a sharp pain bloomed in my skull, quickly followed by a sickening wave of blackness that completely overwhelmed me.
Cold. The first thing I noticed was the cold, swiftly followed by an overwhelming ache in my head. It hurt so bad I wanted to moan my protest, but the harsh whisper of voices made me reconsider. My heart quickened its pace, and adrenalin born of fear raced through me. Was someone in my apartment with me?
As I lay there trying to make out what was being said, I realized something else: the reason I was so cold. My clothes were missing, well, everything but my bra and underwear. What the heck? And I was lying on something rough and icy. I tried to move my arm slowly to get a sense of what it was, but then another harsh reality hit me. Cruel metal bit into my wrist. I tested the other hand. That one was secured as well. Doing my best not to panic, I took several deep breaths and rolled my head to the side. That frosty roughness met my hot cheek and I finally recognized it. I was lying, mostly naked, chained to a stone slab. This was one hell of a bad dream, and I was ready to wake up.
The voices drew closer, as if drifting from one room to another. I risked cracking open one eye and caught a glimpse of several metal sconces attached to a rock wall fit with blazing torches. Was I in a cave? How had I gotten here? My mind whirred, despite the headache, and I tried desperately to remember what had happened before this moment. I recalled going to the nightclub to meet Mikael, dancing with him and becoming intoxicated with his glamour. Somehow I’d managed to break free of it before it went too far and had escaped through the back of the club, making it home to my apartment unscathed.
Devlin had been there waiting for me, the memory of his cold accusations and my harsh anger adding extra pain to my headache. And I recalled the argument that boiled up until it spilled over, finally giving that strange, building attraction between us room to work. The recollection of his intense kiss and my eager reaction flooded my mind … and then what had happened afterward.
Heat unrelated to the fever in my body burned through me. Devlin. Where was Devlin? I had driven him to the dolmarehn he used to cross between our two worlds, but that’s the last thing I could remember before waking up here.
Those voices from earlier were nearly upon me now, harsh and quiet, grating against this strange cavernous space I was in and echoing between the walls.
“She’s been here nearly two days. That’s long enough,” a familiar, masculine voice growled.
“Just keep drugging her! The last one we captured only had enough glamour for one of us, and I’m not going to let you hog it all this time. Besides, why else did you have me sacrifice our slaves if not to give us a little extra glamour to remain protected while we wait for hers to manifest?”
My spinning thoughts screeched to a halt. I knew that pouty voice: Moira. And the other one was Mikael. Two days, he’d said. They’d held me captive for that long? Had anyone bothered to look for me? Instantly my mind rushed to Devlin, but then I remembered he had left for the Otherworld for who knew how long. He would not think to look for me because he would have no clue I was gone.
“The last one was not Taeriehl,” Mikael hissed. “And there were other reasons to do away with the Noctyrnum. They had become a liability.”
A soft snort from Moira, then a lengthy pause where all I could hear was the whisper of the torch flames. I could feel their eyes roving over me, and I wanted so desperately to squirm, but then they’d know I was awake.
“Her glamour will be vast and fierce,” Mikael finally continued. “We must act now, Moira, before that hound of Danua’s finds her.”
I pictured Moira rolling her eyes at that. “Are you afraid of that little half-breed forest dweller? His glamour is hardly strong enough to squash a mosquito. He is no match for either of us.”
A sharp intake of breath from Moira’s section of the cave suggested that her brother had turned on her.
“Do not underestimate the wrath of a man in love, especially a Faelorehn one! He may not be pure-blooded, but he will fight to the death and his strength will be magnified because of it,” he growled. “We do this now.”
I did not have time to consider his words because in the next breath the soft swish of a knife being drawn from a leather sheath grated against my ears. Fear spiked through me again, and when the cold, sharp metal pricked my arm, I could not hide my gasp of shock. I glanced down, straining my neck, only to find a small puncture wound that oozed blood.
“She awakens. We must act swiftly before she comes around completely. Go make ready the instruments.”
Mikael’s voice was flat and emotionless, in harsh contrast to what his tone had been when he had tried to seduce me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted his sister, her face grim and determined. She nodded once, then turned on her heel and headed out of the cave and into another room. Now that they knew I was awake, there was no reason to remain silent.
“What the hell are you planning on doing to me?” I demanded, my anger nearly matching my terror.
Mikael ignored me and moved to tighten whatever chains or leather straps held my hands down. For a few seconds I had a little bit of freedom with my right arm so I lashed out, raking my fingernails against his skin. Mikael hissed and leapt back.
“Bitch!” he snarled before striking me across the face.
My cheek exploded with pain and I cried out. Bastard! He’d better make sure I couldn’t escape or my fingernails would be the least of his worries.
Once I’d regained a modicum of my composure I snarled, “I asked you a question, asshole!”
A deep chuckle filled the cold, damp space, and I shivered.
“Such a sharp tongue you have, Robyn dearest. It’s a shame we couldn’t make things work between us.”
He stepped out of the shadows and ran a finger gently down the side of my face where he’d slapped me.
“I wouldn’t mind discovering what else you could do with that tongue of yours.”
“You’re a sick bastard,” I spat, praying that he’d move his hand closer to my mouth so I could bite it.
“And you’re an easy source of glamour,” he countered, moving away. “Do you have any idea what you are?”
I tugged at my restraints but it was no use. I was pinned down like an insect in some entomologist’s macabre little collection.
“I’m just a mortal with strong earthly magic,” I managed, a little bit of my fierceness wearing off.
Mikael laughed again. “Oh, that Lorehnin fool was so obsessed with wheedling out my glamour that he never gave yours a close enough look.”
That couldn’t be true. Devlin had done a thorough examination of my glamour and had proclaimed it earthbound.
“So what do you plan to do? Sacrifice me to the Morrigan in the hopes that you can get a little more of her magic?”
I craned my neck again and caught the glint of white teeth flashing beneath a dark hood. The sight was positively sinister.
“Oh, something like that,” Mikael crooned with a wave of his hand. “So much of her glamour waits me in the Otherworld, but there are also so many like my sister and I, scrambling to get to it while remaining out of the sight of the high queen and her allies.”
“And you wish to bolster your power by squeezing what magic you can from my world in order to give yourselves a fighting chance,” I said with bitterness.
“Clever girl,” he said, his voice clipped with slight annoyance. “But not clever enough to realize you were being played the entire time.”
The Daramorr was wrong. I’d had a pretty good idea I was being played, and so did Devlin. We just had no idea when the trap would be sprung, or how.
I blinked my eyes, feeling grit gathering in the corners. The amplified scrapes and clunks of Mikael’s preparations made me squirm, and the abrasions on my wrists and ankles burned with discomfort.
“What does Taeriehl mean?” I finally asked. I’d heard him mention it earlier, and I was hoping to distract him and delay whatever fate awaited me. Maybe in that time, I’d think of a way out of this. Yeah right.
Mikael either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me, because the next time he spoke it wasn’t to answer my question.
“Now, Robyn dear, as much as I enjoy toying with you our time is running out.”
He moved further into the shadows, and a breath of icy air poured through the cavern as if an army of haunted souls exhaled all at once. Raw panic filled my veins, and I started to take the whole struggling thing seriously.
Before I could so much as scream my fear and fury, Mikael started uttering a strange chant, the cadence of his voice and the flickering shadows cast by firelight only adding to the ghastly aura of the cavern. He picked up three black feathers and arranged them on my stomach, each one pointing outward in a different direction. The movement tickled, and when I jerked to the side, causing one feather to dislodge and float to the ground, he calmly picked it up and replaced it. I realized then that my wrists and ankles weren’t going anywhere and the black leather belt across my middle was doing a splendid job at keeping my hips in place. This could not be happening. It had to be a dream.
I wrenched my head to the side, not caring about the pain, and fixed my eyes upon my tormentor. Mikael was draped in a black robe, the hood now thrown back and his cruel, handsome face half cloaked in shadow. He had another feather in his hand, and as I watched, he dipped it into a shallow dish formed out of what appeared to be obsidian. He lifted the feather, the end dripping with something wet and dark. I swallowed hard. Blood. He touched the feather to my skin and began painting a gruesome pattern on my legs, abdomen and arms, the tip resting over the storm cloud tattoo below my elbow. Despite my determination to remain brave, I could feel tears stinging the corners of my eyes. I tried thrashing again, pulling so hard against my restraints that the metal and leather cut into my skin.
Mikael ceased his low chanting. “Resistance will not help you, Robyn. It will only make what is to come worse.”
“Why are you doing this?” I rasped, my voice catching in my throat. “I am not Faelorehn. I’m not even Lorehnin. You’ve made a huge mistake. Please, just let me go!”
Mikael ignored me and continued his preparations, walking over to a basin cut into the side of the cavern to wash his hands. Moira returned then, carrying a tray of smoking incense in one hand and a curved blade in the other. A flash of white caught my eye, and a sour taste filled my mouth when I recognized the wolf standing by her side. Its twin joined her, and the two animals nipped at each other playfully before Moira’s harsh command sent them from the room.
The sudden, sharp scent of the smoke made me think of death and suffering, and the cruel knife brought back memories of that night I had interrupted the Noctyrnum’s little torture party. Despite my determination to stay strong, bile crawled up my throat.
The Daramorr and his sister held their hands over me and began a new chant, this one starting out low and growing into something fiercer, more demanding. I didn’t know what the purpose of their invocation was, but it grated against my nerves. My skin started to prickle everywhere, and my fingertips and toes began to grow numb. I assumed it was from being chained to a nearly frozen rock for so long, but then a pale violet shimmer formed over my skin; a weird, hallucinogenic ripple of weightless water. Perhaps this is what happens when you die, I thought miserably. Perhaps this is that light at the end of the tunnel everyone always talks about. I blinked down at my arm again, watching the enchanting play of light.
Soon the tingling sensation grew to an almost painful level, and Mikael’s and Moira’s voices took on an urgent, excited tone. The two of them clasped hands, and I realized they were now both holding the knife. Slowly, they lifted it far above their heads.
I should have been screaming in terror, but I was far too distracted by the purple plasma covering my body. Now it was doing something even more bizarre. Tiny arcs, reminiscent of the solar flares on the surface of the sun, bridged up from my skin and burst like little bubbles. Mikael and his sister only seemed to grow more delighted at this, but the knife stayed right where it was, far above their heads.
My body sizzled with prickly sensation, and the arcs multiplied until my gaze was blurred from their beautiful brilliance. Some of the flares even began to grow bolder, shooting out into space like electrical charges instead of placid bubbles. Now that was really odd.
This seemed to be the cue Mikael and Moira were waiting for, because they both drew in a deep breath and plunged the knife downward. After that, time stilled to almost a stop. The knife arced slowly through the air as the siblings ended their chant. The violet electricity enwrapping my body reached to meet the blade, the sensation akin to two negative magnets being forced together. And beyond everything that was happening on the stone slab, I swore I could hear anguished shouting starting somewhere far away and moving ever closer.
Just as the knife plunged into my skin, a flash of brilliant amethyst light filled the cavern and seared my eyes. Moira screamed and Mikael roared― in glee or horror I couldn’t tell.
I drew in one last breath, my chest a giant wad of agony. So this must be what dying felt like. A roaring sound filled my ears, a horrendous noise that reminded me of anger and pain and despair. I could no longer see anything and a cold numbness spread over me, but I could still hear the sounds of a distant battle as I slipped away; the snarl and yelp of animals, the enraged shouts of warriors in the heat of battle, the clash of weapons. Anger, sharp and bitter, infused what blood I had left in my body. If it hadn’t been for the restraints holding me down, and the massive stab wound in my chest, I’d be right there in the midst of it all, finally showing Moira and Mikael what I was made of. Unfortunately, the current circumstances were stacked against me and my inner, ass-kicking demon had to sit this one out.
A final burst of violet energy seared what senses I had left, and the clamor abruptly stopped. I had no chance to think about it, because the pain lingering in my chest vanished along with all other sensations and I let go.
* * *
Light, friendly laughter woke me from my haze. I expected to have a raging headache, but nothing hurt, not even my wrists and ankles where the restraints had been. That was odd. Then it occurred to me that I had died and I was probably in the afterlife, wherever that was. I turned my head and glanced around. The frame of my vision was bordered by soft light, the kind of visual effect a first-year film student might use to portray a flashback scene. Okay, weird, but I was going to try to be open-minded about this whole death thing.
From the corner of my vision, a small girl no more than two or three came waddling into view. She was pale-skinned with dark, curly hair and a bright smile dominating her tiny face. Following her were a man and woman, both very young and not particularly tall. The woman strode up with the grace of a ballerina and scooped up the small girl, planting a kiss on her grubby cheek.
It was such a common scene; it could have happened at any park in the country. Yet something about this particular family caught my attention and held it. For a short time, I studied the man. He had dark hair and blue eyes, and he gazed upon the woman and child in outright adoration. I felt a twinge in my chest, and I wondered what it must be like to have a family that showed so much love. The woman turned and glanced at her husband, setting the child down to go tumble in the grass. She reached up her arms and wrapped them around the man’s neck, pulling him in for a chaste kiss. Her eyes were grey like mine, and there was some strange birthmark on the inside of her arm.
Somehow, I managed to move in for a closer look. Why it mattered that I see it, I couldn’t tell. Some other power was compelling me forward. By now, the woman had stepped away from the man and they were standing hand in hand, watching their daughter. The little girl stumbled and fell, and her mother instinctively reached out her arm in a comforting gesture. That’s when I finally got a good look at the blemish just below her elbow. I gasped, if the disembodied spirit of a recently deceased person could do such a thing, and lurched back in surprise. It was a tattoo, not a birthmark, and it matched the one on my arm: three swirls to form the cloud and a few zigzags representing lightning.
I reached down to rub the spot on my arm where my tattoo was, but my fingers only brushed air. For the first time since this strange dreamscape had appeared, I held my hands up in front of my face. I could see their outline, but there was no substance to them. So, I really was a ghost.
A sharp squeal pulled my attention back to the family. The girl was sitting on the grass, her face screwed up in outrage, not pain, from her fall. I had to laugh. She reminded me of myself when I was younger. I always attacked the world head-on and was far too stubborn to give in to pain or discomfort.
The mother cooed at her daughter, picking her up and comforting her despite the child’s determination to be invincible. As much as she tried, however, the girl could not resist her mother’s embrace. Eventually, she wrapped her arms around the woman’s neck and rested her tiny chin on a nurturing shoulder.
I could have spent all of eternity watching this family, but something else drew my senses, pulling me away from the moment. The fuzzy edges of my vision grew fuzzier, and I tried crying out in protest. Just before the image blipped out completely, the little girl turned her gaze toward me and I nearly choked. My own eyes, brilliant and grey and full of purpose, stared back at me. I had been wandering around in my own memory, and now it was being torn away from me.
No! I wanted to shout. No! Let me stay with them a little longer, please!
But it was no use. Whatever divine force now had control of my soul would not heed my pleas and whatever awareness I had left was snuffed out as my world went utterly dark.
I woke up only to realize that my mind was completely blank. Usually the remains of some dream teased at the corner of my conscious or the muffled sounds of the outside world greeted me. This time I got nothing, no replay of any strange dreams and none of the familiar noises of my housemates stomping around upstairs. Instead, I found myself staring at a ceiling that wasn’t mine. This one had large log beams running across it, bare wooden planks filling the spaces in between. My eyes trailed the beams and crashed into the stone tower of a chimney. Okay, I knew I didn’t have a fireplace in my basement apartment. A space heater, yes, but definitely not a fireplace.
The squeak of someone shifting in a chair drew my attention away from the roof. I turned my head toward the sound. Ow! Not only did I have a pounding headache, but my neck hurt like crazy. Had I been in a car accident? Was this the hospital? No, hospitals were painted white and had sparse furnishings. This place I was in was more like a cabin.
Eventually, my cheek was resting against a pillow and my eyes fell upon someone I didn’t recognize. She sat in a plain wooden chair in the corner, her tall frame stretched out to its full extent. From what I could see, she had curly brown hair and broad shoulders, and she was dressed in clothes similar to what I’d first seen Devlin wearing. Devlin. Suddenly the memories came screeching back, forcing every ounce of strength from my body. I must have made a sound, because the woman shot up from her relaxed pose and moved toward my bed.
“You’re awake,” she stated, her tone betraying a trace of relief.
I tried out my voice and nearly curled in on myself at the harsh sound of it. “Devlin,” I managed.
The woman pressed a cool palm to my forehead and smoothed her face into a mask of concentration. Her grey-green eyes studied me and I couldn’t help but notice she had that strange beauty that Devlin, Mikael and Moira possessed. Was she Faelorehn? And if so, where had she come from?
“Devlin was by your side until earlier this morning. He had urgent business and couldn’t stay. Only when I promised to look after you did he leave, and even then it was with great reluctance.”
A wry smile twisted the woman’s lips, and she went to fetch her chair so that she could sit beside my bed.
“Where am I?” I croaked. “Who are you?”
“The Weald and Enorah, in that order. Devlin brought you here as soon as he wrangled you away from the Daramorr and his sister.”
Enorah? Devlin’s friend from the Otherworld? I felt dizzy, but I had to know what had happened. Enorah proceeded to tell me.
“The Daramorr had you for a few days before he and his waspish sister tried to extract your glamour. In that time, Devlin returned to the mortal world and realized right away that something was wrong. Your car was still parked where it had been when you dropped him off at the dolmarehn. He tracked your glamour back here. Well, not here specifically, but to one of the many small caverns on the edge of the Weald where Mikael and his sister had been hiding when not stirring up trouble in the mortal world.”
Enorah’s explanation did nothing to calm my thoughts. I lifted a hand and pressed it to my forehead, wincing when the action caused a searing pain in my chest. Glancing down, I noticed that a good portion of the left side of my torso was wrapped in white bandages. Fear trickled through my blood, and I trained my eyes on Enorah.
“What happened to me?” I demanded, my voice low and harsh.
Enorah drew in a long, steady breath. “The short explanation? Mikael and Moira used their glamour to subdue you and drag you back into the Otherworld, where they chained you to a stone slab and attempted to carve out your heart.”
I felt my jaw go slack with horror. Enorah only met me with neutral eyes. Damn. Talk about a no-nonsense answer to my question. Lifting my other arm, I finally managed to place my palm against my forehead. It still hurt, and I cringed at the raw marks on my wrist, but at least I could give myself the illusion of shooing away my headache. It also gave me a chance to play Enorah’s words over again in my mind. Mikael and his sister had tried to sacrifice me. They had kidnapped me and brought me to.
My hand dropped and the blood drained from my face. Had Enorah said earlier that I was in the Weald? Wasn’t that the forest in the Otherworld where Devlin lived?
Enorah must have become aware of my confusion because she sat up straighter, her expression adopting a look of patience.
“The Weald?” I squeaked. “Did you say I was in the Weald, the one in the Otherworld? As in Eile, the place mortals can’t visit?”
Enorah seemed amused because all she did was smile and nod.
Holy. Crap. I flounced back against my pillows as the shock washed over me.
“Well, if that’s true then I must be…”
I let my words trail off.
“Of Faelorehn descent, yes, but we believe you are most likely Lorehnin. Not full-blooded Faelorehn, yet with enough of our blood in your veins that you can cross into our world.”
“Like Devlin,” I murmured, trying to encourage all of my simmering emotions to settle down. I had been nearly murdered, had been sure I was dead, and was just now learning that I was Lorehnin. It was almost too much for even me to deal with.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Enorah added with some humor. “But yes, you most likely had one Faelorehn parent and one human parent.”
Silence descended upon us for several moments, and I had to give Enorah credit. She understood the astonishment I was experiencing and was kind enough to let me deal with it on my own.
After a while, a memory of my ordeal surfaced, a recollection of numb fingers and an odd, violet light surrounding me. The same sensation that had zapped me the night the faelah attacked and the time Mikael had kissed me.
“So that strange, purple electricity I saw when Mikael―”
“Yes,” Enorah said quickly, cutting me short. “I believe that was your own glamour. That’s what the two of them were after.”
I blinked stupidly at her. I conjured up an image of Devlin’s own power, soft and yellow and non-violent, the opposite of what mine seemed to be. Clearing my throat, I asked, “Do any other Lorehnin men and women have glamour like that?”
Now the light, friendly look on Enorah’s face faded, and she glanced at me with hooded eyes. “Not that I’m aware of,” she admitted. “And I’m guessing this is why Devlin didn’t recognize you for what you were when you first met. That and the fact that your glamour was so faded after spending years in the mortal world.”
Wonderful. Another mystery to keep my mind on that hamster wheel. But at least it explained Devlin’s failure to properly place my magic. And then the scene from the time I’d spent between life and death popped into my head.
“My mother,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.
“Pardon?” Enorah queried, sitting up straighter in the chair and leaning closer.
I blinked up at her, my eyes suddenly feeling misty.
“I saw my mother, when I was…” I swallowed hard, finding it difficult to put into words what had been a reality not too long ago. “When I was dying,” I managed. “She was Faelorehn, wasn’t she?”
Enorah’s eyes held sympathy but she shook her head. “I don’t know. We are just now learning about this, along with you.”
I nodded and lowered my head, a sudden twinge in the knife wound in my chest giving protest.
“I have a feeling she was. She had a tattoo, just like mine.”
I stretched my arm out for Enorah to see.
“Ah, yes, Devlin spoke about it the last time he was here. He said it looked familiar and I have to agree with him now that I see it.”
“But you’re not sure where you’ve seen it,” I offered.
The tall woman shook her head. “It will come to me eventually. What is important now is that you are safe and free of the Daramorr’s clutches.”
A shiver of dread coursed over me.
“Is that where Devlin is?”
“No.”
Enorah adopted a strange look, one that made me focus on her more intently.
“He had to report to the queen. Let her know that the Daramorr and his sister got away.”
I felt my jaw fall open, and I stared at her. No way. How could Mikael and Moira have gotten away? They had been on some power high during that strange ritual and were so intensely focused on ending me that a kindergartener could have taken them out. How could Devlin have let them get away?
“But, he can still track them, right?” I rasped.
Enorah shook her head once more. “Not with the amount of glamour they were able to pull from you. They are probably a thousand or more miles away, perhaps in some other realm besides Eile or the mortal world. They will not show their faces again for a long time, I’m afraid. Whatever special element your glamour possesses will help them hide and fight off anyone or anything that tries to capture them, even Devlin.”
I groaned and rubbed my face, hissing when my wound reminded me of my helplessness.
“This is my fault,” I moaned. “I should have been more careful. I should have left as soon as I dropped Devlin off at the dolmarehn. Had I just stayed in the car, Mikael and Moira might not have moved in to take me.”
“Robyn,” Enorah said, her voice sharper than it had been earlier. “You are not to blame. If you had driven home, they just would have gone to your apartment. They were ready to act, and nothing you could have done would have prevented them from doing so.”
I swallowed back my misery and asked the question I was afraid to ask.
“Did Devlin lose his castle then?”
Enorah’s slight grimace was answer enough. I released a deep sigh and contemplated disappearing for a hundred years or so.
I was so lost in my guilt that Enorah’s hand on my shoulder startled me.
“Robyn, look at me.”
I didn’t want to. Like the stubborn little girl from my memory, I was determined to wallow in my melancholy by myself. No help needed from anyone else.
“Robyn,” Enorah pressed, her tone firm.
Dang it. I couldn’t resist a Faelorehn warrior woman demanding my attention, no matter how headstrong I was.
When I glanced up, kind green eyes met mine. She smiled, her expression a little sad, but pleasant as well.
“There is nothing Devlin did that he wouldn’t do again. He knew that barging in on their ritual could mean losing them, but he did it anyway. You are far more important to him than a run-down castle.”
I wanted to deny it, to tell her that she was wrong. “What about his brother?” I whispered.
Enorah sat back at that, her eyes now wide.
“Rhyne? What about him?”
I took a heavy breath and released it. “Devlin said his brother needed a distraction to keep him out of trouble. He worked so hard for the both of them, and to lose it all in the blink of an eye?”
Enorah barked out a laugh, and I furrowed my brow at her. I didn’t see what was so funny.
“Oh, Rhyne is a big boy, and he can take care of himself. Besides, both of them will always have a home here in the Weald if they want it.”
“Still doesn’t mean he should have made that sacrifice,” I grumbled. Having a miniature, subdued hissy fit after almost dying was totally acceptable for a woman of my age.
Enorah sobered right away. “Do you regret his decision? Would you rather now be dead?”
I gave her an acerbic look. Of course I didn’t regret his decision, I only felt terrible that it had meant pulling out of the race only inches away from the finish line.
Enorah sat and studied me for a few moments as I tried my best to seem insignificant. The trauma of my near-death experience was dominating my consciousness, but there was so much more to consider as well: learning I was Lorehnin; waking up in the Otherworld with some Amazon warrior to keep me company and explain everything that had happened to me; sorting out my feelings concerning Devlin. It was going to take me awhile to process everything.
Enorah must have known of my internal struggle because she leaned in again, her elbows resting on her knees. Without looking at me she said in a soft voice, “That’s not all that Devlin sacrificed.”
That got my attention. I looked at her, practically holding my breath as I waited for her to continue.
“I’m telling you this now because I know Devlin never will and because I think he has come to mean something to you.”
She paused and looked up, making sure I was following her.
“A few years back Devlin, my brother and I, along with Devlin’s brother and one other, were called to the east to deal with a threat. Cernunnos asked us specifically and promised us each a favor should we complete our task to his satisfaction. A favor from someone like Cernunnos is a once-in-a-lifetime gift and not to be wasted on anything trivial.”
I couldn’t quite see where this was going, but I nodded when Enorah gave me a look of inquiry.
She took a deep breath before continuing. “Devlin tracked you to that cave, alone, because he didn’t have time to return to the Weald and ask for help. He went in knowing that he was going to face the Daramorr and his equally powerful sister. But he knew that if he didn’t, you would die.”
I opened my mouth to say something, not quite sure what, but she held up a hand and kept talking.
“When Mikael’s knife dropped and pierced your skin, Devlin was sure you were dead, or would soon be so, and there was enough raw glamour swirling around the cavern to knock out a large horse. Somehow he managed to make it to your side and get you free.”
“And just how did he do that? With Mikael and Moira, and their spirit guides, standing by?”
I needed to say something because listening to this story was making me antsy. Besides, there were so many questions I had, and Devlin wasn’t here to answer them for me.
Enorah looked up at me, the green in her eyes fading to grey, and smiled.
“There is a phenomenon that happens with people of the Otherworld sometimes. When emotions run high, our glamour can amplify, and oftentimes we can pour our own magic into others. I’ve seen it happen before. I think this is what happened with Devlin. Seeing you in the state you were in, imagining you had drawn your last breath, sent him over the edge. He may be Lorehnin, but his glamour is strong.”
“Yet they got away,” I said in a dejected voice. They got away and Devlin lost his castle.
“Well, not that easily,” Enorah admitted. “Mikael and Moira resisted at first, and Devlin managed to do a little damage before the two of them escaped.”
I regarded her with a raised eyebrow.
“From what I understand, he was attempting to behead Mikael when his sister shoved him out of the way, taking the brunt of the strike. Nearly took off her ear and left a nice deep cut across her face. That’s about when Mikael released a torrent of glamour that threw Devlin against the wall.”
I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay, but paused when Enorah held up a hand.
“He’s fine, but that’s why the fight ended there and why the Daramorr and his sister were able to slink away. Devlin and I suspect Mikael may have used a good portion of your stolen glamour to create that blast.”
I shook my head in disgust. “All that energy and senseless waste of life, just to let go of all that they had worked for.”
Enorah shrugged. “The Daramorr and his sister haven’t grown so powerful by being stupid. They knew what would happen should Devlin forget about his fear for you and notice them, and they have grown accustomed to waiting for what they want. Besides, I have no way of telling if it was your glamour or his own that he used against Devlin. I wasn’t there, and Devlin was too distracted to take the time to look closely at it.”
I released a heavy sigh and turned my head to the side. Okay, that didn’t hurt as bad as I expected. There was a window set in the wall across the room, and I tried to peer through it. The curtains were sheer so I could still see the trees beyond. The Otherworld. Eile. For a moment, I forgot about Devlin and his foolish sacrifice and thought about everything Enorah had told me. I was Lorehnin, born of one Faelorehn parent and one mortal parent. And I could pass into the Otherworld. A bubble of happiness welled up, and I wanted so badly to let it consume me, but too many bad memories and thoughts still occupied my mind. When I get over this ordeal, I’m going to explore every inch of this place, I thought. Oh, if only the high school version of myself had known what was in store for my future.
Only when Enorah began speaking again did I realize she’d never finished her story.
“And so after that sloppy confrontation, Devlin had you, but you were bleeding badly, and he had no idea how much time you had left. If Rhyne had been with him, he might have been able to save you. Rhyne’s glamour can heal people, even those gravely wounded. But Devlin was alone. Fortunately, the cavern where the Daramorr had taken you was right on the edge of the Weald, and he knew a few shortcuts to the Tree of Life.”
“The Tree of Life?” I interrupted, turning my attention back on the Faelorehn woman. “You mean the Celtic Tree of Life, the one in all of the myths?”
Enorah smiled softly and nodded her head.
“The very one. Cernunnos can sometimes be summoned if you visit the place where the tree grows, so Devlin headed in that direction. It took him over an hour to get there. He never stopped to rest, so by then, he was mentally and physically exhausted.”
I lowered my eyes and carefully crossed my arms over my chest, noticing exactly what I was wearing for the first time. Some old-fashioned nightgown or shirt, like the ones Devlin wore from the Otherworld. At least I’m not still naked, I mused.
“This story sounds a little embellished,” I grumbled, returning to the conversation.
“It’s not,” Enorah insisted. “Well, not much at least.”
I snorted a small laugh and gave her a wry grin.
Ignoring my doubt, she picked up her tale once again. “After he made it to his destination, Devlin began shouting at the top of his lungs, begging for an audience with the god of the wild. You understand, Cernunnos is one of the Tuatha De. His glamour is much more vast than that which we common Faelorehn possess.”
I suddenly remembered a detail she had shared earlier, and I sucked in a breath of astonishment. Finally, it was beginning to make sense. In a quiet voice, I murmured, “And he owed Devlin a favor.”
For several bone-tingling seconds I was speechless, my mind trying to wrap itself around everything Enorah had said. I had been god knows how close to death, perhaps I even had been dead, but Devlin had used his favor to keep me alive. My throat tightened, and I felt tears form in my eyes. Ah, hell, I was going to cry in front of Enorah. Wouldn’t that be lovely? Me, who as of a few months ago never showed my softer side, was going to break down right here, in this strange place, in this ridiculous nightshirt.
Sniffling back my emotion, I glanced up at the other woman. Enorah didn’t look at me with pity or shame or humor. No, that was some other sentiment lingering in her eyes. Fascination? Pride? Wonder? Ha! Yes, because a small, bristly, barely alive college girl, who was moments away from bursting into tears, was the kind of person you looked up to.
“Yes,” she finally said, her voice soft, “Cernunnos owed Devlin a favor, and he claimed it that night by asking the god of the wild to restore your life.”
I had come to that conclusion already but hearing it from Enorah only made it more real. Somehow, I managed to keep my composure, but just barely.
“So you see, Devlin does not think you are unworthy, Robyn Dunbarre. The fact that he used his favor to save your life is very telling. And the fact that you have been the one to move him in such a way should be so as well.”
I dropped my gaze but said, “He’s always come off that way to me. At least in the short time I’ve known him. The first time we met, he was taking a stand against a group of men who were harassing me.”
I gave her a smirk, my old, spunky self surfacing once again. “I like to think I would have been able to handle the situation on my own, but it was still kind of charming having him show up in all his Otherworldly glory. In fact, my first thought was that he was a lunatic. He scared me more than those men did.”
Enorah surprised me by laughing out loud. “Have you told him this?”
I shook my head, the tears finally subsiding for good, and I beamed at her. “Wouldn’t want to dent his pride.”
She chuckled and dropped her head before standing up.
“Well, I’ve said enough for one day. I’ll leave you to think on my words, and if you’re feeling up to it, I can have someone escort you home either today or tomorrow. Unfortunately, Devlin will likely be gone for a week or more while dealing with the queen, or else I’d invite you to stay longer. I’m sure you have a life waiting for you back in the mortal world … and some explaining to do concerning your sudden absence.”
I flinched at that. Yes, having been gone for two days without leaving word, especially since my car was probably still parked on the side of the road near the hiking trail, would draw notice. Oh boy. At least I still had another day or so before I was due for my next shift at work.
“Then I’d better leave right now,” I said.
Pressing my hands beside me, I moved to stand up, gasping and falling back into the bed as soon as I did so. Ow. My knife wound was deeper than I’d thought.
Enorah was at my side in an instant. “Be careful! Rhyne has done what he could with you, but you need rest.”
Gritting my teeth, I spat out, “If I don’t get home as soon as possible and prove to my friends that I’m not lying murdered in a ditch somewhere, there could be some serious repercussions. It will be hard enough hiding the knife wound and the abrasions on my wrists.”
If anyone in the mortal world saw my injuries, there would be a full-out investigation and I really didn’t want anyone peeling away all the layers of whatever false story I’d have to invent. Or maybe I would be lucky and my car would be where I’d left it, unscathed and unnoticed. Lots of people used the trail, but I was hoping not too many of them would be in the mood for hiking right after the New Year. In that case, I’d only have my housemates and maybe Kelly to answer to if they’d noticed my absence at all.
With some help, I managed to stand on my own. Enorah left to find me some clothes since mine had been lost during the confusion in the cave. I was surprised when she came back with a pair of pants and a blouse. Not quite my style, but at least I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb back in the mortal world.
“We often find ourselves venturing between the worlds,” she said by way of explanation. “It’s good to be prepared.”
The Faelorehn woman acted as a living crutch, helping me out onto the porch. The first thing to hit my senses was the cool, crisp air. The freshness and magic of it poured into my lungs and filled me with an overwhelming sense of euphoria. Home, my soul seemed to cry out, we’re home.
The trees above were mostly bare for the winter, and a few patches of clean, white snow littered the ground. Up ahead, two rows of cabins similar to the one we’d just exited stood resting between the trees. At the far end, in the center of it all was a pile of massive logs, burning like great, glowing orange furnaces. Hunkered around the fire were several children of varying ages, rubbing their hands together and holding them up to the fire. It all looked so beautiful, this ancient, quiet place. Tilting my chin upward and holding my head high, I took one tentative step, Enorah by my side making sure I didn’t face-plant into the mud.
Several other Faelorehn men and women approached, all dressed in the same woodsy outfit as Enorah.
“This is Robyn Dunbarre, for those of you who do not already know. She is insisting on going home today. I would detain her, but her people are probably worried about her and they need to know that she is all right.”
Everyone milled around, some nodding somberly, others whispering to one another.
“Kiernan, Tegan and Ellon, you will come with us. She must pass through the dolmarehn on the northwest hillock.”
Three people, two young men around my age and a girl who looked no older than ten, stepped up. The two men had the good looks I was starting to recognize in all of these Otherworldly people. Kiernan had black hair and stark blue eyes, while Ellon’s hair was chestnut brown with eyes to match. Tegan was a whole other story. She was small with brilliant red hair and eyes a color I couldn’t describe. She remained quiet as we made our slow journey, but something about her made me think her soul burned as fiercely as her silence. Or maybe that was her glamour. Either way, my instincts were warning me that there was more to this little girl than met the eye. I smiled despite myself. In that aspect she reminded me of myself.
A few hours later our journey came to an end. The Otherworld, although similar in looks to some places in the mortal world, was something that couldn’t be described in words alone. One had to come here and feel it for themselves. I bit my lip, still wondering if this was all a dream from which I would soon wake. Either way, I didn’t want to leave.
When your injury is healed, you can come back. I smiled brightly at that internal thought. I could come back, couldn’t I? I was half Faelorehn, after all. And that got me thinking. If my father, or from what I had concluded based on that strange dream, my mother, was Faelorehn, where was he or she now? Did I have family here? I couldn’t wait to start looking for them but first I had to figure out how to deal with my old life. And was I willing to leave it completely behind? It’s not like I had any family to miss me in the mortal world. Again, thoughts for later, when the ordeal of the past week wore off and I could think clearly.
“We’re here,” Enorah said quietly, gesturing toward a crevasse in the low hillside.
I peered through the grey mist shrouding the place she had indicated. Ancient oaks grew on either side of the crack in the earth, their roots like knobby fingers holding the fissure open. I gave Enorah a wary glance.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go with you and make sure you make it safely to the other side.”
The Faelorehn woman took a step toward the gap in the hillside and reached out a hand. “Ready?”
Not really. “Yes,” I said with some reluctance, letting Enorah pull me up by her side. I turned toward our small party and thanked them for their help.
Kiernan and Ellon nodded, and Tegan remained still. Well, that was the easiest farewell I’d ever experienced.
“Just to warn you, passing through a dolmarehn can have a strange feeling if you’re new at it.”
The look I gave Enorah must have been one of horror because she laughed and added, “It’s not a bad feeling, just odd.”
Swallowing back my trepidation, I put my hands on my hips and boasted, “I can handle it.”
Enorah beamed. “I thought so. Now, just step forward. You’ll feel a tugging sensation, then a sense of weightlessness. Before you know it, you’ll be on the other side.”
Kicking my fear in the ribs, I followed her directions and took another step forward, sending up a silent prayer that my car (and the extra key hidden beneath the wheel well) was still where I’d left it a few days ago. Once fully inside the damp, cramped space, a strange sensation akin to the stomach-dropping effect experienced when riding on an elevator yanked my torso forward. For an undetermined amount of time, I was suspended in space, but then the clear, vibrant sound of rushing water and a veil of cool mist greeted me as my feet touched down on solid ground. Confused, I blinked my eyes, the darkness broken only by a round window of light far ahead. I stepped forward, putting my hand out to the side to steady myself. My fingers brushed against something cold, hard and slimy. Ewww! I retracted my hand and wiped it on my pants. Better on the fabric than on my fingers.
I felt Enorah’s presence solidify behind me.
“Just walk straight ahead,” she said, her voice echoing.
I nodded and made for the end of the tunnel. The sound of whooshing water had been coming from a small waterfall cascading over part of the tunnel entrance. Ah. Now that made sense. It was the dolmarehn I had driven Devlin to only a few days ago.
We stepped out into the midday light, only getting slightly soaked by the water. After we crossed the stream, it was a short walk to the road where, to my great relief, I spotted my trusty car waiting patiently for my return. As we moved closer, I noticed that my jacket and purse were still folded neatly on the hood. The memory sent chills down my spine, and I could have sworn the throbbing pain where Mikael’s knife had nearly killed me increased just a little.
Taking a deep breath, I knelt down and used my uninjured arm to reach under the wheel well. My fingers scraped away at rust before they found a familiar metal box. I pulled it free and slid it open, my nerves melting with relief.
“Yes!” I hissed. At least I wouldn’t have to walk home. “I’ll be okay, so long as my car starts,” I told Enorah.
She shook her head slowly. “Devlin made me promise to see you to your apartment and to check for faelah after you had locked yourself inside.”
I shook my head in bemusement. A week ago, I would have thrown a fit in response to his overly protective behavior. Now I was enormously grateful for it.
“All right,” I sighed as I stood up, “but you’re going to have to walk back by yourself.”
Enorah shrugged, as if walking a handful of miles was something she did every day. I almost snorted. It probably was something she did every day without a second thought.
With some reluctance, my car’s engine turned and grumbled to life. Steering proved a challenge, what with the protests coming from my left side, but I managed to make it to my street without tearing my wound open. I parked in my usual spot beside the curb, and Enorah opted to check my yard and the surrounding area for any Otherworldly creepy-crawlies while I knocked on the front door of the house to see if my roommates had a spare key. Jennifer answered the door, giving me an assessing look as she stepped aside.
“Nice pants. Haven’t seen you for the past few days. Get lucky with a date?”
Thinking fast, I gave her a bashful smile and nodded.
“Way to go Robyn!” she crooned. “I don’t even want to know how you lost your key but I can only imagine.”
Oh yay! Like my less-than-stellar reputation needed to be dragged through some more mud.
Jennifer fetched me a key then bid me farewell as I made my way to the side of the house, eager to be in my familiar room. Enorah was waiting for me when I reached my door.
“All clear,” she said in a professional voice. “Now for a quick check of your apartment.”
Inside, my place looked the same as it always did. The bed was in disarray, of course, because I had expected to come right home after dropping Devlin off, and the bananas in the kitchen I had meant to dispose of last week had gone completely brown, attracting a small cloud of fruit flies. Other than that, everything looked to be unscathed.
Enorah glanced around and then wandered into the kitchen and the bathroom. She came back out into the living room and eyed the bed with an accusing stare.
“I’m assuming the bed was like this when you left the other morning?”
And darn it, if there wasn’t a trace of amusement in her voice. I gritted my teeth and fought against the blush that bloomed on my cheeks. Really, I shouldn’t be embarrassed, but Enorah was practically a stranger.
“Yes, everything is how I left it,” I managed.
Enorah gave the yard one final check outside before leaving.
“Stay safe Robyn Dunbarre and I do hope we meet again.”
“Thank you,” I said, “for everything.”
Enorah smiled. “I’ll be sending some of the older Wildren to keep an eye on your place for the next few weeks.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up a hand. “As certain as we are that Moira and Mikael are long gone, there is still a slight chance we are wrong. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you if we are. Besides, there are still the stray faelah to consider.”
Clamping my mouth shut, I gave a quick nod. She was right, of course, and blind stubbornness would not protect me should a Cumorrig or some other sinister creature show up on my lawn one evening.
Enorah turned to leave.
“And don’t forget what I told you about Devlin,” she called over her shoulder as she began her hike back to the dolmarehn.
“Like I ever could,” I murmured to myself once her tall figure had disappeared around the bend in the street, leaving me to put my fractured life back together all on my own.
As soon as Enorah’s retreating figure was out of sight, I remembered that I was without a cell phone, having lost it somewhere in the Otherworld.
Grabbing the spare set of keys hanging in the kitchen, I burst out the door and went back upstairs to return my housemates’ set and perhaps borrow one of their phones.
Jennifer opened the door again when I knocked.
“Mind if I use your phone?” I asked, handing over the keys.
“Go right ahead. It’s in the kitchen.”
Jennifer returned to the living room to watch a movie, and I was given a modicum of privacy. I dialed the cafe, keeping my fingers crossed anyone but Moira answered. After Enorah’s speech about posting Faelorehn guards around my apartment, I was feeling a little paranoid. Taking a few minutes to come up with a story to explain my absence, I picked up the phone and dialed the number.
To my immense relief, Kelly answered on the third ring.
“The Green Tea Leaf, how can I help you?”
“Kell, it’s me, Robyn. Sorry I’ve been out of reach for the past few days, but I decided to spend part of my time off hanging out with Meghan’s family in Arroyo Grande. I managed to drop my cell phone in the sink while I was there, so I’m using my housemates’ landline right now. And to make matters worse two of Meghan’s brothers had the flu or something and gave it to me.”
I made sure to make my voice sound more gruff than usual. It wasn’t hard. All I had to do was think about how much my stab wound hurt.
“Robyn! I was wondering why you weren’t answering your phone! I called your cell the other day to see if you wanted to go shopping, but you didn’t pick up. Ugh, the flu. That’s no fun. I can cover for you tomorrow, but you might want to call Margie too. Oh, and you won’t believe it! Moira has disappeared! She didn’t show up for work yesterday, and no one seems to know where she is. Did she say anything to you? Margie is ticked and has started looking for a replacement.”
All my muscles froze. Oh, I knew exactly why she hadn’t shown up for work. She and her brother were too busy trying to sacrifice me. Snapping myself back to the present, I coughed a couple of times into my hand to keep up my whole sick act and abruptly sucked in a breath when a searing pain tore into my shoulder. Note to self: next time you decide to fake sick in order to cover up a knife wound, try to pick some other way to prove your illness that doesn’t involve tearing the injury open. Somehow, I managed to recover and return to the conversation.
“No! That’s so weird!” I wheezed, sniffling my nose for extra effect.
“Fortunately Jonathon’s offered to cover all her shifts, at least until school starts again.”
Oh good. Jonathon was okay. I wondered if Moira just up and left without saying a word to him. Probably. Oh well, he was better off without her.
“And one more thing,” Kelly dropped her voice. “I’m not sure if you heard, but if you’ve been at Meghan’s house all this time and haven’t seen the local news …”
Her voice trailed off, and dread shot through me. Something wasn’t right about her tone.
“That serial killer might have struck again.”
It took me a few moments to remember what Kelly was talking about. Oh, right, the bodies found a few months ago in the creek. And then a sickening realization flooded over me. Oh no. It had never been a serial killer who had murdered those people, but a brother and sister seeking out mortal magic.
Kelly was talking again, and it took me a moment to catch up to the conversation.
“… guy that came by on Halloween? The one who you had classes with, Evan Miller? Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, Robyn, but they found his body up in the hills in a clearing with a bunch of other people. They were all members of some cult, Nocturnal or something like that. Anyways, I guess they had been torturing local stray animals, and the police think it might have been a group suicide, but they haven’t ruled out murder yet. I’m so sorry. I know he was a friend of yours, but it sounds like he’d been hanging out with some pretty bad people.”
The air whooshed out of my lungs and my knees buckled. Fortunately, I’d been leaning against the counter so I didn’t go crashing to the floor. Oh no. Not Evan. Not like this. They had killed him. Moira and Mikael. A fragment of the conversation I’d heard in that dank cave came back to me, something Moira had said to her brother about sacrificing their slaves, and I knew for certain that the Daramorr and his sister had been responsible, not only for the Noctyrnum and Evan, but for the other strange deaths in the news as well. They had been sacrificing them in order to absorb their mortal magic. And Evan had been swept up in the middle of it. They had used him to get to me; as a shield to distract my attention away from them. And then they’d just thrown him away like garbage. As the scream of rage fought for freedom, I forced it down. No, I couldn’t lose it. Not now.
“Robyn? You okay? Hey, want me to come by later? I don’t mind risking getting sick.”
“No,” I managed to grate out. “I’ll be okay. Evan and I weren’t close, but, well, it’s just a shock is all.”
“Of course. If you need me for any reason at all don’t you dare hesitate to call, all right?”
I refused to let the anger and anguish consume me, but my throat was tight when I murmured, “Thank you.”
“All right. Don’t forget to call Margie,” she added in a more subdued tone.
Before I could let the brunt of Kelly’s news take hold, I hung up the phone and called my boss. She was all sympathy and kindness and totally bought my flu act.
“I want you to take at least the next week off to get better. No coming in to work until then, and don’t worry about us. We’ll manage, even with that other girl leaving us in the lurch.”
Replacing the cordless phone on its dock, I called out a weak thanks to Jennifer and headed back to my apartment. Halfway there, the spinning in my head and churning in my stomach magnified, and I turned to throw up in the hydrangeas. I couldn’t get Evan’s face out of my mind, the face of my friend before he had been brainwashed by the Daramorr. I needed some mindless work to do, something that might help me shut down my brain for a while. I didn’t want to think about Evan lying dead in the wilderness somewhere with the rest of the Noctyrnum, murdered and forgotten. I didn’t want to picture Mikael and Moira, alive and well, hiding in some cave in the Otherworld or somewhere beyond, biding their time before they had enough strength to hurt someone else. And I really didn’t want to think about how much I missed Devlin and how comforting his mere presence would be right now.
A surge of frustration took over, and I stomped around my apartment, picking up all the stray articles of clothing and throwing them onto the bed. I then went into the closet and dragged my hamper out with my good arm and proceeded to add to the pile. When I’d built a sizeable mountain, I peeled all the sheets off the bed and removed the pillowcases. Bracing myself for the twinge beneath my collarbone, I grabbed the whole pile and marched off to the laundry room. Nothing like keeping yourself busy with household tasks to turn your mind away from dangerous thoughts. And my thoughts were dangerous. I was upset about Evan, but more than anything I was outraged. How dare Moira and Mikael do that to him? How dare they? I wanted to rip them limb from limb, make them feel the same pain I felt. But they weren’t available at the moment, so I took my rage out on my dirty laundry.
By the time I finished washing, drying and then violently folding and putting away my clothes it was only early evening, but at least some of my grief had burned off. Overwhelmed by exhaustion, I plopped down onto the fresh sheets and absorbed their warmth. They no longer smelled of Devlin, something I regretted, but at least they were encouraging my mind to drift off into sleep. This time I welcomed the drowsiness with open arms.
I dreamed of the woman and the young man again, my parents, and watched as they swung me between the two of them. The toddler version of myself squealed and laughed as they lifted her high into the air. Wherever we were was bright and sunny and warm, free of faelah, the Daramorr and memories of my murdered friend, but when I woke in the morning, my pillow case was damp with the tears I had shed in my sleep.
For two days I moped around my apartment, wasting time online and watching movies on my laptop. At some point I walked into town and bought a new cell phone and visited a hardware store to get an extra set of keys made. I even baked a cake and cleaned out the cupboards, but I was ready to burst out of my skin. I gave Claire a call, wondering when the next Earth Bound meeting might be and to ask whether she knew about Evan. She was able to fill me in on the details Kelly hadn’t been privy to. Evan’s body was to be sent back east and buried in his hometown cemetery. There would be no funeral for me to attend but the members of Earth Bound were planning a memorial service the next day.
We gathered at noon in a local park and shared stories about Evan’s life. None of us knew too much about him, but knowing that he had a few friends among us helped ease my spirit. It would take much more, however, to douse that low burning well of hatred and guilt that had started only a few days before.
On several occasions during those last lingering days of winter break I was severely tempted to return to the dolmarehn near the waterfall and sneak back into the Otherworld, eager to check if Devlin had returned to the Weald. Yet every time I grabbed my jacket and headed toward the door, the wound in my chest reminded me I should wait. It was healing, that much I could say, and it no longer hurt so much if I tried to lift anything. And although Enorah believed the Daramorr and his sister had gone into hiding, the memory of my ordeal was still too fresh in my mind. I might hate them and want to kill them myself, but I still feared them.
I resumed my work schedule Monday and was pleased to learn that the new woman Margie had hired was nothing like Moira. A week passed, then another, all the while my injuries, both internal and external, healing marvelously as I wondered what was going on in the Otherworld. I had finally been left in peace by all those who dwell in Eile, both good and bad, and I was growing restless. How strange it was, to feel like something was missing when only a few short months ago I had prayed for my life to return to normal. Of course, that was before I knew part of me belonged to that extraordinary and wonderful place. Perhaps that was what was causing my anxiety. Well, that and the prolonged absence of a certain tall blond warrior with brilliant blue eyes.
During the first week of February, it was brought to my attention that I hadn’t been very good at hiding my thoughts.
“All right Robyn, spill,” Kelly piped, hopping up onto the counter and nearly scaring me half to death. Her legs dangled beside me, and she cradled a huge mug of coffee in her hands. She was still on her lunch break, and I was trying to finish restocking so I could take mine. In reality, I had been trying to work myself into a stupor over the past several days. If I was exhausted beyond all measure, then I wouldn’t have time to think about Devlin’s continued absence.
“What do you mean?” I asked, viciously dumping sugar into a dispenser.
“Oh, come on! You’ve been shuffling around here like a zombie all week, if not longer. I know it’s because of a guy. It always is. Now talk missy. It will make you feel better. Is it about Evan?”
“No,” I responded, then let out a sigh. “I mean, yeah I’m still upset about him but I’ve come to terms with it.”
Kelly nodded and sipped her coffee. “I wonder if the cops will ever figure out what really happened. Might give you some closure.”
I remained silent and continued with my chore.
“So,” my friend proclaimed, regaining some of her earlier cheer, “if your dour mood isn’t about Evan, then who?”
I ground my teeth together. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Devlin. I was having a hard enough time not thinking about him.
“There’s no guy, Kelly,” I growled.
She only arched an eyebrow at me. Yeah. Fooling her was not going to work. I released an overly dramatic sigh and threw back my head.
“Fine. There was a guy, but he moved away, okay?”
“How far away?”
Ugh, she was really going to push this, wasn’t she?
“Across the country,” I snapped, screwing the lid back onto the sugar dispenser with more force than necessary. I slid it aside and went for the nutmeg.
“Robyn, let’s look at the broad picture here. So this guy that you like so much lives in a different state, right?”
I nodded, humoring her. A way different state.
“And have you told him that you love him?”
That slapped me right out of my mediocre attempt at avoiding the conversation. Setting the nutmeg aside, I turned and took her in. She was still sitting on the counter with her coffee, looking at me with that mildly serious expression she often adopted whenever we discussed something important.
“I’m sorry?” was my eventual response because, let’s face it, I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Okay, I’m not trying to stir up bad feelings or butt into business that isn’t my own, but I’ve seen you with him before. Blond hair, blue eyes, about eight feet tall? You didn’t just look at him like he was a piece of eye candy breezing through, not like the way you looked at Moira’s brother. There was something more there, something deeper. You’re in love with him, I can tell you are, so don’t try to deny it.”
“What’s your point?” I gritted as I grabbed the nutmeg and sugar and shoved them back in one of the cabinets, fighting against the sudden prickling chill that crawled over my skin.
“My point is, what do you have here that is tying you down? I mean, you have me and Margie and Jonathon and a few other friends, but do you even visit your parents anymore?”
I opened my mouth to argue with her, but then her words sunk in. She was right. Thanks to my parents’ bizarre opinions regarding human nature, I was no longer the daughter they had hoped to raise. For the first time during this whole lecture, I stopped what I was doing and thought about what Kelly was saying. Here in the mortal world, I was just Robyn, the sad little orphan struggling to make something of herself. But in the Otherworld? I might still have family there, people related to me by blood. A mother who might actually want me around.
Even if Devlin didn’t care about me as much as Enorah thought he did, there might be a new life waiting for me in Eile. And what about Meghan? Maybe I could live with her and Cade for a while until I found my relatives. Good grief, Robyn, two years ago you were rolling around in self-pity because Meghan got to live there and you didn’t. Now’s your chance to have the life you've always dreamed of. What’s holding you back?
But I knew, even before the wave of unease rippled through me, what was keeping me lashed tightly to my benign, ordinary life in the mortal world: fear. I was terrified of leaving what I knew behind in order to try my hand at surviving in a world completely foreign to me, a world where people like Mikael and Moira and faelah existed. But most of all, I was afraid of opening my heart up to Devlin; of allowing myself to be loved and to give that love in return, especially if that love was unwanted.
“Isn’t he worth it, Robyn?”
I blinked. Oh, Kelly was saying something again.
“Huh?”
“Isn’t he worth it? Isn’t he worth taking a chance for? You can always come back here and pick up your old life. I’m sure Margie would understand, and you could always pick up with your classes at Cuesta next year. But do you want to ignore your heart and give up this chance? Can you live with regret for the rest of your life?”
For a long, desperate minute I let those words sink in. No, I couldn’t. And I wouldn’t. She was right, and not just about Devlin. This life I was living was a good one, but since when had I simply settled for mundane and safe? For the first time in my life, the only person I had to answer to was myself, so why was I delaying the inevitable? I locked eyes with Kelly. My vision blurred, but I could see her smile.
“At least give him a call, Robyn. See where he stands. You deserve a chance at happiness.”
I was ready to charge right out of the Green Tea Leaf, get into my car, and drive to that dolmarehn but then my common sense pulled me back down to earth.
“This weekend I’ll try calling him,” I finally said with a small smile.
Kelly brightened. “That’s the spirit!”
“Now let me finish wiping down the counter so I can go on my lunch break,” I complained, slapping at Kelly with a dish towel.
Laughing, she hopped down from her perch. The bell above the door jangled, and my co-worker sidled over to take care of the new arrival.
I proceeded to dust crumbs and coffee stains from the counter, but then Kelly tentatively called my name. I glanced up, and my heart nearly stopped beating. As if our conversation had conjured him up out of thin air, Devlin stood in front of the counter, his composure cool and collected. Those blue eyes of his held mine, but I was far too befuddled and shocked to detect any emotion in them. He looked good, but of course he always looked good, and he appeared more rested than the last time I’d seen him. Despite his calm, outward appearance, that sharp awareness that always clung to him was still there.
“I think you ought to take your lunch break now,” Kelly said, her voice dripping with delight.
“But you have ten more minutes left of yours,” was my oh-so brilliant response.
“I’ll live,” she breathed, shoving me toward the gap in the counter.
As I hastily undid my apron, she hissed in my ear, “Now’s the time to tell him!”
Oh, I’m sure she thought so, but I wasn’t so certain. For all I knew, Devlin was here to thank me for all my help and to bid his farewells. But if so, Kelly had a point. I needed to tell him how I felt or I would regret it for the rest of my life. I had never backed down from a challenge and I wouldn’t start now, no matter how daunting it might be.
I glanced at the window as I made my way toward Devlin. Grey clouds hung in the sky, and it looked like the rain wasn’t quite done for the day. Good. No one would be lingering outside.
“Let’s go down to the creek,” I said quietly, brushing past Devlin without even looking at him.
Without a word, he followed me. I stepped through the door and turned right, crossing the small parking lot adjacent to the building. The sound of rushing water below greeted me as I took the first step down the concrete steps that led to the creek. I assumed Devlin was behind me, but I never glanced back to check. I was working up the nerve for the conversation that would begin the second my feet greeted the pebbles below.
I reached the water’s edge and turned around, Devlin coming to a stop a few yards away from me. I expected him to speak first, but all he did was stand there, staring at me as if I might sprout wings and fly away. It was extremely irritating, not knowing his thoughts. Finally, I couldn’t take the silence any longer. Ducking my head, I shoved my hands in the back pockets of my jeans and took a deep breath, fighting the urge to fling myself at him and melt into his comforting embrace.
“Obviously you aren’t going to talk,” I managed, “so I guess I’ll be the one initiating this conversation. I want to thank you for saving my life a few weeks ago. Enorah told me all about it, and although I think you are an idiot for not chasing after Mikael and Moira while you had the chance, I can’t say I’m sorry that you didn’t.”
I took a moment to gauge his reaction. Still that same calm, emotionless look. I bit my cheek before continuing on.
“Secondly, as I’m sure you know, I’m now aware that I am Lorehnin.” I gave a light chuckle. Look at me, acting all nonchalant about my heritage. As if finding out I had Otherworldly ancestors was like learning my blood type. I swallowed hard and forced myself to concentrate on the big picture. “Makes sense why the Daramorr was so interested in me,” I continued. “Apparently you were right to be suspicious of my weird magic, though I honestly had no idea about my heritage, I swear it.”
Still, Devlin remained silent. He shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest like he was waiting for something. It was as if he knew that the spark that existed between us was moments away from blazing to life, and that my words would be the fuel to feed it.
You can do this Robyn, you who has never shown fear. You, who fended off Otherworldly monsters and sauntered into the den of the Daramorr on your own. You survived an attempt on your life and bravely faced the real world with so much on your mind, it should be easy, this part. The reciting of a few words to a man who, although still remains a huge mystery to you, is also someone you trust without question. No matter how he takes your declaration, he will not be cruel.
“There is something more you need to know,” I said, my voice catching a little.
Strength Robyn, show strength. I cleared my throat and took a long, slow breath. After all, that’s what one did before jumping into the deep end.
I lifted my chin and looked him in the eye.
“I have not known you long, but in the time we’ve spent together, you have come to mean more to me than any other person I know. Where I come from, for a girl to admit these kinds of feelings to a guy can mean the end to whatever relationship they have. And if the moment isn’t right, it can ruin everything.”
I paused and took a deep breath, dropping my eyes to the pewter and grey pebbles at my feet. I could get through this. I had to.
“After all I’ve been through this past year, I have come to realize that the right moment is when you are sure of how you feel, and I’m sure, Devlin.”
My eyes lifted to his once again and I noticed the blue ice had melted a little. I took advantage of this slight show of compassion. “I am in love with you, Devlin O’Brolaigh, and whether or not you feel the same way, I wanted you to know.”
For several lingering seconds he stood there, immobile, unflinching, well-controlled. Then, as if some change in the direction of the wind brought it on, he moved. I hardly had time to react as he lifted me up into an embrace and my gasp of protest came to an end when his mouth descended upon mine. Heat and desire flashed through me, and I had to wrap my arms around him to keep from falling over. Oh, this kiss was so reminiscent of the one we’d shared on New Year’s Eve, only there was no hint of anger now. All I could feel was affection, passion and love. And didn’t that just make my heart race faster.
Long before I was ready, Devlin relented but didn’t pull away completely.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against my lips, kissing me once more. “I’m so sorry, Robyn.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it. Now can we get back to what we were doing before?
He reached up a hand and brushed my hair away from my face, his fingers lingering on the lavender streak. “The Daramorr should never have laid a finger on you.”
I shook my head in protest. He wasn’t to blame.
“It was my fault,” he murmured, still holding me close. “I should have paid closer attention; I should have known he was planning something. A man’s first duty is to protect the ones he loves, and I failed you.”
That took me aback. Even though his current display of affection proved as much, hearing the words meant even more. I pulled away from him, just enough so that I could read his whole expression. A lazy smile graced his face, the mask of controlled emotions long gone.
“The ones he loves?” I managed.
That smile only grew as he leaned in to nip my ear. Shivers that had nothing to do with the crisp air rippled through me.
“I love you as well, Robyn Dunbarre, my feisty, stubborn girl,” he whispered into my ear. “I have nothing to offer you, but I love you nonetheless.”
I beamed. “Oh, yes you do, and lucky for you it is the only thing I want from you.”
And then I stood on my toes so I could kiss him again.
I thought about everything that frightened me and all those things that had made me reluctant of late, loving Devlin being one of them. In the past six months, so many tendrils of my life had been twisted and warped, to the point that I hardly recognized it any longer. I had been hunted by faelah, completely disowned by my parents, bewitched and nearly murdered by a sadist from the Otherworld, and tempted by a Lorehnin warrior who I apparently couldn’t resist. Caution had become a necessary norm in my life.
And it’s about time to throw that caution to the wind, I told myself, locking my arms around Devlin’s neck and fully giving in to his kiss. Sensible, responsible Robyn has run her course. And I was more than ready to be reckless and wild once again.
Six weeks later …
The bed felt empty when I woke up, so I flung my arm out to make sure Devlin was beside me. To my great disappointment, my hand only met cool, rumpled sheets. Sighing my discontent, I cracked open an eyelid and peered at the window. The light streaming through the curtains was weak and grey. Just about dawn, would be my guess. Time to get up. Life in the Weald started early, and it was something I found myself getting used to rather quickly.
I crawled out of bed and found a clean set of clothes in the dresser Devlin and I shared. A pair of old jeans and a T-shirt featuring one of my favorite punk bands. I smiled. There were just some comforts from my old life I wasn’t ready to give up, and adjusting to life in the Otherworld was hard enough. Instead of business courses at Cuesta and hot showers to clean away the evidence of a stressful schedule, I became a student in Enorah’s daily defense lessons and took primitive showers beside the creek. In the afternoons, I helped some of the younger kids with reading, writing and basic math skills, and I was always volunteering to help with the large communal dinners. No more movies on my laptop or lazy afternoons at the Green Tea Leaf, only food cooked over an open fire and hard work.
But it also meant seeing Devlin on a daily basis and once again being part of a family. No, the Wildren of the Weald weren’t my blood relations, but we took care of one another and cared about each other. After my awful experience in the mortal world, the daily chores and good-natured bickering and teasing was a balm to my wounded soul.
Yes, I missed my old job and the friends I’d made there, and I felt somewhat unfulfilled having given up my college career, but I had never been passionate about those classes. They had merely been a way of preparing for adult life in the mortal world; a way to make ends meet once I graduated. Now I was preparing for a simpler life in Eile, and I couldn’t have been happier, despite the fact that I came home most afternoons so worn out I could collapse and fall asleep on the living room floor.
I grinned to myself as I recalled my first days in the Weald. The moment I arrived with Devlin’s hand clasped in mine, Enorah knew what had transpired.
“So, looks like we’ve got a new addition to our family,” she’d said, her intelligent eyes glittering.
I had been so pleased by her phrasing, and I had felt like part of their family ever since. After that, she’d insisted on taking me under her wing. That meant weapons and defense training, which was harder for me because all the others, except for the youngest kids, were so much bigger than I was and already had several years’ worth of experience under their belts.
“You have an advantage you’ve yet to utilize,” Enorah told me. “Your foes will think you’re an easy target. Let them. Then show them that just because you are short, it doesn’t make you any less fierce.”
I hadn’t appreciated her reference to my height, or lack thereof, but she did have a point. In those first few weeks, I realized that I couldn’t rely on my glamour to get me out of sticky situations. After having discussed it with Devlin and Enorah, we came to the conclusion that the strange purple light I had emitted during my ordeal with the Daramorr had indeed been my glamour manifesting itself. Yet for some reason it had remained dormant since, even after several days of living exclusively in the Otherworld. I was beginning to suspect that perhaps Mikael and Moira had stolen all of my magic during their botched sacrifice attempt.
“It never has behaved like other glamour,” Devlin had murmured when I brought up my concerns to him. “Perhaps it needs more time to emerge, or maybe it only does so when you’re under stress.”
He may have been right, but it bothered me not to know anything about my magic.
Shaking my head free of those troubling thoughts, I returned to the present and proceeded to pull on my clothes. Once dressed and fully awake, I headed downstairs and stepped into the main room of the little cottage I shared with Devlin. The place was bigger than my basement apartment back in San Luis Obispo, one of the only cabins in the Weald with a second story, and it was tucked away from the main stretch of the little village, giving Devlin and me plenty of privacy, something we both appreciated.
My cheeks warmed, and I felt a foolish grin break out on my face as memories from the past several nights came to mind. Enough of those thoughts, my inner voice warned, you don’t have time to daydream about Devlin all morning. You’ve got too much to do.
Reluctantly, I took my own advice and headed into the kitchen to make tea. Coffee was a little harder to prepare without a nice electric coffee maker, so I only made it on special occasions in the Weald.
As the kettle boiled over the fire, I sat down at the desk against the far wall and picked up the letter I had started over two weeks ago. It wasn’t a note to my adoptive parents, informing them that I was of fae origins and now happily residing in Eile. No, they wouldn’t have believed it, and there really was no point. They had made it clear they no longer cared what happened to me.
The message wasn’t intended for my co-workers, either. They were under the impression that I had moved back east with Devlin. Kelly had been delighted, though upset that she wouldn’t be seeing me anymore. Margie had been surprised. I’d had a promising future at the Green Tea Leaf; had I never learned I was from the Otherworld and had I never met Devlin, I would have continued working at the cafe in the hopes of making manager one day. Jonathon, to my amusement, had been horrified at my sudden desire to move away with, according to him, some random guy I’d met only a few months ago.
“And you thought I was crazy to go out with Moira,” he’d mumbled after hearing the news.
I couldn’t help but laugh. He did have a point.
I missed my friends, but this letter wasn’t addressed to any of them. After living in the Weald for over a month, I was finally going to let Meghan know about it. My face broke into a huge smile when I imagined her receiving the letter and reading it. But first I had to finish the accursed thing. I’d been so busy with settling in and getting to know all of the other Wildren that I hadn’t found a good time to get around to it. And, of course, I’d had trouble finding the right words.
Enough procrastinating Robyn! The sooner you write this letter the sooner you and Devlin can visit Meghan and Cade.
I had just put my pen to paper once again when the familiar sound of footsteps approaching the cabin distracted me. I knew that sure step. Devlin was back.
Forgetting the letter for the moment, I pushed it aside and stood, moving to let him in.
Devlin seemed surprised at first when I pulled the door open, but then his handsome face melted into a smile and his blue eyes grew warm. When he looked at me that way, I found it hard to breathe. Coming in from the cold, he closed the door behind him and turned toward me. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my cheek to his chest. He smelled so good, like wood smoke and snow and clean forest air.
He bent down and nudged my face away from his chest so he could kiss me.
“I’ll never get tired of walking into this cabin and finding you here,” he said as he draped his arms loosely around me.
I smiled, my eyelids drooping lazily. “And I’ll never grow tired of listening for your return.”
It was totally sappy and the sort of behavior I would have scoffed at a few years ago, but I couldn’t help it.
“Where have you been this morning?” I asked him, reluctantly pulling away from his embrace so I could tend to the whistling tea kettle.
Devlin released a great sigh and walked over to the large table in the middle of the room. He ran a hand through his pale hair and then laced his fingers together on the table.
“Conferring with Enorah and a few others.”
I lifted my eyebrows at that before returning to my task of preparing the tea. I grabbed a few muffins I’d made the day before and tossed them onto a tray with the teapot and mugs. Once everything was ready, I carried the whole thing back into the main room and set it down in the center of the table.
As I pulled my hands away, Devlin reached out and stopped me, his fingers wrapped around my left wrist, his thumb caressing the skin. I looked up at him, the surprise clear on my face. What I saw in his eyes startled me. Fear, apprehension, anger, reluctance.
Swallowing back my own rising anxiety, I said, “What were you discussing with them?”
He lifted his other hand and proceeded to pull me gently forward, his fingers trailing up my arm until they found the tattoo just below the elbow, the one that resembled a Celtic thundercloud. For a few seconds, Devlin let his thumb trail over the dark ink, his eyes fixated on the swirling design. My unease only grew.
“Devlin,” I said, my voice a little sharper than before. I tried to pull my arm away but he wouldn’t let go.
“Devlin!”
This time I gave it a hard yank and managed to pull free. Devlin blinked up at me, as if seeing me for the first time.
“What’s wrong?” I insisted.
He answered me by reaching into his pocket and pulling out a worn piece of folded parchment and tossing it onto the table. He gestured toward it and I leaned forward, picking it up and carefully unfolding it.
“I showed that to Enorah and a few of the oldest among us here, those of us who have been out in the world.”
As he spoke, I stared at the image drawn in black ink. It was a crude interpretation of my tattoo, the same tattoo Devlin had just been examining. I glanced back up at him, my brow creased in confusion. This was causing him to look so forlorn? Why?
Devlin released a small chuckle, but there really was no humor in it. “I thought it looked familiar,” he murmured as he rubbed his face with his hands. “I knew I had seen it somewhere before.”
Now that sent spikes of fear through me. What did that mean?
“Devlin? Can you speak clearly please? You’re kind of freaking me out.”
He looked back up at me, his jaw set in a hard line. Great. What he was about to say next couldn’t be good.
“About three years ago, I joined Enorah and a few others on a quest to the Amsihr Mountains north of here. We were commissioned to find and destroy a draghan.”
I sat down in the chair I had vacated earlier, eager to hear this story. Enorah had mentioned this adventure to me before but it had been devoid of details.
“Draghan? Is that like a dragon?”
Devlin nodded once.
“You have dragons here?!” I didn’t know whether I should be thrilled or terrified. Sure, dragons were awesome, but then again it would be like living with dinosaurs, I imagined.
“Not usually,” he continued. “Draghans sneak over from other realms every now and again, and they have to be dealt with. That’s why we were called upon.”
I nodded, and he kept speaking. “This particular draghan was terrorizing a group of women, the Amsihria, who reside in a colony up in the mountains. They live there alone, never interacting with the world beyond their small realm, and they are charged with taming the weather of Eile.”
He took another deep breath and pressed his fingers against the parchment resting on the table.
“This symbol was one among a few others etched in their halls.”
A strange feeling rose and shimmered through my blood, a sensation similar to the one that overtook me during those times my glamour had stirred.
I took a deep breath and said, “So, you’re saying that …”
Devlin cut me off, his voice short, as if he was trying to hide some emotion and failing miserably. “Enorah and I think that you are one of their daughters.”
I slumped back in my chair, the prickling just below the surface of my skin turning to a feeling of dread.
“It would explain why your glamour seems so strange, and why I had a hard time determining whether or not you were of the Otherworld.”
“Devlin,” I said, my voice quiet, “why do you seem so upset by this?”
His eyes were no longer wary or distant, but sparking with low anger.
“Because the Amsihrias’ Maithar, their leader, hates Lorehnin born Faelorehn. And these women are secluded and are kept away from men.”
My eyes widened. “They never marry?”
He shook his head. “They share only one man among them because, after all, they must replenish their numbers as time goes by. Their glamour is only potent enough to handle the tasks of weather taming for a certain time, then it fades.”
I was horrified. These women had to share one man? I tried to imagine myself sharing Devlin with a mountain full of women. The mere thought made me simmer with rage.
“I’m afraid if they find out about you they’ll want you to join their ranks, Lorehnin born or not. For the Daramorr to have hunted you down, I know you have strong glamour, whether it is willing to show itself yet or not.”
I stood up and walked over to Devlin, leaning into him so that his forehead rested against my shoulder.
“They can’t have me,” I said plainly, fiercely. “They can’t make me join them.”
I pulled away enough so that I could tilt Devlin’s head back and look at his face, my smile melting my ferocity away. “Though I wouldn’t mind meeting them. And this is good news. Maybe I’ll be able to find my mom, and it will be so much easier if they all live in one place.”
Devlin returned my smile, but there was still something lurking in his eyes, some speck of trepidation that didn’t reduce the slight bit of fear that clung to me. Was he hiding something from me? Not telling me the whole truth? I dashed the thought away, wondering if maybe I was misreading him.
Devlin wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his lap. I took advantage of my new position and snuggled in close to him.
“I’d like to go meet these Amsihria someday,” I whispered as I listened to his heartbeat.
Devlin smoothed my hair away and leaned in to kiss me. I didn’t think I’d ever grow weary of his kisses.
“Very well. When would you like to go?”
I blinked up at him in surprise. A minute ago he had seemed very unwilling to speak of them, now he was open to a visit?
“Really?” I asked.
The corner of his mouth tilted up in a half grin. “You are right. They may have information about your mother. And perhaps I’m overreacting a little. I should know more than anyone in Eile that you won’t do anything you wish not to do.”
And that only made me smile before leaning my head against his shoulder once more.
“How about we go after I get some more defense lessons under my belt,” I offered. “Later this spring? And then maybe we could visit Meghan and Cade on the way!”
The entire idea of traipsing across Eile with Devlin, and the thought of a visit with my best friend was enough to make me practically giddy.
Devlin chortled, his ill humor apparently gone for good, and stood up with me still in his arms. He spun us a few times, and I laughed out loud, clinging tightly to him so I wouldn’t go flying across the room.
“Then I had better let Enorah know,” he said once he’d set me down.
“Fine, but after we have breakfast,” I insisted, pulling him back to the table where the tea sat cooling.
Regardless of the light mood that now filled our cabin, the strange disquiet still lingered around Devlin like a biting wind that refused to give in to the warmth of a bright, sunny day. I was sure it had something to do with the Amsihria and what he had, or hadn’t, told me. But I would try and puzzle it out later. Right now my mind was going wild with ideas of what these secluded women might be like. A thrill of delight coursed through me at the very thought.
Maybe your mother is with them Robyn, your real mother. The one who had been so attentive to the child in your dreams. And maybe she can teach you about your glamour and why she gave you up in the first place.
With a huge grin, I sipped at my tea and leaned against Devlin, imagining what wonders the future might hold.
Many thanks to Steve Provost, my editor, for your superior skills in the world of grammar and for all the work you put in to making Lorehnin a polished book. I would also like to thank my beta readers, Becky Dillingham, Charles Dyer, Melanie Kucharik, and Jodi Moore, for taking the time to read through this manuscript with a fine-toothed comb. And, as always, a resounding Thank You to my readers, for sticking with me all this time and for giving the characters of my Otherworld Series many more imaginations to thrive in.