As Clover gathered the courage to walk through the door that led to the Land Beneath the Waves, water gushed from the entry that led back to the trench and Meara emerged from it.
“Mom!” Clover shrieked.
“It’s okay,” Meara assured, “Iekika has left for now. You’re okay.”
It was then that Clover noticed a deep gash across Meara’s chest, staining her white dress.
“Oh, my god. What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” Meara said, shrugging it off. “The important thing is that you made it through beneath the waves, not a small task for even the most powerful of faeries. You did it. Your powers are emerging, Clover.”
Suddenly, the night’s events came rushing back to her—creating a decoy of herself to divert Iekika, levitating, breathing under water, and making it through the trench.
“Oh, no,” Clover gasped. “Anna tried to fight Iekika off. We must go back. Momma Ruth and my dad were in the house, too. We need to go now—”
“You’re safer down here. I’ll go and check on Anna and your family,” Tony interrupted.
“He’s right,” Meara said. “You mustn’t go back up. Not yet.”
Clover’s mind was racing. So much had happened in such a short amount of time.
“Could you let Finn know where I am? And let my dad and grandmother know that I’m not hurt?”
Tony nodded. “Of course. I’ll take care of it.”
She turned to Meara. “What are we going to do in the meantime?”
Meara smiled as she held her hand out in invitation. “Don’t you want to meet the rest of your family?”
The enormity of Meara’s question nearly knocked the wind out of her. Was she ready to enter yet another foreign world to meet her long-lost supernatural kin? She decided she’d made it that far down the rabbit hole, no sense changing course now.
She took her mom’s proffered hand and followed her home.
After Alistair and Vincent left the Seelie Court, Finn assigned a handful of their best soldiers to guard the queen. He would strategize with Queen Helena later, after he made sure that Clover was okay. Never mind that it was late, or she might be in bed, he would see her that night or he would lose his mind. As he made his way to Anna’s house, Alistair’s words kept replaying in his mind. All I want is my wife back. With every step, his fury multiplied. If it was the last thing he ever did, he would kill Alistair before he laid another hand on Clover. He would respect the three days of ceasefire in honor of the slain king, but after then, all bets were off.
In his rage, he almost didn’t notice the wide-open front door to Anna’s house, but the smells of sulfur and lightning were unmistakable.
“Clover.” Her name came out in a whisper as Finn dashed into the house like a madman.
Momma Ruth and Nick were crouched over Anna as she lay on the ground, motionless. Cordelia hovered over her body, panic and concern etched on her tiny face.
“Finn!” Momma Ruth screamed. “Something’s terribly wrong. We heard a commotion and found her like this.”
He rushed to his mother’s side and found her unresponsive, yet conscious. Even as her body lay stiff as a board, the anger in her eyes mirrored Finn’s. He’d seen this type of magic before. Iekika had used it on the Seelie Army during the battle with the Unseelies.
“Anna,” Finn whispered as he leaned in closer. “I’ve got you.”
A slow-spreading warmth snaked its way to the palms of his hands like it always did before a healing. He placed both hands above Anna’s heart and closed his eyes. His arms turned rigid as Anna’s face and upper body regained mobility. His torso and legs cramped up as he absorbed the full force of the magic that left Anna’s body and entered his.
She grabbed hold of his arm. “That’s enough, son.”
Exhausted, Finn let go. “Did Iekika do this?” he asked between labored breaths.
Anna nodded.
Bile rose up his throat as he uttered the question he was afraid to hear the answer to. “Is Clover okay?”
The looks on Nick’s and Momma Ruth’s faces were answers enough.
“Where is she?” he asked, feeling his heart collapse into itself.
Tony walked in at that moment. “She’s with Meara. Clover is safe.”
Nothing could have prepared Clover for what she saw when she walked through that door. Before she entered, she momentarily held a vision of mermaids lounging on giant seashells while lobsters danced and sang nearby. The reality couldn’t have been farther from her cartoonish expectations. An ancient city, vast as the eye could see, dotted with lakes, rivers, and streams that meandered through intertwining stone walkways and passages, seemingly enclosed in a gigantic sheer globe, where the sky was the ocean, and the constellations were the ripple of the waves. The merrows weaved effortlessly between water and land, fins transforming into limbs and vice versa in the blink of an eye. The women were dressed in linen tunics and the men in what looked like white pajama bottoms. Some of them looked their way and nodded knowingly. They’d been expecting her.
Two women approached, one with silver blond hair and sparkling green eyes, and the other, a statuesque brunette, both lovely. Like Meara, they had feminine yet strong physiques—the types that conveyed, I look good in a dress, but I can kick your ass.
“Clover,” Meara said as she motioned to the blonde, “I’d like you to meet Boann—”
“And I’m Sinann,” said the brunette with a smile.
“They’re my nieces,” Meara said. “Your cousins.”
Totally blown away that she had cousins her age—or at least looked her age—Clover hugged both of them.
“I’m so happy to meet you both.”
If Boann and Sinann were taken aback by her display of affection, they didn’t show it. They were both gracious and delightful, hugging her back with equal enthusiasm.
“We’ve been waiting to meet you for a very long time,” Boann said. “Come and let’s head to grandfather’s house. He’s very eager to meet you, too.”
She looked to her mom. “Grandfather?”
Meara nodded. “My father.”
Her heart was fit to burst. All her life, she’d only had Momma Ruth, with no cousins or relatives from her father’s side. Then, as if by some karmic turn of events, she discovered not only her mother and her true nature but also a whole new side to her family. If that wasn’t lucky, she didn’t know what was.
She followed Meara and her cousins as they traversed the narrow, winding streets. Boann pointed to a fort-like structure in the distance. “That’s where we’re headed,” she said as she led her over subterranean pools and streams that snaked through the city’s alleys and side streets. She imagined that even if Venice in Italy somehow magically morphed with Santorini in Greece, it still wouldn’t be nearly as breathtaking as the Land Beneath the Waves.
Merrows did somersaults off a nearby cliff, their legs transforming into fins as their bodies glided silently into the water.
Sinann caught her staring. “Some of the pools connect to the human world,” she said. “We like to visit every now and then,” she added with a playful wink, “and sometimes we bring back souvenirs.”
“Oh,” Clover replied not-so-eloquently as she pictured beautiful mermaids sitting atop rocks, luring weary sailors out to sea with their enthralling siren calls.
Up close, what she thought was a fort was actually a castle, complete with a drawbridge and a moat, which in that environment appeared purely recreational as merrows splashed around in its shallow waters. She once thought the faerie realm epitomized a carefree and bohemian spirit. The Land Beneath the Waves had the feel and essence of spring break in Miami Beach.
They crossed the drawbridge and walked under the raised portcullis. As castles went, her grandfather’s certainly didn’t seem well-protected. In the courtyard, there seemed to be some kind of party underway. Merrows sipped wine as they lounged on daybeds and schmoozed around cocktail tables.
“What’s going on here?” Clover whispered to Meara.
Meara shrugged. “It’s always like this.”
A dashingly handsome man with shoulder-length, golden curls approached. Sporting the same breezy linen pants and bare chest look like the others, he stood out because of the beautiful tattoos inked like mosaics on his torso and arms that surprisingly conveyed neither biker boy nor escaped convict. He looked like a living, breathing, masterpiece.
“You must be Clover,” he said to her. His eyes, which were the same indigo shade as Meara’s, bore such depth and maturity.
Before she could respond, Meara made the introductions. “Clover, this is Manannán mac Lir, your grandfather.”
He flashed her a dazzling, yet warm smile. “Everyone calls me Lir.”
Her mind strayed to an elective class she once took on Celtic mythology. “Lir? You mean, like the sea god?”
His laugh was deep and spirited. “I’m not sure I’d call myself a god. You, my dear, may call me grandfather. That is, if you’d like to.”
“Grandfather.” She tried the word out, and felt a warmth spread inside. “Yes. I’d like that very much.”
Finn gripped the compass in his hand and pointed it north.
“You’ll break it holding it that tight,” Anna scolded.
He couldn’t blame her for her foul mood. All of them were on edge. Iekika’s brazen attack held many implications. Chief among them, the fact that the Unseelie King had just broken ceasefire and that a full-on war was inevitable. Even though he had feared it, Finn never expected Alistair was capable of such a blatant act of disrespect. The first thing he needed to do was get in touch with Scobert and warn him. He would then brief Queen Helena, and then he would go see Clover.
“This damn thing is not working.” His patience was wearing thin.
Mary had joined them and was helping Cordelia serve tea to everyone. “It will work, Finn. Scobert enchanted that compass himself. If it was good enough a gift for the queen, then I daresay it should be good enough for you.”
“Everybody, calm down,” Nick chimed in. “We do each other no good by biting each other’s heads off.”
Although he knew Nick was right, and even though Tony had assured him Clover was safe, the longer he stayed apart from her, the more restless he became. He jumped when the compass shook violently, leapt from his palm, and landed on the floor, vibrating. An image of Scobert projected from the compass, filling a clurichaun-shaped space in Anna’s living room.
“What’s the matter?” Scobert asked. His voice crackled and his image blurred, like from an old television.
Finn went straight to it. “Alistair has been named Unseelie King. He parleyed with the queen, but it was a ploy. Iekika attempted to snatch Clover and fought both Anna and Meara in the process. Clover is now safe beneath the waves.”
“What a damn fool he is,” Scobert mused. “Is Helena secure?”
“Yes.”
“Kean and I will return shortly via portal. King Boris is getting an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere. In light of Alistair’s actions, all courtesies are off the table. We go to war.”
Finn nodded. “Agreed.”
Scobert’s image flickered, dimmed, then disappeared.
“I told you it would work,” Mary said with an air of smugness.
“I never doubted it.” Finn took the compass and put it in his pocket. “I’m heading to the court to brief the queen. Who’s coming with me?”
“I am,” everyone answered in unison.
Clover always imagined it would be nice to have big family dinners, like the ones in movies depicting thanksgiving feasts—the father carves the bird, platters of food are passed around as everyone loads their plates. She’d never had that. Not that dinners with Momma Ruth weren’t special—because they always were—but there was something about a loud, festive meal that screamed hominess and a sense of belonging. She never imagined her first big family dinner would be with a bunch of mermaids, ten thousand feet beneath the ocean’s surface, but she was going to take what she could get.
Lir walked around the long table depositing trays of food, while Meara refilled everybody’s glasses with wine. Boann’s husband, Nachtan, and her son, Aengus, had joined them and were both eager to get to know their new kin. They peppered her with questions about her life in New York, what she thought of the faerie realm, and how she felt about being half-Fae.
“They’re really dying to know more about your father, but they’re too proper to ask,” Boann said as she reached over and tore off a piece of bread.
“Oh, hush,” Meara said as she poured her cousin more wine. “Another topic, perhaps?”
Sinann laughed and shook her head. “This one’s always tight-lipped about the mysterious Nick, who stole her heart away. Auntie, c’mon now. Isn’t it about time we talked about him?”
She locked gazes with her mother fleetingly before Meara looked away and glanced at Lir.
“Ladies, that’s enough.” Her grandfather’s tone, although light, didn’t leave room for argument.
A brief silence followed while everyone seemed to rack their brains for a new topic. Clover took a crack at it. “Sinann, will your husband be joining us as well?”
Sinann threw back her drink. “No husbands for me, I’m afraid,” she said with a naughty twinkle in her eye. “I’m more inclined to the female persuasion, if you will.”
“Of course.” With her foot in her mouth, her words sounded garbled to her. “I’m sorry for making an assumption.”
“Don’t be,” she whispered conspiratorially at her. “I’m not.” Sinann’s eyes shifted to the entrance to the dining hall. “Speaking of persuasions, here she comes now.”
A petite girl with dark hair and a kind face walked in. Looking about seventeen-years-old, she was wearing the same linen tunic that all the women donned, but she didn’t have that same air of confidence and otherness the other ladies had. Instead of gliding into the room, like Clover’s mom and cousins would have, this girl sort of scurried in. Looking self-conscious and fidgety, she mumbled her hello’s and took the empty seat in between Clover and Sinann.
She bowed her head slightly at Lir. “Your Majesty.”
He shook his head and stifled a laugh. “For the umpteenth time, Button, you may call me Lir.”
Clover had to consciously keep her expression passive to hide her confusion, but more importantly, her curiosity. Who was this girl and why was she addressing Lir like royalty?
Sinann provided some clarity. “Cousin, this is Button, my special friend.” She planted a kiss on the girl’s lips.
Clover extended her hand to her. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Me, too,” she said. Then with a hushed voice and only to her, “Who brought you down here?”
“What?”
“Clover is Meara’s daughter,” Boann chimed in. “She’s half-Fae.”
“You two will have a lot in common,” Sinann added. “She’s also from New York.”
Suddenly, things started to make sense. Her fairly natural looking appearance, her aloofness, her deference to Lir. Button was human, presumably brought down to the Land Beneath the Waves as—in Sinann’s words—a souvenir. Clover wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Seemingly sensing her discomfort, Meara added, “Button has been living with us for many years. This is her home now.”
Button nodded as she loaded her plate with food. “I love it here.”
“Oh, good,” Clover said while she made a mental note to befriend Button and get to the bottom of that situation.
Before another uncomfortable pause could commence, Tony walked in.
“Ilbreac!” Lir called out. “Come join us.”
Clover searched his face for answers. Was everyone okay? Tony nodded and went straight to her.
“They’re fine. Anna’s fine. Nick and Ruth are a bit frazzled but doing well.”
“Thank God. Finn?”
“The lad’s wrecked with worry,” Tony whispered. “He insisted on going with me, but I couldn’t take him without Lir’s consent first.”
Clover chewed on her lower lip. As much as she’d enjoyed being beneath the waves with Meara, she had family up in the faerie realm, too, and they would be worried about her. As if balancing two worlds wasn’t hard enough, now she had to add a third one to the mix.
“Yo, princess,” Tony said, using a familiar and often used endearment. “Care for a walk?”
“I’d love one.”
Meara and Lir looked on as she followed Tony out a side entrance that led to a courtyard.
“Looked like you needed a break,” Tony said as he walked toward a vast rose garden with every colored flower imaginable.
“I want to go back up.”
“You’re safer here,” Tony insisted. “Our lands are unreachable, even to other Fae. There’s the faerie realm and there’s the Land Beneath the Waves, the Otherworld. Although we are one, we are removed from the rest of the Fae. This is how it’s always been. Queen Helena herself insisted that we keep you safe here.”
“For how long?”
“Be patient, kid. This is all for your own good.”
When she didn’t respond, Tony changed the subject. “So,” he said sheepishly, “how was it meeting the family?”
Clover didn’t know where to start, but if there was anyone she wanted to talk to at that moment, it was Tony. She’d known him all her life and there was practically nothing that she didn’t share with him. “It was awesome and scary and confusing all at once. I have a ton of questions.”
“Let’s hear ‘em.”
“Okay. Why did Lir call you by a different name? How come you look at least twenty years younger now? Why did Button address Lir as your majesty and what’s the story with Button? Did Sinann kidnap her? And—does my mom still have feelings for my dad?”
Tony guffawed. “Pump your brakes, kid. One thing at a time.”
Hearing him laugh like that, it was like old times. Before she knew it, she was giggling along with him.
“All right, first question. My real name is Ilbreac mac Lir. It’s hard to pronounce and even harder to spell. When I started spending more time on Earth, I chose an alias. Tony Glass. Your mother and I use the name Glass in honor of our mother. Fand Glass. She died many years ago.”
“I’m sorry,” Clover said. “I didn’t realize she was dead.”
“She was very powerful, and she loved Lir deeply. Some considered her queen of the Otherworld. I suppose that sort of answers one of your questions. Lir is, in a lot of ways, looked upon as not only king but a god down here, although he would never acknowledge it. My father wears his power well, with grace, and not like a sword to be brandished about.”
As she imagined a powerful, regal faerie queen who once ruled the Otherworld with Lir, she felt nostalgic for a history she didn’t even know she was a part of until recently. She wanted to digest all she could, as fast as she could, to make up for all she’d missed.
“Hey.” Tony interrupted her thoughts. “You okay?”
“Yes. Now, on to my other questions.”
“Right. Why do I look younger? Because I used glamour on myself back in New York. I figured I’d be more trustworthy if I looked older. I apologize for the ruse. All those years, it was all to watch over you for your protection. I don’t regret a day of it.” He stopped to pick a purple rose from a nearby bush and offered it to her.
“Thank you.” Clover took the flower and remembered all the little gifts Tony had given her throughout the years, the sea glass bracelet on her wrist, the most recent one.
“Now, as to Sinann and Button, that’s none of my business. There’s something you should understand, Clover. Faeries have not always treated humans as equals. I mean, we call you lackeys. It’s not uncommon for Fae to forcibly take mortals from their homes and bring them here, as companions, or at times, playthings. I’m not defending it. I’m just telling you the way of things.”
“That’s horrible.” Button was her age. She’d barely even had the chance to live her life before Sinann chose her path for her. “Can she still go back if she wanted to?”
“It’s been many years.” Tony shrugged. “Again, it’s not my business, but I will say that I do believe they love each other dearly.”
The barrage of information was enough to keep her mind occupied for years. “If Boann and Sinann are my mother’s nieces, then does that make you—their father?”
Tony erupted in his trademark reverberating laugh. “Hell, no. They belong to my other sister, Aoife.”
As her family tree grew bigger by the minute, Clover’s mind reeled. “How many other brothers and sisters do you have?”
“Just us three.” Tony peered at her closely. “Hey. I know this is a lot to take in, but I’ll be here for you every step of the way. So will your mother. If it makes any difference, the only time I’ve ever seen Meara cry was when she left you and your father. I don’t know if that answers your last question about her feelings for Nick, but I do know that it was one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do.”
She wrapped Tony in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you for everything.” Then she steeled herself for what was to come. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.” Tony offered his arm. “I say we start there, and the rest we’ll figure out as we go along.”
Locked arms with the man who had been there for her all her life, she walked bravely toward an uncertain future.
Alistair walked along a deserted, provincial street in the middle of nowhere, his expensive loafers scratching against the gravel underfoot. He wasn’t sure what peeved him more—the fact that he’d ruined his best pair of shoes or that Iekika bungled the simple task of snatching Clover from under Anna’s nose. The subterfuge of a parley would have worked like a charm if only she’d done the job she was supposed to do. How hard was it to nab one teeny human? Clover was the perfect instrument to achieve his goal of closing the portals between Earth and Faerie forever—a half-human sacrifice whose death would pierce the hearts of his enemies. He imagined Meara’s would-be anguish and felt his own jaded heart flutter. He would take his small victories wherever he could get them.
A bat flew overhead, which meant he was nearing his destination. To Alistair, there was no habitat more depressing than rural America. Devoid of anything to entertain aside from the occasional county fair, it was the epitome of the type of small life he wanted nothing to do with. For those same reasons, it was also the perfect place to hide people he didn’t want found.
At the end of the dark street, the light from a small cabin shone like a little ray of hope in the distance. He gave himself a much-deserved mental pat on the back. He’d done a lot of things in life he wasn’t proud of. Not exactly the most honorable or kindest of men, he instead prided himself in being strategic and thorough. Eighteen years ago, when he set his plan in motion by inserting himself into Clover’s life, he also considered the possibility of failure. Since half-faerie children weren’t easy to come by, a degree of preemptive action became necessary.
He entered the cabin at the end of the lane like he owned it. “Ladies, I’m home.”
In the eighteen years since he’d adopted them, Therese had certainly warmed up to him, although not entirely of her own accord. When he took them those many nights ago, she’d tried to bite his finger off. He made sure that would never happen again by employing a little mind-altering magic and she’d been an angel ever since.
Still beautiful, if not a bit beaten and bored, she rose from her seat by the hearth and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispered.
“Where’s Mirabella?”
The girl walked in through the back door, her long, curly, golden hair held up in a messy knot, the familiar look of disdain and resignation evident on her face. Not as malleable as her mother, the mutt proved a little harder to control over the years.
“To what do we owe the pleasure of your company? she asked, sardonic as all hell.
“I have news. The time has finally come to reunite you with your father.” He turned to Therese. “And you, your husband.”
Therese nodded. “We’ll do as you instruct.”
Mirabella just glared at him.
“Remember,” he said, glaring right back at her. “Your loyalty lies with me. You will report to me. Failure to comply by either of you means death to the other. Do you understand?”
Mirabella’s face reddened and her breath hitched as she reached for Therese’s hand. “Yes,” she hissed. “I understand.”
“Good,” Alistair said. “Well then, ladies. I believe Scobert is in for quite the surprise.”