Chapter Seven

I landed on the cold ground with a hard thud. A blank gray sky stretched above me. Regina’s face came into view, her features contorted with rage. She grabbed my shoulders, pulled me up, and slammed me against a tall slab of stone.

“How did you open the door?” Her voice was shrill, her fingernails digging into my arms. “How did you do it?”

My mouth gaped, searching for words. Behind Regina, Carolan’s crumpled body lay twisted on the ground. Seamus knelt beside him, his knees sinking deep in the mud, his hands against Carolan’s robes, trying to staunch the bleeding. Hearing the hysteria in Regina’s voice, he shouted her name.

Regina slammed me again. My back cracked against stone, and I cried out as a shock of pain rippled through my body. Her small white teeth looked like they were about to tear my throat out, and her wide feral eyes bore into me.

“The walls of Trinity have never been breached. Not for centuries! Not since their creation!”

She threw me to the ground, my elbows skidding against the mud, dagger-like pain shooting through my wrists as I struggled to catch myself. I rolled against the damp earth, trying to crawl away.

Regina shrieked at the dark sky above. “How did you do it?” She hovered over me, her hair dripping with sweat, her teeth bared. The sole of her foot blocked out the sky, and I rolled away.

Seamus grabbed her and pushed her to the side. “Stop it!” He held her back as she struggled like a wildcat, arms flailing, howling.

“Máirtín and Grainne are dead! They’re dead because of you.” Regina’s voice broke, and she crumbled in Seamus’s arms and sobbed.

I sat up, catching my breath.

“Regina, I swear. It was Thornton. I don’t know how he did it. I—”

“Shut up!”

Seamus pulled Regina away from his chest and shook her. “That’s enough! Carolan is hurt. There’s a cottage up the hill there. Come on.”

Regina swallowed her cries and fell to her knees next to Carolan, her shoulders shuddering with suppressed sobs as she helped ease Carolan into Seamus’s arms.

Seamus pressed his forehead against Regina and whispered. “Misneach agat.”

Take heart.

I sat up in the mud and looked around at the circle of standing stones jutting out against a threatening sky. Deep green hills rose all around us, and small white sheep dotted the landscape like miniature toys.

“Where are we?” I asked, staggering to my feet. “Are we in Ireland?”

No one answered me.

Carolan groaned, deep in the throes of a fever from the snake’s venom. My flesh prickled, remembering the grip of the poison as it surged through my veins. My heart yearned to heal him, to make it better. Thornton had found the weakest part of me, set the stage, hung the lights, and worked me like a puppet on a string. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek against a standing stone, smooth and cool against my skin.

Regina grabbed me. “Keep up!”

I shrugged her off. “I’m coming!”

She glared at me, unchecked tears streaming down her face, and trudged after Seamus who held Carolan in his arms.

We made it to the cottage seconds before a torrential rain tore through the clouds. Two wayward sheep milled about, and Regina shooed the animals out of its damp walls. Seamus laid Carolan down on an ancient mildewed mattress on the floor, and the old man emitted short, staggering breaths, his face the color of roadside slush. I crouched down beside Seamus, who brushed the white hair away from the blind man’s forehead.

“Can’t you…?” My voice cracked. “Can’t you heal him? Like Finn?”

Seamus shook his head, a pinched expression on his face. “I can’t.”

Carolan’s eyes flickered open, and blood gurgled out of his mouth, splattering onto his robes. “It’s too late for me now, Niamh.” His lips turned up, and he let out a bitter laugh. “But sure ’tis a blessed man who gets to die twice.”

“What does he mean by dying twice?” I whispered.

Seamus’s eyes squeezed shut, and thick tears dropped from his long eyelashes onto his knees, bleeding into his blue jeans. He brushed them savagely away and turned to the door.

“I’ll go!” Seamus insisted, clutching onto the old man’s hands. “I’ll get help. Trinity Galway—they have healers. They can—”

Carolan waved his hand, “Go on there, then. If it makes you feel better.” The old man coughed, and more blood trickled down his chin. The bright red color reminded me of Moiré toward the end, how she had wasted away, her body atrophying before my eyes. And once again, I could do nothing but wring my hands and cry like an idiot. I grabbed Carolan’s hand, and it felt shriveled, frail, the poison already doing swift work on his aged body.

Seamus rushed over to Regina and talked to her in quiet tones. Regina glared at me and pointed, but he shushed her and pulled her in for an intense embrace before storming out of the cottage. Only the sound of the rain and Carolan’s raspy breathing broke the silence.

Regina backed against the wall and slid down to the floor, pressing her knees against her chest. She cocked her gun and pointed it at me.

“Put the gun down. I’m not going anywhere.” I wiped the blood away from Carolan’s face with the edge of his robe.

“Shut up.” Her voice cracked and she broke down, her whole body wracked with sobs.

“Regina, please, I didn’t—ˮ

“We should never have trusted you. Seamus tried to tell Finn. When he found out what you were.” She laughed, and it was a terrible, hollow sound. “Never trust a Fae.”

“A Fae? What the hell are you—?” I closed my eyes, wiping my tears away with my arm, trying to get ahold of myself. The woman just lost her husband. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you’re sorry? Finn should have left you to die at St. Brendan’s! He should have—” Regina uncocked her gun and doubled over, whimpering Máirtín’s name through hiccupping sobs.

Her words stung like a hot brand to my back. I shouldn’t be here. I didn’t belong in this world.

Carolan coughed again, and his milky eyes studied me, darting and scanning the planes of my face.

“Hello, Niamh.”

“Hi,” I said, blinking back tears.

“You look so changed.”

I shook my head. “Carolan, I’m not Niamh. I’m—”

“Why wouldn’t you listen to me? I told you it wouldn’t work. The book. Ancient promises bound within its pages. I saw it all from the beginning—” Carolan coughed again. He closed his eyes and settled back on the mattress, and for a tense moment I thought he had died, but his eyes flickered open, and he began again in a raspy whisper.

“Go, Niamh! Find another way—” Carolan choked. Then his body stilled, and his sightless eyes stared into nothing. I closed his eyelids and placed my palm over my mouth, trying to stifle the cry escaping my throat.

Regina crawled over, knelt on the floor behind me, and placed her hands on Carolan’s brow. She sang a low, keening song in Irish, the mournful sound of the rain echoing her voice. She lowered her eyes, and tears stained with mascara fell on the mattress.

I stood up and went to the window, or where a window might have been long ago. Now it stood out as an empty square hole in the wall. Leaning against the stone, I watched the October rain soak the earth, falling across the valley in thick gray sheets and creating dark pools in the yard. I always thought coming to Ireland would be an adventure. I had imagined it so many times. Moiré, Dr. Forrester, and I ducking into pubs for a couple of pints, burning hours away in the archives, snapping pictures of dolmens, crumbling churches, Yeats’s grave. But staring out at the driving rain beating against the barren cliffs, I had never felt so cold and miserable in my life.

Regina and I held vigil for hours. Sometime after darkness fell, a vehicle pulled up in front of the cottage, its wheels sliding through thick, oozing mud. The rain had trailed off long ago and a soft mist settled on the ground. Through the fog, Finn, Seamus, and a man and woman I hadn’t seen before jumped from the car and approached the house. The man was tall and wiry with coppery hair and a slinking gait. The woman had a small compact body, her long, silky hair swaying behind her as she approached the door.

My heart leaped into my throat at the sight of Finn angling across the yard. All the anger I felt toward him swept aside, and my legs ached with the compelling desire to run to him, let him cover me with his warm, healing hands. But then I turned away from the window, scrubbing my face as if I could wipe away my shame. I didn’t even know how to begin to explain what had happened with Thornton, but I knew it was my fault.

Finn ducked under the small door of the cottage, and instantly the space felt smaller. I shrank into the wall, but his eyes glittered in the moonlight, paralyzing me. My heart pounded in my chest.

Seamus threw his arms around Regina, ushering her out the doorway and into the car while the man with the coppery hair gathered Carolan’s body.

Finn and the strange woman glanced at each other and came toward me.

“Finn, wait.” I raised my hands defensively. “Let me explain. Thornton—”

The look on Finn’s face stopped me short. Anguish, confusion, rage, hurt boiling like a restless sea. I took a step back, my skin prickling.

“Elizabeth, you must come with us now.” His voice sounded low, dark. All the blood rushed from my head as he took another step toward me.

“Finn, please, listen to me. I didn’t—”

The woman grabbed my arm out of nowhere and twisted me toward her.

“Gah!” I gasped, my shoulder straining in its socket as I failed to pull away.

“Tie her up, Aoife, and take her to the car.” Finn’s shoulders slumped.

“Finn! Wait! I didn’t! Please just listen to me!”

He turned, his mouth set in a thin, hard line. I stood there gazing at him, not noticing Aoife tying up my wrists until the rope tore into my flesh. Thrashing against her, I screamed. “Don’t! Wait!”

Aoife placed a firm arm around my waist and pushed me forward out the door of the cottage.

“Finn, le do thoil,” I said in Irish, conjuring Dr. Forrester’s ghost, the way he had asked Finn to return Arranmore. That seemed like a million years ago, in someone else’s life.

I went limp in Aoife’s arms, all the fight drained out of me, as Finn walked toward the car. He turned before he opened the driver’s side door and met my plaintive stare.

“I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” he said. “I’m just following orders.”