Hidden Worlds

by Kristie Cook

  “Liam is lying in a bed unconscious right now because one of your crazy guards stabbed him with an iron blade.”

  A flash of concern showed in her eyes before she rearranged her features into a coy smile.

  “I must admit, Samantha . . . this is an exquisite human you’ve got here,” Aoife said as she ran her eyes down Ethan’s exposed chest.

  “Samantha?” I asked. “Who’s Samantha?”

  Her eyes darted to mine. “Isn’t that what the humans named you?”

  “My name is Allison.”

  “Hmm, no matter.” Aoife blinked. “Come, we must get you back home to Thunder Bay before Liam wakes up. I’ll deal with him then.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “I need you out of TÍ r na n’Ó g before Liam wakes up. Breanh was a fool for bringing you here, but once you’re back in Thunder Bay I can straighten everything out.”

  “Straighten what out?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

  “I have lost the upper hand with Liam. He can’t find out about you, too. Humans are sentimental about their children. He’ll wonder why I never told him about you.” She waved her hand dismissively.

  A faint buzz began in my ears at her words. I could hear Eithne sobbing that I must forget everything she had said, and then it all clicked. Aoife had given birth to Liam’s child. Another child. And, like Eithne, Aoife thought I was her.

  A pinpoint of hope ignited in my heart as I looked at Aoife’s waiting expression. “I don’t live in Thunder Bay. I’m not your daughter, either. My mother is Elizabeth. And she is with Liam right now, nursing him back to health.”

  Just as her lips parted in understanding, Aoife grabbed me by the throat. I struggled against her, but she had a firm grip as she pulled me to her face.

  “I will enjoy killing you, then.”

  I tried to speak, but her fingers were crushing my windpipe. Frantically, I fumbled along my belt for my dagger. Stars were dancing in front of my eyes as I pulled it out of the sheath and, with all my strength, stabbed it into her side.

  Aoife cried out, and let go of my throat. I coughed and gasped, my lungs desperate for air. She tilted her head to one side and laughed cruelly.

  “He’ll never love you if you kill his child,” I croaked. I knew it was a stretch, but I had to use her obsession with Liam against her; it was my only chance.

  Indecision played across her features. “He’ll never know it was me,” she hedged.

  From somewhere close I could hear the pounding of footsteps and a deep voice calling my name.

  Aoife’s eyes grew wide with panic as she scanned around the room. “Who else knows you’re here?”

  “Aodhan came here with me.” I barely recognized the sound of my own voice.

  Aoife grabbed a fistful of my t-shirt, pulling me toward her again. “You won’t say a word of this to anyone,” she whispered, her eyes boring into mine.

  I licked my lips and nodded, feeling a little strange as I watched her pupils dilate. A word, never a word to anyone.

  Then, with a glance over her shoulder, Aoife disappeared.

  Seconds later, Aodhan charged into the room, looking around in alarm. When his eyes settled on me, I sunk down onto the bed. The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body had fled, leaving me drained.

  Aodhan looked down at Breanh lying in a heap on the floor and back up at me. I let him draw whatever conclusions he would. It was easier at that point than trying to come up with a story of my own.

  “Well,” he said, a tiny smile playing at his lips as he walked over to where I sat with Ethan. “It looks like you didn’t need me after all.”

  Chapter 13

  I sat in the chair like my mother had the night before to watch my father sleep. Ethan now lay in his place.

  His eyes were closed, and his breaths even. There was a shadow on his cheeks. I’d never seen him with stubble before—if I didn’t know better I’d think he was just sleeping.

  But I did know better.

  Aodhan had carried him all the way back to the Bruidhean. He’d used mind magic to get Ethan to sleep, but the glazed expression on his face was still vivid in my memory. I forced myself not to think about the Danaan woman tracing her finger down his jawline.

  Aodhan stood guard at the door while we waited for Deaghlan to come alter Ethan’s memories. It felt very wrong to let them tamper with his mind, but there wasn’t much of a choice. If we let him go back to Stoneville as he was, he’d think the women were just a dream, but he’d also be missing a three week chunk of memories. A day and half in TÍ r na n’Ó g meant we’d missed nearly a month back home.

  A dark brown curl fell over Ethan’s eye, and I reached out to smooth it back.

  Saoirse and Niamh had been here a little while ago. Niamh had showed me, what had happened while we were away from reality so I could play along when we returned. Saoirse’s watery basin was pretty handy when you needed to get caught up to speed on what you’d missed in your life.

  The story was that I’d found my mother sitting by the Duck Pond halfway between our house and the house Joanne had grown up in. Life had gone back to normal after that, or as normal as life can be when it’s a bunch of faeries disguised as you and the people you care about. Both Ethan and I had come down with “mono” to keep our interactions with others limited. I could just imagine all the jokes about us both coming down with the kissing disease.

  Pop had spent a lot of time going to the doctor. He’d been feeling some discomfort in his chest, and I watched Gram tell fake-Allison that Pop would be fine, that the doctor visits were “just to be on the safe-side.”

  Aodhan cleared his throat, announcing Deaghlan’s arrival and breaking me out of my thoughts.

  As soon as he entered the room, Deaghlan’s eyes found mine. He walked toward me, and I couldn’t make myself look away. I could feel each step he took in my pulse as he got closer. Aodhan had said Deaghlan was like a wolf, but to me he was more like a tiger. Every move he made was a smoldering combination of intimidating and enticing.

  His lips curved up, he knew exactly what he was capable of. I squeezed my eyes shut, pushing together the tiny threads of my mind that hadn’t come completely unglued.

  “Allison,” Deaghlan said. His smug expression confirmed that, yes, he absolutely knew the effect he had on me.

  My face screwed up into what I hoped passed as a pleasant smile. I drew my knees up under my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs. Tearing my eyes from Deaghlan wasn’t easy, but I managed to somehow focus on Ethan lying on the bed.

  Deaghlan stood in front of me, and with one last smirk, he leaned over the bed and placed a hand on Ethan’s forehead. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, not making a sound.

  After several minutes, he opened his eyes and stood. I glanced over at Aodhan, still standing by the door. His face was completely blank, but I didn’t miss the way his jaw stood out or that his knuckles were completely white.

  “He’s done,” Deaghlan said, clasping his hands in front of his waist.

  I looked down at the white tips of my sneakers. “Thanks.”

  I heard the sound of footsteps as Liam walked into the room. We all watched quietly as he paced for a moment.

  “Liam, what is it?” I asked, unable to keep quiet for long.

  He stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. He met my eyes briefly before rubbing his hands over his face.

  “Your mother is adamant about not going home. But we don’t have the amulet yet . . . we can’t break the geis.”

  “Not going home?” I said. The rest I had already had to accept.

  “She’s panicking about going back to the way she was. I can’t even talk to her.”

  I dropped my feet to the floor and stood, not even looking in Deaghlan’s direction. “Where is she?”

  “In the gardens,” Liam said. “But Allison, once we get her home safely, I’ll figure out how to break the geis. I will. This will all be over
soon.”

  Something cold trickled down my spinal cord. “To break the geis,” I said,“we need Aoife's amulet, don’t we?”

  Liam shifted. “Well, yes.”

  “And where is Aoife?” I looked over at Deaghlan.

  I hadn’t said anything about the incident with Aoife to anyone, but Deaghlan and Saoirse must have known she’d somehow escaped the fey sphere.

  “You make things so much more interesting, Allison,” Deaghlan said. He arched his brow, a slow smile spreading across his features.

  “Aoife will be dealt with,” Saoirse said from the door. “But, now it’s time for all of you to go home.”

  “I’ll talk to my mom,” I said, and I slid out the door, happy to let Saoirse and Deaghlan handle the rest of that conversation.

  ***

  My mother sat alone on a stone bench in one of the many thriving gardens. This one was filled with what smelled like herbs.

  Her head hung limp as she stared at her hands folded in her lap. She lifted her chin as she heard me approach, though, and a hint of the mother I was used to stared back into my eyes. Not the Elizabeth from the stories my grandparents told, but the despondent mother I’d known most of my life.

  I knew better than to be angry with her. None of this was her fault, I was well aware of that, but something snapped inside of me as I looked at her. Years of frustration and guilt bubbled up in my chest, bursting out in my words.

  “You can’t stay here,” I said.

  My mother nodded, looking back down at her hands. Her silence fueled my growing anger. Where was the strong, independent woman I’d heard so much about over the years? The rational part of my brain was appalled that I could feel this way, but the irrational side was much stronger at the moment.

  “Do you remember my first day of kindergarten?” I said.

  Her eyes jerked in my direction. “Yes,” she said. “I was still lucid back then. Sometimes, anyway.”

  “I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay home with you and Gram. Do you remember what you said to me?”

  My mother pressed her lips together and for a second I didn’t think she’d answer me.

  “No, not exactly. I just remember telling you that you had to go to school.”

  “You told me that you’d be right there waiting for me when I got off the bus. That’s what got me through the day, knowing you’d still be there when I got home.

  “No matter what happens Mom, I will be with you.”

  She took a deep breath and stood, looking at me with bright green eyes. I held my hand out and together we walked back inside.

  Chapter 14

  I tapped the steering wheel in time with a love song on the radio as I pulled into my grandparents’ driveway. The song itself was upbeat, but the message was that two people in love were lost without each other.

  I shifted into park and climbed out into the oppressive mid-August heat, my thighs sticking to the seat. This was the kind of heat that kept my grandparents in the house all day, especially since Pop had started having the discomfort in his chest. I hadn’t had a choice, though—the graduate program I would be starting in the fall was holding orientation, and I couldn’t miss it. I reached across the seat to grab my backpack, the words to the song still echoing in my ears.

  The sound of Ethan’s laughter came through my open window from Nicole's pool area, causing my heart to hiccup in my chest. I stood, grabbing the top corner of the door, trying to ignore that sound I loved so much. I hadn’t seen him in the week we’d been back from TÍ r na n’Ó g as we’d both been laid up with “mono.” I’d only convinced Gram I was feeling better two days ago.

  I shut the car door and looked over at the fence surrounding the pool area. In a split second, I made a decision. I was tired of lying to myself and to everyone else. It had been a mistake to tell Ethan I didn’t want him. That much was clear after everything that happened in TÍ r na n’Ó g. I couldn’t even remember a time in my life when I didn’t want him.

  The thought of him not giving me that stomach-tightening grin every time I saw him made my chest feel like a black hole. I couldn’t be his friend, not now that I knew what it was like to be more.

  I couldn’t get to the gate fast enough. I fumbled with the latch, and it creaked as it swung open. I felt a ridiculous grin spreading on my face as I imagined telling Ethan how I really felt.

  Nicole stood on the diving board, waiting to see who was coming in. Jeff was holding himself up with his arms resting over the side of the pool, and Ethan sat with his legs in the water of the shallow end. He was still laughing at something a petite blonde said as she stood gazing up at him from the water between his legs.

  Dizziness flooded over me, as if all the air had been stolen from my lungs, and I froze as her hands moved suggestively up his thighs. When he turned my way, his smile fell, and for just a second we stared at each other.

  “Hey, guys,” I said, looking at Nicole and Jeff. “I just wanted to...let you know that I’m back from orientation.” I tried to back away but stumbled, and my elbow hit the gate in a way that jarred my entire body.

  Tears burned behind my eyes as I spun on my heel, and let the gate swing closed behind me. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could but skidded to a halt when I saw the three familiar men standing by my SUV. Liam, Aodhan, and Deaghlan watched as I made my walk of shame back from my cousin’s house.

  “Liam?” My mind registered that they must be waiting for me. Immediately my thoughts went to my mother. She should be in the house; I hadn’t heard anything otherwise from Gram. “What’s wrong?”

  I vaguely heard the groaning of the gate opening behind me, and a voice calling out to me, but I was caught in Deaghlan’s blue stare again, and he was pulling me toward him like a tractor beam.

  “Al?”

  The trance was broken when I realized it was Ethan saying my name.

  I turned and saw him walking toward me, raking both of his hands through his damp hair.

  I couldn’t trust myself to speak, so I turned back to Liam, avoiding Deaghlan completely.

  “Hello, Allison,” Deaghlan said anyway as he sauntered over and kissed my forehead. As he pulled back, he stared hard at Ethan.

  I peered back over my shoulder to see Ethan’s eyes widen with surprise. He quickly looked over at Liam, his gaze questioning.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you here?”

  Liam cleared his throat, looking down at the ground. When he raised his eyes up to mine, his face was ashen.

  “Aoife has escaped.”

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  The Gatekeeper's Sons

  by

  Eva Pohler

  Chapter One: The Drowning

  Therese Mills peeled the white gloves off her sweaty hands as soon as she and her parents were in the car. Now that her mother’s thing was over, she could finally get home and out of this blue dress. It was like being in a straightjacket.

  Anything for Mom, of course.

  What the …

  A man glared at her through her backseat window. She jumped up, sat back, blinked. The man vanished, but when she blinked again, she could still see the eerie face behind her lids: the scruffy black beard and dark, haunting eyes.

  “Thanks again for making tonight so special,” her mother, apparently not seeing the man, said from the passenger seat as her father started the engine. “You two being there meant a lot to me.”

  “Did you see that man?” Therese peered through her window for the face.

  “What?” Her mother also looked. “What man?”

  “What man, Therese?” her father asked.

  “Never mind.”

  Therese did not find it unusual that her mother hadn’t noticed the man. Although her mother was a brilliant scientist, she wasn’t the most observant person.

  Just last spring after all the snow had finally melted around their house in the Colorado mountains, and Therese and her mother had
been able to enjoy their wooden deck with the melted lake spread out in front of them and the forest rising up the mountains behind them, Therese had spotted the wild horse and foal she had seen just before winter. They both had reddish brown coats with a white stripe between their eyes, the foal nestled beside its mother’s legs, staring intently at Therese without moving. The animals stood beneath one of two magnificent elm trees ten feet from their back door—the tree her mother said had gotten the Dutch elm disease. Therese relaxed with her mother at the wooden table on the deck, each of them with a mug of coffee in the bright Sunday morning. Her mother had the paper but wasn’t reading it. She had that look on her face when she was thinking of a scientific formula or method that she planned to try in her lab. Therese stared again at the horse and didn’t move. She whispered, “Mom.”

  Her mother hadn’t heard.

  “Mom, the wild horses,” she whispered again.

  Therese looked from the beautiful creatures to her mother, who sat staring in space, transfixed, like a person hypnotized.

  “Mom, are you deaf?” she blurted out, and then she heard the horses flee back up the mountain into the tall pines. She caught a glimpse of the foal’s reddish-brown rump, and that was that.

  As Therese strapped on her seatbelt, she also considered the possibility that she had only imagined the man in the window. She was, after all, prone to use her imagination and fully capable of making daydreams as real as reality, as she had, just now, with her memory of the horses.

  Her phone vibrated. A text from Jen read, “Heat sheets r n call me when u get home.” Awesome, she thought. Therese was anxious to see who would share her heat in tomorrow’s championship meet. She hoped she would be swimming breaststroke in the top heat against Lacey Holzmann from Pagosa Springs. She wanted to beat her this time.

  She searched outside her window for the scruffy face but saw only a line of headlights as others, like they, exited the parking lot of the concert hall. Maybe she had only imagined the man. It was getting dark. The mountains across campus were barely visible as dusk turned into night.