by Laney McMann
I swallowed. “So, something is after me … or us … because we’re together now.”
“Yes.” He didn’t meet my gaze.
I backed a few steps away from him. “And you knew this would happen? You knew getting too close to me would put me in danger—put both of us in danger?” I raised my voice, heat building.
He hesitated. “Could you have walked away from me after you saw me?” He raised his voice back at me. “Would you have ever been able to let me go or believe you weren’t some mental case?”
I stared into his gorgeous face as he stared fiercely back into mine. Memories of him swept over me. The sound of his voice calling my name as we ran across the beach as kids. Jumping down from my open bedroom window as he grinned up at me, his hand brushing over mine.
“Well? Because I could never have walked away from you again, regardless of what I knew. Being away from you has been killing me all these years. I’ve been staying near you all this time not only to protect you, but also because I can’t bring myself to stay away!”
All the memories I’d beckoned and called up from my subconscious mind, knowing I shouldn’t, rushed over me. His smile. The way my body always warmed when he was near me. The sound of his laugh. Believing I was going mad, I’d tried to will him to return, positive all the while he couldn’t have been real. Sure my deluded mind had created him. Yet, there he stood. The one I loved more than anything in my life, pleading with me to believe in him. My chin dropped. “It’s been killing me, too.”
His posture relaxed. “I’m sorry you don’t remember. I don’t understand how you can’t, but this is who we are, who we’ve always been. This is our destiny.”
I crossed my arms, anger and disbelief spiking again. “Destiny?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and lifted his head to the sky. “Layla.” He spoke to the heavens. “You have to remember. Please try.”
“I don’t know how, Max! This is insane!”
“Just try!”
“I can’t!” I turned to walk away, to run, to scream.
“We’re being hunted,” he called after me. “They’ll follow you. You can’t leave.”
“Why now?” I shouted into the wind, not shifting to face him. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“The blood. On your neck. It’s a warning. They’re coming for us.”
13
Rolling hills of emerald green stretch out before me. Vast fields strewn with wildflowers. Crumbling rock formations. Mountains hovering in the distance. Blue-green ocean beckons from the horizon, blanketed in a billowy mist. Hypnotic music floats on the wind, and soft voices speak, whispering, calling.
• • •
“Layla?” A voice grew stronger, clearer. “Wake up.”
“What’s wrong with her, Max?” a different voice asked, close, concerned.
Music played in my head, its spellbinding lull holding me down.
“She went under. I think they’re calling her.” Pain strained the voice.
Someone squeezed my hand.
“What do you mean they’re calling her? She isn’t supposed to know. What did you tell her?”
My eyelids fluttered. “Benny?”
“Lay? Can you hear me?”
I struggled against the weight pushing against me, opening my eyes.
“Hey there.” Max touched my face and laid his palm on my forehead. “Look at me, keep your eyes on mine.” His gaze drew me out of the reverie.
“Where’s Benny?”
“Hmm?”
“I heard her.” My voice sounded faint, almost a whisper.
“It’s just me. I’ll get you home. Hold on.”
My eyes closed under the drowsy weight. Max grabbed my face. “Don’t fall asleep.”
His arms lifted me up. Wind blew against my face. We were moving fast. Too fast. My head rolled to the side with a sharp snap. I wrenched it back and held Max tighter. I thought I might slip and fly away.
“Stay with me.” His voice faded on the wind.
••
The sweetness of lavender perfumes the air. Dappled sunlight shines through a canopy of trees, throwing spots of light on the ground. Ferns and moss cover the forest floor, cushioning my bare feet while rushing water breaks the silence. Its melodic rhythm is peaceful, calming. Massive oak trees reach for the heavens, their roots stretching out in every direction on the ground. I trip, trying to make my way through their maze, searching for the door.
Mist shrouds the tree trunk in the distance. Stumbling closer, I reach for the knob, remembering the doorway hidden in the dank base of the tree. Bark falls away as I grip the rotting lump and turn it. Nothing. I try again, harder, as more wet peel and mold crumbles off in my hand.
With my chest flush against the base of the tree, my arms as deep in the darkness as they’ll go, I force it.
An echoing groan rises from the ground as the door gives way. The far groping roots surrounding me on the forest floor rip up from their foundations, wriggling like serpents toward the trunk. Leaves and broken branches rain down from the sky, as a deafening reverberation of tearing and splintering limbs escapes the ground, and the tree heaves itself from the earth. The doorway rises far above my head with a metallic grinding halt and stands, waiting.
I hesitate, lifting my foot, only to lower it again. Blackness looms from beyond. Something deep in the recesses of my mind urges me on. Back within the memories that can’t be memories, in the places I no longer remember, but somehow still know, my steps freeze. Shouting erupts from the shadowed abyss. Someone pulls me, yanking me back.
• • •
“Stop!” I broke away from the wood, staring blindly, heart hammering.
“It’s just me, Layla.” Max sounded terrified.
What did I do?
“Just me.” His hands were held up in surrender like I’d hit him.
“Max.” I blinked, my eyes rolling, breathing unsteadily.
He leaned down and kissed the corner of my mouth. “God, you scared me.” His voice trembled.
Muted light shined in bright streams through gauzy white curtains. The breeze blew them out in billowed clouds of sheer fabric alongside two massive French doors standing wide open to the water outside, inviting a mixture of salt air and gardenias into the room. Music played in the distant background, and a blanket, soft and light as silk, draped my body. I racked my memory, my eyes scanning the room, having no idea where I was.
“Promise me that you will never do that to me again.” Lying beside me, Max brushed the hair from my cheeks and rested his arm across my waist, his expression so full of raw emotion, I thought he might cry.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I was looking for a doorway. It was familiar somehow, like I’d been there before. I heard you talking to Benny.”
His mouth hung open.
“What?”
“You saw a doorway?” His voice strangled on itself.
“Yes.”
“Don’t ever open that door. Or any door in your dreams. There are a lot of doorways to the Otherworld, and the realms beyond this world,” he said. “The Otherworld lies beneath us and beyond us. The Celtic Gods dwell in there, some of them. The land of The Sidhe. The Fairie Realm. The World of Light. Both Good and Evil. They all lie there.” He took in a deep breath. “Promise me that you will never go through any doorway in your dreams.” The crease between his eyes deepened.
I didn’t know how to explain that I knew the place.
“Anything else?” he asked as though he heard me.
“No, nothing else.” I sat up, averting my gaze, and with a shock, I remembered everything Max told me on the beach. The revelations came rushing back like a sledgehammer. Being the counterpart of Max; it was the reason we found each other; we were the same.
I hesitated and asked, “How much do you know?” in a steady voice.
He sighed. “A lot.”
My jaw tig
htened. “You’ve been keeping this from me, all this time.” It wasn’t an accusation or a question. Just a fact.
“Yes,” he mumbled.
“And Benny?”
He turned away. “Benny knows.”
“It was her voice; I did hear her.”
“Yes. She was with me when you went under. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”
Overheating, I ripped the blanket away. “How long? How long has she known?”
“She’s always known.” He sank onto his back, facing the ceiling.
“And you? She knows what you are?” I started to tremble.
“Yes,” he said without shifting his gaze.
Heat flooded my face as though I’d been slapped.
“My mom,” I stated. Of course she knew. It made perfect sense. Max’s presence put me in danger, that’s why she hated him.
“Yes.” His voice grew faint as his eyes closed.
Anger swept through me. What a fool I’ve been. Who else was involved in this? Who else was ‘watching over’ poor little helpless Layla? A simmering rage brewed in my stomach. A life of lies.
“Well … I’m a real idiot, aren’t I?”
“No!” He popped up. “Layla you aren’t. Don’t ever say that. You have no idea the power you possess. No idea who you are. We’ve been trying to protect you. All of us. We love you. Please don’t think this has anything to do with you being weak. You’re far from weak.”
I swallowed the bile rising into my throat and steadied my breaths. “If I’m an Irish descendant of the Celtic Gods …” I shook my head as if the motion would make the words untrue. “What’s in the Otherworld that’s so bad? I mean, if we’re part of that world, you and I, what can hurt us there? Those are our ancestors, right? I don’t understand.”
He relaxed a little, shifting his weight. “Yes. They are our people, but that realm is different from this world. Time moves at a different pace there. Life isn’t what it is here. There are dangers. The Underworld; the World of Darkness. The Realm of Shadow and The Damned. They all lie there as well. Some view our kind as aberrations. Some view us as a threat.”
“A threat?”
“I’ll explain what I know, but I don’t have all the answers.”
I raised an eyebrow. Who does have the answers?
“Well,” he said, “Benny.”
“But …” What did Benny know? What could she possibly know?
“Let’s go downstairs, and I’ll explain.”
“Where are we?”
“We’re still at my house. This is my room. You’ve been out for a long time.”
“How long?”
“Since yesterday,” he said, tentatively.
“Yesterday?” My voice shrilled.
“Calm down. Everything is fine.”
“I need to call my mom.” I glanced around the room for my phone.
“I already called her. I didn’t want her to worry either.” He smiled as if he’d done me a huge favor.
“You … called her? Oh, my god, this is going to be bad. What did you say?” I scrambled off the bed.
“That doesn’t matter. She knows you’re safe.”
“Max! My mom doesn’t want me anywhere near you. What do you mean you called her?” My chest heaved, breath coming too fast.
He rose off the bed and put his hands on my shoulders. “Relax. Your mom is just going to have to deal. She’s been fighting this since you were born. I’m not playing her games anymore.” He eyed me patiently and gestured toward the bed. “I’ll explain if you’ll calm down.”
I sat and crossed my arms.
He grinned and sat beside me. “Thank you.”
I gave a curt nod.
“Jeez, Lay, when did you get so spoiled?” He smirked.
My posture relaxed a bit, and I glanced out through the giant windows in the bedroom, which provided sweeping views of the ocean. From the goose down comforter and pillows, to the gauzy curtains, the walls and even the floors, Max’s room shone in a bleached creamy white. It was dreamlike.
“It really is beautiful here.”
“You’re the only beauty I see.” He leaned back, resting against his elbow.
My cheeks flushed before I flopped back on the pillows beside him, groaning at the unthinkable reality looming over me. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“I know. Listen, Benny’s waiting downstairs. She’s been here the whole time. You need to hear what she has to say.”
I shook my head, closing my eyes. I didn’t want to hear what she had to say.
“I’m sorry if I scared you on the beach.” He laid his hand over mine, resting across my chest.
“You didn’t scare me, exactly. You just caught me off guard.”
That was true really. Somewhere in the depths of my mind, the missing puzzle pieces of my life seemed to be clicking back into place, and although confused by what that might mean, I wasn’t afraid; I was mad. At least I knew why Max spoke in a different language to his grandmother. It was Irish. Which I could understand.
“Can you open your eyes?”
I scowled at him.
He smirked at me. “Benny brought over some of your stuff this morning. It’s all in the bathroom.” He pointed to a set of double doors across the room.
“I have rehearsals!” I jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom. “Where’s my phone?” I yelled back at him.
He was already at my side holding it in his hand. “No rehearsal today. Benny took care of that, too. You were out for a long time but everything’s under control. There’s nowhere you need to be right now, nothing you need to do.”
“But … you don’t understand ….” If I didn’t make rehearsals, Dena would worm her way into my spot.
He put his finger over my lips. “No buts. Just take a shower, get dressed, and come downstairs when you’re ready.” He shut the doors behind me.
• • •
I wandered around after changing and found Max in the kitchen.
“Feeling better?” Tea brewed in a mug.
“I still can’t believe this is your house.”
He smiled and handed me the cup. “I think my mom felt guilty about leaving when I was so young.”
“Do you remember her?”
He shrugged. “No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” He kissed my forehead.
“I’m curious,” I said, changing the subject. “If you don’t live here, what’s up with your bedroom? Fully decked out bathroom?” If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought the place was some kind of bachelor pad.
He laughed, spitting his drink across the counter. “No.” He coughed. “That’s all my grandmother’s work.” He cleared his throat and grabbed a napkin. “She thought the transition would be easier for me if I felt at home. That room …” He pointed above his head. “… is an exact replica of my room in her house. Except the French doors overlook the garden there, not the beach. Come on, Benny’s in the sunroom.”
I tried to appear calm and controlled at the mention of Benny, but my world had flipped upside down and inside out, and my control slipped with each new revelation.
Benny leaned back in her chair, fidgeting with her hands as Max and I walked into the glassed-in room. The wind whipped wildly outside, throwing seagulls off course, and causing palm fronds to slap the windows.
I sat across from her in silence.
“Layla. How are you?” she asked in a formal, distant way.
“Fine.”
“We need to talk.”
“About what, Benny? If that’s even your real name. You’ve been lying to me all my life. What could you possibly say to make that okay?”
She leaned forward. “How about I’ve lied to protect you, to keep you alive.”
“I’ve already heard those excuses. Got anything else?” My pulse stabbed in quick, steady surges.
“Dammit, Layla!” She stood up, knocking her chair over. “I’m sorry. Okay? I couldn’t tell
you. Would you have believed me if I had? There are things you couldn’t know. Dangers you can’t imagine. You don’t know who you are. You have no idea of the power you posses. I’ve been trying to keep you hidden. Keep you safe. I had no choice!” She snatched the chair off the floor and held it, setting it down a moment later. “Listen … I’m not here to argue. I’m here because it’s time. There are things you need to know.”
Too many questions. Too much information. Information that Benny knew, that she had always known.
I looked at Max. He had finally been honest with me. He knew the risks, but he’d told me more than anyone else. We were on the same side.
Benny coughed. “He can’t answer all your questions. He’s told you what he knows.”
“She’s half right,” he said. “There are details she knows that I don’t, but she doesn’t know everything either … none of us do …” He trailed off.
None of us do? Us?
“Go on …” I motioned to Benny.
“Lay, we thought you were safe. All these years. Besides your amazing dancing talent and this temper of yours …” She waved her hand at me as though my temper was some entity hanging above my head that she could swat down. “… there weren’t any signs that you’d ever become aware of what you are, but when Max showed himself again …” She eyed him. “That was it. There was nothing anyone could do.” She exhaled. “You are one of the last of the Ancients. Max has been keeping watch over you from a distance, keeping you safe from harm—like I have.” She glanced at him. “But, now—Layla, if you choose to be with him, if you choose to rekindle …” She hesitated and tilted down toward her hands. “The light—the Tie …” She huffed, seeming as though some invisible force silenced her words. She glanced at Max again.
He placed his hand over mine. “This is your choice, Lay. If you choose—me—our enemies will know where to find you.” He sighed. “They’ll know we’re Tied. They’ll feel it.” He squeezed my hand. “It’s a risk.”
“Lay, if the Fomore—” Benny shook her head and groaned. “If you give them any reason to think that you and Max are the souls of Legend … they’ll unleash all hell upon you.” She rested her head in her hands. “I can’t say anything else.”
Souls of Legend? Fomore? “Can’t say anything else? Something—or someone—is after me, and you can’t say anything else?”