by Laney McMann
Lamps rattled on the night tables. Rain lashed at the windows.
My breathing hitched, and a window exploded like a gunshot, showering us in shards of glass. Max dropped himself like a one-hundred-eighty pound weight on top of me, covering my body, my face, with his own.
“Dammit.” He grinned down at me. “We shattered a window. Are you cut?”
“We? What?” What is he talking about, we?
“Are you cut?” He raised his eyebrows.
“No. Are you?”
“I’m fine.”
Benny burst through the doorway, droopy eyed and wobbly on her feet. Sam stood at her heels. Tristan landed with a thud on the bedroom balcony, as Justice came in through the busted window.
“What are you guys doing in here?” Benny glanced toward us, snapping out of her sleepy trance. “Well,” she said, catching her breath, her hand over her chest. “I guess that part of the Legend is true.” She shrugged and closed the door behind her with a snap.
Justice backed up on his tiptoes, avoiding stepping on any glass. “Yeah, man, sorry. We’re out. Just … pretend we were never here.” He walked outside on the balcony next to Tristan, both of them taking flight.
I glanced up at Max. “What part of the Legend is true?”
A slight grin touched his mouth. “Well … that’s something else we need to talk about.”
“Okay …”
He exhaled in a long, drawn out sigh. “You want to talk about this now? It’s like … what, five o’clock in the morning?”
“You weren’t concerned with the time a few minutes ago.” I smirked.
He groaned, picked me up off the bed and walked out in the hallway. Setting me on my feet, his gaze swept across his T-shirt. “You look good in my clothes.” He shook his head, glancing toward my bare legs again, and turned away. “Stay here.”
I stood in the hallway, waiting while he cleaned off the bed and the floor, and he picked me up again, carried me back to the bed, and sat down beside me.
“So … when you say the Legend, you mean, why things are being … blown apart?” He cringed. “Is that what you’re asking?”
“Yes.”
He cleared his throat.
“From the ashes of old,
They shall rise.
The last of the Ancients,
Foe and Ally.
The Legend lies in wait,
And bides its time.
Until at last the day comes,
For the children Born of Fire.”
“Okay …” I eyed him, smiling.
“The Fire Born were a race of Ancients, or ársa in Irish. Older even than the Celtic Gods. Legend said that one day the ársa would return from the ashes and reclaim the greatest power known to the gods, ending the war of the races and restoring peace to the Otherworlds. Supposedly, they had the power to destroy things—even each other, if they got too close. If they weren’t careful.” He eyed me. “I never gave that part any thought until the first time you kissed me.” He grinned. “The windows shook then, too.”
“I remember.” I gazed up at him.
“Most believe the Fire Born are a myth passed down through the generations. Most believe they never existed.”
“Right …” I found myself drowning in the hypnotic rhythm of his voice.
He held his hand out between us, a bracelet resting in his palm. “Do you remember this?” Three dark leather bands, one weaving across the other, created a winding rope of loops. No beginning, and no end.
I tentatively touched it, as though it would shock me, running my fingertips across the smooth supple leather, tears filling my eyes. “I remember.”
He wiped my cheek as the tears flowed. “I’ve been waiting to give it back to you.” He coiled the bracelet around my wrist. “It’s the symbol of the Fire Born. It means eternity.”
I nodded, unable to speak through the lump in my throat. “We wore these when we were little.” My voice caught. “I cried for weeks when I lost mine.” The memories came rushing at me. “My mother told me it was just some old piece of rope that frayed away and fell off.” I tried to catch my breath as I gazed up at his warm face. “But … how did you find it?”
He pushed his hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out another strip of leather. “They sort of found me.”
I let out a breath, my hand hovering over the second bracelet, identical to mine.
“Your father said I put yours on you, and—”
“I put yours on you, and together we forge the Tie.” The words left my mouth before I knew what I was saying. Blood drained from my face, dizziness overcoming my thoughts.
Max caressed my hand. “I’m glad you remember, Lay. I was afraid that maybe—” He shrugged.
I looked up at him. “I’ve never forgotten you.”
He blushed. “So …” He held out his left arm.
I picked up the worn bracelet, encircling it over his wrist, and he entwined our fingers, holding each other’s hand. Warmth bled through me, a slight breeze ruffling my hair, and Max leaned in, resting his forehead against mine before kissing me softly. “Now it’s official. Together again. Finally.”
Benny busted back into the bedroom. “We have an issue.” She grabbed my shoes off the floor and threw them at me. “You need to get downstairs.”
“What’s wrong?” Max asked.
Loud voices rose from somewhere in the house. Yelling.
Benny pointed at me. “Your mom is downstairs.”
My heart sank. “I thought you called her and explained, Ben!”
“I did.” She pointed at Max. “You, stay up here.” He opened his mouth, presumably to argue, but Benny held up a finger. “Trust me.” She opened the bedroom door and stopped, rolling her eyes. “Put some clothes on, Lay.”
17
Sam blocked the open doorway, facing the front yard.
“I will get louder!” My mother’s voice did exactly that as she peered around Sam’s shoulder. “Teine!” She rushed forward, pushing Sam aside, and knocking Benny out of the way to get to me. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom. What’re you doing here?”
Benny rubbed her eyes. “Ms. LaBelle, I told you there was no need to worry. We controlled the situation. Everyone is fine.” She glanced toward Sam who took up his position in the doorway again.
“Don’t look to Sam for rescue. Your boyfriend tried to keep me from coming into the house!” My mother glanced back toward Sam. “Shut the door, or do you wish to let all manner of the Underworld inside these walls?”
What did she just say?
“Mom?”
“Do you think I know not what has happened?” she asked, advancing further. “You believe I am oblivious to your rekindling?” She pursed her lips, pacing. “I will not stand by, pretending to be ignorant, while my daughter is being hunted. Where is MacKenzie?” She glanced around the room. “Is he safe?”
I stared at her, not comprehending the words coming from her mouth.
“Ms. LaBelle,” Benny said, in a tentative tone. “Sam has been protecting us. The boundaries are sound here. Nothing will get in, and Max is upstairs asleep.”
My mother glanced over her shoulder toward Sam and crinkled her nose.
He smiled, seeming to enjoy her discomfort. “It’s true,” he said. “Like it or not, I am protecting them.”
It was perfectly clear my mother liked it not.
“Gargoyles?” She sounded aghast, as though Sam had some contagious disease. “Has it really gotten so bad that we ally ourselves with the Damned now?”
Sam laughed, a hollow sound. “Your kind have enlisted the help of far lower creatures in the past. Don’t worry; you can’t catch anything from me.” He shifted his weight. “And for the record, that thing that attacked Max last night— she is one of the Damned. I, on the other hand, am one of The Fallen. Big difference.” He sauntered out the front door and closed it with a thud behind him.
My Dad flees the forest, Mother pulling m
e away from him, running through trees alight with fire.
My mother scoffed, her mouth hanging open, seeming offended by everything about him.
My cousin, Cara, stands crying, trapped in the burning wood, my aunt searching for her, screaming at my mother.
Unable to stop staring at my mother, my dream came back at me in swift, clear pictures.
Memories. They’re memories. They have to be.
My legs weakened as a rush of emotion overtook me. My past. My life. Queasiness welled up from my stomach and anchored itself in the back of my throat.
My father sits on a golden throne.
“So everyone is all right, then?” my mother asked. “Teine?”
I opened my mouth, only to close it again, nausea rising. My breathing came in sharp uneven gasps as the revelations—the memories—the dreams—passed through my mind, one by one, in clear succession. I couldn’t stop them.
Max yells up at me from the ground, laughing, asking me to jump down from my bedroom balcony, overlooking an emerald sea.
My mother’s eyes bulged; she touched her throat. “Teine?”
My mom changed my name; it was always Teine. The drink. The same drink every night.
“You stole my memories from me.” I choked on the verge of sobs, overcome by intense uncontrollable fury.
Heat ripped outward from my core, causing me to pitch forward and reach for the side of the couch to steady myself.
Images flew across my internal vision, clouding conscious thought.
My eyes closed of their own accord, and I gripped the edge of the couch to keep from falling.
My eyes popped open. Benny’s face loomed from across the room, wide eyed, her shape blurring in and out of focus. She moved her mouth, talking—I thought; I couldn’t make out her words.
Eyes narrowed, I tried to focus on her, to hear her, but she continued to fade, and my vision receded into the corners of my mind. Instant pain stabbed like knives throughout my body, causing me to fall further forward with a seizure-like thrust.
My hands lost their grip on the couch; my skin slithered like a million tiny pores opened all at once.
Pounding feet rattled the stairs, splintering wood, breaking glass—silence followed—and madness.
A wash of red glazed the faces of the people surrounding me, a seeming fortress of stone encircling me on all sides, hand locking hand in a makeshift chain. Gargoyles, standing tall and unyielding like marble statues. None of them spoke or made eye contact with me.
Smoldering anger crawled like bugs on my arms, making me want to scratch. The front door, ripped from its hinges, hung in shredded ruin. My chest rose and fell in hard heaving breaths. I shifted my position, stifled and trapped.
The gargoyle-fence held me securely, forcing me to remain still. Max sat on the couch, his face in his hands. I wanted to go to him.
Benny stood by his side, patting his back and glanced toward me.
Is she afraid?
My mother stood, facing me from across the room, and a deep involuntary guttural growl escaped my throat as my attention honed in on her.
The gargoyles tightened around me further, hand in hand.
What’s happening? I pushed and kicked against stone arms and legs.
Max rose to his feet, looking pale, ill, and shaken. “Whatever you remembered is past now, Lay. Don’t do this. Come back to me.” His eyes pleaded.
“I’m standing right here looking at you.”
He took a cautious step forward and shook his head from side to side but didn’t say anything.
A realization struck me like a shot.
Is he afraid of me, too?
I lifted a hand to my chest, glossy black feathers coming into view. I held back a scream, fear cutting through me like wild fire. “Let me out!” I thrashed and screamed against the gargoyles holding me tight within the confines of their stone bodies, but only a caw hit my ears.
“Fire magic is a very powerful … very dangerous gift.” Benny had tried to warn me.
“I do not want this fate for my daughter,” my mother had shouted at my aunt.
“You have no idea the power you possess,” Benny yelled at me. I was too heartbroken to hear her.
Thoughts and memories ran together in a jumbled, confused mess.
“You called me, Teine,” I’d questioned Ms. MacLarnon.
“That is your name child, everyone knows that.”
Memories crashed together, reminding me of what I already knew, but had somehow forgotten.
My mother washed my memory.
The voices stabbed at me like daggers in my mind, repeating over and over again inside my head as I stood trapped in the gargoyles grasp.
“We are being hunted. You can’t leave.” Max had stood on the beach, trying to make me understand.
“You are one of the last of the Ancients. They’ve been searching for you all your life.” Benny bowed her head.
“Why are we being hunted?” I’d asked Max, afraid of the answer.
My brain overloaded as voices shouted in unison. Revelations—memories—came at me in a sickening, dizzying fury.
“We are The Fire Born.”
We are The Fire Born. The Fire Born.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it!” I writhed inside my cage, forcing the images from my mind, refusing to allow them re-entry as I steadied my pounding heart and eyed my captors.
Feathers vanished from my body, skin cooled, and the burning subsided.
Benny sat down on the couch, relaxing her rigid stance. Max held out his hand, beckoning me forward, his shoulders slackening, crystal eyes clearing.
I wanted to go to him, to make the anger inside me stop, to wrap myself up in his arms. To feel safe. My father had told me to find Max; he told me not to lose him.
He knew. He was trying to protect me.
And my mother …
The gargoyles loosened their grip, their clawed talons releasing each other, and backed away, freeing me.
I stepped toward Max and glimpsed my mother, fear and terror etched in the deepened creases of her face.
She stole my life, took it away from me, took Max away from me. Hid me from my world, my family, and all that I knew.
The heat I tried to control—the anger—slipped and the prickle of feathers crept down my back again.
Max leaned into my view, shifting my glare and focus away from my mother and onto his concerned face.
He held his hand out. “Come back to me. This isn’t the way.” His voice was gentle, imploring.
I took a cautious step, holding his gaze.
He let out a breath and raised his head toward the ceiling, before locking his gaze back onto mine. “It’s just you and me, Lay.”
Taking one slow, shaky, step at a time, I reached for his hand, seizing it like a life raft and leapt into his arms.
18
“You will never outrun this fate.” My mother’s footfalls clapped against the floor. “MacKenzie cannot save you, Teine.” She sighed. “I wish he could. I had hoped …”
My eyes narrowed as I peered at her.
“You washed her memory?” Max tone came out full of anger.
She raised her head, gaze toward him. “I did what was necessary to protect my daughter.” Her posture stiffened. “Unfortunately, it did little to make her forget you.”
Max’s jaw tightened.
My mother redirected her focus to me. “Your anger alone could consume you, and Mackenzie along with you. There are many reasons I hid your true nature from you. This, as you have seen today, is only one of them. The Raven lives within you; you cannot control it. No one can override its strength. Once it takes hold of your will, it will bend you to its power. Your anger feeds it, strengthens it.”
Her words struck me like a whip across my back. Max squeezed me as if he could shield me from the truth.
I’m some freak of nature. That’s why she hid me away.
Max ran his fingers through my hair. “We knew The Raven
was a possibility, Lay. Everyone knew. Try to relax.”
Everyone?
“You love Teine.” My mother sighed.
“More than you can possibly imagine.” He rubbed my back.
My mother sank down in the chair behind her, a weak smile crossing her face. “It is said that the love between the Fire Born will never fade. That it is endless—an energy that cannot be reined in. A love that would drive them mad in the end.” She glanced toward us. “Your pairing has been foretold for centuries. No one believed it, of course. Since the collapse of the Fire Born many millennia ago, there have been no others, and the war between the races continues.” She paused and exhaled. “Legend says, in order to restore the peace, only one Fire Born can remain.” Her voice caught in her throat. “One of you will eventually kill the other.”
“No!” I swayed in Max’s arms, crumbling into a heap on the couch with him.
This can’t be happening.
“It was never my intention for you to know these things, Teine.” Her brow creased, and she wrung her hands in her lap.
“What else have you hidden from me?” I gritted my teeth. “Tell me the truth!”
She sighed. “When the Ancients fell, one Fire Born remained, and a curse was placed upon the race.” She rested her head in her hands. “The Fire Born would rise from the ashes of old, and the Raven would be born anew, ending the war of the races and restoring peace throughout the realms.” She raised her head. “I saw a change in you, Teine,” my mother said. “I wanted to question you, but you had no idea what you were, what you were capable of becoming, so I held my tongue.”
Emotion clogged my throat, leaving me speechless.
Max?
His thoughts seemed to have closed off completely.
She glanced toward us. “I hoped you would make the right choice if the time came. Protect yourself, as you have always done instinctively. That you would stay with Devon and remain safe through your ignorance. I hoped you would be spared … that you would be an exception, and perhaps that your father was wrong, and you were not one of the two Ancient Fire Borns foretold.” Her forehead rested back in her hands.
My jaw dropped. Max tightened his hold on my hand, the warmth and tingle of his touch summoning a myriad of questions. I leaned my weight into him.