by Karen Lynch
“How do you feel?” she asked as she touched my forehead and peered into my eyes.
“How do you think?” I mumbled, earning a smile. I remembered her from Westhorne. “You’re Margot.”
“That’s right. Now tell me where it hurts. Are you still cold?”
“I’m warm now, but my head is killing me. And I feel like I want to throw up, but I can’t.”
She nodded. “According to the others you haven’t eaten much in days. You need nourishment and liquids to help keep your strength up.” She reached behind her for a red duffle bag. “I’m going to hook you up to an IV, and then we are going to transport you to the jet. We’ll have you home in no time and we’ll get you all fixed up.”
“Okay.” I started to ask where everyone was when I heard the low rumble of male voices from the kitchen.
“Hey, you’re awake.” Roland appeared at the foot of the couch. His blue eyes were dark with worry and dark shadows lay under them. “You scared the shit out of us. Please don’t do that again.”
I summoned a weak smile. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Blinding pain shot through my skull, robbing me of my breath and my voice. I pressed my hands to my head as explosions of light went off behind my eyes and waves of agonizing pain rippled through me. A whimper escaped my lips, and I doubled over as hammers pounded my skull mercilessly. I prayed for unconsciousness because if I had to endure this much longer, I would go insane.
Nikolas called my name, but he sounded far away. People spoke in urgent voices that were hard to hear above the roaring in my head. In the back of my mind, the walls around my Mori fell and it cried out in pain. I tried to put the protective walls back up, but my power would not respond.
A new voice broke through the haze of pain around me. It was warm and rich, yet commanding. “Let me help her, warrior, if you want her to live.”
I tensed when a cool hand touched my forehead and then gasped as the stabbing pain rapidly drained away. A sob escaped me, and it was a minute before I opened my eyes to see Eldeorin smiling down at me.
“Hello, little Cousin. I told you I’d see you again soon.”
“H-how did you find me?”
His smile dimmed. “Your pain is like a beacon to any Fae within fifty miles of here. I was away from the city or I would have come sooner.” His hand stroked my cheek and each touch sent a wave of soothing energy through me. “I’m going to take care of you now.”
“You healed her?” Roland asked.
“No, I merely eased her pain. I will take her to Faerie where we will tend her.”
Nikolas stepped forward, towering over us. “She stays with me.”
Eldeorin did not cower or flinch from Nikolas’s anger. He continued to stroke my face as if nothing had happened. “Sara needs to be around my kind. She is going through liannan.”
“Liannan?”
“Think of it as the Fae equivalent of puberty. Her powers are experiencing a growth spurt, and her body cannot handle the sudden changes. If she was full Fae and had grown up among our kind, this would have happened slowly, over months or years, and she would have been better able to deal with it. We were not sure she could even enter liannan since she is half Mohiri and lives outside of Faerie. Only exposure to our kind or a prolonged visit to Faerie should trigger liannan. I did not sense it in her when we met, and our brief encounter was not sufficient to cause it.”
“What about Glaen?” Jordan asked him.
“What do you know of Glaen?”
“Sara drank a bunch of it at a demon party a few nights ago. She started getting sick a day later.”
Roland came to stand beside Jordan. “Don’t forget the times she glowed when she was asleep before she drank the Glaen. No way was that normal.”
Eldeorin nodded thoughtfully. “It sounds like she was already approaching liannan. Consuming that much of our drink at one time could be a catalyst to someone like her.”
“Will she be okay?” Roland asked, his voice strained.
Eldeorin gave me a reassuring smile. “Yes, but she needs proper care.”
Nikolas looked at me with a closed expression. “What kind of care?”
“She will need to be near our kind, at least until she passes through the most difficult stage. The best place for her is Faerie.”
“For how long?” Nikolas asked.
“I cannot say,” Eldeorin replied. “It may take weeks or months.”
Something unreadable flashed in Nikolas’s eyes. “Do whatever it takes to help her.”
“No,” I rasped. “I don’t want to go to Faerie.” As much as I’d love to see that beautiful place, I did not want to leave Nikolas again.
Nikolas sat on his haunches so his face was close to mine. “You’ll get better faster there.”
“I can get better here. Eldeorin will stay here with me. Won’t you?” I asked the faerie, silently pleading with him to say yes.
“I will stay if that will put you at ease, Cousin.”
“Thank you.” I tried to sit up, but my body was too weak to obey me. Nikolas stood and lifted me into a sitting position. His jaw hardened when Eldeorin sat beside me holding my hand, and I remembered what Desmund had told me about Mohiri males not liking another male touching their bond mate. I reached my free hand toward him, and he entwined his fingers with mine. Tugging gently, I made him sit on my other side so I could rest my head against his shoulder.
The tension in Nikolas’s body eased, and he looked at Eldeorin. “It’s not safe to stay in this apartment. Can you come to our stronghold?”
“That would be unwise. I and others of my kind will have to be near Sara for weeks. I don’t think a prolonged Fae presence at a Mohiri compound would be received well. And we don’t know yet how Sara’s liannan might affect your people.”
“None of our safe houses are big enough to hold all of us,” Chris said. “We could take a large house for a few months and bring in some people to help with security.”
Eldeorin shook his head. “That is not necessary. I have a place we can use, and it is big enough to accommodate all of us without Fae and Mohiri affecting each other.”
“Is it safe?” Nikolas asked skeptically.
“It is glamoured and well-fortified with faerie protections. No vampire would dare attack it.”
Nikolas’s thumb rubbed soothing circles on the back of my hand. “Where is this place?”
“It is near Santa Cruz.”
“We can be there in an hour on the jet,” Chris observed.
Nikolas stood, releasing my hand. “Chris, call the pilot and tell him to be ready to leave within the hour. Jordan, pack your things and Sara’s.”
Roland came forward. “We’re coming too.”
“Be ready to leave here in five minutes.”
I looked around the living room. “Where is Greg?”
Greg came out of the kitchen and approached me. His hair needed a brush and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
He knelt beside me. “You need help that I can’t give you, Sara. I wish I could after what you did for me. But just say the word and I’m there.”
A selfish part of me didn’t want to let him go because I didn’t know when I’d see him again. But he’d been through hell the last month, and he needed to try to get back to some kind of normal life.
“You need to be with your family. I’ll talk to you again soon.” I grabbed his hand before he could stand. “And you better call me. Don’t make me come looking for you.”
His eyes warmed. “I’m putting you in my speed dial, I promise.”
Eldeorin stood over me. “Now, Cousin, let’s get you ready to travel. I could have the two of us there in seconds, but I have a feeling neither you nor your warrior would be happy with that.” He laid his hands on either side of my face and they glowed like mine did when I did healings. Heat suffused my face, quickly spreading throughout my body. “This will keep you comfortable for the journey. I won’t need to be in physical contact
with you the entire time, but I will stay close.”
“All packed,” Jordan called.
Nikolas scooped me off the couch, and I protested that I could walk even though my limbs felt like warm jelly from Eldeorin’s blast of power. He ignored my objection and carried me outside to the waiting SUVs that were guarded by two more warriors. They turned around when we drew near, and I was surprised to see Seamus and Niall. I expected harsh words from the twins after the way I’d left them, but they wore their usual boyish smiles. I gave Nikolas a questioning look and he smiled.
“They volunteered to come. I think they found Westhorne too tame after you left.”
“Never a dull moment, lass,” Niall quipped, walking toward us.
Seamus grinned. “What’s this I hear about you giving a beatdown to some gulak demons?”
Cold exploded in my chest, and I stiffened in Nikolas’s arms. “Vampires,” I choked out. I had no idea how I knew it, but there were eight vampires coming at us fast. “Eight.”
Nikolas tensed and Seamus and Niall drew their swords. Behind us I heard our weapons bag hit the ground and the soft whine of metal as more swords were drawn. I found myself suddenly passed from Nikolas’s arms to Eldeorin’s. “Get her out of here,” Nikolas ordered before he spun away to take the sword offered to him by Jordan.
“No!” My cry was lost on the wind as the city disappeared into a black void I had experienced once before. Seconds later, Eldeorin stood in front of a large white mansion with a fountain in the middle of the well-lit driveway. I struggled in his arms, but I was as weak as a kitten. “Take me back. We can’t leave them there alone.”
“Calm yourself, Cousin,” he soothed as he walked toward the mansion. “You cannot help your friends in your condition. It would only endanger them if you were there because they would try to protect you.”
“Then leave me here and go back and help them, please.”
He stopped at a set of double doors. “Your safety is my only concern. Do not fret. Your friends can handle a few vampires.”
The doors opened and a short person in a white uniform ushered us inside. Eldeorin strode across the marble foyer and up a wide flight of stairs. At the end of the hallway, he opened the door to a large bedroom and set me down on the high four-poster bed.
Terrified for Nikolas and my friends, I slid off the bed, but my legs crumpled underneath me. Eldeorin caught me and lifted me back into the bed. The cold in my chest had been replaced with squeezing pain that made me gasp for breath. “I have to go back. Please take me back.”
Eldeorin laid a hand on my forehead and muttered something in a language I did not understand. My mind filled with a warm fog that beckoned me and made me want to close my eyes. “No,” I sobbed, fighting as the fog closed in around me.
“Sleep, little Cousin,” Eldeorin said softly before blackness descended and I heard no more.
* * *
I awoke slowly to the cries of gulls and the roar of waves against the shore. A light breeze tickled my face and carried a slight ocean tang along with the sweet scent of roses. My eyes opened to a sunny room decorated in delicate shades of blue and white, and I looked around in confusion. Where am I?
A curtain fluttered and I stared at the open balcony doors past the foot of the queen-sized bed I lay in. I had no memory of how I’d gotten to this place. The last time I’d woken up in a strange room, I’d discovered I was in Seelie, but I didn’t think they had oceans in Faerie. I rubbed my temples, trying to focus and remember what had brought me here and, more importantly, where I had come from. My mind refused to penetrate my foggy memories, and I sank back against the soft pillow. Why can’t I remember? My eyes travelled around the unfamiliar room. I must be dreaming. That’s it. Time to wake up now.
I pushed the covers off me and stared at the long white nightgown I wore. Now I knew I must be dreaming because I’d never wear something like this. I slid out of bed and had to grab the mattress to steady myself when a wave of dizziness hit me.
“Sara, you’re awake!” Someone caught me from behind and turned me to envelope me in a warm hug.
“Nate? What are you doing here?” I pulled back to look around the room again. “Where are we?”
His brow furrowed. “What do you remember?”
“I. . .” I tried to focus on my memories, but it was like a thick curtain hid them from me. “I don’t remember anything.”
The bedroom door opened and a beautiful girl with long red curls entered carrying a tray. A smile lit her face when she saw me. “Welcome back, Sister!”
“Aine?” I looked from the sylph to Nate. “What’s going on? Why can’t I remember anything?”
She carried the tray to the balcony and set it on a table there. Then she came over and picked up a soft blue robe lying across the foot of the bed. “You have been very ill, and I came to help tend to you,” she explained as she helped me into the robe. “I brought you some food. You have not eaten for some time, and it will help you get your strength back.”
The mention of food made me aware of my growling stomach. I let Aine lead me out to a small table on the balcony that had a breathtaking view of the ocean. The house we were in sat atop a small cliff, and I could hear waves crashing against the rocks below. Aine sat me in a comfortable chair in the sun and settled a blanket over my lap before she moved the tray of food toward me. I knew it was faerie food as soon as I tasted the cold frothy milk. Nothing in this world tasted as good as faerie food.
Nate and Aine joined me at the table. “How do you feel?” Aine asked as I devoured a pastry.
I washed the pastry down with some milk. “Better. I still don’t remember how I came to be here – wherever this is – or how I got sick.”
“Is that normal?” Nate asked Aine.
She smiled. “It will all come back to her very soon. It is normal to be confused when you first awake from the healing sleep, especially when it is a long one.”
I stared at my uncle and faerie friend talking as if it was an everyday occurrence, and I started to understand how Alice had felt down the rabbit hole. “How long was I asleep?”
“Almost a week. Eldeorin said you were very ill and distressed, and he had no choice but to put you in a sleep.”
I blinked at her. I’d been asleep for a whole week? “Eldeorin?”
“You don’t remember Eldeorin?” Her brows drew together delicately. “It must have been a very powerful healing he did on you. Eldeorin is one of our most gifted healers. You are fortunate he found you when he did.”
A hazy image of a blond man emerged from the fog around my mind. It slowly came into focus, and I recognized the mischievous blue eyes and smiling mouth. He was standing at the edge of a bar in a night club, watching me. There was something not right about the club and it made my skin crawl. Why would I go to a nightclub of all places?
The veil blocking my memories fell away, and I gasped as everything came back to me at once. LA, Greg, Draegan, my illness, Nikolas. Oh God! We’d left them surrounded by all those vampires.
Fear threatened to suffocate me and my hands gripped the arms of my chair until my knuckles turned white. “Where is Nikolas? Where are Roland and the others?”
Aine laid a warm hand on mine. “Calm yourself, Sister. Your friends are all safe.”
I looked at Nate and he nodded. I searched their faces, afraid they were only trying to placate me.
Aine touched my face. “I would not deceive you.”
“Why aren’t they here?”
“They are here, but we’ve had to keep them away from you, and we put protections on this room to contain your power. Your liannan made your magic uncontrollable, and it would not tolerate anyone but Fae being near you. After two days, your werewolf friends and uncle were able to sit with you.”
“And Nikolas?”
“No demon could enter this room without your magic lashing out at them.”
My chest tightened. “What does that mean? I can’t go near him?”
“Should be? You don’t know for sure?” I didn’t want to think about what it would mean if I couldn’t be with Nikolas. Or the other people I’d come to care so much for.
Aine shook her head. “Sara, there has never been another like you, and we did not know you could even go through liannan. It is progressing very quickly, and you have moved through the most difficult stage in a week. It normally takes months.”
I remembered how sick I’d been before Eldeorin had arrived to help me. “I can’t imagine going through that for months.”
“Your symptoms were more severe than is normal for liannan. Eldeorin thinks it is because of the Mori. Your magic grew, but it had nowhere to go because half of you is inhabited by a demon.”
“So where did it go?”
She pushed my plate toward me, and I picked up a piece of fruit that looked like one I’d eaten in Seelie. “The healing sleep allowed your body to adjust and make room for the magic. Do you not feel it inside you?”
I stopped eating and focused on the well of power at my core. It felt the same, but stronger, and it pushed against the walls holding it back. Tendrils of magic escaped, and I grabbed them and sent them back. I checked on my Mori and found it huddled fearfully, but safely, at the back of my mind. It’s okay, I sent it soothing thoughts. I won’t let it hurt you.
“Sara?” Nate said, and I realized I’d been quiet for several minutes.
“I’m fine.” I summoned a smile for him.
“You appear to be in control of your power again,” Aine said. “How do you feel?”
“I feel like me, but different. It’s hard to explain.” I sighed and found myself on the verge of tears again. “I can’t stop crying. What’s wrong with me?”
She smiled. “Liannan does that to you. I cried for weeks when I had mine.”
“Weeks?” It was hard to imagine sweet, smiling Aine crying.
“It will pass. How is your control?”
I tested my power again. “I think it’s good.”
“There is only one way to know for sure. Please, do not move from this spot.” Aine stood and went into the bedroom. I heard the door open, and I started to rise when I felt the soft caress of butterfly wings against my mind. Nikolas!