Resistance

by Allana Kephart

  "You were trying to protect her from something emotionally painful, Eir." She looks very serious for once and I get the impression that she is about to impart something both personal and painful. "It sucks to find out someone you trust is using you, and as hard as it sounds, sometimes proof is the only way for you to understand."

  I take in the set of her jaw and the sincerity in her midnight blue eyes and know she’s speaking from experience. I have to remind myself to act normal, as much as I’d like to maim whoever put the pain in her eyes. “You’re trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?”

  Her lips quirk up into a small smile. "Maybe."

  “You are entirely too sweet for your own good, Lumi,” I say with complete honesty.

  "Nope. I just like you," she says with a shrug and a grin, and I feel my face flood with color. I like her too, way too much to let anyone ever hurt her if I can help it. I open my mouth to tell her, hear a knock sound at her door and close it again. The time just isn’t right…yet.

  Chapter 29—Flint

  August 2102

  I don’t know how long Fi and I lay in bed, but it only feels like minutes before she pops her head up and sighs. Some dark wisps of hair stand wildly around her face and fall in front of her eyes from her time against my shirt, but she seems too tired to give even an ounce of a damn. “We should probably go check on the kids,” I say gently, using her term for Eirnin and Lu. She groans and hides her face in my chest again.

  “That involves moving.”

  I laugh and the shaking of my chest makes her head pop back up. She huffs and looks over at the clock on her wall; letting out a relenting sigh when she sees it’s a quarter after eight. She rubs a hand over her eyes and shakes her head. “Fine, fine, fine. You’re right.”

  “We could tell them in the morning…”

  She contemplates this for a minute and gives a look of longing at my chest before shaking her head and sighing. “No, it’s best we just get it over with now while we’re all thinking about it.”

  I sigh and nod; grabbing her hand and letting her stand. She grumbles something about sleep and stretches her arms above her head as I slowly settle on my own feet. It’s pretty early to be this tired, but I would like nothing more than to turn in for the evening. Unfortunately Fi seems determined to talk to the others, and after the night’s activities I’m not ready to leave her alone yet.

  After she’s done stretching and groaning, she reaches for my hand and leads me out of the room. We make it up the stairs to Lu’s bedroom without even bothering to look elsewhere for her brother. Fi knocks on the door with a tentative look on her face and Lu calls out, “Come in!”

  Fi looks at me and I snort and push the door open. Eirnin is lying flat on his back with Lu seated by his waist — from the look on her face, my guess is that she harassed him into the position. Eir doesn’t even look at us when we come in. His hand is placed firmly just above Lu’s knee, and his eyes are locked on Lu’s face like he’s in some sort of trance. One of her hands is on his chest, but I can’t tell if it’s a soothing gesture or one meant to keep him still.

  “Hi,” she says; smiling and waving her free hand at Fi. Fi seems to relax a little when the sight she is greeted with is rated G, and she leans into my arm and waves back.

  “You two busy?” I ask. “We need to talk.”

  Lumi shakes her head and I see Eirnin huff in disappointment. “Great. Meet us in Patrick’s office when the kid can stand.”

  Eirnin tries to glare at me, but Lu giggles and he’s distracted long enough for me to duck out and take his sister with me. Fi rubs her eyes as we go into the office and I smirk and drop my head down to kiss her. She jumps but leans in and kisses me quickly before falling back into an armchair. I take her hand and pull her to her feet; sitting down first and then pulling her down onto my lap. Her legs hang between mine and I rest my arm over her shoulders. She leans into me and takes hold of the hand hanging in front of her; studying it in her half-asleep state.

  Lu comes bouncing in with Eirnin as Fi kisses my palm and hugs it to her chest. Lu winks at Fi, having caught her, and Eirnin shakes his head and makes a show of looking at the ceiling. I’m sure he doesn’t want to think about his sister kissing anyone. I have to admit I’m glad he likes me.

  Lumi motions for Eir to sit first before flopping down next to him; resting her back against his side. He drapes an arm around the front of her shoulders and hides his face in her hair. He has yet to make direct eye contact with anyone.

  Fi’s lips curl up in an exhausted smile as she looks at them. “We need to talk, guys.”

  Lumi watches us with a fond expression as she runs her fingers up and down Eirnin’s forearm. His hand clenches a little tighter on her arm and I have to wonder if she knows what she’s doing to the poor kid. Due to her tone, I doubt it. “I agree with that.”

  “I’m assuming Eir told you what happened today?” Fi asks.

  Lumi shakes her head and looks up at Eir, who glances at her and smiles weakly. He tightens his grip on her shoulder again as she looks back at Fi. “A little. He was a bit frazzled. Sean tried to kill Flint?”

  Fi’s jaw clenches and she nods and burrows even closer to me. “Yes he did. We — Eir, Uncle Seamus and I — were going to execute him. But I screwed up somehow and he got away.” She pauses and I drop my head and kiss just below her ear; feeling her shudder and relax a bit in my arms. She shakes her head. “So now we have to decide what to do next, because it looks like he might be working with someone more dangerous.”

  Lu’s brow furrows and Eirnin finally looks up; Fi’s words having finally caught his attention. Fi’s hand comes up and hooks over my arm and she takes a deep breath. “Lu, have you heard of anyone named Hugh Kennedy?”

  “Hugh?” Eirnin snaps. Lu closes her mouth before she can answer. She looks at Eirnin with wide eyes at his reaction and she’s clearly confused. “You think Hugh’s involved? He’s supposed to be dead!”

  Fi tilts her chin up a little and sighs. “Flint saw someone who fits his description talking to Sean at his post the other day.”

  Eirnin’s eyes get sad and angry at the same time. “I’m sorry, Fi.” Then he clears his throat and drops her gaze before she gets the chance to brush him off, and angles his body to completely face Lumi. He looks like he’s trying not to panic completely. “Please tell me you’ve never met this jerk.”

  Lu frowns and furrows her brow, creating deep lines in her forehead. She shakes her head and the confusion is clear in her eyes. “No, I met him quite a few times. He’s a friend of my brother’s. He flirted with me all the time; used to drive Khan crazy.” She pauses and looks between the Dolan siblings. Eirnin looks like he wants to throw Lu over his shoulder and rush from the room, while Fi has her eyes closed; her freckles and eyelashes the only color on her face. “How do you guys know about him?” Lumi asks, and looks between the three of us.

  Eirnin takes an unsteady breath and drops his hand lower on Lu to tug her even closer. Lu flushes but doesn’t protest, nor does she seem to notice the obsessively protective look on his face. Fi shifts and puts her legs over both of mine, and I squeeze her knee with the hand that isn’t around her shoulder. “He was here…a while ago,” Fi begins; answering Lu’s question but talking to my hand on her leg. “He pretended to be interested in me so he could try to get close to Eir. Sean was supposed to have executed him months ago.”

  Lu’s face contorts in a scowl at the words and Fi’s sudden change in demeanor. She shakes her head and leans into Eir again. “He seems the type. Very impressed with himself. The only one he showed any respect to was my father.” She puffs out a sigh and clamps her hands together. “As far as I know he’s the opposite of executed. He was still living in our guest bedroom when you all came to get me.”

  Fi buries her face in my shoulder and starts fingering the hem of my shirt. She looks like she’s going to be sick, and I’d really like to leave Eir and Lu alone and just let her go to sleep. “You alri
ght?” I whisper in her ear and she looks up at me. Her usually vibrant green eyes are clouded over with hurt and fear and it makes my chest ache.

  It takes her a second to understand what I’ve said and then she nods and tries to smile at me. “I guess we were right after all,” she says; changing the subject. “He’s working with the Winter Courts.”

  I nod. “Figures. Landric is always trying to one-up everyone else.” I notice Lu looks at me when I say this and I meet her eyes. “Nothing personal, but I’m not a fan of your parents.”

  She tilts her head at me. “None taken,” she says, and surprises everyone by adding, “Neither am I.”

  Even Eir seems to perk up at that. He snaps out of whatever realm he was in and lets Lu straighten up only slightly, although his arm is still wrapped tightly around her waist. “So we’re one-hundred percent positive that the Winter Court is after me?”

  Fi’s voice is cool and collected, but I feel the muscles in her back twitching and her thigh is stiff and unmoving beneath my hand. “It looks like that’s the case. But don’t worry Eir — no one else will be getting through our borders. I’ll tighten things up—”

  “Hold on, hold on, hold on. After you?” Lu asks in shock. “Why in the world would you think this is a personal attack on you specifically?”

  “We aren’t sure,” Eirnin says, shaking his head. “Before my dad left he warned Fi that someone would be coming for me.”

  “And you think it’s my father?” She shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither do we,” Fi says; sounding completely defeated. I tangle my hand in her hair and massage the back of her head; watching as her eyes fall closed. Lumi asks Eir another question, so I lean down and whisper to her, “Maybe we should follow those maps your Gran left us and take them with us. Get them out of here.”

  Fi’s eyes snap open wide and she looks up at me. “That’s a fantastic idea!” she says; leaning in and kissing me suddenly. She beams at me like I’m the most brilliant person in the world before she looks at the two very confused people on the couch. “We found the journals! Or, rather, we know where they are. Anyway, according to a letter Gran left for me, the answers are in her journals. And Flint just suggested that we all go get them so we can try and get ahead of this.”

  “I think you guys are right,” Eir says. “We should go get the journals. I don’t want him coming here and other people getting hurt trying to protect me.”

  His tone catches me off-guard. He almost sounds like he’d rather give himself over to Landric than to fight it. I’m trying to think of something to say to that when I see Lumi’s head turn very slowly in his direction; her usually jolly and childlike eyes narrowed in an angry, protective manner. “No one is going to get hurt. Including you.”

  I quirk a brow at both of them and look at Fi as Eirnin cringes at her tone. I speak before someone can start an argument. “We should leave sooner rather than later, and we should leave quietly.”

  “I agree,” Fi says with a nod, also trying to tamp down Lu’s irritation. “We should leave the morning after next. We’re only going to the house in the Catskills, and we can stay there for a few days after, too.” Her eyes shoot between Eir and Lu. “Does that sound all right with you all?”

  Lu finally stops glaring at Eirnin long enough to nod and smile at Fi. “I’m in.”

  Fi waits for Eirnin to nod as well before puffing up a little. “Well then. Tomorrow we pack, and we’ll leave first thing the next morning.”

  Not long after that, Fi’s head lolls onto my shoulder and she nearly falls asleep in the middle of her statement. I don’t even get the chance to voice my concerns before Lu starts wagging a finger at her. “You need sleep, young lady.”

  Fi gives her a weird look before she remembers Lu’s actual age. She opens her mouth to speak but only manages a few unintelligible noises, and I bite my lip so I don’t laugh at her. I push out from under her and take both of her hands. “Alright, up. Let’s go.”

  She growls something like “I’m fine”, but lets me help her anyway. Her eyes are far away when she looks up at me, leans forward and takes my mouth with hers in a sultry kiss; like we’re the only two people in the world. Lumi coos about how cute we are while Eirnin gags and says, “That’s my sister!” but Fi doesn’t seem to care. I, on the other hand, feel flushed.

  “Let’s go to sleep,” Fi says, sounding a little breathless and looking up at me. “Lots of work tomorrow.”

  “Yes,” Lu says, standing up. “Eirnin, would you take Fi to her room? I’d like a word with Flint.”

  “Oh, um.” Eirnin’s face turns a deep red but he nods and doesn’t argue. “Yeah, sure.” Before he can stand, Lu crosses her hands behind her back and bends over to kiss his cheek. His face turns so red it’s almost purple, and he smiles dopily up at her. I wonder if that’s how I look when Fi touches me?

  “Come along, sister dear!” he bellows; suddenly wide-awake. He lurches forward and grabs Fi around the waist. Her squinted eyes snap open and she shrieks and punches Eir in the back as she’s thrown over his shoulder and he skips — skips! — out of the room. I hear Fi yelling at him to ‘put me down, demon child!’, but Lumi’s burst of laughter drowns out the response. “I love those two.”

  I can’t help but chuckle over them, too. Eirnin clunks down the stairs and the floor between us muffles Fi’s scolding and shouting. If they weren’t siblings I’d be worried for Eir’s safety. I give Lu a minute to catch her breath before asking, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  The cheery look in her eyes melts away in the moment of silence that follows. She looks grim and tired, and all the life in her eyes is taken over by tension. “I think we need to keep a closer eye on Eirnin.”

  I frown at her. “Why is that?”

  “Did you see his face?” she says. “When he concluded my father wants him and him alone? All the blame for the attack, for Hugh, his parents…it landed on his shoulders in that moment. He looked like he was fully prepared to surrender himself to the Court.”

  So it wasn’t a figment of my imagination. “We won’t let him do anything like that, Lu. He’s not that stupid.”

  “It’s not just that,” she says, and tugs on the ends of her hair. “If what they think is correct and my parents want him in their possession, they’re not going to come and collect him themselves.”

  “That’s why we’re leaving,” I tell her calmly. “We’re going to find these journals and get ahead of them before anyone gets hurt.”

  She nods but still looks like she may be sick. She has a tint of green to her cheeks and one of her hands is by her mouth; the already short nails being gnawed off. “What are you thinking?”

  She looks at me and her hand snaps away from her teeth. She’s quiet for a long moment before quietly saying, “My father… He has people trained for stuff like this. They could come in his room and drag him away without a sound. We’ll wake up and he’ll be gone.”

  I admit that makes me stop and think for a moment. Sometimes I forget about how strictly the Courts train their guards and servants, some of whom are put in training as young as six months old. I shake off the worry and ask, “Okay, even if Sean and Hugh are after Eirnin, would it be alright for them to work without an order?”

  “Well, no,” she says. “Most likely they’d have to go back to the Court, get Father’s permission and then make the return trip before they were permitted to touch him.”

  “Then let’s just presume that’s what they’re up to,” I tell her; trying not to show that I’m just as anxious as she is. I’m considering telling Fi we should leave tonight when Lu shakes her head. “I’m sure it will be fine. We should go to bed before Eir rams Fi’s head into a wall.”

  “You mean, before Fi rips out a chunk of his hair?” I correct her.

  She glares at me. “Either or.”

  I smirk at her and she shakes her head. “Okay, smartass. Lead the way.”

  We step out of the office a
nd, not surprisingly, Lu follows me down the stairs to the bedrooms. She holds a finger to her lips for me not to comment and knocks on Eir’s door. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  “I have no intentions of the evening getting that out of hand, Hellboy, but thank you.” She beams at me after a grumbled, “Yeah, what?” comes through the door and she slips in Eir’s room. I wait until the door clicks behind her before stepping into Fi’s room. I thought she might have fallen back asleep and don’t bother knocking, but the abrupt squeak that comes from the back of the room tells me otherwise.

  By the time my eyes adjust to the almost-darkness I see that she’s collapsed against the wall with her hand over her mouth and the other hooked around her waist, and she’s hiccupping and choking into her palm. “Fi?” I say. I close the door behind me and take a few steps forward. “What’s—”

  I don’t get the chance to finish. As soon as I’m a few feet away from her she pushes off the wall and hurls herself against my chest. Her hands fist at my shirt as she tries to smother her frantic sobs in my chest. Her whole body is trembling with panic and I clutch her against me, genuinely worried she’ll hit the ground without the extra support. “Love, what happened?” I ask quietly after she catches her breath.

  “Th-the window was open,” she starts before shaking her head. “I-I just need a minute to c-collect myself.” She is more upset than I’ve ever seen her, and there is no way in hell I’m letting her try and put me off. She’s going to tell me what happened.

  “Fi…” I shake my head. “Come on. No.” I move my hands to her shoulders and push her back just far enough so I can see her tear-stained face; catching her eye and making sure she’s looking when I say, “Talk to me.”

  She is still shaking and hiccuping but she nods. She opens her mouth to start, but when a cry falls out I pull her back against my chest and she starts bawling again. “He’s supposed to be dead!” she cries. “I really thought he was dead. I felt so much better when I thought he was dead.”