PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

Aodhan’s face was impassive as ever, but for a moment, I noticed how he watched Niamh across the table. The fire in his eyes skirted between hatred and longing, but as if he sensed me watching him, he went back to scanning the room.

  I needed to get myself away from Deaghlan if I were to be able to think straight. He was too beautiful, painfully so. When I looked at him, every thought I had about my parents and Ethan scattered and all I could do was drown in his eyes. This attraction to Deaghlan and Saoirse, all of the Danaans, was unnatural. But I only realized what was happening when they weren’t speaking to me.

  And I had more important things to worry about. I needed to come up with a way to see Liam and my mother, and save Ethan. And Aodhan was right—not just Deaghlan, but all of the Danaans were watching every single move I made.

  “I need a moment,” I told no one in particular. “I need a woman’s moment,” I said hoping this was enough to keep them from asking any questions.

  Deaghlan smoothed the sleeves of his tunic, only the slightest touch uncomfortable with my words. “Eithne,” he called out, and the girl I’d met in Wheelwright appeared immediately at his side.

  He looked up at her charmingly. “Allison needs assistance. You’ll take care of her, won’t you?”

  Eithne bowed her head at him, and I rose quickly to follow her out of the gathering room. She didn’t meet my eyes as she led me away, which made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I felt like she was afraid of me.

  “Eithne,” I said quietly, stopping as I walked through the entryway with the stone staircase. She stopped in front of me, her sandy-colored hair forming a curtain around her face.

  “Is my...is Liam going to be okay?” I asked.

  She turned partially around, peeking up at me from behind her feathery lashes. “Liam is going to be fine. He had a shard of iron in his wound, which has been removed. He will sleep for another day before his body is healed. And Niall took the iron out of TÍ r na n’Ó g before it did any more damage.”

  I nodded, and she led me up the stone steps and down a hallway lit with the mysterious little balls of light—fey lights, I’d learned they were called. A few doors were closed along each wall, and at the end, another set of steps curved up to another floor. As I climbed the steps, a shifting feeling stopped me. I leaned against the cool stones and squeezed my eyes shut.

  Eithne was watching me warily when I opened them. I laughed quietly, trying to regain my equilibrium. Breathing through my nose, I continued to the top. I followed her into a room to the right of the landing where stone basins lined the wall on one side and three curtains covered what looked like alcoves carved into the stone of the other.

  “Wait, I don’t really need to use the ladies room. I’m sorry,” I said. I should’ve said something sooner. “I really wanted to see Liam. Please take me to see him?” I asked, hoping she could see how important it was by my expression.

  “Very well,” she said, and I almost asked her to repeat herself. It seemed too easy.

  “Eithne?”

  She continued averting her eyes. “Yes?”

  “Have I done something to make you uncomfortable?”

  She met my eyes. I could see that she was afraid of something, but I couldn’t tell what.

  “If Aoife finds out that I’ve helped you...” she trailed off.

  “Aoife? What does Aoife have to do with me?”

  Eithne’s eyebrows shot up, and a little sound escaped her lips. “I’m not sure what you know about how Liam and I met . . . ”

  “I don’t know anything about it,” I said even though Liam had mentioned something about it. My interest was piqued by what Eithne would tell me.

  “Well”—she looked around nervously—“I was once Aoife’s handmaiden. When she would leave TÍ r na n’Ó g it was my duty to take care of Liam. I am her cousin, and I was the only one she felt she could trust, you see.

  “I helped him when I could. He would go back into the human realm, and I would sneak him back without Aoife’s notice. But one day, she felt I’d betrayed her. I knew too many of her secrets, she said, and she banished me to the human realm.”

  I gaped at her. Niamh had told me that Aoife was known for her temper, but I wasn’t sure how Aoife could hurt her now.

  “Liam and Niamh have imprisoned Aoife, though,” I said.

  She nodded. “Yes, but there are eyes everywhere. Deaghlan won’t allow her to stay in the sphere for much longer, and when she finds out you’re here, and that I’ve helped you...”

  “Is it because I’m Liam’s daughter that you think she’ll be angry?”

  Eithne’s eyes widened in fear. “I can’t say anymore, Allison. Please.”

  “Wait,” I said, holding my hands up, trying to placate her. There was something I was missing. I needed to figure out what Eithne was so afraid of.

  “Why will Aoife be so angry?” I asked again, begging her to confide in me.

  “Because she made me keep your existence a secret. I don’t know how Liam and Niamh tracked you, but when Aoife finds out, I know I’ll pay for it.”

  “But you weren’t the one who told them about me. Everyone knows that.”

  “Oh, it doesn’t matter. When I hid you for her, I was so careful. I never understood how she could give away such a beautiful creature, but she detested you. Liam didn’t even know about you, but she was seething with jealousy over a harmless baby girl—”

  “I’m not following,” I interrupted. “What do you mean you hid me? I didn’t think Aoife even knew about me. Niamh and Liam didn’t know about me when they showed up looking for my mother.”

  “Your mother?” Eithne said, tilting her head to one side.

  I got the distinct feeling we were talking about two completely different scenarios, but I had no idea how to untangle the threads of the story she’d just told me.

  “Yes. Liam came to my grandparents’ house looking for my mother, Elizabeth—”

  If Eithne’s expression could have become more horrified, it did then. “Elizabeth is your mother?” she asked slowly, some of her confusion disappearing.

  “Uh, yes.” I said, shaking my head. “You’ve lost me again.”

  “Oh, Allison,” she muttered, covering her face in her hands. “Please, forget what I’ve told you. It is best for everyone if you pretend we hadn’t spoken.”

  Eithne clearly thought I was someone else. From the sound of things, she thought Aoife was my mother. I shook my head. I needed to calm her down.

  I put my hand on her shoulder until she uncovered her face and looked at me. “I don’t know who you think I am, Eithne, but right now I have to see my father. Can you take me to him? Please?”

  Her face relaxed a fraction and she nodded. “Follow me.”

  ***

  Liam lay in a bed motionless, covered with soft blankets pulled up to his chest. His eyes were closed, but he’d regained his normal coloring. He looked like he was just sleeping soundly.

  My mother sat in a chair that had been pulled up right next to the bed. She gazed down at him, her face a collage of different emotions. The strongest by far was love.

  I sat on the arm of the chair and placed my hand slowly on her shoulder. When she looked up at me, she smiled again, her eyes reflecting the light like sea glass in the sun.

  “I never dreamed we would all be in the same room, Allison. It was too much to hope for.” She lifted her hand to Liam’s face but wasn’t able to break through the geis to touch him.

  “Were you aware of everything that went on around you? All of this time?” I asked, not sure if she would know what I meant.

  “Yes,” she whispered, pain evident on her face. “It has been like being stuck in a room while I watched your life unfold on a television. All of this time I’ve been trapped in my own mind, screaming, but nobody could hear me.”

  “Oh, Mom . . . once Ethan is safe, I’m going to figure out how to make this right.”

  “Allison, you should return before they not
ice you are missing,” Aodhan said, appearing in the doorway.

  I smiled at my mother and kissed her cheek. “I’ll be back soon.”

  ***

  Aodhan brought me back to the gathering room where most of the Danaans were now dancing in the center of the room. Deaghlan sat at the head of the table with Saoirse, both leaning back in their chairs watching the dancers.

  They were dancing closer than before, more intimately. Their bodies pressed tightly together, moving with each other. As the music played on, they changed partners and entwined their bodies with no shame or self-consciousness. Liam told me that, by nature, the Danaans weren’t a monogamous race. Some had a bondmate, like Diarmuid and Eithne, but they considered intimacy something that wasn’t restricted to any one individual.

  Aodhan and I went back to our seats, and I wondered how much more time I had to spend here before it was considered polite to go to the bedroom that awaited me. The morning couldn’t come soon enough. The panic was setting in, and I was forced to have faith in Saoirse’s visions that I would get to Ethan before any permanent damage was done.

  “Perhaps a dance would take your mind off of your friend?” Deaghlan appeared at my side, startling me.

  I shook my head, refusing to look up into those eyes. “I think it’s time for me to get some sleep,” I said, watching the way Niamh stared at Aodhan over the shoulder of her dance partner.

  For a moment, Deaghlan didn’t respond. “Would you like an escort?” he asked, his words smooth and tantalizing like honey, but with a touch of something sharper.

  Aodhan snorted softly. “It’s no trouble for me to take her to her room. I’ll be going too.”

  “Very well,” Deaghlan responded.

  I was more than a little afraid of the unhappiness of his tone.

  ***

  Gram sits on the couch, her hair pulled back in a bun that’s coming undone. Her eyes are downcast, and she’s holding a picture of my mother in her hands, worrying the edges with her fingers.

  I can see Pop is sitting in the kitchen, staring off into space as Aunt Jessie tries to talk to him. His eyes look sunken in, his skin so pale. His eyebrows knit together, and he closes his eyes tight. His hand flies to his chest and Aunt Jessie shouts at him, asking him what’s wrong. His eyes slacken, and his mouth opens as he starts to slip out of the chair.

  I woke with a start. The bed was so comfortable, but I knew I wasn’t at home. Memories began flooding back to me. I was in TÍ r na n’Ó g. Liam had been stabbed. My mother was herself, if only temporarily. And Ethan was captured by sadistic faeries who wanted to do all kinds of bad things to him.

  Then, the memory of the dream hit me: my grandfather was having a heart attack.

  I jumped up out of the bed, just as Niamh walked into the room. Her expression wasn’t the typical haughty one I was used to. She looked like she had something to tell me.

  “I saw your dream,” she began.

  “Oh?” I asked as grabbed my clothes off the table next to my bed.

  “Not all of your visions will come true, you know.”

  I froze after popping my shirt over my head. “That hasn’t happened?” I asked.

  Niamh shook her head. A huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. That meant I might still have time.

  “Now I just need to get Ethan away from the seductress fairies at Aoife’s brothel or whatever it is, we can figure out what is needed to break the geis, and we can all go home,” I said, yanking a sock onto my foot. Frustration was setting in—I was surprised I hadn’t snapped sooner.

  “Don’t worry about your grandfather, Allison. My mother has sent decoys to take your place while you’re here.”

  “What do you mean by decoys?” I asked, scrunching my face around the word.

  “Two of my handmaidens and one of my guards are glamoured to pass as you, Ethan, and your mother.”

  I stared at her for a second, unsure how to respond.

  She huffed a little and waved dismissively. “We have to keep up appearances. I know it feels like you’ve only been in TÍ r na n’Ó g for a single day, but in your world it’s been about three weeks.”

  I shook my head and stood. “Aodhan mentioned the time difference. That is so bizarre.”

  “Maybe, but it’s true.”

  As she was speaking, I caught a glimpse of Aodhan standing just outside the doorway. Before last night I might not have picked up on the pinprick of emotion in his eyes as he watched Niamh. As it was, I wasn’t sure I was reading the whole situation correctly, but something was there.

  “We should be going,” Aodhan said firmly. Any emotion I thought I’d seen burned away as fast as it had appeared. Niamh gave me a tiny nod and quietly slipped past him.

  “We’ve been given provisions to last two days,” he said without another look at Niamh.

  His face screwed up as he muttered under his breath, “However long that really is.”

  ***

  I’d never really been able to achieve comfortable silence with anyone other than my family before. For whatever reason, people feel this innate need to fill the silence with meaningless chatter, but Aodhan led me down the hill quietly. I wasn’t sure exactly why he hadn’t offered to run, but I had a feeling it was because he needed some time to think too.

  Seeing my mother the way I’d always heard her described—smiling and radiant—had been one of the best moments of my life. Leaving her so soon was hard, especially after learning that as soon as we set foot out of TÍ r na n’Ó g she’d go back to the way I’d always known her.

  The memories of Ethan with all of those women and what they could do to him burned my eyelids. I couldn’t let him become like my mother. His family would be devastated, and I still had a chance to prevent it from happening. I didn’t know how, but Saoirse’s words made me hopeful that she had seen a future in which I’d saved Ethan.

  I heard chattering then as I walked past a smattering of ash trees. On a low branch, a squirrel watched me with intelligent eyes. I thought of how Aodhan had said the vines were curious about me. Apparently, this critter was also.

  Aodhan walked several paces ahead, tense and alert to every sound and movement. The way he moved reminded me of a panther. I wondered if he had always been this agile, or if it was the effect of being in TÍ r na n’Ó g for so long.

  “Aodhan,” I called ahead.

  He stopped and turned. “Aye?” he asked.

  “I was just wondering what your gift is?” All the Danaans had some kind of ability, but he hadn’t mentioned his yet.

  He snorted, turning his head away. “My gift,” he muttered as he started walking again.

  “Sorry,” I said, embarrassed for having brought it up.

  “I suppose the gift you speak of would be my strength. I’m stronger than most of the others, faster probably, too.” He slowed his pace so that we were walking side by side.

  I nodded, but he wasn’t done.

  “I can do a little of everything they can do, I think. I can use glamour to stay hidden—so that would be the mind control. And I can sometimes, but not often, move things with my thoughts. It’s sort of like singing. Anyone can sing, some just do it better than others.”

  To hear him speak openly like that was surprising and wonderful. He had such a deep accent, too. I wondered what his life had been like growing up in Ireland so long ago. And what had made him decide to come with me.

  “You want to know why I agreed to help you,” he said as he rubbed one hand across the fuzz growing on his chin.

  I laughed nervously. “Did you read my mind?”

  Enough time passed that I didn’t think he would continue, but he surprised me again.

  “I had a family once,” he began, looking over at me. “Three brothers, two sisters. My father was the chieftain of our clan. I spent most of my life dreaming of ways to make the English pay for what they were doing to my country.

  “We fought for our freedom, but in the end we were forced to leave our home, ma
de to flee like thieves in the night. Once my family had made it to safety, I took one last sweep of our camp. I vaguely remember being shot in the back,” he closed his eyes, remembering. “I can still see the English scum spitting on me as I lay face-down in the mud. All I could do was lay there and wait to die.

  “After the English left, I heard a voice whispering in my mind. I opened my eyes, and Niamh was there. In that moment I forgot about pain, forgot about my family. There was only her.

  “By the time I met Liam, hundreds of years had passed. Everyone I’d ever known was dead and gone.” He shook his head slowly. “It hadn’t even occurred to me to care.”

  I didn’t say anything in response—no words would be enough.

  “There’s a stream just ahead, we should stop for a drink.” Aodhan started off the path, and I followed, my heart aching for all that he’d lost.

  ***

  Everything in TÍ r na n’Ó g felt like it was the way nature intended: bright blue sky during the day, soft misty rain at night. The grass was a lush green carpet rolling over the hills and smoothing out over the plains. Flowers and fruit grew everywhere you looked, all bursting with color and crisp fragrance.

  But when we came to a wall of twisting brambles, it didn’t feel anything like the beauty I’d seen so far. There was a sense of foreboding seeping out of the thorny vines.

  “I don’t remember this being here,” Aodhan said as he paced the wall, looking for a way through. He attempted to loosen the snarled vines, but they wouldn’t budge. He pulled a dagger out of his belt and began sawing at it.

  “It’s tedious,” he said. “But these vines are immovable, and I can’t see another way through.”

  I slid the dagger out of the scabbard that hung on my hip. The vines felt like dry bones rattling together as I cut them away. The thorns bit at my skin, and the smell coming out of the vines caused black dots to blur my vision, but I kept hacking away.

  Aodhan cut a small path ahead, and I struggled to keep up with him. Thorns snagged my sleeves, and I wrestled the dagger through to free them. My hands were sliced and stinging, and when I looked up Aodhan was moving farther and farther away from me.

  I willed my feet to move faster and stumbled forward. I landed hard on the thorny ground. My vision swam, and I squeezed my eyes closed.