by Laura Howard
“Very good, sweetheart. We’ll be just fine here.”
I walked through the path, full of apprehension. I felt very alone as I looked up at Liam’s house. It didn’t make sense. I knew Aodhan wouldn’t desert me no matter what Saoirse told Niamh. But I’d considered Niamh a friend and I regretted double-crossing her.
I went in the front door, not seeing anyone at first. I passed the empty oak table in the dining room and through to the living room. Niamh sat on the arm chair with one leg crossed over the other looking through the French doors.
“Hey.”
When she turned to look at me, her mouth was turned down in a frown. “Hello, Allison.”
“Where’s Aodhan?” I asked, rubbing my fingers along the seam of my T-shirt.
“In the garage,” she said.
She wasn’t giving me a clear indication of her mood. Not a good sign.
“So, what’s happened?” I asked.
Niamh stood and the heels of her black boots clicked on the hardwood floor as she walked toward me. She stopped when she stood in front of me and her brow furrowed a little as she raised her arms and…hugged me.
I was so surprised, it took me a minute to return her embrace.
“I’m sorry about your grandfather,” she said.
It was a very human gesture. “Thank you.”
“I’m afraid I don’t bring the happiest of news,” she said, clasping her hands in front of her.
“No?” I said, eyes widening.
“My mother is distressed by a vision she saw in the basin.”
“What kind of vision?”
“She had a hard time telling me this, Allison,” she said. “She saw my sister. But it’s how she looked that bothered her so much.”
“How she looked?”
Niamh nodded and licked her lips. “She was ill. Not in the way a human might get sick, my kind don’t get sick. Not unless they use forbidden magic.”
“The last time I saw Aoife, she was very healthy,” I said with a shudder. Physically, anyway. Mentally, not so much.
“That’s what I thought,” she said with a sigh. “I tried to comfort her and tell her Aoife was fine. She doesn’t have any faith in her visions. It’s like being blind, something she’s never dealt with.”
“I’m sure your father has been very supportive, too,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Niamh made a very uncharacteristic snort. “That’s another thing. She hasn’t seen my father since we’ve been gone.”
“He’s been at Aoife’s house all this time?”
“Yes,” she said, her eyes narrowing. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I wish I could speak to you privately.”
“Privately?” I said, cocking my head to the side.
She looked at the garage and back.
“Why can’t you? I’m not blocking you.”
“You aren’t?” she said, her brow furrowed.
I shook my head.
“I…I can’t hear anything,” she said.
The door from the garage opened and I heard Aodhan come in.
“I swear, I’m not doing anything.”
She shrugged, not saying anything else about it.
Aodhan walked into the living room and inclined his head to me. “I’m going on another search run with Niall and Bláithín. I don’t think we’ll find anything, but Niall wants to check for his brother one more time.”
Niamh nodded. “Be safe.”
Once he left, she waited a minute for him to be out of earshot before speaking. “Do you remember what my mother suggested while you were in Tír na n’Óg with me?”
“About Aodhan? Yeah.”
“Well, she thinks I should consider what she said. She wants me to pursue his affection.”
“Oh boy. What will you do?” I asked.
“I won’t pursue his affection, if that’s what you mean.” She actually used air quotes.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. My humor fled when I imagined what Aoife would want me to do. She’d succeeded in burning the image of my father suffering into my mind for times like these.
“I agree. You’ll push him away further if you’re not careful.”
She swallowed and turned away. “I know. I waited decades for him to speak a single word to me.”
“You’ve got all the time in the world, right?” I said, recalling Aoife’s words about waiting for Liam to come around.
Niamh looked at me sharply. “I suppose.”
Time to change the subject. “Do you really think your mother’s vision could come true? Could Aoife get as sick as Saoirse believes?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? Aoife’s already been affected in her mind. What’s to say she couldn’t become physically ill?”
“What I’d ask your mother is why she doesn’t just stop Aoife. Does the magic she’s using make her stronger than your mother?”
Niamh seemed to consider this. “It’s possible. Thousands of years ago, before the time of my grandparents, Old Magic wasn’t forbidden. I suppose there was a good reason it was forbidden. No one should have that much power.”
“What if Aoife just killed your parents and took over?”
Niamh looked at me as though I were crazy. “Don’t even say that. She would never do that.”
I shook my head. The only reason she wouldn’t was if she was working with Saoirse. And I believed she was.
A knock on the front door cracked the impasse between us. I walked into the foyer to see Ethan through the vertical window next to the door and waved him in.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” he asked, squeezing my arm and kissing my cheek.
“Niamh’s here,” I said, leading him back to the living room.
We sat on the couch and Niamh stopped pacing to sit across from us in the arm chair.
“Allison,” she said, tapping her lip with her forefinger. “Would you be willing to visit my mother? I’ve never seen her so down-trodden.”
Ethan reached out, grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. I didn’t know exactly why Niamh wanted me to talk to Saoirse, but I didn’t think it was a good idea. Unless…
“All right, I’ll go”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
“Too many people have died,” I said, squeezing his hand back. “I want this thing done. I need to move on with my life.”
If I could somehow get both Saoirse and Niamh to look in Danu’s Basin with me, it was possible they would see what Aoife was doing to me. I might not be able to say it, and Niamh might not be able to see it in my thoughts, but maybe there was still a way around it.
Ethan rubbed my back. “I’m with you, whatever you want to do.”
“Allison, this means so much to me. Thank you. You are a good friend.”
I pursed my lips. I didn’t feel like a very good friend. Hopefully she’d forgive me when she learned the truth.
“When would we go?” I asked.
“I could summon the decoys straight away. Could you go tonight?”
I nodded and Ethan and I stood to leave. “What about Aodhan?” I asked.
“We’ll have to see what he chooses. Either way, I’ll have guards watching your house.”
That didn’t bring much comfort. I’d had a guard watching me, and Aoife had no scruples about killing him and stashing his body in the dressing room.
Ethan walked me to my front porch and pulled me to him for a quick kiss in front of the stairs. “I need to get back to work,” he said, his voice heavy with regret.
I nodded and forced a smile. “I’ll see you later.”
“You don’t need to do this,” he said, grasping my face in his hands so I’d meet his eyes.
I couldn’t stop to consider the consequences. I’d felt the first ray of hope since Aoife had captured me and I wasn’t willing to part with it.
“It’s like I told you,” I said. “This needs to end.” I wasn’t sure if I convinced him, but he smiled and nodded.
I watched him dr
ive away and went in to see what I’d missed while next door. The front door closed behind me with a thud.
“Oh, God,” I whispered.
My aunt and grandmother were hunched over the coughing, writhing form of my mother. She lay on the couch, her face drained of all color. Gram held a wad of blood-spotted tissues by my mother’s face.
I rushed into the living room, finding Nicole with a hand over her mouth, standing in front of the table dividing the living room from the kitchen.
“What happened? She seemed to be doing so much better.”
Nicole sucked in a breath. “I- I don’t know, she just started coughing a few minutes ago. She was fine and then…” she couldn’t even finish her sentence, but I understood.
Aoife was watching. I reached for the pendant hanging around my neck. She knew what I was planning. And if my mother was this sick, Liam would be a thousand times worse.
“Should I call the doctor?” I asked, not sure if there was anything a human could do for her, but it looked like she was coughing up a lot of blood.
“We did,” Gram said. “We’re going to take her to Dr. Clark in half an hour.”
“I’ll call the funeral home and see if we can change the appointment to this afternoon,” Jessie said, sitting by my mother’s head and smoothing her hair back.
“I could take her to the doctor,” I said, feeling helpless.
Gram and Aunt Jessie exchanged a look.
I backpedaled. “I mean, if you want.”
“That would actually be a big help, Allie-girl,” Gram said.
“I can go with you,” Nicole said, glancing from Gram to me.
“Yeah, that would be good,” I said.
I’d never taken my mother anywhere without Gram or Pop with me. To say Mom didn’t do well in public was a gross understatement. She typically needed to be sedated, and I wasn’t sure if this time would be different.
“Do we need to medicate her?” I asked.
“We’ll give her a half-dose,” Gram said, wiping the corner of Mom’s mouth. “I don’t want her to have any trouble breathing.”
“What time are you going to the funeral home?” I asked, sitting in Pop’s chair. I ran my hand along a worn patch on the arm rest. He’d sat here reading the newspaper just about every night after supper for as long as I could remember.
“Eleven,” Aunt Jessie said, leaning her head on the back of the couch.
Everyone looked tired, and I was glad Gram was allowing me to help. Pop always said she was the most stubborn woman he’d ever met, and I agreed.
I sat with my mother while Gram and Aunt Jessie got ready for their appointment. Her cough didn’t subside, and she could barely swallow her medicine. All I could do was watch her suffer and try to keep out the dark thoughts of what Aoife was putting Liam and Samantha through.
My mother was on several daily medications, mostly anti-psychotics. Did she need them? No, she wasn’t actually schizophrenic. But they did help when she needed to go out. Because of her cough, Gram didn’t even try to get her to swallow pills. A quick shot in the upper arm was all it took. After two minutes, my mother’s eyelids drooped.
To my surprise, the sedative actually made her cough ease up. Nicole and I got her into the back of my car with no trouble. Nicole sat with her, keeping her comfortable while I drove across town.
We had to wait for about twenty minutes in Dr. Clark’s waiting room. My mother sat beside me without raising her eyes. When we were called in, Nicole told me she’d wait for us.
Once we were sitting in the tiny appointment room, my mother was hardly coughing at all.
As I hung our coats, I caught a flash of black in the mirror hanging by the wall hooks. I blinked but Aoife’s face looked back at me, a wicked gleam in her wide blue eyes.
Her voice crept into my thoughts, slippery as a serpent and my heart turned cold.
Do you enjoy seeing you mother suffer?
Unable to form words, I shook my head, glancing down to where my mother sat immobile.
What then? Have you decided saving your father isn’t worth losing your friendship with my sister?
“No, no.” The words came out in a whispered rush.
Do not forget what I told you. I can make it far worse, believe me. You’ll wish they were dead before I’m done.
I could only nod, because the door opened and the doctor walked in, clipboard in hand. I glanced back at the mirror, but my own face stared back.
The doctor was very kind as he checked my mother’s chest and throat. She was far more pliable than I expected and allowed him to stick a tongue depressor in her mouth. I’d been worried I wouldn’t be able to keep her as calm as Gram could, but there were no problems.
He took a culture, but seemed confident the bleeding was just from excessive coughing due to a common cold. Before we left, he wrote out a prescription for cough medicine with a pain reliever. I hoped it would keep her as calm as the sedative.
Nicole stood when she saw us walk into the waiting room. “What’d he say?”
“It’s probably just a cold, but he took a throat swab to check for a more serious infection.”
My cousin let out a breath. “Thank goodness.”
I drove home, nervous to check my rear view mirrors and find Aoife looking back at me.
When we pulled into the driveway, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Gram and Aunt Jessie weren’t home yet, so I helped my mother up to bed. In seconds, she was asleep. I could only hope she stayed that way for as long as possible.
Nicole sat on the couch in the living room tapping on her phone when I came downstairs.
“I never even asked you if you decided on the bridesmaid dresses,” I said, dropping down next to her.
She finished typing her message and glanced over at me. “Yes. I still have to have the other girls go down and get sized, but yours is all set.”
“And the cake tasting?”
She didn’t say anything for a second as she stuck her phone into the pocket of her hoodie. Then she glanced at me sidelong and a small smile lifted one corner of her mouth. “We narrowed it down, I think.”
I poked her side. “The offer to help you choose still stands.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder. “Thanks, you’re a real life saver.”
My shoulders tensed. I was no life saver. I’d be happy to just get through the day without causing any more pain.
“Do you think Gram will be okay?” she asked, all signs of joking gone from her voice.
I swallowed. “Of course. She’s the strongest woman I know.”
“I guess you’re right. I’ve just heard stories about people who’ve been married a long time losing the will to go on after their spouse dies.”
“No. It’ll be hard, but Gram will get through this,” I said, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt.
Nicole sniffed and looked up at me. “What about you? How are you doing?”
I lifted a hand to smooth a strand of her blonde hair back from her cheek and looked away. “I’m okay.”
“If I know you at all, I’m guessing you blame yourself for what happened.”
Any other time, I would have said she was being silly. But something in me cracked and my hands began to tremble.
“Why wouldn’t I?” I said my voice barely a whisper.
“I won’t deny what you did was thoughtless, but you were trying to help a friend. Pop has been sick for months. Sicker than he let us believe.”
My eyes closed as I exhaled. “It just doesn’t seem real,” I said. “I can practically hear him shaking out his newspaper. Like I’ll open my eyes to see him looking over the edge of his reading glasses, telling me he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Nicole laughed a little. “He would totally say that.”
I ruffled her hair and went to get up. “I’m hungry, want some of Joanne’s pasta?”
“Sure,” she said, standing with me. “I’m going to turn into a meatball, I’ve
eaten so much Italian food lately.”
I tapped her nose. “You’re marrying into the family, you’ve only just begun.”
That got her to laugh. “I can think of worse things.”
As we ate, I tried to think of excuses I could give Niamh for not going to Tír na n’Óg. I’d been so ready to go and now, I just couldn’t risk it.
I wondered if Saoirse would have been honest with me if I’d been able to go. The last time we’d spoken, she told us her only hope for passing the throne to Niamh was if Aodhan was by her side. Maybe that was one of her true visions. Did that mean I would fail at keeping Niamh and Aodhan apart? Or that they’d be reunited after my life was over.
So many questions, but maybe I’d never find out the answers.
When Gram and Aunt Jessie returned from the funeral parlor, they both looked physically and mentally exhausted. After we told them what happened at the doctor’s office, Nicole and Aunt Jessie made their way home and Gram went up to check on my mother.
Staring at my phone, I tried to summon the nerve to text Niamh. I was torn. I knew Aoife could cause my father pain and suffering, but would he say it was worth it if, in the end, we put an end to Aoife’s whole scheme? Could I allow him to be tortured, and my mother too?
Before I made any kind of decision, Ethan sent a text asking if my mom was okay. After I told him she would be fine, he said he’d be over after he was done work.
Gram came down and sat by my side. “Oh Allison. Things are going to be very different around here, aren’t they?”
I struggled to keep my voice even. “They sure are. But you know Pop wouldn’t stand for us sitting around moping. He’d say something like ‘It’s okay to be sad for a little while, but you’ve got to keep living.’”
She gave me wobbly smile. “You’re absolutely right. That’s just what he’d say.”
“He’d probably tell us we needed to eat a little extra ice cream, too,” I whispered, nudging Gram lightly with my elbow.
She laughed, the most beautiful sound I’d heard in days. “Right again, Allie-girl.”
We sat together in silence for a while. I tried to imagine what my grandfather would have told me to do about Aoife. He was a man with a strong moral compass. Everything she did went against everything he stood for. I couldn’t imagine Pop letting anyone hurt his family. But he was well-known in Stoneville for his honesty and integrity. He would figure out a way to keep everyone safe.