“You did not consult us, Dayne,” her tone was flat, unemotional.
“It’s not your decision to make, mother,” he stared resolutely forward. I tried to mimic his every move at his side.
“How can you promise such things when you haven’t a clue where your fates lie?” His mother’s tone was mocking, taunting him.
“We’ll find a way.” Dayne didn’t waver in his decision, staring through her in rigid obedience.
His mother eyed me coolly, her placid face an emotionless pool. Features a smile would have made utterly breathtaking lay as still as death upon her skin. My eyes shifted behind her to a giant counting glass with sand pouring through the narrow spout too quickly–the balance of the glass nearly gone. I wondered whose time it counted. She caught my stare and turned to watch the sands spill with me.
With a bored sigh she turned back, folding her hands ceremoniously at her chest, the great folds of her sleeves swallowing her slender fingers.
“We have decided.” Her voice rang out crystal clear over the crowd, and her eyes slowly rolled upward, lifting her entire face with them.
“The girl will remain…” she paused, the echo of her words lingering over the crowd. A flicker of hesitation broke her concentration and her head fell back down to me. With squinted eyes she looked at my bracelet once more and I knew she was questioning her decision. The appearance of the bracelet on my wrist had certainly changed the game we were playing. Her son’s soul and happiness were in my hands now. That gave me power over her and over Dayne. I knew she wanted, more than anything, for him to remain and become the son and heir she wanted him to be. Now I had complicated that desire.
I recognized the disappointment he had been greeted with—their obvious defeat in raising a son who could turn his back on the world they ruled over, hidden cleverly behind her delicate features. Most people would never recognize it, but to eyes that knew that look, it was like a neon sign flashing in the dark. I knew she would do anything to force him into the life she wanted him to live, no matter how vile that life was to him.
“…in LisTirna.” Her words sucked the life giving air out of my lungs, and I shrunk in a deflated swoon at Dayne’s side. He held onto me, steadying me beside him. Panic set in, and I had to fight to breathe. I couldn’t stay here. I had to get back. My life was waiting for me. Even if it wasn’t a great life, I couldn’t just disappear. She had to at least give me a chance to say goodbye before I left. I didn’t want my parents and Rose and Phin to go through what I had witnessed with Christine’s disappearance.
Daoine had already turned her back and was beginning her slow and regal retreat back up the few steps to the altar, as if she hadn’t just condemned me to a fate worse than the fiery pits of hell. She folded her arms at her side, in a wing like posture, preparing to change back to her eagle form and leave me stuck for good in this crazy world of hers.
“Dayne!” I pleaded at his side. He looked at me, anger and fear cutting deep crevices into the lines of his face.
“Wait!” He yelled out to Daoine through lips that didn’t move, stopping her transformation. A few feathers that had already appeared on her arms fluttered to the ground at her feet.
“Yes?” She was attentive now, leaning forward and hanging on Dayne’s every word.
“I’ll stay in her place.” The muscles in his arms stiffened like a steel rod in my hands and my mouth fell open as I watched the color drain from his face. I couldn’t believe the words that had just passed his lips. He was bartering his freedom for mine. His head slowly turned down to me, my eyes searched his stony face frantically as I realized the prison his words would build around him.
“Dayne, no!” I babbled through my tears now flowing like a river down my face, clinging to his side, pulling at any part of him I could grab onto. “Don’t do this. Don’t leave me.”
“I could never let anything happen to you, Faye.” He turned to face me, bending down so he was level with me as he whispered in my ear. “Ara was right. My will is not my own in your world. Mother could call me back at any moment. LisTirna is my prison, but I refuse to let it be yours, too. I won’t let them take you when I can still do something about it.” He pulled me to him, tucking me under his chin and squeezing me so tightly I thought I might break.
“But what about us?” I whimpered helplessly into his chest, my tears dampening the front of his shirt.
“I’ll find a way. When I’m King, I will find a way back to you.” His voice was a barely audible whisper in my ear and his kisses continued to find me between his words. I clung to him wishing there was magic strong enough to bind us in a way we could never be separated.
The unmistakable power of Daoine’s presence stifled the air around us, and I knew she could never hear his plans if they were going to work. I hated to do it, but I slowly untangled myself from him and turned to find Daoine staring at us intently, a slight smirk on her face.
“I thought you might say that.” A wicked smile played at the corner of Daoine’s lips. This was the most expression she had shown–gloating for everyone to see, thinking she had outsmarted us.
I pulled away from Dayne and stood between them. “I won’t let you take him.” I knew I was no match for her, but I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
“Isn’t that cute?” Daoine laughed and clapped her hands together, patronizing me like a child. I knew where Arabette got her condescending arrogance. “My dear, once a Sidhe makes a promise, they can only be released from their words by the Queen. Dayne will be staying here, where he belongs. You will be going back to where you belong.” She didn’t know that my place was with Dayne now, wherever he might be, and I wasn’t ready to let him go. I chewed at the inside of my lip, weighing my options when Ara’s voice cut through the silence.
“But mother do you not realize how he has jeopardized us by revealing our secrets?” Arabette fluttered to our side, seeing the perfect opportunity to seize her crown. “Dayne has betrayed us. He is not fit to rule.” Ara pleaded with all the practiced innocence of a doe eyed young girl. “Why don’t you ask her? She’ll tell you. Dayne revealed our secrets to her before he knew what she was.” Ara pushed me toward the Queen. I frowned at her and swatted her hand away.
“Silence, Ara.” Daoine spun back around and pointed an accusing finger in Ara’s direction, which made me smile. “You are not innocent in all this. You have betrayed your brother. I am not old enough that your conniving ways can fool me.” She strode toward Ara, and with each step Ara retreated back to her place in the crowd. “I know what you and Garyn have been up to, but it changes nothing. Dayne has broken no rule.” She raised her arms, settling the folds of her billowy sleeves back in place and she turned and walked over to me and Dayne. “While she is not Sidhe, she has magic of her own. She simply does not belong in this realm, and she does not belong with my heir.”
“I will not leave him! We are bound to one another!” Her easy dismissal of our love for one another made me as mad as Ara’s had. Dayne and I loved each other, regardless of what she thought. I pulled myself up to my full height and tucked my chin in the air, trying to make myself look as big as possible, hoping to intimidate to my foe. A shock of surprise echoed through the assembled crowd. Daoine was as unaccustomed to hearing “no” as her daughter was.
Daoine’s left eyebrow arched higher across her alabaster forehead, mildly amused by my behavior, and she laughed as she slowly thought about what to do with the annoyance in front of her.
“You know what?” She walked around me now, appraising my body with a tilted head. “You might have enough fire in you yet to stand by my son.” She tapped her cheek with a carefully manicured nail, looking everywhere but my eyes. “But I would never allow my blood line to be polluted with the likes of you.” Her fingertip left her chin and a slender index finger slashed through the air toward me like a knife before returning to her chin. I sucked in my cheeks, pursing my lips to a hard line while my nostrils flared in fury above.
> “See that bracelet my son put on your arm?” My hard glare left her for a brief second as I looked down at Dayne’s gift. “It’s solid gold.” A superior look swept down her nose, landing beside a nasty, sneering smile. “Take a look at your necklace. The one from your birth mother?” My eyes and head fell down to the locket I had worn for so long without a second thought. “It’s silver, and that’s inferior in my world.” With a grand gesture, she slowly pulled the waves of flowing red hair from around her neck, tossing the length over her shoulders, the ends tickling the ground behind her. Her graceful fingers rubbed along her collarbone and my eyes followed them to see the locket hanging around the embroidered neckline of her exquisite gown.
My hand flew to my chest with a slap, feeling to be sure my own locket was there as I stared with disbelief at the object wound around her neck. A cold feeling crept through my bones–the locket dangling before me was just like mine, but gold instead of silver.
She took in a long, blissful breath as she watched me struggle to comprehend what this could mean– a satisfied smile curling her lips as she exhaled with a tiny sigh and turned to walk back to the alter where Finvanna waited, playing idly with the sleeve of his shirt.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, turning to Dayne for comfort but stumbling in the empty air when his arms failed to grab me. My eyes flew open as I fell to the ground and I searched the crowd around me. Not a single eye looked at me, they were all transfixed on something several feet away, collectively gasping as their faces contorted in shock. I jumped back to my feet only to discover it was Dayne, being dragged away from me by some unseen source. He fought against it with all his might, his fists meeting the wall of an invisible bubble and his screams producing nothing more than open–mouthed silence.
“Dayne!” His name burned in the top of my throat with the shrill force of my voice, and I took two giant strides towards him before the same force surrounded me and pulled us further away from one another. I looked to Daoine. She held both hands out as if she were gripping invisible balls, moving us further from each other as she spread her hands wider. A wicked smile was on her face. “You do not belong in our world, and you are most definitely not a proper bride for my son.”
“You can’t do this!” I yelled at her and beat my fists against whatever surrounded me. My voice bounced back to me muffled and hot like a fly trapped under a jar. I scratched and clawed furiously trying to free myself, but it was useless. Thoughts were spinning dizzily through my head and the last desperate cry ripped from my stinging throat. It did no good. My fingernails dug into the solid, invisible wall before me and I fell to the bottom of my prison. I clasped my arms around me, cowering and crouching as I hovered over the ground, knowing this was a battle I could not win.
“Arabette?” Daoine called to her daughter. “Take her back and wipe her memory. I am done with this.” Daoine’s voice was dull and flat once again. Her features, which had recently burned with the fire of our fight, returned to a death mask of eerie calm that made her look like a beautiful walking corpse.
“With pleasure, your Majesty.” Arabette mumbled, a sullen look tightly stretching her face. She turned to me and the hot brand of hatred shriveled her face into a pinched, little melon, knowing she could not deny her mother’s command.
The last thing I saw in LisTirna was Dayne’s hand come up, placing a palm against the transparent wall before him. My hand mirrored his and the words “I love you” moved silently on my lips. Ara reached out and grabbed my wrist.
The world went blank.
Chapter 29
Back On Top
The smell of fresh hay and rich oiled leather filled my nostrils before my eyes opened. I was back in Clonlea, back in my blue jeans and boots.
Arabette looked like she might vomit at any moment, taking in the dingy barn with a hand held over her nose. Her soft white gown was gone, replaced with the cutting edge fashion she wore outside LisTirna. It was garish next to well–worn saddle pads and mud covered blankets. Her red–soled shoes clicked along the cement aisle as she walked over to me.
“Don’t think you’ve won, Faye. This isn’t over…not by a long shot.” She took her hand away from her nose long enough to stick a finger in my chest, gagging when she took her first unfiltered breath. “I will have that crown, and Dayne will finally get what’s coming to him.” Her leg came up with impossible flexibility and the red sole landed firmly in my chest, kicking me away from her just as she had Garyn. Unprepared for such an attack, I fell backwards, right into the wheelbarrow of stall shavings and horse manure Lucas had apparently not emptied that afternoon. I landed with a soft thud and lay there like a frozen marionette doll, unable to believe what she had just done. She giggled behind her hand, the ivory teeth playing peek–a–boo with her fingers when she saw how easily she had bested me.
I didn’t even try to get up. Instead, I sat there and cried. Ara didn’t understand that there was no way I could possibly have won. I couldn’t remain in her world and lose the family I had here, and Dayne couldn’t remain in my world as he was. My shoulders slumped and the tears spilled over my cheeks onto the folds of my flannel, button-down shirt.
“So pathetic. It’s not even fun to torture you anymore.” She taunted from the stall door. A quick clip–clop of hooves sounded along the cement aisle. A black muzzle appeared behind her and struck at her back like a fist. She was caught off guard and fell head first into the huge watering trough beside me with her mouth stretched open so wide I was sure she must have swallowed a gallon on impact. Ali stood illuminated in the hazy barn light, bobbing his head forcefully up and down with delight.
Arabette picked herself up, shaking so forcefully the water flew from her like a dog wringing out his coat. Her hair hung in wet strings around her face. The make-up I was surprised to see she wore ran in little rivers down to her neck. Her beauty dripped from her with the water droplets falling to the ground until she was nothing more than a grotesque beast standing in front of me.
I sucked in a quick breath, horrified by the putrid swamp-thing in front of me. The water had washed her magical beauty away and left nothing but a disfigured human form melting before my eyes like a used–up candle. She let out a piercing shriek, startling the horses in their stalls, and vanished into thin air. Ali poked his head in the stall and stepped in.
I wondered why he was loose. His warm muzzle sniffed at me, lying there on the soft mound of poop.
“Oh, Ali!” I wrapped my arms around his little neck and buried my head in the silken coat. “He’s gone Ali. He’s gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it!”
I knew it was useless to try and get him back. I didn’t have the power to take on the Sidhe. Even if I did…where would we go? How could we ever be together?
What a fool I had been to think anything that good would happen to me. Love is never that real, that easy or…perfect. No one is ever really lucky enough to find their true soul mate. You just find someone who you can tolerate, right?
I told myself these lies, hoping they would eventually make enough sense I could believe them. They didn’t.
I held onto Ali’s tiny wisp of a mane and hauled myself from the spongy soup of poop and shavings, brushing the little dried pieces that stuck to me away. Ali nuzzled his tiny head up under my arm and wrapped himself around my waist in a horse hug. He was LeSheen’s baby, after all. He could feel my pain.
“Thanks.” I played with his mane and wondered for a moment if Ali had felt our bond the night he was born. That night seemed like light years away now.
Dayne’s barn coat still hung on the nail where he left it. I grabbed it and pulled it around me. The scent of him was so intoxicating I breathed in until I fell to the ground with dizziness.
Our love had been perfect. My head bowed under the weight of grief, forehead smacking against my open palm as the sobs of my heartbreak choked in my throat. We loved each other so much we were both willing to seal ourselves to horrible fates so that the other wo
uldn’t have to suffer. He willingly accepted an eternity he despised in order to save me from it. And I had allowed him to because I knew it was the only way he could go on living as he was. That was a perfect love, an all-consuming love that was forever lost to reality.
My hand went into the pocket of the oversized jacket. There was no key to paradise there anymore. He was gone, along with our happiness.
My shoulders curled forward into my chest and I wrapped my arms around my waist, needing the feel of something…anything solid to keep me from falling away. The sobs broke free from my throat and my pitiful weeping whined into every corner of the quiet barn. I gasped and choked on the tears that ran hot down my face, mixing with the watery snot that flowed from my nose like a faucet. I didn’t dare let go and wipe them away. Instead they splashed into pools on my knees as I rocked back and forth, the hard cement floor scraping at my knees. I gritted my teeth against the pain, welcoming anything that could take my mind off the grief tearing at my heart.
The crying consumed my body, taking every bit of strength from me as I wasted away and fell prostrate on the ground, my head to the side and the ice–cold cement against my cheek doing little to wake me from my nightmare. I beat a fist helplessly against the hard floor, grinding it in frustration, feeling the little grains of sand dig into my flesh. Dust caked to my wet cheeks and puffed away from my mouth with every escaping sob.
I had seen it all so clearly in my mind. I thought it was one of my visions. Our family had played in the front yard of the little cabin, a miniature boy like Dayne and a delicate little girl like me, while we rocked together, hand in hand, on that perfect porch.
I closed my eyes, trying to bring the memory back. I wanted to see his face, to be comforted by his smile and the wink of his eye. I searched through the recesses of my brain. Where was it?
A flash of black and white memory came back to me: our hands, locked together and resting on the arm of my chair. Our hands were older, weathered with age. I forced my eyes to trace up his arm. They were still strong, still covered with a crisply ironed shirt. I made it to the collar and my vision got blurry; I was losing it.
Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) Page 42