We walked on further and further, gaining progress toward the throne room’s hidden door. Maya refused to stop at any of the remaining staircases. Her winded coughing echoed through the halls behind me. I checked over my shoulder and caught her wobbling more than once before she corrected herself against a wall. She didn’t fall again—not yet—but her arms shook, her knees shivered, and a weariness glazed over her dark eyes. How she still stayed upright while carrying someone leeching her life away was a testament to her endurance.

What had Bodb done to my sister to keep her pliant? What magic I had sensed had a seal upon it and wouldn’t go away unless the High King himself removed it. That would be a problem if we wanted to make a quick escape.

Mother still held my hand and followed my lead with a wary faith. Did she comprehend that I meant to take her back to her prison? How would she react? Did she contemplate diving into Riona’s dark aura so it would suck her into death as well? Her expression stayed a diplomatic mask just like when she was caught in the public’s eye. For the moment, she stayed compliant. I thanked whatever deity watched our progress for that small mercy while my head ached trying to figure out how to save Maya.

We turned the final corner into the last corridor and approached the stair heading to the hidden entrance. The torches were scant there with only a couple serving to illuminate our way to the main hall. Riona’s aura licked at their light, dimming their flames.

I cast a last look to Maya. “This might be a good opportunity for a rest. I don’t know what mayhem we must sprint through after this.”

She only panted in reply. Riona’s aura obstructed what view I had maintained in the brighter light from before.

Mother’s hand tightened on mine and her masked expression shifted with uncertainty. What was going through her mind? Manic intellect shined in her eyes with no hint of Aunt Brigid’s dulling trance. How did she perceive me and Maya and our trek? We were a means of escape, that much was clear. Her attention edged toward the door above us. If I let go of her hand, I might lose her.

A thick thud came from inside Riona’s mist. Maya’s silhouette slumped to a heap on the ground.

“Maya!” I jolted forward while still gripping Mother.

She wrenched away, out of my grasp. Her neutral mien fell and her true suspicion showed as she walked up the first steps.

Maya’s breath was a wheezing whisper. Her body stayed as unmoving as Riona’s.

If I didn’t keep a watch on Mother, she might flee. If I didn’t attend to Maya, she would die. Either way I’d lose one.

No. I was an Aos Si. I wielded power neither of them had.

I had to act fast, but how? Mother was watching me, and what tenuous trust she’d put in me started to unravel the further she slipped away. If I cast a quick spell to pacify her like the kind Aunt Brigid used, it would snap. But I couldn’t count on her recognizing me. Even if she did, the attempt on my life proved she’d lumped me in with Father. It was folly to beg her to stay and rely on the vain hope that she would remember she loved me once. Did that mean all of the faith I had in her was for naught?

The rational course made me ready the spell, something quick I could fling at her before she had a chance to run. I held her doubtful stare. Mustering the spell took longer than it should. The magic still boiled in my palm. Perspiration gathered on my brow when it should have been a simple matter of summoning my power. I didn’t have time for my magic to fail me.

Mother’s clear, keen gaze penetrated mine. A lifetime of warm smiles, concerned crooning, bold resistance, and vulnerable confessions flooded back. Out of everyone, I alone hadn’t conspired to trap her and held the conviction that her true self was still there inside of her jumbled memories. I saw how Brigid’s spells served their purpose, how Father’s intentions were to protect us from her skewed perception, how Aengus could do nothing to reverse her deterioration. But I had confidence in her. I always had. How could one incident shake that?

“Mamai, stay.” The spell snuffed out right as it was nearly finished. “I need you to stay with me.”

“Where are you taking me?” She had reached a quarter of the way up the stairs. Her focus darted between the obscured Maya and Riona and the door so close at her back. She settled on me.

“I’m trying to help you, but I need to help her first.” I pointed into the dark cloud. “She’s important, and she’s in trouble.”

“How will you help? By delivering me back to Midir?” Mother shuddered and shook her head. “I want to go home. Let me go. Let me see my family again. ”

“Mamai, I am your family.”

“You’re his son.”

“Yours too. Remember?” The pleading edge turned to begging in my voice. “I’m the little swan, the one who tells you stories and grows you flowers. I used to visit every day. I still want to.”

She froze and narrowed her eyes at me, on the verge of a revelation. Her neck twitched as her thoughts transitioned and she rubbed her forehead as if it pained her. Was she remembering? Did she want to?

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“Trust me, Mamai. I have a plan to take you away from Tir Na Nog, to take you back to Eire, but I have to help her first.” I gulped down the lump rising in my throat as tears stung my eyes. “Just stay. Please.”

Mother bit her lip, still unsure, but she didn’t hike up the steps any further. She pointed back to Riona’s droning aura. “You should help them.”

“And you?”

“Worry about your friend.”

It was the best assurance I would get with her in that fearful state. I turned my back to my mother, praying to anything that I would find her waiting for me when I looked to the stairs next.

Maya lay crumpled next to my sister. The density of the energy around her made it difficult to tell whether her chest rose and fell with her breaths. The buzzing of Riona’s cloud made it difficult to even hear.

I crouched at the edge of the aura as close as I could come to Maya without reaching in. Oh those burns would sting. Riona needed someone to drain, if my logic was correct. Could I provide an alternative? But I couldn’t trade places with Maya. My sister’s aura would repel me as much as it would consume me. No, it had to be Maya’s burden to bear. But perhaps I could lend her some of my reserves since hers were spent.

“Maya? Are you still conscious?” I asked into the mist.

She coughed and her silhouette shuddered. “Maybe.”

“Good. If you let yourself slip, I fear you might not wake.” I reached toward her. “Make your way here. Take my hand.”

Maya crawled on her elbows toward me, arm over arm, wheezing as she went. The muscles of her neck were tight. Her entire body tensed and coiled with effort. Only a little further until she reached the edge of the cloud.

Her stamina faltered. She sagged to the ground and stretched her fingers toward the break in the aura.

It followed her and coated her forearm in a thick layer.

No. The aura would interfere with my ability to pass my energy to Maya. Touching it when it was that thick would be as foolhardy as trying to take something from inside a boiling cauldron. Could I thrust myself into that, not knowing if it would help her?

Maya’s hand fell limp. She was fading.

I pressed my palm on hers. While gathering the power I needed, I felt nothing. That reprieve proved short.

White hot pain rushed up my arm. Burns ate away at the thin flesh around my fingers. I cried out and flinched away, dropping Maya.

My hand came away an angry red. A fine layer of puss-filled blisters ran along the top of it. The throbbing ache jumped before its pace settled to match my racing pulse.

The power I’d gathered lingered under the surface of my wounds, unspent.

Did I have what it took to do this? Surely the merciful thing would be to let this girl pass. I could find another way. I could coerce Mother into cooperating with me. If she could stay lucid enough to do so, I stood a chance of success. I hadn’t even considered the alternative of asking my family yet. Leveraging all of my pathetic desperation into pleading with Father, Brigid, Bodb, and Aengus might make them reverse their decision and let me continue to live.

As for the deal Maya and I made—that if she helped me, I would take her home—it remained unfulfilled. Right then she was technically helping my sister. I could use that open loophole to avoid my obligation.

Maya was close enough that I could pick out her every feature through the dark mist. Her eyelids drooped as she struggled to stay awake. Her hand laid there, open and waiting. She stared up at me with unflinching and trusting dependence. I was her best chance. Whether I wanted it or not, she was also mine.

I slapped my hand back in hers. The pain started much sooner that time. The popping boils and burns climbed higher under my sleeve. I grabbed my elbow, straining to keep my arm steady.

My power trickled into Maya as a drip when it should have flowed like a waterfall. Concentrating to get what little energy I could into her took all of my will. But how? I had done the same thing with my plants time and time again when they needed my vitality. It shouldn’t be that difficult with a physical anchor. Or was Riona’s aura interfering that much?

The pain numbed at first but pulsed anew with each new wave. I gritted my teeth so hard I feared they would crack.

Maya inhaled deeper and made audible grunts. What little I was supplying her must have taken the edge off of her weariness. Her grip on me tightened, even as escaping slime from my exploding blisters made it slippery.

“I can’t… I can’t take much more,” I said, my voice carrying somewhere between a whimper and a hiss. The magic I spent on her was so little. It felt the same as one of Aengus’ lessons where he asked me to perform a complex feat.

The blisters had made it up to my elbow. Each fraction the burns crawled, the desensitized state of my flesh broke with fresh pain flaring anew. Thick tears dribbled down my cheeks as my tolerance waned against the most excruciating thing I’d ever experienced. I realized then why others feared my sister and her potential. Binding her terrible power with vows and shunning seemed a grand alternative just then.

“Daire! That’s enough.” Mother scurried alongside me and pulled back on my shoulders. She said my name without scorn. She remembered me, acknowledged me.

A new wave of horrible sensation interrupted my reverie.

The tips of my fingers began to blacken. Still I clutched onto Maya. I had to see her roused before I gave in.

“Wha… Your arm!” Maya’s exclamation came strong. Her stunned gaze darted up to me. That expression had a renewed alertness to it. It was as if I had startled her awake from a deep slumber. She let go first, not I, and drew her arm back into the buzzing energy.

The cool air lapped against my bare wounds, and my skin stung at the raw exposure. I hugged the ghastly appendage to my chest, speaking through a clenched jaw. “Can you carry her again? We’re nearing the last leg of the journey. Something was keeping me from giving you much more than that. We must deliver her somewhere safe, then get you far from her until we figure out how to break Bodb’s enchantment.”

“We… We can’t just leave her like this.” Already, Maya’s speech gave way to strained pants as she stood and heaved Riona onto her back.

“We must focus on getting away to a mirror first.” I wrapped my functioning arm around Mother’s waist and goaded her toward the stairs. If her lucidity lasted, we might make it.

Mother gingerly took the portion of my elbow untainted by Riona’s power and used it to guide my forearm to her for inspection. “Oh, little swan. This is your half-sister’s doing, isn’t it? Let’s take you to Brigid. Then your father will hear of this. If he doesn’t take action this time, he will receive far worse than a scolding, I assure you.”

I took the moment to squeeze Mother close and revel in her fussing as we climbed the stairs. Maya followed after. She managed to keep pace while pausing every few steps and catching her breath.

I went through the door first, Mother in tow. Maya appeared with my sister behind me shortly after. We emerged into the main hall to find it in utter chaos.