The mirror sucked the blade in and smothered its light. I let it go as my body’s natural instincts kicked in and buried my whole arm in my chest. The underside of my hand was red all over with puffy blisters bubbling on my palm. Someone would notice that. Even if I kept it under my cloak and talked through the throbbing ache, Rio would see. She’d have questions I couldn’t answer yet.
I turned too fast toward the central gold tree and winced at its glow. Did it just give off light or did it have heat too? Would it hurt me if I happened to climb it to see if anybody was up there? I ran for it, fresh out of smarter ideas. The balmy air stung my naked burns. No warmth radiated off of the bark when I came close.
I reached out to climb up the sun tree and whimpered as I forced my damaged fingers to touch it.
New heat shot up both my hands. I screamed.
If holding the Sword was forcing myself to touch a hot stovetop, the tree was me shoving my hand in raw fire. My nerves hollered worse than me as I bolted back and fell on my ass. It numbed every sense so the world didn’t have texture or temperature, only pain.
The next few minutes were a white-out of blurred details. A high, clear cry broke through like a wolf’s howl with the same haunting undertones. More beautiful wails echoed behind it. They sang to me in too many notes to make out. The melody’s message sank as deep as my DNA: Death is coming. Death is coming.
The pain dulled to a thumping pang. A strong grip turned me over and pried my arms away from my chest.
“Maya.” Rio. She shakily brushed my cheek and the air around me became a bath of cool metal specks. I needed that and sighed into it. “Look at me, dear one. What happened?”
“Hands…hurt.” I let my eyes open to Rio’s red-haloed face framed by gray tinted stars. I managed to point where I thought the brightest light came from. “Game. Light tree.”
“We played a human game of hers to pass the time.” A gray woman inched over with wider hips than the rest, Aoife. “She came to find me and attempted to climb Aine’s Tree.”
“This is your fault?” The air around Rio darkened until it absorbed every speck of light in the area as it spread over me. Its hungry whine stretched toward Aoife’s voice.
“N-no, Lady of Irons,” Aoife stammered in a rush. “She appointed herself the seeker and did not establish Aine’s tree as a forbidden place to hide. I thought it a sound idea. She promised a story to the victor. I did not coax her near. I did not want her near.”
“You purposefully chose somewhere that would hurt her if she ventured near.” Rio’s black silhouette jerked upright.
“Part of the game, a child’s game.” Aoife pleaded. “She figured out my perch, but I did not cause it.”
Rio’s chain jangled and shifted the particles of the field as it swayed like a pendulum.
“I stayed true to my oath not to hurt her.” Aoife thudded into something like she’d backed up and run out of room. “I swear on Mumhan itself!”
The iron specks chipped away at the white rocks under me and eroded them to cracking ruins. Rio took a step, then another.
Why hadn’t the other Bean Sidhe or either of the queens helped their friend yet? The magnetic fog blocked me seeing anything but their shapes circling us. Did they figure they couldn’t calm Rio down, or that Aoife deserved it? It shouldn’t matter, they should do something.
“Leave it, Rio…” I took a fistful of her skirt and a wave of fresh hurt ran up my arm. Bad idea. “I’m fine. Please.”
“This is about more than you.” Rio gathered her chain around her wrist and her energy thinned enough for me to pick out details. “Hospitality has been violated. An injury has happened within this domain under the watch of its attendants.”
“It’s Hide and Seek. Aoife picked a good hiding place. I shouldn’t have climbed a radioactive tree.” I grunted as I tried standing without using my hands. Rio lifted me the rest of the way by my elbow. “It was an accident, nobody’s fault.”
“Justice is still owed us.” Rio turned her slitted pupils on Ciona and Aine. “Do I have your word she will receive due punishment for her actions? I leave the method to your discretion since this is within your domain, more than reasonable under these circumstances. While I could use this as an opportunity to buy a favor from you as my sire has done in the past, such would be a pointless manipulation of the laws meant to keep order in our society. I only request retaliation as repayment for the suffering of my own charge.”
“Our prospective High Queen is generous with her justice,” Cliona gave a pleased grin. “Dearest, is the Lady of Irons not merciful for phrasing her terms so vaguely?”
“Merciful and fair.” Aine turned to Aoife who had huddled against a tree and hovered inches from her. “Your punishment will be a firm reprimand. Keep a better watch of our guests so they do not come to harm in the future. Save your clever ideas for games with less fragile company.”
Rio escorted me through the crowd of Bean Sidhe and they parted for us like a hoard of scared ghosts.
“What’s the verdict of the game?” The shortest Bean Sidhe squeaked as we passed. “She was to teach us to make animals from paper and tell us a true tale should she not find one of us.”
“I will be in conference with your queens to decide when that is to happen,” Rio said over her shoulder. “Though she did find all of you before the game was officially over.”
“They win, Rio.” I tugged us faster to the water. “Hands. Pain. Remember?”
* * *
My swollen blisters were redder than Rio’s hair before she grinded some herbs into a paste and rubbed it on. The medicine numbed the nerves enough so I could flex my fingers and touch things without flinching.
“That helps.” I flexed my fingers, testing the goop for the twentieth time. “Can you fix them more than this?”
“This is the best I can help since your wounds came from magic.” Rio swiped at the air and a linen strip flew out. “They should not take long to heal on their own.”
“Will I get scars?”
“Either marks or some other unknown effect. You shouldn’t worry.” Rio took one of my wrists and wrapped the cloth bandage around my palm. “Why would you think to touch a tree that bright?”
“It didn’t feel hot when I got close.” I watched the careful way she tied off the linen and smiled. All the angry frustration from earlier seemed silly when I thought about it. As long as it was the two of us without the election or my secret missions for Daire interfering, we worked. The quiet, natural moments made me remember why I wanted to stick by her.
“That means nothing.” Rio huffed, much like Abuela used to after I got in trouble. “Surviving as a human in Tir Na Nog means you should presume everything will hurt you. I thought you had learned that.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“The fact that she hid in such a place and put you in that danger…” Rio’s fingers tightened around the bandage and my other forearm that kept steady. She loosened up when I winced. “I would of liked better to have flogged her myself, but that would jeopardize my progress.”
“I was scared you were gonna explode,” I said. “I’m impressed how diplomatic you came off.”
“Your good counsel helped a great deal.” Silver sparks jumped in her irises as she finished wrapping my other hand. “I would have done much worse without you.”
I gulped and sucked in my labret stud. No moment would be better than that one, would it? Daire and I had the objects and we’d need more help than ever to finish this thing with Samhain speeding toward us. “So, about before when I said I was frustrated… I figure now’s a good a time as any to talk about us. We need to get ideas about how that’s going to work when we’re ready. Plus I still want to go home…”
“You could give me a tour.” Rio resisted a smile, as if secretly excited but trying to hide it.
“What?” I blinked. “Are you messing with me?”
“The reaction today from Aine and Cliona was favorable, despite a certain thorny presence. That means I only need to win Finvarra.” Rio’s thumb stroked under my wrist as she tied off the last bandage. “Becoming High Queen means gaining authority over the Key. Do you follow my logic?”
“Yeah.” I laced my fingers together, one after another, avoiding her eager attention. I always had issues with eye-contact when hiding something. “You can send me back.”
“Not only you. I mean to open Tir Na Nog to everyone again.” Rio moved on the cot beside me and leaned in close enough that her breath brushed my neck as she talked. “Think of it, we could find a private place of our own to share away from Tara. I could show you such secrets, teach you things…”
“Even if you didn’t have the Key, what do you think of staying in the human world together?” My throat went dry as my life with her in it went by like a movie reel. First I’d introduce her to everyone. She’d have to glamour herself shorter, but some strappy heels could help her feel like her actual height. Nico would wolf whistle at us when we walked in. Nate would make snarky comments and want to her to taste a new coffee as we played cards. We’d make a killing on Bridge nights and could use the money we won to head to a movie after—she’d probably like dancing in Ybor better with all its bright lights and pounding music. “You could stay with Mom and me until she got her memories back.”
“One step at a time, dear one.” Rio nuzzled her mouth against the side of my neck, under my jaw. Heat flooded up my whole face from where her lips touched.
“Are you trying to sweet talk me into something?” I curled my fingers into the blanket around my hips, the friction pulling at my bandages.
“Perhaps. I realize I have said I won’t be able to indulge distractions until after the election, but we’re so close to the High King’s seat. I have thought over what you said earlier, when you wished me to decide whether to be with you now or wait. I choose now. If you are still willing, I’d say that calls for us to celebrate.” Rio nibbled lower down, electrifying my nerves. She snaked her hand over my knee and her nails grazed my thick underdress hard enough to give me shivers. “Your pulse is all aflutter. Is my ‘sweet talk’ working?”
“Maybe….yeah.” I swallowed the lump making my voice so thick and took a deep breath to keep my heart from racing out of control. It figured she found the mystery place guaranteed to fire me up on her first try. “Not just anybody’s allowed to do this. You get that, right?”
“You do seem more particular about choosing your lovers.” Rio moved from my leg to the small of my back. “I’m the same way.”
I opened my mouth to say something else, but Rio scattered more open mouthed bites up and down the side of my neck. Next I knew, she pressed me back on the bouncy cot’s canvas while she laid over me. Her propped up elbows kept a sliver of space between us.
“Shouldn’t we talk about this first?” I panted too much to take myself seriously as I clung to her waist.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“In my experience, talking delays more than helps.” Rio perched her forehead against mine. “You have something to say?”
“I’ve…only wanted to do this when I cared about somebody a lot,” I said, my voice cracking halfway through.
“Ah. So you hesitate because you’re unsure.” Rio’s gray eyes dulled, no more silvery sparks streaking through them. She glanced away and went to push herself off me, giving me more space to think. It was too much.
I tugged her down and her supernatural reflexes saved us before we bonked heads like a Three Stooges sketch. She yipped, making the same sound Queenie made when something startled her.
“What I meant is I want to do this and you’re somebody I care about a lot.” I wet my mouth and gave myself a couple more microseconds to think. Daire would yell at me for getting this intimate with her. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea. I wasn’t head over heels yet, but I couldn’t deny that she was more than a crush to me. I didn’t want to go back to a life without her in it. I wanted to try for the future she’d painted. “I needed to tell you before we went further.”
“I feel the same.” Rio smiled small, a slight curve of her lips with a hint of teeth. But her eyes sparkled with those shiny flecks and the same blue sheen as when I first kissed her.
I slid my hand to the base of her neck under the waves of red hair covering us and pulled her down to me. She got the hint faster than I could finish and crushed her mouth to mine. A sweet current rolled through me from my heart to my toes, freezing then melting as I pulled her tighter. The world and its problems fell away and for once I could block everything else except that one blissful moment.
Rio broke the kiss and hovered over me, delighted eyes darting all over my torso as if debating where to go first. Then her shoulders tensed and she looked toward the hallway. She bared her teeth and growled at the rows of curtained mirrors.
“Everything okay?” I sat up a little to see better, but my skin still buzzed with anticipation. A yellow glow came through the curtain at the farthest mirror down the row.
“The final king of the council beckons.” Rio sighed and pouted at me. “If I don’t answer he may take it as an insult.”
“Go on and get it.” I pecked her cheek. “We can finish up after you’re done.”
“I hope it won’t go too long.” Rio hopped up from the cot and rushed to the mirror with a prance in her step.
“Your majesty, is this another invitation?” Rio said after she tapped the mirror and the glowing faded.
“You haven’t come crawling back to me yet,” Finvarra said, his accent sounding almost like a country twang through the translation spell. “Do you think acting disinterested will win my vote?”
I finger combed through my messed up hair and smoothed down my skirt. It wouldn’t hurt to peek while I evesdropped. I went to the mouth of the hall and edged in enough that I could see his mirror without him seeing me.
Finvarra had his sandy hair slicked in a ponytail, some days old stubble on his jaw, and a baggy brown vest he let hang open. The entire feel of his slouched posture and casual medieval costume was if a gritty Western met a Viking epic.
“At least bring her for a short visit,” he said with an easy smile. “I have yet to even see her.”
“I can visit now. How gracious of you to invite me,” Rio said, bowing her head. “My companion is still unable to accompany me.”
“That’s not fair, is it?” Finvarra sighed a little too dramatically.
“Samhain is almost upon us, Lord of the Field,” Rio said. “I believe what plans I have for the Key will align well with your desires.”
“You’ve heard of me, haven’t you lass?” Finvarra chuckled and sent a sharp chill down my spine. “Unlike my cousins, I need proof of something before I get behind it. All I ask is a taste of all those promises.”
“Let us be plain, then,” Rio said, all polite sweetness leaving her voice as she crossed her arms. “You have a reputation for ruining every human woman you touch.”
“Ah, but if you don’t win me over, then you forfeit the High King’s seat.” He tilted his rough chin up at her in a dare. “Your sire isn’t fond of you. Do you think he’ll let you survive that?”
“You cannot have this one, she’s mine.” Rio’s proud posture stayed straight and firm. “If Midir of Bri Leith does win, then your little obsession will never be sated. We are each other’s only hope.”
“What difference is one night? If I make sure she stays repulsed by me, it won’t ruin her.” Finvarra’s accent whined with desperation. “It’s been over a thousand years, Lady of Irons. I need some kind of satisfaction.”
“Then what difference will another week make?” Rio lifted her eyebrows. “Will you invite me in?”
Finvarra narrowed his eyes at Rio with a hard frown, making his devil-may-care persona turn ugly. “Come then, see if you can sway me to your cause.”
“Excellent. I’ll come along soon.” Rio bowed deeper this time and Finvarra winked out of the mirror.
“Are you planning to let him take other women?” I ran up to her and grabbed her arm. “You don’t have to give into that guy.”
“You heard the conversation as clearly as I.” Rio rubbed my arm, trying to reassure me. “Our time grows short and I must have him on my side to ensure my victory and our survival. If this is the fastest way of persuading him without subjecting you to his treatment, then so be it.”
“But promising to let him run wild if you win?” Even saying it made my stomach cramp.
“I made it clear I would have to do things you wouldn’t like.” Rio avoided looking directly at me, slanting toward Finvarra’s mirror instead. “It would sting if you began judging me now.”
“I’m not judging you.” I took her cheeks and turned her back. She had to see my conviction to believe me. “You don’t have to promise something you’ll regret. We can find a different way to save ourselves.”
“Your concern is endearing but I’m skilled in deception and he is desperate, a perfect victim.” She tapped her forehead against mine with our noses brushing, reminding me how close we’d been minutes ago. “Go occupy yourself with Little Daire for the night. By the time you wake, I’ll have returned with my victory and our continued lives assured. Then we may resume our celebrating.”
“You sure?” I couldn’t help the same ominous feeling I’d had right before Bodb tortured her. Something big loomed, some change. If only I’d asked Daire to bring her in sooner. “I mean it. You don’t have to keep trying to win them over and get elected to save us. I can help you find another way.”
“If you think of any alternatives I haven’t while I’m away, we’ll talk of them when I return.” Rio pried herself away from me toward the dreaded horse mirror. “Until then, I cannot risk losing this chance.”
“Just don’t commit to anything until we talk again, alright?” I drifted over to the ivy-framed mirror. I had to run it by Daire first. We had to make a plan to bring her in. It was time.
“Away with you, then!” Rio waved me away with a giggle. “The sooner you leave, the sooner I may finish speaking with this mongrel.”
“Wait for me!” I bolted through Daire’s mirror.
* * *
I rushed into Daire’s room, giddy even though he might get mad. As long as we talked it through, everything would work out. He might sit me down for a long lecture, but he’d come around in the end. He always did.
Daire sat at his desk with his back to me. He tapped his toe like a song got stuck in his head, or he’d been waiting for awhile.
“Hey Daire, remember how I said I’d ask you before I said anything?” I gulped as he turned his head and raised his eyebrows at me. “This is me asking.”
“Of course. Can we take this to the garden?” Daire bounced to his feet with an eager grin. He had that double-layer accent like Rio. Since when did he stop speaking English with me?
“What’s with you speaking Aos Si language out of nowhere?” I inched back to his mirror. White streaks still peppered his hair and the dark circles under his eyes were as puffy as mine. But his posture was too loose, too springy. He’d moved like that when I first met him and wilted worse and worse as the weeks went by.
“It is my native tongue.” Daire shrugged. “Why not?”
I glanced away at the white flowers along his desk. Their stalks hung, bent and brown. Stiff white petals covered the narrow dirt bed they were planted in like melting ice chips. The only parts of them with any life left were their buried roots. Daire wouldn’t be so alive if his little lilies weren’t.
“De acuerdo, usaré el español entonces, si vamos a usar nuestros primeros idiomas.” Okay, I’ll use Spanish then, if we’re going to use our first languages. I narrowed my eyes at him, making fists. “¿Estás bien con eso, verdad?” You’re good with that, right?
“You two are more clever than I gave you credit for.” The guy pretending to be Daire sighed. His entire appearance melted into an androgynous man with bouncy blonde curls, slitted purple eyes, and a young face. Aengus.
“Where’s Daire?” I jumped back.
“No need to fear me, Maya.” Aengus bowed to me with a theatrical flourish of his cloak. “This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with my nephew, I assure you.” He waved toward the door again. “The little prince is waiting for us in the garden.”
“If Daire’s too busy to see me himself, I can visit later.” I grabbed the frame of the mirror behind me, ready to dive through. Daire’s uncle’s promises kept him from hurting me or forcing me to do anything against my will. That didn’t mean he couldn’t trick me into another kind of trap.
“Have no fear, I already know everything about your helping him gather the four sacred treasures so he can break the High King’s control. I was the one who created that spell.” He held out his arm. “Come come, we shouldn’t leave him in suspense.”
I touched the mirror glass, thinking about Rio’s burrow. The smooth surface didn’t become ge,l but stayed solid like a normal mirror. I pounded on it as hard as my bandaged fingers could.
“I disabled the spell on the mirror when you first came through.” Aengus scratched the back of his head. “I want to help send you home.”
“You expect me to believe anything you say after that shady shit you pulled?”
“I did try to trick you earlier but Daire is waiting for us in the garden.” He put his hand over his heart, probably some medieval version of Scout’s Honor. “He’ll go with you.”
“Yeah, after he gets better,” I said. “He’s dying.”
“Correct. There’s no changing that.”
“You said you wrote the spell that’s supposed to cure him. Why aren’t you helping him with it?”
“I also made the spell that’s killing him and loyalty to my High King demands that I complete that one.” Aengus gave me the same sad, dimpled smile as a crying clown. “Is it so wrong to ask that you help me let him die with some dignity, surrounded by the world he has always loved? And you have a family, do you not? Brothers, sisters, parents? While you have played the pet they have surely missed you.”
“You know jack about my family so don’t use it to guilt trip me into killing my friend.” My fists clenched and aggravated my healing palms. “Point is, you’re screwing over the only two people I care about here. If I go home, it’s my way.”
“You don’t have to be willing.”
“Those oaths Rio made you swear say I do.”
“Rio…you two must be close if she tolerates that nickname.” Aengus planted himself between me and the door. I couldn’t climb anything to get to the skylight in the ceiling. He blocked my only way out. “My goals and methods are well within the bounds of my limitations. So far I have not laid a finger on you and this encounter has nothing to do with my ill will for Riona. Regardless, I came here wanting nothing but the best for my little nephew and my race, and I tried to be peaceful. That should count for something when you reflect back on me.”
He’d cornered me into going through him. There could be all kinds of spells on the door he’d prepped ahead of time. Daire said he sucked at fighting and his uncle had a similar physique. If Aengus had focused all his time on magic and not on hand to hand stuff, then I might dodge by if I caught him by surprise.
“I’m going to cheer when Rio kicks your ass.” I tensed up my legs, ready to charge.
“If she catches me, you’ll do more vomiting than cheering I’m afraid—”
I put on a burst of speed and rammed into him. No witty one-liners like a movie hero, just blind hope my half-cooked plan would work out.
Aengus caught me and used my own momentum to twirl me around. He banded his scrawny arms across me and trapped me against his chest.
“Centuries of dedicated combat training. You wouldn’t have done much. Good effort, though.” Aengus sang it into my ear like some sick lullaby. “Take heart. You will wake next at home with your dear ones.”
My eyelids got so heavy and I sagged in his grip. No. I had to stay awake. I couldn’t go back to late bills, lost work, and people I loved forgetting me yet. Rio might die and Daire would die without me. They needed me.
“Everything will be fine,” Aengus whispered as I crashed. “Sleep.”
* * *
“Mija, despierta. Todos estamos esperando por ti.” Mija, wake up. We’re all waiting for you. Someone with thumb calluses from using scissors too much shook me. Abuela?
I opened my eyes.
A sturdy woman in her early sixties with caramel high-lighted black hair and my same brown eyes waited over me. There was the mole nestled in her right eyebrow that always drove her nuts.
“Lávese las manos para la cena. Date prisa, no quieres que el chile se enfríe.” Wash your hands for dinner. Hurry, you don’t want the chili going cold. She wiped her choppy bangs away from her eyes. “Esta es la última vez que dejé que un aprendiz me cortara el pelo. Todo lo que hacen es agregar flequillo.” This is the last time I let an apprentice cut my hair. All they do is add bangs.
I swung my legs over the edge of a bed with a box spring mattress. Abuela gave me five more minutes before they’d eat without me and left the room.
I sat there for the first couple of those minutes in stunned silence. The apartment’s only bedroom had all its drawers tucked in and the tops of everything dusted. The bed’s comforter smelled like fabric softener and Abuela’s favorite floral body spray floated on the air. Framed pictures of my aunt and each little cousin stood on the dresser. A photo booth strip of Mom, Abuela, and I leaned against my dead dad’s high school portrait on the end table. I’d packed the frames away in a box and kept the photo booth strip safe in my wallet.
I patted all over my clothes. Instead of Rio’s layered dress and cloak outfit, I had a cut up t-shirt with a koi-fish logo and some gym shorts. I’d retired the koi-shirt to pajamas and used the shorts for around the house. Were the last few months one big, vivid dream? Had I grieved a death that never happened, fell for a kidnapper who never existed, tried to save a guy who wasn’t alive to begin with? The memories should have blurred together as I woke up. Their contrast made me see them even clearer. Daire’s best try at a burger made me nauseous. Rio kissing me sent tingles through my skin. Nightmares haunted me of my hands pressing against Abuela’s still chest as her empty stare watched.
Voices chattered outside the door over the clattering our good dishes. I recognized Abuela’s and Mom’s mix of Spanish and English. A familiar third language that lilted like a song filled the gaps.
I bolted out of the bedroom.
Abuela stirred the chili pot at our kitchenette stove while Mom passed out silverware and paper towel napkins. Etain and Daire sat at two of the folding chairs set up around our card table. Etain wore a blue maxi-dress, the closest to modern clothing that would match the flowy gowns she wore in Tir Na Nog. Daire had a green button-down shirt with dressy black jeans, but the top half of his hair was up in braids with ivy vines tying them off.
The artificial smiles Daire showed my family didn’t touch the far off, mystified look in his red-veined eyes. I walked over and he noticed first. My questions had to show in my face: Was any of this real? Was there any way it could be?
The short shake of his chin and his arm tightening on his mom’s shoulders gave me my answer.
Tir Na Nog wasn’t a dream. This was.