Last I saw, my mother had made an attempt on my life. Maya cradled a dying Jennifer in her arms. I confirmed her suspicions that Riona and I had deceived her. I’d wanted to comfort Mother through her tears, beg Maya’s forgiveness, find some way to bring Jennifer back from the brink. That illusionary realm brought familial fellowship in a world where my existence wasn’t the only thing protecting my race from monsters and zealots. It was true freedom.

Then everything went dark and I lost all sense of time and place. Trapped in my own bone-weary body, I was dimly aware of the bickering voices around me with their words too far away to understand. Had Maya screamed my name and demanded that I wake up before she became lost to the abyss?

Strong fingers applied careful pressure to my eyes, my ears, my temples. Warmth flooded my body, making me uncomfortable enough to shift and readjust. Yet it was as if I were under water, my body sinking to the bottom to settle on an ocean floor and provide shelter to swimming creatures. Soft singing lifted some of the weight holding me down and drew me back to the surface of my personal sea for a time. I couldn’t distinguish the words of the song from the magical undercurrents skimming across my skin. The darkness cleared as I opened my eyes.

“The election is upon us, Midir. He doesn’t have much longer,” Uncle Aengus said. “You should say goodbye before you leave for the gathering.”

Father didn’t reply, but his thudding footsteps paced beside where I lay. They made a rhythm to Mother’s soft, whimpering sobs.

“He’s waking.” My aunt’s voice.

“It’s alright, little swan. I’m here.” Mother’s face filled my vision with her waves of rose-gold hair hanging around me. “What’s wrong? What hurts?”

“Ask your High King.” My hoarse voice came scarcely loud enough for anyone to hear. Mother nodded her understanding. “Ask Aengus.”

“What’s going on, Aengus?” Brigid’s tone had an edge of flame to it.

“I am merely following my liege’s orders.” When I shifted my head to see my uncle, he turned his eyes away from mine. “Vows were made between Bodb, Midir, and I the day we made the Key that binds me from speaking of it in any detail.”

“You knew this was going to happen?” Mother whipped around and when she spoke, it nearly sounded like a Bean Sidhe’s shriek for the fury in her words. “How could you let another one of my children die? How dare you!”

“Bodb wants the Key gone at the end of his reign to trap us,” I explained for my uncle and my father, bound as they were by their oaths of secrecy. “Aengus wrote of it, but he said there was a way to stop it by severing the Key from the High King.”

“That ritual was not easy to weave, let me tell you,” Aengus said with his signature lilt. “Still, Daire was never supposed to discover any of that. Someone stole from my study and left him my book.” Aengus tilted his chin toward my father who had stopped pacing by then. “It was Daire’s own cleverness and determination that led him to it. I can’t say I’m not proud.”

“You tried to kill me once you found out I knew.” I coughed, putting too much strain on my voice.

“I tried to give you a peaceful passing,” Aengus said. “Your death was going to happen, regardless.”

“What does the ritual to sever the Key involve, Aengus?” Brigid asked.

“A human, the four treasures, and a reversal of the spell used to make the Key.” Aengus slashed the ingredients off on his fingers.

“You used Daire as a vessel because of his human blood, being of both worlds. Any human that could be found in the Otherworld would be of both worlds in a sense. Since he was but a newborn babe, however, the reversal would require someone grown and…” Brigid placed a protective hand on my mother’s shoulder. “You had Etain in mind.”

“Of course I did. I knew he would never kill her.” Aengus had rested his hand on his thigh and he gripped it so tight his knuckles stood out under his smooth skin. “To undo even a sliver of that kind of magic, I had to all but guarantee his failure and set up so many obstacles to keep the spell balanced. It had to be rigged against him for a reason. He was always supposed to die.”

“You traitorous swine!” Father, silent and lurking until that moment, crossed the room to Aengus in a few long strides. He lifted my uncle up by his tunic so his toes scarcely grazed the floor. “I went to you to give my son a chance at survival and you conspired to kill the only family I have left? Is this the thanks I get for raising you like my own? What kind of brother are you?”

“Would you rather our entire race be obliterated for the sake of your single son?” Aengus said, hanging there limp as he looked straight into my father’s eyes, not a trace of humor in his tone, but utter conviction and certainty taking its place. “So long as Bodb is in power, Tir Na Nog stays sealed off and the Aos Si are safe from humans and Fomor. The only reason he gave the order was for the safety of all. I can’t contest that, no matter how much it hurts Daire.”

“All of us appointed me his successor,” Father growled as he shoved Aengus against the nearest wall and pinned him there. “I would never be so negligent with Daire’s power, yet Bodb still gave the order. I was counting on that loophole to save my son when I took that book!”

“I tried to sway Bodb against it,” Aengus grunted and winced at the impact. “He said Etain was too much of a liability.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“So the small sliver of hope I wouldn’t have to go through the pain of losing another child, let alone protect Etain from losing her only son, was all a trick?”

“Not a trick, a choice.” Aengus turned his eyes to meet mine. “He lets himself die for the good of the Aos Si, or sacrifices someone to save himself.”

“My son is not dying.” Mother stood straight-backed over me, born to royalty and proud to perform her duty. Her hand rested on my arm, strong and steady, not a hint of a tremble or twitch in it. “If you need a sacrifice, then I will fill it.”

“No one is being sacrificed!” Father threw Aengus aside, sending him clattering into a chair. It was then I realized where we were. The softly glowing stones on the walls, the circular nooks filled with scrolls and their holders. Father had brought me to his study. “Aengus will undo this.”

“There’s no time.” My uncle lifted himself from the floor, but did not stand. “I cannot undo what I have already wrought.”

“The treasures…” I rubbed my throat as the words came out and swallowed to moisten it. I placed a pleading hand in my mother’s wrist. “You need to have gathered them, Mother. Let me die, please. I’ve lived long enough.”

“You don’t really want that, little swan. I know how much you want to have a life free of this burden.” Mother wrapped her fingers around mine. “I do want that, though, to die. I have already seen the world and all its wonders, suffered through its pains, watched you grow while I wasted away to only a shadow of myself. That is no life for me.”

“Etain, I said no.” Father closed the distance between he and Mother and turned her toward him. “We will find another way. We can beg Bodb to rescind the order. If it isn’t there, Daire doesn’t have to die and we can keep our family. We can start over like we talked about.”

“I doubt the order can even be taken back once given,” Aengus said as he stood and wiped his tunic. “You still have to get to him before the election this eve. If you fail, by then it will be too late to enact the ritual to sever the key’s tie and you’ll have lost him for good.”

“At least I’ll have tried to save him.” Father sneered at my uncle.

“There is one possibility you aren’t taking into account, Midir,” my aunt said from beside my head. Up until that point, she had watched and listened as her younger siblings fought over me. “There is no guarantee you are going to win. Riona is running against you. None of us have heard from her since the garden. We must assume she is either enjoying the reunion with her changeling, squeezing in additional campaigning, or scheming another method of victory. What if she wins?”

“It’s impossible.” Father scoffed. “Finvarra has pledged his support to me already. Without him, she doesn’t have enough votes.”

“She is clever, though,” Brigid said. “And her human companion can do things she cannot.”

“We can’t allow her control of the Key. She’s too unpredictable and could ruin all of us,” Aengus pushed himself to his feet. “All the more reason we have to let Daire go.”

“That’s enough out of you!” Father snapped. “We can worry about that if it happens. The priority is saving my son without killing my wife, even if I have to drag Riona’s little pawn here by her hair. I will not lose anymore of my family.”

“Don’t kill Maya.” My chest spasmed and I turned on my side as coughing fits wracked me. Red droplets splattered against the desk on which I lay and I tasted coppery blood on the back of my tongue. “She’s an innocent in this. She helped me.”

“If Bodb rescinds the order, I don’t have to,” Father said. “For that ritual, though, the girl is more expendable than you or your mother.”

“And you will aid us in saving Daire’s life, Little Brother.” Brigid centered her eyes on Aengus with all of the motherly fury and shame that came with knowing him from a babe.

“I must follow my orders…” Aengus turned away from his sister and lost his former conviction. “For the good of all.”

“Our eldest brother is not all wise,” Brigid said. “We gave him that power, but that only means he is even more obliged to follow our demands. Do not forget your loyalties so easily. Bodb may be your liege and your kin, but we are your family, your keepers and guardians, your confidants. That takes priority.”

Aengus avoided Brigid’s leer as he clawed at his cloak like an embarrassed boy.

I blocked out their voices and held my mother’s hand tight as a cold sweat broke across my skin and made me shiver. Despite the chills, I knew the core of me burned hot with fever and the conflict of temperatures made my flesh tingle with every texture that brushed it. A dull, persistent ache that penetrated to my very bones ensured I couldn’t stay comfortable. Human medicine explained it as my body fending off unseen disease within, yet I had never comprehended the miserable sensations that resulted.

Mother slicked my hair from my face while Aunt Brigid dabbed the perspiration from my brow with a damp cloth. I couldn’t help but whimper under their ministrations as I lay curled on my side. My eyes became wet as the cruel reality of my condition set in. Would my Aos Si blood make my passing fantastic, or did my human blood mean I would simply slip into unconsciousness and never wake up? I tried to see my death from the perspective that it would deliver my mother and Maya from a similar fate. But my chest spasmed and a violent coughing fit brought me back to the painful present.

“Daire, you will be fine.” Father bent down so his face met mine once my phlegm and blood finished spurting. His voice went low, only the barest hint of a quiver to it. “I will head for the gathering straightaway to stall. No matter the insults, the way I distanced myself, watching you grow from afar has always been the brightest part of my life. You have to hold on so you can show me the world you made for yourself up close. I want to explore it with you from here on out. I want to share my knowledge and experiences with you. I want to be your father. You must let me have that chance. Do you understand?”

I nodded, a few tears slipping down my nose for the misery of it all. My relatives were lining up to my death bed to bid me farewell.

“Etain…” Father turned to Mother, cupping her face between his hands and drawing her close to him. He didn’t even attempt masking the desperation in his tone. “I will return, have no doubt of that. Please, I beg you, do not do anything rash in my absence. I know you have lingered longer than you ever wanted, but I want us to be a family again. Give me a final chance to earn back your love.”

“You are a selfish creature, Midir, and it has caused me more heartache than any woman should bear from a husband.” Mother wrapped her arms around my father’s waist in a tender embrace, and rested her head in the crook of his neck. “Knowing all of that, I have always loved you, for better or worse.”

“Promise you’ll wait for me,” Father whispered, clutching her to his breast. Only I was close enough to hear abject fear shake his words. “Please.”

“I promise.” Mother backed away and gave him the world weary smile I knew too well with how many times she had flashed it toward me. It was a false assurance, only meant to settle someone’s concerns for a short time. I may have doubted the sincerity of her words, but Father seemed contented by the gesture as he parted for the only mirror in the study.

Piercing pain shot through my gut, and I cried out with the suddenness of it.

“Hurry home, Brother.” Brigid blew raw power into her cupped hands and her healing herbs grew in an instant.

Father sped up to a run and launched himself through the mirror.