When Aengus and Brigid were called for the election, Mother cared for me as I coughed and wretched. More and more blood joined the mix until my body became too weary to even shiver. The herbal draught my aunt had forced down my throat before she left seemed to stay in my body, holding the worst of the pain at bay. The rest came out as bile I spewed all over my father’s desk and the floor under it. Mother sang nonsensical songs to me and told me stories from her childhood in ancient Eire. I managed a fitful sleep under her soothing tones.

All at once a wave of vitality rushed through me. It drove away the ache in my belly and the weariness in my bones. I turned up to spy Mother holding a lock of my hair. Rather than the stark white I had seen in the mirror, it shined a gold-tinted platinum. I moved my hand in front of my face and flexed my fully muscled fingers whose joints did not poke out like a skeleton donning a fleshy costume. My skin glowed again, healthy and vibrant.

“Daire, your hair…” Mother marveled at its new color.

“Father did it,” I said with a broad smile. “He actually did it!”

Mother threw her arms around me in a tight embrace and I returned it in kind, squeezing her middle. “We can be a family, we can start over.”

“I’m happy you’re alive.” Mother parted from me, tears gathering in her clear eyes. They couldn’t be from sorrow.

Uncle Aengus charged through the mirror in Father’s study. One hand patted spells against the glass behind him. His other arm held a cluster of three precious and familiar objects: a sheathed sword, a long-shafted spear, and a bronze bowl.

“Why do you have the treasures?” I bounded from Father’s desk and motioned to the healthy state of my body, the bright color of my clothes with my glamour at its full power. “Look at me. I’m well.”

“Did Midir not succeed?” Mother asked with a note of dread.

“Of course he did. Daire is alive. Bodb, however, isn’t.” Aengus walked up to Mother and gently guided her toward the door. “The council is likely electing Riona as we speak. The three of us must hurry to the Stone of Destiny, before they arrive to coronate her.”

“Wait, Father succeeded by killing the High King?” I asked as I chased him and Mother into the hall.

“Technically your little human friend killed Bodb, and either Riona or Midir used her to do it. My theory is Riona originally sent your friend as an assassin, then Midir jumped on the opportunity to save your life. That’s irrelevant. But everyone else is going to think Midir came up with the whole idea and Riona is almost guaranteed to take the High King’s seat now. We need to separate your power from her before she touches that Stone.”

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“By going through with the ritual?” I asked. “By killing Mother or Maya?”

“The changeling is preoccupied.” Aengus never glanced my way as I trailed behind him. “It has to be Etain.”

“No. There has to be another way. This is another trick.”

“If only it were. What else do you propose? We assassinate every single High King who is elected until either me, your father, or Brigid rises to power? The edicts chaining the Aos Si to nonviolence are gone, severed. Riona can kill any of us on a whim. We have no time.”

“Then think harder.” I stopped and planted my feet in the cobblestones of the courtyard we passed through. “Is all your brilliance only good for sealing me in elaborate dream constructs?”

“The best alternative is killing you!” Aengus didn’t pause as he turned on his heel with a characteristic swish of his cloak and advanced on me. “I never wanted you to die, Daire. But Bodb was right about the Key. I trapped you because being rid of it was our race’s best chance.”

“Why not slay me now, then?” I exposed my chest to him, daring him to act. “At least this way I have a say in the matter.”

“I was trying to be merciful.”

“You were a coward!”

“What about what Etain wants?” Aengus pointed back at my mother as she silently watched the two of us with conflict written across her face. “She is old, she is tired, she wants to move on. Holding onto her like this is no better than Midir sealing her up.”

“I’m not helping you kill my mother.” I swallowed the moisture in my mouth to wet my throat and squared my shoulders against him. “If you can’t execute me yourself, find another way.”

“This is the only other way,” Aengus said, shaking me by my shoulders. “I cannot undo what I have already made. I don’t want to condemn you again.”

“Aengus, enough.” Mother set a hand against my uncle’s arm and he let go. She guided him aside so she stood before me instead and took my face in both her hands, a palm on each cheek. “Daire, I know you have always wished for me to recover and be the woman I once was. I can’t. Our family can’t recover from this. I am ancient, too ancient. I want to pass on and see my parents and friends again. All of you are struggling to bring someone back who vanished long ago.”

“You were feeling better. You reunited with Father and you promised him…” I put my hands on her wrists, held them tight as if she were going to slip away.

“I lied.” Mother pulled my head down to touch hers. “Right now, the only person strong enough to give me my wish is you. Midir cannot let go of me. Aengus may scheme, but he hasn’t the nerve to end me by his own hand. Brigid would, but she cannot go against Midir’s wishes. I have spent so much of my life letting others decide things for me: who to marry, what to do, how to think. Now I have a chance to save you, my only child. I have never been more of sound mind than I am now. Let me save you. Let me be selfish, I beg you. Grant me final freedom.”

My gut roiled as her plea cut through to my core. I had no idea if this was a manipulation, but I could not blame her. I had seen how she suffered through a half-sedated existence with small moments of light. I could understand how her life had ended long ago, that it should not have spanned eternally like the rest of Father’s kind, like me.

“What makes you think I can do it?” I asked, my voice cracking as my throat closed.

“Because you love me above all else, little swan,” Mother said. “And if you love me that much, you will do me this favor.”

My Aos Si blood showed me the truth in her words. I owed her such a debt for my very existence and the years of tender memories. I had to repay it somehow. The cold logic helped me steel myself as I straightened away from the shelter of her hands. I went toward my uncle, escorting Mother so she lingered in step behind me. “Lead the way.”