Maya had withdrawn to see her mother. Aunt Brigid and I sat by each other in the inhospitable common room. A stiff chair separated us from Maya’s close friends, Nathan and Nico. For the moment Nathan, the taller of the two, seemed to sleep in his seat while Nico spoke with a caregiver behind a long counter.

I slumped in my chair, overstimulated by the frenzied noises and chatter from the mass of humans crowding that cramped area. Bird-like chirps and taps came from every direction while various accents and dialects of English and Spanish warred over each other. How had Maya lived with such unfiltered noise all her life? That didn’t account for the oppressive steel rods running through the building and pressing against my power. Fortunately, it gave me plenty to focus on besides home. So long as my thoughts didn’t wander back to Father, to Uncle Aengus, to Mother…

No. A time and place would come for those concerns to burst forth. Surrounded by foreign beings and objects with naught but my bemused aunt as an ally was the furthest from appropriate or safe.

Aunt Brigid snatched a thin paper pamphlet from a stack and traced lines upon it in her lap as if she were idly fidgeting. Only I caught the glowing Ogham characters her finger left in its wake. Weave me an interpretation spell without the humans noticing, the message read.

I offered her a subtle tilt of my chin as I siphoned power from my overwhelmed mind and traced the appropriate symbols into her palm. I had done the same once before with Riona before she fetched Maya from the mortal world. Oh how long ago that was.

“Is that better?” I asked in English.

Aunt Brigid didn’t reply but offered me a strained smile and kissed my head. She drew a few more of those disappearing Ogham trails upon the pamphlet. What alphabet does this language use?

“Latin,” I mumbled. “The language itself has Saxon roots with heavy Greek and Latin influences.”

Aunt Brigid nodded and started combing over the pamphlet she had written upon. I had equipped her enough that she could figure out the rest within weeks with her Aos Si capacity to learn.

So far we had escaped significant detection by the masses. On the confining car ride to the healing house, Brigid had cast a light memory charm on Nathan while we glamoured ourselves to blend in. My aunt had shortened herself to only a hand higher than Maya and donned a full skirted red dress with white dots on it. I’d subtly reduced my height by two finger lengths and changed my tunic and leggings to a green shirt and dark jean trousers.

Nico came back from the long counter and collapsed into his chair with a sigh. He shoved his younger brother’s shoulder. “Wake up or you’ll freeze that way.”

“I was only resting my eyes a sec.” Nathan yawned and stretched his well muscled arms. “What’d I miss?”

“Nothing much. The kid’s still talking to Jenny.” Nico rubbed his prominent bald patch before his attention turned to me. “Some miracle, huh? Maya’s mom was in a coma for three straight days before you two showed up with her. How do you know her?”

I forced a courteous smile. What deception had Maya and I discussed before the election? It had been so long since I’d even recalled it. “I am her friend visiting Florida for the first time. This is my aunt. She is chaperoning me.”

“Funny. She never mentioned having foreign friends.” Nico raised both of his bushy eyebrows at me, prominent wrinkles forming in his shimmering forehead.

“How did you know we were foreign?” A thread of panic raced up my spine and my palms became slick.

“You’ve got a pretty clear accent, if you don’t mind me sayin’.” Nico shrugged one of his meaty shoulders. “My first guess is you’re from somewhere in Europe, but I can’t place it. Is it one of those those little countries nobody’s ever heard of?”

“No.” I gulped, struggling over how to phrase my next words to be true. “A very small community in Ireland.”

Aunt Brigid nudged my knee with hers. Was I behaving too conspicuous or offering too much detail?

“Really? I have some Irish on my dad’s side. Maybe we’re related somehow, huh?”

“You make it sound like we’re related to every part Irish person we meet.” Nathan rolled his eyes, though I noticed he narrowed them at my aunt for a moment as he stood. “I’m going back to check on the bar. Can you give Maya and the leprechauns a lift home?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Aunt Brigid glanced up from her studying and glared at the massive man.

“You realize that’s an offensive stereotype, do you not?” I crossed my arms.

“And you sound awful British for a Irishman,” Nathan replied, tipping an imaginary hat to me and my aunt.

My cheeks flooded with heat. I wasn’t sure how offended to act.

“Tieni d’occhio quei due,” Nathan said toward Nico as he headed for the exit doors that slid opened and closed when someone neared. It wasn’t Spanish, though it sounded rooted in Latin. Was that Italian? I pieced it together. Keep an eye on those two.

“You got it.” Nico gave his brother a lopsided wave before he held his hand out to me. “Sorry about Nate. He’s usually prickly until you get to know him better. I’m Nico, a close friend of Jen’s.”

“Ah, Maya has told me much about you.” I shook his hand. His grip was so firm that it irritated my shoulder. “And she painted your brother in a much friendlier light than he seems…”

“He’s a little overprotective with strangers.” Nico snorted. “The line of people he’s driven off from the bar for making eyes at our servers, especially Maya, is a few miles long by now.”

“Lovely.” No wonder he didn’t seem to like me.

A familiar groan broke through the din. Both Aunt Brigid and I looked up toward the hallway where Maya emerged with with red-rimmed eyes and glistening cheeks. The talk with her mother must have been more serious than I imagined. She proceeded toward us, massaging her stomach as it if were in pain. Grief often made my innards amiss as well.

Nico met Maya before she reached our seats. He wrapped his arms around her in a massive, unsolicited embrace that pulled her off the ground. Maya returned it with a ghost of a smile. The two seemed almost like what I imagined a father and child would be like.

Father’s final, restrained confession flashed through my mind. He’d said he was proud to watch me. Would he embrace me like that when we reunited? Would he still be alive to do that?

No, I couldn’t think about that yet.

They exchanged pleasantries and Maya swung her thumb the way she had come from. She told him to speak to her mother. Nico strode that way and vanished from sight. Maya walked the rest of the way to our seats, choosing the empty chair next to mine.

“How is Jennifer?” I asked in an undertone.

“She’s good. Better than good,” Maya said, sounding hoarse. She looked past me to my aunt. “Thanks for that, Miss Brigid.”

“That was leverage, not charity,” Aunt Brigid said under her breath, English floating over her native tongue. “You are in my debt now. When the time comes you will repay that by trading yourself for my brothers.”

“What?” Maya became rigid and she gripped the sides of her chair with white knuckles. “What the hell are you pulling? I’m your hostage or you kill my mom?”

“You have helped propel what’s left of my race into a civil war,” my aunt replied. “In war, one does what one must.”

“That’s enough!” I smacked the arm of my seat. “No more mothers are dying.”

Our area of the room went quiet for a moment and I felt at least a dozen pairs of eyes fall on me at once. My cheeks flooded with heat and I shrank further into my seat. I was tempted to glamour my height even shorter.

“It is a last resort.” Aunt Brigid put a reassuring hand over mine. “They are resourceful, your father and Aengus. Perhaps they are fine.”

I might have believed it if my aunt had put more conviction in her tone.

“I was about to offer my place for you two to stay until stuff with your family gets sorted out.” Maya stomped off toward a large container with various bags stacked inside and displayed beneath its glass front.

“No more threats, please,” I whispered to my aunt as I came up after Maya.

Aunt Brigid stayed silent and turned back to her pamphlet. I had no doubt she watched my back as I walked away from her, though. Father had tasked her with guarding me and now she had a whole host of new threats from another world to contend with. She would take that duty as seriously as if I were her own son. She always had.

“I’m sorry for her behavior.” I approached Maya. “Fear makes her harsher.”

Maya didn’t reply as she stared at the glass front, seeing yet not seeming to contemplate the different goods inside. She clenched her fingers to trembling fists at her sides.

I swallowed and closed my hand around hers. I could only hope she found the gesture reassuring rather than constricting.

Her quivering stilled under my touch. “I’m not going back there. Neither of you can make me.”

“I don’t want you to,” I said. “Pay no heed to her threats. She is protective, much like your friend Nathan seems to be.”

“She still said it, so she means it. But thanks for trying anyways.” Maya raked her hair back, resembling Father with the motion. “I forgot to ask how you were doing.”

“I’d rather not think about that yet.” I pressed my mouth into a line as I considered our interlocked reflections in the glass.

“When you’re ready to talk about it, I’m here.” Maya moved her hand out of mine and wrapped it around my shoulders. She leaned her head against me as if I were helping to hold her upright.

I exhaled and wrapped my arm around her waist, letting my cheek rest against her hair. Perhaps she was the one holding me upright instead. “Do you know what’s going to happen to us?”

“No idea.” Maya squeezed tighter. “But we’ll figure it out, right?”

I didn’t reply but took her reassurance to heart. It was odd how I was in the one place I’d always wanted to be, surrounded by its flurry of new sights and sounds I had only seen in visions. Originally I’d envisioned I would stand like that with Mother, sharing it with her. That was out of my reach.

For the moment, I took some happiness from the young woman I did share that new experience with. It would only last a short while before I had to thrust myself back into the depths of Tir Na Nog, but Mother had bought this freedom with her life. I promised myself I would enjoy every moment of it.