“It should be enough that he will live on through our memories and the great tales I will spin honoring his sacrifice.”

I leaned against the page during my latest reread of the Key’s creation tale and repeated that sentence to myself. Once, twice, three times. My finger stayed stuck on that single word: “sacrifice.” None of the events had changed, nor had going over the passage a tenth time revealed anything new. Bodb, Father, and Aengus still saved the last of the Aos Si from the human hordes and sealed their victory with a secret safety measure: when Bodb commanded it, I would gradually die and take the Key with me.

The text indicated the three swore not to speak about their arrangement, but my family should have troubled themselves to find a way around that like all true tricksters. How had my uncle created this, yet mentored me all these years without even a hint? How could Father have sanctioned the destruction of his only heir? The timing of my finding the book reeked of purpose. Did that mean Uncle Bodb had already given the command?

I slammed the full length of my hand upon the paper. There had to be something there to fix this, something I’d missed.

Near the edge of my smallest finger, at the very beginning of the wide outer margin, a red line large enough to be a character peeked out. I slid my finger over and it exposed more marks. They resembled scribbles more than proper Ogham. Uncle Aengus’ writing!

“Daire, congratulations for outwitting your forefathers and finding my record book. By now you have read about your imminent demise, perhaps you are even obsessing over it as you read this. I want to explain everything, and perhaps we will have a little talk, but only after your task is finished. The good news is that there is a loophole. Do you think any magical practitioner could resist making one? Find my notes, follow my directions, and the next step will reveal itself. The first one is find a human, for only by human hands will your freedom be secured.”

I copied each letter on a new piece of paper before the amnesia set on, then released my hand. Reading over the notes, a bubble of hope sprang in my chest to chase away the sour sense of betrayal. Aengus had always come through for me. I was a fool for doubting him. The first part of his solution did give me pause. Of all Tir Na Nog’s abundant resources, humans were not one of them. I could try to liberate my mother, but Father’s restriction tied her to that room. Curse the man for his terrible timing! That only left…

“Sequestered away inside in the middle of the day?” The familiar feminine voice made the fine hairs on my entire body stand on end. “Surely one of your flowers must be wilting as we speak.”

I twisted around to find my elder half-sister propped on the edge of my bed, demure legs crossed over each other. Her slouched ease broadcast a clear signal that she considered the quarters hers, despite that the blue undertones of her shimmering gown clashed with the room’s emerald and gold decor. The rotten brown splotches where her iron bracelets grazed my sheets offended the entire visual theme.

I strengthened the glamour over my face. That would have to be enough to hide the added redness in my eyes or leftover streaks from my earlier tears. In my rush to gather the scattered papers over my desk into a cohesive pile, I slammed the book shut and left my marker laying out.

“What sort of volume would keep you studying at this hour?” Riona glided to my side with all the grace afforded by her pure Aos Si ancestry. Her chin brushed the top of my head as she perused my desk, one of her subtle reminders of my inferior height.

“Transcribing old tales.” I stacked my notes atop the tome and barred the front sheet from her sight with my forearm. “Not all of us can afford to mope every hour of the day.”

“I was enjoying my new company. You’re the only one moping. Why else would your glamour be thicker today?” Her attention drifted to my face, gaze boring deep, and her oppressive power pressed against my own. “Did Midir reprimand you this morning or did he merely walk by without noticing you again?”

“If you’ve come to antagonize me, I’m in no mood for it.” My heart pounded in my chest as I went over the wards I had cast earlier. How could she have entered? What if she had found the book? “How did you even come in? I placed protections on everything.”

“Not everything.” She pointed toward my skylight, a gaping hole in the ceiling. As she drifted away, toward my mirror, my heart slowed a beat for each step of distance made between her and the book. “But that’s enough banter, little Daire. This is business. I have appropriate permission for this one as well.”

“How many requests have you made of Uncle Bodb in this past moon?” I strode over and joined her, willing my attention to stay pinned ahead. If I paid the book any mind, she might become curious, or worse, report it to someone else in order to spite me.

“Count them yourself.” She gestured to the reflective glass. “That woman you scried for me, I need you to find her again. Make sure the scry sees as close to the mortal realm’s present as possible.”

“You have your prize, don’t you? Why do you still concern yourself with that woman?” I touched Riona’s wrist and drew out the special place of my power where the Key dwelt. I focused on the past image of the petite blonde woman with her shifting hazel eyes and naught but flesh hanging from her bones.

“That is mine to know and yours to ignore.” Riona leaned forward, as if that would sharpen the swirling colors in the glass to an image any faster.

When the scry came into focus, red and blue lights from a ring of law enforcement vehicles and a medical transport lit up the night. One guard with a pad of paper and pen spoke to a plainly clothed man. The civilian shook his head and gestured about as if telling some wild story. Jennifer Diaz laid on the edge of a hard asphalt street, appearing to sleep, her chest unmoving. A large spot of her blonde hair was slick, with shiny dark fluid leaking out from the side of her skull. Flashing lights glinted off the pool of it framing her face and staining the ground.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Of course she got herself killed.” Riona frowned, pinching her lower lip between her teeth. “I need you to capture this scry, then alter it so that someone finds her alive and takes her to a healer. Make it so the savior is someone the viewer knows.”

“I assume you want to show this fabricated vision to your new ward so she’ll cooperate with you?” I replayed the scene on the mirror and preserved it as a memory. That meant it could be projected later, whereas scries had to be fresh.

“She’s being stubborn.” Riona slipped her wrist from my fingers, breaking our contact. The mirror turned back to our reflection. “She was raving about how her mother’s wits are addled and that something dire would happen without her.”

“You actually kidnapped a lunatic’s daughter?” I pulled the green curtain back over my mirror while a pang of paltry sympathy twisted inside my stomach, guilt even. That could have been my own mother if she didn’t have Aunt Brigid watching her. “Not everyone has scores of family to look after their infirm relatives. She was probably the poor woman’s only caretaker.”

“Had I known that, I would have taken her differently.”

“Or not taken her in the first place.”

“You couldn’t resist the weight of a debt for a day, let alone centuries. The circumstances are unfortunate, but I would have gone mad if I had put it off any longer.” Riona stroked her chin and hummed in contemplation. “There’s no helping it. A deception is the kindest course of action at this point if I am to keep her.”

“I’m sure she would still prefer going home to staying in your care, even with a deception.”

“She is here now, she has seen us. There is no possible way Bodb will send her back.”

“And if she finds out the truth later?”

“That will not happen.” Her hands went to her hips then, the chain links wrapped around her wrists clinking together.

“How do you know?”

“You’re going to swear that you will not say or hint of this to anyone.” Riona brought one of her dangling chains in full view and began wrapping it around her fisted knuckles. “Especially my changeling.”

“Why would I?” I backed away until the wall stopped me. If she took this little secret away from me, I would have one less tool to recruit that young woman to my side. “What importance is she to me?”

“I was not asking, little brother. My oath to the High King may keep me from killing or maiming you too much, but there is none to stop me from testing those limits.”

“If I swear this, what do I get? Let’s make a deal of it.” I could find another way to sway Riona’s changeling, but I had to gain something from her bullying tactics. Like all full blooded Aos Si, passing up a bargain wasn’t in Riona’s nature. “I’m sure you can go ahead and pummel me until Aunt Brigid gets a hold of you, but wouldn’t you prefer to hurry back to that new human of yours?”

“She has put me in a kinder mood.” She raised both brows as she lowered her fist and set both hands behind her back. The threat of the chain still lurked, but at least it was hidden for the moment. “What do you propose?”

“I’ll perform the deception and create the visions you need. When we part ways, I will hold absolute secrecy about the true fate of the changeling’s mother.” I glanced above her, toward the skylight. Whatever favor I asked had to keep the book safe. “In exchange, you leave me be whenever I request it and don’t come into my room or spy into it without my permission, until after Samhain. Agreeable?”

“Why are you are so protective of your room, I wonder?” She leaned down, inches away, her slitted pupils round and wide with feline curiosity. “What are you hiding here?”

“That business is my own.” I held my hand out, preparing to cement the opportunity. “Now, oh foul sister, would you like to beat me and get nothing, or agree and let both of us move on with our lives?”

Riona’s gaze switched between my face and my outstretched palm, no doubt weighing her options. As much as her new companion seemed to delight her, tormenting me had been her favorite pastime for the better part of a few centuries. She dearly loved persecuting me as a boy, with stinging comments and light physical abuses with her chains—of course the iron made the latter hurt more. When I grew to my maturity, she found more joy in exasperating my misery with constant reminders of Father’s disdain and Mother’s deteriorating condition.

Her new human’s good opinion seemed to win out. She clasped hands with me and our powers mixed, radiating from our palms into each other’s bodies. A deal between myself and a pure-blooded Aos Si always made a tingling intrusion shoot through my skin, much as a lightning bolt penetrates the ground. Her power in particular felt a twinge similar to mine, due to our common lineage, but far more volatile, with something destructive bubbling beneath its fragile surface.

I stiffened as I absorbed the current and the sense of debt between us deepened. The urge to fill that gap would nag at me until I did my part, like a shrill bell ringing over and over, bouncing around my skull.

“Be at your scrying pool tonight and I will come with the girl.” When she withdrew her fingers she wiped them against her skirt.

“Agreed.” I rested my own appendages behind my back, resisting the urge to do the same. “Is something amiss?”

“That thing in your blood touched me.”

“The Key, or my mother?”

“A mite of both.”

“Then leave me be.” The power of our deal tightened in my belly as I drew on it.

Riona jerked toward the mirror, the quickest way out of my room. The brown decay surrounding her spread up the wall beside us and along the floor under her feet. The crystals set into the ceiling cracked, the mirror frame tarnished and its glass core clouded over as its gold backing did the same. “Careful about abusing that. Our deal will not be official until later.”

“Your temper is ruining my quarters.” I wiggled my fingers her way in paltry farewell. “Until tonight.”

Riona’s corrosive aura receded, leeching back into her body so the bright greens and golds of the room reappeared in pristine condition. She turned away from me and stepped through my looking glass as prettily as she had come.

For the rest of the afternoon, I worked to make my bedroom a safe haven for that book. I lifted one of the slats underneath my mattress and hid the tome there—without any extra magic to draw anyone’s notice. I conjured new, convoluted wards across my door, my mirror, and my skylight that would only let those of human ancestry enter without my permission. Their goal was all encompassing enough to prevent most of Tir Na Nog’s population from entering, unless they took the time to unravel my spellwork. Uncle Aengus could have made those protections in minutes, but the hours I spent weaving the different elements together produced something that would make even him pause.

From there, a hard determination filled the empty dread in my chest as I read over my notes from the morning again. I had a slim hope I could release my mother from her prison, and me with her. Liberated, we could find our own way and she would have the true mortality she craved. It would be like when I was young, when we were happy. Then, when her life had run its course, I could find my way back to Tir Na Nog and face my punishment.

In the meantime, as the rosy hues of twilight streamed across my room, I created the fabricated vision Riona had asked for and mulled over my plan for that night. All I had left to do was convince Jennifer Diaz’s daughter to help me without Riona noticing, and pray she hadn’t already succumbed to my sister’s charms.