When I walked to the tunnel opening, I stopped and held my breath. None of Queenie’s yips or barks disturbed the grave silence of the burrow. The walls were more of the same packed potting soil, rich and dark with skinny roots weaving together along the ceiling. The black curtains lining the walls hung from metal rods sticking over seven feet off the ground. My chest burned and I exhaled in a rush. Still quiet.
I stepped up to the closest curtain on the right and pulled it away. A tall, oval mirror hung from the wall with thick edges made from a dark, coppery metal. The glass inside tinted everything reflected in it the same dull, reddish-gold as the rampaging bulls and boars molded into the frame.
Seeing my reflection, for the first time since getting kidnapped, confirmed that I’d become a hot mess in need of serious grooming. The candlelight shined too bright off the greasy roots and shaggy purple ends of my pixie cut. My black v-neck and work slacks had a patchwork of dusty splotches the same color as the walls. I lifted my bangs out of my eyes, only to find the start of red blotches along my forehead. “Shower is the first thing on my to-do list when I get home.”
Were mirrors all this hall had? But why should I stay away from my reflection and some pretty designs? It couldn’t be the mirrors themselves, but what she hid behind them.
I grabbed one side of the massive hunk of brass and pushed. It budged, scraping against the solid tunnel wall, but not by much. The thing had to weigh more than my futon. All I had to do was move it far enough for the edge of a secret door or window to poke out. I shoved my shoulder into it. It slid over, exposing nothing but more packed dirt.
“Seriously? Nothing?” I stepped away and the mirror swung back into place. The first lead home I’d gotten in God knew how many days and all I got was a crappy reflection. Did somebody upstairs hate me? I sighed and sagged against the glass as I caught my breath. If only the damn thing would open to somewhere else.
The hard surface I leaned against got soft and smooshed around my shoulders like a Jello mix that hadn’t finished setting. I’d put my whole weight against that mirror. Before I knew it my balance went all to hell and I tumbled ass first through that frame. A clear substance sucked me in, worse than my first time floating in a pool. My lead butt sank first and the shiny stuff flooded over my head. I flailed for the edges of the oval gap as it stretched away from me. The flickering candles and black curtains in the underground hall grew smaller and smaller. I managed to catch a fingerhold, stopping my progress for a fraction of a second. My fingertips slipped on the polished metal. Everything slid past me in a blurring woosh, snuffing out that window of light.
It dropped me flat on my back, my spine hitting hard rock while my head bumped something furry. I looked up at another mirror, identical to the one in the hallway with the same stampeding animals decorating it. Hanging over it, stuffed deer, bear, and boar faces stared at me, mouths hanging open. The hunter must’ve liked the way they gaped as they squealed for their lives. My kidnapper’s cave didn’t have those, or the layers of animal rugs covering the floor’s rough stone tiles. Instead of candles, the dim light came from torches screwed into the walls and a giant fireplace across the room. Had I stumbled on a way out?
I scrambled up, bumping against a wood table and folding chair—bark was still attached to both. My shadow jumped across a canopy bed to my right. It had reddish-brown curtains gathered up around each of its posts and fur blankets covering the mattress, but nobody sleeping in it. The room’s owner obviously liked trophy hunting, but a long stone club straight from the stone age sat over the fireplace instead of a rifle.
“By the Dagda’s loins. What has wandered into my chamber?” It came from someone behind me with a deep voice—a big guy, if I had to guess. His words had a familiar layered quality to them, but I didn’t have time to place where I’d heard it between panic spasms. Most rustic type people weren’t known for their love of strangers, but I stamped down that prejudice from one too many horror movies. I couldn’t afford to be picky about who helped me.
I whipped around to face the speaker: a giant of a man filling the only door to the bedroom, as bulky as he was tall. Most of him hid behind some kind of hair, from the bear-skin cape with the fuzzy head sitting on his shoulder, to his long auburn beard, braided down his chest. The way his belt didn’t have a buckle and how he wrapped his boots with twine reminded me of the redhead’s wardrobe choices. When I met his eyes, goosebumps spread over my arms as they heightened my new suspicions. I’d never seen that rust color in any other person’s irises and they had the same kind of tilted shape and slitted pupils as my kidnapper.
“I need help.” I hung by the mirror, just in case. “You know a tall lady with red hair, has a thing for chains?”
“I see she wrangled that interpretation spell out of Daire.” The man frowned and his thick mustache twitched as he inspected me. “Such a peculiar changeling, though.”
“Can you even hear me?”
“Unfortunately.”
“So you know who I’m talking about?”
“Of course.”
“She kidnapped me and she’s keeping me in an underground prison.” For all I knew, his charming personality could be from from finding a random chick sneaking around his room. I had to keep trying. “I need to get back home. Can I use a phone or something?”
“That ‘prison’ is your home.” The man took a hulking step inside the bedroom. “That woman is your master. Forget the life you had before. From now on, you live to serve her.”
“Shit, you’re with her.” I patted at the mirror’s frame, across the little horns and gaps between them. It had to have a switch or a secret lever that I’d activated earlier. When I tapped the glass in the middle, though, it stayed cool and hard. No thin pudding consistency. “You don’t understand, I have a mom. She’s got a lot of mental health issues and I’m all she’s got left. Let me go, please.”
“Listen well, girl.” He spoke slowly, emphasizing every syllable like he was a teacher and I was the kid who wouldn’t focus. With each word, he lumbered closer, cornering me against the mirror. “I do not care a mite what you left behind, neither about your family nor your station. You are never leaving Tir Na Nog. Is that clear?”
“I don’t even know where that is.”
“Hmm. Daire did say humanity had become ignorant.” The man’s bushy eyebrows came together, but didn’t make any wrinkles on his forehead. He tugged at one of the smaller braids in his beard, rubbing it between his fingers. “You are not in your home realm any longer, you are among the Aos Si in the eternal lands of Tir Na Nog. Any gods, kings or chieftains you followed before have no presence here. Our kind commands powers beyond your imagining, and I rule over them. However, there are only a few of us left. I cannot have you telling other humans about what you have seen. Like it or not, I will never send you back.”
“I’ll find my own way home, then. All I need is a phone.” Did fantasy cults even keep phones? If only I hadn’t dropped mine at home. “I won’t tell anyone about anything, especially not the police. I swear.“
“Why did she choose you? You have all the beauty of a sack and the mind of a common ass.” The self-dubbed king of everything held his forehead like a migraine had set in. “It’s better you’re locked away if you’re this stubborn. I thought she could contain you, but if you managed to escape this soon, someone else is bound to see you. We can’t have that.”
The mountain man grabbed for me, but I flinched away. I had a split second to duck under his girthy arm and run for the door before he tried again. If I made it out, where would I go? No idea. Still a better alternative to capture. I went for it and dashed through that gap.
“Behave, wench!” The brute snatched my arm, the same one the redhead had almost torn out of its socket, and slammed me against the wall.
White hot pain stabbed through my shoulder from my bicep, worse than the redhead making me dangle from my wrist. My head thunked against the wall and I saw double of the wannabe king. That didn’t stop me from clawing at any part of him I could reach, tugging at his wrist, his beard, his face. He caught both my flapping wrists and pinned them back. I kicked between his legs. Nothing but empty air. He dug his knees into my thighs, pressing me harder against the wall. The thorny horns on the frame sculptures dug into my spine. What sick kink made these people love roughing me up when I clearly wasn’t into it? The hot breath he panted on my face stank like the sweet, specialty wines Nico kept under the counter. That close, I learned that his beard was soft and straight, like someone’s hair after a deep conditioning treatment. What the hell was he thinking of doing next?
The mirror’s copper tinted glass rippled beside me and a very familiar redhead with a delicate, angular face popped out like a frog peeking out of a pond. She made a show of sighing in relief as the rest of her emerged, holding her hand on her heart as if she had to slow it down. While I’d tripped into the room, she climbed out of the mirror with the practice of somebody walking through their front door.
“Help!” I jerked against my new captor’s grasp with new energy, not that I made much more progress than twitching. If she was the frying pan and he was the fire, I wanted back on the stove. “Take me back, please!”
“Thank Danu you found her.” My original kidnapper glided toward my new assailant and rested her head against his bulbous shoulder. My skin throbbed where he’d jabbed his fingers and knees into it. “I hope she didn’t cause too much trouble.”
“Her very nature seems to be trouble,” the king grumbled as he stepped off of me, making enough distance for me to breathe as he kissed the top of her hair. “The pleading I expected, but the irreverent raving was unwelcome. You should train that out of her.”
“She’s still absorbing everything. Even humans who knew of us took longer than a week before their hysterics stopped.” The woman stroked her boyfriend’s naked bicep with the tips of her nails. “Besides, I like her willful. It makes her better company.”
“Oh how the fates curse me.” He tapped his nose to hers in a display that looked as sweet as plastic cake. “Can I deny you nothing?”
“He doesn’t care what you want.” I side stepped closer to her, making my preference of captor clear. He’d mentioned she wouldn’t want me locked up. I could use that. “He wanted to hide me somewhere else without telling you.”
The king closed his fist around empty air and a tingling sensation ran up my jaw like a dentist had shot it with Novocaine. My mouth clamped shut all by itself. I gritted my teeth, trying to move my lips, sending rabid signals from my brain. Even pulling on my chin to pry it open did nothing. It was the trick the redhead had done with my legs all over again. My heart sped up as the panic set in.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Is what she says true, my love?” Her nails curled into her boyfriend’s skin like a cat’s claws.
“How could you doubt that I care about your desires? I value them as if they are my own.” He tucked one side of her hair behind her ear and showed his perfect teeth in a fond smile, all his attention on her face.
I rubbed my sore forearm where his sausage fingers had left bright red marks. If I made a run for the mirror right then, either of them could numb my legs, then where would I be? Better to watch the drama unfold and focus on escaping from whoever won.
“And her second claim?” The redhead shoved him back a step, all her lovestruck fragility gone. She tilted her chin up at her boyfriend while fondling her heavy chain bracelet, like she dared him to try avoiding a straight answer.
“Who allowed you to fetch this insolent creature to begin with?” The king curled his hands into fists as he loomed over her, his mustache bristling. “Yet you accuse me of subverting the very purpose of that?”
“I hear no actual denials spewing out, so it must be true.” She lifted up on her bare toes so she came nose to nose with the taller man. “We had a deal.”
“The exact terms of that deal stated I would allow you to go to the mortal world, fetch your child, and clear your old debt.” He jabbed a finger my way and I froze. “I did not agree to you letting her wander about unattended. Did you not swear you would keep her hidden from everyone but you, me, and the Key Bearer for as long as you loved me? Have you stopped loving me?”
“Of course, I still love you, Bodb. I will always love you.” She closed the distance between them, her face inches from his. “But that old debt means I must take care of her, not let her rot in your dungeon. If you weren’t intending to let me fulfill the oath I made, you could have chosen the easier option and married me. Then I could endure the madness of owing someone with some happiness.”
“You should never have made that oath.” The boyfriend—she had called him something like Bo or Bob—stood his ground, his feet planted wide and firm. “Really, you are an Aos Si. You should have known better.”
“I was an ignorant child! The only lesson my mother could impart to me before your vile brother killed her was to repay like with like. The human woman had been kind to me, so I accepted responsibility for her death wish.” The redhead yanked one of the long braids in the man’s beard hard enough to bring his head lower than her. The empty air around her body seemed to fill with a focused cloud of dark specks and it emitted a soft, electric hum. Smoke curled up from the man’s beard wherever the field touched. “My point, beloved. You chose to continue our relationship in subterfuge. This is the price of that choice. Deal with it.”
“Leash your power.” The boyfriend grabbed a fist full of her pretty hair at the base of her neck and tugged. She yelped and clawed at his hand, a sound coming out like when I’d accidentally stepped on Queenie’s tail. Even though gray smoke floated up from his skin, he yanked her so low it made her stoop her knees and bend her spine at an angle that made me wince.
She went stiff, like the boyfriend was a bear and it was all she could do not to provoke him into taking a bite out of her. The clustered particles bent away from him and faded back into the her fair skin like they never existed.
“Hearken close.” His voice dropped to the ominous calm of an approaching storm, losing all the boom it had earlier. “Marrying you was, and still is, out of the question. I was not trapped by your ultimatum. I only went along with it because of my fondness for you.”
“You wanted to placate my ‘whining.’”
“Our love was never meant for the binds of that institution, nor for the consumption of the masses to ruin both our reputations.” He let go of her hair and cradled her face, running his thumbs up and down her cheeks. She didn’t budge from her awkward pose and gazed at him, transfixed. Was it because she was still scared or that reverent toward him? “I know you’re not content concealing our liaisons from the public. I see the way you ache for companionship whenever we part. It doesn’t help that you make no attempt hiding it with your nagging. But when you approached me about your outstanding debt, I saw an opportunity to ease your misery. That chance was what made it worth the risk.”
As the redhead nodded along with the explanation, the determined spark that lit up her silvery eyes dulled to slate gray. Her boyfriend lifted her up by her underarms like picking up a little kid and pulled her into a gentle hug. She nestled her cheek into his beard, but glanced away at the only mounted head in her eye-line: a fox.
Over the past week or so, I’d been through some strange stuff: getting dragged through a mirror twice, waiting for a hyper-intelligent fox to serve me dinner, then watching that fox turn into a lady. The worst was seeing that proud, scary woman being forced to kneel in front of her monster of a boyfriend. For a second, I wondered if she was just as stuck there as me. She’d stolen me away from the mom who needed me, belittled me for begging her to take me back, all because of the twisted attitude that I belonged to her. She’d been awful, but was there a chance she had taken me because it was the only way she could find help? As soon as the thoughts came, I stamped them down. It was Stockholm Syndrome trying to set in, my psyche’s way of surviving under stress.
“So, will you supervise your prize better and make her follow the rules?” the boyfriend asked, like a father to a daughter about a naughty pet.
“Yes, beloved.”
“Was my mirror the only one she wandered through?”
“Yes. The only ones who know of her are still you, Daire, and me.”
“Good lass.” He rubbed up and down her bare, upper back, then nudged her toward me. “Take care of that scry with Daire, then meet me to pay your price.”
The redhead came over, each movement mechanical and limp as she wrapped her arm around mine like she was my date to a dance. My escape attempt had been a colossal failure, but at least I’d learned what else was out there. I hated to admit it, but she was right, dealing with her was better than the devils that lurked outside.
* * *
The cool, slick fluid inside the mirror slid over me easier that time, pushing me out as I hiked over the frame. My kidnapper traced her glowing hand over the edge of the now solid glass, probably locking it. The odor of animal fur and smoking wood cut off and left the moist soil and tree roots running through the cavern. Home sweet home.
“Why didn’t you leave the hall alone?” She turned around and loomed for all she was worth.
“Oh yeah, yell at me like I shouldn’t be trying to run away. That’s a classy way to save somebody right there.” I held my arm where her boyfriend’s bruising fingerprints still throbbed. “Like you even care.”
“You’re fortunate you went through his mirror and didn’t encounter anyone else. He would have killed you.” Her arms shook with the effort it took to control them, so much the tendons in her wrists stood out. “Even worse if you had run into Finvarra! Do you know what he does to human women, how long he has been without one?”
“Actually no. I have no idea who that is or what he does.” I set my hands on my hips, squaring my shoulders. She was still over a foot taller than me and could make my body move like a puppet, but I refused to sulk anymore. “I don’t know where I am or why it doesn’t obey the basic laws of physics. If you want me to cooperate, you owe me some basic information first. If you keep giving me nothing, then I’ll keep getting in trouble and bring you down with me.”
“Do you value your own well being so little?”
“If that’s what it takes to get out of here. I won’t stay scared like you want.”
“I don’t want you afraid. This place is not the land you know. To survive, you must trust me and my judgement.” She paused and pressed her lips together tight, as if she didn’t trust herself to say anything. “I want to protect you, take care of you. ”
“Oh yeah, you’re Mother Teresa.” I shoved my finger into her chest. She didn’t even wobble, but her eyebrows went up. “If you wanted to do that, you would have taken me back home already. Instead you’re pushing me around like some dog.”
“I promised to show you your mother, did I not?” She took my wrist and moved my hand away. The tension in her muscles and alien grace with how she moved made me think of a snake coiling up, getting ready to strike. She hadn’t so much as smacked me, though. Was she used to lulling her prey into a false sense of security?
“You only wanted to placate my whining,” I quoted.
She jolted like I’d slapped her. The hard grey of her eyes melted to the hesitation I saw in the little fox, Queenie. Did she not see the parallels, how the way she’d treated me was like her boyfriend? She sucked in a breath as she knelt to the floor, smoothing her dress under her knees. Her hands folded on her lap, demure and neat.
“I am…sorry.” Her fingers clenched and flexed, as if apologizing went against something basic in her nature.
“You’re…” I did a double take. She’d gotten my attention. “What?”
“I was rash and impulsive when I decided to come to your mother. I should have handled the situation with more care, taken the time to explain my position. It has been so long since I dealt with humans, though. So much has changed.” She fidgeted with her dress, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles, like that was the only way to keep order in the situation. “Despite the mirror-gates, the way I can change and transform things, I cannot go back in time and undo my actions. I cannot bring your mother back to you. I can only ask that we both start new.”
“So, it’s true? I’m stuck here?”
“Yes. That man you saw is Bodb Derg, our High King. He rules over all and is the only one who can allow anyone in or out of our world.”
That meant her boyfriend really was the boss of everything. Since he didn’t want anyone knowing about their relationship, I couldn’t be his favorite person, since I just learned all about it. Great. “He probably won’t let you bring my mom here, either.”
“Alas, she is out of my reach.”
“How can I trust any of this?” I searched her body language for any little indicators that she was lying.
“If we were around any member of my family, I would deny that any of this happened.” She gestured to the mirrors with their somber black curtains, the bare dirt walls, the rows and rows of simple candles, and the basic furniture further in. Compared to the luxurious hunter’s paradise her boyfriend lived in, everything was so plain and ordinary. “This place is my domain. It is the only place where I can be myself, where nothing is a facade. As long as we’re here, I give my word that I will always be genuine with you. I swear that now, and what I am will enforce that promise.” She held out her hand toward me, then, like we were making some kind of deal. “I only ask the same in return.”
I stared at her hand for a long minute, letting it hover in the empty air. It would be nice to have one person I could trust in this topsy turvy new place. If she meant everything she said, that she’d be honest with me in that hole of hers, it was the best asset I had until I found a way out. There had to be a different way to get back, one she didn’t know about. Fighting hadn’t gotten me anywhere. I could try a little cooperation while I bided my time and searched for my path home.
I shook her hand. “You’ve got it.”
“Wonderful.” She smiled and it brightened up her entire face. Silvery specks lit up her eyes and it made her more pretty, less alien somehow.
“Um, what do I call you? Do you have a name or something?”
“Hmm, that is a fair point. I haven’t told you it, have I?”
“If we’re starting fresh and all, let’s try an actual introduction.” I tightened my grip on her. “I’m Maya.”
She glanced at our still locked hands with a confused frown. “Is this part of our deal?”
“I do this when meeting new people. Not really into bowing.”
“Ah, I see.” Her long fingers wrapped tighter around mine, somehow coming off more dainty. “I’m Riona, the Lady of Irons, daughter of Midir and Fuamnach of Bri Leith.”
“That’s a mouthful.” I let go and plopped down beside her, sprawling my legs in front of me. “You mind if I shorten it to Rio?”
“Call me whatever you prefer.” She shifted, letting her legs cross to one side at a looser angle than when they were trapped under her. “I trust you understand that incident you witnessed with my sweetheart should remain secret.”
“I can keep my mouth shut.”
“For your own safety, you should. Before that, I obtained permission to call up a vision of your mother. We go at nightfall.”
“Wait, that quick?”
“If it’s too soon, I can delay it a couple more days.” Almost as soon as her mouth quirked up at the tease, it disappeared into a troubled line. “The scryer, the one who will call up the vision, is my younger half-brother. His name is Daire, Lord of Ivy. We share a father, Midir, but he is the spawn of his wretched second wife. I dearly hope you will not have to suffer his presence elsewhere, but if you do, beware provoking or trusting him too much. That goes for anyone you meet. The Aos Si were once known as a race of tricksters after people stopped considering us gods.”
“You need to explain all this crap to me, because I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about other than that this place is…different.”
“There is a great deal I would like to know about your world as well. It has changed so much. We still have a few more hours before the sun sets. Perhaps we should trade questions with each other in the meantime?”
“Alright, I can do that.” I rested back against the wall, my mind turning up blank. There was so much I needed to know, but put on the spot, I didn’t have the first idea where to start. “Um, what’s your favorite color?”
“Really?” She cocked her head to one side and stifled a laugh, reminding me so much of Queenie when I’d pretended to throw a strip of meat and hid it instead. “Of all the questions you could ask, you want to know what color I most prefer?”
“We’ve got to start somewhere.”
From there, we talked.