The Aetherfae (19 page)

Silently, Dana asked Gavin why he had brought me along.

“Maggie left Talemn Alainn weeks ago
to find Sara—long before we planned this meeting. I sensed Maggie and her friends in Dublin last night.”

Dana didn’t move—she stood silently, all the while giving Gavin a pleasant look. It was apparent to me she was trying to act nonchalant while she directed the next question to Sara.
“What business does she have with you?”

“I do not know. I never expected to see her again.”

“Take her away and then return to us.”

“There is something you should know, Dana. She is Áedán’s heir.”

Without pause, Dana answered.
“I have no use of her, Áedán’s heir or not. We have business that does not involve the delusions of a Seelie pet.”

“Of course,”
Sara replied.

My inner dialog went nuts.
What do you mean, of course? She just called me delusional?

Dana didn’t believe that anything I’d shown her was real. My first instinct was to interject and offer up proof of my skills. I hated it when anyone questioned my abilities, and it infuriated me to be called a liar. Then common sense took hold of me. None of the Fae knew I could hear their private conversations, and I wasn’t ready to play my hand. Besides that, I was only here to see Sara. I could care less if the Sidhe were impressed with me. At least that is what I told myself. So I kept my mouth shut and played dumb.

“Maggie,” Sara started, “will you please come with me so that we can catch up a little? Gavin has business with Dana.”

“Of course.” I leaned to the right, dipping over, until Dana looked at me. “It was nice to meet you.”

She nodded stoically and then turned her attention to Gavin as if I was painful to look at. She was like Rhonda with superpowers—I really disliked her. Sara moved toward the path down the hill and I followed. Feeling ornery, I threw an Air barrier around us so that the rest of them couldn’t hear our conversation. Sara shuddered and winced. It’s not that I had anything important to say at the moment, but I felt like sending a message.

“Tell me everything,” she said, twining her fingers in mine.

Tears welled in her eyes when I told her about Dad, and she pulled me into an embrace. “Ozara knew you were a target. I told her that would happen. Several of us insisted on sending more than three guards, but she ignored us.”

“I think she intended to send me to a place where I could be killed. She just didn’t realize I had my memories.”

Sara nodded, a slight crease wrinkled her forehead. “How is your mother? And Mitch?”

“They’re both dealing with it. I told them everything…I had to. Mom is barely talking to me. She’s really upset that I lied to her.”

Sara nodded. “Tell me more.”

I told her about seeing the Second attack the Council, and she frowned.

“Maggie, are you certain about what you saw?”

“Yes, I saw the Aether. I’ll show you.”

She pulled me back into motion as the memory played in my head. “Maggie,” she said, “you never saw the Second?”

“No.”

“But you did feel its presence.”

I started to nod until I realized I had never felt a presence. “Not exactly. It attacked, but I didn’t sense anything at first—I was inside Ozara’s barrier. As I snapped back to my body, though, I felt the energy. I saw where the attack came from, and I saw Ozara’s Aether attack glance off the Clóca barrier over the lake.”

“Glance off? I don’t know much about either substance, but I don’t think it’s possible for Clóca to repel Aether. The Second was using Aether, so she must have deflected with that.”

She was keeping something from me. “What’s bothering you?”

“I’m sorry, Maggie, just deep in thought. I would feel better if the Seelie were still intact, but Ozara has taken a most treacherous and dangerous path by joining forces with the Unseelie.”

“I’ve never trusted her,” I snapped.

“We need to determine the identity of the Second. I am frustrated that so much has transpired and we still don’t know who our enemy is. The last two, Ra and Dagda, were far too eager to make their identities known. This Aetherfae is patient and cunning. Dersha’s involvement is critical.”

“Why?”

Sara’s liquid eyes settled on something in the distance. “Dersha is complicated and unpredictable, except for two things: her hatred for Poseidon and her hatred for Ozara. You see, Dersha’s original name—“

“Is Pandora. I know. Gavin told me what happened. When do you think they’ll move on Ozara?”

“That’s hard to tell. The Second is clever and it has played this perfectly so far. No mistakes. The oldest of my kind know every Fae. Because of that, keeping its identity hidden gives it a powerful advantage. When we learn the identity, we know where to look and how to counter. All of the Rogues we’ve identified so far are loners and mercenaries—it’s a brilliant plan. The Second could be anyone. It wouldn’t surprise me if none of the Rogues know its identity.”

“Sara,” I interrupted again. “Just before he died, the Arustari said that only Dersha knew the Second’s identity.”

“You are full of surprises. If the Second has revealed itself to Dersha, that is its first mistake. Knowing where the Second has spent the last two thousand years is the first step. It likely returns to the same place. Getting past the Second’s Clóca should be easy enough—if we can find it.”

“Well, Clóca is more powerful than you think. It repels Quint.”

She stared at me, not watching the path in front of us. “And you’ve seen this?”

“Sara, I can produce both. I know it for a fact. Mara blocked Wakinyan’s Quint attack, and she blocked mine.”

“Mara? I didn’t realize…so she’s still alive. I’d heard rumors, but I never knew—“

“Sara,” I interrupted, “How much can I safely tell you?”

She turned her head back down the hill, her golden eyebrows furrowed in a look of consternation. “I can’t answer that. Ozara is not here to compel my memories, but we all realized, after she destroyed the Ometeo clan, that could change any minute.”

I made a decision. “I don’t care. She’ll figure it out soon enough. Mara is dead.”

“Dead? Good. Her kind were the most despicable—“

“All of the Arustari are dead.”

She stopped walking again. “How?”

“Tse-xo-be ripped Naji into pieces in Florida, he killed another—I don’t know his name—in Washington D.C., and Wakinyan destroyed the third with Quint.”

“There were four of them…and Mara?”

I exhaled. “Eleven days ago she tracked me to a vacant warehouse in New York. I killed her before she killed me.”

“You killed Mara? By yourself?”

I nodded.

“Oh Maggie, when the Fae find out…”

“I’m not concerned about that. I’m being hunted by Dersha and the Rogues anyway. I figure it’s only a matter of time before the Alliance gets into the action. And you might as well know this. I killed Cassandra the night I rescued Mitch. I’m sure Ozara knows.”

Sara nodded. “I suspected as much. The world is a better place with their deaths.”

“Then why do you look so sad?” I asked.

“I’m sad because I can’t imagine a way out of this for you, not until you learn Aether, and maybe not even then.”

I squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. I’ve known for more than two years that I could die before this was over. The most important thing is to win.”

“To win? That’s such a human expression.”

“Yes, human, and true. If we can put an end to this, my family has a future. Mitch has a future. And so will my newest sibling.”

Sara’s eyes bugged just slightly.

“Yeah, I just found out. Mom is pregnant.”

“Maggie, that is amazing news, truly amazing.”

“Okay, you look sad again. What’s up?”

“Have you asked how you’re going to win, as you put it, without a Seelie Clan to protect the human race?”

My stomach knotted and I felt my heart speed up. I hadn’t given anything beyond the here and now much thought. “We have to reform the Seelie Clan, or build a new coalition.”

Her eyes grew wet. “Maggie, I’m sorry, but that’s not possible. The Seelie Clan was crumbling before the Second emerged. Now that Ozara has splintered off and formed a new clan, the support for protecting your species is waning. She paired what was left of the Seelie with the Unseelie. Neither clan could survive on its own now, and as long as they’re together, saving your species will never be on their agenda. The original clans are doing everything they can to avoid catching Ozara’s attention, or the Second’s for that matter. I have a terrible sense of trepidation about what is going to happen to your kind. If you learn Aether, you can defeat the Second, perhaps Ozara, but how can you hope to take on thousands of Fae?”

A sense of hopelessness gripped me.

Sara squeezed my hand. “Maggie, forgive me. I don’t want you to despair. I just wanted you to know the truth. Full disclosure, right?”

I nodded.

“Oh, Maggie, I am sorry. Ignore me. The dissolution of the Seelie Clan rocked me to the core—it clouded my judgment and affected my reason. As Billy always says, there is always hope. Are you all right?”

“Sara, I’m not giving up. There has to be a way to fix this—there has to be.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I have to be,” I said, not believing a word coming out of my mouth.

“So, why did you travel all this way to see me?” she asked.

“I need to find another way to complete the fifth trial. I hoped you might tell me where to begin looking.”

She studied my face before responding. “I might have a suggestion.”

I nodded at the first good news I’d heard since we began talking.

“Do you remember my stories about Bastien?”

“Of course, he’s the oldest Fae. The historian who tracks human lineage.”

“Yes. He hasn’t been seen in over two thousand years, allegedly. But there are rumors that he is still in Europe. Dana believes he may have stayed in contact with a small clan of Fae in Holland—Holland is called Tasureel in our language.”

“Holland? Where in Holland?”

“Like most clans in the modern world, the Kabouter stay away from humans. You will find them in the forests of Veluwezoom.”

“The forests of Veluwezoom. That sounds so medieval, so Tolkien.”

Sara laughed. “It is far from medieval. The Kabouter convinced the Dutch to create a national park, much like the Seelie did with your family at the Weald. The pact with your family at the Weald is older, by the way, by more than a hundred years. But that is where you’ll find them. A Fae named Elegast is their leader. Elegast and Tse-xo-be are old friends. Use that to your advantage. It should help you make contact.”

We walked down to the gate. Candace, Ronnie, and Sean were inside the cottage a few hundred feet away. The evening light, dimmed under thick rain clouds, cast no shadows—everything was dark. The sensation of being watched came back. It unsettled me.

“Sara, I need to ask you a question, and I’m afraid I already know the answer.”

“Yes?” she asked.

“Did you come to save me on the ship five nights ago?”

Small lines formed across her brow. “No, I did not. Save you from what?”

“Mara shattered my arm, bit me on the neck, cut me up pretty bad. I was in really bad shape—feverish and delusional. A Fae—I thought it was you—came to me. It healed the damage to my arm, made the fever go away.”

The lines on her smooth skin deepened to crevices. “That was not me. Was it you who visited me two nights ago at Glenariff?”

“Glenariff? I thought Glenariff was a forest—yes, that was me. I projected. Isn’t Glenariff where Caorann met the Celt?”

“There is still a forest there, a very small area of forest. That is where Caorann dwelled with
Ádhamh. That was his name—Ádhamh. Eyr has changed in two thousand years. Once the entire realm of the Sidhe was covered in forests, except for a few small places. They’ve all been cut down. This is not the Ireland I once knew. This is a human-made disaster.”