Among the Unseen (22 page)

The druid.

“Where’s Helen?” she cried.

“I’m here, Your Majesty,” Helen said, stepping out from behind Nevan and Atty. Her face was full of sorrow—and fear.

“Can you help her? She said you were teaching her how to access her power. Can you undo the transformation?”

Helen looked hesitantly at the limp girl in Felix’s arms. “I’ll try.”

She knelt down next to Eden and cupped the girl’s face in her hands. She spoke softly into Eden’s ear, a strange, humming language that Cedar didn’t understand. She placed her hands on Eden’s chest as her voice rose, filling the room. Then she stopped, and looked back at Cedar.

“The little one is still inside. But she needs her mother. Come, tell her you are waiting for her.”

Cedar knelt beside them, and Felix shifted Eden into her arms. She could feel the hot tears rolling down her face, stinging the raw marks Odin’s ravens had left on her cheeks. Eden’s head was lying against Cedar’s shoulder, and Cedar buried her face in her daughter’s hair, her eyes squeezed shut to try to stem the tears. “Come home, baby. Come back, and be my little girl again.”

There was a wave of power, like a burst of energy passing through them. She felt the change take place in her arms, but she was afraid to open her eyes in case she was wrong. Then she heard the voice of her little girl. “Mummy?”

Cedar’s eyes flew open, and there was Eden—small, beautiful, and wonderfully alive—gazing up at her with wide brown eyes. Cedar held her close and started to cry in earnest, finally free to give in to the magnitude of what had just happened. But she smiled through her tears as she felt Finn’s arms wrap around them both. He was weeping and laughing too, and then Felix was clapping him on the back and shouting, “She’s okay!” and Nevan was so happy they could all hear her cheering inside their heads, and Niall was scrambling over them trying to get to Eden, and it was pure, glorious pandemonium.

Finally they all managed to stand, and Cedar turned to Helen, one arm around Eden. “Thank you,” she said.

Helen smiled, her gaze still on Eden. “You have a very special girl there, Your Majesty.”

“We found the jewels,” Cedar said, suddenly remembering. “We destroyed them.” There was another round of cheering, and Cedar gave them an abbreviated version of what had happened in Asgard. “So I used the hammer to destroy them,” she finished, pulling a handful of sparkling blue dust out of her pocket. They all crowded around to see it. “I don’t know if it has any further use or not, but I thought I would bring it home just in case.” She looked at Felix. “Did it work? Has the curse been broken?”

“I’ve been here the whole time, waiting for you,” Felix said. “Let’s find out. Would you mind?”

Cedar nodded and opened a sidh into Felix’s home. Everyone in the room started to crowd toward it, until Felix held up his hand. “Let’s not startle him to death,” he said. Cedar gave Eden another squeeze before following Felix through the sidh. They jogged down the hall to Irial’s room and pushed open the door.

He was gone.

Cedar and Felix exchanged startled glances, and then Felix ran over to the bed and stared down at the empty sheets. “What the…where did he go?”

“It’s a good sign!” Cedar said. “He couldn’t have gone anywhere if he was still sick. He could barely move!”

Together, they ran through Felix’s halls of healing, shouting Irial’s name. There was no answer. Felix seemed worried, but Cedar was too elated by Eden’s recovery to be unduly concerned. They destroyed the jewels; it
must
have worked. “We’ll find him. We only just broke the curse, so he can’t have gone far.” They went outside and started walking around Felix’s home, looking for any sign of the wandering gancanagh.

They found him standing on the banks of the river, staring into the water as it rushed past. He was dressed in the simple robe they had given him, his hands outstretched in the wind. “Irial!” Cedar called. He turned, and she let out an involuntary gasp. He had been breathtakingly handsome even while near death. Now his cheeks were flushed with health and his eyes shone with new life; he was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen. Without thinking, she ran to him and flung her arms around his neck. “It worked!” she shouted, hugging him tightly. He seemed startled by the sudden show of affection, but then his body relaxed and he returned the embrace. She pulled back, grinning. “You gave us a bit of a fright, running off like that! How are you feeling?”

“I feel…wonderful,” he said, as though he could not quite believe it himself. “How did you…?”

“We found the jewels after all,” Cedar said. “They were in Asgard. It’s a long story, and you’ll hear it all later. But I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Felix was staring at Irial as though he, too, could not quite believe the transformation. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to examine you one last time, just so I can document the change. It won’t take long.”

Irial nodded, but his face was somber. “Toirdhealbhach—Felix—I just need to say again how sorry I am about what happened with Jane. And…you know it wasn’t the first time I allowed a human woman to touch me, even after I knew what I was. You gave me the chance to do the right thing all those years ago, but I haven’t always done it. This brush with death…well, I’ve had a lot to think about. It won’t happen again. I guarantee it. I want to live freely, and I want the same for…for women like Jane. There will be no more entrapment, not from me.”

Cedar watched as the muscles in Felix’s face twitched. But then he closed the gap between him and Irial and embraced the gancanagh, pounding him on the back before stepping back. “You’re going to do just fine,” he said. “You might not believe so yet, but the world is lucky to have you in it.”

“Why don’t you two head back to your place, Felix, and you can check Irial over one last time. I need to go see Brighid. She must already know that we succeeded, but I want to tell her about what happened with Thor. I think there might still be a chance for them.”

“I’m sure Jane will be glad to see you as well,” Felix said. “Ask her if she’ll come back with you. We’re long overdue for an honest talk.”

They returned to Felix’s house, and Cedar stepped back through the sidh to her own place, where Finn, Eden, Helen, and the others were still gathered, listening to Finn tell the story of their time in Asgard from his perspective. They all looked up at her expectantly as she entered.

“He’s fine,” she told them, unable to keep the smile from spreading across her face. “He’s in perfect health.” She took hold of Finn and Eden’s hands. “We did it.” Then she told them about her plan to go see Brighid and bring Jane back here—and Brighid, too, if she wanted to come. “I’ll be right back,” she said to Eden with a wink.

She opened the sidh into the entrance hall of Brighid’s home, and after giving her one last wave, Finn closed the sidh behind her.

“Hello?” she called, expecting Vanessa to show up out of nowhere like she usually did. But her voice only echoed in the cavernous hall, which was darker than normal. “Hello?” she called again. “Vanessa? Jane? Brighid?” She walked down the hallway and swept around the corner, where she saw a faint light flickering from behind the glass doors that led to the balcony. She slid open the door and stepped out. Jane was standing against the railing, watching the sun rise behind the great mountains that rose up out of the ocean. “Jane?” Cedar said softly, feeling a dreadful certainty descend upon her. Something horrible had happened here.

Jane turned around. Her eyes were red and her skin was blotchy. Black mascara streaks were smudged down both her cheeks. She shook her head sadly, and then her chin crumpled. “I’m so sorry, Cedar.”

“
No
,” Cedar whispered, running over to the lounge chair where they had left Brighid. It was empty. The blankets that had covered her were folded neatly at the foot of the lounge, as was the simple black dress she had been wearing.

“What happened? Where is she?” Cedar stared at Jane in confusion, refusing to believe what her eyes—and the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach—were telling her.

“She fell asleep after we sent Eden back to Tír na nÓg,” Jane said. “And…she didn’t wake up. I sat next to her the whole time, holding her hand. I had my fingers on her wrist, so I could feel her pulse. But then it…stopped. And a few seconds later she just disappeared. There was this white wispy thing that kind of hovered here for a minute, and then that was gone too.”

Cedar sank down onto the foot of the lounge, too shocked to cry. “I was too late,” she whispered. The sun had now crested and was flooding the balcony with light. It was a new day, a new world. Brighid had been part of this world for hundreds of years, and now she was gone. The people and creatures of Ériu had suffered a great loss, even if they did not realize it.

“Ceeds, what happened?” Jane asked. “Did Eden find you? Where is everyone?”

“It worked,” Cedar said, still staring at the empty space where Brighid should have been. Haltingly, she told Jane everything. But her triumph was now tainted by the knowledge that it hadn’t been enough.

“You did your best,” Jane said. “You never gave up. You did more than anyone else would have. And you saved a lot of lives.”

“I know,” Cedar said. “But this was the life I wanted to save the most.”

CHAPTER 19

J
ane said good-bye to Cedar just inside the doorway of Felix’s home. Cedar had offered to come with her to tell Felix the terrible news, but Jane could tell that all her friend wanted to do was to be with her family. Besides, sitting vigil at Brighid’s bedside had given Jane a lot to think about. She needed to see Felix—alone.

She walked through the silent halls of his home. She could have called out his name, but she wanted to take her time. She trailed her fingers along the walls, wondering what it would be like to live here, to belong to this magical world. She knew she could never be one of them, but maybe she could become a part of their lives one day, not just through Felix’s furtive visits to her apartment, but here in Tír na nÓg, out in the open. It had happened before, she knew. She had been reading the old stories, and one in particular had struck a chord. Niamh, the daughter of the High King of the Tuatha Dé Danann, had fallen in love with Oisín, one of the mortal sons of Fionn mac Cumhaill, and she’d brought him back to Tír na nÓg to rule with her. Niamh and Oisín’s story had a tragic ending: Oisín had longed to return to Earth to see his father and brothers, so Niamh had let him go, with a warning not to step off his white horse. When he arrived back in Ireland, no one but the oldest townsfolk had even heard of the great Fionn mac Cumhaill. He and his followers had died over three hundred years ago. While he was trying to help some men load a boulder into a cart, Oisín slipped off his horse. As soon as he touched the ground, he became an ancient old man. He never saw his love again.
We could be different
, Jane thought.
I could stay here forever…We could write our own story…

She heard his voice coming from one of the healing rooms and stopped outside the door. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but then someone else spoke, and she recognized that person’s voice at once. Irial. Her heart sped up and she cursed it. But in a way, she was glad Irial was still here. She needed to see them both. She needed to be certain.

She pushed open the door without knocking. Irial was sitting shirtless on the edge of the bed, laughing at something Felix had just said. Felix’s back was to her, but she could see he was holding a crystal vial of what had to be Irial’s blood. Then Irial saw her, and the impact was immediate. He leapt off the bed, clutching a white sheet to his chest, and retreated to the farthest corner of the room before Felix even had the chance to turn around. When he did, his eyes lit up. “Jane!”

She stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the two men who had held her heart. But this time, it felt like she was seeing them both clearly for the first time. The attraction to Irial was still undeniable; she could feel the tug of her body toward him. But she no longer felt compelled to obey it. She looked at him curiously. How had she once believed herself in love with this stranger? She turned her back to him to face Felix, who was watching her cautiously.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, and before he had a chance to say anything else, she grabbed Felix’s shirt collar and pulled him toward her. Irial cleared his throat, but she ignored him, lost in the embrace of the one man she had truly loved.

“I’ll just…go, then,” Irial said, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him tiptoe out of the room, a brilliant smile on his face.

Felix was whispering her name. “Jane, Jane, Jane. You came back to me.”

She kissed him again, and then pulled back so that she could look at his face. “Did you really doubt that I would?”

“I hoped, I truly hoped,” he said. “But…I was never quite sure. I thought that maybe once you had the taste of another…”

“It was a drug. A toxin. Nothing more.”

“You don’t want to go back to him?”

“No. I don’t care if I ever see him again. But even if I had to see him every day, it wouldn’t change how I feel about you. You are the one I want to be with. Forever.” She clapped a hand to her mouth, suddenly aware of just how serious things had become. “I mean…” she stammered.

He gently took her hand from her lips and kissed it. “I want that too.”

Forever
. She wanted that so badly, but…

“Felix, listen, before we start making promises we can’t keep, you have to remember…I’m human.”

“Delightfully so,” he agreed.

She shook her head. “You don’t understand what I mean. I’m going to keep getting older, while you stay”—she waved her hands at him—“perfect.”

“
‘Perfect’ and ‘young’ often have little to do with each other, if that’s what you mean,” he said. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Ever heard of the story of Niamh and Oisín?”

“Yes,” Jane said, “Exactly. But—”

“Stories change a lot over the years. This particular one contains both truths and falsehoods. Oisín stayed here for hundreds of years without aging a day, even though he was human. He did go back to Ériu—”

“I know,” she said miserably. “And then he became old and died.”

“Yes,” Felix said, tilting her chin up so that she couldn’t avoid his eyes. “But it didn’t happen all at once like the story said. Oisín left Niamh. He never meant to come back. He started aging once he returned to his homeland, but he lived for many, many years before dying peacefully as an old man.”

“But…why?”

“Niamh couldn’t bring herself to believe that he was never coming back, that he had left her of his own free will. She believed what she wanted to believe: that he didn’t return because he accidentally touched the earth and aged three hundred years in an instant. Her version of the story took root, and it’s the one that’s still being told to children in Ireland today.”

“So if I stay here with you, I’ll stop aging,” Jane said.

“And if you ever choose to leave, you’ll be as beautiful as you are today, no matter what world you choose to live in.”

“What about Cedar? Will she really make an exception to the rules just for us?”

“I think we’ll be able to convince her. Besides, we don’t need to decide right away. I’m happy to stay in Halifax for a while, or just on weekends, or whatever you like. I just thought you might like to know that ‘forever’ is an option, if you want it.”

“
‘Forever’ sounds very nice,” Jane said. “But for now, I’m happy with ‘today.
’
” She sighed, knowing that what she was about to say would dampen his newfound happiness. “I need to tell you about Brighid…”

Irial wandered slowly around Tír na nÓg for what felt like hours, neither knowing nor caring where he was going. It was dark out, and a thrill ran through him as he looked up at the stars, so distant and yet so startlingly bright above him. The air held just a hint of chill, but it was not at all unpleasant. He had spent many bitterly cold nights alone and unsheltered, trying to stay away from humans while still keeping warm and nourished. And now, here he was, a guest of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Otherworld. Logheryman
had been right; the queen had done the impossible. She had risked everything and—in doing so—saved them all. Irial had spent most of his life being shunned or merely tolerated; he had never before encountered such a genuine, generous person. But then he thought of Syrna and wondered if she was still alive. She, too, had offered him understanding.

“Irial?”

A woman’s voice brought him out of his reverie. He looked up and realized that he was nearing the entrance of a great white building with tall, twisting spires. Queen Cedar was walking toward him. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

Irial hastily bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty. I was just taking a stroll to give Toirdh—that is, Felix and Jane some time together. They were, uh, making up.” As the queen grew closer, he could see that her eyes were red, as though she had been crying. “Oh no,” he whispered. “Your friend?”

“She didn’t make it.”

“I’m…so sorry,” he said, not sure what else to say. He felt a sudden stab of guilt, that he should be alive when others among the Unseen had not survived.

“Thank you,” Cedar said. “I was going to wait until morning, but since you’re here, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Anything.”

“Someone needs to go to the Unseen and explain what has happened. They’ve all been impacted by this. Many of them have lost people they love, and they deserve to know why. They shouldn’t have to live in fear that it will happen again. You know where to find them, and they’ll trust you—you’re one of them. Perhaps together we can start building some bridges between the Unseen and the Tuatha Dé Danann.”

Irial ran his hand through his dark curls, considering. What else did he have to do? He knew firsthand the misconceptions the Unseen had about the Tuatha Dé Danann. What better way to repay the queen than to make sure the Unseen knew they owed their lives to her? “I’d be honored,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll probably join you on some of these excursions, but I have a feeling you may want to visit the selkies alone?” A hint of a smile played at the corner of her lips.

“How did you—”

“She was quite worried about you,” Cedar said. “And I think she’ll be very happy to see you again.”

After saying good-bye to Irial, Cedar proceeded into the Hall and down the stairs that led to the dungeons.

Before running into the gancanagh, she had been sitting by Eden’s bed, watching her sleep. She had tried sleeping herself, but the thought of the empty lounge chair on Brighid’s balcony had kept her awake. She dreaded breaking the news to Eden in the morning. She and Finn had held each other and cried, until he, too, fell asleep. But there was no rest for Cedar—not yet. She couldn’t stop thinking about Thor, either—wondering what he was doing now, how he was coping with his father’s death.

“That’s not going to be us,” she had whispered to Eden. “You and I will be a team. I promise.” She thought about Odin’s last words to her.
You’re no queen. You don’t have the stomach to rule a great race, to do whatever it takes
.

He was wrong,
she had thought.
We are—and will continue to be—a great race, and I
can
rule. There’s just one thing I need to fix
.
She knew what she had to do, and headed for the dungeons under the Hall.

The guards jerked to attention when they saw her—they had hardly been expecting her; it was almost midnight. She smiled at them and made her way to Helen’s door. One of the guards moved to open it for her, but she held up her hand. “Unlock it, but do not open it,” she said. After he stepped back, she knocked softly on the door. There was silence for a moment, and then the door handle slowly turned, and the door opened.

Helen stood inside, watching her warily.

“I know it’s late. I’m sorry,” Cedar said. “May I…come in?”

“Of course,” Helen said, stepping aside so that Cedar could enter. She motioned toward the one chair in the room, the one behind the desk.

“Oh, no, thank you,” Cedar said. “I’m fine standing.”

Helen sat in the chair and folded her hands on the desk.

Cedar took a long breath, and then said, “Listen, I know I already thanked you for helping bring Eden back, but I also wanted to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I have not treated you very well.”

Helen waited.

“So…you and the other druids are free to go. I’ll open a sidh to wherever you want. You’re also welcome to stay, if you’d rather. I realize…that I’ve been acting rather foolishly. No, worse than that. I couldn’t see past my own anger, my own prejudice. But I have a chance to change all that. I want to put this animosity between our two peoples behind us. We lived in harmony once, and there is no reason why we cannot do it again.”

“That is quite a change of heart,” Helen said. “Can I ask what brought this on?”

“We’re all in this together,” Cedar said. “Unseen, druids, Tuatha Dé Danann. We’re all part of the same strange world. They say we’re the strong ones—the Danann, that is. But if we don’t use our strength to look out for others, then we risk becoming like Odin.
I
risk becoming like him. And I can’t let that happen.”