Demon Day (38 page)

“
He wanted the same things
you did. He wanted me to help him bring the race back together. He
told me himself, and we fairies cannot lie. He practically begged
me to help and I didn’t listen because you all had me convinced
that he was evil.”

Breandan cut the air with a bold swipe
of his palm as if to erase the words and the feeling of distrust
swelling between us. “You have seen what he has done. Do not make
the mistake of seeing our actions as immoral. He is
poison.”

Balling up my fists, I shook them at
him. “Being evil and being a hard-assed leader are two different
bloody things. What I’m beginning to understand is Lochlann decided
he knew what was best for the fairy race and fractured it.” I
turned to Conall. “You told me our family had to fix the mess we
made, but all we’ve done is make it worse.”

Conall shook his head violently,
ponytail flicking from side to side, his face anguished. “This must
be done. He was making things unbearable. He became suspicious of
everything and everyone.”

“
Clearly he had reason to
be,” I seethed.

“
He withdrew from the other
demons instead of using his influence to guide them into a new
era,” Conall objected. “He was killing us.”

Even now, their words sounded
reasonable, and could be nothing but truth, but I now knew it was
only one side of the story.

I put my hands over my ears. “Stop it.
Stop talking.”

Breandan did touch me this time. He
yanked my hands down and kept his long fingers wrapped round my
wrists. “We had to result to base measure to remove a base threat.
What we did walked the line between what is right and what is
wrong, but we never crossed it. It was my purpose to give my body
to protect the people. I am covered with symbols and incantations
of power that have been gathered for millennia and passed down from
one chosen fairy to another. They help me see, guide my actions. I
swear to you that we were doing what was right.”

I wanted to push him away from me, and
that was my intention when my hand slapped against his bare chest,
but the moment I touched him I felt so grounded my growing rage
flowed from my body and was replaced with an eerie calm. Almost
reverently, I traced the marks that flowed down his torso. He
shuddered and turned his back to me as I glided the pads of my
fingers over his skin, around his pinions, swirling and twisting
with the ink drawn onto his skin in bold and frightfully sinister
curves. I had wondered why some seemed evil to me and now I had my
answer. Breandan was covered in tattoos that represented the light
and the dark. My fairy-boy was a mix of both and I had thought him
so virtuous and good. I flushed. Some of the things he had done
were not virtuous indeed, and most of them concerned me.

I sucked in a breath, knowing the
moment I let him go the clarity would fade, and everything would
become a confused scribble across the canvass of my understanding.
It would be an unholy muddle and I did not know if I possessed the
wisdom to see past it.

I stepped back and let my hands slide
from his skin, immediately mourning the loss of connection.
Breandan flexed his back and slanted a look over his shoulder
before turning to face me fully. Pining me to the spot with the
intensity of his stare he reached out to pull me into him. My eyes
darted to Conall who stood off to the side, looking stressed and
guilty, but too distracted to say anything about how Breandan held
me. His warm hand on my cheek had my gaze returning to
his.

“
Forgive me,” he said
humbly and bowed his head. “I should have shown more faith in you.
I only wanted to do what was best.”

I cupped one of my hands behind the
nape of his neck, and let the other clasp the waist of his trousers
to tug his body flush to mine. His eyes burned with silver flames
and he swallowed loudly. For once, he did not seem worried about
anybody else nearby. He was single-minded. Focused. This I could
tell from the impression he sent down the bond – a glowing, golden
light that represented me in his consciousness. All his attention
was on me and it was an intense, breathtaking thing.

Of course, I would forgive him, but
other people would have to work harder for my forgiveness. I sensed
there was another key to this mess.

“
Ana,” I called and jerked
my head at her. “Get over here.”

She hesitated, blue eyes suspiciously
moist as she shuffled forward.

My wings jack-knifed out, fluttering
in irritation. They were bigger than before. When they had first
appeared they were much smaller, cute even. Now I could feel the
velvety bottoms brush the middle of my thighs, and the tips climbed
so high they were out of my line of sight.

Still, Ana dragged her small
feet.

I hissed, “Now.”

Breandan brushed his lips across my
temple. “Be nice.” He kissed me again and stepped back.

My lip twitched.
Be nice?

The white witch’s face was pink as she
stopped before me. How different a small piece of information can
make a relationship? I’d figured out why Ana was so hell bent on
helping the fairies and why her spell to break the hex on the
Disciples had gone so horribly wrong before I stepped
in.

“
You’re the he-witch’s kin,
aren’t you? And not just because he’s Coven Father, you’re his
blood relation. You look far too alike so don’t try and
lie.”

Her shoulders slumped. She nodded.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I am First Daughter of Cael. Father of
Blackthorn Coven.”

I stared at her. The names meant
nothing to me but I got a distinct feeling from the way the others
stiffened it was not a name to carry with pride. “Why didn’t you
tell me?” Her eyes clouded over and I snapped my fingers in her
face. “Don’t you dare. Stay focused on me and ignore everything
else.” She sent a frightened look at Breandan who started to speak,
but I held up my hand. “You’ve said enough. I understand why you
did what you did, and how in a twisted way you thought you were
protecting me. But she can lie and she did.”

He reached for my hand and I slapped
him away. He sighed. “It’s not her fault. I asked her not to tell
you. Not to tell anyone who she was.”

I kept my eyes on Ana. “Tell me what
happened.”

She rubbed her tummy. “You saw the
scars.” Her eyes briefly flittered across mine and her face creased
in sympathy. “The Tribe caught me and Wasp tortured me for
information on Cael’s plans.”

“
I’ve already heard this
story.” I paused. “An altered version no doubt but–”

“
What I didn’t tell you is
the real reason why I’ve given my loyalty to the
fairies.”

“
You told me you were from
the upper dwells–”

Ana made an annoyed sound. “No, you
assumed and I didn’t correct you.”

My tail cracked from side to side in
irritation. Ana side-stepped to avoid getting lashed by the tip. I
took a deep breath. “But you told me about demons hiding behind the
Wall.”

“
Demons hide in plain sight
behind the Wall.” She shrugged as if this was common knowledge.
“There are humans with goblin, witch, and shifter blood. Not enough
to mark them as demon though. Many probably don’t realize they’re
descendant from a supernatural. The fairies have always tended to
stay within their own race, but recent events wouldn’t be the first
time a fairy had tied themselves to one outside their gene pool.
Your own mother bred with a human.”

Fisting my hands, I looked down at
them as if they held all the answers. “Are you saying that I might
have more family somewhere?”

This time Breandan did take my hand.
He unfurled my fingers and stroked my palm. “I would ask that you
forget any thought of more family. It will cause you nothing but
pain. Alright?”

As always, he was blunt and matter of
fact. Not that it bothered me anymore. Better to flatten a silly
hope then let it take root and grow. Still, I struggled with this
because I still fought to understand the timelines of when this all
occurred.

I asked, “Why have I not aged? You
believe what you’re saying to be the truth, I get that, but
shouldn’t I have two hundred years worth of memory, or physically
be older than I am?”

Breandan stroked one of my wing tips
then followed the curve of my pinion down to my back. “Physically,
you’re still growing.” His own wings flexed then and the corners of
his mouth kicked back in a smile. “As am I. When we reach our prime
our aging slows drastically. Combine this with our temperament and
we begin to look matured yet remain … youthful in appearance. Our
minds refresh themselves to stave away the apathy and ennui that
comes with long life. Understand?” I nodded. Really, what else
could I do? Burst into tears? Breandan smiled at me, and that was
more than enough reward for sucking it up. “Do you remember what
you did when we fought Devlin?”

My own smile slid from my face. A
shudder rippled through me as I remembered the feeling of being
stretched and yanked from one place to another. “Somehow I moved us
from the forest into the old church.”

Breandan nodded. “No other fairy would
think of attempting such a thing. Generally we do not hold enough
power therefore physically it is not possible for us. Yet you
managed to not only move yourself, but Devlin and myself, purely on
instinct.”

From the look of awe on Conall’s face,
I could tell this was a big deal. I eyed Breandan speculatively.
“You didn’t seem shocked at the time.”

His face creased with amusement. “When
have I ever looked shocked to you? When has Conall, Devlin, or
Maeve? It is not something we experience often. And when we are
surprised we adjust so quickly you’d be lucky to catch us suffering
through it.” He smoothed his hand down the space between my wings
and I squirmed. “We suspect Sorcha did something similar when
Devlin and the warriors chased her down after she broke the amulets
and took you. Only I don’t think it worked the same
way.”

Conall reached to touch my shoulder,
but then held back and looked down to his booted feet. “Our mother
was powerful. Beautiful and powerful in ways not even her own
family truly understood. When it happened those of us sensitive to
magic felt it rattle our bones.” His eyes closed as if in memory.
“Everything stopped and was quiet. A silence so loud it was
deafening.”

The way he stood, arm reaching and
ears twitching it was like he was back there, remembering. He had
once told me that as a young boy he had peeked into my cradle. My
eyes bugged as the implications of that became clear.

He smiled faintly, and when he opened
his eyes, they were already trained on me. “I’ve been looking for
you for a long time, little sister. It brings me joy to know that I
did not fail you. I could not find you because you were not there
to be found.”

I floundered, shook my head. Were they
honestly trying to say my mother had used her magic to walk through
an opening in time and leave me on a Temple Priests
doorstep?

No, impossible.

“
I’m struggling to accept
this,” I admitted. “I mean, you can’t be serious.”

My brother touched my amulets briefly.
“What are we Rae? What is the first thing I taught you about magic?
”

“
That it’s
energy.”

He nodded. “Energy that flows and
connects all things. When you and Breandan touch how does the nexus
manifest itself to you?”

I swallowed. Was this a trick question
so that he could scold me? “Light,” I said tentatively. “Burning
light.”

He smiled, but it did not reach his
eyes. I saw a great sadness there and knew then he would never
fully accept I had chosen Breandan over Lochlann. “And there is no
power on this earth that moves faster than light,” he explained.
“Do you understand now?”

Ana had told me when the nexus fully
opened Breandan and I would become a Source in our own right, and
be able to wield insurmountable power. We had all seen a glimpse of
its destructive capabilities by the obliterated Temple grounds, but
what it if a smaller portion of that power, say half, was focused
on moving as fast as light itself. Could you move so fast it seemed
you shifted from one location to another in a blink, like I had?
Moving so fast your energy passed through, around, or over any
stationary barrier. Was my magic that powerful? Ana could see the
future … in a fashion. Ghost images constantly played out over what
she saw in her waking hours. Though she could only focus on one
possible future at a time, and often missed many, I did not get a
feeling that she had ever lied or held back what she had seen.
Could I use her Sight to an even greater advantage? Say she tells
me a future path and I try to move fast enough to jump into it.
Would I be able to jump back too?

I spoke slowly still reeling with the
possibilities. “So if I focus enough I can move
through–”

Breandan glared at me with such
violence his eyes shifted from silver to black. He sent me a wave
of caution so strong it hit me like a physical blow and I stumbled
back. My ears rung and my stomach lurched dangerously.

Gods, at this rate there would be
nothing left inside me.