Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (32 page)

I woke up in my bed with a start, hoping I hadn’t dreamed him again. His single white rose rested on my bedside table, its sweet aroma greeting me good morning. I smiled and pressed the fragrance to my nose.

Downstairs, Rose was busy at something in the kitchen and didn’t hear me until I was right beside her.

“Oh, Faye!” Rose threw her arms around me. “We were so worried about you. How do you feel? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, slowly remembering that I had just been in a horrible bus crash. I rubbed my head for effect and fell weakly into a chair at the table.

“Oh, you poor thing. What happened? How did Dayne find you?” She poured a cup of tea in front of me and sat down beside me, close enough to fuss over me like a mother hen, checking everywhere to make sure I was okay.

“I honestly don’t know, Rose. I can’t remember a thing after waving goodbye to you and April. I was walking down the road when Dayne found me and brought me back here.” I really hoped I was telling the same story Dayne had.

“Do we need to take you to the hospital?” She looked worried.

I shook my head and took a sip of the hot tea.

“Do you feel okay? I think you should go get checked out. You seem fine, but I just don’t know.” Rose felt my forehead, shook her head and looked to her herbs for help, turning back to me when she failed to see an answer there.

“No. I’m fine. Where’s Phin?” I looked toward the bedroom.

“He’s at work. I just can’t believe all this. You come back and Phin gets his job back and it’s just like yesterday never happened.” I was glad to see the smile back on Rose’s face after the tear streaked sadness of yesterday.

“Don’t you have to open the bakery?” I blew at the steaming teacup.

“April opened for me so I could look after you. You need to call her and your parents. Everyone is worried sick.” She patted my hand.

“How are the other passengers?” I asked, remembering the horrible scene from the night before.

“They’re all fine. Thankfully, everyone was belted in. The bus and the car barely grazed each other, but the bus crashed into the stonewall along the roadside. There are a few who don’t remember anything like you. Doctor says it’s probably shock. Nothing to worry about.”

“Thank goodness,” I said with such great relief Rose gave me a curious look. “Rose, I’m fine. You can go to work. I’m going to take a shower and call everybody and then head to the barn,” I nodded at her, assuring her I was okay, and hoping to distract her from my odd reaction.

She patted my hand again. “I knew it,” she said winking at me. “We owe Mr. Dayne everything. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t found you.”

Rose left for work, satisfied that I was okay, but made me promise not to do anything too strenuous at the barn. I was sure she would call Phin and insist he enforce her rules.

After a call home to Georgia to assure my parents I was okay and deciding not to call April in order to avoid the inevitable questions I knew she would bombard me with, I made my way upstairs to get ready for the day.

My hands trembled as I pulled on my riding clothes. Last time I looked forward to seeing Dayne after kissing him in the moonlight my world had crashed down at my ankles. I couldn’t be wrong again. Not now. Not after the whispered secrets we’d shared.

Bbbrrrriiinnngg….
The phone rang in the hallway below, snapping me back to reality. I ran down the stairs to pick it up, sure it was my mother calling again to be sure everything was okay—she was a total control freak.

“Oh….my…..gosh!” April’s voice bubbled into my ear before I said
Hello
. “I cannot wait to hear every detail about your night with Dayne. Rose told me you don’t remember anything, but I know you are holding out. No one could spend an entire night with him and not remember.” She was talking so fast I could barely keep up.

“Hey. Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking. The bus crash wasn’t too horrible,” I answered her sarcastically, unable to believe she had forgotten about the accident and was only thinking about getting the dirt on Dayne.

“Whatever, we both know you are fine and that a night with Dayne is way more interesting than a bus crash where no one got a single scrape.” She couldn’t know how right she was. It was way better. I wanted to tell her everything, to gush about my crush the way girls do, but I couldn’t. There were too many secrets to keep now, and I didn’t know where I should stop the truth and begin to fill it with lies. I wasn’t the only one I was protecting now, and that changed things…a lot.

“Yeah, it was pretty amazing.” I was glad this was a phone conversation so she couldn’t see me blush at the thought of him. April had gotten to know me pretty well over the summer. My blush would have totally given me away.

“April!” Rose yelled in the background.

“Gotta go! Meet me at the tavern after work.” It wasn’t a question, and she hung up before I could protest. At least I had the day to come up with a good story.

Phin ran out to meet me as I walked into the paddock yard. He wrapped me up in the biggest hug, quite unusual behavior for him. The booze from last night still hung heavy on his clothes.

Lucas breezed past us. “Glad you’re ok,” he said it more for Phin’s benefit than mine. I stared at his back as he walked away. Part of my heart sank at his dismissal—he would never forgive me now and I feared our friendship was lost.

“We’re making a run to Shannon today,” he excused Lucas’ rude behavior. Phin nodded toward the barn. “Mr. Dayne’s been asking about you all morning. Seems pretty concerned.” Phin eyed me suspiciously.

My eyes fell to the ground and a hand instinctively shot up to cover my smile. “Thanks,” I mumbled through half closed fingers.

“No use hiding it. The whole town’s buzzing about you and Mr. Dayne. Rose lit up every telephone line this morning, turned Dayne into a regular hero. Wouldn’t be surprised if she has a holiday named after him by the end of the week.” Well at least the people of Clonlea would be saying good things about Dayne for a change.

LeSheen’s ginormous head poked out of the wash rack when I rounded the corner by Phin’s office. I paused for a moment—the memory of the morning Dayne crushed my heart into a million pieces flying back from the shadows of the barn. LeSheen saw me and bobbed his head excitedly, a low whinny escaping from deep in his throat.

Dayne appeared by my side as if he had materialized from thin air and I fell back against a bale of hay, startled by his unexpected appearance. He picked me up and swung me around as he walked, carrying me against him, into the wash rack with a broad smile spreading across his face.

“Dayne!” I protested weakly, worrying someone might see us.

“Don’t worry, no one’s here,” he said, setting me on my feet. I was immediately distracted when he released me and bent to pick up a brush from the bucket.

Beside LeSheen was a horse I had never seen before. It was the spitting image of LeSheen, a shiny steel gray beside his brilliant white. She was tacked up and ready to ride.

“Who is this?” I reached out and stroked the giant head before me. The horse’s coat fluttered under my hand, just as LeSheen had the night before, recognizing my touch.

“You like her?” He asked. I nodded my head quickly without taking my eyes away from the magnificent animal. “She’s yours,” he said it so casually you would think he had handed me a piece of chewing gum.

“What?” I was dumbfounded. I had ridden plenty of horses in my life, but I’d never owned a horse of my own.

“I thought you two might get along. Always wanted an excuse to get her.” He placed his hand on her muscular shoulder. She recognized his touch, too. This wasn’t a regular horse.

“Is she…” I stopped myself from saying the word out loud, not sure if anyone else was around.

“Yep.” He cut me off quickly before I had a chance to spill his secrets. “Come on. Let’s go. I have so many places I want to take you.” He said unhooking the crosstie from LeSheen’s halter and leading him out into the bright sunshine.

“Where are we going?” I asked in a loud voice to be sure he heard me over the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves ringing down the cement aisle.

“Just a normal ride, like two normal people would do on a normal day,” he said, throwing me a wink over his shoulder.

I rolled my eyes at his joke and shook my head.
Normal.
That was a stretch for both of us.

With an effortless jump he landed in the saddle. I carefully led the new horse to the mounting block and climbed up the mountain of her back. “You can’t hurt her!” Dayne was amused by the delicate way I was handling the horse, like a priceless Waterford vase. LeSheen pranced at the entry to the yard, just waiting for permission to run.

I adjusted my foot in the stirrup and Dayne let out a yelp. Instantly, both horses sprang into a gallop. I scrambled for the reins that had slipped from my hands as I fought to keep my rear end in the saddle. Dayne laughed and I felt the gray horse shift to remain under me while I regained my balance.

We were off, tearing over the golf course green fields of Ennishlough. The horses matched their strides, moving like a trained cavalry line charging out against an enemy. We approached the dazzling white wall that surrounded the fields—the one Lucas had said we never took the horses beyond. The fence was high, at least six feet.

My pulse quickened, I had never sat on this horse and now I was taking a jump like this? I looked over at Dayne. He smiled at me and nodded, a confident expression on his face. He was cool as ice in the saddle. The huge fence grew bigger as we approached. Nerves began to tense my body and the horse beneath me shifted nervously in response. The most fundamental of all riding rules came to me, and I forced my body to relax. Immediately the horse settled under me.

The next second, I was flying high through the morning sunshine. Like a plane taking off from the runway, the horse lifted effortlessly into the air. We hung there, suspended in space and time, for what seemed like forever. Dayne and I turned to one another, my mouth screaming, his laughing. With a gentle bounce we landed on the other side.

We pulled to a stop as I gasped for breath and Dayne looked at me with the same unfazed air he always wore.

“Wow. She’s amazing. What’s her name?” I panted.

“Lisana.” There certainly were a lot of L’s in fairy talk.

“That’s pretty.” I patted her neck, and she shook her head happily, pulling at the bit just enough to let me know she was ready to run again. “Is she related to LeSheen?”

“No. She has her own magic.” LeSheen pranced beside Lisana, clearly trying to get her attention. Lisana wasn’t impressed. I was sure that had to affect a stallion’s ego.

“So, who do you sell LeSheen’s babies too? Don’t people notice the horses aren’t… normal?”

“They only go to Sidhe living in the human realm, or they go to LisTirna. We don’t actually sell them. We put a ridiculous price tag on them so no human ever
wants
to buy one.” He patted the big white neck before him.

“I thought they were Grand Prix horses?” Isn’t that what Phin said?

“They are.” Dayne nodded. “We’ve got quite a network in this world.” He rolled up the sleeves of his sky blue striped shirt, revealing the curve of muscles defining his forearm to the sun.

“In Ireland?” I asked, more focused on the inherent strength of his arm than our conversation.

“All over. As long as we have the queen’s permission we can pretend to live any normal human life we want. As long as we aren’t obvious about it. The moment suspicion arises we disappear.” His arm floated up to brush the chocolate waves of hair from in front of his eyes, tucking a few over the ear nearest me.

“Being a professional athlete is not a
normal
life,” I mocked, pointing out the obvious if Sidhe were trying to blend in.

“To us it is.” He kept one hand on the reins, the other balled and propped, knuckles down, on his upper thigh. “Think about it, Faye.” His emerald eyes locked on mine, slightly squinted in the swath of sunshine that had broken from behind a cloud. “I could out run any Olympic athlete or out argue a Harvard educated attorney. It’s almost a natural place for us to
hide
. Even I know I’m slightly obvious here in Clonlea.” He raised an eyebrow and I had to admit he was right. Dayne had never fit in here. His impossible beauty would probably stand out on a fashion runway in Paris or Milan, but it wouldn’t be as obvious.

“So do I know any?” I asked with an eager smile, all but dropping the reins as Lisana and LeSheen meandered shoulder to shoulder down the wooded trail we had turned on.

“Hmmmm... Helen of Troy, Guinevere, Marilyn Monroe.” He stood in the stirrups, retrieving his ever-present mint chap-stick from his pocket. I could smell it the minute he popped the top and I was instantly whisked to that night we’d first kissed.

“No way!” Now I flat out dropped the reins, shaking my head as I turned almost sideways in the saddle to watch him.

“Think about it,” he said after swabbing his lips with the little tube and rubbing them together. I followed every move he made like a starving cat. “They were the most beautiful women in history. It seems natural for them to be
the face that launched a thousand ships
, or a legendary queen or movie goddesses—doesn’t it? It would be weird for them to be a fisherman’s wife.” He put the cap back on and offered it to me. I eagerly accepted the chap-stick. Not because my lips were chapped, but because of where it had been seconds before.