Stone of Destiny(2)

Just months ago Aoife’s sister Niamh had helped my father escape by trapping Aoife in a magical glass prison called a fey globe. He came to America to find my mother and met me instead. He didn’t know anything about me, so he was pretty surprised his daughter answered the door when he came calling. In his defense, time passed in a completely different way in Tír na n’Óg. Each year there was the equivalent of about twenty years here.

Needless to say, I wasn’t excited to welcome him into our lives. I hadn’t even told my grandparents about him yet. I had many reasons for that, but the most important was that since my father spent so much time in their realm, he became mostly Danaan himself. He became immortal, and like the fully grown Danaan, he looked about twenty-five.

I hadn’t figured out a way to explain that my father looked like he could be my brother. Because of her relationship with my father, my mom hadn’t aged much either. But her behavior was so unpredictable and sometimes frightening that people don’t ask about how she looks.

I pulled the heavy wooden door shut behind me and locked the deadbolt. I hoped having Liam out of sight might keep my mother from breaking down.

“Gram,” I called as I walked past the staircase and down the hallway to the kitchen in the back of the house.

“Hello sweetheart,” my grandmother said, looking up at me with a smile. She sat at the kitchen table with a stack of bills and her checkbook.

“How was orientation?” Gram asked.

“It was fine,” I said. “How’s Mom?” The sound of fiddle music floated out to the kitchen from the den.

Gram straightened her pile of papers and looked at me over her reading glasses. “She seems fine today. Why do you ask?”

I grabbed a plum out of the fruit bowl and shrugged. “Oh, no reason. I was just thinking about her on my ride home.”

“All right then,” Gram said, focusing back on her bills.

“I’m going to take a walk. I won’t be gone long,” I called over my shoulder as I hurried past the den and headed back out to the driveway.

I froze on the bottom step when I realized what I’d forgotten.

Before Liam had shared the news about Aoife, I’d stopped next door at my cousin Nicole’s house. I’d walked into the pool area to find not only Nicole and her boyfriend Jeff, but Jeff’s brother, Ethan, and some blonde girl I didn’t know. I’d just decided to admit my feelings to Ethan after years of pushing him away. But the way the blonde was attached to Ethan stopped me cold. I’d fled feeling like I’d been punched in the gut.

Ethan had followed me out of the pool area and that’s when I came face to face with the Danaans in my driveway. Sometime between Liam’s news and me checking on my mother, Ethan had disappeared.

Hurt swelled just beneath my skin as I headed down the walk toward my car. Even though we weren’t together, every time I saw Ethan with another girl it felt like the world stopped spinning.

He could have been yours. My subconscious taunted me. Ethan told me he wanted me many times over the years. And I’d come so close to admitting my feelings to him. But things were so complicated before that I didn’t want to drag him into the rabbit hole with me. And now…

“Allison,” Liam said.

I frowned and followed the sound of his voice to the sidewalk where he waited with Aodhan and Deaghlan.

“I haven’t had a chance to show you the house,” Liam said, motioning for me to follow him.

Shortly after I met my father, he bought the vacant lot beside my grandparents’ house. It was creepy at first, but it was convenient to have a place to speak in private about Aoife.

The house was built by Magliaro Construction, Ethan’s father’s company. It was one level and appeared small from outside, but the vaulted ceilings and shiny hardwoods inside made it seem much bigger.

The house was pretty empty. The only furniture was a large oak table in the dining room. Aodhan marched right into the kitchen that joined the dining room. His eyes scanned every surface, like he was expecting the boogeyman to jump out from behind the door. Satisfied for the moment, he leaned back against the countertop and folded his arms.

I sat at the table, trying to ignore how closely Deaghlan followed me. He slid into the chair next to mine and stretched out his legs. From the corner of my eye I could see he was watching me, but I wouldn’t look directly at him.

“The most important thing is that Elizabeth is safe for the moment,” Liam said. He leaned on the back of a chair and met my eyes.

I nodded, but no matter how much I wanted to tell them I’d known all along Aoife wasn’t still trapped in the fey globe, it was impossible to say it out loud. Aoife told me I couldn’t t say a word about it to anyone. She’d used mind control before she disappeared in Tír na n’Óg and I literally couldn’t speak of it.