Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (27 page)

Then he kissed me. Closing the distance between us, and planting his satin pillow lips over mine. My chest hummed again. This time it was my heart, beating like hummingbird wings to feel his kiss and know he wanted it just as badly as I did. He pulled away with a pained sigh, his lips still lingering on mine.

“I’ll take the memory of this kiss to eternity,” he mumbled against my lips. His fingers tracing up my cheek, continuing to hold me close with the other hand. I was so drunk on his kiss I didn’t care where he put those hands of his. Until they traced over my temple and found their way to my brow.

My eyes flew open and I pushed out of his arms, catching him off guard.

“You’re not taking this from me, Dayne. Not this time,” I shook my head as confusion curled his brow.

“You can’t know these things, Faye. Revealing our world to humans is forbidden. I could be put to death for this.”

“So you offered me everything I’ve ever wanted just to take it all away?” I was panicked by the thought of losing it all. His face twisted in bittersweet anguish.

He nodded once and looked away.

It was the first thought that came to my mind. If he couldn’t catch me? He couldn’t make me forget.

I took off like a streak of lightening down the road. Arms and legs pumping harder than they ever had before, running with a purpose.

“Faye!” Dayne called behind me, dragging my name out like I was being utterly ridiculous. Maybe I was, but I wasn’t going to let him leave me again, not without putting up a fight.

A sharp bend curved the road up ahead. If I could make it there—I reasoned— he couldn’t see me and I could find a place to hide long enough to maybe think my way out of this. Maybe.

He hadn’t caught up to me by the time I rounded the bend, and I was beginning to think my hair-brained scheme might work.

My feet stuck to the pavement like it was quicksand when I saw what lay at the end of the curve.

Twisted wreckage, crumpled into a heap of metal against a tall stonewall, steam and smoke hissing into the night with long curling fingers. Lifeless, not a single plea for help or wail of pain. The scene was silent as the grave, expect for the constant drips of leaking fluid splattering to the asphalt and the creaks of the steal-bodied beast sagging into its new shape. The only other sound was a near deafening hum that echoed in my ears. I didn’t recognize it as my own pitiful moan until Dayne’s hand rested on my shoulder, pulling me away from it all.

I curled into his chest, unable to believe the fate he had pulled me from.

“Are they all…?” I said through tears, muffled against his chest.

“No. They’re...sleeping,” he answered, rubbing a hand down my back to soothe me.

“How?”

“I froze time. It was the only way I could save your life. The other passengers were never in danger, and won’t remember any of this. You, on the other hand, would’ve died right there.” His hand left my back long enough to point at a nearby rock to the left of the roadway.

I don’t know how long I stared at the rock, wondering why he had chosen to save me if he was just going to take it all away anyway. Even considering if I would have been better off leaving this ill-fitting world behind, if I was going to lose him anyway.

“Don’t do it, Dayne. Please don’t.” I whispered against his shirtsleeve.

“Why would you choose to stay with me?” He asked. “You can have your life back. I can make you blissfully ignorant of how close you came to death.”

That first life wasn’t meant to be mine—it just filled the years until I found Rose.

Phin’s reasoning about his life with Emma Lee before he met Rose replayed in my mind, suddenly finding a meaning I hadn’t fully appreciated that afternoon weeks ago. It had seemed crazy at the time, that someone could have two lives in a single lifetime. Now, I knew exactly what he’d meant, exactly why he’d had to let go of his old life in order to live the one he did now.

“That life was never mine, Dayne. It just filled the years until I found you.” I repeated Phin’s words to him, holding my breath, listening as he drew his own ragged breath in and slowly released it over me.

“You’re not making it easy to say goodbye, Faye.”

“Then don’t say it.”

“I have no choice. Humans can’t keep secrets like this.” He gestured wildly to the bus, finally breaking our embrace.

My eyes hit the ground, knowing I could keep a secret, but doubting if I could admit to it. I slinked over to the rock that would have been my executioner. Dragging a few fingers over the rough surface before I sat down. In a strange way, the rock had ended that old life for me anyway.

If my life hadn’t been about to end, Dayne wouldn’t have had to save me. If he hadn’t saved me, I would be boarding a plane to Atlanta right now. But fate had stepped in and brought him back to me. I wasn’t going to tempt fate again.

“I can keep your secret, Dayne,” I heard the voice echoing in my ears before I recognized it as my own. My eye closed immediately, knowing I had backed myself into a corner. There was no other way around this obstacle. No way but to tell the secret I’d kept for years.

“What secrets do you keep?” Dayne asked as he picked up a large shard of broken glass and tossed it to the roadside. I knew he was expecting to hear I had cheated on a final exam or put a ding in my parents’ car.

I took a deep breath to stall and to calm the nerves that were causing me to break out in a cold sweat all over. I turned my head from him, hoping to hide the embarrassment on my face and preparing for him to judge me like the rest of the world always had.

“I see the future.” My voice was barely above a whisper, muffled by my bowed head. Part of me hoped he hadn’t heard what I said.

It was such a simple thing to say—four little words that had changed everything about my life a few years ago. Four little words that had never left my lips before. Four little words that had constantly played on repeat somewhere in the back of my subconscious, telling me I was a freak and I wasn’t worthy of a normal life.

The same four little words that could change my life again. The same four little words that could give me Dayne.

“You see the future?” His attention snapped back to me, studying me in a new way. His brow pulled together, and I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see the confusion turn to disgust like it always did when people inevitably found me lacking in some way.

I nodded my head in answer, confused to feel his fingers curling around my chin again. My eyes flew open to find him inches from me.

“Heeyyy,” his voice was soft and soothing. “It’s okay. That’s a good thing in my world.” I peeked up at him through my lashes. The edges of my mouth quivered with the tears I was fighting back.

“Not in my world,” I managed to say without any of the tears escaping. I reached up and squeezed the hand that held my chin, needing to know he wasn’t going to leave me now that my deepest secret was loose in the world.

“You’ve never told
anyone
?” He questioned, clearly doubting that a human could keep such secrets for so long.

“No.”

“Has anyone ever suspected?”

“No.”

“Then it’s our secret.” His whispered promise was hot against my ear and it was everything I had ever needed to hear. Finally, I had shared the secret that had ruined my life, and despite it, he still wanted me. The last bit of resistance melted from his eyes. He watched my hand holding his, his brow furrowed again in thought and I hoped he was thinking of a way we could stay together.

He sighed and lowered his head, resting his forehead on my cheek.

“Will you give me a chance, Dayne? I can do this. I know I can. If I mess up, you can take it all away then. But at least let me try. I don’t want to lose you again.” I could smell the powdery, evergreen scent that I had come to recognize as his through his shirt. I pressed my nose to the thick black cotton covering his shoulder and inhaled deeply, drinking in his smell.

“Do you understand what you’re asking, Faye?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think you do,” he said, pulling away from me and taking my hand. He looked up the road and down the road, searching for something. I was motionless and silent by his side, watching the way his muscles worked as he held my hand.

Spotting an abandoned barn in the nearest field he took off. Dragging me behind him, over the rough stonewall, up through the swaying grass. I ran to keep pace with the length of his stride.

“Where are we going?”

“You don’t know everything about me, Faye. I won’t let you make this decision until you do.”

I said nothing else, following along behind him obediently, hoping my total submission would convince him in some way.

He let go of my hand only to slide the rusty barn door open. Once inside the deteriorating structure he took a lighter from his pocket and lit an old lantern hanging on a nail.

Cobwebs hung from old beams in the rafters, a thick coat of dust covered everything else. The floor was littered with old hay and discarded pieces of farm life. An ancient tractor sat parked in one of the stall bays, originally meant for horses, but later filled with modern farming tools of convenience.

A few old logs had been rolled into a little circle around the charred remains of a fire, burned soda cans lying among the blackened remains.

“Are you cold?” Dayne asked, watching me rub my arms as I sat down on one of the up turned logs.

“No,” I lied, not wanting to postpone whatever he was about to show me by building a fire.

He nodded, studying me as he backed away into the aisle of the barn a few feet away. Above us, the hayloft circled the barn like a balcony. Tiny pricks of moonlight filtered in through old nail holes in the roof—stark, bright white contrast against the weathered black tin. It was a cozy little space, despite its age and apparent neglect. The intensity of his voice broke through the silence, startling me and refocusing my attention to him.

“You need to see what I really am. This?” he held out his arms and looked himself over, from black long sleeves to his ever-present canvas pants. “Is the skin I wear in your world. You need to see what I am in mine.”

His focus fell to the dust at his feet, eyes closing, head bowed in concentration. His strong muscles clenched along the length of his body, growing, tightening, rounding his muscles even larger than they already were. His skin became streaked with ribbons of soft silver light, replacing the black fabric that covered him.

I gasped and nearly fell off my stool, but the enlightenment didn’t stop there. The dull human skin unraveled from him like an orange peel until he stood before me, radiant in the barn’s undeserving decay. He illuminated the air around him, casting dark shadows on the objects that weren’t lucky enough to feel his glow.

He was beyond beautiful. So far past perfect. Everything the human race could never be. I stood silently, my mouth hanging open in shock. Slowly, he raised his head, and I saw his eyes. Darkest emerald green, glowing like jewels in a pirate’s chest, mesmerizing me the instant they locked onto mine. I floated toward him, like a cobra entranced by a snake charmer’s flute.

He held a hand out to stop me.

I had no choice but to obey.

He closed his eyes again, this time raising his magnificent head up to the heavens. A mist began to gather behind him, slowly taking shape, until two great gossamer wings formed in the clouds at his back, reaching beyond the bounds of his towering frame. They fluttered slightly, testing their strength and sent a silvery dust dancing in the air around him. In one great motion, they swept forward and Dayne lifted off the ground. The sudden movement kicked up wind that blew hard against my face, scattering my hair in every direction.

I brushed it back, not wanting to miss the amazing sight before my eyes. He hung there in the air of that musty little barn, hovering a few feet above the ground. Again, his emerald eyes opened and found mine.

He was heavenly hanging there, like the angel Gabriel revealing himself to the world. I was struck to dumb, open-mouthed silence staring at him.

Timidly, I took another step forward, expecting to be stopped again. He lowered himself back to the ground, welcoming my advance. I circled him with faltering feet, taking it all in.

All I had read or heard people say about the Sidhe was that they were beautiful in human form. Even on a normal day, I would’ve considered Dayne more breath taking than beautiful. Dayne in Sidhe form? There weren’t any human words for it. Majestic? Resplendent? Deified? Nothing seemed worthy; they all fell short of his presence. It wasn’t just the beauty of his face or the bulge of his impeccable muscles. It was so much more.

It was the power he commanded, an unflinching authority that would make the meanest of men cower at his feet. A radiance he cast over his intimate domain, the soft glow caressing my soul in an almost palpably serene embrace. He calmed the world, soothed the earth, healed what was broken and made it new again.

I reached a hand out to touch the wings behind him. My hand went straight through the brightness without disturbing it at all. I placed my hand on his shoulder and ran my fingers down the glowing, rippling muscles. An energy shot through my body that only came with his touch. I didn’t know if I should bow or fall at his royal feet proclaiming how unworthy I was.