Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (31 page)

“Yep, or because they have a physical addiction. We aren’t immune to the pleasures of the flesh. In fact, I would say we are the ultimate pleasure seekers. Eternity gets very boring. Everyone needs a way to forget.” He snuffed out the fire and we were alone in the darkness, the briny sea breeze kicked up over the rock wall, scattering my hair in every direction. I couldn’t see anything, so I stood still, brushing the sand and dirt from my jeans. I felt his hand grab mine and swing me onto his back.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting us out of here.”

“How?” I panicked.

“Trust me,” he urged in the darkness, and the next minute I was flying through the air, holding tight to Dayne’s neck. The wind whipping my face. I was terrified to open my eyes. When I finally did, I saw our path was illuminated in the familiar green glow of Dayne’s magical eyes. Straight up the rocky face of the cliff wall, Dayne’s path hugging every jut and crevice like he’d done this a million times. His body straight and taught as an arrow shot from a bow, flying like Superman through the air. I screamed and shut my eyes when I was sure we were about to crash into a branch dangling over the sea.

The next moment my feet found solid ground. Waist deep grass waving to welcome us atop the bluff like an old friend. I took a moment to catch my breath, looking around me as I did.

The ocean’s spray was far below. Seeming like a distant memory in comparison to the moon drenched field before us. Every surface soaked in the muted night palette that always colored my nights with Dayne. A world of dark blues and blacks and purples, painted with streaks of brightest white and silver where the radiant sky filtered down on the pristine land of Ireland’s western shores, beautifully basking in its glory.

“Does that always happen?” I pointed to my own eye—cause I didn’t have the first clue what to call his chameleon eyeballs— as he closed glowing eyes and opened normal green ones like he just taken out his contacts.

“When I use my magic,” he faced the view that stretched into eternity from where we stood. A sliver of moon winked in the sky, surrounded by dancing stars. The constant crash of the waves beating against the rocky shoreline a hundred feet below came as steady as a heartbeat. I watched him. His eyes closed, breathing deeply the salt air and cool night mist.

“Do you come here a lot?”

He nodded his head, letting the wind blow over his body unrestrained, his chest still rising and falling with the cadence of the waves.

“But it’s never been as soothing to me as it was the night you stood right there,” he said, pointing a long finger to Banshee Pointe on the other side of the little horseshoe bay.

“You were here that night?” I asked, peeking up at him through my lashes, swatting at my hair that kept flying in my eyes.

“I’ve watched you from afar all summer, Faye.” His intent glare made my cheeks flame. I let out a nervous laugh and bit at my lip.

“Me too,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Just think of all the time we’ve wasted,” he said, taking my hand and leading me into the swaying waist deep grass. His hands were that amazing mix of subtle strength—their velvety touch belying the power they possessed. Beneath the welcoming caress of soft warm skin lay muscles that could break boulders if they wanted to. The good/bad balance was becoming a common theme with Dayne. He was the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Sea sounds softly rolled into the lilting, singsong voices of crickets battling to be heard. Filling my ears in a calming way, growing louder as we neared the road that was our goal.

“What’s happens to them? The humans who’s breath you
borrow
?”

“They’re drained by their captors until nothing’s left. Then their memories are washed and they are returned to this world a shell of the person they were. Some return home. Others never find their way back.”

“They can’t just disappear. I mean it would make headlines.” I broke off a blade of grass that tickled my palm, twisting it in my fingers as we walked.

“It does. Kidnappings, runaways, student travelers lost in foreign countries? People make excuses for us.”

“But criminals are caught and tired every day for those crimes.”

“Some are.” he nodded in agreement. “We never are.” He shook his head once and looked down at me, a disgusted snarl curling his lips.

“You don’t agree with the ways of your people?”

“It’s selfish of us to live in this world and destroy human lives for no reason. If I had my say, the portal would be sealed and the worlds would never mix again.” His teeth clenched and his grip tightened on my hand. I winced slightly, but didn’t pull away. “My views make me an unwelcome maverick in my family. My opinion is too dangerous for them.” His grip grew even tighter and I finally had to pull my hand away, holding it to my chest and massaging the pain away.

“I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed, freezing in his tracks, eyes wide with guilt. He grabbed my hand in his, rubbing the length of each finger with his own.

“You have a family?” I asked, slightly shocked at the thought of anyone telling him what to do.

“I have a mother and a father who birthed me, but we are far from a loving family unit.” He grabbed my waist and lifted me over the stonewall guarding the road from the field with ease. I waited for him to join on the other side. “That doesn’t happen in my world,” he added when he hurdled the wall with a single bound and landed beside me. Effortlessly.

“Doesn’t happen in mine either,” I mumbled, kicking at a rock lying in my path.

“What? I don’t believe that for a second.” He turned to me, walking sideways down the little ribbon of dirt road, watching me. “I bet your parents are crazy proud of you,” he nodded his head in an exaggerated way at the thought.

“Proud? Uh-uh.” I shrugged and chewed at the inside of my mouth, not really knowing what to say when the spotlight was on me. I had been doing the listening all night, which was just fine by me. Now that I was about to start talking, my mouth went Sahara dry. I sighed, puffing my lips out so the air hummed through them like a motorboat.

“My parents are…..bored...disappointed...pre-occupied...probably excited that I’m finally leaving for college.” I shook my head as I searched for the words to describe what my parents were. I knew they loved me, but I also knew they would change me if they could.

“What are they like?”

“My mother’s a social butterfly. My father’s a workaholic. Things were fine until my visions started. I didn’t know how to handle that. I ended up pulling away from everything, and they let me.”

The gravel and stones crunched under our feet. I thought about how different my life might have been if those visions had never started. My life would have been so much easier, but I also would have been busy making one more summer of memories with my high school friends instead of meeting Dayne. Stealing another peek at him—watching our shadows sway along the gray road—I knew it was totally worth all the horrible things I had endured.

“Did you ever think about telling your parents?”

“Gosh no.” I shook my head quickly back and forth at the horrifying thought. “If I would’ve gone around telling people I could see the future, everyone would have thought I’d gone insane.”

“But you could easily prove your visions were true?”

“And then I’d be a freak!” I shrugged and tried to pull my hand away. He didn’t let me, holding on to it and pulling me ever closer. “Teenagers are cruel. They don’t forgive stuff like that. I’ve spent years trying to hide what I am from the world and trying even harder to forget it myself.”

“Why would you want to forget it? Clairvoyance is an incredible gift in my world. Few possess it.” Wonder, and maybe a bit of adoration, intoned his words, causing my head to snap toward his. I searched his face, expecting to find that he was teasing me. He wasn’t. He really thought my handicap was a gift.

“It’s a curse in my world. I feel like a criminal, knowing the things I do when I can’t do anything to stop them. Do you have any idea how horrible it is to eat dinner with your best friend’s family knowing her father is having an affair and is about to leave them?” My mind froze on a distant scene, remembering the weight that had pressed down on me during dinner at Amber’s house so many years ago. Watching her father shovel forkfuls of food into his mouth and knowing each bite was one less he would eat with his family. I’d cried all night when I got home, knowing how crushed Amber would be when he left. But through it all, I never told her. When I saw her tear stained eyes at school the next week, I locked myself away in my own jail of isolation to pay for my unpardonable crime against my best friend.

“No, but I can imagine.” His voice was full of compassionate understanding. He leaned into me and wiped at a tear that had escaped over my cheek when I pulled out the pain of those old memories. “Did you ever try to change the future?”

“Once.” I nodded, bringing my sleeve up to dab at my eyes as we walked by a bend of flowing water, snaking close enough to the road I could fell its cool mist. “When my pet rabbit died.”

“Did it work?”

“No.” I wiped at another silent tear. “I can’t change anything I see. I just have to suffer through it and find a way to deal with the guilt.”

“You might not can change it, but have you ever tried to
use
it?” He tucked his head down to look at me.

“What’d you mean?”

“Well, take your friend?” He asked, being sure I followed. I nodded. “You knew her dad was leaving, maybe you could have encouraged her to take up kick boxing or karate or some other contact sport to work out her aggression down the road. And with your rabbit? You could’ve made every minute you had left count. Some people would say that’s a gift, to never have regrets over what you didn’t do.” He squeezed my hand and I had to smile at the goofy grin he was giving me. The trees bowed over us, giving the moment a heightened sense of intimacy.

We were both silent, nothing but our footsteps echoing into the stand of trees huddled along the roadside. I nodded and took a deep breath, looking up at him.

Leaves shimmered and danced behind him like a water ballet of silver slippers, but everything beautiful in the world would have paled in comparison to Dayne at that moment. Never had I felt more loved or more accepted. He wanted to be a part of my life, to make it better even. However insane that was after hearing about the fantasy world that lay on the other side of Ennishlough, just waiting for him.

“We’re here,” he whispered, pulling my sleeve to stop me so we could say goodbye without waking Rose and Phin, if that was even possible after his
encouragement
.

“Dayne?” I fingered his buttons, staring down at the shiny little discs in the moonlight, wondering how he would react to my next question.

“Yes?”

“Do you think….is there anyway...would you be willing to try this without any magic. I mean, just see if we can do this as two normal people?” I was afraid he would worry I was changing my mind about the whole being-okay-that-he’s-a-fairy-thing. I didn’t care what he was. What I needed to know was that the boring tedium of a normal life would be enough for him after lifetimes living in the fantastical reality he was used to.

“You’re worried I won’t like being normal?” He asked, knowing my concerns immediately.

I nodded and sighed.

“Faye, I’m kind of an outcast in my world, thinking the way I do. I never dared to hope I would have someone to share life with. That doesn’t happen in my world. You have made so many wishes come true for me tonight. And if you need normal? I can do normal forever.”

“Thanks,” I said, feeling like the word was totally inadequate after the beautiful words he had poured over me. My brain had forgotten how to work again, so I just slumped against his chest and sighed, breathing in the fragrance of him. I could’ve stayed there forever.

“It’s late. You’d better go,” he nudged me from my little nook in his chest.

My eyes fluttered open, having almost fallen asleep against him. I was totally exhausted after the day I’d had. The shadow of Rose and Phin’s cottage blotted the horizon and I let out a sigh, sad to be leaving him.

“Wait. How am I supposed to get back in?” It would be impossible to sneak in the normal way and not wake Rose and Phin.

“I don’t know. I can’t use my magic anymore,” Dayne said helplessly as he looked at the little cottage with me. “Wow. That window is
really
high, too.” He pointed to my bedroom window shaking his head as if her were at a total loss.

“Dayne!” I whispered as loudly as I could, grabbing his finger and pulling it back down to me.

“Okay, but just this once,” he said like a magnanimous ruler granting an appeal. “You made the rules. I’m just following your orders.”

My mind went blank and when my eyes opened I was tucked in my bed. He kissed me gently on the forehead and was gone, leaving nothing but my curtains billowing in the breeze.