No Time to Cry (Nine While Nine Legacy Book 1) (32 page)

“They’ll be with
us tonight. We are always here, the Rúnaigh, but tonight…the others will join
us!” He drank down the last of his wine and reached for the bottle that had
been left behind, refilling both of our goblets yet again, then tossing the
empty bottle, crashing, into the flames.

A resounding
cheer rose up again.

This was an
entirely new side to the usual tranquil and composed Michael.

A darker and
more feral side.

“To end the
celebration
each
family would take a torch or burning ember from the sacred bonfire and return
to their own home. One of us always brings an ember back to Elysium to relight
the fire in our room. The home fires that had been extinguished during the day
would be relit by the flame of the sacred bonfire to help protect the dwelling
and its inhabitants during the coming winter. These fires were kept burning
night and day during the next several months. You’ll see that Gideon—

~Gideon~

A whisper through my head, my heart…

—is quite vigilant in keeping our
inglenook burning. It was believed that if a home lost its fire, tragedy and
troubles would soon follow. Once the hearth fires were lit, the families would
place food and drink outside their doors, before bedding down for the night.
This was done to appease the Roaming Sióg who might play tricks on the family.”

“Serena?” Serena
danced into my line of vision with Liam. What the…Serena was Rúnaigh? I turned
my befuddled gaze to Michael. “Serena?”

He shrugged.
“She’s
Taiscélaid, a seer. She can read the Ogham stones and the Tarot,
just like the girl at the table we met earlier.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded.

“Wow…doesn’t that figure?
Huh…”

“Hey there, here ya go…you
look like you could use a refill.” A good looking, glowy-type young man handed
me another bottle of wine.

“Thanks,” I said weakly. I
downed my entire goblet at once and handing the new bottle to Michael, allowed
him to fill it back up.

This wine made my head
spinny in the loveliest way. Wait…what had he said about Sióg and the
Rúnaigh…were we Sióg not human? I heard bagpipes join in the musical talents on
the other side of the bonfire. The sound made my blood thrill.

“So with this, let us write our names
upon a stone and toss it into the flames, let us feast and drink and dance
more!”

I wondered how much of this I would
remember tomorrow.

A
few songs later found us camped out near the fire, nibbling small cakes and
washing them down with spiced cider. Liam, Serena and Erin had joined us. We
were all slightly tipsy—do guys get tipsy or just girls? We were sprawled
casually across a blanket, joking and talking and laughing.

“I spent all of my life, really, I’m so
not exaggerating, like, all my life—

“When you drink your California accent
comes out quite strong.” Liam chortled.

“Shut up!” I smacked at him, giggling,
“And when you’re pissed off you sound really
feckin
’
Irish.” I laughed more, and fell into Serena. Holy crow. I sat up suddenly,
turning to her. “You! You’re Rúnaigh! And I can’t
even
pronounce what
you are.” I stared at her, her outline was aglow.

“I’m
Taiscélaid
,”
She giggled.

“Oh my gods, were you going to tell me?”

“I figured I’d save it for tonight.”

I just contemplated her for a stretched
out moment, in which I could feel all four sets of their eyes on me, waiting. I
shrugged, what the heck…why not. “Okay, why not?”

They all chuckled.

“Anyway…I was nine and I remember
sitting in my window on summer nights searching out into the night, because I
could feel something, that there was something more, things out there that
would make sense to me, that no one else could believe in. And waiting…for
him.”
I drank my cider.

“Wait for him to walk up my street, appear
under my window, explain it all to me, tell me it was all true. I’d sit there
until I got too sleepy, or I’d just go to sleep right there with my head on the
window sill. I never knew who, just that there was someone—someone meant to be
found—to be with me.

“My teenage years, and on, everywhere I
went, I was searching faces—eyes—for him. I didn’t have any particular features
in mind. I just knew there’d be something about the eyes…and a feeling…or
something…intangible, that would emanate from that person. I blame all my
failed relationships on him.” I nodded, laughing softly. “All my life—and now
that I’m dead—

“Undead-
ish
,”
Liam interjected.

“Whatever,” I continued, rolling my eyes
at him. “Now that I’m dead…or not so dead, I find it. Him. But I can’t have
him. He’s taboo. He’s
gotta
be taboo. And
unreachable. And he’s so amazing and so not who I would have expected. He can
be so cold and detached… and inflexible. But…” I shook my head. “His eyes, they
glimmer, there’s a light in the depths of that deep, deep blue.”

 I smiled to myself and grew warm
at the thought of him, the image of my kissing him, him kissing me. “It sucks,
and it’s so sad.” I drank more of my cider.

“All I want to do is do a good job, not
screw it up. And make him happy, see him smile at me, really smile. I love his
smile. Not that patronizing or… authoritative one that doesn’t touch his eyes,
but the one where it’s almost as if he’s going to burst out laughing. Oh and if
could just stop being a disappointment to him, or whatever it is I do to
constantly piss him off.”

“Who are we talking about now?” Liam
asked hesitantly. “I’m getting confused.”

“What?” His question pulled my
elderberry and cider soaked mind back from my reverie.

“You were talking about true love—fated
love—and I swear it sounds like you’re referring to Gideon.” He gave me his
knowing, conspiratorial grin.

Serena exhaled relieved. “Bloody hell,
for a bit there I thought she was talking about you, but you have green eyes.”

“What?” I asked again, confused,
pausing. Thinking back quickly over what exactly I had just spilled out of my
mouth. I was taken aback by my realization. “No. No way,” I protested.

Shite
. I wasn’t
supposed to tell anyone any of that.

 I denied his implication, shaking
my head. “That would just be crazy Liam, especially after what you said about
Deimari. Why set myself up for that?”

“Love is crazy,
D
o Mhórgacht
.
”

They all lifted their goblets to me while
I continued to shake my head at them all emphatically in denial.

“No. Really.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Liam
promised as he pulled Serena to her feet, wrapped his arms around her, and
danced her away to the woods.

“I’m serious,” I called after them,
assured Michael and Erin.

Michael cocked his head at me and gave
me a look that said to stop trying to pull the wool over his eyes. Oh yeah…he
could read my mhésen. He knew my heart. Crap. I felt myself blushing as I kept
my eyes adverted from him, staring off into the forest instead.

Erin just nudged me and gave me a huge
grin, before excusing herself to go dance some with a handsome redheaded boy.

Now, what the heck was that? I squinted
into the darkness and distance, past the dancing Erin, past the fire, trying to
make sense of what I thought I was seeing. Just ever so briefly I could have
sworn I saw a man with goat legs and horns, with not a stitch of clothing on.
Pan? Or Puck? Or was it a faun or satyr? I’d have to look it up in the morning.
I always got them confused. I shook the vision away, there was nothing over
there.

“Hey Michael?”

“Yeah?”

“What is the difference between a faun
and satyr?”

“Easy…A faun is a half
human
–half
goat
, from the head to the waist being
human, but with the addition of goat horns. He tapped on my sculpted horns. And
a satyr has
horse
-like features,
including a horse-tail, horse-like ears. I’ve heard that both are pretty gifted
in the lower regions, but with the satyr, apparently the tail and ears are not
the only horse-like parts they inherited.” He wink-winked at me. He was silly
when he drank.

“I think I just saw a faun in the woods
over there.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” And he did
not seem surprised at all.

 I couldn’t argue that tonight was
a magical night. Something in me was more awake than ever before—and I needed
to roam, needed to wander in the woods. But…I didn’t think Michael would let me
do that on my own. He had more or less given a warning about traipsing off into
the woods or traveling alone at night because of the Sióg. But I was kin to
them in some way, right? I worked for Death. I doubt they would screw with me.

I tapped a finger on my goblet, my empty
goblet, signaling to him. Liam and Serena had swiped our bottle of cider and
our wine bottle was empty. “And I’m kinda hungry. Do you think they have any
more of those little cakes?”

“I’ll go see. Cider or wine?” There was
a smile in his voice.

“Either.” I reclined back on the blanket
staring up at the stars. “Wow. Look at that moon!” The trick was to distract
him, get him away, so I could make an escape, and not to look at him. Focus on
the moon.

I watched as he stood and looked up at
the sky. “Even more magic tonight with that moon up there.” He began to walk
away, paused, and turned to me. “You’re something beyond us, I think.” Then he
continued on his way to the other side of the fire to retrieve the goods, and I
took the opportunity to sneak away into the woods that were calling so loudly
to me.

I scampered behind the line of trees,
feeling exhilarated and unbound. I spun myself deeper into the woods looking up
at the moon and the stars visible through the branches. Then I stopped and just
breathed in the cool, crisp air and listened to the trees, the voices of the
trees and the life contained within these wilds. Listening to the utterances of
the wind. I could feel the energy and power of the place move through me,
electrifying me, and my vision became sharper, as did my hearing and my sense
of smell. I felt truly untamed.

I looked all around me. Holy crow. There
was a girl from the party over there; with…yes…my eyes were not fooling me
after all, with a satyr. I blushed, her skirt was hiked up around her waist,
her blouse tossed aside to the ground, and they were in the middle
of…well…getting to know each other very well.

 I couldn’t help but watch for just
a moment. I mean…it was a satyr! I blinked a few times trying to clear the
image away because that could not possibly be real, but they didn’t budge. I
felt almost drawn to them.

The satyr turned his head and saw me,
smiled and waved for me to come over. I shook my head. But my feet started
moving towards him and my breathing became more rapid. I could feel the draw of
him. It was powerful and nearly irresistible. He was a beautiful creature. His
torso was strong and well muscled. His thighs, covered in brownish-red fur,
were also thickly muscled; his long horse’s tail shook as he thrust into the
girl bent over in front of him.

 I shook my head to clear away the
manner in which my body was responding to him. Backed away, turned and loped
off in a different direction. The girl’s cries of pleasure followed me. I
couldn’t help but wonder ever-so-briefly what it would be like to couple with
such a mystical beast.

But, absolutely not, I had exploring to
do and had no interest whatsoever in having a one
nighter
with an Other
Realmly
being.

I stopped short, there was my horse.

 “Eyvindur.” I called to him, but
he wandered away behind some foliage and I lost sight of him.

But then I spotted some of the bobbing
lights…from my dreams…they were here now. I ran after them, leaving the trail,
skipping over ferns and toppled branches, laughing, feeding off of the energy
of the forest, following the warm lights.

Will o’ Wisps! That was what they were
called!

 This was even better than the
dreams. I halted suddenly, the breath knocked out of me. A man on a horse, I’d
made a turn, come around a tree and very nearly ran smack dab into a dark
haired man astride a large black horse.

“Gideon.” I breathed out. He turned his
face, looking down at me, but it wasn’t Gideon. Same build, very similar
features, but his eyes were a lustrous green. I inhaled sharply. He was
gorgeous. He was Otherworldly.

We were at the edge of a clearing, but
it wasn’t the one where the party was being held.

“I’m sorry; I thought you were someone
else,” I said softly, having a hard time squeezing out any words at all.