No Time to Cry (Nine While Nine Legacy Book 1) (36 page)

“Yes. Exactly.
You’ve got it
!” He hugged my legs tightly as he spoke He looked
astonished…and relieved.

“But in Irish,
Sióg
means Fae.”

He rolled his eyes. “Because they
adopted the word into their language centuries ago and made it such. Prior to
that
Sióg
was just
Sióg
,
those from Tiarnas. We brought the word here, along with
Ál
faer
.”

“They should have just kept their facts
straight and left it Sióg and Álfaer to begin with and none of this confusion would
ever have happened.” I reasoned.

That brought a huge smile to his face. I
liked that.

“Also, only
Ál
faer
can be of the
Rúnaigh.”
He paused to lay another light kiss on my knee.

“You’re making my head hurt.”

“Anyway,” he
went on, after resting a kiss on my forehead,
“as
they traveled, Ingresses were raised across the land, doorways for traveling
easily among these lands, and between this realm and Tiarnas.

“For thousands of years, the
Sióg cared for humans and all within this realm. All was in balance. When
Christianity came about, a dire change took place among the Sióg. The balance
was disrupted; the echelon of guardians was torn. This new religion came
between humans and their deities, their gods and goddesses. This new religion
sought to obscure and chain the mhésen. A war began not just between the new
and old way, but amongst the Sióg also.

“Na Síraide Cinn became
split in two, becoming the Fíor Sióg, the True Sióg and the
B
réagach
Sióg, the False Sióg.”

“Wait, I’ve heard of the
Unseelie and Seelie, is that what you’re talking about?”

“No, that is something else,
I’ll get to it.”

I nodded. He was playing
with my fingers now, occasionally kissing the tips and driving me crazy. I
wanted to kiss him again so badly.

 “It came to war between
the Fíor and the
B
réagach
, the Fíor
staying true to Tiarnas and the Old Ways. The Br
é
agach sided with
the
new religion, which was working diligently to convert the humans to their ways,
taking away their deities and their traditions, their culture, through fear and
propaganda…torture and cruelty.

“The Old Ways began to lose
their hold with the humans, and the
Br
é
agach fearing the loss of being
revered and beloved, and i
n order to remain divine
beings to the humans, devised a plan to remain in their high positions. They
would become what were to be known as angels. The Choir of Nine.

“They called war upon the
Fíor, allying with the perpetrators of this new found religion. It raged for
many years. The
Br
é
agach won and the Fíor left this
realm
, from that point on in time to be demonized by this new Church.”
His tone spoke of how much he despised this new church, how abhorrent he found
it.

 “But you’re here. Does
that mean that you were
Br
é
agach?”

“No. Never.” I
felt his hand tense around my fingers. I’d insulted him.

“Sorry.” I
touched his face. Kissed his jaw.

He turned his
mouth to mine, letting his hunger take over for just a moment, before releasing
me, pushing me back down to sit on the couch.

“So, if the Fíor had won…the
world would be so very different.” It was mind boggling.

“Yes, incredibly different.”

“Many centuries
after, the Br
é
agach
became dissatisfied and even repulsed by these new ways; saw the error of their
decision. Many returned to Tiarnas, the ones who remained have been plotting the
return to the Old Ways, biding their time, for the right time.

“The Sióg never
stopped coming to this realm, though since those times it’s been done in
secret. We had lost many Ingresses during the War, so traveling was made more
difficult. Many of your fairy tales and horror stories are based around the
Sióg. The church had quite successfully turned us into monsters to be feared,
or made into cartoon creations.

“The humans lost
their faith in us. The Queen did not retaliate, we’d lost many in the War, and
she was happy to have any representation or toe-hold left in this realm. Our
time will come to regain what is rightfully ours. We have infinite patience.”

Infinite
patience.

Had he said that
to me in one of the dreams?

 “Can you tell
me about the dreams? What they are? Where I was? How I was there?”

“You were in
Tiarnas. I don’t know how you traveled there.”

“But you were
there. I thought I was just dreaming. That’s where you went for those two
weeks, so…when I saw you in what I thought was my dreams…it was real? You were
really at the
Draíochta
ar Linn? The necklace…Uldwynah? She’s real? She told me you were supposed to put
it on me…you kissed me in the woods.” And he kissed me on the couch, making my
spine disintegrate.

His phone began
vibrating across the small table in front of us. He ignored it.

The rattling
movement stopped. Then abruptly began again…and stopped again.

“I was there.
You were there. I wasn’t able to find out how you did it. An Ingress has to be
used. I watched you one night; you never left your bed. You don’t sleep walk
either. So it remains a mystery.”

 He reached
into his pocket, withdrawing the pendant. He placed it around my neck,
carefully clasping it behind me, his fingers brushing against my nape. It
rested just slightly above my breasts. “You remain something of a mystery.”

He played with a
long wave of my hair.

“So if those
dreams were real, what about the ones that were taking place here and not in
Tiarnas? I was at Elysium and you kissed me. I saw you talking to Liam there
another time…I was in the garden. I could hear your conversation through the
glass.”

“Dream walking.”

“You said I
didn’t sleep walk.”

“It’s not the
same. You seem to be able to travel in dreams. Enter others’ dreams, pull them
into yours.

“Why didn’t you
tell me all of this before now?”

“I needed to
find out more, about you.”

“Am I human
Gideon? Am I
Sióg
? Why am I with the
Bháis
, how is that even possible, if
everything I’ve done is wrong and different?”

“I don’t know. I
don’t know that yet…I don’t believe that you are human. No Rúnaigh are human,
only
Ál
faer
.” 
He stroked my hair. Looked me over, very completely.

“
Since
the beginning you’ve been perplexing. The way you gained a body almost
immediately, the way you cull differently, the influence you have over
others…human and Sióg. The fact you seem to know a language that you know
nothing of. You know things and can do things that as a human you should not,
and yet you don’t know the things that you should know as Sióg.”

 The phone
started up again. Did its thing twice and became quiet. Became still.

I ventured on.
“And the words feel so right, I can feel them on my tongue, as if my heart
knows them, very well, and if my head would just get with it and cooperate…I
could remember all of it. I find at times that speaking any other way doesn’t
really feel right. Like it’s trying to emerge.”

“I’ll be sure to
add that to my list.” He stroked my cheek, ran a finger over my bottom lip. It
made me tremble.

“And why did
this tattoo upset you so much?”

“It’s a symbol
of the High Court of Na Síraide Cinn.” He ran his thumb across the shimmering
metallic
greys
of the marking. “Jeremy did a
beautiful job.”

“So, I suppose
Jeremy is Rúnaigh?”

“Of course.”

I shook my head.
I was doomed to have no human friends…but
I
may not be human...

 “How does
that work Gideon? How does someone become Rúnaigh? If I had a human body and died,
was just left as mhésen…how did I get a new body? If I was human, how did I
become Sióg?”

His phone
started shaking its way across the table yet again. He groaned, picked it up
this time, but it was a text not a call. Had his face lightened a shade or so?

“I’ll be back in
a moment.”

“Okay.”

He laid a kiss
on the top of my head, left the room, closing the door behind him.

The doorbell was
going nuts now, rather than his phone.

Moments later I
heard him talking to someone in the living room. Someone was in the living room
with him. I could hear a woman’s voice. I couldn’t make out what was being
said, but I did detect a rise in the volume between them. As if an argument had
begun.

With him gone,
my body was getting cold. I tugged the soft throw from the back of the couch
and wrapped it around me. It was the twin to mine; the one on my couch, except
this one was a deep cranberry red.

The voices
escalated, turned to yelling, then hushed yelling, then elevated again. What
was going on? Was Halah here? It didn’t sound like Erin.

“She’s here? You
brought that here?”
The unknown
person said. It didn’t sound like Halah either.

“Stop now.”
Gideon
warned.

“Have you told
her? That she wasn’t supposed to be the one to die that night?”

“I’m warning
you.”

Then the voices
diminished, dropping very low and I could barely tell anyone was even out
there. I heard footsteps approach the room, just one set.

What were they
talking about? Were they talking about me? Was I the one not supposed to die?

He shut the door
firmly behind him. He crossed the room towards me, but his head was down. I
could feel his mood, his energy, clear across the room, rolling off him in
dark, hot waves.

Angry. Furious.
Dangerous.

He began pacing
in front of the fire.

A chunk of ice dropped
into the pit of my stomach. I was suddenly terrified. All the perfect feelings
turned to mist, floating away into nothing.

“Gideon—?” I
began softly.

“This is not
going to happen.” He said it so low, so lethally, his teeth clenched.

“What?” I breathed
out. What had happened in those few minutes? Why was his voice so full of
barely contained rage?

“You heard me.”
He was facing the fire.

“Gideon. What’s
wrong?”

 “We’re not
doing this…
we’re
not going to happen.” He waved towards the couch and
then the bed.

“What? We just
were. I don’t understand—”

 “You
cannot be Rúnaigh. You are not
Ál
faer
.”
He turned away from me, faced the fire. “You were not supposed to die.” He
ground out the last part, with such loathing and intensity as if he wanted me
to hurt.

Bam
bam
bam
. Triple tap.

My world tilted
and spun out of control. The air felt sucked from my lungs.

The pain was so
entwined between the two that I wasn’t sure which was causing the most anguish,
the not-supposed-to-die part or the we’re-not-happening part. I think the
latter was coming up more heart shattering. I shook my head.

“Why? Why are
you telling me this? Why were we just…why now? Why are you angry at me?” My
stomach was a roiling, queasy mess. The floor looked like it was getting
closer. I held my stomach, held my head. I wasn’t sure if I was going to throw
up or pass out. “Why now? Why didn’t you tell me before? How long have you
known
?” I walked in a small circle, aimlessly. “What am I
supposed to do with this?” My world had just been perfect mere moments ago, now
he was demolishing it with just a few words.