Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (35 page)

“Their daughter, Arabette.” Dayne glared at her picture, his jaw clenched.

“You don’t like her?” I wondered why he would be so nasty about such a sweet looking girl. He didn’t answer and continued down the hallway, leaving me to wonder what this girl had done to deserve his disdain. Why would he not like such a beautiful princess? I looked at her once more and the bitter sting of jealousy washed over me in a hot flash. Was this just one more chapter of Dayne’s history I had yet to learn?

“Who was here?” I asked when the paintings abruptly stopped, revealing a faded wall where a picture had once hung.

“No one of importance,” His voice was as hard as it had been moments ago in front of Arabette’s portrait.

He took me by the hand and led me through one of the great archways cut into the hall wall where my eyes were met with the rich details of a graciously appointed sitting room. Great big chairs and couches circled the room and a large stone fireplace covered the entirety of one wall. It was the kind of room where men would drink whiskey after a day out hunting, telling tales and laughing together in good spirits. I immediately felt out of place in the over sized surroundings.

We settled in on the rustic tan leather couch in a far corner where a tray of decadent cookies sat on a cluttered coffee table.

“Who’s the lady that lives with you?” I asked doubting Dayne would have taken the time to make such delicate treats.

“Loren.” He sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to him, exactly how I had encouraged Cotton to come and sit next to me. I rolled my eyes playfully, but couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

“Is she Sidhe?” The words sounded absurd, like I was describing some chic, expensive
chi-chi
place and not a little old lady. He laughed with me, our voices mixing together as they sounded down the length of the large room. I curled in beside him on the overstuffed couch while the amber flames of the fireplace danced with the shadows of the room. He curved his arm over my shoulder and I took in a deep breath heavy with the scent of him. With a great sigh I easily forgot my earlier discomfort and relaxed into my favorite part of the day.

“Not really. She was once human but refused the advances of an admiring Sidhe, and he cursed her to serve us for eternity. She’s been around forever, serving quietly and obediently. She really doesn’t have a choice.” He said absently as he rubbed his fingers along one of the dry cracks webbing through the leather.

“That’s horrible. Stuff like that really happens?” I said too loudly, jerking away from him with a sideways stare. He shrugged as if it were no big deal and leaned forward to get a cookie. I watched the back of his head as he moved and for the first time I wondered what would happen to me if I refused him.

“Where do you think your modern day fairy tales come from?” He said, returning to his spot with the plate of cookies as if this were nothing unusual. I grabbed a pillow and put it between us as I settled back into the cushions. “Isn’t there always a beautiful young girl who is cursed someway by some powerful person’s jealousy?” He was giving the basic plot line of every Disney movie I had ever seen.

“Her life isn’t bad, Faye.” He inspected a powdered sugar covered ball and set it back down in favor of another. “She lives in a fantasy world most people dream of. It isn’t like we torture her.” I chewed at the side of my lip, once again ill at ease in my surroundings, as he popped the cookie in his mouth without missing a beat.

I reached out for a cookie, needing something to distract my thoughts and also a way to fill the silence that stretched between us for a moment. I had always known our worlds were different, but I hadn’t really thought about what little respect humans garnered in his world until then. He seemed so normal in mine that it was easy to forget.

I jumped when his hand reached out to my arm, having allowed my imagination to run away for a little too long.

“Faye, I would never let anything happen to you. I’ve already made you that promise, remember?” I looked down at the space I had created between us on the couch.

“I know Dayne, I just…it’s just hard for me to get over the realities of your world sometimes. It seems so cruel….so…ruthless where humans are concerned.” I curled my knees into my chest and hugged them close. He set the cookies down on the armrest and moved over on the couch so he was beside me again.

“You’re absolutely right. It is. And that’s why I would gladly give up an eternity there for a single day in your world.” He tucked his head down and pulled my chin up forcing our eyes to meet. “With you.” His arm tucked behind me on the couch, pulling me nearer to close the remaining inches between us. As I leaned into the warmth of him my fears melted away like they always did when he was near. It really wasn’t fair—the effect he had on me.

Walking over to the mantle, he lifted a remote from its hiding place in an ornate box and pressed a button. A mechanical buzzing whirred into the room and the bottom of a projection screen descended grandly from its hiding place in the ceiling.

“What are you in the mood for?” He asked, opening a false bookshelf front to reveal row after row of shelves crammed with DVDs.

I don’t know why it surprised me. Maybe because I thought if I had all the powers he did I could find a way to entertain myself.

“Have you watched all these?” I asked, running my eyes over the rows, trying to guess how many were up there.

“Almost,” he said, leaning over to read the spines as he dragged a finger down the shelf. “It gets really boring in this big house all alone.” His voice was detached; all I could see were his mahogany waves rolling over his shoulder. “The warren here before had horrible taste in movies. Loved Italian slasher flicks.” He turned to me and grimaced, clearly not liking the genre himself.

My heart fell to my toes at the thought of him leaving.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, catching my crestfallen face as he selected a DVD and placed it in the player.

“How much longer will you be at Ennishlough?” I asked, tucking my knees up into the oversized sweatshirt as he walked back to the couch.

“Depends. The less I use my magic, the longer my power lasts. But I won’t age, and at some point that will raise suspicions.” He fiddled with the remote, and the screen came to life.

When slow, hypnotic beats of synthesized 80s music and ominous chiming bells piped from hidden speakers I furrowed my brow at him. His smile went megawatt bright and he nodded his head in a confident way.

Highway To The Danger Zone
started playing when the first F-16 roared down a carrier’s airstrip, and I burst out laughing. Temporarily forgetting how bothered I was. Dayne looked like a kid, watching the jets take off. I watched him and said nothing. My heart sinking a little more with the thought of him disappearing one day.

He noticed, turning the volume of
Top Gun
down and tucking me into the crook of his arm like he always did. I leaned into him, resting my head against his shoulder at an awkward angle.

“You could just float some crazy urban legend about why you don’t age, like you bathe in the blood of virgins or something—there was a queen that did that centuries ago.” I studied the tiny little spider-web cracks in the tanned leather between us.

“I could….but she was eventually burned at the stake for being a witch. So I’m thinking it’d be easier to disappear.” He leaned up slightly to grab another cookie, his arm never leaving my back. I sighed and scooted around so my side was flush against his.

“Where would you go?”

“Wherever you are.” I thrilled with his words and tucked my head up to his, so close I heard his teeth working against the bite of cookie. “Until my powers fail. Then I could change into
Cotton
”—he raised an eyebrow at me when he said the name I’d bestowed on him— “for a few years to restore my power and be as good as new.”

“So I’d have a boyfriend, then a lapdog, then a boyfriend again who hasn’t aged a day since I met him?” I rolled a little fold of his t-shirt between my fingers, feeling the hard muscles beneath. “I’d look like some old cougar taking advantage of an innocent young man.” I giggled, and was rewarded with a great whoop of laughter bellowing out of his chest.

“What do you know about cougars?”

I shrugged, blushing slightly and continuing to study the wrinkle of fabric between my thumb and forefinger.

“You’ll make a hot cougar,” he said brushing my hair back.

“I’ll be an old woman!” I argued.

“But we’ll know I’m really the silver fox,” he said in a naughty whisper, his wink equally sinful.

“What about LisTirna. Would I age there?” I asked after I was able to coax the gulp that had lodged in my throat down where it belonged.

“Not as quickly. Our time moves differently. A year here is like a minute there.” He played with the remote on the armrest of the couch, letting it slide through his fingers as he turned it over and over.

“That sounds like the better option.” I rested my head again, relieved that there was a place for us after all. Back on screen, there was a nasty dogfight playing out at 40,000 feet.

“You can’t leave your family.” He shook his head, doubting I would really leave it
all
behind.

“Yes I could.” I nodded adamantly, turning to him and leaning far enough away that he could see how serious I was.

“It’s not just that. I would never put you under the kind of spell humans must be under to enter LisTirna. You’d be some freaky, robotic Stepford wife.” He cringed at the thought. “Far from the Faye I know and love.” It melted my heart when he used the word
love
, but I wasn’t letting this go so easily.

“I’m a really good actress.” I argued.

“It’s not just that, Faye. My world is too dangerous for us. I told you how different my views are.” He dragged a hand through his hair, fisting it behind his head and releasing it to settle slowly around his face again.

I nodded.

“Well,
politics
are extremely important in my world. There are some who would try to get rid of me because of my views, afraid I may try to actually change what our world has become. That’s another reason why I’m stranded here. The queen knew it was getting dangerous for me on that side, but I think she also hoped it would change my mind about humans.” I grabbed a handful of his tee shirt and bolted up right on the couch, horrified by the thought of anyone wanting to hurt Dayne.

“Why would she want you here?”

“To convince me human life has little value.”

“Has it worked?”

“No.” He grabbed the remote and paused the movie when the real action began. “It’s only solidified my views. I have to watch while innocents are taken back to LisTirna. I can do nothing to stop it. But believe me, if I could, I would. No one deserves that fate.” He reached over and traced his fingers down the pink toenails I’d painted one bored afternoon. I watched his hand move down the line of them, resting on the weathered leather. Curling them when he tickled the pinkie just slightly.

“Phin thinks his first fiancé was taken by the Sidhe. She disappeared days before their wedding only to return years later without any clue where she’d been.”

“He’s probably right.” Dayne nodded and rubbed a hand down the length of his barely whiskered jaw. My mind immediately flashed to another missing innocent.

“What about Christine?” I asked, still looking at my toes, not knowing what I would do if he had watched her slip away without intervening.

The room seemed to grow darker and colder. My heartbeat picked up and he dragged me into his lap, holding me close and chasing away the chill.

I leaned into him and felt his shoulders shrug in a defeated way beneath me.

“I was too busy trying to save you.”

Late Friday afternoon I was in my room, sorting through the mountain of dirty clothes that had accumulated in the corner and wishing I had magical powers myself. I tried to stare at the pile of clothes before me as Dayne might and force them to be magically cleaned. Not so much.

According to Rose’s report from town we were the only topic of conversation these days in the sleepy little seaside village. We hadn’t officially “gone public” with our relationship, but after the scene with Tara in the tavern earlier that week everyone knew we were together. I stretched and yawned leisurely, procrastinating as long as I could.