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C H A P T E R   1 5   -   I t   a n   t - e o l a s   s i n   a r   f a d   ( p t   1 )

Órlaith opened the door with a wide, wonderful smile that turned to a frown far too quickly. She took a moment to take in the unlikely pair on her doorstep and blinked in confusion.

Brian shocked her even more by pushing the boy inside before she could react. He closed the door behind them, kissing her cheek quickly and walking toward the kitchen, explaining, ‘About those evil monsters lurking in the dark, kidnapping children and whatnot… I’m rather inclined to believe it now.’

‘What?’ she huffed, hurrying after him. ‘What happened? And Padrick? It’s the middle of the night! Do your parents know you’re here?’

The kid sank into a chair with a huff. His skin was pallid, big blue eyes sunken under a veil of exhaustion. ‘They almost took someone else tonight. Brian stopped it.’

‘What?’ 

Her hand pulled Brian’s cheek toward her, but his eyes never fixed on her as he growled, ‘I did not. Padrick did most of the work. But Jesus, Órlaith, this is real. The water was… reaching out. It got the girl by the ankles and was pulling them both down…’ He shook his head, burying his fingers in his hair. ‘Bloody faeries are real.’

‘Which means,’ whispered Órlaith, turning her gaze back to the pale kid sitting in her kitchen. ‘You’re one of them.’

Padrick blinked at her, slow and challenging. The accusation hurt him more than she could ever know, but he didn’t let it show as he shrugged. ‘I suppose.’

‘But you helped the girl,’ reasoned Brian. ‘Why?’

Honestly Padrick couldn’t tell. ‘I think I didn’t come out right.’

‘I don’t’ understand.’

‘When I ran,’ he explained. ‘They were doing something to me. Me and… the boy who is me. I think they never got to finish whatever it was they were doing. Or maybe I’m just a mishap. There is more of him left in me than it should be.’

Órlaith watched him with that unnerving gaze of her again for what seemed like hours. She didn’t say anything when she was done, just walked over to the fridge and started pulling things out. ‘We need a plan. We can’t let them continue doing this.’

‘Hold your horses, admiral!’ snickered Brian, shaking his head. ‘We have no idea what they are or how to stop them. As a matter of fact, we don’t even know why they’re doing this. Why now? There have been no disappearances in this area for what? Hundreds of years? So why now?’

‘Maybe they were awakened,’ muttered the boy.

‘By whom?’

‘Something’s changing. Something dark.’

Brian stared at him, uncomprehending. ‘In bloody Fanore?’

‘No. In the world. I can feel it now. There is a darkness out there,’ he looked out of the window, fingers scratching at his arm. ‘It has been growing lately, seeping into the earth. Something is about to go down soon. Something I don’t think any of us will be able to stop.’

‘Okay,’ sighed Brian, shaking his head, ‘Somehow we got from faeries to cryptic apocalyptic prophecies and personally, I’m not okay with that.’

The kid snorted a laugh, regarding him with an amused expression that was far too wise to belong to such a young face. ‘Honestly, Sasanach, I don’t think any of us will be given a vote.’

Brian grumbled something, letting himself be seated down by Órlaith. He stared at the sandwich she put before him with an expression of dumb defeat. ‘So…what now?’

Órlaith sighed, pushing a pile of books to the side adamantly. ‘Well, we have books.’

‘We have a bunch of children’s tales!’ complained Brian.

She couldn’t help but laugh at that, shaking her red head as both, the boy and the man glared. ‘I think that by now we have sufficiently covered the fact that there is some truth to every story.’

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C H A P T E R   1 5   -   I t   a n   t - e o l a s   s i n   a r   f a d   ( p t   2 )

Padrick fell asleep with his nose buried in a volume of old Irish folk tales.

‘I should take the kid home,’ muttered Brian, leaning down to kiss her forehead. ‘I will stop by tomorrow…’

She stopped him, reaching for his hand. ‘Come back after you drop him off. Please. I… I found something in one of the books. I didn’t want to talk in front of him.’ She whispered, nodding toward the sleeping boy.

‘Sure. Go take a nap in the meantime. I will wake you up when I’m back.’

She nodded, handing him the keys and watched him shake the boy awake gently. His big, tired, blue eyes stared at them in defiance when they offered him a ride home, but in the end the exhaustion won and he nodded, taking his jacket and following Brian to his car with slow, stumbling steps.

Órlaith watched them go faking a smile.

The monsters watching her from the shadows snickered.  

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