The Forgotten Ones

Chapter 6

Monday evening I was at the hardware store closing out the cash register when the bells hanging over the door clanged. I looked up from the receipts to see Ethan strolling up the aisle.

"Oh,hey, Ethan." I looked back down, ignoring the jolt in my heart. I hadn't called him back yesterday after my run-in with Liam and Niamh.

"I was just wondering what time you get off work?"

"Well, as soon as I finish counting up these receipts." I kept my voice casual, keeping my eyes on the papers in front of me.

"Something wrong, Al?" he asked in a low voice.

I shook my head, pretending to be confused. "Not really. I just have a headache."

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans and shrugged."You busy tonight?"

"The only thing I'll be doing is taking an aspirin and lying down."

Ethan's mouth tightened, but he nodded.

I wrapped the totals sheet around my receipts and locked them in the safe, avoiding his eyes.

"Everything else is okay though, right? You seem a little...distracted," he said. "And you never called me back..."

"Everything's fine," I said. "Just busy."

I turned off the lights, grabbed my purse, and walked around the counter. He walked by my side to the door, his arm brushing mine as I reached past him to set the alarm. The air felt thick and charged.

Ethan walked me to my car silently. I took a deep breath, and as I turned to face him, a flood of emotions washed through me. Who was I kidding? I'd loved him since before I could remember, reputation and all. But I had a plan: get through school, get a job, and take care of my mother. Being in a relationship was not part of it.

I knew he wouldn't walk away without a fight, but I didn't want to pull him any deeper into my life than he already was. If all of these things with Liam and my mother made no sense to me, how would I ever explain them to Ethan? And if they were true...he'd be in danger.There'd be a rogue fairy out to get me.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?" I said softly.

He was quiet for a minute, and I started getting even more nervous. "I took the day off Wednesday," he said with an odd note of uncertainty. "I wanted to take you to lunch on your birthday."

My mouth went dry, and I realized I'd been holding my breath. I let it out in a puff. "You shouldn't have done that."

Ethan swallowed and looked away, then cleared his throat. "I'll...I'll just call you Wednesday. Hope you feel better." He tapped the hood of my car before turning and walking away.

***

Two days dragged by with no word from Liam. I kept replaying the conversation with him and Niamh over and over in my head. They had answers for so many of the questions I'd had my whole life—why I'd never known my father, why my mother lost her mind. And, why I felt like I was losing mine. Their answers sounded crazy,but they explained it all so perfectly.

They even acted like my dreams meant something, like I might not be going insane after all. Unless they were just as crazy as I was. Which was highly possible.

I typed the word Danaan into the search engine on my laptop, tapping my chin with a pen as I scanned through the results. I'd spent every spare minute the past two days looking up Irish fairies.

The Tuatha Dé Danaan are magical descendants of the pre-Christian deities of Ireland who lived alongside the druids and Gaels. These human-like beings were forced to retreat under the hills of Ireland into another dimension of space and time with the rise of Christianity.