Come Away

Chapter 8 - Answers

My teeth clamp down on the hand smothering my mouth in the same instant that I recognize the voice.

Cináed hisses and releases me, and I spin around to face him. I'm seething, ready to chew him out or just smack his face. But I also know that if he meant for me to keep quiet when he smashed my mouth shut with his hand, then it was for a good reason. I follow his lead as he winds through a narrow hallway and into a room similar to Darren and I's. Only the bed is twice the size and there are more maps and books scattered around.

He offers me a seat by the window—the shadowed moon beyond the glass offering the only light in the room—and sits across from me in a matching wooden chair. The moonlight lands on him and illuminates his green eyes. Compared to the crew members, Cináed appears refreshingly normal. But isolate him from the strangeness outside, and he looks downright otherworldly. Sure, he doesn't seem to have wings or a tail, but normal people don't glow the way he does.

Leaning into the chair, he holds a hand up to the window and hisses again. "So, do you resort to biting people often?"

My brow furrows as I fold my arms over my chest. "Do you often attack people in the dark and leave them no other choice?"

His eyes lift from his hand to my face. The corner of his mouth pulls up. "Only when said person doesn't listen to my direct orders."

Nope. He's definitely not normal. Normal people don't have such frustratingly adorable smirks.

I stare at my sneakers and focus on the reasons I came here in the first place. "I know you told me to lay low. But if I'm supposed to work for you until my debt is paid, then I need answers."

He shifts and tugs his fingers through his hair with a sigh. "So be it. I have kept things from you for your own safety, but I will answer what I can."

I fold my hands in my lap and go over my list of questions, searching for the ones of most importance.

"Alright. When we made our deal, you said that Darren and I would come with you to Ireland and work for you until our debt is repaid. But you never said what it is we'll actually be doing."

His eyes lose their humor and his voice is deeper than before. "You will be caretakers for my daughter while I travel. She has no mother, and I cannot bring her on my journeys as she is still younger than Darren."

I know my face shows my absolute shock, but I can't hide it. "You—you have a kid?" I always imagined him as being close to my same age. But if he has a kid just younger than Darren...?

"Like I told the disgruntled fisherman," He begins in an even tone, "I seem much younger than I am. It is something you must grow accustomed to where we are going."

I don't have time to think about Cináed with a daughter because his response incites another question.

"You keep saying we're going to Ireland, but you can't tell me that these... things on your ship actually live there. I mean, I don't know a lot about Ireland but—"

"The beings you see on my ship are similar to other beings that exist in every country around the world." He says, talking over me like a seasoned professor impatient with the ignorance of his student. "When we first met, you could see me because I allowed you to. I still maintained some of my glamour to hide who I truly am, meaning that I appeared to you as an average mortal being, yes?"

"Yeah, I guess." I say, remembering that he had seemed different at first, but not quite as different as he does now. "So you are one of them, then?" My voice hesitant and small, wary of the answer I already know.