Come Away

Chapter 25 - Betrayed

Cináed's fingers run through my damp hair as we lay on the bed. He's humming the same lullaby that he sang to me in his room on the ship.

Because we're waiting here until Darren shows up, I decided to shower any remaining pixie dust off me while Cináed left to find some food. He returned with plastic containers of hot soup from the nearest pub, along with some new clothes for me to wear.

"No one likes to redress in dirty clothes after a bath." He explained, tossing me the bag with a pair of joggers and a long-sleeved shirt inside it.

I want to ask Cináed why he dresses like a beach bum if he has such a great taste in clothes. Or how he's managing to pay for all of these things.

"Cináed?"

His fingers are still playing in my hair as he watches the TV screen. "This Law and Order production is surprisingly interesting to me."

The way he says "Law and Order" makes it sound like he's trying to pronounce a food item on a foreign menu.

"Why do people say you're a rogue faery?"

His hand stops moving, and I glance up at his face. While his eyes are distant, they're also filled with pain. He gives a small, humorless laugh.

"Is that what they call me now?"

I sit up. "Just a mortal girl in the castle."

"In a sense, I suppose there is truth in it."

He's staring at his hands in his lap. I'm caught somewhere between changing the subject and holding out for an explanation. As someone who prides myself in keeping my life private, Cináed is shrouded in a whole new level of mystery. And it intrigues me more than it probably should.

Air slowly fills his nose, and he turns off the TV before he continues. "To completely answer your question, I must first tell you about Branna."

My throat constricts. "Fiona's mom?" I murmur.

"Yes. But Branna was so much more than the mother of my daughter. Her and I were lovers for many seasons. Decades of human time."

Decades? How long do faeries live??

"She did not die from her old age, as you mortals call it." He says, basically reading my thoughts. "Her life was robbed by an unknown source. A sickness that no Fae has seen the like of before."

My head rests against the wall. Does this mean that all the King's talk of a sickness wasn't just an excuse to kill mortals? 

We sit in silence because all my words have been snatched away by the thought that humans like me could have been the reason for Branna's death.

After a moment, Cináed says in a voice that's torn with emotion, "There was nothing I could do to save her. Never in my existence did I feel so... powerless."

I reach my hand toward him, but he shies away from it and gets off the bed, moving to stand by the window. A particularly loud group of partiers are passing below and he watches them until their laughter fades.

"Do you want to know the real reason I brought you to the Otherworld?" His tone startles me. I've never heard him sound so... dark.

"Because of the deal?" I respond tentatively when his glowing eyes focus on me.

"Because I was trying to avenge Branna's death. The new King claims that mortals are to blame for the sickness. Well, I knew that bringing you with me meant two less mortals would be left breathing while my lover could not."