“The same kind that would let me burn alive.” I retorted.
“Don't torture yourself. My brothers are alive. We’ve all battled stronger enemies. If anything had happened, I would feel their pain. My branding on my wrist would turn black and I wouldn’t be standing here in the cold with you.”
“That’s unfortunate. He survived?” I said glancing at his wrist, to see that it still glowed with energy.
“Cillian sent me here. He instructed me not to come back without you.”
Fionn paused and gazed into my eyes, and right now I glimpsed a faint reflection of the man he may have once been. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared, but I still felt the lingering resonance of our brief connection.
“I couldn’t let you die at the hands of the Gatemen,” he said, glancing away.
“Everything would have been for nothing.”
***
“Now move.” Fionn’s voice cut through the air. “We need to leave now.”
I didn’t know if it was adrenaline, but I felt myself beginning to tremble. The smell in the air changed the way it always did near the vortex, but this time it was sharper, heavier. I could taste the molten sting of sulfur that clung to the back of my throat, warning me that whatever was crawling through the clouds was getting closer.
Gazing at the sky, Fionn sniffed the air, then grabbed my arm and pulled me along the beach while the heavens roiled and stretched like saltwater taffy. He walked quickly, and I had no choice but to follow until we reached the vortex edge.
Fionn came to a halt before the opening of the vortex. His arm slid around my back, crushing me against his chest until my resistancevanished beneaththe sheer force of him. For a moment, I froze." It was the closest I had ever been to him. His heat, his size, the sheer force of him pressed into every inch of space between us.
Even when we danced, I had never felt him this close, that had been a choreographed distance, almost careful. This was different, unrestrained and predatory.
I hated even more the feeling of safety that rose within me. I wasn’t safe from death, not with him, not with the vortex yawning open before us. But in this single impossible moment, I felt protected. Protected by the very man I should have feared most.
He tilted my head back, his fingers threaded firmly in my hair to force my gaze to his. “Listen to me,” he said looking down on me. “If we step through the vortex and you see the light leave my eyes, if they turn as black as the void, don’t wait for me to speak. You run, Tilly, and you burn anything that stands in your way. Even me.”
My heart thundered against his ribs, the warning chilling me more than the wind from the vortex. I wanted to ask him why, butbefore I could find the words, he tightened his grip, pulling me to him as if I were the only thing keeping him from drifting away.
A powerful force pulled us into the currents, sweeping us along in spectral rapids. We soared and coasted through waves of pulsing light. My hair whipped around my face like a frenzied curtain. I shut my eyes and clung to Fionn, the strong cadence of his heartbeat pounding near my ear.
We rode the shifting vortex, carried along like leaves buffeted by floodwaters until we started to slow. My eyes fluttered open to the sight of pastoral green countryside below me, bathed in the warm glow of the afternoon. We descended into the verdant embrace of sun-dappled trees and settled onto mossy ground, back at the place where I was first taken. Beyond us, the woods resonated with the serenade of birds.
***
I gazed around and breathed in balmy air scented with wildflowers. I was back home in the woods near the village. Tears welled in my eyes, overflowing before I could stop them.
I was still trembling, still holding on to Fionn. He looked at me, his blue eyes catching the light. The corner of his mouth lifted for the briefest second. Then gone so fast I might have imagined it.
“Is this some game?” I said as he released me.
The loss of his warmth was immediate.
“Why have you brought me here?”
I looked at him with sadness, happiness and the wonder of what the hell was going on.
“I swear you'll never know any peace as long as you remain with us,” he said.
I felt almost faint from the heady scents I thought I'd never breathe again. I began to shake, not like the fear when I was taken on this very spot. Shaking with unbelievable excitement.
“Too much has happened to you. It’s time to be with your loved ones. Go home and remember who you are. We took you from your family, and you despised us for that.”
“My family?” I whispered. “You’re allowing me to see them?” Is this some twisted game, what’s the catch.
I looked at the familiar trees, the moss I used to sit on to sketch, and it felt like a dream I was about to wake up from. He was giving me my life back, He took my hand, his mouth brushed my knuckles and kissed it with a softness that felt like a goodbye.
