“I had to know. It had been eatin’ me up inside. The mystery of who I am. All the memories I have are of the last three years. There’s nothin’ else…” He sighed and began worrying the hem of his shirt. “At the time…”
“It was worth the risk?” I asked, my hackles rising. “Putting my mother in danger after all she did for you?”
“It was a trap,” he said, grasping my hands in his. “Hannah led me outside the boundary and trapped me.”
“What for?”
I narrowed my eyes, finally able to look him in the face. His hair had sprung back into tight ringleted curls from the rain, and his eyes were darker than usual. The regret and pain in them were as clear as day. Good.
“Someone is lookin’ for me. For me, and now you,” he said.
“Who?” I tore my hands away. “Stop beating around the bush, and just say it, Boone. I’m not messing around here.”
“Hannah had made a deal,” he went on, his cheeks paling, “with a witch named Carman. In exchange for me, she was guaranteed a chance…”
“A chance to what?” I demanded.
“A chance to go home.”
“Home?” I snorted. “To the fae realm? I thought that was impossible!”
“Nothin’s impossible with enough magic.” He lowered his head. “Aileen, she sensed the trouble I was in, and she came. She fought Hannah…”
“And Hannah killed her.” It was a statement. Hannah, the spriggan, the trickster fae, had killed my mother.
Boone nodded. “Aileen took her down with her magic and Hannah… She dragged her…”
“Don’t say it.” I covered my mouth with my hand and glanced away. The fae had buried her alive. That was why her coffin was empty. That was why she wasn’t here.
“Skye… I’m so sorry.”
“Those stupid cards,” I muttered under my breath. “That damned Star…”
“What?” Boone asked. “Did you draw somethin’ else from the tarot cards?”
“The Star,” I said sharply. “I drew the Star. No more Tower. Just Star, Star, Star, Star…”
“The Star comes after the Tower,” he said, confirming what I’d read in the book. “In the months before… Aileen drew the Tower almost daily.”
“What are you trying to say? Aileen was the Tower all this time?” My mouth fell open. “When you said ‘out with the old, and in with the new,’ it was true, wasn’t it?”
“I think she knew somethin’ was comin’,” he said quietly. “But I don’t think she knew it was goin’ to be like it was.”
I snorted and shook my head. “She never got to draw the Star.”
“But you did.”
“Screw the Star,” I exclaimed in frustration. “It’s all faith this and universe that. Well, screw the lot!”
“Skye.”
“I need to know what to do! I don’t know what any of this stuff means, Boone. I can’t… I can’t see where I’m meant to step. I can’t feel my magic at all.”
“Just give it some time,” he said in an attempt to reassure me.
“We don’t have any, and you know it. What if one of those crag-whatever’s come looking, huh? What if the wolf comes back? I’m useless!”
“I’m here to help you,” Boone said, wrapping his arm around me and tugging me against his side. “I made a vow to protect you, and that’s what I’m goin’ to do. No matter what. I owe my life to Aileen and the Crescents. I’m yours. Forever.”
I’m yours. Forever. The words echoed around the empty cemetery and lodged into my heart like shards of broken glass. They dug deep, stirring something inside me I didn’t want to acknowledge. Forgiveness, love… Whatever.
“Boone…” I moaned and fell against his side, unable to hold my tears back anymore.
Sobbing against his chest, I let it all out as he held onto me. The loss, the frustration, the fear of the unknown. I soaked his shirt through with my agony, and he let me. He kept his promise.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said soothingly. “We’ll find your magic, Skye. It’s in there. I’ve felt it.” He tightened his grip and pressed his lips to the top of my head. “I won’t let them touch you. I would die before I let them harm you.”
Chapter 14
It was a weird feeling, having someone declare they would die for you. People said stupid things like that all the time, but you always knew when it came to the crunch, they would never go through with it. You know, the actual dying part. Most people were cowards, but not Boone. Boone meant every word.
Maybe it was my magic picking up on his intent, or maybe it was just the emotion he’d put behind his vow, but I believed him.
Something changed between us that day by Aileen’s empty grave. Something I couldn’t hold or visualize and something that didn’t have a name. Whatever it was, I was happy it had shown up.
Shielding my eyes from the sun, I stared up at the tower house.
The other week, I’d learned the tree that was overtaking the outer walls was a rhododendron. The flowers were a vivid purple, only blooming for the first time in the past week, and the entire plant was covered with them, but Mary told me it was classified as a weed. It was an exotic species that had invaded foreign soil and was threatening to swallow Ireland’s woodlands until there was nothing left. It was a stark comparison to my own plight and that of the magic that had once thrived here.
The rhododendrons were beautiful when they were in full bloom, but it was a smoke screen for the real problem. Much like the fae trapped on this side of the doorways, it didn’t belong here.
Sitting in the meadow beside the ruins, I opened the spell book and began turning the pages. It felt safe here. The bubble surrounding Mary Byrne’s tower house had a calming effect that settled my nerves and then some. Knowing the Crescents were related to her—she might’ve even been part of the coven—helped me forge a stronger link to my heritage
It
