Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) Read online

  “But I didn’t…he didn’t…” I let out an exasperated sigh and shook my head, trying to force the pieces into place. But nothing made sense. “The doctor said I wouldn’t remember?” I looked up to Rose.

  “Very common. The brain goes into defense mode after a blow like you had. Good thing you had your riding helmet on or you’d be at the hospital right now.” Rose eased me back down to my pillow, tucking the blanket under my chin. She hummed gently, smoothing the wrinkles from my brow with her warm hand.

  I felt a cold nose sniff along my arm and reached out for the familiar wiry coat.

  “What’s Cotton doing here?” I asked. Rose had never agreed to let him past her den before.

  “He was whining at the door a few hours ago. Started searching the house for you as soon as I let him in. He hasn’t left your side since.” Rose said as she rubbed the little head beside me. “You rest. I’ll go make you some tea.”

  Rose refused to let me out of bed for 48 hours and insisted on pouring every herbal remedy she could think of down my throat. My head hurt too much to read, so I passed the hours playing with Cotton and trying to convince myself it had all been a dream.

  But it wasn’t really working.

  The rational parts of me argued there was just no way. Plus, I had a doctor’s expert medical opinion as proof it was all in my head. The real parts of me? The parts that knew first hand how unexplainable things could hide in our world— knew it was possible. Which forced me to admit that what I hoped was a dream, might actually be real.

  It was an unsettling thought, but oddly comforting—like maybe I wasn’t the only freak after all. The only terrifying detail I couldn’t wrap my head around was the fact that if Dayne was real...so was the stranger.

  On the last night of my convalescence I woke up in a panic, sweat dripping down my neck and pooling on the pillow underneath me. The weight of a warm hand rested on my brow, and for a moment I didn’t think I was alone in my room. My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and I saw it was just Cotton and me. But the memory of my nightmare lingered.

  Every night since the accident my mind had focused on that day, replaying every detail so vividly I was forced to relive it night after night. The fall, the fear, the fight. It came roaring back to me, in ways too realistic to seem like dream.

  I argued with myself that such an insane nightmare could be dismissed with the doctor’s diagnosis, and wanted to believe that rather than the alternative.

  But there was one detail of the dream that couldn’t be explained away by a concussion.

  The eyes. Cold, calculating aquamarine orbs that flared hungrily when they’d found mine. I’d seen those eyes weeks ago. And my visions, hated as they were, always came true. Always. Which meant the man had to be real. And scarier still? He was obviously after me, though I didn’t have a clue why.

  The blood ran cold in my veins, ice water chilling me to my core. I snuggled the covers and Cotton closer.

  I thought about Christine and the secrets locked away in Phin’s box.

  It hadn’t all been a dream. There was a secret hiding in the Irish countryside. A dark secret, that preyed on innocence and youth. And I feared that secret was after me.

  I was so ready to be free from the crushing thoughts swirling in my head I ran into the barn the moment Phin pulled the truck to a stop that next morning. I had to see Dayne. If there was a secret, he obviously knew what it was.

  “I’m glad you’re better. It was getting pretty boring around here with only Phin to talk to,” Lucas said, greeting me with a huge hug that lingered longer than friend’s hug should. I managed to keep up a light conversation with Lucas, but my mind and ears were flicking around the barn like a gadfly, searching for any sign of Dayne.

  Despite looking for him everywhere I could without raising suspicion, Dayne was mysteriously absent. The only sign of his presence were the saddle marks on LeSheen’s back—proof that Dayne had been for a hard ride early that morning.

  The afternoon found me all alone at the barn cleaning tack. Lucas had finished earlier than normal and Phin had gone to the feed store. I told Phin I would walk home, thinking the exercise would be a good thing to work the remaining stiffness from my muscles.

  I was putting away the leather soap when I heard his voice.

  “Oh, I thought everyone was gone,” Dayne said, startling me so I dropped the soap. He bent down to pick it up before I could bend over.

  “Thanks,” I said and took the soap, studying him. I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me, but I couldn’t come right out and ask him. The only proof I had was my vision—a revelation that would inevitably demand further explanation, and that would never happen.

  “Are you okay?” He asked, looking at me with concern.

  “Yeah, I...umm...my brain is still trying process the other day.” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him, hoping he would read my expression and know I knew something was up. The only reaction from him was a confused grin, as if he thought the fall had done some irreversible damage to my brain. My cheeks flushed and I turned to retrieve a fresh bucket of water and give them time to return to a normal color. “Thanks, by the way.”

  “Not a problem.” He leaned back against the doorway and looked up at the ceiling.

  “So, I didn’t make a total fool of myself, did I?” I winced with my eyes safely focused on the task at hand, not really wanting to hear the answer. At some point in time I had been completely passed out in Dayne’s arms as he carried me back to the barn. And I cringed every time I thought about it.

  “What do you mean?” He stepped into the room with me, casually running his finger down the smooth leather reins I had just cleaned.

  “Um, the doctor said it’s really common with concussions,” I explained before I confessed, “But I’m having some really weird dreams about that day.” I chewed at a fingernail, immediately spitting it out when the taste of soap filled my mouth. I peeked at him through my lashes. Nothing.

  “You were fine.” He shook his head and stepped closer. “What kind of dreams?” He didn’t smile, instead looking at me with a suspicious sideways glare.

  I laughed and shook my head, squeezing the soap from the sponges. “No way. It’s embarrassing…” I shook my head again and looked back at him. “Those secrets are staying with me.” I said emphatically.

  “Good,” he said with an approving look.

  “Why is that good?” I dropped my sponge and narrowed my eyes again, thinking I’d finally stumbled onto something.

  “It’s nice to meet a girl who can keep a secret. Most can’t.” He grabbed a towel and handed it to me a second before my own hand reached out for it.

  “Thanks,” I whispered slowly, wondering if he really could read my mind as I dried my hands. “Hey, Dayne? Was anyone else there when I fell?” I couldn’t look at him when I said this. I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer.

  He didn’t give me one, not really.

  When he said nothing, I peeked at him through my lashes, unsettled by his silence. His jaw was clenched tightly and his eyes were dark. He shrugged and shook his head. The lightness returned to his face when he saw my eyes flare wildly. He licked his lips and they rolled into a smile as he turned and left the little room.

  “Why are you still here? It’s late.” He turned back to me and asked.

  “Phin had to run to town and I wasn’t finished with this,” I said holding up the last bridle I had cleaned.

  “How are you getting home?” He asked.

  “Walking.”

  He rubbed a hand over the stubble at his chin, obviously considering my answer, and bit at his lip, like he always did when he was deep in thought.

  “I have to run to town, too. I’ll give you a ride home.”

  I dropped the towel in my hand at the thought of being alone in a car with Dayne DeLaney inches away from me. He picked up the towel and handed it back to me. I realized my mouth was hanging open and quickly shut it.

  “
Yeah, sure,” I said, hoping to sound cool, calm and collected—everything I was not at that point.

  The engine of his old Range Rover roared to life outside the barn, and I jumped in my skin. After everything was put away I made my way to the end of the barn’s aisle.

  He was sitting in the car with the windows down and the haunting strains of Celtic bagpipe music floating through the air. You’re a big girl! You can do this! I thought to myself as I approached.

  He turned the music down when I opened the door and slid into the leather seat without looking at him. The inside of the car smelled amazing—like I was rolling around in a pile of clothes Dayne had worn all day. It was like a drug to me.

  We drove along in silence for no more than five minutes, but it felt like an eternity. I didn’t know what to say. I was so nervous I was sure the words I thought in my head would never make it out of my mouth without twisting around one another. So I just kept quiet.

  He pulled to a stop beside the little fence bordering Rose’s flowerbeds.

  “Thanks,” I managed to say as I turned to face him. I knew I needed to get out of the car now, but not one part of me wanted to leave him.

  “You’re welcome,” he said and reached up and brushed a piece of hay from my hair. The warmth of his hand brushed against my brow and another memory came charging back to me. My eyes flew open in recognition of his touch. Was it my dream or was it real? Had his hand actually touched me like that?

  He took a quick gasp of startled breath and stared at me intently with an emotionless glare as I struggled to process the memory in my mind.

  “Dayne are you sure something more didn’t happen when I fell from my horse? Things about you are too familiar, like déjà vu or something.”

  He continued to stare at me as he tapped his thumb nervously against the steering wheel.

  “Nothing you need to know about,” he finally answered and stared down the road in front of him with hooded eyes.

  “But, I do. I mean, if something happened, I do want to know about it. My dreams are just too weird...” I leaned up in my seat to get a better look at his expression.

  “What happens in your dreams?” he sighed as if he were asking for my benefit, but I saw his muscles tensing and releasing from his temple to his jaw like he was nervous, too.

  “Well, most of it I’ve convinced myself is just lingering delusions from the concussion. But there’s one part I just can’t make sense of.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The guy from the dance. The one you stopped me from dancing with? He was there. I know he was.”

  “How do you know that?” His eyes flared dark green, piercing into me, searching for my answer. I gasped, quickly shaking my head.

  “It just seems that way,” I lied to cover my own secrets.

  “And I’m there too?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. A crimson blush tinted my cheeks as I realized I had just confessed to dreaming about him. The setting sun glowed bright orange against his face as he squinted into the rays like he hoped to find an answer in their fading glory. His shoulders shook in an amused laugh and he turned to me. The concern was gone from his eyes and a reckless smile twisted his lips.

  “You dreaming about me, Faye?” He teased with a wicked grin, his green eyes dancing with mine as he reached up and twisted his fingers in the tangle of curls around my face.

  Utter and total heart failure.

  I couldn’t move, trapped in the curve of his smile, wishing he wanted me like his expression suggested.

  “I gotta go,” he whispered softly, as if he didn’t want to interrupt the effect he was having on me. It was obvious I was incapable of moving, still held by his gaze. He reached across me to open my door, and I slid from the car.

  Standing there, I feared I was as foolish as every other lovesick girl in Clonlea, watching his taillights disappear in the setting sun.

  Chapter 11

  In The Forest

  Dayne hadn’t so much as breathed in my direction since I stepped out of his car.

  The only problem was, I didn’t know if he was avoiding me because he did, in fact, have some secret about that day he was keeping from me, or if he was steering clear because he now knew I had a raging crush on him and he didn’t want to lead me on. Either way, I wasn’t prepared to spill my secrets to learn his. Nothing was worth that price. So I kept my lips shut about the whole ordeal and tried to forget.

  I distracted myself with Lucas, who was only too happy to accept my attentions.

  At the end of the week Lucas and I sat on a hay bale in the barn watching Phin work with little Ali—a name I had chosen in honor of the great American boxer since he’d proven himself to be such a fighter the night of his birth. He was getting so big and turned out to be quite a little prankster.

  Phin rubbed his hands all over Ali, getting him used to being touched. He ran a hand slowly down Ali’s front leg, bending at the waist until his hand was over the tiny little hoof. He pulled it upward, gently, asking for Ali to raise his hoof. Ali craned his neck around, looking at what Phin was doing. He finally picked up the little foot, but reached over and nipped Phin’s rear end at the same time. Phin straightened up and dropped the little hoof back to the ground.

  “Why you mangy little beast!” Phin rubbed his backside, where the little teeth had bitten him. Ali shook his head, mimicking Phin and driving the man absolutely mad. He stomped his little hoof on the ground and caught the tip of Phin’s boot. Lucas and I roared with laughter to see Phin bested by the tiny black colt.

  “Are you coming out tonight?” Lucas asked me as he leaned over and nudged my shoulder with his.

  “Out where?” I asked, leaning away so Phin wouldn’t see the exchange between us.

  “Full moon. It’s a thing here.” Lucas was playing with a piece of straw.

  “What kind of thing? Like a party?

  “No, more like an extended curfew. The full moon is so bright this time of year you can see just like the daytime. There’s a group hiking the cliffs.” He tossed his sandy blonde hair to the side as he continued to twist the piece of hay. “The Banshee of Banshee Pointe cries out to her lover when the moon is full.” He said this last part in a spooky Dracula-like voice. I rolled my eyes, wanting to ask him if he believed in Santa Claus, too.

  “Um, I’m not really sure. Rose hasn’t said anything about it.”

  “So you need permission?” Lucas taunted me, but I knew he was joking.

  “No,” I said, hitting his arm.

  “You should come. It’ll be fun.” He placed the little piece of straw in my palm before he walked away. Lucas moved differently than when we first met. There was a confidence, a swagger almost, that hadn’t been there before.

  I looked down in my hand at his gift. He had twisted the straw into a perfect flower. I tucked it quickly into my pocket before Phin saw and turned my head to hide the blush on my cheeks. Lucas was going to kiss me tonight if I could talk Rose into letting me go.

  Rose was fussing over her herbs when Phin and I got home that afternoon. She studied the little glass jars over half rimmed reading glasses and jotted down notes after each inspection.

  “There you two are. I’m glad you’re home early. I need your help tonight.” She tucked her chin so that she could see me over the top of her glasses.

  “Sure, what’s up?” I grabbed an apple and took a big bite.

  “It’s the full moon. Time to harvest my herbs!” Her giddiness reminded me of April.

  “You mean in the garden? Can’t we just do that now?” I had planned to ask for permission to go to the cliffs with Lucas.

  “No, silly. I need to get the wild herbs tonight. They are the most potent when picked during the full moon and much easier to find growing in the bright moonlight. There’s a bunch of evening primrose I’ve seen growing along the road to the cliffs. The best time to catch it in bloom will be tonight.”

  “The cliffs over by Banshee Pointe?” That sounded interesting
.

  “Yep.” Rose made another note on her list, thinking my sudden excitement was about helping her.

  “Cool. Count me in.” I was sure in a town this small I would bump into Lucas’ group somewhere in the night. “But, Rose?” I turned back to her with sarcastic concern widening my eyes as I headed upstairs with apple in hand. “Aren’t you scared of running into your Fairy People?” I whispered the word for dramatic effect, poking fun at her crazy beliefs. She immediately dropped her pen and pressed her finger to her lips with an incredulous look, as if I was in danger of waking a sleeping dragon.

  “We simply don’t talk to beautiful strangers in the moonlight, Faye,” she answered as if she were repeating the cardinal rule of midnight herb picking. “And I warned you about the f-word. So don’t blame your bad luck on me!” She finished with a saucy shake of her head that made me giggle all the way to my room.

  I had to admit I was kind of excited about our adventure. I had certainly never done anything like this before. As the sun sank behind the darkness of the ocean’s horizon, a moon, larger than any I had ever seen, began to rise in the eastern sky. It hung low, casting a glow over the earth. The usual shadows that played on the surface of the moon were gone. It shone, bright white, silver almost, in contrast to the black sky around it, hiding all the stars with its milky brilliance as well.

  A little group of women gathered in Rose and Phin’s front yard, woven baskets and scissors in hand. The women peppered Rose with questions, and she proved to be a patient and diligent teacher.

  Someone tugged on my basket and I turned to see April smiling at me.

  “You didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun?” She said. “You know the boys are going to climb Banshee Pointe tonight,” she whispered in my ear as she looped her arm through mine.

  “I know,” I said under my breath and returned her excited smile.