Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) Read online

  In the stall, the vet was rubbing his forehead, mumbling to himself and checking every vital sign he could before he finally retrieved a huge needle and a glass vial of medicine from his bag. Hannah didn't even flinch when he stuck the needle deep into a large artery tracing down the length of her neck. After pushing two syringes of medicine into the port he had created, he hung an IV bag on an old nail and started the drip into her vein. Wiping his hands in a frustrated way, he turned to stall door.

  "I'm sorry, Mr. DeLaney. I've done all that I can. If we could get her back to Shannon I could do more, but we can't move her in this condition. I can't promise anything on this one." He jerked a thumb toward Hannah and shook his head.

  "Her name's Hannah," I said shortly, suddenly seething with the easy way he dismissed her. The stall went quiet for a second and I could feel their eyes on me, shocked to hear such a harsh reprimand in my voice.

  "Done all I can for Hannah," he corrected with an apologetic nod. I took my scowl away from him and refocused on the head in my lap without another word. "The little colt seems perfectly healthy. But you'll need to be sure to start feeding him right away if you want him to stay that way. I'll leave some formula for you and check back in the morning." The little man finished, gathering all his tools and placing them back in his bag. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here sooner. Seems like a really nice mare."

  “No, I understand. It happens in this business. Come on, I'll give you a lift back to Shannon," Dayne's deep voice burned in my ears and when I looked up from Hannah for the briefest of seconds his eyes were on me instead of the man he was talking to. I gasped, and quickly looked back at my lap.

  "Phin? Call me if anything changes?” Dayne asked, walking over to Hannah and stroking her belly one last time. All the while, he kept his eyes on me, watching my every move as I tried to pretend he wasn't there.

  "Of course," Phin answered and tossed a set of keys toward Dayne. He caught them in mid air and turned to leave. Seconds later a truck engine roared to life, and I knew it was the big rig that was attached to the horse trailer parked in the paddock.

  Phin kneeled by my side. “It was a rough delivery, poor girl.” Phin stroked Hannah’s cheek. “I know it’s hard, Faye, but there is nothing more we can do for Hannah tonight. That colt needs us. Someone’s going to have to nurse her baby before he gets sick, too.” Phin was talking to me with a tenderness I had never heard in his voice before.

  I nodded my head and wiped my cheeks. The little black colt lay curled up in the straw where Dayne had deposited him. He turned his wobbly head and looked in my direction, not having enough control over the muscles yet to hold it steady. I instantly loved that little guy like he was my own. Phin returned carrying a bottle filled with a milky liquid mixture.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s the best we can do to imitate Hannah’s milk. He can’t nurse until Hannah stands up. We’re going to have to feed him until she can stand or…” he didn’t finish the sentence.

  “Or what?” I demanded, leaning protectively over Hannah’s limp body.

  “Until Dayne can get back from Shannon with a surrogate,” Phin said, not looking at me.

  “Oh.” My eyes fell to the big head in my lap. I knew what he meant. Hannah was dying. Her eyes were closed, the enormous rib cage barely rising and falling with ragged breaths. Fresh tears sprang up in my eyes where the old ones had dried.

  Phin couldn’t get the baby to take the nipple of the bottle he offered. “Can I try?” I asked, looking at the black colt and feeling a sudden motherly instinct take over.

  Phin handed me the bottle. I was able to get him to take hold on the first try.

  “Must take a woman’s touch.” Phin shook his head.

  “Just dumb luck,” I said.

  “He’ll nurse every hour until he builds his strength. The truck is parked out front; why don’t you head back home and I’ll call you when there’s some change,” Phin encouraged.

  “I’d like to stay, if that’s all right. Can you show me how to mix this formula for him? I just don’t want to leave Hannah. I feel like she needs me.” Phin shook his head in protest. He really didn’t like the idea of me staying in the barn all by myself. But I was stubborn, and in the end I talked him into it.

  As the taillights of his truck disappeared around the bend in the road I realized how alone I really was. Sounds from the forest at night echoed in the dark. Shaking off the creepy feeling that crawled up my neck, I looked up to the big house where several lights burned through the windows. That little old lady was up there if I really needed anything. I wrapped Phin’s jacket close around me and returned to Hannah’s stall.

  Hannah’s condition had not changed at all. The formula had given her colt enough energy to begin to try out his legs. It was quite entertaining to watch him struggle and fall countless times, but never get deterred from his goal. I admired his determination.

  After about 45 minutes of struggling, he finally managed to get all four legs locked under him. When he realized what he had done, he looked at me with a shocked expression, not knowing what to do next. I held out the bottle to him, trying to coax him forward. He saw the bottle and made a beeline for it. He took two steps successfully and then crashed into a pile in my lap.

  He suckled the contents of the bottle and then decided to have another go at walking. He was getting much better. The game went on for several hours. He would discover something new he could do with the long spindly legs under him and then come and finish off the bottle before starting out again on his new legs.

  He finally crashed into a pile beside Hannah and stretched out his legs in front of him. Snuggling into her warmth, he relaxed to sleep. It broke my heart to see Hannah unable to care for her baby.

  I was hit with a wave of exhaustion myself. Looking around me, I found a bale of hay Lucas had left in the corner. An old horse blanket would make a bed of hay bearable enough for one night. After I found one and spread it over the loosened bale, I grabbed Phin’s jacket and stretched out. The hay was scratchy against my face. I pulled my hair down from its bun and spread it over the bale, creating my own pillowcase. My eyes felt the weight of the night, and as I snuggled into the makeshift bed my body relaxed into the deepest of sleeps.

  Somewhere in the night, between the restful waves of exhausted sleep, the sound of Hannah’s stall door rolling open tugged at part of my brain. It didn’t register at first as the weary voice inside my head tried to soothe me back to dreaming. But when the rustle of hay under foot and the jingle of keys broke through the silence of the sleeping barn I awoke with a measured start, like quarry hoping to keep it’s cover.

  My eyes flew opened and I caught a gasp high in my throat before it had time to make a sound. The heavy mist of dreaming still clouded my vision and I blinked furiously to chase the fog away. In the dull light filtering down from a single camp lantern Phin had hung on a nail, I saw him.

  Hannah’s blood was cleaned from his shirt. Soft light caressed the strong curves of his face, framed with chocolate waves of hair. I moved ever so slightly in the darkened corner of the stall, sitting up and quietly raising a shoulder to brush the hair from in front of my eyes.

  He hadn’t seen me hiding in the shadows, turning instead to the giant black body sprawled in the hay at his feet. The foal’s wobbly head popped up, startled by Dayne’s arrival, but Hannah remained motionless, and I craned my neck forward to be sure her belly still swelled with breath. Was she alive or was she dead?

  Nothing about her moved and Dayne’s hand went to her chest, searching for a pulse. Another minute passed before his head fell into his hands and a tortured groan seeped into the stillness of the stall.

  Hannah was gone.

  I sucked my lips over my teeth, biting down hard as I struggled to still my quivering chin. A hot tear spilled down the side of my nose and the top of my throat tightened with sobs lurching up from my gut.

  I started to go to her, to hold her lifeless body in my
arms and praise her selfless mother’s sacrifice. But I didn’t. Dayne’s shoulders slumped over her limp body, his bowed head shaking back and forth in his hands as he knelt before her. His voice was low and fervent as he spoke to himself, to her, or maybe to God.

  It wasn’t a moment I could interrupt, and I suddenly felt guilty sitting there, spying on a man’s private grief. Without making a sound, I pulled Phin’s jacket up until it was even with my lower lashes and leaned back further into the shadows. My own quiet tears soaked the collar of Phin’s jacket and the recycled air beneath it grew hot and hard to breathe.

  Dayne took a deep, ragged breath, turning to watch the tiny foal poking a warm muzzle at his mother’s rigid body.

  “I know, buddy. It’s gonna be okay.” He muttered as he scooped the little guy up in his arms to move him a few feet away. Sitting still as a statue, not daring to move a single frozen muscle, I watched him approach my hiding place in the shadows. If I raised my arm I could have touched him, but he wasn’t thinking about who might be hiding in the shadows. A deep furrow cut down the center of his brow, pinched by frustration, and he didn’t bother to take his eyes off the tiny foal before turning back to its mother. I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

  Hannah was his only concern as he knelt again at her side, his hands reaching out to her chest as they had before. Soft yellow light from the lamp cast his face in partial shadow as his head fell back, staring up to the rafters of the barn where cobwebs and abandoned bird nests littered the old thatched roof.

  A second brightness mingled with the flickering candlelight in the stall, this one casting a diffuse greenish glow against the worn wooden walls. Dayne’s focus fell back to Hannah, and his hands moved along with whispered words over the once strong muscles of her chest. Mumblings so low they barely found my ears slipped out of his lips and muscles in his back flexed as if he were trying to push her away.

  Silence seeped into the stall again. My eyes were wide as melons in my head and the ability to breathe had ceased somewhere deep in my lungs.

  He leaned down to Hannah once more, cradling her enormous head in his hands while his lips moved into place at her nostrils. Another silvery-blue light broke into the stall and I heard Dayne exhale, like a strong wind whistling into her limp body.

  My head jerked wildly when her hooves began to stir, scratching at the fresh straw, knowing I was witnessing something impossible. The great muscles in her back drew tight, bringing life back to her body, and her belly swelled with a first, gasping breath.

  Her baby sprung up from his bed of hay, shying away from the danger of his mother’s wild flailing. Dayne jumped back too, his arms stretched out to cover the colt, protecting him from Hannah’s struggle to stand.

  I struggled to stand myself, the warm jacket I held falling down to my feet and a chill that was more fear than cold splashed over me like ice water.

  Hannah was standing before me, alive and looking around the stall as if nothing had ever happened. She nickered quietly and the baby rushed to her side, hungrily nosing at the utter beneath her.

  Arctic cold seeped into my body, freezing every muscle as it progressed—the heart hammering in my chest the only sign of life it couldn’t squeeze out.

  I didn’t recognize the pathetic whimper filling the stall as my own until Dayne’s head turned slowly away from Hannah and her baby to discover my hiding place in the corner.

  The soft glow that had filled the stall earlier dispelled the shadows of my hiding place, washing me in emerald light. It wasn’t until Dayne’s eyes traced up the length of my stiff body that I knew its source.

  His eyes bathed me in jade luster like the headlights of a distant car. Green and lush as the Irish fields surrounding Ennishlough. They widened for the briefest of moments and his body went as rigid as mine. A second later the light faded from his eyes and he was normal again. Still, I stood frozen before him. On the inside my body was begging me to run screaming into the night; on the outside not a single muscle would flex.

  A smile softened his face and he took a step toward me. His movement broke whatever force had stolen my muscles’ strength and the ability to move was once again mine. I backed away from him, matching every step he took. After two awkward shuffles the wall met my back and I knew I was trapped.

  My body spasmed with a scream so forceful it wretched from my throat, high and hot, numbing my ears as it tore into the night like razored claws on soft flesh.

  Still he pursued me, and I was too shocked to put up a fight. Too shocked to manage anything more than simply shrinking against the wall at my back. Instinctively, I closed my eyes and turned into the wall, hiding my face from him, knowing I was trapped and at his mercy.

  “Shhhh…easy Faye,” he cooed. “I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was as smooth as hot honey, deliciously licking my ears and warming the cold fear in my body. I had heard this voice before, but only in my dreams, never in real life. It had the same effect on me it always did. Instantly, the tension dripped from my limbs and my insides unwound from around one another. Yet, I remained still, only moving to open my eyes so I could peek at him from behind the far corner of my lashes.

  He was smiling at me, just like he did every night in my dreams and I turned my head in tiny timid jerks to face him.

  “Why are you upset?” His full lips spread wide over the alabaster smile I loved. Relief so powerful it almost made my eyes cross washed over me and I leaned into the hand he rested against my cheek. This was the same Dayne I dreamed about almost every night since I arrived in Clonlea.

  “What’s going on?” My hoarse voice cracked with strained speech.

  “You’re dreaming, Faye.” Every inch of my body longed to be warmed by his touch when the heat of his hand wrapped around mine. The dusty corners and cobwebs and abandoned nests took on a surreal, dream-like quality. All soft and fuzzy to my heavy eyes. I tingled with blissful euphoria, like my insides had been stuffed with soft cotton and sunshine the moment his fingers tangled through mine.

  “Well that makes sense.” My voice was a peaceful whisper, and a sugary smile spread across my face as I looked at our hands entwined between us.

  “It does?” He tilted his head and looked down at me.

  “Well, yeah.” I crinkled my face and rolled my head drunkenly as if this should be obvious. “I dream about you every night.”

  “You do?” His free hand reached up and caught one of my loosened curls. “What do you dream about me?”

  “You should know you that by now.” Hannah stirred behind him and my head snapped away from the trance he had put me under. “Hey, are sure this is a dream?”

  “Don’t you want it to be a dream?” He nodded his head, turning my chin back to him with a finger. “How else could you explain what I just did?” I nodded my head obediently. “Beside, you would be able to feel this if it weren’t a dream.” He reached down and pinched my arm. I felt nothing and he smoothed my hair back in place as I looked at the patch of reddened skin.

  I quietly watched every twitch of his face in awe as he led me out of the shadows where I had taken refuge from him. With a touch as delicate as he had handled Hannah with, he bent to the task of cleaning dust from my clothing and untangling the cobwebs stuck in my hair from the dusty corner. Yep, had to be a dream—a nightmarish dream at first, but a dream none-the-less, cause Dayne kinda hated me in real life.

  An idea sparked somewhere in the back of my near slumbering mind.

  “Well if this is a dream…” My voice trailed off and he stopped brushing the stall debris off me. He straightened and studied me with a puzzled look.

  Without giving myself time to think about it, I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him to me before he could protest. I licked my lips right before they touched his and let my body melt over his. Holding him as closely as I could, pulling his lips to mine, his body went stiff as a board under my touch. His arms fell to his sides, his lips were hard as stone against mine. When I pulled away, his
face was a blank, wide-eyed mask, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense because it was my dream after all.

  A minute passed and we stared at each other saying nothing. I traced the line of my lips with cold fingertips, the feel of his lips still tingling on mine.

  “Let’s get you tucked back in bed.” He finally broke into the easy grin I knew in my dreams and took my hand, leading me back to the makeshift bed in the corner, enchanting me with that smile. After lying me down against the hay bale and tucking Phin’s jacket up under my chin he turned to leave.

  “Aren’t you going to stay?” I propped up on an elbow and looked at him with puppy dog eyes. He turned back to me, his eyes straying slowly to the ceiling as if he expected to find some kind of answer.

  “Do I usually stay?” He finally asked.

  “Always,” I said, nodding my head. Slightly confused again that I had to remind dream Dayne of what our nights were usually like.

  “Of course I do.” With a smile that could melt icebergs, he walked back to me and sat down on the ground beside me, crossing his legs and resting his arms on his kneecaps.

  “Not like that,” I said, reaching up for his arm. “Like this.” I guided him down to me and aligned his body beside mine, turning over so I fit perfectly in the spoon of his body. His arm draped over my waist and I pulled his hand up for a pillow, snuggling my back as close to him as I could get.

  “We do this every night?” His voice whispered along the bare curve of my neck, the hot breathy sound sending shivers all the way down to my toenails. I could only nod in response, the nearness of him making my heart beat in a funny way that practically stole my breath away.

  “Dayne?” I asked as I closed my eyes, relishing the deliciously rich and spicy scent of him. “Are you sure this is a dream?”

  “That’s what you’ll remember in the morning.” His voice was soft, mixing with the sweet smell of hay, as his hand rested over my brow and eyelids. “You’ll only remember the dream,” he whispered.