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Merlin was alert and nodding as he came closer. “Ask away, lad! I’m happy if I can be of any use,” he insisted, earning a serious hum of agreement from Nelson.
“That’s why I didn’t want to ask Clancy. I know I can trust you,” he added, setting Merlin’s eyes and smile alight.
“You can always trust me,” he vowed and Nelson hummed in agreement as he set a hand on Merlin’s shoulder, drawing him closer.
“Great. I was wondering if you could tell me about Sorcha,” he said quietly, but Merlin jumped as if Nelson had cursed or uttered something offensive.
“Me? What do you want to know?” He licked his lips nervously as he glanced toward the hallway. “Have you asked Nox about…her?”
“No.” Nelson shook his head, watching Merlin closely. “You see how deeply this case has affected him already. I don’t want to bring him down even more and something tells me you know more about her than he does.”
“A child’s memory can be a beautiful blessing,” Merlin murmured distantly. “He was only twelve when she passed and Sorcha took great care so that he’d only have good memories.”
“I’m not entirely sure that that was fair to Nox, but there’s nothing we can do about that now,” Nelson replied, earning a heavy sigh from Merlin.
“If you’ve ever wondered who you have to thank for Nox being as headstrong as he is, look no further than Sorcha. She understood that Lucas and Nox were her destiny, but she had plans of her own. And she wanted her life to mean something more before the curse took its course.”
“What do you mean they were her destiny? And what did she have to do with the curse?”
Merlin’s eyes twinkled as they touched Nelson’s. “She was an Ó Murchadha2.”
“An Ó Murchadha?” Nelson parroted in confusion, making Merlin chuckle.
“The name has since been Anglicized to Murphy over the years but it’s a line as old and almost as mystical as the MacIlwraiths. They are MacIlwraiths, in a way,” he added with a cheeky wink.
Nelson grimaced. “Please don’t tell me Sorcha and Lucas were related.”
“They were! But very distantly,” Merlin reassured him. “For all of recorded time, the MacIlwraith men have only had one heir—always a son—except Domhnall MacIlwraith in the 800s.”
“800s?” Nelson clarified and Merlin nodded.
“It was well before my time, obviously,” Merlin said with another cheeky wink. “But Domhnall had two children—a boy and a girl—and the girl married into the Ó Murchadha clan,” he explained and laughed softly. “Every time a MacIlwraith has married an Ó Murchadha, it has resulted in a powerful heir. Uncannily powerful, some say.”
“So Sorcha…knew there was something different about Lucas and his family.”
“Yes. To a degree,” Merlin said slowly. “That line of Murphys was very aware of their significance, but they had kept the vow as well. They came over to the New World with the MacIlwraiths and held to their practice in secret. There are still a handful of old Celtic families who still believe.”
“This was an arranged marriage?” Nelson realized, mildly shocked.
“In as much as you could arrange for Sorcha to do anything,” Merlin replied and laughed fondly. “She believed and she understood her part, but she would not have married Lucas if she hadn’t wanted him. They were an honest-to-goodness love match. And they stupidly believed that their love would be enough to save them from the curse,” he said sadly.
“What did the curse have to do with her? I thought it was just about the MacIlwraith men.”
“Oh, no,” Merlin said, shaking his head quickly. “We always lose the women first. That’s why they waited until they were older to have Nox. Past generations had hurried to provide an heir, in hopes of appeasing the curse. But Nox’s parents thought that if they were both older, that if Lucas made it to thirty first, he’d outlast most of his forefathers and be strong enough when his heir came of age. They thought they would both be strong enough to withstand it.”
“But it didn’t work,” Nelson said and Merlin made a solemn sound.
“No... It was as it always has been and one cycle brought about another and Sorcha began to fade and truly get sick when Nox started puberty. One cycle brought about the end of another,” he repeated with a watery sniffle, producing a handkerchief from his sleeve and dabbing at his eyelashes. “Being that close to the Dagda and birthing an heir exposes them to too much…spiritual radiation, I suppose.”
Nelson’s brow furrowed as he considered everything he’d learned and compared it to the things he’d been told. Once again, things weren’t adding up. “Why does Clancy believe you had something to do with Sorcha’s death if there was already a pattern and even she believed it was her destiny?”
“That vicious cunt!” Merlin hissed, then covered his mouth. “He’s always claimed that I could have stopped her.” He let out a belligerent, shaking laugh. “Not Sorcha! She had made up her own mind about how she wanted to die. And no one—not me or Lucas or even Nox—could have kept her here and made her suffer through gods know what when there was nothing me or any doctor could do to save her.”
“How did she die?” Nelson asked gently.
“They said it was cancer and that it was so late, that the only hope she had was if they operated immediately and started her on chemotherapy. But Sorcha said it wouldn’t work or it would only buy her a little more time for too little gain. She didn’t want to suffer and she was afraid of us seeing her in pain. We were devastated but we understood. Except Clancy. He wanted me to use whatever magick I could and for her to exhaust every modern medical option before giving up,” he explained as he dabbed at his eyes.
“But it wasn’t Clancy’s choice to make. I’m so sorry,” Nelson said, unable to think of anything better to say.
