AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“See something you like, Kreed? I hear pictures last longer.” She laughs, amused with my gawking.
“I apologize. Anyways, what else is there to tell you that is important?”
“Wow, you are a lady killer.” Dana rolls her eyes and downs the rest of her whiskey. “I bought my house because I felt drawn to it. I do wonder if it has to do with the portal down there or the gateway. Whatever you call it. Portal sounds too much like science fiction to me.” She hops off the stool and starts to wander around the space. “Is your whole house like the inside of a cigar shop that was built into a tree?” She runs her hand along the back of one of the chairs.
“I don’t know what that means but if you mean leather and wood, yes. Most homes around here will be natural. We build things to last. My father actually remodeled this room before he passed.”
“How did your father pass if you don’t mind me asking.”
“He was killed fighting in the last war. It’s hard to kill us, we heal too quickly to succumb to wounds most times but whatever they had laced their blades with, impeded our ability to heal. He and many others perished. Many were wounded.”
“Aavin tells me that if he and I were to be bonded, I would lead a half-life if he died, or I would die with him. Is that how it would be with you too?” I nod.
“Yes, well, not the death part. If I died you would feel as if a part of your soul is missing. My mother has not been the same since my father’s passing. She stays in one of our homes down south. She tries to keep herself busy, but she always feels that ache. Some try to move on and date others. They work but there’s nothing like having your tether.” I shake my head sadly and then finish off my drink. There’s so much to discuss with her but I don’t even know where to start. I think of what important things she needs to know. The list is growing endless.
“My mother and I had the best relationship. She was always there for me, always a steady rock. I’m having a hard time reconciling the mom I knew with the mom I have now. I wonder why she gave up and settled in Plains. Did she just assume that she would never get back and decided to start a life? Seems like she should have been trying to fix the gateway to get home.” She slides into a chair near the hearth. She kicks her legs over the arm and rests her head on the other. She is opposite me. She seems carefree and takes everything in stride. I think she’s doing well for having her entire world turned upside down in under a week. She’s also bold. Well, from what I had seen as a shadow last week. Even though she has much on her plate, she still seems to find joy. I wish I had the same demeanor.
“I think you may find lots of those answers in the items you found in those boxes.” I raise a brow at her. Reminding her to go through the boxes. “Naomi was a wonderful woman, she was probably fifty years or so younger than me but we hung out often.”
“Fifty? She was three hundred years old? Gosh, I hope I look like her at even sixty.”
“Well, you are half Fae and half Shade. I’m willing to bet you'll be just as beautiful in a hundred years as you are now.” Her eyes widened comically. I think she just realized she is going to get old, real old.
“Oh, gods.” She breathes out. “I’ll put that in the box of ‘deal with that later’.” She suddenly chokes on air. “You guys never….” She raises her eyebrows at me and widens her eyes. It takes me a minute to understand where her question was headed.
I bark out a laugh. “No.”
“I just had to make sure. Because that would get really weird.” She looks back up at the ceiling laughing quietly. “So where did you guys hang out?”
“At parties and such. She had a gift. She was always happy. Fae gravitated toward her to bask in her aura of happiness. She also could put a grown man in his place if needed and she was mildly terrifying. She worked hard too. Felt that she needed to be her best if she was to lead. Her ability was foresight.” Dana’s head snaps to me. “She could see the future. It wasn’t always correct as our path is not a straight line. Naomi tried her best to use that ability for the good of Bathaile.”
“Bathaile.” Dana sketches a disbelieving laugh. “It’s so ridiculous and it seems so unbelievable. If someone told me there was another world on the other side of the Bermuda triangle. I would have pointed them to the nearest psych ward. Yet, here I am, sitting in a leather chair on Bathaile. Talking with a fae. Tethered to a fae. What the hell is life?” She sighs dramatically and stares at the ceiling. “What am I to do here? How am I to learn my abilities?” She then practically shoots off the chair, “Can I learn to fight? Swing a sword? Something? Can you teach me?”
“Of course. I can teach you or I can find someone else if that makes you more comfortable?”
“You’re always so clinical. Please tell me you're not emotionally constipated? I can’t handle that. There’s a fun guy in there right? I thought I saw a bit of humanity in you this last week.”
I look down at my hands and think about all the times people have called my clinal, uncaring, stiff. “I’ll try my best not to be emotionally constipated.” I look up at her. She shakes her head and giggles.
“Oh gods, how is this going to work? You seem so opposite to me.”
“You seem rather positive for someone that was a pariah her whole life. Also, don’t opposites attract?” I say with a wink and a smile.
“Well, well, well, you do know how to flirt a little.” She winks back and turns her head back to the ceiling. “And you're right I am, happy I mean, for a while I hated everyone and everything but I finally started taking my mothers words to heart. I learned to pick myself up and shake it off. I learned that since no one was going to help me, other than my mother, I would have to take it myself. When Noah and I became friends I thought I was just a project to him. Then, things changed later on and I realized he actually cared.” Sighing she turns back to me, “When my mom died I learned that life is too short to not do what I wanted. The only thing I never pushed for was Noah. For fear that he didn’t feel the same and I didn’t want to lose him. It was,” she pauses sucking in a breath, “it was better to have his friendship than nothing at all.” A sharp pain blasts through my chest. I growl low and angry.
“I’m going to find that fucker and bring him here. Knock some sense into that asshole.” I drag my chair to sit directly in front of her. “I felt him in your soul, how did he not understand that? I said it out loud. I know he heard me.”
“He thinks you're wrong about him and it’s someone else. Humans don't have soul bonds, mates or tethers. He said it couldn’t be him.”
I shake my head and grab her hands in mine. “He’s an idiot. I guarantee you that he is hurting.” I lean down to capture her eyes with mine.
“See, you do have emotions. Mostly anger though.”
I grimace. “I do. I also feel lots of emotions. I just don’t voice all my emotions out loud, often. Nor do I really want to. I also don't usually get irrationally angry like I did in your kitchen.”
“Well, at least you don’t have to share me. One doesn’t want to bond with me and the other tucked tail and ran. You got off easy, Kreed.” She looks at me with a wry smile.
“It’s not easy when I can feel your pain and we’re not even fully tethered. I can’t imagine what it’s like in your head right now.”
