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Silence engulfed the room as Danu looked at each of them expectantly, her eyes growing sad as she realized nothing was triggering a memory for anyone.
“They have other names, of course, perhaps one of those would help you remember. The folk of Danu, tribe of the gods, sidhe—”
“Sidhe... like fairies?” Sage broke in, and instead of disbelief, she looked excited. Bryn could only smile at Sage’s enthusiasm as the woman tried, and failed, to tamp it down. Bryn knew as soon as they left the room, Sage would be lost in her books for hours if not days.
Danu gave her a motherly smile.
“All myths come from some form of truth, child.”
“What does this have to do with us?” Declan murmured as he stuck a toothpick in his mouth, the wood bobbing with his words. “You’re a fairy?”
It was a joke, of course, so everyone laughed... except Danu, Callum, and Mr. Rafferty. The sudden quiet stole over the room again when they did not join in.
Looking at Declan, she watched as his eyes narrowed in on his father. Turning to Niamh to see how she was handling the news, Bryn realized the pale woman somehow managed to lose even more color.
Placing her hand on Niamh’s covered shoulder, her friend jumped as if she’d been brought out of some incredibly intense thought. Niamh attempted to give Bryn a smile but failed terribly at it. The worry wouldn’t wash away that easily. Bryn knew that as much as her own name.
“I suppose it depends on your definition of a fairy,” the older woman replied.
Jace rubbed his hands over his face, the first sign of irritation for him. It was obvious the men were running out of patience, fast.
“So, who and what are you, and why do you think we are family?” Sage asked, and while Bryn saw the men’s thankful looks that someone was cutting to the chase, Bryn knew it was Sage’s thirst for information, not her desire to wrap this meeting up.
“You are all my children,” she said, but Bryn wasn’t sure if anyone heard her correctly.
“I have a mother, thank you,” Jace broke in, and Bryn realized that he was the only one here who did.
Declan had his father, Jace had his mother, Bryn had her father before he passed... but none of the rest did. From what she knew, all of their parents had perished from the sickness that went through when Bryn was little. The outsiders brought it with them before the gate closed, but she hardly remembered the fine details of it all.
One day her school friends were laughing, living life, and readying themselves to find apprenticeships, all of them between the ages of ten and twelve, Bryn being the youngest at age eight. The next, they were just hoping for someone to find it in their heart to care for several children on the cusp of no longer being children.
An elderly woman, who had died years ago, took the orphans in and raised them: Sage, Justin, Travis, Kessler, and Caden.
No, the woman before them was not the same woman who had stepped in to help raise the orphaned youth of Ifreann.
Bryn knew their adopted mother was long gone since she was there when they ran the pyre and did the funeral rites. Her father always brought her along to the pyres when they were lit. A reminder of why he did what he did, he would tell her, and so she would accompany him and wonder where the souls of the bodies were going.
No. No matter what trick this woman did to get in past the closed gate, Bryn doubted she could survive fire.
“Not in the way of giving birth, but in creating you all.”
Bryn was concerned the men were going to lose their minds soon as she watched their faces turn beet red. It was possible that in the next few minutes their heads would explode from anger at having no direct answers.
Soon enough, tempers were lost, and angry words were shot like bullets at the older woman with the vague responses.
“Stop!” the young man, Callum, ordered with his hands up. “She is Danu. Mother of creation, and you are the children, the warriors, she created to fight.” His eyes stayed on Declan as he spoke. “You went across the veil when the Fomori destroyed our lands and were reborn into human vessels. We have kept you safe until you were of age to take back your powers and not a moment later since the earth is dying, and with it, Danu.”
“This is absolutely ludicrous. I am done here. I have shit to do.” Declan pushed away from the wall, walking toward the door before his father stepped in front of him.
“Sit down, Declan Rafferty,” Mr. Rafferty ordered, his voice deeper and full of enough power that had it been aimed Bryn’s direction, it would have bent her will.
“Everyone here”—Mr. Rafferty’s eyes moved and caught each and every one of theirs to imply how important it was— “this is all something you need to hear.”
“You actually believe the crap these two strangers, who breached our walls during a sandstorm, are selling?” Declan asked, aghast.
Bryn couldn’t blame him. It was beyond anything she’d ever heard, even the crazy stories from Sage’s contraband books. Not to mention, should any of the conversation leave this room, the entire town would come down on the two new people.
Nature and gods? That was prime sinful witchcraft. This town would raise a stake in a matter of hours.
