Chapter 20

"Come with me." Tiernan held a hand out to me.

"Where are we going?" I glanced over at Aideen where she stood in the kitchen; packing us some food for our trip to the Twilight Court.

She just smiled and nodded.

"I have something I want you to see." He motioned me upstairs. "Come on, I promise you'll enjoy it."

I took his hand, and he led me to the stairs. I had spent the night on the third floor; in one of Aideen's guest bedrooms. She had slept in another guest bedroom on the second floor while Tiernan had taken her usual bed on the first floor; just in case someone made it through the enchanted trunk. It was an odd feeling to have someone protecting me, and I bristled a bit to be put in the position of damsel in distress, but Tiernan wouldn't budge. My safety had become their priority and my ability to defend myself was only to be used as a last resort. Well, we'd see about that.

I let go of my irritation and focused on the tree house. Aideen's home was amazing although I'd been a little too distracted to appreciate it the night before. Now, with Tiernan leading me up those smooth wood steps, I could enjoy the ingenuity of the circular levels. We climbed up past the two bedrooms; each one spanning the entire width of the tree with only the hole for the stairs breaking up the expanse of floor.

The staircase just kept swirling upwards, and we kept following it, room after room falling away beneath us; filled with interesting things I wanted to stop and investigate, but Tiernan kept urging me upward. The trunk began to narrow; the rooms getting smaller until they were just storage spaces. Then we came to a trap door in the ceiling set with brass hinges. Tiernan opened it and lowered a final set of steps. We went up them and emerged on the final platform.

I inhaled sharply as I stepped out into open air and found myself standing among the treetops. Branches rustled around us—about waist high on me—granting an unimpeded view of the entire forest. Birds swooped past; calling out to us with cheerful songs before diving through the thick cover of leaves. The treetops looked like fluffy hills from where we stood, as if I could climb over them and lay down on those uppermost branches to safely slumber. A new landscape had been revealed to me; another world where wings were needed to fully explore.

"Welcome to Fairy." Tiernan laid a hand on my back. The heat of his palm seeped through the thin cotton of my black shirt.

"It's beautiful." I turned to him with a soft smile.

"Look." He slid closer so that he was pressed against my side as he held his free hand up to point off to our left. "There's the fairy mound we came through."

I followed his hand to where the trees fell away; outlining a small meadow with a hill in its center. Sunlight flashed off the golden door set into the mound, and I took a deep breath, hardly believing that I was there, in Fairy. I had come through that golden door and been changed forever.

"Seren"—Tiernan leaned his face down next to mine—"I brought you up here because I wanted you to see how wonderful this could be. Fairy has so many magical things for you to discover. You're not an outsider anymore; you belong here and her secrets will be revealed to you." His hand slid down from my back to snake around my waist. Then he pulled me close as he shifted us and pointed in the opposite direction. "That's where we're headed. Do you see the glimmer on the horizon?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"That's the Twilight Castle." He smiled softly. "And all of this is the Twilight Kingdom. This is your home. No cement monstrosities to mar it or machines billowing poison into the air. Fairy bears none of the scars mankind has left upon the Earth. We work with her instead of against her. Isn't she beautiful?"

"She is," I agreed, but I couldn't bring myself to smile.

"I know this is a lot for you to accept." Tiernan turned to face me. "But I'll help you. You're not alone."

"Thank you." I sighed as his arms came around me, and he hugged me gently against his chest. The pound of Tiernan's heart in my ear calmed my anxiety, and I was able to pull back and take another look at the Twilight Kingdom.

It didn't appear all that unusual from up there. Beautiful, yes, but unusual? Not really; not beyond that golden door which I could just barely glimpse and the castle which was just a shimmer of light in the distance. The forest was wild and filled with unusual creatures but up there, above the treetops, I couldn't see them, and I could pretend I was surveying a normal forest in the Human Realm. The pretense helped relax me even further, even though I knew it was a lie. It didn't matter, I needed to be eased into this, given a little more time to process. So, I took the comfort of the illusion and backed away from Tiernan.

"What did you do to the Sluagh, back at Gentry?" I shifted my gaze up to his.

"What do you mean?" Tiernan started to push back the hair at my temple, but I took his hand and resolutely pulled it down.

"The thing with the light and then the dark," I clarified. "The way the darkness seemed to attack them. That was you, wasn't it?"

"Yes," he admitted as he waved a hand toward the floor and then sat; casually leaning against the low wall of trunk that circled the platform. I sat next to him as he continued. "It's a family trait. We're the only seelie who can use our light magic to control the shadows it creates."

"That's why your name is Shadowcall?" I cocked my head at him.

"Precisely." Tiernan gave me a small smile and reached for me again, but I took his hand and just held it so he'd stop trying to touch me.

Things had become a little awkward between us now that we knew there was nothing forbidding an intimate relationship. Tiernan had begun to act as if we were already a couple, and I had responded with wishy-washy evasiveness that left him looking confused. As he did now. The thing was; I was confused. I didn't know what my life was anymore so how could I start a romantic relationship?

Then I would look at Tiernan and think that he was the only solid thing I had and maybe I should hold onto him. Thus, the hot and cold which he didn't deserve. This little gesture of bringing me up into the treetops had me wanting to cling to him again, but I'd never been a clingy woman, and I didn't want to become one now. I knew I was just feeling vulnerable because of all the sudden changes, and I didn't want that to influence our relationship. Tiernan would have to wait until I figured this all out.

"Something I heard Aideen say to you right before I woke up has had me wondering about your magic, but even after you've explained that thing with the shadows, I still don't understand." I rubbed my thumb across his hand so he'd know I wasn't completely blowing off his advances.

"What's that?" Tiernan's hand closed; almost completely engulfing mine.

"She said that out of all the seelie, your magic would be the most suited to blending with mine."

"Ah," he whispered. "Well, we don't know exactly how your magic will manifest yet. Every fairy has their own unique ability in addition to that which they inherit. What we do know is that it will be a twilight magic; one born of Light and Dark."

"Shadows," I whispered, "and twilight."

"Yes, a perfect pairing," he lowered his voice to a purr, as if talking about our magic was an intimate thing.

"And this is why you're attracted to me?" I narrowed my eyes at him. The Fey may have different ideas of attraction, but he was about to find out that human women liked to be wanted for more than their magic.

"It's why I felt drawn to you," he corrected, "and why I was able to give in to the attraction. Your fairy blood was letting me know it was all right."

"And why would it not be all right?" I asked in a careful tone.