Chapter 34 - Confession

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As my eyes adjust from the red glow of the will-o-the-wisps, back to the blackness of night, I can see several horses cresting over from the pastures.

For a moment I think it's Skye and her friends coming to help us. But then I see riders on the horse's backs, holding bows fitted with arrows.

As other mortals are joining our race for the forest, I turn back and yell, "Watch for arrows!"

The sound of something zipping through the air skims past my ear and I see an arrow land in the dirt in front of us.

There's no way to watch for arrows. Just run and hope the riders miss you.

Markie and Genevieve join the others who are sprinting alongside us as we reach the trees.

"Is Lena...?" I can't make myself finish the question.

Markie just shakes her head, her features shadowed over now that the moonlight is blocked by branches. I glance to my right and see Genevieve bounding over a fallen log like a gazelle. Her tears are dry like the blood crusted over the tip of her braid.

One look behind us tells me that only half of the mortals will make it to the trees in time. My stomach clenches as a boy falls in the middle of the clearing with an arrow in his back.

"Keep going!" Markie pushes me and I face forward again.

As much as I hate it, she's right. If we turn back now, none of us will make it.

Darren's hand is yanked from mine and I flip around to see a guard holding him around his middle. I scream for help as I run at the guard, struggling to carry boy who's thrashing around like an animal.

Something falls from the trees and lands on the guard's back, and his head is twisted around with a sickening crack as his neck breaks and the guard falls like a limp rag doll to the ground. Cináed pulls Darren from the lifeless arms of the guard and swings him onto his back.

"Run!" He yells, pointing deeper into the trees.

Both Markie and I skid to a stop and obediently turn back around. Cináed runs beside me with a wide-eyed Darren bouncing along behind him. I know other mortal kids are running for their lives like we are, but the only ones close enough to me to see are Genevieve and Markie who took the lead in front of us. The sounds of desperate people calling for each other, and frantic footfalls over the forest floor, surround us as we race in the darkness.

"Where's Vera?" I say, my throat dry and my lungs burning.

"After she failed to rescue Darren in time, she disappeared."

His voice is torn with sadness. "You don't know what happened to her?" I ask.

He just shakes his head once. "Enough talk, Roisín. Save your breath for the journey."

I know he has a point. I'm long past the winded phase and there's a sharp pain in my side, so I choose to ask the one question that can't wait till later.

"Is the portal still open?"

Cináed glances at me. I can see his green eyes glowing brightly in the dark.

"I do not know." He answers finally, adjusting Darren's weight between strides. "We shall see."

My skin shivers with dread. What if we're trapped here till the next Samhain?

I push myself faster, and Cináed matches my pace. Cináed said before that all portals close at the end of Samhain, and the sun set nearly an hour ago. But I can't help in hoping it will stay open long enough for us to make it back home.

Just when I think the horsemen with the arrows aren't going to brave the forest to chase after us, I hear thundering hooves galloping closer. I don't need to look at Cináed to know his face mirrors my own panic. Even with our head start, there's no way any of us can outrun a horse.

Markie is shouting something, and I can see a few straggling humans veering further away from us.

"She says to split up and hide." Cináed says.

So there's less of a chance we'll get shot down.

When my eyes meet Darren's, I feel an all too familiar lump in my throat. How many times do I have to leave my brother in hopes that I'll see him again?

"Go, Roisín." Cináed nods his head to the right. "The only chance we have is in splitting up and hiding till morning."

"But what about the portal?" My voice is desperate. I guess Cináed's uncertainty on the portal being open was out of kindness to me. He knew there's no way we'd get back home tonight.

The horses are getting closer, and both Genevieve and Markie have disappeared into the trees. Any sounds of human feet impacting with the earth are drown out by the increasing pounding of hooves. When I refuse to break away, Cináed does it for me and whisks my little brother off into the darkness. Alone now, I keep running in a straight line, my legs starting to numb and my vision blurring with exhaustion.

Time becomes meaningless. I decide that I'll keep this pace until my legs give out and then I can hide until morning. Hallucinations of shadows moving through the trees make me want to scream, but I lack the energy or the wherewithal to do anything but run. Red eyes watch me from the shadows, and my blood runs cold as I imagine a thousand ways to die in a haunted forest.

But as my tattered dress continues to shift around my legs, and the night seems to be sinking into every pore on my skin, I suddenly recognize those red eyes from somewhere.

Or something.

Slowing to a stop, my legs wobble and my heart skitters around like a confused rodent. I keep my gaze focused on those red eyes and try not to throw up.

Please. I say in my mind. Please be the creature I think you are.

One dark hoof steps into a patch of moonlight, followed by the fierce face of the púca. Her thick horse-lips twitch, revealing rows of razor teeth.

"Hello, strange child."

Hearing that cunning feminine voice in my head is a startling relief. I'm still gasping from all the running, and I wipe the sweat dripping into my eyes.

"Hello." I say. "Can you help me?"

She snorts so loudly that I jump. "I believe you mistook my previous favor for kindness. I warned you not to make that mistake."

My relief is snatched away like a feather in the wind. I can feel my heart rate picking back up again as my stomach does a backflip. "If you're here to eat me, you came at a really bad time." I say.

Amusement colors her voice. "Is that so? Do explain."

"It's a long story."

"I am in no rush."

I clear my throat, wishing I had a glass of water. Her red eyes rest on me and I stare into them as I summon any strength I have left. For whatever reason, she seems to be fascinated enough with me to prolong her dinner. There's nothing left for me to do but entertain her and hope for a miracle.

"Well, after we parted ways, I went to save my brother. But I betrayed his trust and so my escape plan failed in epic proportions. I found some other mortal girls in the castle and, with their help, I decided to confront the King."

The púca leans to the side and rests against a tree. "You are referring to Naoise of Shadows?"

"Um... yes." I remember Cináed revealing the truth about Naoise's shadowed past, but still don't understand what it really means. "The King made a deal with me when I first got to the Otherworld, and so I confronted him about it. I wanted to trade my life for my brother's, who was also captured by the King. But Naoise ignored our deal altogether."

The beast's voice hums in my mind, cueing me in on the fact that she's still listening. I continue.

"When he wouldn't keep that deal, I tried to settle on another deal he'd forced me into."

"And did he keep that deal?"

I pause, thinking back to his announcement of our marriage with an unsettling cringe. "Kind of. He promised I could live, but he was going to keep me as his bride, and would have probably killed my brother anyway."

"So he broke both deals, and yet here you are."

I look down at myself as if to make sure I really am still here. Against all odds, I'd somehow managed to get this far. "Yeah. I guess so."

"Such a strange little creature, you are." She cocks her head to the side and peers at me while I stand there like a red lobster on a platter.

When I can't take the suspense anymore, I blurt out, "Are you going to eat me or not?"

"That depends." If she could smile, I think she'd be smirking at me right now. "You mentioned that now is not an opportune moment for you. If you can give me a good reason to spare your life, I will grant you your life and my help."

A good reason to let me live?

I hesitate, letting my gut pull me towards what matters most to me right now. When my initial responses are brushes aside, the painful truth rises up to meet me with an answer that I know will disappoint the púca. I look her in the eyes and brace myself as best as I know how for my imminent death.

"If you'd asked me that when I first got here, I would have told you I deserve to live because my brother needs me. But now I know he needs parents who love him and will take good care of him. And if I'm being completely honest, I know Cináed, the faery who brought us here, can take my brother back to those parents if anything were to happen to me."

I take a deep, shaky breath and continue.

"So to answer your question, I have no good reason to live. If you want to kill me, all I ask is that you don't harm my brother or Cináed while they try and get back to the mortal realm."

The púca stares at me. I hold my breath and clench my trembling hands as she opens her mouth full of sharp, glinting teeth.


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Roisín and the Púca meet once again! Only this time, Roisín isn't trying to make a deal. I guess having her deals turned down enough made her lose her faith in that kind of thing.

I know this is a big cliffhanging moment, so hold on! I'll be posting daily until the end of the book.

Now, what are your thoughts? Will the Púca let her live? How do you see this ending? Click the star and leave me a comment, and I'll be back tomorrow with more!

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