The Forgotten Ones

after you, Allison.”
    For the first time since I’d entered the Bruidhean, I felt the haze lift from my brain. It was quickly replaced by anger.
    “But, you let us worry,” I said, inhaling deeply. “You locked us out and left us with Thunder Bay as our only hope…where Liam almost died!”
    My mother gasped quietly. “Liam? He’s here?”
    “He’s going to be okay, Mom,” I said, rubbing her back. “He was already healing when we brought him here.” I had no idea how true that was, but I’d spent my entire life being cautious of my mother’s fragile mental state, and it was a habit.
    I took a breath and refocused on Niamh and Saoirse, Aodhan’s words sounding in my head. They don’t think like you. They’re not human.
    I let it drop. “So, since both of my parents are here, can we break the geis?”
    Saoirse sat calmly watching me from her perch, rubbing her finger lightly across her bottom lip. “From what I’ve seen, Aoife used a fháillan amulet infused with drops of Liam’s and Elizabeth’s blood for the geis. In order to break it, we need the amulet that binds it.”
    Frustration mingled with despair in my heart. The chance to bring my mother back was so close. “Do you know where the amulet is?” I asked.
    Saoirse looked into my eyes. “The amulet is hidden in Aoife’s home, but her lands have become polluted with iron and chemicals—it makes it difficult for even me to see.”
    I shook my head. No. There had to be a way. “But what if I—”
    “Allison,” Aodhan interrupted. “What about your friend?”
    Ethan . Anger licked at my mind for becoming muddled again.
    “Saoirse,” I said. “That’s another reason we’re here. I dreamed of my friend Ethan the other night, and the girl he was with was glamoured to look like me. Something wasn’t right about her—she looked at him... like a predator. And I think—”
    “Perhaps we could take a walk, Allison?” Saoirse asked. “I have something I’d like to show you.”
    Aodhan cut in before I’d even opened my mouth to reply. “Wherever she goes, I go.”
    I didn’t want to leave my mother, not when I’d just gotten her back. But I knew in my heart that Ethan was in danger—he had actually gone off with that girl, after all—and I needed to figure out a way to get to him.
    “I’ll still be here when you come back, Allison.” My mother smiled at me, the way I’d been dreaming of since I was just a little girl. “And, I’d like to see your father.”

    Aodhan and I followed Saoirse through a door in the back of the hill. A stone path wound down to a lush garden nestled between the rises in the land. Trees heavily laden with fruit surrounded the garden walls, and the air smelled sweet like honeysuckle and apple blossoms, nearly making my mouth water.
    Saoirse led us to the farthest end of the garden, where a sparkling stream flowed into a pool at the bottom of one of the hills. The water in the rocky pool was as clear as pure glass. Saoirse gestured for me to sit on a smooth, stone bench along the shore.
    Saoirse sat down by my side, folding her slender fingers on her lap. “This is Danu’s Basin. It has been said that The Great Mother herself gained knowledge from this very pool before she traveled to The Land of Promise, Magh Mell .”
    Aodhan stood in the shade of a giant tree, but I could see that his eyes were in constant motion as Saoirse and I spoke.
    “You’re worried about your friend?” she asked.
    “Yes, Ethan.”
    “I am a Seer, but the future can change drastically with one simple decision. The visions I see in in the water, though, are absolute.”
    She held up her hands, and the water in the pool began to move in a circle like a whirlpool. Mist rose from its surface, and I looked over to Saoirse who had closed her eyes. She dropped her hands down, and as they fell, the mist cleared away. On the smooth surface of the water I could now see Ethan, walking into a room of six beautiful women. He was wearing only his jeans, and his eyes were dull, his smile bemused.
    The woman I recognized from my dream led him to a low bed where the others all sat, laughing and smiling at him. They crawled on all fours to get closer to him, their cold, bright eyes filled with lust and something else I couldn’t decipher. They reached out with greedy fingers to touch him and stroke his skin. So many voices were speaking, too fast to understand what they were saying.
    I closed my eyes, trembling with hurt and