Seducer Fey

by Cullyn Royson

  “Spell ‘Lug.’” Standing, Aydan stretched his arms over his head and flexed his back.

  “L-U-G-H.”

  “That’s my dad’s first name. He goes by his middle name, Daray, because a lot of people in North America pronounced it ‘Lug’ instead of ‘Loo.’” Aydan started to fold the skirt he’d been wearing. Before she could stop herself, Cassidy looked down and discovered that he’d somehow managed to change into pajama pants. She glanced at his face apologetically.

  “Don’t get greedy,” Aydan chided and playfully tossed the skirt at her.

  “The soldier’s name was Endymion right?” Danny commented as she flipped through the book. “I didn’t notice it before, because I thought it was based on the Endymion and Selene myth, but the narrator of the story is Endymion. The setting is in an unnamed place, but the weather described is colder than I’d expect near the Mediterranean.”

  “Who’s the author?” Cassidy asked.

  “E. J. Baird.”

  “Eamon Jason Baird,” Aydan read off his Ogham. “That name sounds really familiar. He lives about two hours from here by public transportation, plus a cab. It might be better if we ask Marja for her car. Since it’s five in the morning, we could message him now, but we should probably wait at least another hour before heading out. Besides, we should all try to get some sleep first.”

  “Danny, do you want to sleep on the bed with me?” Cassidy asked. When no one answered her query she saw Danny and Donovan on the floor. Donovan had monopolized the pillows, originally intended for both Tolymie brothers, and allowed Danny to use his torso as a mattress. “Well, they look cozy. Do you want to join me up here?” She asked Aydan, a note of shyness in her voice.

  “I’d like that.” He folded back the covers on the other side of the bed. As soon as his head hit the pillow, Aydan started to breathe in a sleepy rhythm. She tried to do the same, but anxieties kept shooting through her mind. I really hope Danny will be safe. What if Eamon Baird is a false lead? What if we don’t find anything at the next university? she wondered. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget about Taban. I feel like I’m missing half the story. A warm hand on her back returned her to the present.

  “Can’t sleep?” Aydan whispered.

  “No, can you?”

  “Not with you tossing and turning like that. And you’re lying on my hair. It hurts.”

  “Sorry.” She carefully rolled off of his hair, which had spread across the bed. “My mind just won’t settle down.”

  “Me too. Want to chat for a bit?” Aydan propped himself up on his left elbow to face her.

  “Right now I just need a distraction.” Sitting up, Cassidy used the headboard as a backrest. “I need to be functional tomorrow. Anymore Celtic-y stuff I should know—or might find interesting?”

  “A lot of the Celtic lore features men sleeping with wise women and powerful goddesses for luck, magic, or assistance.” Lounging back onto his pillow, Aydan folded his arms behind his head.

  Relieved to have a topic divergent from her internal monologue, Cassidy replied, “That happens in other mythologies too, but it’s nice to hear about something other than Zeus and his lovers—though Ganymede always made it more interesting.” She wound a strand of Aydan’s hair around her hand, letting the smooth texture slide through her fingers.

  “Speaking of which, wise and powerful Cassidy, we have an hour …” Aydan inspected his nails. “What would you like to do?” The way Aydan regarded her was reminiscent of a cat hearing a can opener, not exactly hunger or excitement, more like—gimme.

  CHAPTER 23

  OF CRESCENT V-RODS

  CREAKING SPRINGS AWAKENED DANNY. She dismounted Donovan and stood up to find Aydan dancing to Knots of Avernus on the bed. Cassidy sang from a seated position because her injured feet would not permit such vigorous activity. A couple of peacock feathers protruding out of Aydan’s braided bun, bobbed in sync with his bouncing. Cassidy, with extravagantly colored eyelids, silver tinsel eyelashes, and bronzed cheeks, looked prepared to grace a cocktail party in Wonderland.

  “You did each other’s hair, makeup …” Danny gagged on a sharp scent. “And nails?”

  “Yes, I’ve never done so much before.” Cassidy scratched the air with ruby talons. “And I’m not sure I will again anytime soon, but I have no regrets.”

  “When I was half-asleep I heard Aydan say something that sounded kinda suggestive. Did you do each other too?”

  “He didn’t offer me his Ogham, so I knew he didn’t want to sleep with me.”

  “I wouldn’t go as far as to say, didn’t want to,” Aydan remarked as he straightened a peacock feather with his chrome fingernails. “It just seemed wrong to proposition someone who’d just been sleep deprived, beaten up, and drugged. Anyway, I’m glad I actually got a chance to get to know you better.” He leapt off the bed landing in front of Danny. “Do you want me to show you a way to wear a Strap-Shirt at your height?” He unzipped his duffle bag and motioned for Danny to turn her back to him. “Cassidy told me that’s why she bought you that other shirt.”

  “I’ve been wondering, do you have a title like ‘Harlan the Amazing’ or something like that?” Danny asked.

  He took two of the thin straps and pulled them over her shoulders like suspenders. Wrapping the other thin straps together he secured them horizontally across her chest. He finished by twisting the longer straps together into a belt.

  “My fans just call me Harlan Eldin, but the magician community has a dark sense of humor. They call me Harlan the Fanservice.”

  After coiling one strap around his neck, Aydan hung two thin straps over his shoulders and crisscrossed them on his chest in an x. Then he knotted the thick straps that were too big for him behind his back. “And if I don’t feel like having a tail …” He wound the thick straps down one of his pant legs.

  “You should wear that today. It looks good,” Danny commented.

  “At least I have pants this time.” He narrowed his eyes in Danny’s direction.

  “Speaking of which, here’s your bullwhip back.” A knot tightened in Danny’s stomach when she touched the weapon. She drew away from the whip as she recalled the carnage she had caused by surrendering to her anger and pain. I’m never going to let that happen again. I can learn control, she thought.

  “I don’t think either of us want it anymore. It can stay here with our secrets.” Aydan checked his Ogham. “Marja says she’s waiting for us outside.”

  A couple of early bird hostel goers observed Aydan’s costume with great interest. Cassidy waited for him to use his versatile, I’m a magician, explanation. Instead, he grinned and cordially informed the young ladies that he was Canadian.

  “Don’t look now, but I think they’re booking flights to North America,” Cassidy snickered.

  “I’m driving you this time.” Marja leaned against her car, with folded arms. “If anything like last night happens, I’ll be with you. Oh, and don’t let me forget to stop by the hotel, so Cassidy can get her things.”

  ***

  Marja dropped the foursome off at the bottom of a small hill dotted with crimson wildflowers. “His house should be just around that hill. You know how to contact me. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll pick you up this afternoon.”

  “I can’t believe we’re cold-calling this guy,” Cassidy remarked.

  “He’s our best lead,” Danny said. Hopping over toadstools, she led the way up a worn cobblestone path.

  “I know. I just appreciate hearing someone else say it.” Cassidy followed close behind Danny, until the path widened enough for her to walk next to her. They approached a quaint stone cottage with a well-tended flower garden.

  “If a witch offers us sweets, we hightail it out of here got it?” Aydan buttoned up a short, grey peacoat to conceal his other attire.

  While Danny used the knocker on the emerald-green door, Cassidy noticed a quarter-sized Crescent V-Rod carved directly above the door knob. A bee buzzed around Danny’s
head, irritating her, when she would normally appreciate it for the elixir it concocted. Slipper-covered feet padded to the door. A salt-and-pepper haired gentleman weathered by approximately half-a-century filled a significant portion of the open doorway. He greeted them with an unassuming smile spread across his round face. A shiver went down Cassidy’s spine when she met his warm hazel gaze. She recognized a subtler version of the glowing allure she had until that moment believed unique to Taban. Does he count as witch with candy? she wondered.

  “Hello.” Danny thrust out her hand. “We’re here to meet Eamon Baird.”

  “Guid morning. I’m Eamon.”

  “We want to ask you about this.” Danny said waving the paperback at him.

  He plucked the novel out of Danny’s hand and swept his arm out behind him. “Then come in.”

  Cautiously, Cassidy followed her friends through the door and into a cozy living room. A fire blazed in a stone hearth heating the room so effectively that Cassidy hastily removed her jacket. Sitting in a wooden rocking chair, Eamon Baird folded his hands in his lap. “Please, make yourselves comfortable,” he said.

  Danny and Cassidy claimed a sofa across from him and Aydan grabbed a red armchair next to the sofa. Donovan remained standing, but rested his hand on the back of the couch behind Cassidy.

  “Who do I have the honor of entertaining today?”

  “I’m Aydan and this is my brother Donovan.”

  “Tolymie?” Eamon asked. Cassidy felt the cushion behind her head tighten as Donovan clenched it in his hand. “You must be Edana Reyes. How is your relationship with Eadowen?” Eamon continued.

  “What relationship with Eadowen?” Danny asked.

  Giving Eamon a possessive look, Cassidy put her arm around Danny. “She isn’t in one with him.”

  “Oh … I see.” Eamon’s voice remained monotone, but his brow furrowed. “What’s your name, lassie?”

  “Cassidy Adisa.”

  “She’s a friend,” Aydan explained. “And a very good friend to Edana.”

  Eamon’s almond-shaped eyes searched Cassidy’s face the same way her mothers regarded her when they suspected she’d told a lie. Though she had no intention to mislead, she flinched under his gaze. “Tell me, Ms. Adisa, what is carved on my door?” he inquired.

  “It’s a Crescent V-Rod,” Cassidy answered. “An ancient Pictish symbol likely meaning eternity.”

  “Follow me,” he instructed, rolling up the green rug between the sofa and the rocking chair. This revealed a wooden trapdoor with the same crescent moon symbol carved into it. Eamon opened the door and descended down a stairwell. When no one followed him, he said, “How can I trust you, if you don’t trust me?” Reluctantly, they obeyed. Aydan, unable to bear the heat any longer and doffed his coat.

  When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Eamon pushed open a heavy door and Danny gasped. Underneath the tiny cottage was a gigantic room protruding below the hill. Amplifying the light from a couple of floor lamps, a large chandelier, like the one she had seen in the Tolymie’s home, hung from the ceiling. Chay sat cross-legged in a large armchair sipping tea, next to a floor-to-ceiling book shelf. Against the far wall, Danny followed her nose to find a table with a decorative platter of fruits, breads, and cheeses.

  A man rested his head on the back of another armchair. Only a couple strands of white in his long black hair suggested he might be over thirty, though his posture and the frailness of his limbs were that of a much older man. His grey eyes flitted to the entrance as though to assess the commotion, but the way he stared in their direction without registering them suggested to Cassidy that his sight was limited.

  “Who is that?” Cassidy breathed to no one in particular as she admired the man’s elegance.

  Aydan whirled around defensively to see who had caught Cassidy’s interest then he sighed. “Sorry, you can’t have him, he was married … to my mother. And he doesn’t look good at all—I didn’t even recognize him on first glance.” Leaving Cassidy on the steps, Aydan rushed to his father’s side.

  “Dad!” Donovan shouted and ran to him. The man pushed against the padded arm of his chair, but failed in his attempt to stand. With great care, Donovan helped him to his feet. Once standing Daray wrapped a shaking arm around Aydan’s shoulders and rested his pale hand on Donovan’s waist.

  “I’m so happy to see you.” He kissed both of his sons, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I regretted leaving you so much.”

  “It’s okay, we found you.”

  “The letters …”

  The brothers waited patiently for their father to complete his thought but he sunk back into the chair as though he had already communicated the full sentence.

  “Did you receive the letters I wrote for Daray?” Eamon filled in for Daray.

  “Yes, thank you,” Aydan addressed both his father and Eamon. “We had trouble decoding them, but they gave us hope that you were safe.”

  “Tell me.” Daray tugged at one of the straps on his middle child’s attire. “Is this in vogue now or is it just you?”

  “That’s the dad I remember,” Aydan squeezed his father.

  Not wanting to disrupt the family reunion, Cassidy shrunk against the wall. A cold, sharp edge dug into her neck. Startled, she turned to find a few still photographs and a couple of framed video loops adorning the stairwell wall. Most of the pictures featured a man who on closer inspection she recognized as a younger version of Eamon. The young Eamon looked arrogant, but also intriguing in a vibrant way that resembled Taban even more than Eamon’s present self. In one still photograph, a sturdy woman had one arm around the younger Eamon and the other around Daray who looked about the same, but healthier. Based on the suppressed glare with which Eamon regarded Daray and the way Daray’s arm coiled around the woman’s hips, Cassidy inferred a romantic rivalry. I’m glad I wasn’t caught in that love triangle, she thought. I don’t know which one I would have picked. Next to the still she found a video of Eamon and a man with azure eyes waxing their surfboards on a coast that looked far too warm to be in Scotland. She put her hand to her chest, as she looked at the face of the azure-eyed man, but dismissed her beating heart and his similarity to Taban as a figment of her imagination caused by her residual attraction to the Each Uisge.

  “Daray and I were quite something weren’t we?” Eamon said behind her. He indicated the formidable woman between Daray and himself. “That’s Artio, Aydan and Donovan’s mother.” The mirth in his expression suggested to her that he had been watching her gawk at the photographs from his youth for a while.

  “Um, who is this?” She pointed to the man with the surfboard.

  “Tynan Mir. He was a fun guy, but either he got worse or I started to notice his lack of connection to people. It was too bad. I felt a sort of connection to him. I probably told him more than I should have … Well anyway, we lost touch many years ago,” Eamon said.

  “I knew someone like him. He even had the same last name.”

  “You did?” Eamon rested one hand on the wall next to Cassidy’s shoulder while he tilted her chin up to look at him with the other. Better prepared for his penetrating scrutiny she stared back at him defiantly. “He was your lover … or at least you wanted him to be.” He withdrew from her to a more normal conversation distance.

  Her lack of discomfort during her close proximity to him all but confirmed her suspicions. “You’re a descendant of a Peach Whisky aren’t you?” she demanded.

  “A what?” He considered her mangled pronunciation. “Each Uisge?”

  “That thing. It sounds so much better with a Scottish accent.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m spawn of an Each Uisge.” He slipped his hands in his sport coat pockets and looked at the picture frames.

  She edged away from him, down the stairs.

  “Don’t be afraid.” He shook his head with a forlorn chuckle. “I’m not what I once was. Now I’m just a harmless middle-aged man.”

  Says you, Cassidy thought. Sh
e checked around the basement. Preoccupied with their father, it was likely that neither of the Tolymie brothers had noticed her exchange with Eamon. Danny’s attention was divided only between her plate of food and Chay. “The guy I mentioned was a Peach Whisky,” Cassidy said. “So I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me what it’s like to be one.”

  “For Tynan and me it was as if we gained our energy from bending others to our will. I can’t even describe the elation when someone fell for whatever trap I’d set. It just felt so natural.” He tenderly rested his fingers on the photographed face of the woman he had called Artio. The skin around his eyes wrinkled when he tensed his cheeks as though to swallow a painful memory. “But when someone got hurt in my games—which was often—it hurt me too. That is where Tynan and I were different—I was torn between my love of people, and my drive to manipulate and control. He had no such misgivings, and at the time I envied him.”

  “You were jealous that he didn’t feel burdened by the consequences of his actions.”

  “Yes.” He offered her his arm. “Walk with me.” The basement seemed like a ballroom the way he lead her across the polished floor toward the fruit platter. By supporting herself on his arm she eased the pressure on her still throbbing feet. “Must be hard to be supernatural,” he commented.

  “What … I’m not …”

  “The Tuatha de Danann died out.” He handed her a small cluster of champagne grapes from the platter. “If it weren’t for humans the Tuatha de Danann genes wouldn’t exist anymore. Humans are the paranormal race to the Danann because they came later and survived.”

  “Well, that’s a different way of looking at it.” Cassidy popped one of the tiny spheres between her teeth releasing the bittersweet juice on her taste buds. Picking the grape skin out of her teeth with her tongue, behind a paper napkin, Cassidy pondered her mix of relief and frustration at meeting an Each Uisge who seemed to be kind. I suppose taking pleasure in charming people doesn’t inherently make someone evil. She thought as she admired Eamon. If all Each Uisges were bad, it would be so much easier for me to rally against them, but I guess I can’t shove them into that small a box.