Tethered Souls

by Jessica McCrory

  “We have Emit.” He didn’t look at her after he had said it. Just continued to stare down at his hands, afraid of what he might see on her face.

  Abby felt a satisfaction after hearing his words. “Good.”

  He looked up at her with an expression of shock mixed with relief. “What?”

  “Good.” She repeated. “I’m glad you do. Where is he?”

  “In the barn.” He didn’t know what to make of her reaction.

  “Let's go.” She stood and began to put her shoes on.

  “What? No, you don’t need to see him.”

  “Yes I do, and I’m going to. I hope you come with me. I have a few things to say to him.”

  “Abby, you don’t need to do this, Myria and I have been questioning him. As of now, he hasn’t said anything.”

  “Then let me try. Aengus, he had a hand in the deaths of my parents. He betrayed me.” She spits out the words still angry with herself for not seeing through the charade. “I’m going to talk to him.” She marched past him as quickly as her aching body would allow her and headed downstairs.

  Abby stood in front of the closed barn doors wondering if she had made the right decision. Was she ready to go in and face Emit? To face everything he had done to her over the past few weeks?

  Aengus stood quietly next to her patiently waiting for her to make up her mind. She looked up at him and saw the support in his eyes. She grabbed the front of his shirt to tug him down and crushed her mouth to his. His arms came around her and for a moment everything was perfect. They dove into each other and she was almost able to forget all of the pain she had suffered over the last week.

  He slowed the kiss and pulled away so his forehead rested against hers.

  “Do that again love and we may never make it into the barn.”

  She smiled, this is what Sheamus had been talking about. She couldn’t allow herself to be so blinded by vengeance that she missed out on all the love she had in her life. She kissed him again lightly and moved to open the door.

  Emit sat in the center of the breezeway his hands tied behind him to the chair. She saw that his legs were bound as well and she felt grim satisfaction in knowing that he was suffering. His face was black and blue and after a glance at Aengus’s knuckles, she knew why. Good, she thought to herself.

  “Why hey, there Gale.” He grinned smugly at her. “Been wondering when you were going to show.”

  “Emit.” She spit the word out as if it were a curse. “How did I not know?”

  He laughed now, and it stung in her ears. “Because you are a naive little bitch Gale. So wrapped up in your own little world that you never even bothered to look outside of it.”

  Aengus tensed up next to her and she put her hand on his arm.

  “Oh isn’t that sweet! To bad Caipre will have her eh Aengus?”

  “Aengus don’t.” She said softly. She knew Emit was only trying to rile him up and she needed to say a few things to him while he was still conscious.

  “I’ll. Be. Right. Outside.” Aengus aid through gritted teeth.

  “Bye, bye boy.” Emit smiled and suddenly his face changed. His eyes were no longer the brown they had always been, they were now solid black. The whites of them had disappeared and his face had contorted in a way that sent chills down her spine. He smiled and she knew that it was no longer Emit they were talking to.

  “Please boy, won't you stay and chat with us for a moment?” Caipre’s voice layered over Emit’s and Aengus moved to stand in front of Abby.

  “Oh please. You think I couldn’t kill you both where you stand?” As if to demonstrate he whispered something in a language Abby couldn’t understand and Aengus fell to his knees.

  “Aengus!”

  He was clutching his head and she could see the pain reflected on his face.

  “Stop it Caipre!”

  “You listen to me Aine, I will slaughter every single thing you care about. Your sister and parents were only the beginning of the long line of blood that will be spilled if you do not come to me. His foolish sister only thinks she knows what I am capable of. I have been alive a long time now Aine, I have had plenty of time to think, to study and to learn.”

  Abby heard Myria’s screams as she came in behind them and rushed to Aengus’s side.

  “Stop it you son of a bitch!” She yelled at him. She began to mutter in an old language trying to counteract Caipre’s magic.

  Aengus stopped clutching his head but stayed kneeling on the ground breathing heavily.

  “I will kill you.” He said to Caipre.

  “You do not possess the power needed to kill me, boy. Neither of you does.” Caipre smiled at them through Emit.

  He looked Abby up and down greedily and licked lips that did not belong to him. “Oh, I will have you. Maybe I will keep the two of you alive.” He looked at Aengus and Myria. “I may have other uses for you, witch. And as for you,” He looked at Aengus. “I may keep you around so you can watch and wish every day that I had killed you.” He laughed now and the sound was maddening.

  Aengus charged and jumped on top of Emit.

  “Oh please.” She heard Caipre say. “You think I care about this miserable being?”

  Aengus sat back off of him and Abby watched as Emit’s face contorted in terror.

  “No!” He screamed and his voice was back to normal, “You said I was only to deliver the message! I did as you asked! You promised me I would be fine!” She watched as Emit’s body began to shake. His eyes rolled back in his head and Abby nearly vomited when she saw the blood begin to pour from his mouth.

  “No, no stop!” She screamed and lunged for him. Myria pulled her back and Aengus rushed her wrapping his arms around her. She had wanted him to die, believed he had deserved it for what he had done, but seeing him this way, the horror on his face, as he realized what was going to become of him, was just too much for her to handle.

  “There’s nothing we can do Abby!”

  She knew the moment he had died. Abby screamed, not in fear but in anger. She was tired of not having any control over anything.

  “Son of a bitch.” Aengus fell to his knees again.

  “Aengus, are you okay?” Her anger over Emit forgotten, Abby knelt with him and put 44her hands gently on either side of his face to look into his eyes.

  “Yes, my head still hurts, though.”

  “We need to get you inside.” Myria helped Abby lift Aengus to his feet and they walked inside together.

  “I felt as if someone had dug something into my brain,” Aengus told them later that evening.

  “That sounds like how it was for me that night in the barn.” Abby hadn’t left his side since they had gotten into the house, and even now was as close to him as she could get without actually being in his lap.

  “How had we not seen that coming?” She wondered aloud. “Why did he kill him?”

  “He didn’t need him anymore,” Myria responded.

  “I wanted him dead,” Abby admitted.

  “We all wanted him dead,” Sheamus added, “But not in that way.”

  “How did Caipre kill him? He wasn’t even physically there.”

  “He told us.” Myria looked up and for the first time, Abby saw fear in her bright blue eyes. “He is much more powerful now. All I did was give him two hundred years to plan his payback.”

  “Myria this isn’t your fault.” Sheamus stood from his seat on the couch and walked to where she stood in front of the fireplace.

  “How is it not?” Unshed tears shone in her eyes. “This is all my fault. Had I been more knowledgeable I could have found a way to bring Aine back without leaving Caipre alive. We should have killed him before the spell was ever cast.”

  “Had we done that we would never have gotten to her in time, Myria.” Aengus stood now and walked to his sister. “We will beat him Myria. The anniversary is almost upon us and when it gets here, we will win.”

  “How do we beat him?” Abby asked from the couch. “What ends the c
urse?”

  “A formal choosing on the eve of the anniversary.” Aengus turned to face her. “That is if you will have me.”

  “Of course, I will.” She smiled, and all of today's events forgotten, moved to stand next to him.

  “A handfasting then.”

  Abby wrapped her arms around Aengus’s neck. “Are you asking me to marry you?” She playfully asked.

  “I am.”

  “I will.” She responded at the same time.

  Sheamus clapped Aengus on the shoulder and then turned to look at Myria who had a small smile playing on her lips, he knew that although she was burdened, she was still happy for her brother. “Well then let's celebrate tonight. We can deal with everything else tomorrow.”

  The evening that had begun with such horror had turned into one of the best days of her life.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I’m ready to go Aengus.” She stood anxiously in the barn and watched him pace in front of the saddled horses. “Myria said it would be good for me to get out. Get some fresh air. It’s been nearly three weeks.” She pleaded.

  “He could be out there.”

  “I’m going to go bonkers if I stay in that house any longer. We will be extra cautious. Yes, we will, won't we girl?” Abby leaned down and pet the mares long mane. Caley whinnied in response and Eamon stomped his foot in impatience as Aengus climbed on his back.

  “Stick by me. No straying.”

  “Aengus will you lighten up? Your rules, I promise.” She smiled and took a deep breath. The air felt cold in her lungs and she welcomed it. She had been in the house for what seemed like forever and she couldn’t be happier to be out. Not that being locked in hadn’t been wonderful too. She touched her lips gently and her mind flashed back to the love they had made just that morning. She couldn’t get enough of him and even now, watching him, she wanted him.

  “If you keep staring at me, love, how will you see where you are going?” He grinned back at her and she felt her cheeks heat.

  “It's not my fault, you shouldn’t be in front.”

  “Aye, but if you were in front, we wouldn’t even have made it out of the barn.”

  Her blood warmed and she caught up with him.

  It had been a week before she had been able to stomach stepping foot in the barn. They had buried Emit’s body and hadn’t spoken of the incident since. She still couldn’t believe what Caipre had done to him. She felt no sadness in his death, just horror in the way it had happened. The look on his face would be forever burned into her memory.

  “Something on your mind, love?” Aengus’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.

  “Just admiring how beautiful it is out here.” She lied, there was no reason he should know that she still thought about what had happened. “I think I could live here forever and still I would be surprised of the beauty every time I stepped outside.”

  “As long as you were by my side I could. I had forgotten how beautiful my Country is. I spent a long time in the dark, you brought light back for me.”

  She beamed at him. He couldn’t know how much true that statement was for her as well.

  She couldn’t imagine what he had gone through the last two hundred years, she knew even without her memories that had the roles been reversed, she may not have survived. How had he? She wondered. How had this magnificent, honorable man survived nearly two centuries without losing his mind?

  She watched him again. His jaw was set and she knew that those blue eyes didn’t miss a thing as they rode in the trees.

  She could see the muscles tense under his dark sweater and knew that he was ready to pounce the moment he sensed danger of any kind. Oh, how she wished she could remember! Wished so badly that she could recall the man that he had been then, compare him to the man who rode beside her now. She wanted to remember everything about her past. It seemed as if every single day she felt like she was one step behind everyone else as if they were all in on some inside joke she wasn’t privy to being a part of.

  She wanted that to change so badly.

  “Do you think Myria could bring my memories back?”

  He stopped Eamon and looked to her.

  “You want to do that?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? I want to remember Aengus, but every time I try to focus I get a terrible headache. It feels like it’s just out of my reach and it's so damn frustrating.”

  “We can surely talk with her about it when we get back home.”

  “I just, I want to feel like I’m on equal ground with you all.”

  “Abby, you don’t ever need to feel like you aren’t.” He touched her hand. “You are so much more than you give yourself credit for. We will talk to Myria, try to get your memories back, I would really like that too.” He smiled. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

  The lush green of Ireland not only surrounded them but also seemed as if it accepted them as part of its world. They rode past trees that seemed alive. She could feel the magic pulsing in everything around them and wondered why she had never felt it before. As if everything was connected. She could hear the birds singing their happy songs and watched as they flew in between the trees and then back up into the sky towards freedom.

  They came upon a clearing and Abby’s jaw fell when she saw what it held. The most magnificent waterfall sat in front of them, its water spilling from a cliff that must have sat at least fifty feet high and sent the water crashing into the pool waiting below. The pool was the clearest she had ever seen and it seemed as if it were glass, rather than liquid.

  She followed Aengus over to the edge of the pond and they dismounted. Still, in awe, she knelt next to the waters edge and reached a hand in. She was shocked when she realized the water was warm! How would the water be warm this time of year? As if he read her mind, Aengus knelt beside her.

  “It's a hot spring.”

  “It's wonderful. So beautiful, and peaceful.” She stood with him and noticed the way his shoulders were rigid with tension. She saw the pain in his eyes and wished she could wipe it all away.

  “Aengus, what’s wrong?”

  “I haven’t been here in quite some time, love.”

  “How long?”

  “One hundred and ninety-nine years.”

  She touched his arm.

  “Come, there’s more.”

  She followed him to a small path of stones that led around the pool and up to the waterfall. That’s when she noticed that there was a gap between the stone and the water.

  “A cave.”

  “We discovered this place together when we were but teenagers. It's also where I told you I loved you the first time.” Tears filled his eyes as he walked around the damp cavern.

  He had hoped bringing her here would jog her memories, bring back what she had lost. What they had lost. But instead, all he could see was Aine as she lay dying in his arms. He had promised to protect her, and he had failed.

  Abby touched a heart that had been carved into the cool stone. Their initials were in the center. The moment her hand touched the rim of the heart, her mind flew somewhere else.

  “Aengus isn’t this amazing!” Aine exclaimed as she wandered the small cavern they had discovered not long ago. “And hidden behind the waterfall! Who would have thought! Each time we come here, it seems to be even more magnificent to me.” She turned and saw it in his eyes before he had even to say it.

  “Aine, I...” He stuttered and rubbed his hand over his face.

  She walked over to him and touched his chest. “Yes, Aengus?” She asked hopefully. Please say it she prayed silently. Tell me that you love me and that you want to spend the rest of your life with me! Please show me that what I have been feeling isn’t just one-sided, that you feel it too.

  “I...” He started again.

  “Yes, Aengus?” She repeated.

  “I love you. There I said it!” He smiled brightly and she could see the accomplishment in his face.

  “I love you too Aengus.”

  �
��You do?” He sounded genuinely surprised and she laughed.

  “Of course, you fool.” She kissed him lightly and then danced around in their secret place.

  He grabbed her and pulled her in close.

  “Aine, I will love you until the end of time. I would give my life for yours and one day, I will marry you.” Without giving her a chance to speak, he crushed his mouth to hers. Her hands wound around his neck and she gripped him as if the whole world was going to collapse around them. Both were too young to worry about such things as status, they were to elated in the fact that they loved each other with every bit of their hearts.

  Abby pulled her hand away from the stone. This hadn’t been like the other memories, this hadn’t rocked her to her core or made her pass out, and it had warmed her. Given her hope that she might regain her memories after all. It was as if she had been watching them from the outside, just as she had been that night in the garden.

  “We were so in love Aengus.” Tears began to spill down her cheeks. “Why did he have to tear us apart?”

  He pulled her into his arms. “Hush now love, we are here, and we are together. We have another chance Abby.”

  He gently lifted her chin with his fingers and cupped her face as he stared into her eyes. In them, she saw the same promises she had seen in the memory.

  This time, it was her who pressed her lips to his. She tasted all that he had to offer and still begged for more. He deepened the kiss and crushed her to him. Her hands greedily yanked at his sweater. She needed to feel his skin against hers, needed to feel the warmth of their love running through her veins. He stepped back and removed his sweater while she pulled at her own.

  “No, let me.” He lifted her sweater slowly letting his fingers light fires on her skin. She heard him gasp when he saw she wore nothing underneath. “Oh love, the things you do to me.”