Lorehnin: A Novel of the Otherworld

by Johnson, Jenna Elizabeth

  Devlin turned cold eyes on me as the car idled. My fingers gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles white, but I was far too tense to attempt driving on the road with other vehicles right now.

  “I suspected something was off about him when he first arrived, but after you returned from your walk, there was dark magic clinging to you like a hundred leeches.”

  Oh, now wasn’t that a lovely little mental image. Devlin reached out and placed his hand gently on my forearm. I flinched, but he didn’t pull away.

  “Robyn, did he do anything to you?”

  Devlin’s voice was a low grumble, and I realized that the heat I felt was the pure violence flowing from him. I didn’t think he would ever hurt me, but it was never safe to be around a man in a rage.

  “Uh, no, he didn’t hurt me,” I answered, taking long, deep breaths and trying to get the memory of Mikael’s kiss out of my mind. Of course, trying not to think about it was the worst way to get it out of my thoughts. I could almost feel his warm mouth pressed against mine; his strong fingers pinching my waist.

  Whatever lingering magic that stolen kiss had left behind evaporated instantly as I recalled the strange static shock that had thrown us apart. Now I only felt dirty and violated.

  Suddenly, Devlin reached out and took my face in both his hands, tilting my head so that he could see my eyes. I took another shuddering breath and one of Devlin’s thumbs caressed my temple. Slowly, I began to relax. This was not the demanding grip Mikael had used on me. No, Devlin’s touch was gentle and reassuring, as if he were trying to hold me together. I was really tempted to crawl over the console and curl up in his lap, but that would have been utterly ridiculous. Instead I reached up and hooked my fingers over his wrists.

  “I’m fine, Devlin, honestly,” I insisted.

  “Tell me what happened during that walk,” he repeated.

  Sighing, I nodded and tried to pull his hands from my face. Reluctantly, he let go and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “We walked all the way to the pier. He told me about himself, about his childhood and his sister, then, all of a sudden, he grabbed me and kissed me.”

  Devlin made a strange sound in his throat, and I glanced up at him. During the few encounters I’d had with him, I’d never seen the Lorehnin man look so dangerous.

  “Did he hurt you?” Devlin finally asked.

  “No. But he did surprise me. And ticked me off,” I added as an afterthought.

  My fingertips prickled with the memory of shocking him. “Actually, I think I hurt him. Some sort of static electricity build up in my hands or something.” I snorted. “Though I don’t buy that. The shock was too strong. Whatever it was, it worked in my favor because after that, he let me go.”

  When I looked back at Devlin, one of his eyebrows was arched. “A static shock? On a beach saturated with water?”

  I shrugged. It made no sense to me either.

  Devlin turned his head to look out the windshield once more. The engine was still idling, wheezing a little like an old woman with bronchitis. The headlights shone onto the pavement ahead, one of them angled higher than the other. Someone who didn’t know any better might think my car had gotten into a scuffle with a telephone pole.

  Finally, Devlin took a deep breath and let it out. “As much as I’d love to march back down onto that beach and drive my sword through Mikael’s heart, I cannot. I am forbidden by the queen to execute the Daramorr unless I have no other choice.”

  I grimaced at the picture that painted in my head, even if it was a welcome one. No, not a good idea to deal with Otherworldly issues on mortal soil. I knew that from personal experience. Besides, it would be so much fun trying to explain it to the police when they showed up.

  “Is that a possibility?” I asked in a whisper. I was no friend of Mikael’s, but I also didn’t condone murder. Yet if he really was the Daramorr, then it was his fault Evan was so stressed out. It would also explain my classmate’s look of utter fear when Mikael had asked me to go for that walk.

  “Let’s discuss it on the drive back,” Devlin suggested as someone on the road behind me flashed me with their brights. Oh, I guess I’d had the turn signal on all this time.

  Waving through the back window, I pulled out, my old car lurching a little as I made a U-turn in order to head back into San Luis. Devlin remained silent as we meandered down the dark road, so I spoke up once we merged onto the freeway.

  “So what now?” I prompted.

  Devlin released a heavy sigh. “He knows for certain that I am on to him now, so things may get a bit complicated. If this Mikael is smart, which I think he is, he will lie low for a while. Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s able to cloak his glamour so well.”

  This last part was added as an afterthought, as if Devlin hadn’t wanted me to hear it.

  My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Oh, yay! Something more to worry about.

  Another mile passed before he spoke again, his voice low and cold.

  “I’m not comfortable with the Daramorr’s interest in you.”

  Immediately, my shoulders tensed. Oh, and I was? Hot or not, I was a bit averse to young men overpowering me and forcing their advances on me. And if Mikael was really what Devlin said he was, then I was even less enthusiastic about it.

  “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not too thrilled about it either,” I grumbled.

  Ten minutes later, we pulled off of the freeway and headed toward my neighborhood. I pulled up alongside the curb and turned the car off. Devlin joined me on the driver’s side and escorted me across the street to my door.

  As I fumbled with my key, I tried to think of something to say, but what could I possibly say after what I'd learned tonight?

  Before I could push my door open, Devlin’s arm reached out, and he planted his hand against the wall, catching my attention. I blinked up at him, wondering what he had meant by the gesture. His blue eyes were stern, his face hard. The mask of a soldier battening down all emotions.

  “I need you to be honest with me Robyn.”

  His voice was quiet, terrifying. I swallowed back a lump of fear and tried to move away from him. What had happened to the easy-going guy from earlier that evening?

  “What are you talking about?” I rasped.

  He cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowed.

  “The Daramorr would not waste this much time on a mortal, at least not a normal one. If he is hiding out on this side of the dolmarehn, that makes some sense. But to send faelah after you and to seek you out and seduce you? You have something he wants, and it would be better for both of us if you would just come clean.”

  The accusation in his voice was impossible to miss, and that made me angry. The old Robyn, the one from high school, wouldn’t have given a damn what someone else thought of her. More than likely, she would have made a flippant remark, and the one casting out insults would have limped away to lick his wounds. But you aren’t that person anymore, my conscience reminded me, at least not entirely. And this isn’t some hotheaded jock from senior class looking for an easy mark. This is Devlin O’Brolaigh, the gorgeous, Otherworldly man who’s saved your skin more than once, and who has also managed to get under it a little. I clenched my teeth and fought against that concept. Nope. Not going to let it affect me. You’re just a bit knocked off your game because of what happened tonight, I reminded myself.

  “I am being honest with you,” I snapped, “I was being honest with you from the very beginning.”

  “Then explain Mikael’s actions tonight.”

  That was enough. I understood that Devlin was concerned about Mikael being the Daramorr, but that was no excuse for him to attack me.

  “I don’t know,” I hissed. “Maybe he’s lonely here in the mortal world. Maybe he really is interested for other reasons than nefarious ones.”

  Devlin’s mouth grew harder, if that was even possible. Which only encouraged me to continue on.

  “Perhaps he needs some femal
e companionship and hell, I wouldn’t mind volunteering. He’s pretty hot, after all.”

  About ninety-five percent of what I said wasn’t true, but I was pissed. It had been a pretty crazy night, and Devlin wasn’t helping by accusing me of lying and insulting me at the same time.

  Frustrated, it took me longer than usual to get my door unlocked. The entire time Devlin only towered over me, his mood a low and angry simmer gradually working its way toward the boiling point.

  Finally, I flung the door open, shouting over my shoulder, “If you don’t want to believe what I told you when we first met, which was the truth by the way, then maybe you were right. Maybe it would be better if you forgot our conversation from earlier tonight and hunt this Daramorr on your own.”

  I slammed the door in his face and made an effort to slide the deadbolt into place as noisily as possible. Throwing my purse onto my bed, I headed directly for the bathroom, stripping off my still-damp clothes as I went. It wasn’t until the scalding stream of water was washing away the chill from my skin that I began to wonder why Devlin’s sudden mistrust in me had hurt so much. And it wasn’t until I lay curled up in bed, desperately trying to fall asleep, that I realized perhaps some part of him had gone further than just skin-deep after all.

  * * *

  My head was killing me when I woke up the next morning and a strange ache lingered in my hands and arms. When the pounding behind my eyes finally subsided, the memories from the night before came suddenly to life and proceeded to play tag in my head. Oh yeah, that’s right. The Samhain bonfire. Moira’s lascivious glances toward Devlin, Evan’s weird behavior, Mikael’s intrusive kiss and that blast of static electricity that forced him away, and finally, Devlin’s revelations and cold accusations. Ugh. Could my life get any more complicated?

  As I lay there in my own misery, my thoughts settled back to Evan. I didn’t recall seeing him after returning from my walk with Mikael, so he must have left the party early. Poor Evan. I sighed, a bubble of guilt welling up over my own self-pity. I thought my life was in a shambles, but Evan was most likely being manipulated by Mikael, his strange robotic behavior indicated as much. If Mikael were really Faelorehn, and if he had as much power as Devlin suggested, then I’d have to be really careful around Evan, or avoid him completely. At least until this whole mess blew over. And then there were the Noctyrnum to consider. What if I had been right in my theory regarding their involvement? What if Mikael was using them as a cover or as a means to get what he wanted? Was Evan just one of many troubled young adults being used against their will? But what bothered me the most was everyone’s sudden fascination with me. Why was I so special? As much as Devlin’s words had stung last night, he did have a point. The Daramorr couldn’t be interested in me just because I possessed some strange, earthly magic.

  Hold it, Robyn, I chastised myself, keep your head on straight. All of this is just conjecture. Maybe the reason Mikael is interested is because some of Meghan’s glamour rubbed off on you at some point in time and he hasn’t had a chance to realize that it isn’t your own.

  I took a deep breath and gazed down at myself, my favorite Jolly Roger T-shirt I liked to wear to bed faded and worn, the white skull and crossbones cracked from age. I splayed my fingers down my torso, smoothing out the wrinkles. There was nothing extra special about me. Last night, Devlin had tried to insinuate that I contained some sort of rare magic. As if I truly was from Eile, but deliberately kept that information from him.

  Don’t you think I would know if I was from the Otherworld? I wanted to scream at him now. Do you think I’d be working my tail off to make ends meet, while trying to get a decent education when I could be living in a world full of magic and myth?

  Then again, Meghan hadn’t known she was Faelorehn. Cade had told her. And if Devlin, with his gift of reading magic, couldn’t say for certain whether I was or wasn’t Otherworldly, then how on Earth would I ever know?

  I growled and picked up my pillow, launching it across the room. Yes, it was incredibly immature of me to do so, but a girl needed to throw something every now and again, if only to work the rage out. Fortunately, it was only Sunday and I didn’t have to be into work until two in the afternoon. A shift I’d be sharing with Moira. I grimaced. Now that I knew she was Faelorehn, and in league with the Daramorr, would that change our work relationship? And what about her interest in Devlin? Was that even genuine, or was it some scheme to give her brother time to sneak me off to a dark, isolated place? I shook my head in dismissal. That was memory I didn’t need to dwell on. Time to find something to keep me occupied so my thoughts didn’t drive me insane. I ended up spending most of the day loitering around my apartment, tidying up here and there and getting some laundry and studying done.

  At half past one, I was pedaling up the street, heading into town. Kelly and Jonathon, who’d been on shift since the Green Tea Leaf opened earlier that morning, looked eager to end their shifts.

  “Alright Kelly, you’re off,” I breathed, darting from the break room as I frantically tied my apron behind my back.

  Kelly ducked into the back room to gather her stuff and I glanced around the nearly-empty cafe. “Jon, you can go too. I think I can manage until Moira gets here.”

  “No can do,” my co-worker said as he cleaned one of the steamers.

  I arched a dark eyebrow at him.

  “Moira called in sick. I said I’d cover.”

  A strange sensation rippled through my stomach. Relief with a pinch of fear.

  “But, you’ve been here all day,” was my jumbled response.

  Jonathon turned to look at me as if I’d been a cup of coffee that had spontaneously broken into song.

  Eventually he shrugged. “It’s no biggie. Besides, I can use the extra income.”

  Breathing a sigh of relief, I clapped him on the back and smiled.

  “Awesome. So, do any of the shelves need restocking?”

  As I checked the inventory out on the floor, Jonathon took orders from the customers who sporadically came and went.

  By the end of my shift, I was feeling a lot less stressed out about the whole Moira-Mikael-Evan-Devlin thing. Maybe my mind just needed time to come to terms with everything, or maybe it was too numb to care. Margie came in to replace me at the end of my shift and I escaped into downtown San Luis.

  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, most people would be going home and spending time with their families, but I had no idea what my plans might be this year. About two weeks ago, I had sent my foster parents a letter, as I did every year around this time, informing them that I had an entire week off at Thanksgiving. I might not get along with them but they were still my family, after all, and I thought we should be able to act civilized around one another at least once or twice a year. Unfortunately, I hadn’t heard back from them yet. They never seemed to be home when I called and they didn’t return messages, so I had resorted to writing.

  Finding myself suddenly on my street, I shook the dismal thoughts from my mind.

  I think you should take a shower, get into your most comfy PJ’s, make something delicious for dinner and chill out in front of a good movie, I told myself. Fabulous idea.

  I didn’t notice it until I had parked my bike behind the house, but something bright and colorful was sitting at the bottom of the concrete steps leading to my door. Confused at first, I walked faster to see what it was. Once I was only a few feet away I was able to make out a simple glass jar full of flowers. Only, I didn’t recognize a single one of the blossoms. Some of them resembled roses, the petals crinkly instead of smooth. Others poured over the rim of glass like sweet peas, the blossoms unfurling like peach-hued butterfly wings. A sprig of something comparable to baby’s breath was the most intriguing. Instead of tiny, white cotton ball tufts, the tiny flowers on this plant were all star-shaped and a gorgeous shade of aquamarine. I was so entranced by the exotic bouquet that I forgot all about my earlier worries, and it wasn’t until I plopped down to sit on the steps that
I spotted the envelope taped to my door. Furrowing my brow, I reached out and pulled it free. My name was scrawled across the front in a bold, beautiful hand.

  Swallowing back my trepidation, I began to pull it open. Thick, expensive paper that looked handmade greeted me, and I very carefully unfolded it. Taking a breath and getting a sample of the sweet, heady fragrance coming from the flowers, I began to read:

  Dear Robyn,

  I cannot begin to express my regret at the way I spoke to you the other night. I was angry and concerned with regards to your safety, but instead of remaining calm, I lost control and took that frustration out on you. I hope you will accept my sincere apologies. I would have liked to give you this letter in person, but you were not at home and I had pressing matters to attend to in the Otherworld. I would like to meet with you again, for I still value your friendship and would very much appreciate your help in dealing with the Daramorr. Unfortunately, I will be quite occupied for the next few weeks, so I may not be able to call again for some time. Know that I’ll not be far away, and that I’ll be doing my best to ensure the Daramorr stays far from your home. I look forward to seeing you again in the coming weeks, but if you wish never to associate with me again, I will understand.

  Sincerely,

  Devlin O’Brolaigh

  P.S. The flowers are all from the Otherworld. Knowing your love for nature and your appreciation of living things, I wished to bring you a plant you could have kept in your house. Unfortunately, the plants from Eile cannot survive for long in the mortal world, so hopefully these will do.

  I must have sat on those cold concrete stairs for nearly half an hour, reading the letter over and over again. At some point I returned to the present and realized I should probably go inside.

  Slowly and carefully, I picked up the jar of flowers and proceeded to unlock my door. At first, I wanted to place them on my tiny kitchen island, because it was a central location, but in the end I decided on the windowsill above the sink. For some reason I felt the flowers needed to be there, maybe because they represented something wild and free and the window was the closest to the outside world they could get. However, a tiny part of me hoped that should Devlin pass this way anytime in the near future, he would see the bouquet and understand what it meant: that he was most definitely forgiven.