Son of Sun (Forgotten Gods (Book 2)) (2 page)

“What I wouldn’t give to tell them both where to go,” Sam said as she tore into the plastic covering her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I often wondered if Sam and Mattie would even have spoken to one another if it hadn’t been for me. Mattie could be standoffish. If you didn’t know her, you would think she was stuck on herself, with looks like hers. And she didn’t do much to make people think otherwise. Sam on the other hand, was an open book. All her secrets came spilling out. She was shorter than me, a little too plump to fit in with the barbie types that populated this campus, with a dense mop of hair that was constantly hanging in her eyes.

“And you’ve never even met them,” I chuckled at her perceptive judgement of my sworn enemies as I picked up one of Sam’s grapes and bit it in half, letting its cool, tarty sweetness pucker my tongue. Mattie reached over to grab one too as Sam took a bite of her sandwich and blew at the strings of hair kicked up by the distant ocean breeze.

Somehow, we had found each other and our little group worked.

“I can’t decide what I’m going to wear tonight,” Mattie announced in a bored way, inspecting a grape she rolled between slender fingers.

“Tonight? To The Underground?” Sam’s head snapped from me to Mattie, completely forgetting our conversation. I made a mental note to thank Mattie later for that. “Do you think Seth’s going?” She eagerly asked about her current crush.

Mattie nodded her head, the black bob skimming her shoulders. Sam was practically floating across the table toward Mattie now, her focus totally on our beautiful friend.

“Of course he is. He and Thomas go every Wednesday night.” Mattie dangled the little morsel of information before an almost salivating Sam.

“So you and Thomas are official now?” Sam asked, her voice halting with envy.

“Yep, and lucky for you Thomas is with Seth whenever he’s not with me. So I now have all the dirt on your crush. And if I have my way—which I always do—he’ll be your boyfriend before too long!” Mattie’s grey eyes flashed with deviousness as she rubbed her hands together like a mad professor plotting her next scheme.

Sam squealed and fake fainted into my side as if I was the only thing keeping her from hitting the ground at the moment. I couldn’t help but laugh at her obsession over a boy who would forever be beyond ordinary to me. After loving Dayne, how could anyone be anything but?

“Is he as perfect as I think he is? Because he’s practically a god in my book!” Sam delighted in the euphoria of new love, but her comparing this boy to a god sent a pang of anguish to my core so swift and strong that I whimpered the tiniest bit. Luckily, they didn’t notice.

“Better!” Mattie tossed her hair, tucking it behind her ear and leaning over the table to lay out her plan. “So you and Faye are coming with us tonight. Thomas specifically told me to bring you guys. Said there were no hot girls there last week.”

Sam was bouncing up and down in her seat now, clapping her hands excitedly, her words slurred and mouth stuck together by the last bite of peanut butter.

“Um, I don’t think I can. I need to study and I have my first riding lesson with the coach this afternoon. I’m sure I’ll be wiped out.” Not to mention the nerves that had been somersaulting in my stomach all morning over my first official equestrian team practice. I shouldn’t have looked at Mattie as I said this. Her excitement melted to annoyed exasperation, and, beside me, Sam had frozen mid bounce, mouth still stuck together.

“No way, Faye Kent! You aren’t getting out of this. We’ve watched you mope around campus long enough. You’re going tonight if we have to drag you there kicking and screaming.” It was obvious I was going to lose this fight. So, I said nothing, focusing instead on my hands folded in my lap.

“I need you there, Faye.” Sam gulped at the remaining peanut butter. “Mattie’s going to be making out with Thomas all night, and I need a wing-woman. Please...” She drew out her begging to the point that people started staring. As I looked at the strange faces staring at us—or more likely, only at me—I just wanted them to stop.

“Okay! Fine!” I said throwing my hands wildly into the air in surrender, hoping to make her stop.

Sam went back to her boisterous bouncing and Mattie swallowed a smug grin as she tilted her head back to catch sunlight filtering through the leaves. In my mind, I was secretly hoping I would fall off a horse at practice and have a reason not to go with them. But I knew I wasn’t that lucky.

St. Anne’s campus
was idyllic. Its beauty completely unblemished, as if the landscape had long ago accepted the alien growth of grey stone buildings and weathered slate roofs as its own. Over the years, the forest had graciously consumed every stationary surface, covering walls and walkways with green swaths of fluffy moss and slick coats of lichen. Even the trees hovered closer to the ground over St. Anne’s hallowed campus, protecting the secret little world beneath a tangle of gnarly branches.

It became a bubble—like a child’s snow globe—a picturesque place buffered from the dangers outside its glass. Upon exiting my dorm in the cool, damp mornings, a brisk ocean breeze would tangle in my hair and carry me toward class. Its salty breath whispering as softly as the winds from Banshee Point. On those mornings, when a sleepy sun peeked through the canopy to cover me in a delicate sheen of clear morning light, I could fool myself into thinking I was walking my way to Ennishlough. St. Anne’s and the surrounding forest were every bit as green as Ireland, and every bit as mysterious. With age came secrets, and it seemed as if every shadow I passed had a story to tell. Maybe that’s why I felt most at peace wandering the lush campus grounds—I kept plenty of secrets myself.

It was those mossy walkways I followed Sam and Mattie down later that afternoon, cheese pizza sitting like a brick on my stomach. Never had I feared riding a horse. But that afternoon I did. It had been months since I’d sat on a horse. What used to be the only thing that mattered to me had quickly become a memory too painful to face. As Sam and Mattie prattled on about Seth and plans for the evening, I was busy taking deep breaths and trying to calm the nerves in my belly.

I inhaled deeply, turned my face toward the tangle of gnarly black branches overhead and relished the soft kiss of sunlight on my cheeks.
It’s going to be okay.
I repeated to myself over and over. I was going to be fine.

Slowly, Sam and Mattie’s voices faded away and I found a clear moment of concentration, something that had eluded me in the months since I left LisTirna. If I could find my center, I could concentrate. If I could concentrate on just riding, and block out the painful memories associated with riding, I would be fine. My first lesson would be a success; I would more than earn my spot on the equestrian team, and maybe it would be a solid first step in putting my life back together. I know it was silly, but I hadn’t bothered to pick up my old life again. A human life seemed insignificantly temporary to me now. Dayne was coming back for me. He had promised.

With a sigh, I lowered my head and opened my eyes, expecting to see my friends ahead of me on the path.

Only I didn’t.

Somehow, in the handful of seconds I’d taken to raise my face and clear my head, the world around me had changed completely. Gone were the lush green surfaces of St. Anne’s campus and the virgin forest beyond. Gone were my friends and their endless talk of boys. Gone were the spider web of branches filtering the sunlight and breeze.

I was standing in a desert of sorts. Though not a hot one. The ground was dusty, rocky, and hard beneath my feet. I gasped, whirling around, unsure of what was happening. Black gravel crunched under foot. The sun burned so brightly in the sky I had to cover my eyes. A loamy musk hung in the thin, dry air, stinging my nostrils. St. Anne’s couldn’t be further from this arid landscape I found myself in. I began to panic, breathing so quickly I feared I would faint.

To my left rose a mountain, its peak disappearing into fluffy white clouds. Only it wasn’t the sloped, golden mound of a California mountain. Its surface was slick black rock, jagged in places where spikes had sheared off in long, black shards. I stood on a lesser mountain, its slope a little more forgiving, but no less dangerous. As I swept a panicked gaze down to my right I saw a lone figure. His shoulders towered over the earth, much like Dayne when he was in Sidhe form, only this body shone with the golden light of sun.

Without really considering my decision, I began to run toward him. It wasn’t hard to see that the figure who approached me held great magic in his arms. A magic as old as Dayne’s. As I picked up speed, so did he, our bodies running toward each other along the mountain slope. Was he the answer I’d been waiting for? Had he been sent by Dayne?

As he neared, his eyes took on a feral glow, a malicious golden swirl of angry color. His lips curled over glinting, alabaster teeth into a vicious snarl. A growl rose from his throat, as a scream ripped through mine. One thing became clear—he wasn’t the answer I was looking for. My fear swelled to epic proportions and I knew his was magic I should fear.

Quickly, I spun on my heel, running away from him instead of to his arms. But it was too late. His footsteps were faster than mine and in seconds the presence of his unmistakable power eclipsed me. Running was no longer an option. Fearing for my life, in whatever alternate reality had consumed me, I fell to the dusty ground, clawing into the solid earth with my fingernails as I searched for something to hold onto, something to save me.

In the instant his body should have overtaken me, a great whoosh of wind washed over me. A whirlwind of dust kicked up in my face and I gasped as I looked up. Above me hovered an enormous bird. Its feathers black as wet night and a beak like a dagger. I rose and, shielding my eyes from the sun, stared at the bird that had been a man seconds ago. His eyes burned a wicked ochre as he glared at me, body erect in the air, wings flapping at his sides. His cry echoed over the mountains as he gained height and turned to fly away.

“Faye?” My name was barely audible through the ringing in my ears. The bird’s echo still clung to my brain, and it wasn’t until a hand clasped around my arm that I was brought back to reality.

A strobe of white light blinded me, and the vision disappeared. The dream vanished just as quickly as it had come. The desert mountain range was gone. The bird was no where in sight. My ears no longer ached with his call. St. Anne’s damp green surroundings consumed my senses again. Sam and Mattie looked at me as if I had nine eyeballs on my head.

“Faye, are you okay?” Mattie asked again, shaking me slightly in her grasp.

I still stood, hand to my forehead, staring into the distance where the man-bird would have disappeared. Slowly, I rolled my eyes to left and to the right, looking for some sign I wasn’t losing it. Hoping I hadn’t just hallucinated as I feared I had.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Mattie said, guiding me to a nearby bench and handing my book bag to Sam.

“Should I call someone? The school nurse?” Sam asked, whipping her cell phone out of her pocket.

“No, she’ll be fine. Episodes like this are common with PTSD.” Mattie informed Sam with the cool calm of a nurse under pressure.

“PTSD?”

“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She’s been so worried about her first riding lesson this afternoon. It probably triggered some memory from the summer.” Mattie explained as she took my hand from my forehead and replaced it with her own, feeling for a fever. “Faye, can you hear me?”

I didn’t know what to do. Of course my hallucination wasn’t PTSD, a disorder my parents insisted I had. But I also wasn’t prepared to tell people I was having full on magical hallucinations. Truly? I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but I decided it was best to play along with Mattie’s theory.

I let a shiver roll down the length my body, as if snapping back to reality, and fluttered my eyes like I was regaining my sight. I looked from Sam to Mattie helplessly.

“What just happened?”

“You blacked out for a minute. But you’re fine now.” Mattie said, offering me water from the bottle in my book bag. I took it, nodding my head in thanks. Strangely, I didn’t have to fake the tremor in my hands.

“Are you feeling okay?” Sam asked, voice full of concern.

“Yeah, I just…” I let my voice trail off as words failed me. I couldn’t lie to cover my tracks. All I could do was shut up and let them assume what they would.

“Faye, I know you’ve been worried about your riding lesson this afternoon. Do you want me to tell the coach you aren’t feeling well?”

I thought about Mattie’s offer. It was so tempting. I wasn’t entirely sure what had triggered the vision I had just experienced, but stress seemed a good enough reason as any. As much as I wanted to say
yes
, I couldn’t run from my past forever.

“Tempting, but no.” I answered and stood, trying out my legs to be sure I wasn’t wobbly. It was really just for show. I felt fine, confused, but fine. Visions used to trip me up, and weird as this one was, it was no different from any others. It was part of my life I’d learned to live with. “Can’t run forever.”

Mattie stood and offered me a dazzling smile. She locked her grey-blue eyes on me and took my shoulders in her hands.

“You are going to be great today. Those girls aren’t going to know what hit them when they see you on top of a horse. Just remember, St. Anne’s wouldn’t be paying for you to go school if you weren’t a badass in the ring. You got this girl.” She released my shoulders and held up her fist like teammates often do.

I bumped her fist with mine, struggling to swallow the dopey grin playing with the corners of my mouth.

“Yeah, you totally got this!” Sam chimed in, holding up her fist, and sounding every bit the boarding school girl she hated being. “I almost forgot!” She exclaimed, diving into the oversized messenger bag slung across her body. She dug through the sleeves of paper and text books in her bag, a frown creasing her forehead as she struggled to find what she was looking for.