27. Thea
Chapter twenty-seven
Thea
Earth
C illian ran through the forest. I chased after him, delighting in his squeals of happiness as we ducked and weaved through the tall, black-trunked trees. He slipped on the moss covering the ground. I caught him up in the air, swinging him around while he giggled and squirmed in my arms. My back ached as though my wings wanted to burst free, but they didn’t emerge. Ireland was a land of forests and woods. So many delights abounded inside them, including the glow worms that had flickered. Cillian squirmed in my arms.
“You’ll never catch one,” I chided, but placed his feet on the ground.
“One day I will, Mother,” he said in a too wise a tone for a five-year-old boy.
He raced for the glowing bugs, but as he reached them, they zoomed in every direction as though they’d scattered just to tease him. I settled on a fallen moss-covered branch, soaking in the joy on his precious little face. His round cheeks flushed pink with the exertion, but knowing Cillian, he wouldn’t give up until I dragged him away. His stubborn determination came from me, Cara said, but I often wondered if his father possessed those traits too.
The wind rustled through the leaves, the usual cool sea breeze changing into a fresh wind. More of a swirl. The change in the air was electrifying. It pulsed along the skin on my arms, making the hairs rise and goosebumps form. I turned my head from the antics of my son chasing glowworms through the forest to the unusual swirl of turquoise forming between two trees a short distance away.
“Cillian,” I called, standing in a rush, and almost slipping over on the moss.
He lifted his head like the good boy he was.
“Momma?”
I almost couldn’t say it, but I did. “Run home now. Don’t look back. Don’t come back to this spot ever again.”
“But?” his little voice wobbled.
“Now, Cillian,” I firmed my voice instead of giving in to the pain clenching my chest at the thought of never seeing my son again. If this strange sensation in the forest was the harbinger of my past, of whoever took my memory, then I’d protect Cillian as best I could.
He nodded his adorable five-year-old head. The ebony curls bounced on top of his head.
Would it be the last time I saw that? His face drooped in sadness, making my own reflect his pain. He understood. We’d discussed this with him from the time he could talk. I had enemies. One day they’d come for me. One day he’d need to hide and keep himself safe. When that day arrived, he had to let me go. Cara and Seamus would raise him. They loved him as much as I did. I was thankful for that. Thankful for Cara and Seamus. We’d kept my siren lineage a secret from the fae village. No one wanted the possibility of their mate being lured away by a siren. They all believed I was fae since my hands glowed like a fae even though no power emanated from them. They assumed Cillian was a fae, too. No one would realize he wasn’t a fae except Cara and Seamus. He was part siren. He might be part fae, but neither of us knew, and deep down, I sensed he was more. My son would be safe with Cara and Seamus.
Me, on the other hand…
The air wavered, a turquoise blue so at odds with the vibrant green of the moss and the black bark on the trees of the forest. An enormous beast stepped through the portal. Ebony horns curled from his head of black hair. Black, leather-looking wings swept behind his back and fluttered as though in motion or agitation. Fatal-looking talons curled on the ends of his wings. The ends looked sharp enough to slice through flesh. So this was my enemy. This was how I’d die. I wouldn’t scream. No, I wouldn’t let Cillian hear his mother’s death.
“You found me.” I squared my shoulders, wishing for at least one more day with my son. One more memory to treasure in the afterlife.
The Beast stepped forward. “At last,” he said with a long, breathy sigh.
I skittered back, instinct telling me to save myself even though I realized death had come for me. Even though I comprehended if I left with him at once and in silence to my death, then Cillian would be safer still.
Instead, I ran in the opposite direction, giving more distance between me and Cillian. The trees whizzed by my head. My back itched as though my wings longed to open and lift me away from this threat, but I couldn’t reveal my presence to the village by flying in the air. The man had wings too. He’d follow me into the skies. I might be safer on the ground from his reach. Trees whizzed by my face as I ducked and weaved through the forest. I’d lived here long enough to know the path to the other side of the forest, but then what? When I reached that, I’d meet a village. Perhaps I could hide in a house?
As I almost breached the forest, his fingers caught my hand. He tried to stop, and the force wrenched my arm back and a squeal of pain escaped. He slammed a hand over my mouth and wrapped his arm around me, cradling my head before he rolled us to the ground. I kicked and squirmed in his hold.
“Shh,” he whispered. “She’s out there.”
Who? That was my first thought.
I tried to bite his hand, but his grip was too tight. Would he snap my neck? Decapitate me? Tears filled my eyes as Cillian’s little face swam in my mind.
“Stop fighting me. She’ll see us,” he whispered.
There was a tinge of panic in his voice that made me pause my attempts at escape. A loud voice penetrated the fear in my body. I tried to roll over so I could see what was happening, but the man held us still.
“Please, Thea,” he whispered. “Stay still until she’s gone. She has an entire army with her.”
An army? Did I have more enemies than this man? What had I done in my past to have so many enemies?
My breathing remained erratic as we lay on the damp, moss-covered ground. The heat from his body warmed my back, but an icy chill swept over my front. For a long time, we lay still, listening to the heated words coming from the nearby village. Who was fighting and why? We’d traded crops with this village too, but most who lived here were human.
The man’s body went rigid.
“Fuck,” he said. “She killed the fae king.”
Even worse, fear filled my body. Whoever ‘she’ was, it petrified me because the fae king was a revered supernatural being on Earth. Humans worshiped him. Fae adored him. I squeezed my eyes shut. Would she kill us? Cillian too?
An eternity passed as we lay locked in fear together. There was a niggling sensation in my body. This man wasn’t unknown to me.
“She’s gone,” he said, lifting his hand from my mouth.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He let me go. I rolled to my feet in an instant and stared at him.
“Thea?” His brows dipped low over his ebony eyes.
“Who is Thea?” I backed into a tree. The rough bark grazed my hands.
He tilted his head. “You are.”
“You… know me?”
At last, someone knew my name. Recognized who I was. Even if it was an enemy and I was about to die, I’d learn a little about myself.
He puffed out a breath. “Of course, I’m your mate.”
Was this beast my mate? I let my gaze rake his body. Was he the father of my little boy? They both had black hair. A similar stubborn tilt to their chin, but I couldn’t risk Cillian’s safety if he wasn’t his father. More than ever considering the size of this monster, and those talons, let alone the horns that would frighten most people on Earth. I wouldn’t risk Cillian, nor Cara and Seamus, if he was lying.
“I don’t believe you.”
His lips wobbled on his handsome face because even if he resembled a monster, he possessed a rugged charm that wasn’t unappealing. “You didn’t believe me the first time, either.”
“First time?” I rubbed my forehead. The darkness thickened inside my head as I strained to remember any fragment of my former self, of the chance he was my mate.
“What’s wrong with you?” His voice dipped to a deep resonance.
“Nothing,” I snapped.
“Then come home with me.”
“Home?” I echoed.
That word. Home. I’d spent so long daydreaming about what my home looked like, but this beast had never been in those imaginings.
“The Autumn Court.”
The blackness inside my mind darkened. My head pounded. I gasped at the pain turning everything black, my vision too. Warm, muscular arms scooped me up a second before my legs gave way. The leather against my skin surrounded me with a heady scent of the beast underneath yet again.
I peeled my eyelids open and stared up into his eyes. “I don’t know you. I don’t know me.”
He gathered me closer to his chest as though we weren’t close enough, as though he wanted to crawl inside me and make me whole again with his presence. “I don’t understand.”
In a gentle hold, this close to the beast, my body responded. My skin hummed in pleasure with the skin-to-skin contact. My gaze fell to his lips as my nipples hardened. The tight tips thrust against the cotton of my dress, eager to have his mouth on them. My thighs clenched as a quiver took up residence in my body as though it remembered his previous touch. My body recognized him. That was the only plausible explanation. Not once had I experienced an overwhelming lust for a man here.
Was this beast friend or foe, though?
“Let me go.” I kicked my legs in a futile attempt against his massive strength. He was so much larger than me.
“Never.” His muscular arms held me tighter. “I’m never letting you out of my sights again, Thea.”
“I’m not Thea.”
“You are. I’d recognize my mate anywhere. You are her.”
I sucked in a ragged breath. His tangy aroma dragged into my lungs and settled the pounding of my heart.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
“The Beast.”
“Fitting.” I snorted. My gaze snagged on his horns.
“Grab them as you used to.”
My palms twitched with the need to do as he said, as though they too remembered him and recalled the sensation of those thick shafts in the embrace of my palm. “I remember nothing.”
“In all honesty?” He lowered my feet to the ground.
I raised my chin, peering up at his massive height.
“Nothing except I woke up here.”
“Shit.” He rubbed his jaw. “You’ve been alone all this time?”
I stopped myself from glancing away as I lied and said, “Yes.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” He scanned the forest. “Are you with another man now?”
“No,” I scoffed at the very idea of having a lover. No one had appealed in the slightest over my years here in Ireland. Perhaps it was to do with the fact I had a young child, but a few fae in town had attempted to lure me into their sheets until they realized I wasn’t interested in them or anyone.
His gaze snapped back to the village, but then he stepped closer to me.
“Okay, let me think.” He threaded his hands through mine. “I can tell you who you are, but that won’t help.”
“No.” I soaked in the warmth of his palms against mine. “My mind is darkness. Whenever I try to remember, my head hurts and gets darker.”
“The Autumn Court isn’t safe until you remember.” He lifted my hands and kissed my knuckles. “I need you at your most bloodthirsty to go back there.”
Tingles danced across the back of my hand, so I focused on the more pressing details instead of the way my body rejoiced with every brief touch from him. “Who am I not safe from? Was it the ‘she’ we were hiding from?”
His lips firmed into a tight line. “I shouldn’t tell you until you remember.”
“How will I remember? I have remembered nothing for years. It’s forever gone.”
“No, I don’t believe that. Saltine said one word will set you free.”
“Who’s Saltine?” I bristled at the mention of another woman. How ridiculous was that?
He tugged me into his chest. “A conniving witch seer who I’d decapitate if I had the chance.”
“Oh.” I softened in his arms. In the strong, warm embrace he seemed so happy to give me. In the hold, I enjoyed it too.
My body remembered him. But could I trust him?
“Where’s your home?”
“Back that way.” I nodded my head at the forest toward the other town.
“Okay, let’s head there and figure out this one word.”
I tensed, every tendon in my body going rigid.
“You have a man,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “I’ll rip him apart for touching what’s mine.”
“No. There’s no one.” I grabbed his shoulders. “It occurred to me that if you found me, then perhaps we’d be in danger from whoever sent me here. Whoever took my memories. And the ‘she’ you had us hide from.”
“Right,” he drawled, his eyelids narrowing to slits. “She hasn’t found you.”
He didn’t appear convinced I wasn’t with another man and if he saw Cillian, he’d assume I was with a man. Would Cillian be in jeopardy from him?
“No. No one knows who I am.”
“It doesn’t matter right now. You’re right, we should leave here. It’s not safe.” He raised a hand, creating a turquoise portal. “I know the one place no one will ever find us.”
“Wait,” I cried, my heart breaking at the thought of leaving Cillian behind. “I can’t go with you.”
“Too late, my little queen. You’re coming with me and whoever you’re screwing back there, be glad I don’t rip them apart into tiny little pieces so small that the anglers can use his flesh and bones for fishing chum.”
“For the last time,” I huffed. “I’m not having sex with anyone.”
“Good, because you are mine.” He hauled me through the portal.