17. Chapter Seventeen
Iwas alive, floating over a tumultuous ocean full of silver fish that glinted in the morning rays. The steady rhythm lulled me into a white dream. A single magpie flew above, a flame following behind it as it sang a song. Then another flew beneath it, carried in its wake.
One for sorrow, two for joy…
I looked down at my palm to see a single, brilliant crimson rose, the petals matching the blood that cut across my palm. Beyond it on the rocky beach was another magpie, blinking in the sun. Then another of the black and white birds skittered over the water, bobbing along the waves like a stone, before reaching up to the sky and flying towards the heavens.
Three for a girl, four for a boy.
My belly swelled, and I heard the murmur of voices around, and the pounding of the scene around me. I was in Ireland. I knew that. It was no beach on this side of the Atlantic. Home. It was salt air and brine, and fishermen in Aran sweaters, casting their nets from their boats.
In the distance, was a boy in a plaid sweater, and a girl with red hair in ribbons. It was me. Me and Ryan. Three little magpies sat at their feet, as the pair of them - the pair of us? - tossed them bread crumbs.
Five for silver, six for gold… seven for a secret never been told.
“Come back to me, Eve.” The voice came down from the sky, surrounding me and holding me, raising me up from the ground. It beckoned me like the voice of God, pulling me back to where I came from. “Come back.”
This was a pleasant dream. I knew that. But it wasn’t my home. Not anymore. This scene that I had longed for - the life I had begged to return to - was no longer mine. The people weren’t mine either.
It was time to go back home where I belonged. Back to the comfort of darkness, and strength. To the place of daggers and shadows, where a man waited for me. A man who eased my pain and gave me the strength to fly with those magpies.