Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Sierra and Aislan sat in silence, although Sierra’s mind was screaming at her for various reasons she could barely keep straight.
On the one hand, her stomach was about to eat through itself, as she hadn’t had any food since the day before.
On the other hand, a seer, a kind of fortune teller, had seen her in Aodhan’s future, which was a massive development in this twisted situation.
A few years previously, Sierra had left her family’s religion because she had seen it for what it was: deceptive.
And now, here she was, sitting in another realm most humans didn’t know existed, speaking about people who saw the future for money.
Mentally, she couldn’t wrap her head around how any of this was possible.
She even pinched her wrist discreetly to make sure this wasn’t some messed-up dream.
But she was, in fact, awake, and more confused than she had ever been before.
“What do you mean, she saw me?” Sierra asked, her voice cleaving through the heavy silence, now that darkness had completely fallen.
“He didn’t give me details,” Aislan’s voice replied from the darkness. “All I know is he asked if he would solve what has been lowering the magic in this realm, and the answer was you.”
“Hmm. Are you sure?”
“I don’t know all the details of the vision, I’m simply repeating what Aodhan told me. Shortly after his visit to the seer, he went to Dublin, which is apparently where he knew you would be.”
But Sierra hadn’t been in Dublin at that time. She had only arrived for the fall semester in August. “But I wasn’t there yet.”
“I know. I talked with Aodhan frequently. He was waiting for you. He would’ve waited for you no matter how long it took, I’m sure.”
The cogs in Sierra’s mind started to turn, piecing together the last few days with this new information. She drew in a shaky breath. “What…what was he supposed to do when he found me?”
The tension stretched between them, and it felt like an eon passed before Aislan replied, “He was supposed to bring you back here.”
“So your father knew about the vision then?”
“Yes.”
“And Aodhan planned to bring me back here when he left for Dublin?”
“Yes.”
It was starting to come together now, why she was here. “But he didn’t?”
Aislan let out a long breath. “He stopped answering our calls in September, near the end.”
Around the time they had actually met. “Why?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Aislan murmured. “But I sense it had something to do with meeting you.”
Sierra was silent. Something in her chest clenched at the thought of Aodhan changing what he planned to do all because of a failed Tinder date, from which she had stormed out after just a few minutes.
The path her heart began to venture down at that thought was too painful, so she decided it was time to change the topic. “What’s the plan for rescuing Aodhan?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” Sierra could hear the smile in his voice even though she couldn’t see it. “We will leave in a few hours to begin heading toward the general prison.”
“You’re sure he’s there?” Sierra remembered the earlier part of their conversation where he had mentioned there was also a high-security prison.
“No. But it’s closer and easier to access. So, we will start there.”
Right on cue, Sierra’s stomach growled loudly.
“Ah, I see I was right to grab some provisions.” Aislan began rustling around in the darkness, only to press something round into Sierra’s hands. She took a bite, the sweetness of the apple tasting like heaven on her tongue.
“I didn’t know how much you could carry,” Aislan continued. “And I was a bit limited on what they wouldn’t miss. But I got us a second water skin and at least dinner for tonight.”
Sierra was almost too busy taking bites of apple to respond, but she made herself swallow so she could ask, “How far is it? To the general prison?”
“Two or three days at most if we walk quickly.”
Two to three days didn’t seem too bad. At least this wasn’t some three-month-long journey through the woods. Reaching the core of her apple on all sides, Sierra rested her arm on her dress, which reminded her of something else she wanted to ask.
“I know this is going to sound dumb and shallow, but did you bring anything else for me to wear?”
“Um.” Aislan cleared his throat. “Yes and no.” Sierra felt excitement bubbling up in her chest, but before she could get too excited, Aislan added, “There isn’t much clothing that will not be missed, so I brought you another dress, the same as the one you are wearing.”
Sierra groaned.
“I know. But they have 50 or more of these on hand, and they come in every size…so they are easy to steal.”
“Have you ever worn one?” The words came out a bit harsher than Sierra intended but she just wanted him to know how uncomfortable they were.
“Yes, actually.”
Sierra immediately wished she could retract her previous accusation.
“All women in Sidhe wear a similar gown for nature ceremonies or rituals. Of course, they come in other colors, but white is thought to be the color of innocence and purity when one is seeking the approval of Mother Nature. So more and more white ones have been made in the past few years.”
Well, that explained a lot. Sierra had almost forgotten for a moment that Aislan had recently transitioned.
Besides the voice that was slightly higher than Aodhan’s and the thinner frame, Aislan truly was the man he wanted to be.
But before his transition, he had likely been subjected to the exact same torture Sierra was now.
“I’m never wearing white again after this.”
“I understand. And honestly, I’m not even sure Gaia likes white anyway.”
“You speak as if you know her.” Sierra heard rummaging again, and the apple core in her hand was replaced with some sort of baked pastry, which she greedily bit into.
“I do. When a Fae wishes to change gender, as I have done, we must have a meeting, called a ritual, with Mother Nature. It’s different for everyone, but at my ritual, I spoke with Gaia, and she agreed I had been improperly assigned my gender at birth, and she allowed me to change.”
Sierra polished off the last of the pastry crumbs on her hand, almost regretting that she had eaten it so fast. “Aodhan made it sound like asking Gaia for something isn’t easy to do.”
“It’s not. It takes a lot of courage, and often, if she doesn’t approve of your request, you could find yourself with a curse—or worse.”
Sierra wanted to ask what could possibly be worse than a curse, but she had a feeling the answer was death, so she kept her mouth shut.
“It took me months to get up the courage, which is why Aodhan didn’t know, and I didn’t want to tell him until it was complete in case I ended up with a curse or something.
After I changed…I wasn’t welcome at home anymore, so I haven’t been able to call.
I didn’t even know things had gone wrong until Slaine sent a message. ”
Sierra’s heart bled for him, and she reached out in the darkness to put her hand on his shoulder. “Where have you been living since then?”
Sierra swore she could hear Aislan’s smirk even in the pitch black of the boulder interior.
“Oh, right in the castle under my father’s nose.
That’s actually the best part of all of this.
He kicked me out, giving me a few hours to gather my things.
Instead, I gathered a few guard uniforms, and now I live in the barracks with the rest of the guards. ”
She remembered the night after the second ritual, when she had sworn she had seen Aodhan’s eyes but thought it was just because of the blood loss. “I knew I had seen you before.”
Aislan laughed. “I do my best to avoid Conlan, because he would know in an instant if he saw. But it turns out it's reasonably easy to get assigned to the dungeon and stable duty, as most guards prefer to be inside rather than dealing with the elements.”
Well, that explained how he knew about the dungeon door.
“Won’t they notice you are missing the next couple of days?”
“No. We get a certain amount of leave each year, so I am currently visiting my family as far as they know.”
Aislan stood from where he was sitting next to her, leaning toward the crevice in the boulder. “It’s almost time. Are you ready?”
Sierra nodded. “Yes, do I need to carry a pack?”
“No. If I left with two, that would be suspicious. So, I’ll carry the one pack we have for the both of us.”
Sierra rose to a standing position, only to grimace as the rocks dug into her feet. “You didn’t bring shoes by any chance, did you?”
Aislan groaned. “I forgot you were barefoot.”
Sierra wracked her brain for what they could possibly do about the no-shoe situation.
While she wasn’t against going barefoot, she knew it would slow them down as she picked her way over rocks and other things on the ground.
Plus, she had seen the forest on either side of the river.
It hadn’t exactly seemed like a safe place for going barefoot.
“Let me feel your feet.”
Sierra agreed, and Aislan leaned down, feeling every side of her feet. Sierra realized he was taking a form of crude measurements.
“Alright, I have an idea. You stay here. I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay, be careful.”
“I will,” Aislan replied before slipping through the crevice and into the dark night.