Luathara - Book Three of the Otherworld Trilogy Read Free

me to stop so I wouldn’t trip over them.  They absolutely adored Meridian.  She used to use her powerful glamour to keep herself hidden from them, but now she understood it was safe to be seen and she no longer bothered with the disappearing act.  Besides, I think she was rather infatuated with my little brothers as well, and I often wondered if she thought of them as her own little merlin chicks.
    Chase game! Meridian sent as she chittered excitedly, leaping off my shoulder and darting around the backyard as my crazy brothers ran after her.  She loved playing this game with them.  Even Aiden, all too often happy with simply watching from the sidelines, joined in.  My heart warmed at seeing him play like a normal boy, but a painful lump rose in my throat again.  This was all temporary.  I couldn’t stay with my mortal family forever.
    Feeling rather morose, I reached into my pocket again and brushed my fingers against the thick paper of the Dagda’s note.
    Be safe Cade and come back to me soon , I thought.
    I turned to sneak back into the house, but the sudden presence I detected near my leg made me pause and glance down.  Aiden.  Apparently he was done playing chase.  Yes, I would be leaving the family who took me in and raised me so I could live in Eile , where I belonged.  In Aiden’s own quiet way, he was telling me how we all felt about it: none of us wanted to let go.  I wasn’t human, though; I needed the safety the Otherworld and its magic would grant me, especially now that my power had shown itself.  Moving to Eile would be hard, and I think I would miss Aiden the most, but I had to be brave.
    Fighting the well of pain in my chest, I removed Aiden’s hand from my shirt and curled my own fingers around his.  He looked up at me, his blue-green eyes trying to tell me something, but like always, his autism kept him from saying what he needed to say.  Luckily, I’d become rather good at reading his face.
    Taking a deep breath, I stood with him as my other brothers kept at their game with my spirit guide.  I set my quiver down and leaned my bow against the house, then bent over and pulled Aiden into a rib-crushing hug.
    “I know buddy, I know,” I whispered as he wrapped himself around me.  I managed to hold on a little longer before a tear escaped.  “I’ll miss you too.”
     
    -Two-
    Recovered
     
    The next morning I woke up feeling groggy and slightly dejected.  I didn’t know exactly when I’d be going back to the Otherworld, but I knew it was inevitable.   I wanted to go, don’t get me wrong, and not just because it meant more one-on- one time with Cade.  There had been something about feeling the full extent of my very own Faelorehn glamour that urged me to return, almost like a drug I couldn’t get enough of.  Despite the terror and anguish I had felt when facing down the Morrigan, the whole experience had been exhilarating.  It was almost as if the magic of Eile itself was crying out to me; coaxing me to cross over into the Otherworld and soak it in like warm sunshine.
    Yet, there was also that part of me that hated leaving my friends and family.  Not that I would disappear and never come back, but to not wake up and see my brothers every day?  To find my dad reading his newspaper while the house erupted in chaos?  To wake up without the smell of my mom’s cooking filling the kitchen?  The ache that swelled next to my heart threatened to overwhelm me, but I quickly got a hold of it and banished it away.  All children left their parents’ ho mes at some point in time, whether to go to college or start a life of their own.  How was this any different?  Okay, most young adults weren’t going to live in a different dimension full of magic, monsters and goddesses bent on destroying them, but hey, most people my age were human.
    Sighing to dispel some of my negative mood, I rolled out of bed and headed to my shower.  I took my time this morning, letting the steaming hot