Silver at Midnight: A Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy (The Keepers of Knowledge Series Book 5) by Bridgette O'Hare (best large ereader .TXT) 📕

stay by while Cian recovers and you both dry out.” She pointed to the side of the fountain farthest away from the steps where a small stone pit and two benches had been placed. I wasn’t entirely sure it had been there before, but I wasn’t going to question it.

“And what about hi—” I looked toward Kage but stopped just short of completing the question. My eyes widened. He was gone.

“He was warned,” she stated matter-of-factly. “He will be dealt with accordingly.”

Cian stirred a bit, his eyes fluttered open then closed again.

“He will regain his strength by midnight,” she assured me.

I looked up at the sky to gauge the time.

“Within the hour, dear one,” she clarified. “Take care, Aisling. I do hope we cross paths again.”

She disappeared as I tried to thank her for her help.

The moon was nearly directly overhead by the time Cian and I had fully dried out by the fire. I’d managed to use a little Fae magic to dry out Cian’s phone and call Uncle Lachlan for help. He, Darek, and even James—who had finally shed the Cian façade—came when I called.

James, as it turned out, wasn’t Davar Magén at all. The artifact Kage had given him containing a drop of Cian’s blood had not only outfitted him with Cian’s physical appearance, but also a soul block. James was, in fact, a rather kind Fae who had been under the impression that I was the bad guy bent on bringing evil into the world thanks to the story Kage had fed him.

Darek and James gathered the journals and items from the altar in the courtyard, and I had passed along the Tartaros Blade and the Stone of Two Brothers to Uncle Lachlan for safe keeping. It didn’t feel right to refer to it as one or the other of its individual names now that I knew they were one in the same. James had gone with them and left the keys to Kage’s SUV for me and Cian. They’d been gone nearly an hour.

I had decided to stay until midnight and Cian refused to leave without me. So . . . there we sat.

I pulled out the Moon Orb and rolled it around in my palm.

“Why didn’t ya send that back with Lachlan?” Cian asked, holding his hands up to the fire and rubbing them together.

“I meant t’ give it back t’ the Lunar goddess, but I was a little preoccupied when she showed up. Not t’ mention, I hadn’t expected her t’ show up. So, I guess I’ll just leave it at the entrance by the waterfall like I’d originally planned.”

“She said you could hold on t’ the orb, ya know.”

“What? When did she say that? I don’t recall that part o’ the conversation.” I bumped my shoulder against his.

“That was the message I was t’ give ya. She wanted ya t’ have it. Of course, she also mentioned somethin’ about us needin’ it later, but I was bent on getting’ in here t’ you that I don’t recall what exactly.” Cian reached over and looked at the time on his phone. “It’s a few minutes after midnight. How long would ya like t’ stay and wait this out?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. It was a long shot. Not even sure what I was waitin’ for anyway.”

“Me. You were waiting for me, Aisling,” the voice sounded in my head loud and clear. It was familiar, yet I didn’t recognize it.

I immediately looked to Cian; my brow furrowed. “Did you hear that?” I asked in a whisper.

“He can’t hear me, love. I had hoped to meet you face to face. But that’s not an option with Cian here. It’s a long story. One I hope you’ll understand some day. One I hope I get to tell you.”

Realization set it. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew. “Dad?”

“Yes, sweet girl.”

“How? Why? I . . . I don’t even know what to say or where to start.”

“I know, Aish. Soon, I will try again soon. Just know that I’m so proud of you. Your mom would be proud of you. I have to go now, but I couldn’t leave without at least making contact. I love you, Aisling. Hold tight to Cian. I’ll find you . . . soon.”

Just like that . . . he was gone, and I was aware that my father was alive.

And that changed everything.

Epilogue

A Fae walked into a bar.

Nope. Not the beginning of a bad joke. I kinda wish it were. Especially since I’d only been in this town four days.

Four. Days.

It was a record, really. Especially considering I’d been keeping to my small circle of contacts since I arrived in Pyreshore.

Typically, it takes me a solid month in a new place to establish a permanent spot on the local law enforcement’s cac list. So, I wasn’t sure if I should have been impressed with myself or highly concerned with my rate of progress. Kara would say impressed, but that in itself says something. Then again . . . how often can you say you started a bar brawl that included a Mimic, a Werewolf, a Gargoyle, and two Vampires. Fine, it likely included at least one of every supernatural race in existence considering when it was all said and done more than half the bar was involved. But let’s not get lost on the unimportant details. Let’s stop a moment and try to figure out how I had managed to get myself into such a mess in the first place. Only one way to really put things into perspective—a little Fae magic.

I raised my hand and pressed it forward in the air as though to tell someone to stop. And they did. All of them. It’s a time pause . . . a little trick I learned from Uncle Lachlan just this morning that really would have been handy to have over the last few days. According to him, Grams never