him since we got here. He must have gone back to school.”
“But he didn’t even say goodbye!”
“I’m sure he was anxious to get back to Milltown and classes, Airy.”
Airy stared at her father’s impassive face. “He’s not like that. Do you realize that I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him?”
“About that,” Maeve began, darting a glance at Harold. “Your grandparents and we agree that there’s something very fishy about what happened to you. It wouldn’t surprise me if Fehin were involved. You do understand who his father is.”
“What?” When Airy leaned forward, pain shot through her calf and thigh. She fell back against the pillows trying to catch her breath. “There’s no way Fehin was involved in this. I told Grandma all about Wolf and what Fehin told me. Wolf hoped to get his powers back.”
“So why did he kidnap you and then not contact Fehin? We both think your trust in Fehin is commendable, sweetheart, but the facts are there. He found you when no one else could. Wolf doesn’t exist. You have to understand that this boy’s father is a sorcerer.”
“I don’t care who his father is. Wolf is the one who dragged me there and threw me in that pit. I saw him. I already told you that!”
“Maybe you were hallucinating after all the trauma. You said there was a resemblance.”
Airy shook her head and turned to stare out the window. Fehin was gone and she was stuck here until the cast came off--a good three months. And the doc had said she might need physical therapy after that. “When can I go home?”
Harold looked surprised. “You mean to the Otherworld? We aren’t taking you back with us, if that’s what you mean.”
Airy sighed heavily. “I meant to Grams.”
“The doc said in a couple of days.”
After her parents left Airy tried to contact Fehin telepathically, surprised when he answered her.
Are you all right? he asked.
I’m fine but I miss you. Can you come back up?
There was a long pause and she thought she’d lost the connection, but then she heard: I can’t, Airy. Everyone thinks I did this to you.
Airy wanted to tell him that wasn’t true but he was right. I’m sorry, she finally answered. There was no response after that.
Harold and Maeve spent three days in Halston and then said they had to get back. “I want you to promise that you will have nothing to do with this boy ever again,” her father said sternly. “I don’t want to worry about you when we get home.”
Airy had always trusted her father, had known that in a pinch he would take her side. What she saw on his face was a resoluteness that refused to be budged. “But, Da, he…”
“Airy, I’m serious. Your mother and I have been through a war caused by this boy’s father. You cannot expect to continue with this friendship.”
Airy nodded and looked down.
***
Christmas had come and gone, the New Year as well and Airy was still lying around the farmhouse in Halston and bored to tears. Her grandparents had set up a bed for her on the first floor so she could avoid the long climb upstairs. The cast was due to come off in another month but until then she had to find a way to catch up on homework. Now she needed to speak with her professors and find out what to do. The entire ordeal in the pit seemed fuzzy in her mind, as though she’d made it all up.
Over the course of these past months she’d heard nothing from Fehin, even though she’d reached out to him many times. On the phone her parents had gone on and on about Brandubh’s sorcery, relaying in graphic detail the horrible things he’d done in the Otherworld. He’d killed many and hurt many others with no remorse whatsoever. Her grandparents had backed up their position, rehashing her ordeal and how strange it all was. Fehin was not who he pretended to be.
What she remembered of that November day had softened around the edges, making her wonder if in her shock it really had been Fehin who put her in that pit. What did she really know about him other than what he’d shared, which was not much at all? Maybe there wasn’t a Wolf; maybe in her panic she’d made Fehin into a monster in her mind. The only other time she’d supposedly come into contact with him had been in the library and she hadn’t seen his