waste!”
“I agree with Finn,” said a perky voice that belonged to Finn’s sister, Molly. “It should be her decision!”
“This is bigger than just her,” argued Anya. “We need to do what’s best for us.”
“But what if she can help?” Nevan asked.
“No, it’s too risky,” Anya shot back.
“Stop it!” Finn bellowed, throwing his words into the melee like a grenade. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. “What’s the matter with all of you?” he asked, seeming genuinely bewildered. “Have you learned nothing about humans in all this time?”
Rohan cleared his throat loudly, and Cedar looked up, her face a mess of tears and her nose running. Felix handed her some napkins and she started wiping her face, keeping her eyes on Finn’s father. He was gazing at Finn with a peculiar expression. “Murdoch is right,” he said. “We don’t have time for this, and there are certain things that are only for us to know for the time being.”
Finn started to protest, but Rohan raised his hand and Finn kept silent, although the look on his face was mutinous.
“However,” Rohan continued, “there is a new element to consider now.” He looked pointedly at Finn, as if to say he was this new element. “She can stay if she wants, but she is entirely your responsibility. And if this unfinished business between the two of you starts getting in the way, it will only make it more difficult for us to locate your daughter. Do I make myself clear?”
Finn nodded, and Rohan looked at Cedar.
She hesitated, and then nodded as well.
Several glances were shared around the room, and then Rohan said, “Now, could I speak to you in private, son?” and the two of them stalked off into the kitchen.
Felix refilled Cedar’s coffee and handed it to her with a sympathetic smile.
“Quite a shock then, seeing him again?”
She let out the breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. “You could say that.”
“Well, none of us have seen him in a long time, either,” Felix said. “But it will be good to have him back, to be sure. I know you think he did you wrong, but he’s a good man, young Finn is, and I’ve known him since he was a babe. He’s not got a bad bone in him. Whatever he did, he had a good reason for it.”
Cedar raised her eyebrows but said nothing. She sat in silence, half-listening to the whispers and muted conversations around her. Finally, the two Donnellys emerged from the kitchen, both looking grim. Finn walked away from Rohan and slowly approached her, as if he was afraid she might spook and run if he came up too fast.
“I know you probably don’t want to talk to me,” he said, “but I can give you some answers if you’ll listen.”
Cedar looked at him standing there, so forlorn and yet so heartbreakingly beautiful, like a lost angel. She could feel her body responding to his closeness, even though he was standing three feet away, and she cursed the sudden warmth that flooded her veins.
“Yes, I want answers,” she said. “Starting with who, or what, you people are.”
“Do you remember when we were together, and I used to bring home books from the library about the Tuatha Dé Danann? Sometimes I would read some of the stories to you,” Finn asked, looking hesitant.
She nodded slowly.
“You said you had read some of the stories before, in a book of your mother’s you found as a child,” he continued.
“Yes, but why? Are you saying…”
“I am one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. We all are.”
There was a prolonged silence as Cedar stared at him, and everyone else stared at her, waiting for her reaction.
“You’re telling me that you are a…Celtic god? Because that’s…kind of crazy.”
“It’s the truth,” Riona said. “I know it’s hard to believe, but think about what you’ve seen and what Eden can do. Think about the staircase and what Nevan showed you she can do.”
Cedar looked into Riona’s somber, dark brown eyes. She certainly didn’t seem delusional. There were so many of them here, watching her with a quiet confidence. She thought of everything she had seen over the past couple of days and willed herself to keep an open mind. Logical explanations are not the only option anymore, she thought.
“Okay,” she said, trying to remember what she had read. It had been a long time ago. “So if you’re the Tuatha Dé Danann, why are you here? Didn’t they all go back to the land