Chapter 21
Bevin laid down on the couch in the living room and watched as Bridget continued to research the writings on her arms. It was a little odd that her roommate was so calm about this, but she didn't question it. Her mind was racing enough as it was. She knew that Bridget was a calm-under-pressure kind of person, which she was extremely grateful for right now.
"Bridget?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think that I should call me Granddadda now?"
"That's up to you. I know that he may know more than he told you. I think that he held back, hoping that this day wouldn't come in his lifetime. I think that he truly does love you like you are his own grandchild. How could he not? He did raise you."
"I wasn't exactly an obedient child," Bevin stated.
"No, but you were his ward. He had to have some sort of feelings for you to take care of you all those years, no? I know that you think it might have been out of duty if he is truly from a Banshee family, but that is only part of it. He took you in and gave you a back story, a life that made him an integral part of it. He did what he thought was necessary to protect you from whatever forces forced you to our world."
"You say that like it is truth," Bevin replied.
"Do the tattoos on your arms mean nothing to you? Do the stories that you've heard for years mean nothing to you now? What about the other changes? Your hair? The headaches? Can you just easily dismiss them because it is easier than believing?"
"I guess not. I just don't know what to believe anymore. A few weeks ago, I was a normal college student. Today, I am some sort of Celtic folk hero of legend that has to save the day somehow. Unfortunately, I don't know what I am supposed to do or where I am supposed to do it. All I do know is that I bear the title of Sorcha," she answered.
"We are still looking into that, Bevin. Don't despair. We are going to figure this out."
"Before I die?"
"We don't know that you are going to die. You heard what Seamus told you. You get a king for a boyfriend. Come on, Bevin. You get to live every girl's dream. You are some sort of princess. Can you imagine the good that you could do with your power?"
"Yeah, that all sounds bloody wonderful to you, but I am not royal here on Earth. My kingdom doesn't exist here. Do you think that the bloody Queen of England is going to meet me just because I have some ridiculous title? I doubt it. They would arrest me and throw away the key. I would end in up some asylum without light. I would be destroyed. "
"Well, there is that. But, come on, we could have some fun with this. You have to look on the bright side of things."
"Why?"
"You are the 'bright one' after all," Bridget responded with a goofy smile on her face.
"I guess I am," Bevin replied, starting to laugh.
"Call your Granddadda and see what he has to say. I am sure that there is something useful he could tell us. I'll keep looking into the writing on your arms. It might tell us some secret, too."
"I just want normal back," Bevin stated.
"Don't we all. But, then again, what is normal? Can you answer that?" Bridget asked as she turned back around to her computer and searches.
Bevin lay there on the couch and stared at the couch. She dug out her cell phone. She pulled up the number for her Granddadda. Her finger hovered over the call button. She sighed and hit the button. She waited for two rings before she heard his voice.
"Hallo, Bevin," he told her.
"Hallo, Granddadda."
"Are yae coming home, gurl?"
"Tell me where home is," she demanded.
"Here in Kildaire."
"No, Granddadda, my real home."
She heard him sigh. She could imagine him pinching the bridge of his nose like he did when he got frustrated with her. She heard him take a deep breath and let it out before speaking again.
"Tir Nan Og nó Avalon, a ghlacadh do Pioc cailín. Má tá tú a iarraidh, ansin a fhios agat cheana féin an freagra. Do marcanna a insint do scéal, cailín. Beidh siad cabhrú leat níos mó ná mar a raibh mé riamh," he replied.
"Why do you always do that?"
"Yae need to know your own language?"
"Liom a dhéanamh thuiscint."
"Do yae, gurl? Do yae? You don't even begin to understand it."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I couldnae. You have to know that. I did what I could to prepare you for this, but I am afraid that there is no real preparation that could have been made here. Are you remembering anything?"
"What does that mean?"
"Do you remember anything before living with us?"
"No."
"Then the spells are still working."
"Bloody Hell. What aren't you telling me? Granddadda, what do I need to know about this?"
"I've told you the stories. I told you what you needed to know. Did you not listen, gurl?"
"I listened to folk stories and legends, not my personal history. How was I supposed to know that I was some character in Irish legend? It isn't like you looked at me at night and told me that I was. I just thought that they were stories and nothing more. Now, I am in one. So please, let's cut through all the bullshit and tell me what I need to know."
"Labhartha cosúil le Banríona fíor."
"So, then I do have a crown somewhere?"
"I dunno. I have never seen it. I only know what I was told when you were giving to me."
"When I was giving to you?"
"Yah, gurl, you've lived for quite some time. Cosanta ó dhaoine ar mian leo a ghlacadh do choróin. Folaithe ó do mháthair féin. Folaithe ó do ríocht féin ag na páistí de Morgan la Fae. I did as others have done before me."
"How long?"
"How long what?"
"How long have I been here?"
"With me?"
"No, here if Avalon is my home. How long have I been in this realm? How long have I been hidden?" she asked him, the tears starting to form in her eyes.
"I dunno exactly, but you've only been with me for six years."
"I have only been with your for six years."
"Aye, gurl. You are sent to be with another family to maintain your age range when it gets to be too hard for you. Sometimes you awaken and remember. Other times, the marks appear."
"This has happened before?"
"Not the magnitude that it is now."
"Bullocks. What are you not telling me? What is it that I need to know now? What can help me get through this? Help me, Granddadda."
"I cannae help you any more, gurl. The spell has broken. Something has triggered it and it cannae be redone. I can only tell the recipe for some a tea that might make it easier for you to hide the markings and your hair. You've been blessed with Fae magic, but it doesn't work the same here. Everything that was done to do you was done for your protection. You have to believe that, gurl, if you believe nothing else I ever told you," he explained.
"Tell me one thing," she stated.
"Anything that I can," he replied.
"Did you ever love me?"
Bridget spun around in her chair and watched the emotions flowing over Bevin's face. She was pushing the limits of normal acceptance as she began to believe the lore she had been told, but in doing so, Bevin realized that her entire life as she knew it was a lie. She needed to make peace with that. She needed to ground herself in some belief and they both knew that he was the only one who could do that for her, now.
"Aye, Bevin, I still do. You will always be a part of my family. I don't care who you are or were. You will always be my Bevin."
The tears fell freely from her eyes. She didn't even bother trying to wipe them away. It was in that moment that she knew that she needed him. He was and always would be her Granddadda, all others be damned.
"Is breá liom tú, freisin."
"Is there anything that you can remember from your past? Anything at all? I don't know where to start with your story, gurl. Yae've had a long journey and I don't know what you actually know or remember. Is there anything?"
Suddenly a blinding pain came over Bevin. She held onto the phone like it was a lifeline to her past as images of past lives flashed through her head at a rapid speed. She couldn't pick out anything per se that would give her any definite thoughts about her past. But, she could see things that she didn't know before. She could understand why she did things a certain way. She understood where dreams came from when they didn't make any other sense to her.
"Granddadda!" she shouted as her body convulsed on the couch.
Bridget was next to her in a flash. She tried to hold her down, but the pain and the memories caused Bevin to thrash and scream. Bridget just tried to keep her on the couch so she wouldn't get hurt. She didn't know what else to do.
"I'm still here for yae, gurl."
"A river?"
"A river?"
"Yes, a long flowing river. I was on a boat. The water started glowing green and blue and then nothing. I can't remember anything else after that except be handed a cup of tea, like Grandmamma gave me all the time," Bevin replied.
"Aye, gurl, you know that river well. And, the tea as well. You have never been farther from them then you are now in all of your life here."
"What river is it?"
"Abhainn na Sionainne."
"Shannon?"
"Aye, gurl, the River Shannon."
"What does it have to do with me?"
"It is the river you came to us on."
"Us?"
"Man," he replied.
"And the tea?"
"A brew that the Banshee families were taught."
"What is it for?"
"It is called Phoenix tea."
"What does it do to me?"
"It helps to bind your powers and keep your hidden from those who would try to destroy you."
"You sent me to school with some, didn't you?"
"I did."
"You knew that I would drink it," she accused him.
"I did."
"Why?"
"To protect you when I couldn't be there."
"From what?"
"Do you remember me telling you about a Fae woman named Mara?"
"Aye, I do. You told that tale as often as the mine own, now it seems. What of it?"
"They are related."
"How?"
"She is the only one who could find you and know who you were, even with us hiding you with magic and teas. She is from your realm. She will stop at nothing until she finds you."
"What did I do to her?"
"You survived."
"I survived what?"
"Don't you remember the story?" he asked.
"She was Rhiannon's lady-in-waiting or something like that."
"Aye, gurl, she was. Her husband was the best friend to King Pawl. Even though they were as close as kin to the family, they wanted their own child to rule. Fearing that you would be a boy, they moved against your father and mother. After you were born, your mother's own cousin, Birgit took you in and spirited you away. She is the reason that you are alive."
"Does my mother know?"
"I dunno, gurl. No one has seen Birgit or your mother in centuries. We don't even know if they are their real names. We don't know if they have the same powers that you do. If Birgit is alive, that would mean that she is…well, would be over two thousand years old."
"Which would make me?" Bevin asked.
"I believe if the stories are true about when you came here. You were around thirteen years old. So, that would make you somewhere in the neighborhood of nineteen hundred."