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Still on that fey train. This continues from here.

With each step further into the Otherworld, Sinead's promise to the Guardian burned hotter in the back of her throat. It was a physical thing and it made her eyes sting, her temper short, and her heart heavy with guilt. It didn't help that Angus pestered her, demanding to know what they had said to one another. He was no fool. He knew she'd had to make a bargain. It didn't help that she knew she'd chosen her words carefully on purpose, leaving herself plenty of wiggle room. Angus wouldn't see it that way. He'd seen betrayal. He'd see it as a loss to her humanity.

He'd hate her.

Sinead couldn't tell him, not until she'd figured everything out. But she couldn't hold him off either, nor would she lie. She finally stopped, turning her bright blue eyes on him and asked, "Why did you come with me? Why did you really? Don't tell me it's because you thought I needed help or protecting." Her eyes added what her lips did not: Tell me the truth and I'll give you the same.

Angus frowned, displeased at the tables suddenly turning on him. He sighed and leaned back against a gnarled tree. "It's complicated."

"Everything involving us is," she responded gently.

"Us. 'Us' is the reason I came, Sinead," Angus began, his brown eyes hooded and dark. He looked away from her. "You know, you pretty much changed my whole life when you showed up, right? Maybe it's just because you're...you. But maybe it's more than that. I felt like I had to come down here, with or without you, but it's better with." He lifted his gaze and looked at her seriously. "Isn't it?"

Sinead very nearly shook her head at him. She didn't know. Would he have fared better without her? No, the Guardian would have taken him immediately, if he'd even made it that far. Suddenly Sinead wondered if she was here for herself or for Angus and what effect her bargain truly made. "Keep talking. How is it different now?"

Angus squinted at her. "Even before you told me you were fey, there was something different about you,About us. About the way we connected." Sinead nodded at that but didn't interrupt. She'd been drawn to him as much as he to her, and she was beginning to get an inkling why. "It's like I was always looking for danger, for excitement, for something to do, and no one but you was exciting enough." Also true, Sinead thought, immodestly. She took him on adventures no one else could or would. But why was he so needful of that at all?

Angus opened and then closed his mouth, a sudden flush riding his cheeks as though his next though was too embarrassing. It was something he'd kept from her since the day she told him what she really was.

Sinead straightened, feeling a spark of something then, despite her weariness and being underground so long. "Tell me."

"I wanted to be...like you," Angus mumbled softly.

Sinead exhaled and closed her eyes. After a long and tense moment, she spoke. "The guardian was a spriggan. They are bodyguards or protectors of hoarded treasures. They are usually nasty creatures, blighting crops, causing mischief at best and terror at worse. They have a fondness for stealing mortals. I don't like to think about what they do with them. Sinead could see Angus growing pale and worse, suspicious, as she spoke, but she didn't stop. "No fey comes through here with a mortal in tow, unless they're foolish or cruel. I guess I'm both," she said bitterly.

"He wanted you, Angus. That was the bargain, the only way in. He wanted the 'mortal I traveled with.'" She used the specific phrasing she'd agreed to and hurried on in a rush, "but it's okay! Angus, I said it like that on purpose. I won't give you to him. I know there's a way out of it. I promise you."

Angus stepped back eyes wide with shock, betrayal and just hurt. "Promise me? What like you promised him? I should have...thought...I should have known better than to trust a fairy, shouldn't I? Even one I thought was..."

Sinead didn't look away, didn't break eye contact. "I am your friend. More than that, Angus, but I'm also fey. That means I'm tricky and clever and not very nice sometimes, and that means I find ways to get around the promises I don't want to keep. I tricked that spriggan and I'm not fulfilling that bargain. There are at least two ways I can avoid it. I just needed to offer him what he wanted so we could get through here. It wouldn't have done either of us any good getting stuck there at the gate." Her words tripped over themselves as she hurried to reassure him. "I can't lie to you, Angus. Not directly. So believe me when I say I will not give you to him. I will not let him take you. I will use the loopholes in my promise to get you home safe. I promise."

Angus was silent even longer this time and when he spoke, he didn't quite look at her. "And what then are the two ways you've already thought of?"

Sinead exhaled slowly. It wasn't forgiveness. It wasn't trust. But it was a start. "I promised him the mortal I traveled with. Either we have to stop traveling together before we return to the gate..."

Angus jerked his head up and stared at her in sudden understanding. "Or I can't be mortal."


THE PLOT THICKENS

(no subject)

Date: 2012-11-29 06:48 pm (UTC)
yabamena: (Default)
From: [personal profile] yabamena
!!! I wasn't actually expecting it to go in that direction! Though I really should have thought about it. OMG, this needs to be a thing!

(no subject)

Date: 2012-11-29 07:14 pm (UTC)
yabamena: LSP showing off her lumps. ([adventure] you love my lady lumps!)
From: [personal profile] yabamena
Nope, not at all! You done good! Yay, A THING! :D

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