Free A Place Beyond by Laura Howard Page B

to a whisper. “I wish I could speak to you privately.”
    “Privately?” I said, cocking my head to the side.
    She looked at the garage and back.
    “Why can’t you? I’m not blocking you.”
    “You aren’t?” she said, her brow furrowed.
    I shook my head.
    “I…I can’t hear anything,” she said.
    The door from the garage opened and I heard Aodhan come in.
    “I swear, I’m not doing anything.”
    She shrugged, not saying anything else about it.
    Aodhan walked into the living room and inclined his head to me. “I’m going on another search run with Niall and Bláithín. I don’t think we’ll find anything, but Niall wants to check for his brother one more time.”
    Niamh nodded. “Be safe.”
    Once he left, she waited a minute for him to be out of earshot before speaking. “Do you remember what my mother suggested while you were in Tír na n’Óg with me?”
    “About Aodhan? Yeah.”
    “Well, she thinks I should consider what she said. She wants me to pursue his affection .”
    “Oh boy. What will you do?” I asked.
    “I won’t pursue his affection , if that’s what you mean.” She actually used air quotes.
    I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. My humor fled when I imagined what Aoife would want me to do. She’d succeeded in burning the image of my father suffering into my mind for times like these.
    “I agree. You’ll push him away further if you’re not careful.”
    She swallowed and turned away. “I know. I waited decades for him to speak a single word to me.”
    “You’ve got all the time in the world, right?” I said, recalling Aoife’s words about waiting for Liam to come around.
    Niamh looked at me sharply. “I suppose.”
    Time to change the subject. “Do you really think your mother’s vision could come true? Could Aoife get as sick as Saoirse believes?”
    She shrugged. “Who knows? Aoife’s already been affected in her mind. What’s to say she couldn’t become physically ill?”
    “What I’d ask your mother is why she doesn’t just stop Aoife. Does the magic she’s using make her stronger than your mother?”
    Niamh seemed to consider this. “It’s possible. Thousands of years ago, before the time of my grandparents, Old Magic wasn’t forbidden. I suppose there was a good reason it was forbidden. No one should have that much power.”
    “What if Aoife just killed your parents and took over?”
    Niamh looked at me as though I were crazy. “Don’t even say that. She would never do that.”
    I shook my head. The only reason she wouldn’t was if she was working with Saoirse. And I believed she was.
    A knock on the front door cracked the impasse between us. I walked into the foyer to see Ethan through the vertical window next to the door and waved him in.
    “Hey, what’s going on over here?” he asked, squeezing my arm and kissing my cheek.
    “Niamh’s here,” I said, leading him back to the living room.
    We sat on the couch and Niamh stopped pacing to sit across from us in the arm chair.
    “Allison,” she said, tapping her lip with her forefinger. “Would you be willing to visit my mother? I’ve never seen her so down-trodden.”
    Ethan reached out, grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. I didn’t know exactly why Niamh wanted me to talk to Saoirse, but I didn’t think it was a good idea. Unless…
    “All right, I’ll go”
    Ethan’s eyes widened.
    “Too many people have died,” I said, squeezing his hand back. “I want this thing done. I need to move on with my life.”
    If I could somehow get both Saoirse and Niamh to look in Danu’s Basin with me, it was possible they would see what Aoife was doing to me. I might not be able to say it, and Niamh might not be able to see it in my thoughts, but maybe there was still a way around it.
    Ethan rubbed my back. “I’m with you, whatever you want to do.”
    “Allison, this means so much to me. Thank you. You are a good friend.”
    I pursed my lips. I didn’t feel like a very good