Free The Forgotten Ones by Laura Howard

at me.
    Liam cleared his throat. “Ah, well. I haven’t always been...”
    “Listen, I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but my mother is ill. Just stay away from her.”
    I started to turn around, but Liam held out his hand to stop me.
    “Please,” he said. “Let me explain.”
    I threw my hands up in exasperation.
    “I was raised in County Monaghan, north of Dublin. I was born the son of a farmer”—he paused and looked me in the eye—“in 1862.”
    “This just keeps getting better,” I said. Why am I even listening to this?
    “My Da passed away when I was nineteen. I took on many of his responsibilities. After supper I would sneak off to a little clearing in the woods and just play my fiddle until my arms ached.”
    He stopped and watched for my reaction. I just tapped my foot. “One day as I played, a lovely woman appeared. She told me she had heard the music and wanted to see where it came from. Her name was Aoife, and she was the most glorious creature I had ever seen, with raven hair and eyes like sapphires. I was completely enraptured by her. And the longer I played for her, the more I wanted to make her mine.”
    Liam paused, his eyes far away, remembering.
    “I soon began to long for her day and night. On the days I couldn’t slip away, I ached for her—”
    “Explain how this has anything to do with my mother,” I said. He expected me to believe this?
    He ignored my question and continued. “I was becoming physically addicted to her. Aoife and her folk believe that humans are their playthings. They think nothing of capturing a human and filling them with longing, only to dump them back into this world. After their encounters with the Danaan, humans are nothing but empty husks.”
    Niamh cleared her throat and Liam paused.
    “Not all Danaan are so callous,” she said. “Aoife is my sister, but we don’t share the same beliefs. She has been defying our laws and customs for some time now.” She motioned for Liam to go on.
    “One day, I begged Aoife to come home with me. She took me to her home instead. By then, I was completely enthralled by Aoife. She was all I cared about. I forgot about my family—they were totally wiped from my mind. And as time went on, I began to come back to myself, my mind began to clear. Just by living in Tír na n’Óg, I was becoming immortal.”
    “Immortal?” I asked, laughing. “What? Like a vampire?”
    “We are as alive as you are, Allison. But unlike your kind, we don’t grow old,” Niamh said, her lips curving into a smirk.
    “So,” Liam went on. “I started to remember my life before entering their world. I longed to see my family. I didn’t realize that decades had passed here. It seemed such a short time in Tír na n’Óg, because nobody aged there, including me. Aoife would leave occasionally, with only her handmaiden Eithne to watch over me. The first time I asked if I might join Aoife in her travels was in 1979. She agreed to take me along to Dublin.
    “Several years later at the Music in the Street Festival at Trinity College, I met your mother.”
    I thought of the photos I had of Liam and my mother, smiling and happy. Those must have been at the music festival. If any of this were to be believed.
    “I couldn’t stop thinking about her and planning ways to see her again. I hid her from Aoife. It wasn’t easy, but I had fallen hopelessly in love with your mother. It was nothing like the obsession I’d felt for Aoife— that was nothing like love.”
    Niamh looked away with an uncomfortable expression. When she caught me watching her, I quickly turned back to Liam.
    “By then I had become more Danaan than human. I’d stopped aging and had developed some magical ability. Nothing like a true Danaan, but magic nonetheless.”
    He frowned, and I noticed his eyes beginning to glisten.
    “Your mother and I were able to continue seeing each other for about five months before Aoife suspected anything. She assumed I was involved with