Page 57 of Samhain

“We have to try,” Ivy cut in. “That’s all I’m asking for. Your best effort.”

He pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow. Obviously, that meant something between them.

“Please, Lex,” she said. “Please do this for me.”

The Lex I met in college would have scoffed and put up a front, perhaps demanding she explain what was in it for him. But this Lex softened at her plea and took a deep breath in concession. “You can never leave well enough alone, can you?”

“I wouldn’t be me if I did.”

“Fine.” He stabbed out his cigarette and immediately lit another one. “But you’re paying for first class, and I’m not staying in some violently sweltering broom closet, okay? I’m talking the best bed-and-breakfast you can find.”

Ivy clapped and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a big hug.

“And,” he said, “you owe me. Like, blowjob on the top of the Washington Monument owe me.”

She scrunched her nose and laughed. “We’ll talk about that one.”

“You get us to the top of the Washington Monument,” I said, “and I’ll handle that one for you.”

“Don’t tease me with a good time, Chicago,” Lex said, winking.

A few hours later, we were on a plane in first class, headed for Dublin.

Act III

Out of this wood do not desire to go.

Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.

I am a spirit of no common rate.

The summer still doth tend upon my state,

And I do love thee. Therefore go with me.

I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep

And sing while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep.

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.

-Titania, Act III, Scene I

17

Miri

IRELAND

Killwater seemed much the same as it had the last time I’d been here. The same cobblestones lined the narrow streets. The same old townhouses sat on either side, their decaying shutters evidence of how apart from time this city really was. If I closed my eyes, I could almost be that twenty-two-year-old girl again, as if I’d never left.

Despite that, a strange vibration whistled through the air and coated my skin like electricity. As soon as I stepped out of the vehicle, the ethereal sensation forced itself down my throat like battery acid, pungent and sweet. Had it felt like this last time? Or had I been ignorant to it, naive and unaware of how dangerous this place could be?

At least the weather wasn’t unbearable. We’d arrived in October instead of June.

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