Read Online Among the Unseen by Jodi McIsaac - Free Book Online Page A

said. She frowned as she opened a sidh that led just outside Felix’s house. “It’s okay,” she said to the boy, who was looking at the glimmering patch of air with alarm. He and Finn followed Cedar through the sidh to the cluster of boulders that concealed the entrance to Felix’s house. Cedar pressed on a round stone, and one of the boulders slid away to reveal a curving staircase. The air around them grew brighter as they descended, and she could hear the boulder sliding back into place at the top of the stairs. The first time she had visited Felix’s house, she had laughed and called it the “man cave,” although it was certainly more spectacular than any cave she had ever seen. The walls were smooth slate gray, and the rooms were all airy and expansive.
    The still-open sidh to Earth was visible in the front room of his house, shimmering in the air. Finn walked over and closed it with a wave of his arm. Then he gave Cedar a tight hug. “Good luck,” he said. “You take care of Jane, and I’ll take care of Eden. Hopefully we can do something to salvage her birthday.”
    “Okay,” Cedar said. “Keep me posted.” Finn headed back up the staircase to let himself out.
    The messenger boy was still hovering nearby. “He’s back here,” he said, and Cedar followed him toward what Felix called his “halls of healing,” a labyrinth of small rooms connected by silver doors and glowing white hallways. According to Felix, it had been built by his grandfather, Dian Cecht, one of the Elders. Felix’s mother, also a healer, had added on several rooms, and Felix had been refining each of the rooms’ special abilities. Some rooms increased relaxation, others numbed pain, and still others lowered the body temperature or had anti-inflammatory properties.
    The hallway was illuminated by floating orbs of light that drifted along the ceiling. The boy stopped so suddenly Cedar almost ran into him. “He’s just in there,” he said, pointing to a door on the left that was open a crack. He stayed in the hallway while she pushed it open.
    The sight in front of her was pure chaos. Felix and Jane were in the center of the room. For a split second Cedar thought she’d walked in on a personal moment again, but then she realized that Felix was trying to restrain Jane. Her hair was plastered to her head, and her face was red and shining with sweat. She was fighting him as hard as she could, straining toward the bed in the corner, where a young man lay supine. “Let me go to him!” she was yelling in a shrill voice.
    “Jane?” Cedar asked, her jaw dropping.
    Her friend turned at the sound of her name. “You,” she said, her voice filled with venom. “You’ve come to take him away from me, haven’t you? I won’t let you! Don’t go near him!”
    “What the hell is going on?” Cedar asked.
    Felix jerked his head toward the corner. “He’s a gancanagh. Jane’s infected.”
    Cedar had never heard of a gancanagh. She looked at the man on the bed. He appeared to be young, maybe in his twenties, with pale, smooth skin and a tumble of dark curls. He was beautiful, and she felt something stir pleasantly inside her. At first she thought he was unconscious, but then he opened his eyes and looked directly at her.
    “The queen. At last,” he whispered.
    Cedar moved closer to the bed, ignoring Jane’s wails of protest. She was about to ask the stranger who he was and where he had come from, when Jane finally managed to wrench herself free of Felix’s grasp. She rushed toward Cedar and slapped away her hands.
    “He’s mine. Don’t touch him,” she snarled.
    Cedar’s eyes widened. “What’s going on?” she asked again. “Why are you acting like this?”
    “I love this man. He is mine. And that— beast ,” Jane spat, jerking her head at Felix, “is trying to keep us apart.”
    Cedar looked in horror at Felix, who was rummaging through one of the cabinets lining the wall, his jaw clenched. “Don’t let her touch