Michael Griffo - Unwelcome

Saoirse didn’t have to explain herself. Michael did it for her. “You should’ve told me, Ronan. You should’ve told me about your sister.”

So that was it, that’s the look that’s been in his eyes, the look Ronan couldn’t decipher. It was anger. “No one fully understands,” Ronan explained. “I just . . . I didn’t think it was important, I was trying . . .”

“Yeah, I know,” Michael interrupted. “You were trying to protect me.”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I was trying to do!” Ronan screamed, louder than he had intended. He was tired of being judged for trying to shield the people he loved from danger. After seeing MacCleery’s dead, mutilated body and now Amir, destroyed beyond recognition, his soul God knows where, he knew he was right, and he was not going to apologize. “If you had listened to me, maybe none of this would’ve happened! If you had just accepted the fact that this whole carnival was a bleedin’ farce, you would’ve been on your guard, Michael, and you, Saoirse, wouldn’t have allowed yourself to get kidnapped!”

Rolling her eyes, Saoirse waved a hand in her brother’s face. “I didn’t allow that twit to kidnap me.”

“That twit is dead, Saorise!” Ronan shouted, grabbing his sister by the shoulders. “And so is Dr. MacLeery!”

“What?!” Michael cried. “How?!”

“Because they killed him!”

“Oh my God, no!” Michael cried.

Ronan answered Michael before turning back to his sister. “This isn’t a game! This is why I didn’t want you to come here in the first place!” A mixture of fear and anger flooded Ronan’s body and he started to shake, Saoirse along with him. “They want to find The Well and destroy it, destroy us, and you being what you are makes you an easy target, don’t you understand that?!”

Ronan didn’t stop shaking his sister because her face had turned white or because he realized he might be hurting her, he stopped because he felt Michael’s hand on his shoulder. His touch was soft, but undeniable, they were still connected, they were still linked. It was exactly the confirmation he needed to allow the anger to escape his body.

He looked at his sister and hugged her gently. He didn’t understand what he was feeling, he was scared and proud and relieved all at the same time. Maybe it’s because whatever he did helped keep her safe. By his following The Well’s orders, she was unharmed at least for today. He knew there would be another attempt on her life, he knew that she didn’t fully grasp what was happening around her, but that didn’t matter right now. Right now all that mattered was getting her home safely. “Where’s Phaedra?” he asked.

“I’m right here.”

The voice materialized before the body did. When they turned around, they saw Phaedra walking down the coastline lazily as if she were daydreaming, letting the waves trip over her bare feet, her curls floating in the breeze. She looked like she was enjoying the return of the sun, soaking in the moment, instead of having just saved two people from uncertain danger, having just done an efemera’s job.

When she got closer, Michael was the first to notice that her features were once again hazy, soft, not as defined as they had become, not as permanent. She had made a choice with this last transformation, a choice because of him, a choice that he knew might cost her a chance at experiencing love.

“I’m sorry,” Michael said.

“Don’t be,” Phaedra replied, a tender smile on her lips. “I’m just like you. I am what I was born to be.”

Understanding didn’t make it any easier, and Michael still felt guilty. He wished there was a way that Phaedra could remain an efemera and fall in love with Fritz, to have the best of both worlds, but he knew that was impossible. The universe held lots of mystery, yet very little compromise. “If it’s any consolation, I’m grateful,” Michael said. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t shown up today.”

Phaedra was feeling the same way. “I’m grateful to you too.”

“Me?” Michael asked. “Why?”

Taking hold of his hands, her touch light as a feather, Phaedra replied, “If I hadn’t shown up here, I would never have known real love.” Her cheeks started to shimmer with the most beautiful, translucent tears, almost like silver rain. “If Fritz ever asks, if he ever wonders,” she said, “please tell him that I did love him, I loved him with a full almost-human heart.”

Saoirse’s jaw dropped. Could this day possibly get any worse? “You’re leaving?”

Although she smiled at the young girl with deep affection, there was a hint of envy in her eyes. Saoirse very shortly would get to experience all the emotions Phaedra never would, all the joy, the love, and even the heartache. “Yes, I’m being called back home.”

Michael felt his own tears threaten to fall. This couldn’t be happening, this shouldn’t be happening, not after everything they’d been through, not after everything Phaedra had given to him. “You can’t leave!” Michael protested. “Please, I still need you, we all do.”

She touched his cheek and it felt like breath. “No, you don’t,” Phaedra replied. “You have each other and you have your own strength, that’s all you need.” When Phaedra wrapped her arms around Michael, he knew he was being enveloped by more than just his friend’s touch; he felt his mother’s love. “I’ve fulfilled your mother’s wishes and now I must go. I must return to the Holding Place and wait until I hear someone else’s prayers.”

Once again, understanding didn’t make it any easier. In fact it made it even harder, and Michael didn’t want to let go of his friend. Phaedra’s place in his life, on this earth, was temporary. He only hoped she understood how grateful he was that their paths, however briefly, intertwined. “Thank you” was all Michael could say through his tears. The only reason he was able to let go of Phaedra’s embrace was because now he felt Ronan’s hand on his shoulder.

Looking at Ronan, Phaedra knew she was leaving Michael in good hands. They would always squabble, they wouldn’t always agree, and it might take them some time to completely understand how important their coupling was, how important it was that The First and The Other be united for all eternity, but she knew their love was strong enough to overcome any obstacle and accept their destiny. Just as she had come to accept hers.

“There’s only one thing left for me to do before I go,” Phaedra announced. “And that’s make sure you, little lady, get home safely.”

Before Ronan let go of Saoirse’s hand, he instructed, “Leave her with Ciaran. She’ll be safe with him.”

Phaedra nodded. “Yes, she will.”

Another ending, another person leaving his life for good. Michael wasn’t sure he could take it. He wasn’t sure he could watch her leave without trying one last time to make her stay, but the choice wasn’t his. Phaedra had made her decision.

“Good-bye, my friends.”

Her final words hung in the air even as her body lost its shape and dematerialized into swirling wisps of fog that encircled Saoirse, gray ribbons that spun round and round, interconnecting and growing in size until they encased the girl completely and she disappeared from view. Together, Michael and Ronan watched as the gray mass hardened and then rose high above the beach, into the sunlight, and then toward the horizon to return to Double A. Michael found it incredible that this was the last time he would ever see Phaedra. When he looked over at Ronan, he found it even more incredible that his boyfriend had lied to him yet again.

“I thought you said there weren’t going to be any more secrets between us?” Michael asked.