Awakenings

[This post is from Cameron’s point of view.]

Even though the mirth was short-lived, it was good to hear, like a balm on his soul. Cameron reached up to pat her hand, shaking his head slightly. “I was only half kidding, you know.”

“Oh, I’m well aware.” Lara smiled before she withdrew her hand, tucking it back into the pocket of her jeans. “Though I do hope more positive ones notice you rather than the alternative.”

“That would be a change,” Cameron said, then blew out a quiet breath. “That would definitely be a change.” He looked at her for a long moment. “Anything you want me to tell them? Anything you need from us next time I come?”

“So that means you’ll be coming back, I take it?”

Cameron choked on a laugh. “As long as they let me. If it’s not me, it’ll be someone else—I don’t know who.”

It’ll probably be me. I’m not sure if anyone else is as comfortable on horseback short of Phelan, Thordin, or Seamus, and it strikes me that they’ll stick a bit closer to home—just a hunch, but I feel like it’s a good one.

One corner of her mouth curved upward in a smirk. “You assume we want you to come back.”

“If you want to cut off contact, I’m sure we’d respect it, though we both know how hard that might end up being. We’re in pretty close proximity to each other.”

Lara nudged him, shaking her head. “I’m just teasing you, but you already knew that. We’ll take anything you’re willing to part with—food would be best, but I can understand how that might end up being dear. If something hits us here, we may come to you if you’ll have us, just the same as we’d take any of your people who might want to leave.”

“I doubt anything else will come after you,” Cameron said.

“Key words being anything else,” Lara said, then sighed. “I don’t know, Cameron. There’s not many of us and we’re not very fortified. We survive by being small and staying unnoticed. I don’t know how long that will last.”

“Well, hopefully we’ll be distracting enough to keep you and your people safe,” he said, reaching over to squeeze her shoulder. “I’ll pass along the message. Who knows, maybe we can arrange it so the Hunt checks in on you on their way through.”

“That would be strange,” Lara said, “though I don’t think it would be bad. Thank you.”

“Of course,” Cameron murmured, then smiled a little. “Anything for friends, right?”

She nodded. “Right.”

[This post is from Cameron’s point of view.]

“I can send someone with you.”

Cameron winced at the sound of the voice behind him, half turning toward his host and forcing a slight, albeit weak, smile. “You don’t really have much of anyone to spare, do you?”

Lara inclined her head, one curl falling into her face. She brushed it aside before she tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans, joining him on the shore of the lake that in the past months had risen well beyond its usual banks. “We would manage. Your friends don’t have that many people to spare, either, do they?”

“More than you do, now,” Cameron murmured, his gaze shifting away from her and toward the water. “With the Wild Hunt living there, we’re in a more secure position.”

Assuming that they survived whatever came. Assuming that Leviathan or worse hasn’t hit them again.

Though what could be worse, I’m not entirely certain.

“I don’t suppose I could convince you to pull up stakes and head north,” he ventured, not looking at her. A soft chuckle escaped her and he saw her shake her head out of the corner of his eye.

“With everything you’ve been through already and are sure to face again? I think not.” She lapsed into silence for a few moments, then reached up to rest her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure they’re fine.”

“I hope you’re right,” Cameron said, then glanced down at his boots. He felt sick at the thought of something happening to his friends—especially to Neve, pregnant with twins.

His children. Their children together.

He closed his eyes.

“Do you think he’ll come back here?”

“Leviathan?” Lara shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel like we’re beneath his notice, considering there’s not even two dozen of us, but considering the whole of his ambitions, I can’t be sure he wouldn’t come to try to recruit us or worse.” She chewed the inside of her lower lip, looking toward Cameron again. “Do you think your friends would join with him?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Cameron shook his head. “No. No, I don’t think so.”

But if he leveled the right kind of threat…maybe.

Nothing’s certain anymore, is it?

Lara squeezed his shoulder. Cameron blew out a quiet breath.

“As long as the weather holds out, I’ll leave this afternoon.”

“Gods be with you,” Lara said.

Cameron smiled crookedly. “I’d almost rather they not be.”

That, at least, made her laugh.