Awakenings

A chill washed over and through him, as if he’d just jumped into a clean, cold mountain lake. He caught the sharp scent of herbs and evergreen cuttings before the scent was gone and the chill was gone, leaving him tingling from head to toe.

They’d crossed the boundary and he found himself a little more impressed than he had been a moment before.

“I assume that it works,” he said quietly, glancing back toward the invisible wall they’d passed through. “It feels like it should.”

“It works better than most of our enemies have ever suspected,” Phelan said, his tone abruptly grim. “Though not as well as we’ve hoped. It hasn’t been tested lately—but it’s only a matter of time before it is.”

The blonde at his side looked at him curiously. “You’re about due for that to happen, aren’t you? For something new and nasty to attack?”

Phelan shuddered visibly. “Thank you for pointing that out, Sif. Thank you so bloody much, because it hadn’t already crossed my mind a dozen times already.”

The blonde shrugged and looked innocent. A chill crept down Gray’s spine.

I’m sorry I asked.

“I take it that you’ve had your share of problems?” Aoife surmised quietly, looking squarely at her brother. Phelan exhaled a sigh.

“You could say that,” he said, as he continued up a slope toward two blue and white striped tents. “I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you, though. You’re about to be assaulted by new names and faces and more than a few gifts, unless I miss my guess.”

“Gifts,” Gray echoed. “What do you mean by that?”

Phelan paused, glancing back over his shoulder at Gray. “You’ll see,” he said after a moment of silence. “Trust me. You’ll see and you will absolutely understand when you see it.”

There wasn’t a barrier that he could see in front of them, but he could feel it—feel it like a real, physical thing, like it was an object he could reach out and touch, run his fingers along its surface. Gray imagined it to be like a seamless stone wall, ivy-draped at the top, smooth and cold as if it was made of polished marble. Whatever it was, it felt solid, felt like safety.

“Who put together your defenses?” he asked quietly.

Aoife looked at him sharply, a glance he ignored in favor of watching Seamus’s shoulders stiffen. A dozen yards away, Phelan stood with a blonde woman just shy of where Gray could sense the invisible barrier, apparently waiting for them.

Seamus’s shoulders relaxed slowly. “A little of Phelan,” he said quietly. “But most of it is Marin.” His gaze flicked toward Aoife. “Teague’s line, by way of Mairéad.”

Aoife swore under her breath in her native tongue and Gray’s arm tightened around her. He thought of the stories she’d told and shook his head slightly. So her brother found his way to family after all—generations removed, but family nonetheless. Maybe she didn’t need to worry as much as she did.

Still, he was glad they’d come—at the very least, he’d get to meet someone who could build invisible walls like the one he felt.

Seamus looked amused by whatever Aoife had said, shaking his head as he grinned over his shoulder at them. “You’ll like her well enough, Aoife. At the end of the day, I think her line got the best of them both.”

Gray frowned slightly, but didn’t ask the question that rose to the front of his mind. He’d find out what that meant soon enough. “I take it Marin is part of ‘the rest’?”

The blonde with Phelan barked a laugh, apparently having heard his question.

“Marin leads the rest,” the woman said, grinning. “Whether or not she believes it yet, she leads them as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.”

“Well,” Gray said, forcing lightness into his tone. “I look forward to meeting her, then.”

“As well you should,” Phelan said, his staff braced against the side of his foot. “If we don’t hurry up, though, they’ll be meeting us halfway across instead of by the fire and no one wants or needs that.”

His staff moved, touching the invisible barrier. Gray sensed a ripple, heard a clear, bell-like tone echoing through his head.

Then it was gone, like the memory of a dream carried away on waking, like dust in the wind.

Phelan turned and stepped through the barrier, the blonde and Seamus a step behind.

Gray took a deep breath and followed with Aoife at his side.

“What do you suppose he means by that?” Gray murmured in her ear. Aoife shrugged, watching her brother as he kept walking. A woman who reminded her dangerously of Sif Freyrsdottir gave she and Gray a long, hard look before pivoting on her heel and following Phelan. Her voice drifted back to them on the breeze.

“If I’d known he was coming, I’d have stayed where I was.”

“I’m not Seamus’s keeper,” Phelan answered his companion. “I didn’t know he’d be here to meet them with me. He might not have even known.”

Aoife shivered involuntarily. Gray wrapped his arm around her shoulders, lips close to her ear.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice low.

“That remains to be seen, I think.” She gave him a brave smile. “Come on. We’d better hurry or they’re going to get completely away from us.”

Seamus had lingered nearby, though, watching them even as Phelan and his companion walked away. Another man, slender and appearing a bit older, spoke to the men that Aoife was now certain belonged to the Wild Hunt before he, too, turned and began to walk away. The men who had escorted them up away from the river headed back for the trees, disappearing the way they’d come.

They must have been on routine patrol. But why? Is this some sort of enclave of the Wild Hunt? I didn’t think they had anywhere they could lay their heads, anywhere they’d—

She frowned. Unless things have changed more drastically than I’ve ever suspected they might. That wasn’t exactly a comforting thought.

“It was a bargain,” Seamus said, intruding suddenly on her thoughts. She startled, her gaze snapping to him.

“What was?” she asked, trying to hide her sudden shaken state.

“The Hunt’s presence here.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “They exchanged my freedom for a home.”

Aoife stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head slowly. “What kind of people would grant them that?”

“People that will change the world,” Seamus said, then smiled. “Phelan and Sif have outpaced us rather significantly. If we hurry, we might catch them on the bridge.”

“Bridge?” She felt like she was in a daze. Gray squeezed her hand.

Seamus grinned. “Just follow me. You’ll see.”