Neve leaned against her crutches, trying to take deep, even breaths so she could ignore the pain that hummed through her body, reverberated down to her bones. Something unexpected had come, something powerful, something that had almost knocked her cold even when they’d been buried underground for the duration of the fight. The residual impressions still sent shivers through her bones.
“They made it,” Cameron observed quietly as he eased up behind Neve. “We all made it.” His hand pressed against the small of her back and she shivered for entirely different reasons. The touch was warm, comforting, almost unconsciously possessive. Neve exhaled and leaned back against his palm.
“Yeah,” she agreed quietly as she stared at the shadows on the snow cast by the dying rays of daylight.
The gates to the settlement stood open now that the threat had passed. It was the kind of bright winter day that begged for birds to sing despite the bitter cold. Instead, it was still and silent except for the normal sounds of human activity in the camp.
Normal. Three, four hundred years ago, this would have been near to that. This is the new normal, I guess.
“What’s the matter?” Cameron asked.
She shook her head slightly. “Nothing,” she lied, her voice soft. She leaned against his hand and he smiled, sliding his arm around her shoulders and holding her gently in the crook of his arm. Neve leaned into him and sighed.
“This is the part where I tell you that I know you’re lying about that,” he murmured into her hair. “I saw the look on your face when we were still down there. Tala saw it, too—she said something to me.”
Neve winced. “How long will it be before it’s all over camp?”
“I think she’ll stay quiet for a little while, anyway. Last I checked, they were all fretting over Phelan getting clawed in the face.”
She winced again, feeling a momentary pang of guilt. I should check on him. Make sure he’s all right. “Is there a reason to fret?”
“I saw him with J.T. heading up to the forge, so I imagine that he’s probably going to be all right. Moving under his own power and all that.”
Better than yours truly. Neve nodded slowly. “Good.” Aoife and Teague would come apart if something really bad happened to him. I can’t let that happen, not while I’m here. “They need him. I need him.” One hand strayed to her belly. Cameron’s free hand covered hers, their fingers knitting together.
“He’s family,” Cameron murmured.
“Yeah.” Neve smiled slightly. “But it’s more than that.”
“More, huh?”
She nodded. “More.”
“You’d think by now that I’d know better than to ask.”
“Do you?”
Cameron shrugged slightly. “I like to think so.”
Neve smiled again and closed her eyes. The feel of whatever had been here was more distant now, held at bay somehow. “There was something terrible out here today, Cam,” she said. “Something none of us expected. Worse than what we thought was coming.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I can feel it. Just like I can feel the ghosts that were here, feel the battle…I…this is different for me.” There, I said it. It’s out there.
“Different?”
“I’ve never been able to sense things quite like this before,” Neve said softly. “Everything’s changed. More than I realized.”
“For better or worse?”
“Déithe agus arrachtaigh, for the better, I hope.” Gods and monsters, for the better, I dearly, dearly hope.
