The pair were squared off, Cameron to the left and Neve to the right, each looking more desperate than the other.
Neve leaned against one corner of the room, Caliburn unsheathed and gleaming in the lamplight, leveled at Cameron. “How?” Her voice shook, either with shock or outrage. “How do you know her, Cameron? How the hell do you know her?”
“Neve, I will tell you everything you want to know once you get back into bed please.” Cameron looked haggard, eyes sunken into dark hollows. Thom’s stomach twisted, bile rising in his throat.
I can see the resemblance. He looks like Leinth a little. The cheekbones. Bone structure. His hand spasmed around Marin’s. She squeezed his fingers, then let go and left his side, slipping past him and deeper into the room.
“Neve, put down the sword,” she said gently, moving toward her trembling friend. “We need to talk about all of this like civilized adults.”
The look she shot Marin was one of pure agony. “She betrayed us,” Neve whispered. “She betrayed us to them, Marin—so many years ago that I cannot count them anymore. She’s the reason that hundreds—thousands—died. And now he knows her face and she calls him family and she comes here looking for him. Why? Why would she do that? How am I supposed to accept that? How can we all trust him and her and all of it?”
“The sword chose him,” Marin reminded her.
“Swords can be wrong.” Her voice was desperate, but uncertain, as if she wasn’t entirely convinced that was the case.
Somehow, I don’t think this sword is wrong and I think that there’s a lot more going on right here, right now than any of us are quite aware of.
“She loved Seamus,” Thom said without thinking. “Shouldn’t that be reason enough to hear him out and give this a chance to start making sense?”
Neve went rigid, her face pale. “What did you say?”
“She loved Seamus,” Thom repeated. “And she’s been watching over all of you for a very, very long time.”
“It’s not possible,” Neve whispered, the sword’s tip drifting toward the floor. “It’s not possible.”
The sword slipped from her nerveless fingertips and Marin caught her as she fell.
