Twenty-six – 05

“Leinth?”

Dark circles ringed the Otherworlder’s eyes as she clutched her dark cloak around her body, her shoulders slumped and her hair hanging in ragged tangles around her face.  Neve let go of Phelan and tentatively approached the newcomer, swallowing hard.

“How did you make it past the wards?”  Neve asked.

“I imagine it was because I feel no malice toward any of you,” Leinth said, swaying on her feet.  Phelan darted forward to catch her as her knees buckled.  She looked at him, surprise evident in her eyes as she struggled to find her balance again.

“So you lived,” she whispered.  “Good.  I was afraid that you wouldn’t.”

“My lover has a gift,” Phelan said, releasing her as she steadied.  “I was lucky.  I shouldn’t have survived.”  His gaze raked over her, brows knitting.  Neve spoke before he could, but the words could have been his.

“You look like hell,” Neve said.  “What happened?”

“I grappled with the Hecate.  I don’t think you’d look much better.”  Leinth shivered, her gaze drifting toward the fire.  “She escaped.  I thought I had her exactly where I wanted her, somewhere she shouldn’t have been able to win free of so easily, but I was sadly mistaken.  She’s craftier than I thought—either that, or she’s more able to tap the lines of power than I imagined she might be.”

“She’s the queen of hags,” Neve snarled, her nose wrinkling in distaste.  “The Witch-Goddess.  Of course she can tap the lines of power.”

“She shouldn’t have been able to when she was encased in Lake Superior ice,” Leinth said, her voice as cold as that ice must have been.  “Of course, I might have overlooked something.”

“Like what?”  Neve asked.

Phelan’s stomach dropped.  “Allies.  The Hecate has allies—Menhit, probably others.  They could have freed her.”

“And because I’ve helped you and yours, I’m a target now, too.”  Leinth slowly seated herself by the fire, resting her elbows against her knees.  “I know that you didn’t exactly view me favorably before, but I’ve come to ask your forgiveness for whatever wrong you believe I’d done in the past.  I didn’t betray anyone then.  I was trying to save us all—Seamus most of all.”

“Where is he?”  Neve asked, her whisper strangled.

“I wish I knew.”  One diamond tear tracked down Leinth’s cheek.  “If he lives, I can’t see where.  My power wanes with the fading winter and fighting Hecate…”

“It’s all right,” Phelan said.  Neve looked at him sharply and he touched her shoulder, squeezing gently.  “Truly.  We can’t change what’s gone before.  All we can do is move forward.”  He looked at Neve.  “I heard a wolf call a little while ago.  Did you?”

She nodded slightly.  “Thordin and Matt went to check it out.  We’re thinking it’s nothing.”

Phelan’s lips thinned.  “It’s never nothing.”

He turned to go and fetch his staff.

Something’s coming.  He could feel it in his bones.  We just don’t know what.

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