“What’s the matter, Thom?”
I hadn’t even turned to look at him. We’d known they were coming—he and the rest. J.T. and I had decided that they’d show up inside of an hour after we’d been gone for the first sixty minutes. They worried and it was probably a good thing. There wasn’t much reason for us to be out here for two hours and we probably wouldn’t have been if J.T. and I hadn’t gotten to talking about he and Carolyn, about the future, about what I’d seen for them. It hadn’t been much. I hadn’t seen much of them, heard more than I’d seen, so there wasn’t much to tell.
Then J.T. had gotten to talking about the ghosts he’d been talking to—the ones that had stayed behind even though Neve had sung them to their rests. Constance and a dozen others remained, mostly at a distance, watching quietly, silent, unseen sentinels safeguarding the living as best they could. They lingered without any of us knowing why.
Sometimes, J.T. had said, he thought that even they didn’t know why.
Thom stopped alongside me, flanked by Phelan, whose eyes unfocused as he stood alongside the barrow. I studied them both for a moment, frowning.
Something happened. But what?
“There are monsters coming out of the west,” Thom said. I tensed, looking around quickly, then forced myself to relax. There was no way he’d be this calm if they were practically on top of us.
“How’d we find that out?” I asked.
“The howls ended up being one of Daniel’s packmates,” Phelan said as he came back to himself. He glanced over his shoulder toward Thordin, who was maintaining a respectful distance, his eyes watchful and wary. I frowned slightly and shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my jacket.
J.T. frowned at me. “Howls? You didn’t say anything about howls.”
“It was one and it wasn’t worth mentioning. You said you needed to come out here and I wasn’t going to let you come alone. We don’t do this alone anymore.” We’ve learned our lessons on that by now. I turned my attention back to Thom and Phelan. “What kind of monsters?”
“Actually,” Phelan said, “we were sort of hoping you’d seen something that could help.”
“He was hoping,” Thom said quietly. “I’d just as soon have it be neither of us seeing anything.”
I shivered, meeting his gaze. There was fear in his blue eyes, fear that was familiar and close. I squeezed his hand tightly.
“I wish that was the case,” I whispered. “I really, really wish that was the case.”
“But it’s not?” Thom asked.
“No. No, it’s not.”
I took a deep breath and began to talk.
