“Is this what we’re going to be dealing with for the rest of our lives?” Cameron asked, staring at his still-bloody hands. “Monsters coming out of nowhere with grudges against all of you—or one of us—for some real or imagined offense from god knows how long ago?”
I winced but stayed quiet. I couldn’t blame him for being angry. I was a little angry myself.
A little bit of warning might have been nice.
At the same time, I couldn’t be too upset—who knew how many enemies they’d made over the years, myself included? Who knew what might come?
We’d be jumping at shadows for the rest of our lives, seeing danger where none existed, and would end up raising our children to be as paranoid and neurotic as we’d made ourselves. That was no way for any of us to live and I knew that.
Phelan, Seamus, and Neve were all silent as they sat with us by the fire. Phelan and Neve looked like they were both in pain; Seamus concentrated on washing Thordin’s blood from his hands. He’d joined J.T. and Jacqueline in their work as it became increasingly clear that his skills would be needed, weakened though they were after centuries with the Wild Hunt.
“Is one of you going to say something?” Cameron asked, his voice practically a growl. Thom nudged him with a boot, earning a sharp glare. “They need to answer us, Thom.”
“No, they don’t,” Thom said, crossing his arms. “We’d like them to, but they don’t have to. None of us have to do anything at this point except for deal with the consequences of what’s happened. Nothing else.”
“Déithe agus arrachtaigh, I sure as hell hope it’s not what we’ll be dealing with for the rest of our lives,” Phelan finally rasped. He looked as tired as I’d ever seen him, eyes sunken into dark hollows above cheekbones that suddenly seemed too sharp, too prominent in his face. “If everything we’ve pissed off could just bloody well forget that we existed, I think we’d all be happy.” He looked at me, pain in his gaze. “I know I would be.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. “How likely do you think that is, Phelan?”
His laugh came out strangled, but it was still a laugh. “Let me have my hope, leánnan, will you? A man’s got to have something left.”
“Something,” Cameron echoed, then shook his head. “How are we supposed to raise our children when things like this happen all the freaking time?”
Neve looked at him hard. “We’ll find a way, Cam. You know we will. Nothing’s going to touch them. I swear it.”
“Neve doesn’t have the enemies the rest of us do,” Phelan said, his expression growing more grim by the moment. “And we’ll be making sure the ones that she does have stay the hell away.”
“How?” Cameron asked.
“I haven’t quite figured that part out yet,” Phelan admitted. “But I’ll figure it out. Somehow, I always do.”
“You don’t have to do that alone,” I said softly.
He smiled weakly and nodded. “I know. Just like this one wasn’t my fault. The next one might be, though.” He looked at Cameron. “You’ve got every right to be upset. All of you do. I’m just glad that this wasn’t worse. It could have been. It could have been a lot worse.”
“But it wasn’t,” I said, forcing every ounce of conviction inside me into those words. “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We’re all still here.”
“For the moment,” Seamus said softly. “He might not make it, Marin.”
I exhaled with a shiver. “I know,” I whispered. “But we’ve got to hope. We have to hope. We can’t give up on him. You—the three of you—know him better than we do. You know he’s a fighter.”
“But he’s tired,” Neve said, hugging a knee to her chest. “He’s so tired, Mar. He’s ready to rest.”
“So am I,” Phelan said to his cousin, his voice impossibly gentle. “But I’m still here because living is preferable to whatever comes next. At least, that’s what I think. I’ve never been dead before.”
“Leinth and Ériu are keeping watch,” Thom said. “It’ll be okay.”
Seamus nodded, drying his hands. “Maybe this time, it will be, but the next time? Or the time after that?”
“We’ll deal with it as it comes,” I said. “Just like we always do. We don’t have a choice.”
We never seemed to have a choice.
ok fabulous as ever but help me with something please – how in all the myriad Hells am i supposed to pronounce Déithe agus arrachtaigh?? and what does it mean?
It means “gods and monsters” — and the pronunciation is Irish/Gaelic and I’m terrible at typing things phonetically.
dammit lol if only you could link us a soundcloud example or something similar 🙂 guess i just have to keep completely screwing it up every time i try to pronounce it in my head haha