Awkward silence reigned over our little group as they all stared at me. My chest was tight, heart giving an uncomfortable squeeze, but I knew that what I’d said was true—more true than any of them could ever know.
Maybe that’s why it still hurts, a thousand and more years after their bodies are dead so their souls could eventually be reborn as us.
“Well, aren’t you all looking damned cheerful right about now?”
I jerked at the sound of Phelan’s voice, twisting to look at him. He fell back a step as he met my gaze, blinking rapidly.
“Leannán, what were you talking about just now?”
“It’s nothing, Phelan,” Neve said. “It’s all right.”
“No it’s not,” he said, his voice flat. “Don’t lie to me and say it is. I know that look in her eye. What were you talking about?”
I closed my eyes, trying not to sigh. Carolyn answered this time.
“Neve was telling us a story. A true story.”
I could tell that Phelan’s expression had clouded over without looking at him. It was in his voice, in the sudden darkening of his tone from light and airy to heavy, as if sudden foreknowledge weighed it down. “What story? Neve?”
She stayed silent for so long I thought she might not answer. Then, finally: “They wanted to know an old story. I was telling them about Ciar.”
Phelan sucked in a rasping breath. I opened my eyes and found him staring at me. I met his gaze and he winced but didn’t look away. His hands flexed, fingers curling into fists.
“How much have you told them?” he asked in a whisper.
“I’d gotten to the part where he was tricked by those damn druids,” Neve said, her voice so cold it sent shivers skittering down my spine. I closed my eyes again.
They loved him, too. Don’t forget that. They gave a damn, too.
Then as now, they love fiercely—and so I do. Gods help me, so do I.
WOW!!!!
“and so i do” should that be and so do I? :-s
i deliberately didnt read any of this for a while so that when i came back i could hopefully get the whole Ridden Druid tale in one sitting :-p
awesome as always!!