“Have you ever seen him like that before?”
Neve winced slightly, not quite certain how to address Marin’s question—or, more appropriately, the questions that would follow her initial answer. She hugged her arms a little tighter against her chest, gnawing at her lower lip. “Where is he?”
“In his room,” Marin said softly. “Jac’s with him now. Probably a good thing—she’ll impress on him what a bad idea it would be to do something stupid.”
“Good,” Neve said softly, staring at the clouds that drifted through the sky, gray and heavy with only bare snatches of blue visible here and there. Winter didn’t want to let go, though the calendar her friends kept said that it should have been spring weeks ago. Nothing made sense since the end of the world, not really.
She sighed.
“Neve.”
“I know,” she said, finally looking at Marin. “I know I haven’t answered your question.”
“And there’s a reason why, isn’t there?” Marin smiled wryly and shook her head. “You’re afraid to tell me.”
“I’m afraid of what you’ll ask after I tell you the truth,” Neve corrected. “And I don’t want to lie about any of it, either.” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “I’ve seen him like this before, a long time ago, before…before.”
“Before what? Before your father…?”
Neve nodded mutely. Marin touched her elbow, then tugged her arms out of their cross to take her hand. She squeezed it hard.
“Will you tell me?” Marin whispered. “What does it mean?”
“I think Anselm’s right, for what it’s worth,” Neve said, her fingers tightening around Marin’s. “Someone or something is affecting him, and it may well be whatever attacked Cariocecus.”
The thought of it set dread coiling deep in her belly. Was it another old, half-forgotten enemy that Phelan had run afoul of in some long-gone yesterday? She didn’t know.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.” That scared her more than just the thought of someone targeting Phelan—the not knowing, and realizing that he might not even have any idea who was responsible.
Did you really have to go and make so many people angry with you, Phelan? Did you? Neve bit her lip, glancing down at the ground in front of them. Marin squeezed her hand again.
“We’ll figure it out—one way or another.”
“Right,” Neve murmured. “I wish they were here.”
“Who? Cameron and Seamus and Thom?”
“And Teague,” she whispered. “I wish he was here, too. Out of any of them, out of anyone…he’d be the most likely to know who’s pinned this target on Phelan’s back, who’s doing this. They were always thick as thieves.”
“I know,” Marin whispered back, and the strength of knowing behind her words gave Neve another chill.
She barely dared to ask, but the question slipped out. “Have you seen something?”
“I’ve seen a lot of things,” Marin said as she let go and turned away. “I haven’t seen a solution to this problem yet, but one will come. One always comes, one way or another, whether we’re ready or not.”
“Do you think we’ll be ready this time?”
Marin gave her a wry smile. “You tell me, Neve. You tell me.”
Great new post
That was me. sigh.