[This post is from Cameron’s point of view.]
“I can send someone with you.”
Cameron winced at the sound of the voice behind him, half turning toward his host and forcing a slight, albeit weak, smile. “You don’t really have much of anyone to spare, do you?”
Lara inclined her head, one curl falling into her face. She brushed it aside before she tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans, joining him on the shore of the lake that in the past months had risen well beyond its usual banks. “We would manage. Your friends don’t have that many people to spare, either, do they?”
“More than you do, now,” Cameron murmured, his gaze shifting away from her and toward the water. “With the Wild Hunt living there, we’re in a more secure position.”
Assuming that they survived whatever came. Assuming that Leviathan or worse hasn’t hit them again.
Though what could be worse, I’m not entirely certain.
“I don’t suppose I could convince you to pull up stakes and head north,” he ventured, not looking at her. A soft chuckle escaped her and he saw her shake her head out of the corner of his eye.
“With everything you’ve been through already and are sure to face again? I think not.” She lapsed into silence for a few moments, then reached up to rest her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
“I hope you’re right,” Cameron said, then glanced down at his boots. He felt sick at the thought of something happening to his friends—especially to Neve, pregnant with twins.
His children. Their children together.
He closed his eyes.
“Do you think he’ll come back here?”
“Leviathan?” Lara shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel like we’re beneath his notice, considering there’s not even two dozen of us, but considering the whole of his ambitions, I can’t be sure he wouldn’t come to try to recruit us or worse.” She chewed the inside of her lower lip, looking toward Cameron again. “Do you think your friends would join with him?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Cameron shook his head. “No. No, I don’t think so.”
But if he leveled the right kind of threat…maybe.
Nothing’s certain anymore, is it?
Lara squeezed his shoulder. Cameron blew out a quiet breath.
“As long as the weather holds out, I’ll leave this afternoon.”
“Gods be with you,” Lara said.
Cameron smiled crookedly. “I’d almost rather they not be.”
That, at least, made her laugh.
