[This post is from Thom’s point of view.]
Seamus moved down the wall with him, never more than a dozen feet away, a sentinel watching, guarding. Thom tried to ignore it at first after their brief exchange, but the words gnawed at him.
Something isn’t right.
This isn’t a fight we can win with defenses or strength of arms.
His jaw tightened. He was still a dozen yards down from the gate when he turned away from it, toward Seamus. “What aren’t you saying?”
“Jameson wanted to be the one to tell you.”
“J.T.’s not here. You are. What the hell is going on, Seamus?”
“Something happened at the barrow,” Seamus said. “Something was digging there, trying to undermine the wards. Phelan and Matt found it, then Phelan sorted it out. They told me because they thought I might have some insight so I went out to take a look myself. They came close to their purpose there.”
Cold shot through Thom. “Their purpose,” he echoed, his voice dull. “What was that?”
“They want our dead,” Seamus said. “It’s likely they only pulled back because they could sense what was happening on that field when Hecate went up against Pluton. That would scare the bold out of anyone.” His lips thinned. “We both know she doesn’t have another fight like that in her.”
“Do we?”
“I do,” Seamus said. “That was personal, what she did out there. I know what that looks like. Hell, I’d like to have the opportunity to do it to my father-in-law, for what he did to my daughter, me, Leinth. He’d have done it to Leinth’s child, too, if he’d ever known of it.”
Thom winced, saying nothing. He stared at the wall for a long moment before his gaze shifted back to Seamus. “What was out there?”
“It was hamrammr. It seems that they’re not done with the lot of you yet.”
