[This post is from Seamus’s point of view.]
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away.”
Seamus turned toward the sound of his sister’s voice, managing a slight smile. He’d lingered beyond the walls even after Thom had headed in, lost in his own thoughts, turning things over in his head. “Maybe I am,” he said, looking away again, watching the western sky. “Just getting some air.”
“Mm.” Neve came to stand beside him, idly rubbing her hands over her distended belly. Seamus glanced sidelong, studying her for a few seconds. All of his healer’s training, long in the past but hardly forgotten, told him that she wouldn’t be much longer before she gave birth. “There’s plenty of air inside the walls, big brother. There’s something tugging on you. I can feel it.”
“Did Leinth send you?”
Neve laughed and shook her head. “Should she have?”
He allowed himself a brief hesitation before answering, his guts suddenly churning. “Maybe,” he finally said, then sighed softly, chafing his hands over his arms. “Maybe she should have.”
Her tone gentled, voice growing soft. “What’s the matter, Seamus?”
“I just have a bad feeling,” he murmured. “I said some things to Thom and maybe I shouldn’t have, but maybe he still needed to hear.”
“Like what?”
Seamus exhaled a sigh, staring out at the horizon. “I told him not to rely on the Hunt to protect everyone here. I told him that the walls weren’t going to be enough. I shouldn’t have said any of it, Neve. I’ve only gone and upset him and that’s the last thing he or any of the rest of us need.”
Neve was quiet for a few long moments, chewing her lower lip. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes. No. Gods and monsters, Neve, I don’t know anymore. I really don’t. There’s just—I have—I have a bad feeling. That’s all.”
“Maybe you should listen to it.”
