[This post is from Seamus’s point of view.]
Anselm sighed softly, crossing his arms. “They don’t know him, Seamus. They know you. You are their brother.”
Seamus shook his head. “He’s the Ridden Druid reborn. They know him.”
Anselm fell silent. His lips thinned. The silence lingered long enough that Seamus started counting the heartbeats, hearing each one echo through his head.
Bloody hellfire and ashes.
“Anselm.”
“Think about what you just said, Seamus. Then consider how many would understand and believe what you have said about Matthew.”
An explosive breath escaped his lips and Seamus closed his eyes. There was a part of him that realized that Anselm was right, that some of the Hunt would find it difficult to fathom what he knew was true, that souls that he had known in a long-forgotten yesterday had been reborn again in the world they lived in now.
And yet they can accept that some of us have lived for thousands upon thousands of years as part of an ancient group of soldiers.
He sighed.
Anselm put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You have to be the one to explain all of this to them, Seamus. Besides, if it’s Matthew, they’ll think it’s some kind of trick, that she’s somehow ensorcelled him to say the words. It has to be you.”
“Bloody hellfire and ashes,” Seamus muttered, knuckling his eyes. “I’m trying to break free of that existence and all everything seems to be doing is sucking me back toward it.”
“Fate plays her hand carefully,” Anselm said, then smiled ruefully as he caught sight of the glare Seamus shot in his direction. “I don’t mean that she intends for you to be a part of the Hunt again, Seamus. Don’t take it that way. But we are in your blood—I fear we always will be. You don’t ride with us for as long as you did—you don’t lead for as long as you did—without a mark being left behind on your psyche and your soul.”
“I’ll talk to them,” Seamus said.
“It will help,” Anselm said.
Seamus simply nodded. Anselm squeezed his shoulder again before he turned away and headed back to the Hunt’s camp, leaving Seamus alone with his thoughts once more.
