Reyes and Zac exchanged a weighted glance and then went back to staring at Shealy. Tiarnan didn’t like the familiar way they let their eyes rove over her face, lingering on the scars for a brief moment before moving down the creamy arc of her throat, lower. Her gown was filthy, torn, and showing more flesh than before. He wanted to cover her up. He wanted to growl, like he had when he’d killed the three-headed creatures.
“She’s what brought those monsters here,” Jamie said.
Shealy stiffened. “I didn’t bring them. How can you even suggest that?”
“They wanted you,” Jamie insisted flatly.
She lowered her eyes at his words, and Tiarnan saw that she knew it was the truth. She’d felt their focus, their drive to have her. But the silvery gaze that lifted to his face was bewildered and frightened, not secretive. She didn’t know anything about the
ellén trechend
. He would wager his life on it.
“Are you working for Cathán?” Jamie asked casually.
“She’s not a spy,” Tiarnan snapped.
“Let the lady answer for herself.”
“I’ve never even seen him before. Never even heard his name before Tiarnan told me who he is,” she said, lifting her chin, but still holding her head at that peculiar angle with her hair hiding much of her face.
“But your father knows him. And it’s a given he’s connected to this place.”
“He searched for the Book of Fennore,” Tiarnan told them, knowing they would find out eventually.
Jamie cursed beneath his breath. “Well there you go. So what are
you
looking for, Shealy O’Leary? You after the Book, too? You here to make some deals with Cathán? Because I don’t believe in coincidences. I deal with facts and the fact is, you came and brought one hell of a disaster with you.”
“I’m not after the Book,” she said, incredulous. “That stupid Book almost got me killed. If my dad hadn’t been looking for it, we never would have been on that island. My mother wouldn’t have . . .” She trailed off and her gaze went to the blood-soaked ground where Maggie had fallen and then been eaten by the
ellén trechend
.
“Leave her alone,” Tiarnan said in a dark voice. “She is just a woman who needs our help. And I believe her.”
Jamie didn’t back down. “I don’t get in your business, T. But right now you need to think. In all the time we’ve been here, nothing like that has ever come to dinner, you hear me?”
Jamie flicked his hard gaze over Shealy, lingering on the child in her arms before skimming down and up again. Once more there was familiarity in that glance that made Tiarnan want to step in front of Shealy and hide her. It was ridiculous and unwarranted. Jamie had every right to question her presence. In his place, Tiarnan would do the same.
Shealy shifted, and the child in her arms clutched her reflexively. “Listen,” she said. “I’d love to stand trial while you accuse me of making it rain monsters, but do you think we could sit down first? She’s small, but she’s heavy.”
Perhaps it was the way Shealy’s voice cracked with emotion as she spoke, perhaps it was how fragile she herself appeared, with bruises on her arms and legs and blood splattering her from head to toe. Maybe it was the child whose life she’d saved. Whatever the reason, the tension seemed to ebb, and Tiarnan exhaled softly.
Jamie nodded and then looked around, as if seeing the wreckage for the first time. “Look at this place. Not even a chair left.”
“We going to rebuild?” Zac asked, staring grimly at the ruins.
No one answered. Tiarnan supposed no one knew. If the monsters they’d defeated heralded more of the same, what point would there be in rebuilding? They had wiped out an entire settlement, killed more than twenty people in a matter of minutes.
Jamie looked at Tiarnan. “You think there’s more of those things out there?”
Tiarnan held his gaze. “There’s more of everything out there, and y’ know it yerself.”
“Christ,” Jamie said, looking with defeat at the remains of their homes.
Using his chin, Tiarnan pointed at a fallen tree beside the river. “Come, Shealy. Y’ can sit there.”
Jamie, Reyes, and Zac moved aside while Tiarnan led Shealy to the deadwood. Liam, who’d been unusually quiet during the discussion, followed behind. Tiarnan gave him a curious glance and noted the grief in his brother’s eyes. Only then did he realize.
Sally.
Sally was gone. His little brother had been at war more than half of his young life and he’d learned to harden his heart to things that could break it. But Sally had slipped in as women tended to do and now she was dead.
Tiarnan swallowed hard, rearing away from that thought. He put a consoling hand on Liam’s shoulder as he passed, and Liam gave him a jerky nod. But there were shadows in his eyes that had not been there before and Tiarnan mourned the addition.
As if sensing his thoughts, Shealy glanced at him over her shoulder. She looked exhausted and vulnerable, battered from the attack and the circumstances she could barely grasp. But in her rain-colored eyes he saw strength and courage. He tried to harden his heart against her, but somehow she’d cracked the armor he wore around it and left him defenseless.
He sat beside her on the log and waited for the others to take seats as well. They lowered themselves to the marshy earth in a loose circle and waited.
The river raged past them, the current mighty here and dangerous. With the pull of Endless Falls less than three hundred feet downriver, this particular stretch was treacherous and impassable. Still, the steady thunder of rushing water seemed to calm them all, so long as no one looked in the other direction where the headless bodies of the monsters lay in bloody heaps and the ruins of their settlement littered every inch of the islet.
Shealy shifted the child in her arms, easing Ellie’s weight onto her lap, gazing at the little girl’s face with a poignant mixture of remorse and wonder. He felt the burn of her pain, could only imagine what she must feel, finding a mother she’d thought dead only to witness her brutal murder.
And now she held a sister she’d never known.
All the men waited until Shealy looked up, tilting her head to cover the side of her face with her hair. A part of him wanted to reach over and push it back and prove that she had nothing to hide, but he forced himself to sit still and wait.
“You said your father searched for the Book of Fennore,” Jamie said, gently now that they’d calmed. “Why?”
She sighed and a flush spread up her throat. “He thought he was part of some ancient order,” she told him. “His father believed the same thing. It was a family obsession, looking for it.”
“What did he want from it?”
“Nothing. I mean, he was under the delusion that he was supposed to protect it. He called himself a Keeper. Said it was his duty to find the Book and put it where it couldn’t be found, where the world would be safe from it. He sounded like a lunatic when he talked about it.”
Jamie’s eyes narrowed. “A Keeper.”
“That’s right.” She frowned, noting his expression. “Why?”
Yes, Tiarnan wanted that answered as well. Something about the tension in Jamie’s body set off alarms.
“But he never found the Book?” Jamie went on.
“No. And I’m not convinced that it was my dad who ‘opened the door’ as Tiarnan says. He’s just a normal guy, my dad. And he quit looking for the Book after my mother . . .” She clenched her jaw and let out a pent-up breath. “After the accident, he quit looking. He moved us from Ireland to Arizona and he hasn’t even mentioned it again.”
“Why Arizona?” Zac asked.
“There was a specialist, a doctor there. Plus it’s dry. At least those were the reasons he gave me. He said he was sick of the rain.”
Tiarnan touched her arm. “Do you think he suspected your mother was here, Shealy?”
“No,” she said. “God no. He thought she was dead. We both did.”
Her eyes grew misty and she swallowed hard.
“I need to find him,” she said.
“If he went back, if he’s on the other side, you’re SOL, sweetheart,” Jamie said.
Shealy looked up, her eyes round.
“Unless T here knows what he’s talking about and your dad really can open the door.”
“I saw it. I stepped through it,” Tiarnan said.
“Well, what about you?” Reyes asked suddenly.
As one they all looked at her, and Shealy pressed back against Tiarnan.
“What about Shealy?” Tiarnan asked.
“You saw what she did to those monsters,” he answered. “She
changed
them.”
“No,” she said.
“You did,” Jamie agreed. “They were like tanks. Nothing penetrated. Nothing stopped them. And then . . .”
“I felt a blast,” Liam said, speaking for the first time. “It went right through me.”
Zac and Reyes nodded. They’d felt it, too.
“It wasn’t me,” Shealy said.
Tiarnan watched her. Unable to stop himself, he brushed her hair away from her face and gently tucked it back, exposing the small patch of scars and the injured shell of her ear, wanting to press his lips to each tiny flaw even as a voice deep inside mocked him, told him he was digging his own grave. He need only look at the pain in his little brother’s eyes to see the results of caring about someone in this place of violence. He needed to put distance between himself and Shealy O’Leary.
Shealy frowned at Tiarnan and flipped her hair out from behind her ear.
“I felt it, too, lass,” he murmured. “It was a force, like a wind, and it came from y’.”
“It wasn’t me,” she insisted. And then she looked down at the child dozing in her arms. “It was her. Ellie . . . my sister.”
“She’s just a baby.” Jamie said what they were all thinking.
“She’s old enough to be scared,” Shealy answered softly. “And when those things were coming at us, she . . . did something. I felt it, too.” In the silence that followed, each of them considered this and what it might mean. They’d never noticed anything unique about the cute little girl. She’d been doted upon by one and all and hadn’t once exhibited any special abilities . . .
“So what now?” Jamie asked, and Tiarnan could not tell what went on behind the other man’s dark eyes. He didn’t know if Jamie believed Shealy or if he thought her lying.
“If my father’s here, I need to look for him,” Shealy said.
“You won’t find him,” Jamie responded. “Tell her Tiarnan.”
Tiarnan took a deep breath, prepared to agree with Jamie—prepared to dash all Shealy’s hopes that her father could be found. But something held him back. He’d been without hope for so long, he hardly knew what it felt like. But since seeing Shealy through that rip in the darkness, things had changed.
He’d
changed.
There was a reason why she’d come to this world. To him.
“There is a chance,” Tiarnan said carefully. “I believe he will be looking for her.”
“And what about Cathán?” Jamie asked.
“If finding Shealy’s father brings Cathán into my reach, all the better. Cathán has taken everything I’ve ever cared about. I will finally be able to do what I’ve wanted to do for most of my life. I will kill him.”
He’d said the words a hundred times or more, but now they rang with a finality that thrilled him.
“I hear you, my friend. We all want that,” Jamie said, but he eyed Tiarnan with unmistakable reservation. “But this is not the time to air old grudges. Whatever those
things
were that came here tonight—Cathán sent them. You know it.”
“All the more reason to hunt him down and be done with him once and for all,” Tiarnan responded.
“We’ve been hunting him since we got here. What makes you think we’ll find him now? What makes you think we can find anyone now?”
Tiarnan looked at Shealy again, remembering that wash of. . .
power
he’d felt go through him. It had been charged, like the air after a lightning strike. He didn’t know what to call it . . . magic, perhaps. He only knew that it had changed the odds and allowed him to kill their foes.
Shealy said the power had come from the child, but Tiarnan wasn’t convinced. Even if the child was the source of it, that only sparked another question within him. If Shealy’s father had the power to open the door between the worlds, and her sister could change an indestructible monster into something that could be slain, then what power did Shealy have? What might she be able to do? Could she be the source of an even greater magic than what they’d felt this morning?
Choosing his words with care, he said, “Shealy’s father can release us from this world, Jamie. He can help us all to leave this place. What risk is not worth that?”
For a moment, no one spoke. Reluctantly, Tiarnan went on, voicing words he wished he didn’t have to say.
“There’s more we need to consider. If Cathán has captured Shealy’s father, he can use him to escape this world. If he has her father, we must free him before that happens.”
“It could have happened already.”
“I do not believe it.”
“Why not?”
“Why would Cathán send the
ellén trechend
if he’d left this world behind?”
Jamie scowled. “That brings us to another important point. If Cathán can summon the wolves, the dragons, the
monsters
that were here today, we don’t stand a chance against him. It’s a miracle we’re even alive. How in the hell do you think we’re going to come out the winners in a battle with him?”
“We don’t go to battle,” Zac said into the drawn silence. Surprised, they all faced him. “We’re not storming the gates, right? It’s a rescue. When the military operates a rescue, they don’t send the whole troop. They send a team that can move fast. Get in and out without being seen.”
Beside him, Reyes nodded, but the look on Jamie’s face was far from agreement. It might have been funny under other conditions, but now he looked like he might take that heavy blade he carried and start whacking. Zac and Reyes had been his to command since the beginning. That one of them would speak against him was not only unexpected, it was an offense.