Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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The rain traced paths down the old glass while I listened to it patter instead of the council members who continued to chat while we waited for Cillian to return.
Selene had come, and she had not known it was me. That should have been an advantage.
I moved on since there were more immediate victories to consider.
The council had blocked me for centuries, keeping me from my family’s home, from the place I was born. From the last place I’d looked upon my mother’s face before she’d been taken from me.
Every single person sitting in the chamber with me knew the old keep had been a portal between this world and the other. They knew it had allowed my father to visit my mother. That’s how she’d conceived me.
But none would admit how powerful it was. How important it was to protect it. I’d long suspected Halbrook and Doherty wanted it to be the place the Veil ultimately fell. The portal was that big. But they were forced to pretend otherwise.
I feigned ignorance as well, because to admit I knew the strength of it might force the utter destruction of the castle, of my beloved childhood home. There were other, more permanent ways to seal the portal, or at least to weaken it, but the personal cost was too great.
So there we sat, none wanting to destroy it completely, but for different reasons. All pretending it wasn’t what it was.
My thoughts turned to Selene and the grove. To the shockwave that had rewritten everything in a single moment.
She’d upended the playing board and hadn’t a clue.
When Halbrook leaned in and whispered to Doherty, I pulled my attention back to the room. The hint of fear in her eyes and the flush of her cheeks filled me with gratification that I pretended not to notice.
The door opened behind me, and Cillian returned. We regarded one another in silence, with him wondering what I was up to and me wondering the same. I blinked and looked away.
He likely knew more about Selene’s power than I did. Otherwise, why had he snatched her up so quickly upon her arrival?
But he seemed clueless about the rest. As was I.
Still, as long as he didn’t speak of her to the others, she’d remain protected.
I stayed silent while Margaret fussed over the contract, insisting on reviewing each detail with Cillian. Once the documents were signed, he shook hands with the other members but didn’t make the effort to approach me.
I preferred that as well.
We all remained in our seats while Cillian departed, waiting silently until his footsteps faded.
Then our dear councilwoman stood, and with a casual wave of her hand, the chamber doors closed with a muted click. She gazed at each of us, and her expression hardened when she reached me.
I gazed coolly back at her, giving away nothing.
She cleared her throat. “Now that the distractions have left, we need to continue our discussion regarding the extent to which we’ll allow for the restoration of Mystwood.”
O’Brien tilted his head. “The shift was significant enough that we can’t ignore it. Whatever caused it, the regional instability is real, and we need someone positioned centrally to monitor the affected sites.”
He glanced at me. “I don’t see why we need to limit it. As long as Bren is funding the project, that is.”
Halbrook’s expression remained neutral, but her pulse told a different story.
She had not yet decided how much she knew, which meant she suspected more than she could prove.
“A convenient coincidence of timing, wouldn’t you say?
The shift in the Veil occurs, and suddenly the case for restoring McLoughlin’s family property becomes considerably easier to make. ”
“Considerably,” I agreed, giving her nothing.
Doherty folded his hands in the pleasant, reasonable manner he had refined into a precision instrument. “None of us would suggest that the castle isn’t worth protecting. It’s simply a question of priority and resource allocation.”
“Then allow me to simplify the question.” I drew a document from the folio before me and set it on the table. “I’ve prepared a regional assessment. Eight sites show measurable threshold degradation that should be addressed as soon as possible. The castle is one of them.”
I paused. “It isn’t the most critical, but it’s the easiest to start with since we won’t need to go through the motions of obtaining government approval, as it’s on private property.”
That landed as I intended. Halbrook’s eyes moved to the document without touching it.
I continued, keeping my voice mild. “If the shift was externally caused, then whoever is responsible already knows which sites are vulnerable. Preventive reinforcement removes the advantage. If the shift was naturally occurring, then the degradation pattern I’ve identified suggests we have a narrower window to repair and fortify thresholds than previously estimated. ”
I let that settle. “Either way, the recommendation is the same.”
O’Brien pulled the document toward him and studied it. “Eight sites. How long has the recent increase in degradation been present?”
“The pattern became legible seven weeks ago.” Which was not quite a lie. The pattern had existed longer. I simply had reason to look more carefully seven weeks ago, after the incident in a grove in Killarney under a full moon had sent a shockwave through the Veil that I still hadn’t fully mapped.
Selene hadn’t known what she’d done. I was certain of that. Her kiss had been impulsive, unguarded, and entirely human in its logic, and she had walked away from the clearing still believing she’d dreamed it.
The power released hadn’t come from intent. It had come from contact. From whatever lived inside her pressing briefly against whatever lived inside me, and the Veil registered the meeting of those two things.
I had told no one that part, and I never planned to.
“Eight sites is a significant undertaking,” Eireann said, drawing her finger through the condensation on her water glass, her gaze resting on me with a warmth I did not return. “Are you proposing to manage all of them personally?”
“I’m proposing to coordinate them. Some can be handled through existing channels.” I met her gaze briefly. “Others require more careful attention.”
She arched her brow. “And the castle falls into the second category?”
“The castle falls into the first.” I let her register that. “It’s a threshold point, not a primary anchor. Reinforcing it is straightforward work that Ms. Sullivan can accomplish.”
Halbrook’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. She understood, as I did, that the castle was considerably more than a threshold point. But she could not say so without revealing the extent of her own knowledge, and that was a position she had spent years avoiding.
“We will, of course, want regular progress reports,” she said.
“Of course.”
“And the firm?” Her gaze moved to the door through which Cillian had departed. “You’re comfortable with that arrangement?”
It seemed ridiculous that she was questioning it since the contract had already been signed, but I played along.
“In addition to protecting one of Ireland’s treasures, having a restoration specialist on-site also provides a practical explanation for the access and activity.
That protects the project from unnecessary scrutiny. ”
Doherty nodded slowly. “A sensible point.”
It was a sensible point. It was also not the primary reason I had voted for her.
Halbrook pressed her hands flat against the table, a gesture I recognized as a reluctant conclusion.
“We’ll allow the castle work as part of the regional reinforcement initiative, but I’ll require approval on anything that directly affects the threshold.
The remaining sites will be reviewed on a rolling basis as your assessments come in. ”
“That’s acceptable.”
She did not look as though she found it acceptable.
She looked as though she had been outmaneuvered by a sequence of events she hadn’t controlled, which was precisely what had happened. The honesty of her expression was the closest thing to satisfaction the room had offered me in a very long time.
The vote for all projects was brief and procedural. Even Doherty raised his hand, which told me the shift had frightened him more than he had allowed himself to show.
The doors opened at Halbrook’s unspoken release. The meeting dissolved into the quiet efficiency of departure as everyone gathered their papers and slid back their chairs.
I remained seated as the rain continued its steady rhythm against the glass, and I gave myself a moment of thinking clearly. I recalled Selene’s scent had moved through stone and polish and the cold civic air of this chamber and registered before I’d identified the source. Then I set that aside.
Tomorrow I would see her again in Killarney. In the castle.
I would keep her within my sight line until I determined what she was. Until I determined whether she was a threat.
Or something I had no category for.