51. Liath
LIATH
Lorcan’s hand settled against the small of my back as we walked through the old stone gates of Cill na Caoine together. The late summer sun bathed the churchyard in warm gold, and a gentle breeze carried the familiar scent of damp earth and wildflowers across the graves.
My gaze drifted toward the tomb where Dahlia’s body had been found. Black violets had burst into bloom around its base, their dark-purple petals forming a wreath so perfect it looked deliberate.
A smile tugged at my lips. For just a moment, I imagined Dahlia smiling back at me, finally free and at peace.
Lorcan squeezed my hand gently, drawing me back to the present as we entered the church together.
Earlier, we’d returned to Lasair Manor to figure out what to do with it.
Mervyn had broken down at the sight of him.
With tears running freely down his weathered face, he’d apologized over and over.
He’d confessed that Alistair had never paid him enough to leave.
Every meal, the room he’d slept in, every expense had been recorded as another debt, ensuring his wages never amounted to freedom.
Mervyn knew he couldn’t hope for forgiveness; instead, he begged for a decent reference.
Lorcan had looked at him for a long moment before quietly telling him to keep his job instead.
Lasair Manor still stood empty. Mervyn would look after it because Lorcan decided not to sell. “Just in case Rua ever wants to come home.”
We climbed the worn spiral staircase leading into the church attic, the door flung wide open.
Inside the familiar scent of old stone, candle wax and dust wrapped around me. Computer monitors glowed against one wall while papers, architectural drawings, and folders covered the enormous table at the center of the room.
Bas and Dervla were already bent over the schematics, arguing quietly over something marked in red pen.
Dervla looked up first, her hair cut back into her signature bob, her lip ring catching the light.
“About time, bish.” She grinned at me. “Any longer with this eejit and I’d have gone crazy.”
Bas made a snorting noise. “You can’t get any crazier.”
Together, the three of us had spent months gathering every piece of evidence we could find against her uncle, and now she worked beside Bas helping redesign Magdalene into the recovery center it should have always been.
My gaze caught on a black cloak with a silver dragon’s head clasp, still hung from its hook beside the wall.
Deargán’s Mikhailov cloak. Bas must have retrieved it from the Sons’ auction hall where Deargán had flung it off at some point.
Bas followed my gaze before rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I hadn’t had the heart to toss it.”
I crossed the room and wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry. I know he was your friend.”
He patted my back with exaggerated discomfort. “Friend?” His mouth twisted. “More like a pain in my bollocks.” Despite the joke, sadness roughened his voice.
When I stepped back, Lorcan stepped in and they did that one-handed hug clasp thing boys do.
“Right, then,” Bas said to Lorcan. “While you were just lying around, we were busy.”
He swept a hand across the papers as we gathered around the table. “The asylum’s dismantled. Magdalene officially belongs to the foundation you set up. The Sons have been exposed. They face the legal system.” His grin sharpened as he flicked one of his knives in his hand. “Or worse.”
Maeve had been avenged.
Dervla and all the girls locked in the ward were free.
But Bridgit and Nuala still remained somewhere beyond our reach.
The work wasn’t finished. But for the first time, it felt possible.
Lorcan slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. “You’ve done amazing work.”
Heat climbed into my cheeks. “I couldn’t have—”
His mouth covered mine for a kiss.
Dervla let out a wolf whistle.
Bas groaned dramatically. “Oi. Where’s my thanks?”
Without breaking the embrace, Lorcan lifted one finger in Bas’s direction. “You’re welcome.”
Bas stared at him.
Then all four of us burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the old attic, clearing the last of the ghosts out of the corners.
Tires crunched across the gravel outside.
I stepped toward the windows, where one of the panels had been pushed wide to let the late summer air drift through the room.
A familiar car rolled to a stop below and my heart leaped. “Ava’s here.”
Lorcan appeared behind me before I could turn. His hand settled around the back of my neck, pulling me in for a slow kiss.
“You sure you don’t want to come?” I asked when we finally separated.
He smiled. “Next time. This is girl time.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
“Besides…” His grin widened. “It’ll be awkward if I’m there when you spend the day gushing about me.”
I slapped his arm. “You are insufferable.”
“You love me.” He kissed my forehead. “See you at home.”
Home.
The word settled somewhere deep inside me, filling every hollow place I’d carried for years.
As I turned toward the staircase, Dervla appeared beside me. She silently held out her right hand, her scar running across her palm facing out.
I pressed my own scar against hers. For one quiet heartbeat, neither of us moved.
Then I threaded my fingers through hers. “Come on.”
She blinked. “But I don’t know them.”
“You will.” I tugged her toward the stairs. “They’ll love you.”
Halfway across the attic, I caught sight of Bas standing alone beside the window. He wasn’t looking at us. He was looking down into the churchyard.
“Derv,” I said. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
She nodded before continuing toward the staircase alone.
I crossed to Bas. He was watching Ava leaning casually against the driver’s door below.
There was something in the way he watched her. Something unfinished.
“Do you,” I asked, “want to come downstairs?”
He didn’t look away from the window. He shook his head. “It’s complicated.”
A long silence stretched between us as I glanced between him and Ava. “Is there a chance for you two? Later?”
A sad smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Maybe.”
I squeezed his arm gently before leaving him with his ghosts.
Downstairs, I pulled Dervla behind me out of the church doors and into the summer air.
A blur of wild red curls collided with me.
“Liath!” Lisa wrapped both arms around me so tightly I laughed.
I hugged her just as fiercely. “I missed you, too.”
She pulled back to look me over. “Jesus, you look fecking amazing for a dead chick.”
Another pair of arms crashed around me. Aisling was already sobbing into my shirt. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I pulled back, wiping her hair stuck to her wet cheeks. “What for?”
“If I didn’t show up late, then you never would have been kidnapped,” she wailed.
I pulled her into a tight hug. “It’s not your fault. Okay? Nothing to forgive.”
She hiccupped against my neck. “I t-thought I lost you.”
Emotion tightened my throat.
“Bish.” I hugged her harder through my own tears. “You can’t get rid of me.”
She swatted my shoulder while half sobbing, half laughing, before brushing the tears off her cheeks.
Ava stepped forward. Her raven hair had grown longer, and whatever she had been through had carved quiet strength into her posture. She wrapped me in a firm embrace.
“We never stopped looking for you,” she whispered.
My eyes burned. “I know.”
When we finally stepped apart, I reached back and pulled Dervla forward. “This… is Dervla, my other ride or die.”
Before Dervla could protest, Lisa had already thrown herself at her. Aisling followed, then Ava.
I laughed as introductions dissolved into overlapping voices and impossible questions.
Dervla looked completely overwhelmed. Then, slowly… she smiled.
Watching my two families collide felt like watching two broken halves of my life finally recognize each other.
Aisling said something that made Dervla laugh. Their eyes lingered for a fraction longer than strangers’ usually did.
I caught myself smiling. Maybe that story was only just beginning.
As everyone climbed into the car, I noticed Ava pausing at her driver’s door, looking up toward the attic window.
Bas stood exactly where I’d left him.
Their eyes locked.
He lifted his palm and rested it against the old glass like he was reaching for her.
Even from this distance, I recognized the silence passing between them.
Some stories didn’t end. They simply waited until they were ready to finish writing them.
Dusk had settled over the countryside by the time Ava pulled up outside the cottage.
We’d already dropped Dervla home and the other girls were still back at the apartment they’d rented for the night, wrangling dinner and packing for their early drive back to Dublin.
This drive had been a chance to grill her about Bas in private. And what a story it was.
The engine idled for a moment after she parked, neither of us quite ready to end the day.
“I’ll see you soon?” she asked.
I smiled. “You’d better, bish.”
She leaned across the center console and hugged me one last time before I climbed out into the cooling evening air and waved at her as she drove off.
The front garden glowed beneath the last amber light of the sun. Crickets had begun their evening chorus somewhere beyond the hedgerows, and the ivy climbing over the old stone walls stirred gently in the breeze.
Finn stalked across the gravel drive without looking back toward the cottage, every line of his body radiating fury.
Bas waited in another car parked nearby.
Finn yanked open the passenger door and climbed inside.
The tires spat gravel and the car disappeared down the lane.
Only then did I notice Lorcan standing in the cottage doorway, his shoulders rigid, watching the empty space Finn had left behind.
“How did he take it?” I asked him.
Lorcan didn’t answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the lane long after the car had vanished.
Finally, he shook his head, pain leaking through his tone. “He’s going alone.”
“He’ll forgive you.” I slid my arms around his waist. “He’s family.”
He didn’t answer, his arms closing around me in return.
I pressed my face against his chest as his woodsmoke and violins wrapped around me.
His chin rested lightly against the top of my head.
Neither of us spoke. We didn’t need to. The silence between us had finally become a place we could both rest.
A breeze drifted through the trees. With it came another scent so faint I almost thought I’d imagined it.
Cloves and black pepper.
I lifted my head.
For the briefest heartbeat, a tall figure seemed to stand between the trees at the edge of the property. Watching.
The leaves stirred. The fading light shifted. The space beneath the trees stood empty.
There was no one there. Only the wind.
Without thinking, my hand settled over the center of his chest. Beneath my palm, his heart beat steadily against my skin.