Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CILLIAN
The rain had been at the windows of my flat for an hour before I acknowledged it. That was unusual.
I noticed things. Like the quality of Dublin rain versus country rain, and the way the city’s lights fractured it into something amber and directionless.
I shook out my hands as if to rid myself of the uncertainty churning inside and turned toward my desk.
The glass of whiskey I’d poured earlier remained untouched, another tell that current events had pulled away my attention before I’d had a chance to drink, and I’d been standing at the window ever since.
The study remained quiet around me, the lamplight low. I’d laid the fire, but hadn’t lit it. I stepped to my desk and tossed back the whiskey before refilling my glass, and I returned to the windows.
The Veil was restless tonight. As was I.
I’d heard of the common wraith that had slipped through a tear in the Veil down in Killarney, the one who’d set things in motion. The breach itself was unremarkable. Those things happened, though it seemed they occurred more frequently as of late.
After centuries of living upon my beloved green isle, after centuries of watching the gods battle for control, I knew turbulent times came and went. I rarely let them bother me.
It could be possible that Selene’s arrival in Ireland had affected the frequency of minor breaches. But she hadn’t accessed her magic, not in any meaningful way, which had allowed her to remain hidden from those who would seek her out.
No, I wasn’t bothered by the wraith’s arrival. However, I was concerned by what its appearance required.
It had required Bren McLoughlin to divert.
My gaze drifted to the bookshelves, lined and ordered the way they always were, the volumes a reflection of my varied interests, collected over the years. “Damn that wraith.”
The geometry of the day should have been simple. According to my sources, the ones who kept me well informed of guardian movements, Bren had been expected in Dublin for the Historic Preservation Council meeting. That information had prompted me to send the women to Killarney.
Selene would be in the mountains. Bren would be in the city. Sufficient separation.
I had not accounted for a wraith pulling him off his route and depositing him, of all the unreasonable places, back home in Killarney on the same night I’d sent three women to my country house four kilometers away.
I was not, as a rule, a man who wasted energy on frustration. But I allowed myself, standing at the glass with the rain streaking the city below me, to acknowledge that this miscalculation was an inconvenience of the first order.
The Veil’s reaction told me they were close, but not enough for it to matter yet. I needed to intervene. Before they met.
I downed the second glass of whiskey and concluded I had only one option. I needed to contrive a reason to call my employees back to Dublin. Maeve would certainly complain, and I suspected the other two would be disappointed. But I’d make it up to them.
Clara would be the easiest to deal with. I might have chosen to tell Selene about the change in plans, but she would notice too much.
Eventually, I would confess everything, but I needed to wait until the time was right.
I picked up my phone and crossed toward the desk, already composing what I would say to Clara. Before I made it there, the Veil reacted again.
It wasn’t a disturbance.
No, it was a response.
I stopped in utter disbelief.
I barely had my feet beneath me before the world shifted again.
The resonance had a frequency I had no frame of reference for, because in six centuries, I’d felt nothing quite like it.
The sensation moved through the ambient field of the Veil the way a struck tuning fork moves through air.
I stood completely still for a moment, cataloging it with the automatic precision of long habit.
When what had occurred solidified in my mind, it hit me with the cool finality of a door closing.
Selene.
The signature was hers. I had known it from the moment she’d stepped off the plane at Dublin Airport six months ago. I’d felt it the same as a shift in barometric pressure before a storm.
This was different. This was Selene’s signature amplified, her latent power catching on something and flaring in a way I hadn’t planned for. I thought I’d have weeks, possibly months, depending on how carefully I had sequenced the remaining steps.
But I now understood, they had touched.
I didn’t need to know the details. I felt the harmonic, and it told me everything it needed to. The Veil didn’t distinguish between a handshake and a kiss, but the intensity of this resonance made the nature of the contact fairly legible to anyone paying attention.
“Already?”
The word slipped from me, heard only by the walls.
It was too soon.
I made myself breathe, which was not something I required. Still, it was the most reliable way to simulate composure when composure was not entirely authentic.
The distance between where Selene’s power was and where it needed to be represented months of sequencing, months of careful arrangement designed to build her circle, strengthen her trust, to let her roots grow deep enough into this soil before anything disturbed the surface.
I’d had a good plan, but it had required time, and time was the one resource the wraith had casually taken from me that evening along with everything else.
I pulled out my chair and sat.
There was nothing to be gained from being alarmed. I simply needed to recalculate my next move. There had never been a question of whether Selene and Bren would meet. Though I’d hoped they would have found each other on my schedule.
I didn’t want to pivot, but it had become utterly necessary.
An hour passed before I picked up my phone and crossed toward the window, already composing what I would say to Clara. She answered on the second ring, sounding brisk and a little wary. “Hello, Mr. Ashcroft.”
“Clara.” I kept my voice even. The warmth I used with her was genuine, which made it more effective.
“I’m sorry to call at this hour. I’ve just had word from our client.
Their schedule has changed once again, and they’d like to start immediately.
I hate to cut your trip short, but I need you to return right away. ”
A beat passed before she responded. “Of course. We’ll drive back in the morning.”
I cleared my throat, ignoring the disappointment in her voice.
“Again, I apologize. I know you have only just settled in. If this client wasn’t so important to our business, I wouldn’t ask.
Please know I’ll make it up to you with another stay at the house for all three of you, planned properly, with no uncertainty about timing.
All expenses paid by me. Once this next phase is underway, I’ll arrange it personally. ”
Her pleased breath filtered through the phone. “That’s very kind of you. I’ll tell the others in the morning.”
Clara had accepted with the efficiency I valued in her and rang off. I set the phone down and considered a third glass of whiskey. The rain pounded harder against the glass as I searched for options.
My thoughts turned to Bren McLoughlin.
The demigod wouldn’t have been my choice for Selene, but I had no say in the matter. I acknowledged that my unease was likely caused by the fact that I had more in common with the man than I was comfortable with.
He was young by the standards of what he was, which still made him several centuries old by any mortal measure. He was brilliant as guardians were, with a precision that cut to what mattered, and he ignored everything else.
Bren was controlled and oath-bound, as was expected. He carried more than any single being should be required to and hid the weight of it. I recognized that quality because I had performed it myself for a very long time.
I scoffed as I considered him. He thought himself disciplined.
He was, by most measures. But discipline applied to the wrong things in the wrong order was its own kind of recklessness.
I’d seen the way the Veil responded to him.
Not just as a guardian, but perhaps something more, which was unfortunate.
I could not keep them apart indefinitely. I had never believed I could. The boon hadn’t been designed for that, and I had known, from the first moment I understood what it meant, that my role was preparation, not prevention.
What I had needed… What I still needed was sequence. The right foundations laid before the walls went up. The structure established before the weight was added.
The requirement to change my plans had been unexpected, but I would adjust.