Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
brEN
Islid my car into a space in the waterfall’s parking lot and killed the engine. The moon still hung brightly overhead as I stepped out, and I absorbed its brilliance.
My anger returned as I strode over moss and through fairy trees, as Selene had called them, toward the sacred space that was bound to me. It was protected by centuries of careful work, known to fewer people than I could count on one hand. Or so I’d thought.
That alone spoke volumes.
The breach tonight had not been random. And the creature had not wandered through a weak point in search of whatever was nearby. It had come through the sky over the grove.
My grove.
Someone had sent it. And when it emerged, its hollow gaze had moved past me. To her.
If I knew for certain who’d sent it, I would not hesitate to run them clean through with my sword. No questions asked.
When I entered the clearing, Cormac was already there. I hadn’t asked him to come, but I knew he would.
He stood near the pond with his arms folded, human-formed and still carrying the alertness that followed a recent shift.
The wolf never fully settled immediately afterward.
He would have felt the tear wherever he was and come through the trees faster than I could drive the road.
He was great at sensing, but unfortunately, he couldn’t help me repair the damage.
Cormac watched me cross the clearing without speaking.
I checked the sealed rupture, noting it was intact, and then dropped my gaze. The destruction remained, along with the echo of Selene’s fear. I could still taste it on the breeze and ground out another curse.
The thorn wraith’s remains had collapsed into brittle ash scattered across the grass in a wide smear. Several ferns lay blackened where the corruption had touched them. The ring of pale stones around the pond showed new fractures, two split cleanly through.
The most notable was the great oak. It lay where it had fallen, its roots exposed against the hillside.
I moved to the pond’s edge, and Cormac followed. “It must have been a hell of a battle. A thorn wraith?”
I nodded and knelt, pressing one palm flat against the surface and the other hand on the blackened earth. For a moment, the water held still, and then the moonlight shifted.
It deepened rather than brightened, filling me before it spread outward from my finger in slow silver threads that followed the lines of the ground beneath the grass.
The dead patches stirred. New growth pushed upward through the damaged soil, pale and tentative, reclaiming what the creature had corrupted.
It would take time to fully heal and become the lush place it had been.
I rose and walked to the fallen oak, resting my hand against the bark. No energy signature returned to me. “I’m afraid this one can’t be saved.”
Cormac nodded, and together we dragged it from the center of the grove to the edge. “I’m surprised a thorn wraith could do this. They must be getting stronger if they could pull a tree such as this cleanly to its knees.”
A soft huff tinged with disbelief escaped me. “It wasn’t the wraith.” I glanced at my friend out of the corner of my eye. “Selene did this.”
We dropped the tree that I’d deal with later, and he landed a solid punch on my injured arm. “Don’t joke about things like that.”
I shoved him away from me. “Careful of the arm. It’s still healing. And it’s no joke. The wraith buried its roots in the ground, tipping this one. I suspect Selene recognized it had been compromised, and she knocked it over with a lift of her hand, hitting the wraith.”
There was no need to mention my diminished predicament at the time. “I finished off the bastard shortly afterward.”
I left Cormac to deal with his shock and returned to where the oak had fallen, picking up a stray acorn on the way. I knelt upon the barren earth and tucked the acorn into the soft soil. Moonlight gathered at my fingertips, and I returned my hand to the sacred ground.
It accepted the offering, drawing it downward. Moments later, a tiny pale sprout rose from the disturbed soil.
I stood, brushing the dirt from my hands as I moved to the pond. I returned stones to their rightful places before drawing my finger along the fissure of one. Silver spilled from my fingertip, filling the space, making the large rock whole again.
Cormac exhaled as he strode forward. “What is she? Sealing a minor breach and now this?”
I remained quiet for a moment, searching for an answer. “I don’t know the full shape of it yet. Just that she has deeply rooted ward magic, and I suspect she’s completely unaware of it.”
I paused and met his gaze. “Or she was.”
He raised his brows. “I bet this was quite a shock to her.”
And me. “Her family left Ireland generations ago. There are things in her lineage she hasn’t been told. The magic she used tonight is structural, tied to place, threshold, and balance.”
“Kind of like yours.”
“Not like mine.” I pressed my hand to another stone. “Mine is bound to the Veil and the lunar system. I suspect hers runs alongside it since she’s also able to repair tears, but it’s not the same.”
Cormac shifted his stance. “Do you think she can fight off whatever comes through?”
The thought tightened my chest. “I’ll never allow it to come to that.”
He released a low whistle as he gazed upward. “I can’t believe the breach was random. Not here of all places.”
“No.”
He growled beneath his breath. “Fuck me, Bren. For someone to send something through here—”
I eyed him with a dark look of agreement. “It was a warning shot. They want me to know they can reach me.”
“That they do.” He placed a firm hand on my shoulder. “Will you kill Margaret now?”
I cast a quick glance at him. “You know I’m bound by oath not to harm any deity’s descendants. Not without justification, anyway.”
My friend scoffed. “I’m bound by no such thing.”
His support lessened my anger but didn’t diminish it. “I need proof, Cormac. It may take some time, but I’ll get it.” By the gods, I would. “I haven’t ruled out Doherty either.”
He kicked at a stray, charred branch. “That man is not innocent.”
It was rare that I told Cormac everything, but I found I could no longer keep my greatest fear to myself. “The creature turned toward her before it fought me.”
It took a moment for him to respond. “Then they likely know of her, don’t they?”
I rose and looked toward Cillian’s house, the place where Selene slumbered, still mostly innocent of the world. “Yes.”
Cormac thought for a moment and then pinned me with a fierce look. “Then we’ll just have to protect her. You’ll need to keep her close, and I’ll tell the pack to keep an eye on things around Cillian’s place.”
My friend huffed softly. “And someone better start training the girl. Have you talked to her about that?”
He was right. I would do Selene a huge disservice if I didn’t inform her of the danger. I couldn’t tell her everything, but I could tell her enough.
I met his gaze. “We haven’t spoken of anything yet, but I’ll do that when she arrives at work tomorrow.”
I glanced toward the sky touched with the first hint of dawn. “Make that today.”