Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
SELENE
Irose fast to face Bren, but he wasn’t as close as I’d thought.
He strode along the path that came from the direction of his house rather than the castle, the edges of his dark coat flapping as his boots crunched the gravel. The wind moved lightly through his hair as he walked toward me with the same controlled stride he always seemed to have.
My pulse increased as our gazes collided, and I found no visible trace of the previous night’s events in his expression.
He stopped a few feet away and looked first at my face, then at the stone beside me as if he knew what I’d been up to, and then back again. “Good morning.”
The greeting might have belonged to any day. I stared at him. “Is it?”
One corner of his mouth moved, though not quite into a smile. “How are you?”
The question, delivered in that calm tone, nearly offended me. I scoffed. “I watched something climb out of a tear in the sky last night, so I’m still uncertain how to answer that.”
His gaze held mine for a second longer. “That’s fair.”
He stepped closer, his attention shifting to my hand. “Let me see your wound.”
I’d forgotten about it since it no longer hurt. It was tempting to make things more difficult and refuse. But the genuine concern in his expression and my need to have him assess it overrode that impulse. I thrust my hand forward. “As you can see, it’s fine.”
The shiver that raced through me when he gently took it threatened to steal my breath. He drew a finger over the raised pink welt and nodded. With a smile, he released my hand. “That’s a relief.”
I didn’t know what to do with that.
I swallowed and gestured toward his injured arm. “What about yours? You refused to show me last night.”
His gaze darkened. “That’s because it’s not for you to worry about.”
Irritation flared hot and bright. “I’m sorry. What? You force me to show you mine, but I can’t request the same?”
He remained still and silent, and it set fire to my emotions.
I don’t know what came over me, but I strode forward, gripped the edges of his coat, and jerked them back over his shoulders.
Maybe it was the culmination of everything that had happened. Or maybe it felt like the last shred of control I possessed. But the moment I realized what I’d done, I froze.
Then I stepped back, my heart thudding dangerously in my chest. I slowly lifted a defiant gaze to him. “Show me.”
Bren stared at me for the longest moment, and then tugged off his coat, tucking it beneath his arm. He kept his dark and unreadable gaze pinned to me as he pushed up his charcoal-gray sweater, exposing his forearm.
My resolve threatened to falter, but I stepped forward and took his arm. The corded muscles flexed once between my fingertips as I glanced across his skin, looking for what must have been a horrific injury. I saw nothing.
I turned his arm to inspect the underside too. When all I found was smooth skin, I dropped his arm as if I’d been burned.
I took a cautious step back and found his gaze once again. My insides trembled, and all I could manage was a breathless whisper. “What are you?”
It took him a moment to answer, but his voice was even when he did. “A guardian of the Veil.”
I shook my head repeatedly, as if that would change his response. “I don’t know what that is.”
He dipped his head in understanding, his measured control intact. “Most don’t.”
“Most don’t,” I echoed. “And that thing from last night…”
“A thorn wraith.”
I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. “How can you act as if everything is normal? Like that thing from last night was no big deal. Like you see things like that all the time.”
“Because I do.”
My hand shook as I covered my mouth and tried to process his words. “Do you often fight them?”
“I do.” Something raw flickered in his eyes, and he shifted his gaze to the lake.
“The Veil separates our world from the other. Some sites that were once used to access that place thin over time. Some were already stressed by overuse. Some are simply older than they should be. Breaches must be closed quickly when they happen.”
I stood frozen.
Bren spoke as if he was giving a structural overview. His words were calm and ordered. As if he’d offered a set of facts laid out for practical use.
I was never meant to hear those words, and despite his composed exterior, I sensed it cost him something to speak them. I stepped closer. “I’m sorry.”
He jerked his gaze toward me. “Why? You’ve done nothing. I’m the one who should apologize to you for putting you in danger.”
Perhaps he should have, but it felt wrong to accept his apology. “I don’t believe you would have taken me to your grove if you’d known it would happen.”
Bren scoffed. “Of course not.” His expression hardened. “Of all places, that should have been the safest.”
I sensed there was more. “But?”
He hesitated for several seconds and then exhaled a deep breath. “I believe the thorn wraith was sent deliberately.”
Deliberately? The wind teased my cheek with a strand of hair, and I tucked it back without taking my eyes off him. “Why?”
His gaze drifted back to the lake. “To test. To see what holds.”
A chill moved through me despite the mild air. “Who would do that?”
He gave a nod of certainty. “That is what I am trying to find out.”
I held his gaze. “It sounds like you’re saying not everyone wants the Veil intact.”
“That’s true.”
I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting those boundaries to fail. “Who?”
His expression altered a fraction. “There are people with power who would benefit from its failure. Others who believe the separation should not exist. Others who simply want access to what lies beyond it.”
An image of the creature invaded my mind, and I squeezed my eyes shut for a long moment, as though that would make it disappear from my memory.
When it didn’t, I focused on Bren. “Are things like that wraith sentient? It looked right at me, like… Like I wasn’t just another person in the grove.
But like it… I don’t know how to explain it. ”
His jaw ticked as he held my gaze. “Not all wraiths are particularly aware. But that kind? I believe it knew to come for me.” He hesitated. “Perhaps not you.”
“Perhaps?” I gasped. “Why would something come after me?”
“Selene, I don’t know. Maybe not you, but maybe because I was there with someone.”
I wasn’t sure that made me feel any better. Maybe.
I let what he said filter through my mind until I found something to attach it to. “As a way to hurt you?”
“Possibly.”
I stared at him for another moment and then let out a slow breath. “Did you…create a blade out of moonlight?”
“I did.”
I lowered my gaze to his hands, finding what he said impossible. “Show me.”
He huffed as his expression turned amused. “You fear it, and yet you want to see it?”
I lifted a shoulder, pretending he didn’t frighten me just a little. “I do.”
His smile faded. “It is easier when the moon is visible. Daylight and dark nights require more effort, and the blade is not permanent. It appears when there’s a threat and exists only as long as needed.”
“What if I threaten you?” I glanced around, and my gaze landed on the stone I’d tried to move with magic. “What if I try to bash your head with a rock?”
A genuine laugh spilled from him. “Ah, Selene. I could never be afraid of you.”
I arched a brow, hinting that maybe he should be, but he only huffed a soft laugh. “Moonlight can be shaped,” he said, as though what he said didn’t carry life-altering significance. “It can be directed, and it can cut what does not belong here, but that will never include you.”
I hardcore struggled with the reality of what he said. “If I hadn’t witnessed you…doing your thing—”
He interrupted me with a chuckle. “My thing?”
The absurdity of our discussion caused me to smile. “What would you have me call it?”
Humor danced in his eyes. “My power? My strength? My prowess? Any of those would be acceptable.”
“Unbelievable.” The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
He arched a challenging brow, and we both knew he was right.
I dropped my gaze to his hands, to where he’d conjured a blade so sharp, made entirely of moonlight. And the way he’d fought that vicious wraith? He was nothing to be trifled with.
I nodded in agreement. “Your…” I inhaled a steadying breath. “Prowess. If I hadn’t witnessed it, I would believe none of this.”
I’d thought our lighthearted banter would continue. It was an easier way to swallow my new reality, but he grew quiet, his gaze distant as he stared across the lake.
I studied him. His stillness. The control in it. The way his shoulders held tension even now, slight but present.
My thoughts turned to the silver edge of his blade, cutting through thorn and bark. Of the impossible precision with which he had moved. Of that horrific creature. “That thing from last night? Was that the worst of it?”
He cast a glance toward the grove. “No.”
The single word landed cold.
I glanced toward the trees as if I might see movement there, and wondered if Maeve really had spotted something that first day in Killarney. “How long have you been doing this?”
This time he did not answer immediately.
The pause stretched as the breeze moved through his hair. His shoulders tightened slightly beneath the coat before easing again. “A long time.”
The weariness in his voice tugged at my heart.
“Breaches have increased recently,” he continued. “The council believes sufficient measures are already in place. Obviously, they’re not. But they trust me and the others like me to manage our duties.”
I caught on to the phrase at once. “The others?”
He nodded. “They defend their regions. The areas around Killarney are mine.”
Mine.
The word echoed in my mind. Territorial and absolute. “There are more people like you?”
“Yes.”
I moistened my lips as I considered the circumstances. “And do they help you if you need it?”
He held my gaze for a long moment before looking away. “They have their places to defend. I have mine.”
I shook my head, not understanding. “But what if you’re not here? Like when you went to that meeting in Dublin?”
“I’m never too far away.”
I wasn’t certain I believed that. If that wraith erupted from the sky when he wasn’t around, it could cause a lot of havoc and even death before he could return. “But what if—”
He turned to face me fully and shook his head. “This is not for you to worry about, Selene. Focus on restoring the castle. That will help more than you know.”
I shifted my gaze to the towering structure. “Is the Veil weak there? Is that why I feel things?”
Bren snorted softly. “It might be one reason.”
But there were others. Ones he wasn’t telling me.
My thoughts slid to the mark on my arm. I considered Nora’s warning and lifted my gaze to Bren. “What if I told you I think I’m a ward witch?”
The slow smile that curved his lips was not the reaction I expected. “I would agree. What if I told you that you’ve sealed a tear in the Veil all on your own?”
His claim slid through me and hit a wall. “No, I haven’t.”
He nodded slowly. “You couldn’t see it, but you sensed it. And you repaired it by removing the stone in the inlay that was out of alignment and fixing it.”
That couldn’t be. “What I sensed that day was nothing like what I experienced last night.”
Bren nodded in agreement. “The breach was much smaller in the castle, and you repaired it before anything but the cold air from the other side slipped through.”
I blinked as I processed. It had been cold. Unnaturally so. “It warmed after I fixed it,” I whispered. “I remember.”
I raised my gaze to him. “But how?”
The serious look in his eyes left me with a shiver. “You should not have been able to. And yet the Veil responded to you.”
The answer tightened the air between us, and I folded my arms tightly across my middle. “I don’t know what to do with that.”
Bren hesitated a moment and then took my hand, pressing it between his. “I can’t say I do either. Maybe we can figure it out together.”
I clung to that. To him.