Incredible sadness. Then, pure rage.
Liam cursed under his breath, clearly feeling the same. In fact, all five of them felt it. Even Liam’s warriors seemed caught off guard by what they witnessed.
“Did yer brother...” Conall began. He shook his head, trying to make sense of what they looked at. “Did yer dragon brethren attack his own castle, m’lord? His own people?”
“’Twould seem so,” Liam ground out, his jaw tight. She sensed that his anger at Aodh had greatly waned overnight. Lessened as she and Liam made their way back to each other. As he realized just how strong Siobhán’s hold had been over him and his dragon brethren.
“Yet ‘twas not the King of Ulster we know,” Liam went on. “He would never do such a thing to his own people.”
“No,” Riona agreed softly, taking in what had once been a proud, stalwart castle crippled by a heavy hit to its flank. Probably one-fifth of the great beauty was blackened by dragon fire. Her sad eyes went from Declán back to Aodh’s castle. “He did more damage to his own castle than ours.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine what that must have felt like for him.”
“Heart-wrenching.” Shannon swore she felt what Aodh had. But then maybe, as Liam and his brothers grew closer to herand her sisters, she did. “This diminished a part of him.” She frowned, sad for him. “Made it all that much more difficult to find his way back to himself. Towantto find his way back.”
“Yet he still does,”Tréan said into their minds. The great wolf fell in beside them, his gaze just as sad as he stared at Aodh’s castle.“The man inside him still does.”
“Why does it almost sound like you’re empathetic?” Sensing something equally lost inside her familiar, Shannon swung down from her horse and lowered to a knee in front of him. Searched his eyes. Saw something through the peach haze of her magic. Incredible sadness. A longing that almost felt like it matched her own at the beginning. “You know what it feels like to be in Aodh’s position, don’t you, friend? Trapped in one form when you can be another?”
Tréan offered no response other than to look at Liam and Shannon sadly before he skulked off into the woodland.
“He knows you two,” Riona murmured. “Cares about you both.” She shook her head. “Which is rather intriguing considering his initial attitude toward Liam.”
Shannon agreed but sensed there was far more to it than that. Something related to the Werewolves of Ossary. The fact Liam had been one of the kings folklore claimed was affiliated with those wolves, spoke volumes.
Somehow it was all connected.
The three of them were connected beyond Tréan being her familiar, and she knew Liam sensed it too. She felt his confusion as his gaze lingered on Tréan until he was gone.
“We need to get to the bottom of this.” She looked from Liam to where her,their, wolf had vanished. “There’s something about him. Something I hadn’t sensed before...it's just out of reach.”
Liam nodded in agreement, equally troubled. “There’s nothing more we can do here right now.”
His disgruntled gaze lingered on Aodh’s castle for a moment before he turned his horse and spoke to their men. “We must see to our fallen. Give them a proper burial this eve, then head south tomorrow.” Liam paused, reining in his fury before he continued. “We will save the King of Ulster from himself.” He glanced back at Aodh’s partially ruined castle. “And then we will help him take revenge on the bitch who is at the heart of all this.” He nodded once and made Shannon proud. “We will stand by him because this that ye see is not his, nor his dragon’s doing but the evil sorceress who has, for too long, without us being the wiser, wreaked havoc on our kingdoms.”
Understanding this moment was his and his alone, Shannon waited with bated breath. Their warriors knew better than anyone the long strife between Liam and Aodh, so would this sit well with them? Would they forgive his brother as easily as Liam did, given what they had just fought? The partially ruined castle in front of them?
Although their warriors hesitated for a moment, it spoke to their devotion and trust in Liam when they nodded, raised their weapons in the air, and roared their support. Released battle cries that made Aodh’s retreating warriors glance back in concern only to realize they were not being pursued. Rather, Shannon swore she saw a flicker of hope in their eyes before they trudged on.
Liam headed back the way they had come and swung down from his mount beside one of the four men who had lost their lives prior to their arrival. Where she might have been irritated, or even jealous, mere days ago when Riona knelt by his side and rested her hand on his shoulder, she felt no such thing now.
Instead, she felt her sister's pain at not being able to heal these men and bring them back. The comfort Liam took from her touch. One that soothed the pain of their passing.
“You have come far in a short time, friend,sister,” Declán said, stopping his horse beside hers. He offered a comforting smile she appreciated. “I look forward to getting to know you better.”
Cian fell in on her other side. “We both do.”
“Me too.” And she meant it. While she thought this was all too much when she’d arrived at the colonial in New Hampshire, now growing closer to these brothers, calling them her own, seemed right. Comfortable. Meant to be.
Where most kings might be inclined to have his men see to things, Liam draped the first of the fallen over his own horse and led the procession back to the castle on foot. Out of respect, all remained silent as they brought the dead home, and the process of mourning began.
“I read this can be quite lengthy,” she said to Declán, who remained by her side. “Weeks.”
“It can.” He shook his head. “But in light of things and with Liam’s kingdom being more pagan than Christian still, the bodies will be laid on a funeral pyre and burned beside the ocean so our men might sail once more.”
And so it was four pillars burned that afternoon on the blustery shore of their kingdom, where days before, she’d nearly lost her own life. People cried and mourned and celebrated those lost, as was the Irish way. Sparks rose to the heavens, gusting on the wind as everyone offered prayers, then told fond stories about those departed.
“I’m so sorry.” She rested her head on Liam’s shoulder and wrapped her fingers with his. “For those you lost and for everything going on in your brother’s kingdom...with Aodh himself.”
“Thank you, lass.” He wrapped his other hand around their adjoined hands as though desperate to hold on to her. As if determined to never let her go. His lilt thickened with emotion.“Ye were...” He seemed to search for the right words as the pillars turned to ash and a bonfire was lit. “Ye made me prouder today than ye already had,mo leath eile.Prouder than I can ever remember being.”
