“Are you sure?” Cormac asked. “The empire might be spreading rumours. Trying to frighten us.”
“I saw it with my own eyes.” Aoife looked for the source of the voice; it was Ronan, looking downcast, his boots covered in dirt from the long walk.
Aoife clutched Cormac’s arm. “The banshee wails, that’s what they meant.” Her throat tightened.
Bonnie Mineor ran up to the group, her cry cutting through. “Is it true? Did anyone make it out?”
Ronan shook his head. “I didn’t see any survivors.”
Bonnie Mineor screamed, her hands flying to her face.
“But… I was…” Aoife’s hands shook. Cormac put an arm around her. “They can’t… they can’t be gone. I saw… They were fine.”
Cormac pulled her closer, wrapping her in both arms. Angry voices mixed with the sounds of people crying. Time stretched as they stood there, processing what this meant.
“Why would they do this?” she asked into Cormac’s shoulder.
The anger seeped through his embrace. He set his jaw, voice hard. “They want to make sure the rest of us are too afraid to defy them.”
She watched him as he spoke, the muscle in his cheek flickering, the rage he tried to hold in check. It wasn’t only rage, but helplessness. For all his fire, he couldn’t protect anyone.
“I saw an Athraith today,” she said after a moment, stepping out of Cormac’s arms. “I didn’t know what it meant, but maybe it was a warning about Dromdara.”
A look passed over Cormac’s face she couldn’t name. His expression changed, guarded now. “Tell me everything.”
She told him in halting words, her voice catching as she recalled the pitch-black shape of it between the trees, the way it had looked at her. He listened without interrupting, his entire attention fixed on her. When she faltered, he prompted her. “Go on.”
When she finished, he nodded. “Doesn’t sound so terrible,” he said. “If it meant harm, it wouldn’t have let you walk away.”
“I don’t think it meant harm to me,” she said. “It seemed as startled to see me as I was to see it.”
“But you think it was a bad omen?”
Aoife made a gesture encompassing their entire lives. “It wasn’t a good one.”
“I suppose.” His voice dropped. He looked away, kicking a loose stone.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He hesitated, then gave a half-smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Just because two things happen at the same time, it doesn’t mean one caused the other.”
“So you think something worse is coming.”
Cormac shook his head. “No. I don’t know. That’s not…”
Aoife waited. Cormac kicked at the dust. After a moment, he sighed and looked at her. “Athraith aren’t just omens.”
“They’re not?”
“Sometimes they come to find a mate. Maybe it was here to carry you off to the Otherworld.”
Aoife considered this for a while. “Doesn’t sound too bad. The Otherworld might have food.”
Cormac smiled, though it didn’t meet his eyes. “Bring some back for me?”
“I don’t think they allow you to leave.”
“In that case, let’s hope you’re right and it was here to warn you about Dromdara.”
