“Maybe. The impressions got stronger after it appeared.” Zara rubbed her temples. “I’m sorry. I wish I had more.”
“You’re doing brilliantly,” Liora assured her. “This is more than we had before.”
The meeting continued, moving on to security patrols and protection wards, but I barely heard any of it. My mind kept circling back to my run-in with the Beithir last night. Something was connecting all of it—something in my family’s history that I didn’t understand.
“Agnes.”
I startled. The meeting had apparently ended while I was lost in thought, and Liora was standing beside my chair.
“Walk with me?” she asked, and I nodded. Jumping up, I waved goodbye as everyone scattered to their various jobs.
That was probably the weirdest thing in all of this.
Life still went on.
We all had businesses to run, families and pets to take care of, and those mundane day-to-day activities that kept life bumping along. And somehow, we still needed to beready to fight, or decode ancient curses and mysteries, at the drop of a hat. It was a wild dichotomy, when I thought about it. That swing between the mundane and the surreal was enough to give anyone whiplash.
I nodded and followed her out of the library, through the hallway, until we were standing outside in the garden. Sir Buster and Lady Lola tumbled out the door after us, barking at each other as they raced around the garden. “You think this is about you,” Liora said. It wasn’t a question.
“I don’t know for certain, but kind of, aye.” I crossed my arms against the bracing wind. “It felt like Zara was talking directly to me.”
“It would track.” Liora’s expression was troubled. “From what I saw and what we talked about.”
“The Beithir appeared to me last night.” Ineededto share my encounter with someone. Already, I felt guilty for not having brought it up at the meeting.
Liora’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“After dinner with Graham. I couldn’t sleep, went for a walk, and ended up at the loch.” I laughed bitterly. “Stupid, I know.”
“Excuse me?” Liora sucked in a breath. “You didwhaton your own?”
“I know, I know.” I held up my hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t quite cover doing something so bloody stupid.” Liora shook her head. “But go on … what happened?”
“It rose out of the water and just looked at me. Like, I don’t know, maybe what Zara was saying?—”
“What I was saying about what?”
I turned to see Mitch leading Zara from the castle and winced.
“I, um?—”
“Rock star over here thought she’d have a wee chat with a Beithir on her own without any of us around.” Liora summed that up quickly.
“Agnes!” Zara gasped so loudly that Mitch twisted to look up at her and whined softly.
“Right, okay, when you say it like that … I get it’s not the smartest move. But in my defense, I didn’t know that the Beithir would appear.”
“And he spoke to her. Just like you.” Liora leaned in.
“You don’t think this might have been a good thing to bring up? You know at the meeting we were just at? Full of magickal strong women who could probably help?” Zara asked, not mincing her words.
“I mean, it did cross my mind that it might be smart, but I kind of panicked.”
“I’m getting the sense that Agnes thinks she needs to handle everything on her own,” Liora said to Zara.
“Mmm. We’ve bumped up against that problem a few times, haven’t we?” Zara smiled. “So are you hearing the same things I am?”
