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She nodded, then stared down at her hands. “I wasn’t at my best last night, to put it extremely mildly.”
“No one expects you should be at your best at all times. Certainly not me.”
“I want to thank you for the ear, and the shoulder.”
“Those seemed to be the parts of me you needed most.” He sat beside her. “Were you clear-headed enough to understand what I said to you?”
“Yeah. It’s not my fault. In my head I know it’s not my fault. There are other parts of me, Larkin, that have to catch up with my head on this.”
“They wasted you, these men. I won’t.” He pushed to his feet again when she stared at him. “Something else for you to catch up with. Come down when you’re ready. We’ve a lot of work.”
She kept staring even after he’d gone out and closed the door behind him.
It helped to have the work. They would carry—the old-fashioned way—as much of the supplies and weapons as possible to the circle. Hoyt and Glenna would continue to work on a shield of some kind for Cian.
With Larkin in the form of a horse, Blair loaded him while Moira loaded Cian’s stallion.
“Sure you can ride that thing?” Blair asked her.
“I can ride anything.” Moira glanced toward the tower window. “It’s the only way to get this done. They need to concentrate on what they’re doing. We can’t risk trying to carry everything we’re taking the full distance after sunset.”
“Nope.” Blair swung onto Larkin’s back. “Keep your eyes open. We may have company in the woods.”
They started out, single file. “Can you really smell them?” Moira called out.
“It’s more that I sense them. I’ll know if one gets close.” She scanned the trees, the shadows. Nothing stirred but birds and rabbits.
Sunlight, she thought, and birdsong. It would be a different matter taking this route at night. She and Moira, she decided, on Larkin, with Hoyt and Glenna on the stallion. Cian, she thought, could move nearly as fast as a horse at a gallop if necessary.
It was a twisting and at times a barely trod path. And at times the shadows over it were deep enough to have her fingers twitch toward the crossbow.
She felt the ripple of Larkin’s muscles between her thighs, nodded. So he could sense them, too, she thought. Or the horse he was inside could sense them. “They’re watching. Keeping their distance, but watching.”
“They’ll understand what we’re about.” Moira glanced back. “Or get word to Lilith, and she will.”
“Yeah. Pick up the pace a little. Let’s get this done.”
They came out of the woods, crossed a short fallow field. On the rise of it stood the stone Dance.
“It is big,” Blair murmured. Not Stonehenge big, she thought, but impressive. And like Stonehenge, even before she moved into the shadow of the stones, she felt them. Almost heard them.
“Strong stuff.” She dismounted.
“In this world, and in mine.”
Moira slid off the stallion, then laid her head against Larkin’s. “It’s our way home.”
“Let’s hope so.” Within the Dance, Blair began to offload weapons. “You’re sure vamps can’t come inside the circle?”
“No demon can pass between the stones and step on the sacred ground. It’s that way in Geall, and from everything I’ve read on it, that way in this world as well.”
Moira looked as Blair did, toward the woods. But sh
e thought of Cian and what would become of him if they were forced to leave him behind.
“We’ll figure it out.”
Moira glanced over. “You’re worried, too.”
