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“You did nothing wrong, Bryn. You saved these people, and they are idiots if they do not understand it,” Danu whispered, and Bryn cursed the woman mentally for bringing her back to the world around her.
Turning back to look at the children crying into their parents’ shoulders, she knew they would think of her as the boogeyman under the bed for the rest of their days.
“I became a monster. . .,” she whispered, dropping the sword and dagger into the bloody sand, and turning to face Danu.
“You became what was needed to defeat theactualmonsters, love.”
Niamh walked up to them, her clothes torn and bloody, but she had no obvious wounds.
“You’re alive,” Bryn whispered, breathing hard as her friend moved to pull her into a fierce hug.
“I am thanks to you.” Niamh stood back, keeping her hands on Bryn’s shoulders. “You were amazing, my darling. Absolutely magical.”
Bryn swallowed the lump in her throat at Niamh’s words. She had been anything but magical. She had been dangerous and felt such... joy in the bloodshed that it scared Bryn.
Callum moved to Bryn’s side as Danu turned to face the humans.
“Get yourselves to rights so you can fix this town. We will be leaving soon, and the danger should be going with us.” Danu looked to Mallory. “Do not do anything that could cost you your life after the danger has passed.”
Mallory gave a pensive look to Danu before turning away, ignoring Bryn entirely.
That was fine by her.
Moving past Niamh and Callum, she looked out over Saints’ Road.
She walked without thought to the body of one of her friends nearest her.
Justin.
Moving to him, Finian was at his side, trying to move Justin’s hand with his nose. Whining when Justin failed to move, to rub his head, to do anything.
Her heart broke seeing them both like this.
Kneeling on the other side of Justin from Finian, she placed her hand on his chest and prayed. His soul was not one of the ones who had been waiting to cross over. Still, as she held her hand over him and waited for his soul to come up as a beautiful glowing yellow orb, nothing happened, and she wondered if Arawn had already taken them across the veil.
Perhaps Arawn had thought of it as a boon to Bryn, but she had wanted to say goodbye to her friends as she had Travis.
Rubbing at Finian’s head, she made a note to come back to grab him before they left. She would take care of him now that Justin couldn’t. A sob broke through at that thought, but she kept moving. To stop and think would mean she’d be stuck in her own thoughts, and they had to leave.
There was no longer a choice.
Walking to Declan, she checked his pulse and felt nothing there, telling her he was well and truly gone. Even though it was obvious he could not have lived, his blood running out into the street, she’d held out hope.
“I am sorry, Bryn.” Niamh stepped up next to her, her hand going to her shoulder in comfort as Bryn prayed over Declan.
Standing, Bryn could only nod as she looked to where Jace stood, his eyes staring through her.
“We should head to the truck,” Niamh whispered as she took hold of Bryn’s hand, helping her to stand.
“We need to leave, and Kessler, though pretty banged up, claims he can still run the truck. Sage and Jace are ready to assist with injuries while on the road.”
Bryn pulled away, looking back at her friends’ bodies. It felt wrong to leave them like this. Would the people left in Ifreann honor them? She’d been friends with them and watched as Justin and Declan had killed several of their own in self-defense, but did that even matter to these people?
They always had their own skewed perception of the world, but Bryn supposed everyone had their own perspective.
“I need to be the one to put them to rest,” she whispered, refusing to leave their bodies in the street, to neglect her friends in such a way. “I can run the pyres one last time.”
“I will handle them,” Callum offered. “You need to get going before the humans come out of their shocked stupor. I am sure it would pain you to have to kill innocents.”
