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“Move, Declan. I am a grown woman, and I can take care of myself.”
Narrowing his eyes, she wasn’t sure he would move. That he would make a scene, more of one anyway, but before she had to do more, he stepped aside, his jaw clenched.
Nodding, she stepped out into the hall, not looking back to see if Callum followed.
It felt like more than walking out to handle pyres.
It felt like the first step to owning her power.
Chapter 21
Pullinghergloveson,Bryn looked out over the bodies lined up in the sand near the pyres as Callum came to stand beside her.
“How do they know for certain they are sacrifices? How can one know that this wasn’t a murder or threat?”
Yes, it was certainly a weird way to die, horrible if Bryn was being honest, but at least there wasn’t any blood. She didn’t need to say that was the only part of this she was thankful for. Blood was what would most likely topple her house of cards, and that house of cards was already far too unsteady.
“They are sacrifices.” Callum pointed to the one closest to them, the coin over one eye. “They did not just fall over dead, bloodless and their bodies positioned in such a way as they were at the gate.”
Turning her head, she looked at the man.
“What are you not telling me?” she demanded, gloved hands going to her hips as she stared at him.
“Long ago, the Fomori sacrificed humans like this to bring back the ancient ones of their religion.”
Bryn turned to look at the bodies, the waxy pale pallor of their skin making the slice at their throats all the more obvious.
“So they were brought here to give the king a power up?” she asked, now knowing the Fomori and king were all related and working to keep hold of the powerful reign they had overseen for the last two hundred years.
Danu being here... the sudden sacrifices... it was all connected. The first domino had fallen.
“Who are they, Callum?” With those words, she realized no one had even bothered to find out whohewas. His blue eyes glittered as if he could read the words on her mind. Pulling the hood down and allowing the sun to shine on his blond almost white hair, he looked so young.
Closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath as if he could smell anything but death around them.
“They are from Arthmael.” His brows furrowed. She was going to ignore his need to scent them to figure out where they came from. Sometimes weird was too weird.
“Where?” Bryn asked. It wasn’t like anyone traveled this new world to know where other cities and places were positioned. A person knew what was closest to them, and they stuck to their little spot in the dangerous new world.
“It is far north, near Cethin. Those are the two countries who continue to resist the king’s reign. They are always at war with him.”
Cethin. The name was familiar.
“They sound like intelligent people,” she muttered, walking toward the first body as she wondered if that was near where she had come from. Sadly, she did not know the name of her own people.
“The king knows, doesn’t he?” she asked, standing over the poor souls who had lost their lives for evil to continue to reign.
Callum stepped up next to her, and he knew exactly what she was asking.
“The moment the stones broke, you regained access to your powers. Those powers would have been that of a beacon, telling the king that you were all back.”
Callum closed his eyes, taking another deep inhalation before he opened them again and continued.
“It is best you find a way to pull those memories on how to defend yourselves to the front of your mind quickly because the first tide of war is heading this way. The sacrifices will continue as well, the king hoping to bring his father back. His father is the one that sent you, the Tuatha Dé Danann, across the veil long ago.”
There was so much to process, but still work had to be done. For the first time, Bryn was glad of it. She needed to decompress as much as the rest of them. After she’d had time to work through it, compartmentalize it all, she’d get with the others, and they could discuss their next steps.
It was quite obvious they couldn’t continue on as they were, not with this much at stake. It was hard to argue that Danu was crazy and senile when the moving pieces of the puzzle of her life were forming a picture that lined up with everything the woman was telling them.
