Page 6 of A Celtic Secret
“I think ‘twould be unwise to use that term around him.” Liam mulled it over. “But mayhap I will.” He chuckled. “Considering how sensitive he is about his dragon half.”
Liam and Aodh had been on bad terms since their enemy Siobhán had come between them. While Liam rarely mentioned it, Riona didn’t miss how his expression darkened whenever his dragon brethren was mentioned. Brethren, who evidently battled with his dragon half. Sometimes he accepted it. Other times, not so much.
“Well, Aodh sounds preferable....” While Shannon left the rest unsaid, there was no mistaking that it would have been ‘to Liam’ even though Aodh was Irish too. “I think right now what we need to focus on is you, sis.” Her gaze settled on Riona. “More specifically, this secret that Declan and maybe even Raghnall are after.”
“I wish I could be more helpful.” Riona took a sip of whiskey and shook her head. “Trust me, if I knew, I would tell you. Sometimes I think I do, I’m certain actually, then a second later, it’s gone. Sort of like how you forget a dream when you wake...only faster.”
“Yet Declán is convinced that you know,ta?” Liam took a swig from the skin Riona had handed back to him. “Which tells me ‘tis he who must pull it from you.”
“So it would seem,” she agreed, unsettled by that. “He seems pretty determined. He seems...”
She trailed off when she realized what she had been sketching.
Liam’s brows furrowed. “What’s the matter?”
She didn’t stop Liam when he pulled her sketchbook his way. Instead, she grabbed her camera and headed out the front door.
“Where are you?” She snapped pictures of the tree. “How can I help?”
Liam and Shannon were right behind her.
“What happened to my brother? Where is he?”
While she wouldn’t say there was concern in Liam's voice, there was certainly curiosity. Not surprising, given she had just sketched a picture of Aodh staggering through the forest with a wound to his shoulder. An image of him reaching out to her.
“He’s close.” She kept snapping pictures. “Really close.”
So close she swore she saw him through her camera lens. Felt the chill of the air. Smelled sea salt on a wind that hadn’t been there moments before.
Then closer still.
Close.
So close.
Too close before,whoosh, she staggered back only to find herself whipped up in the air, over a shoulder, watching the ground beneath her.
