Page 82 of Broken Veil
Carys spun around, and even Laura sucked in a breath.
“Angus,” Duncan said in a low voice. “Not helpful.”
Lachlan’s eyes were hollow, and he stared into space. Naida reached across the seat and slipped her hand into his. “I don’t know if I ever expressed to you my clan’s sorrow, and my own,about the loss of Princess Seren. She was greatly beloved in Cymru.”
Lachlan looked down at Naida, and his expression softened. “Diolch o galon, Naida ferch Aled.”
They slipped into a soft conversation in Cymric that Carys couldn’t follow, and she was reminded again that Lachlan had this whole, massive life she barely understood.
If Seren had lived, he would have been the prince consort to the Cymric throne. Of course he could speak Cymric. Of course he knew fae lords and was familiar with wolf behavior.
“Hey,” Duncan whispered.
She turned to smile at him, resting her head on the headrest. “Hey.”
“He’ll be fine,” Duncan whispered.
It wasn’t the first time Lachlan had grieved for his wife.
What a fucked-up situation.
The van wound through a small rural village before the land opened up and two hedgerows guided them south toward a dense stand of dark trees in the distance.
The hedgerows fell away, and there was nothing but waving wheat fields on one side of the road and dense stands of white-skinned birch trees glowing in the morning light as drifting fog dampened their soft green foliage.
“There.” Angus slapped the window of the van. “On the left, idiot. Stop here. Don’t you see that clearing?”
“Yes, but that’s not a car park,” Duncan said. “Do you understand what it means to be towed?”
“You’ll stop here or you’ll have to wait for tomorrow morning to find him,” Angus said.
Grumbling, Duncan pulled the van over to the left side of the road. There was a wide spot on the grassy verge and a stile over a narrow fence where they could cross from the roadway into the forest.
“Why the hell do we have to stop here at this moment?” Duncan asked. “I swear to God, Angus, if this is one of your stubborn?—”
“Girl.” Angus crawled over everyone and yanked the door open. “Come with me.”
Carys could only surmise that the “girl” that Angus was barking at was her. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and scrambled to follow him across the grass and over the fence.
“Hey!”
Angus’s shaggy grey head was already disappearing into the trees.
“Will you” —she panted— “wait for me?”
Carys heard the others running after them. Cadell first, then Lachlan and Duncan. Naida had somehow run ahead of Carys and was already perched in a birch tree as Angus stabbed his walking stick into the soft ground underneath the ever-deepening shade of soaring pines.
He turned in circles, keen eyes scanning the trees.
Carys stumbled over grassy patches and dry creeks that crisscrossed the forest floor before she nearly ran into Angus’s back. “Angus, what?—”
“Hush.” He loped forward into a circle of pine trees, staring at something in the distance.
“Jack of the Woods,” Angus called. “Father of the Green!” He reached back, gripped Carys’s hand, and tugged her to his side.
The moment she stepped next to him, Carys felt the world change around them.
The ground beneath her feet was soft and mossy. The summer forest grew dark and dense, and ferns nodded their heads in the shade.
