Focus on the task at hand, idiot.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. All eyes turned on her in the flickering firelight. “I didn’t mean to get you into this mess. I was just running. Blindly, but I had to get away.”
“You’re Adam’s mate,” Gideon stated. “We’ll protect you.”
There was a bunch of rumblings and nodding of heads.
“We don’t have any love for Prince Ivar or King Tiene. He may claim that he doesn’t abuse our kind, but we all know that’s not true,” Benjamin stated in disgust.
“He’ll try to take over the entire realm. Murder us all,” Adam responded. “We all know this. We’ve known this for some time.”
Aoife sighed. “I do understand. And I’m a high commodity. My kind are few and far between. I carry wraith…Death in my bloodline as well as witch from Tuatha. I’m a harbinger and a witch. My bloodline is sought after.”
“I haven’t seen a wraith in a long time,” Caleb murmured.
“When the fuck did you see a wraith?” Frank asked, confused.
“In Thunder Bay once,” Caleb stated. “Like us, they’re scattered.”
A shiver ran down her spine. “My ancestor was Death. There are wraiths in my extended family. Still, I have no doubt that Prince Ivar is up to something. He wants my blood to breed assassins.”
“Well, hopefully no one saw Aoife or knew who she was in the bar to report us,” Daniel stated. “We’re the only Sasquatches who come to Thunder Bay through that particular portal. It wouldn’t be hard to find us…for a magical being, that is.”
“Yeah, human males are dumb,” Ethan snorted.
“We’ll be okay. No one knows I’m with you,” Aoife said, swallowing the lump in her throat and trying not to picture that mermaid named Coraliane, the one who knew.
The one she worked out a deal with.
“How can you be so sure?” Adam asked.
“I just know.” Aoife hated acting like a harbinger, but Coraliane had promised her anonymity if she did it. It was the only way she could protect Adam and his brothers.
So, if she had to keen someone for Coraliane, then she would, and she had to justify it all by telling herself the guy was part of the whole realm mafia.
Adam was still staring at her, like he knew what she was thinking, and she didn’t want him to look at her like so many other people did. Like she was a killer, or a bad omen.
Like she was a product borne from damnation, because she was, but she was a good person at the core. It was clear there was nowhere she could really hide. People knew what she was. They felt it and loathed her.
As long as there were portals, magical creatures, she would have this invisible mark on her, haunting her.
“If you’re sure,” Adam finally said, his voice soft.
Aoife swallowed the lump in her throat. “Positive.”
“Okay, so we fight,” Frank stated. “If they find us, we don’t let Prince Ivar take Adam’s mate. Are we all in agreement?”
They all started slapping the ground with their giant hands, making a hollow rumble in the dirt.
“Good,” Frank said.
“Thank you,” Adam replied. “Now, I suggest you all go back to your caves and we just act like nothing has happened. No one has seen a banshee or anything.”
The brothers all stood up and melted into the woods, disappearing in that way that Sasquatches seemed to do. It was kind of mind-boggling to Aoife how they managed to do that.
Adam put out the fire with a bucket of sand and then stomped it out with his foot, like it was nothing. The forest was silent around them. All she could hear was the gentle autumn wind whispering through the silver birch trees and the lapping of the lake against the rocky shore.
“Thank you,” Aoife whispered.