“He was of Geall,” Moira murmured, “and deserved to end with its sword. Tynan—” Her throat simply locked.

“I’ll bring him in.” Cian touched her shoulder, and looked over her head into Niall’s eyes. “He was a good man, and a friend to me.”

Without waiting, Cian vaulted over the wall. He seemed almost to float to the ground.

Niall slapped the back of his hand on the arm of the guard beside him when he saw the man made the sign against evil. “No man stands with me who insults Sir Cian.”

Below, Cian picked Tynan up in his arms and, bearing his weight, looked up and met Moira’s eyes.

“Open the gates,” she ordered. “So Sir Cian can bring Tynan home again.”

S he tended the body herself, removing the torn and filthy clothes.

“Let me do this, Moira.”

She shook her head, and began to wash Tynan’s face. “This is for me. We were friends since childhood. I need to do this for him. I don’t want Larkin to see him until he’s clean.”

Her hands trembled as she brushed the cloth gently over the tears and bites, but she never faltered.

“They were playmates, you see. Larkin and Tynan. Was it the truth, do you think, that the child did this to him?”

When Cian said nothing, she looked over.

“He’s her child,” Cian said at length. “He would be vicious. Let me wake Glenna, at least.”

“She was fond of Tynan. Everyone was. No, there’s no need for her to come now, so late. They tore my mother like this. Worse, even worse. And I turned away from that. I can’t turn away from this.”

“Do you want me to go?”

“You think because I see these wounds, these bites and tears, as if an animal had been at him, I could think you’re the same as what did this? Do you think me so weak of mind and heart, Cian?”

“No. I think the woman I saw tonight, the woman I heard, has the strongest mind and heart I’ve ever known. I never ripped at a human that way.”

He steadied himself as she turned those ravaged eyes on his again. “I need you to know that, at least. Of all the things I’ve done, and some were unimaginably cruel, I never did what was done to him.”

“You killed more cleanly. More efficiently.”

He felt the words slice into him. “Yes.”

Moira nodded. “Lilith didn’t train you, but abandoned you, so you have little of her in you. Not like this boy must. And, I think, some manner of your upbringing remained. Just as I heard Sean’s tone, saw his mannerisms in that thing tonight, so some of yours stayed as they were. I know you’re not human, Cian, just as I know you’re not a monster. And I know there’s some of both in you that has you constantly struggling to keep them balanced.”

She washed Tynan’s body as gently as she would have washed a child. When she was done she began to dress him in the clothes she’d had sent over from his quarters.

“Let me do that, Moira, for God’s sake.”

“I know you mean well. I know you’re thinking of me. But I need to do this one thing for him. He was the first to kiss me.” Her voice wavered a bit before she clamped down and finished. “When I was fourteen, and he two years older. It was very sweet, very gentle. Shy for both of us, as a first kiss in the springtime should be. I loved him. I think in a way like you loved King. She’s taken that from us, Cian. Taken them from us, but not the love.”

“I swear before any gods you wish, I’ll end her for you.”

“One of us will.” She bent, brushed her lips over Tynan’s cold cheek.

Then she stepped back from him.

Now she sank to the floor on a keening wail. When Cian knelt beside her, she curled into him and wept out her shattered heart.

Chapter 15

T hey buried Tynan on a brilliant morning with cloud shadows dancing over the hills and a lark singing joyfully in a rowan tree. The holy man blessed the ground before they lowered him into it, with a fife and drum sounding the dirge.

All who knew him, and many who didn’t, were there so that mourners stretched across the sun-drenched graveyard and up the rise toward the castle. The three flags of Geall flew at half staff.

Moira stood beside Larkin, dry-eyed. Though she heard Tynan’s mother weeping, she knew her time for tears had passed. The others of her circle stood behind her, and she could feel them, took some comfort from that.

Now two stones would stand for friends here, along with the markers for her parents. All of them victims of a war that had raged long before she’d known of it. And would end with her, one way or another.

At last, she moved away to give the last moments to the family and their privacy. When Larkin took her hand, she gripped it firmly. She looked at Cian, could just see his eyes under the shadow of his hood. Then she looked at the others.

“We have work to do. Larkin and I need to speak with Tynan’s family again, then we’ll meet in the parlor.”

“We’ll head in now.” Blair stepped forward, laid her cheek against Larkin’s. Moira couldn’t hear the words Blair murmured to him, but Larkin released her hand and pulled Blair into a hard embrace.

“We’ll be in shortly.” Larkin eased back, then took Moira’s hand again. She would have sworn she could feel his grief coming through his skin.

Before Moira could move back toward the family, Tynan’s mother broke away from her husband and pushed her way to Cian. Her eyes were still spilling tears.

“It’s your kind did this. Your kind killed my boy.”

Hoyt made a move forward, but Cian shifted to block his path. “Yes.”

“You should be in hell instead of my boy being in the ground.”

“Yes,” Cian repeated.

Moira stepped up to put an arm around her, but the woman shook it off. “You, all of you.” She whirled, jabbing out an accusing finger. “You care more about this thing than my boy. Now he’s dead. He’s dead. And you have no right to stand here by his grave.” She spat at Cian’s feet.

As she wept into her hands, her husband and daughters carried her off.

“I’m sorry,” Moira murmured. “I’ll speak with her.”

“Leave her be. She wasn’t wrong.” Saying nothing more, Cian walked away from the fresh grave, and the lines of stones that marked the dead.