“You thought I would leave you there,” Larkin broke in. “You thought I would leave you to them.”
“First priority is to stay alive.”
“That may be, but I don’t desert a friend, or a fellow soldier. What manner of man do you think I am?”
“That’s a question.”
“The answer isn’t a coward,” he said tightly.
“It’s not, and a long way from it.” Would she have left him? No, she admitted. Couldn’t have, and would have been insulted to be told to go. “It was all I could think of to keep the rest of us alive, to keep her from winning. How was I supposed to know you had a dragon on your repertoire?”
In the back seat, Glenna choked. “A dragon?”
“Sorry you missed it. It was wild. But, Jesus, Larkin, a dragon? Someone must have seen it. Of course, everyone else will think they’re nuts, but still.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because, you know, dragon, and how they don’t exist.”
Fascinated now, he swiveled in his seat. “You don’t have dragons here?”
Blair shifted her gaze toward him. “No,” she said slowly.
“Sure that’s a pity. Moira, did you hear that? They’ve no dragons here in Ireland.”
Moira opened her tired eyes. “I think she’s meaning they don’t have them anywhere in this world.”
“Well, that can’t be. Can it?”
“No dragons,” Blair confirmed. “No unicorns or winged horses, no centaurs.”
“Ah well.” He reached over to pat her arm. “You have cars, and they’re interesting. I’m starved,” he said after a moment. “Are you starved? That many changes, it just empties me out. Could we stop somewhere, do you think, buy some of those crisps in the bag?”
It wasn’t exactly a victory feast, munching on salt-and-vinegar chips and chugging soda from a bottle, but it got them home.
When they arrived, Blair stuck the keys in her pocket. “You three go inside. Larkin and I can take care of the weapons. You’re still pretty pale.”
Hoyt lifted the bag holding the blood he’d bought at the butcher’s. “I’ll take this up to Cian.”
Blair waited until they were inside. “We’re going to have to talk to them,” she told Larkin. “Set up some parameters, some boundaries.”
“Aye, we are.” He leaned on the van as he looked toward the house. It was good, he thought, and somewhat curious, how they understood each other at times with no words. “Are we agreed? They can’t use that kind of magic, at least not often, not unless there’s no choice.”
“Nosebleeds, queasiness, headaches.” She pulled weapons out of the cargo area. You had a team, she thought, you had to worry about its members. No choice. “I could just look at Moira and see the headache. It can’t be good for them, that kind of physical toll.”
“I thought, at first, when I saw them on the ground, I thought…”
“Yeah.” She let out a long, unsteady breath. “So did I.”
“I’ve come to feel a great deal for Hoyt and Glenna, Cian, too, come to that. It’s stronger, deeper even than friendship. Maybe it’s even more than kinship. Moira…She’s always been mine, you know. I don’t know how I could live if anything happened to her. If I didn’t stop it.”
Setting the weapons aside, Blair boosted herself up on the rear of the van. “It can’t be like that. That if the worst happened to her, to any of us, that you didn’t stop it. It’s up to each of us to do what we have to do to survive, and to do all we can to watch each other’s backs. But—”
“You don’t understand.” His eyes were fierce when they met hers. “She’s part of me.”
“No, I don’t understand, because I’ve never had anyone like that in my life. But I think I understand her well enough to know she’d be hurt, maybe even pissed off if she thought you felt responsible for her.”
“Not responsible. That makes it an obligation, and it’s not. It’s love. You know what that is, don’t you?”