The truth is, there are no more wars.
Only what you're willing to become.
We step out into the gray, and the sky breaks open, just a little, letting in enough light to see the future.
I walk into it with my captain, unafraid.
27
RUAIRÍ
Two days later
The council chamber is four floors above the city, windowless, deep-carpeted, the walls padded as if expecting gunfire or confession.
The hall outside it smells of ammonia and oranges, some cleaner's attempt to erase what was here before.
Fiachra walks ahead of us, knuckles already white where his hands clutch each other behind his back, a parade-marshal in black wool.
Keira walks beside me, posture straight, her coat buttoned so tightly it carves her in two.
The council is waiting, seven men, seated around the old oak table.
Each wears a suit so dark it absorbs the light, but none are identical—one in corduroy, one in a suit shiny with cheapness, the rest split between old money and old aspirations.
At the head, the Chairman, a man with skin like preserved veal and hands that shake only when he thinks no one is watching.
I do not hesitate, and neither do they.
This is the lesson—when you have killed enough of a man's enemies, he willlet you into his house and offer you tea, or at least the chair furthest from the exit.
Fiachra closes the door behind us.
No one rises.
The protocol is to make the new arrivals stand, to force them to feel the uneven ground.
I have played this game before.
I choose the seat to the Chairman's right, a signal that I will not go for his throat unless he asks.
Fiachra stands behind me, a funereal sentry.
Keira stands, then sits, one smooth motion, beside me.
Her gaze is unfocused, but the line of her jaw could saw marble.
Padraig O'Duinn is across from us.
His face is composed, but his hands are restless, folding and refolding the same sheet of paper.
There is a red weal along his temple, a trophy from the last attempt on his life, or the last time he tried to keep it.
I catch his eye for half a second, and he looks through me, past me, as if memorizing the contents of my skull.
The room is so quiet I can hear the fizz in the Chairman's hearing aid.
I place the ring on the table.
