“These are unprecedented times,” Fionn replied. “I have been away from Tír na nÓg for a long time. Over time, things change.”
“That’s why you all should train,” Oisín said firmly. “So if the darkness comes to your world, you can fight it as you were meant to. Not as mortals, but as Fianna.”
Silence fell as they all contemplated what Fionn and Oisín had divulged.
Kaze clapped once. “Well, fuck me sideways with a glowing shillelagh. I guess we’re staying for training.”
Reaper rubbed his face. “I hate it when you make sense.”
“You love it when I make sense.”
“No, I tolerate it. Barely.”
Viper shook his head. If those two were arguing like a pair of toddlers, then he knew they were in a fairly decent head space. When Reaper or Kaze went silent, it was time to worry. He looked toward Fionn. “How long will it take to secure the veil?”
Fionn’s expression turned grave. “Until you bleed for this land and yours. Until both our realms know and remember your names.”
Viper’s stomach knotted. He had a feeling that time was coming fast. Too fast. He didn’t move as the fire cracked in the hearth, and that last sentence from Fionn curled around his spine like ice.
Until both our realms know and remember your names.
He’d spent his entire adult life making sure his name didn’t mean a damn thing to anyone. Not officially. He didn’t have social media. He worked hard to have no traceable footprints.Just the name his men called him, and his official military records were highly redacted. Now this place, and these people, wanted to make him known to everyone? Just the thought alone gave him hives.
No.
Fuck that.
I’m a SEAL who works in the shadows.
He rolled his shoulders once and squared his stance. “We’ll train.” His voice was flat. “But I need your word that if this shit spills into our world, you’ll give us what we need to contain it.”
“You have my oath,” Fionn said without hesitation. “The Fianna stand with their own.”
“Even the ones not born here?”
Fionn looked at Ward then. “Especially those people. They are the clans chosen by the land; they carry both the burden and the blessing of its protection above all others.”
Ward shifted uncomfortably beside him.
This is too much.
He didn’t say it aloud, but Viper heard it anyway in the slight tremble in his breath. He glanced down. His fingers flexed unconsciously toward Ward’s wrist, but he curled them into his thigh instead.
Not yet.
Not while everything is a shit show and danger lurks in the shadows of the realms.
“You’ll be assigned teachers tomorrow,” Oisín said, breaking the silence. “Your training will not be easy. This land will test you.” He glanced from Viper to Ward and back again to meet Viper’s gaze. “But if you continue to deny the gift you have been given, your bonds will test you more.”
The mark on Viper’s arm throbbed hard.
Of course it will.
Because nothing in this place is simple.
Why the fuck would it be simple?
Easy day… not.
