I didn’t know.
So far, I’d slept with two men, torn a man’s soul to shreds, and grown wings.
Was that a sign that I was doing well?
“I don’t know,” I said, licking my lips carefully and looking around the room at the bearded Donal and his president. They were watching me with a certain level of interest … and expectation. Not sexual, I didn’t think, more like … they expected great things from me. Important things.
“I see you’ve been getting to know some of the men here,” Sadbh said, but her words didn’t sound judgmental, just curious. “I hope you found my son pleasing to take to bed.”
Reece laughed and shook his head, tossing back a drink and muttering something under his breath. I guess it didn’t matter how old or tough a man was, when his mother set out to embarrass him, she could do it with a certain amount of flair.
“He was lovely, thank you,” is what I said, because I wasn’t sure what else to say. Sadbh laughed and Fionn made a rough sort of coughing sound like he was trying to remind her of something. She snapped a green glare in his direction and then turned back to me, reaching out to take my hands in hers. Her eyes were sparkling as she looked into mine, full of hope. Hope for what, I wasn’t sure, but it shone so brightly that I had to look away to catch my breath.
“I imagine this is all very strange to you,” she said carefully, and I nodded because fuck, I couldn’t lie. I felt like at one time in my life, I had that ability, but not anymore. “But you’re in the right place at the right time, my friend,” she continued, her words ringing so brightly with truth that it made my breath catch. “You were meant to come here and find us. This,” she gestured a hand at the men standing in the room with us, “this is your Wild Hunt, and your destiny.”
Truth, truth, truth … everything this woman said was true.
“Do you know what you’re here to do? Do you know who you are?”
“The Veil Keeper,” I answered her, but the words were somewhat empty because I didn’t entirely understand what that description entailed. I was the Veil Keeper; I could feel it in my bones. But … how did I keep this Veil? What was it? Where was it? Or was it a who? I didn’t even know that fucking much.
“I wish I could tell you this was going to be easy or that there was some way to bring all your memories rushing back but … I can’t do that. Ciarah, you were chosen by the last Veil Keeper to be reborn into this body.” She paused and reached out a single finger to touch my chest. “This is the same body that’s been the Veil Keeper for millennia. The soul inside changes, but the memories and the feelings and the knowledge of power, those stay the same.”
Her words were true, I knew that beyond a shadow of doubt, but they didn’t make sense.
How could what she was saying be correct when I had so few memories to speak of? And those few that I had retrieved from the murky darkness of my mind, were they mine? Hers? Did it even matter?
“I can see I have confused you, and this worries me,” Sadbh frowned, cocking her head to one side as her intense gaze raked over me. “Why don’t you tell me more about that?”
My gaze flickered around the room, landing briefly on Reece and Arlo, two men—two sidhe—I’d so recently allowed inside my body. Her body. Fuck, this was a mind trip. Killian watched impassively, his face smooth and unreadable. Beyond him, Donal and Fionn, two huge, bearded men who clearly ran this show.
“You can trust everyone in this room, Veil Keeper,” Sadhbh informed me, seeming to read my mind. “We are all invested in your well-being. We have wanted for nothing, these past hundred and eighty-six years, than for the Keeper to resurface and the Veil to be restored.”
I nodded, cautiously. Again she spoke the truth.
“I don’t…” My voice cracked a little and I cleared my throat before trying again. “I have few memories, and no knowledge of power. Why?”
“We don't rightly know.” Sadhbh’s voice was quiet, saturated with pain and sadness. “But I understand you have regained … something?”
“Barely. Fractured shards of memory at best. Echoes of pain and torture, of despair and desperation. My knights did as they were commanded, and preserved the secrets of the Veil.” As I spoke, my voice had shifted into that lower, sultry tone that I was growing accustomed to. She was both her and me, but we were not yet joined enough to share one mind. “Knowledge is power just as dangerous as power itself, and the risk was too great.”
Sadhbh nodded, pursing her vibrant red lips while the five enormous fae watched me with unblinking stares.
“That makes sense why you are this way. How can we help you retrieve the secrets?” She raised her eyebrows and the hope that reflected in her clear green gaze made my heart hurt because I already knew the answer to her question.
“You can't,” I replied softly, my voice once more my own.“Only I can unravel a spell of her—my—creation. Only me, and my knights.”
“Dem Fae Lords,” Fionn muttered, “dey long since gone from dis world, almost as long as you yerself, Gardien.”
“Not them.” I frowned, chasing the soapy bubbles of memory in my mind. “They were hers and when she ceased to exist, so too did they.”
“Ahhh,” Sadhbh nodded and gave me a knowing smile before she sat back and grinned at her husband. “Fionn, mo grá, get us some drinks would you? You're being a terrible host. If we're to aid our Gardien, we can't be expected to sit here with dry mouths, no?”
The red-haired MC president raised an eyebrow at his wife's order and flicked a hand at Donal, who obediently disappeared into the kitchen.
“Now then, I suspect you have already claimed my son to be your Lord of Autumn?” Sadhbh narrowed her eyes at me shrewdly and words escaped me. She had withdrawn completely, leaving me vacant minded and sweating under this intimidating woman's stare.
“Um.” My eyes wide, I glanced over at Reece but he seemed just as interested in the answer to this question as his mother did. Shit.
“Boss.” Donal interrupted our Mexican standoff as he came back into the room. How I knew what a Mexican standoff was, but not how I'd come to be in this body, I had no idea.
“What is it?” Fionn snapped, looking annoyed at this intrusion into my decidedly awkward moment.
“Someone's here to see Le Gardien.” Donal scratched at his bearded chin and shrugged his leather clad shoulders. “Want me to tell her to fuck off?”
“Her?” I asked, despite the question not having been directed at me. They were talking about me and that seemed far more rude than me butting in.
“Yeah.” Donal nodded, acknowledging my question. “The Louisiana Wolves Delta, Amelie.”
“Let her in,” I ordered, with a steely note of command in my voice.