They took the boar to the community kitchen, where Duncan bartered for breakfast, some dry goods, and a portion of the meat. When they settled down to eat, she noticed a couple of those injured, treated, and not back to full duty sharing a meal along with a handful of recent rescues. It reminded her to go by the clinic and check on Lucy and Johnny before she left town.
Fred popped in, a rainbow-colored cap on her explosion of red hair, her youngest on her hip.
“Hi. Can I sit a minute?”
Duncan patted a chair. “You want some breakfast? I’ve got a little credit left.”
“No, thanks.” With the ease of experience, she stripped off the toddler’s coat and cap as she talked. “I just dropped the kids off at school, and Dillon at the playground. The preschoolers are building snowpeople.”
She set Willow down, unearthed some wooden blocks from an enormous bag. “Build us a castle, cutie. Your dad made her those blocks for Christmas,” she said to Fallon. “She’s crazy for them. He and Eddie are working on the tractor—again. The alchemists are working on the corn fuel, and they think it’ll work. Anyway.”
She blew out a breath, side-eyed to make sure Willow remained engaged with her architecture. “I had coffee with your mom, Fallon. She caught me up. I haven’t talked to Eddie yet, but anything that has to do with Allegra, he’ll want to be part of it.”
“From what we learned, she and Petra only go there once a year, so we’ve missed them. And that’s the first substantiated sighting we’ve had in over a year.”
“They’re not done—and I don’t mean just with the awful things they’re doing in Scotland. I know Arlys is on her way to Montreal, but when she gets back, I think she and Chuck should, I don’t know, put out an alert. Allegra and Eric worked with the PWs on the first attack on New Hope. They may be with them now, or still.”
“We’ll find them, Fred,” Duncan assured her with a hard gleam in his eyes that spoke of vengeance.
“They’ll come after you. You, Tonia, Fallon, Lana, especially. They want us all, but especially you.”
“And that’s to our advantage.” Fallon finished her eggs. “Neither of them are what you’d call cool heads, and we will be. Neither of them are quite sane, and we are.”
“I believe in you, and I believe the good always beats back the bad. But crazy and bad? It’s unpredictable, so, you know, be a little wary.”
Once Fred gathered up the baby, the blocks, Duncan studied Fallon.
“We didn’t talk about it, about them.”
“No. I want to say I know how much Denzel meant to you, and I understand the need to even the score.”
“It can’t be evened.”
“No, it can’t. I know how I felt when I struck out at Eric, and what blew through me was dark. It was revenge more than justice. I had to pull away from that, and so will you. You’ll need to be a little wary, Duncan, because it’s a powerful feeling. It’s seductive.”
“I need to end her, for Denzel, for that girl we found and all the ones she laid out on that altar. It’ll be justice. Whatever else I feel when I do end her is mine to deal with.”
FAITH
Yet I argue not
Against Heav’n’s hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
—John Milton
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It worried her, but Duncan was right. It was his to deal with. If she asked him to believe in her, she had to believe in him, believe his light, his heart, both strong enough to resist that dark surge.
She knew its pull, and had to admit she’d felt it tug inside her the night before when she’d seen what had been done to a young girl.
Murder, slavery, torture, mutilation, those were horrible crimes. But human sacrifice? An even deeper evil. So yes, she wanted to end them, this mate of her uncle, her own cousin. She wanted to spill the blood of her blood, and knew she’d have to beat back that dark surge to come out whole again.
Another choice, she thought as she rode to the clinic. One that might prove the hardest of all to make.
It surprised her when Taibhse dropped down to Laoch’s saddle after she dismounted, and Faol Ban stood on guard. She’d expected them both to go on their way.
“You don’t have to wait,” she told them. “But if you do, I shouldn’t be long.”
No one sat in the waiting chairs, which she deemed a good thing as she made her way to the offices. She found Rachel at a desk reading some paperwork with her half-glasses on her nose.
“Slow day?”
Rachel took off her cheaters, sat back. “At last. Hannah and Jonah are doing some routine exams. Not one emergency this morning,” she said, rapping her knuckles on the desk three times. “We were able to release a few more this morning, so it’s actually pretty quiet. Quiet enough I was just going over the supply list for the expansion. It’s going to take some doing, but Bill Anderson and his team of miracle workers—which includes your father—say they’ll make it happen so we can, potentially, break ground this spring.”
Fallon walked over to the detailed sketches pinned to a bulletin board. In them she saw potential and vision, and most of all, faith.
“You’re going to need more medicals.”
At that Rachel let out a satisfied sigh. “I have a pediatrician—yay!—in the rescues from D.C. She’s not ready, physically or emotionally, to work yet, but she will be. And I have another healer from the same group. Best of all?”
Fallon glanced back. “Best of all?”
“I’ve put together a series of exams, mostly from memory. I want Hannah to take them next month. If she passes, as I know she will, she’ll be a doctor. As officially as we can make it. I’ve talked to Katie, and the town council. We’re all agreed.”
“I think that’s definitely best of all.”
“She’s young. Awfully young, but she’s been training, seriously training, since she was thirteen. She’s got a natural talent, and the passion.”
“Does she know?”
“I told her this morning. I want her to have time to study. The exams aren’t a cakewalk—shouldn’t be and won’t be. She’ll have earned her M.D.”
Rachel had let her hair grow a little longer since summer, had it pulled back in a short pouf of a tail. Now she rubbed the back of her neck under the poof.
Quiet morning or not, the town doctor and founder of the clinic worked long, hard hours.
“Maybe you could give the paperwork a rest.”
“Well. We’re putting in a holistic area, and a physical therapy area. When we do, I swear to God, I’m getting a massage every week.”
“Meantime.” Fallon moved behind her, rubbed at her neck and shoulders.
Rachel shut her eyes, let out a sigh. “Come live with me and bring your magick hands.”
“You can call on them anytime. I’ll look for Hannah before I leave. I wanted to check on Lucy and Johnny—the two I brought in yesterday.”
“She’s cleared, but we got her a bed so she doesn’t have to leave him until he is. He’s awake, and lucid. Some blank spots in his memory, which isn’t unusual given the head trauma. From what Jonah told me, what you did in the field made the difference. I examined him this morning, and he’s stable. We’ll keep him awhile, but barring something unforeseen, he’ll make a full recovery. And they’ve both asked for you.”