Page 60 of Hollow Valley

He leaned back, laughing heartily, and the firelight glinted in his eyes.“Don’t go tempting me now.”

The way he was looking at me then, with genuine hope and happiness lighting up his face, I noticed that he was rather handsome.Actually, I’d been noticing it for a while now.His eyes were deepset and intelligent with a glimmer of something playful, and his enigmatic smile quirked so easily on his lips.His cheek bones were high above a tapered jaw, giving him a compelling foxlike appearance.

Being around him sometimes caused the heat to stir in my belly, a feeling that had mostly been dormant since Max had died.I didn’t know how Fergus was able to resurrect so much inside me, but I found myself enjoying his company more and more each day.

“You’re still going on with us to Glacier Valley?”I asked.

“Of course.Nothing’s changed there.”

The conversation lingered between us as the fire crackled softly, casting warm shadows that danced on our faces.

Suddenly, Fergus’s expression shifted, his laughter fading as he sat up, alert and tense.“Wait.Do you hear that?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Fucking hell,” he muttered.He started toward the tent, and that’s when I realized that I couldn’t hear his brother’s rasping breaths at all.“Dougal?Dougal!Dougal!”

He clambered on top of his brother, shaking him and beating his chest in a futile attempt.I hurried over to help him, and when I touched Dougal, his skin was already cold and clammy.

“Fergus, he’s gone,” I said, because pounding his brother into a pulp would not bring him back.

“Dougal, you bloody fool, you can’t go like this!”Fergus shouted, his voice cracking.

He let out a pained sob, then he got up and ran outside of the tent.I checked again, making sure there was no pulse, no breath, no life in Dougal, and I could not find any.

When I went out of the tent after Fergus, he was standing in the nearby road, staring up at the darkening sky.He let out an agonized, enraged scream, as if hoping that he would reach the gods.

Then he collapsed onto the ground, hunched over his knees, as his body was wracked with sobs.I knelt down beside him, and I put my hand on his back.He cried so hard that he dry heaved into the dirt, but I stayed with him.

Eventually, after his energy was spent, and the sky was dark and the stars were out, he lay on the ground with his head on my lap.I ran my fingers through his thick hair, and I sang to him the same French lullaby that I sang Fae, because it was the only way I knew to comfort him.He didn’t say anything, but he clung onto me so tightly – one arm around my waist, another my leg – that I didn’t dare let go of him.

36

Stella

The rocky terrain of the mountain pass made burial a difficult thing, though not impossible, but that’s not what Fergus wanted anyway.

“Doesn’t feel right, him being stuck in just the one place,” Fergus said when he decided against burial.“Let him be ash, scattered about, like he was in life.”

So the day after Dougal died, Boden, Leandro, Edie, and I helped Fergus build a pyre outside the limits of Xwechtáal.

When it was ready, we laid Dougal atop it with care, wrapping him in a blanket and tucking wildflowers at his side.As the sky darkened, Fergus took the torch and lit the edges.The flames slowly climbed the wood and cast flickering shadows.

As the fire burned, Dougal began singing an Irish folk song, “The Parting Glass,” in a mournful, breathy tenor.

We slept another night at the Foxglove, since we all needed the rest.Boden took the floor, so Fergus could share a bed with Leandro, while Edie, Fae, and I bunked up in the other one.

In the morning, after we’d all woken up, Boden cleared his throat to get our attention.“So, a lot has changed recently, and I think that we ought to consider our plans again.”

“What do you mean?”I asked, and my heart tightened as my fears seemed to be coming true.

“With all of the losses and dangers, and given that Remy might not even be at Cold Shore, I think we should consider turning back.”Boden’s voice sounded confident but he wouldn’t meet my gaze as he spoke.

“Maybe it’s changed for you, but it’s no different to me,” Fergus countered.“If anything, I’ve more cause to go now.To put Dougal’s ashes to rest in the sea.”

“Ditto.I mean, not about Dougal’s ashes, although, more power to you with that.”Leandro gave Fergus a supportive pat on the arm.“But with Ryder and Alphie and Dougal’s sacrifice, it’s even more important to me now that I make it to Glacier Valley to get the medicine that Cole and the other people need back at the Barbarabelle.”

“And I still want to find Remy,” I added.