Page 163 of First Light

Carys opened her eyes and Duncan grabbed her, clutching her to his chest. His shoulders shook, and he rocked her back and forth.

“Thank God. Thank God,” he whispered fervently.

“I’m okay.” She dug her fingers into his massive shoulder. It was a little like trying to comfort a brick wall. “I’m fine, Duncan.”

“You scared us, girl.”

Dafydd’s voice made Carys look to the side. The old man’s face was creased with worry and covered in dust and blood. He had a cut over his right eyebrow, and blood ran into one of his bright blue eyes.

“Aunt Eamer is going to be pissed at me for cutting up your pretty face,” she whispered.

Dafydd threw his head back and laughed.

“Trust a Welsh woman to make a joke five minutes after she almost died,” Duncan muttered. He lifted Carys and carried her to a grassy spot that wasn’t covered in rubble. “I’m going to set you down here,” he said. “Are you okay?”

She nodded.

“I’m going to look for Mags.” He glanced at the ruins of the cottage. “She’s going to be in a full-on rage for what we’ve done to her house.”

Carys looked up to see Cadell and Mared flying overhead.

“What are they doing?”

“Waiting to take us back. Mared says there’s a fight brewing at the loch.”

“Fuck.” Carys’s eyes searched for Lachlan, who was kneeling by the smoking ruins, Duncan’s steel sword in his hand. “He left an army on the edge of unicorn territory.”

“That he did.”

Carys forced herself to her feet and limped over to Lachlan, who was staring at the ruins with silver and red blood spattered on his face, blood dripping from his eyes, and dust and rubble in his russet-brown hair.

“Lachlan?” She knelt and put a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up and frowned. “She killed my wife.”

“Yes. And you killed her.”

“It’s not…” His jaw tensed and his face crumpled. “It doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

“No.” She blinked back tears and knelt beside him. “I don’t think it can.”

Lachlan let out something halfway between a groan and a cry. His shoulders curled in, and he leaned on the steel sword in his right hand, which was dug into the earth.

“Carys, I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“For everything.” His eyes were hollow. “Duncan was right. I never should have gone looking for you. I never should have drawn you into…” He looked at the smoke and stone. “All of this. You had a good life.”

“Yeah.” She sat back on her heels and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I did.”

Carys thought about her life. Her friends and her job. The family she’d lost and the one she’d patched together for herself. All that was important. It was precious.

But it wasn’t everything.

“Because you came to find me, I have you. And I have Duncan. I found out that I had a sister who was really amazing.” She smiled a little and looked over her shoulder to where Dafydd waited. “I have an uncle. And an aunt. I have family again.”

Lachlan nodded.