Beyond the Pale: A Thin Veil Novella (The Thin Veil Book 3) by Jodi McIsaac

with blood.
    “I need…Felix,” she moaned.
    “His place was ransacked this morning,” Brogan said, looking stricken. “I don’t know where he is. Kier, what happened?”
    Haltingly, she told him about Brion’s betrayal and Lorcan’s attempt to kill their child. Brogan listened, horrified. “I should never have left you alone,” he said.
    “We trusted Brion,” she muttered. “It’s not your fault.”
    “But how…how did you open the sidh?”
    “I didn’t. Our child did. She must be very powerful, Brogan. She brought me to you.”
    Brogan laid his head on his wife’s stomach, and began to weep. “I cannot lose you. Either of you.” He closed his eyes, his ear pressed against her taut skin. “I have not done right by you, little one,” he whispered. Then he straightened up. “Kier—there is only one way to keep our baby safe.”
    “What?” she said,
    “You must go to Ériu. I’ll open the sidh here, where no one will find it. Once you are safely away, I’ll bring Ruadhan here to close it. Lorcan will never be able to find you—or our child. When he is dead, I’ll come back for you.” He closed his eyes again, as though concentrating on something very far away. When he opened them again, he said, “Yes, she will help you.”
    Kier gasped as a new pain ripped through her, this time from her abdomen. Not yet . “Come with me,” she said.
    He started pacing around the clearing, looking for something. “I can’t,” he called back. “I must protect our people, our land. You will be safe with Maeve.”
    “ Maeve? ”
    He stopped pacing and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I know…it will be difficult.” He knelt back down beside her. “I didn’t tell you this before, but she is a druid, a powerful one. She’ll be able to heal you and protect you.”
    “But—”
    “You’re my wife , Kier. And you carry my child. I don’t want to leave you. But I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you and our baby safe.”
    Kier cried out in pain and clutched her stomach. “It’s happening,” she moaned.
    “Then we don’t have much time,” Brogan said. He picked her up and ran through the trees, until he came to a small pond that glittered in the sunlight. He placed his hand on a large boulder near the edge of the water. The sun reflected off the wet rock, giving it a warm glow, as though it were already a sidh. “This is perfect; only I will be able to find this place again,” he said. Then he kissed her hard on the lips. “I will come back for you. Tell our daughter that I love her.”
    She saw the boulder glow even brighter, and then it became translucent. Through the shimmering stone she could see a woman, with red curls falling around her shoulders, looking at them anxiously. “Go,” Brogan said, setting her on her feet. “Go, and be safe.”
    She kissed him again, and then took a painful step through the sidh, to where her husband’s lover waited to receive her.

 
     
     
CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    As she passed through the sidh, she stumbled and fell forward. The other woman caught her and helped her lie down, all while her eyes were fixed on the sidh. The room they were in was dark and cold. Kier screamed in pain again, and Maeve tore her eyes from the sidh and started bustling around her, bringing blankets and pillows. Without speaking, the druid removed the blood-soaked cloths from Kier’s shoulder and leg and wrapped the wounds in new cloths that had been soaked in some kind of herb solution. Then Maeve left her, disappearing up a narrow wooden staircase. Kier clutched at the starstone around her neck. Would it even work from this world? She sang the song to activate it, her voice ragged and weak. “Brogan,” she moaned, but there was no answer.
    Maeve returned, carrying a mug of steaming liquid that smelled of licorice and pine. She offered it to Kier, but her hands were shaking too hard to hold it. Maeve spooned some of the tea into Kier’s mouth, and she forced herself to