The pain dulls to an ache once he settles, though his hand travels down to rest gently, protectively against his ribs.

He shouldn’t have let his mind wander. He said too much, unburdened himself too soon. “How uncomfortable are you with the supernatural? Did you believe in anything before you came? Ghosts, monsters, gods on earth?”

Crozier used to be terrified of banshees as a young boy, but other than that little Irish myth God and religion had always been such a far-away concept. And then he’d met Silna and the creature.