your swan song
Brendan says,
"Would you like to see the Book?"
Yes.
It is beautiful, just like all the things he drew when he was still a child and not grown and she was still a girl and not wolf.
Beautiful. But that's all.
Green eyes peer at him and his smile.
"I can read it to you, if you like," he tells her.
It's been eighteen years, and she really looks at him, and she realizes he's changed. Not the beard, not the tallness, but his eyes. They are kind, but they are blank.
No.
Somewhere in his absence, Brendan-her Brendan faded away. Not faded, poured away like water, like ink, like blood.
She looks at the Book and sees the final price of Crom Cruach's death.
"It turns darkness into light," he says, and his voice finally wavers.
Aisling says,
No, Brendan, that was you.