“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Cam said, and looked at the woman she’d gestured to.
“I’m Diana,” the red-haired woman said. “I’m the reincarnate of Boudica.”
Cam’s brows shot up. Fuck, he really needed to keep in touch with the university a bit better. The Celts’ most famous warrior had been reincarnated and he hadn’t realized?
She noticed his shock and said, “It’s a recent development. But Ana was Boudica’s patron goddess, and I appreciate everything that she did for me in that life and in this one. I want to help however I can.”
Cam nodded his thanks, then glanced at Ana to see her smiling at Diana.
“It was nothing,” Ana said. “When you were Boudica, you were my first big case. And you were, and are, a total badass. I’m glad you won your immortality.”
Diana looked up at the man seated next to her and smiled. “Me too.”
The man next to her was a Mythean Guardian that Cam recognized as Cadan Trinovante. He was a Celt born to a town that had worshiped Cam before his departure from Otherworld. They’d met once, long ago. Cadan nodded at him.
Fiona, the Acquirer, sat next to Cadan. She smiled at him and nodded her head.
“Thanks for coming,” he said to her.
“Not a problem. I’m certainly not a representative of my department.” She laughed. “They’d never let me be that. But I feel invested in your success. And I’m not bad in a fight.”
He nodded gratefully.
“Okay,” Lea said after a moment. “I think that Esha and—”
Two women appeared at the entrance of the room, along with Harp, who’d hitched a ride with Esha via aetherwalking. Harp nodded at him and Cam nodded back.
“And here they are,” Lea said. “Good timing. That’s everyone.”
The women approached the table with equal swaggers. Harp followed.
“So the party started without us,” Esha said. Her familiar glared at them with citrine eyes.
“Somebody invited the rabble.” Aurora knocked her chin toward the pink-haired witch. Her sleek midnight cat hissed.
“Oh, shut up,” Cora said.
“Make me,” Aurora shot back.
“I did, once.” Cora smirked.
“Please, you needed a whole coven to help you out. You’re nothing without your—”
Esha elbowed her sister in the gut and her mouth snapped shut.
“Sorry we’re late,” Esha said, and they took a seat, Aurora still glowering at the pink-haired witch.
Great—his team was already fighting. Still, he was lucky to have them.
“Right. Thank you all for coming,” he said. He introduced himself, Ana, and Harp. “We need your help, if you’re willing to give it.”
There were murmurs of assent from around the table.
“Hear me out first.” He looked specifically at Aerten, the only other Celtic god in the room. “Ana and I think we’ve discovered why the gods of the Celtic afterworld feel no emotion.”
Aerten’s face showed no surprise, and he had to wonder at that. As goddess of fate, perhaps she knew more than he’d thought?
“Here’s the situation,” he said, and told them about the spell that Druantia had cast over all of them, including the part about Ana, as she was the entire reason that he’d ever remembered his past in the first place.