Ciara shivered with delight beneath the darkened sky as thunderheads banked and rolled above the tree line. She couldn’t resist a victorious smile as she stretched taller in the saddle. She’d scored a direct hit at her intended target and hit him square in his pride. Her brooding Highlander’s greatest weakness was the fact that no one had better call him a coward. “Why are you so afraid to be wed to a real woman, Faolan? I can promise you from firsthand observation; you have no shortcomings in bed.”
Rage flashed in Faolan’s eyes as he growled, “Ye have no idea who I am, woman, or what prompts the decisions I make.”
Lightning splintered down through the clouds, striking so close the metallic odor of singed air wafted through the trees. Angus and the rest of the MacKay guard struggled to calm their frightened mounts pawing and snorting in the center of the road. Forced to dismount, they pulled up and steadied the horses to soothe the animals’ jagged nerves.
Only Faolan and Ciara remained in their saddles, their horses stamping and milling in ever tightening circles. They faced each other as though about to joust with swords rather than words. Their horses snorted and pawed at the ground as roiling black clouds filled the sky.
Ciara brought her horse closer and leaned toward Faolan, taunting him to make a move. “All I know is the man I see before me: one who is terrified of longing for a woman’s touch.”
Faolan grabbed her by the shoulders and shouted into her face as he yanked her over onto the saddle in front of him. “It is not a woman’s touch I fear! It is the pain that follows once it’s gone!”
The pound of his heart hammered against her; panic flashed in his eyes. Ciara clearly saw that Faolan MacKay battled with an inner demon he feared he couldn’t best. She had to find a way to allay his fears, to show him he hadn’t seen the entire picture of what a soul’s existence entailed. He had only seen the pain of what he thought was a loving relationship’s end.
She rested a calming hand against his cheek. With a heavy sigh, she traced her thumb along the roughened stubble of his jaw. “Faolan, you have only seen this side of pain and loss. You’ve seen love as a brief respite from loneliness. You feel it is a teasing torture leading to a hopeless end. Let me show you the part you haven’t seen. I can give you a glimpse of what lies beyond.”
His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper; he stiffened away from her hand. “Ye said ye were nay a witch.”
Ciara couldn’t resist a knowing smile and leaned forward to cradle his face in both hands. “I am not really a witch. I am just a verytalentedwoman who can show you the truth of things.”
He searched her eyes, studying her face as though attempting to stare into the depths of her soul. Ciara waited. Faolan had to come to this on his own terms. Here was one mortal impossible to rush. After what seemed like forever, he exhaled and jerked his head forward in a single nod, his fingers relaxed their grip on her arms. “How can ye do such a thing?” he finally asked, as his hands slipped down her side.
Ciara nodded toward the men farther up in the road still milling about with their horses, then she glanced up at the ever-darkening sky. As the wind lifted her hair, she raised her voice over the distant rumble of thunder. “Send your men up ahead to find a bit of shelter in case your mood succeeds in ripping open the clouds. Once they’re gone, we’ll sit over there beside the spring and I will show you what you need to know.”
* * *
Shoulders locked,emotions churning, Faolan stirred the mounting storm as they waited for the men to disappear around the next bend in the road. He willed the men not to desert him, strained to hear the last crunch of the horses’ hooves plodding against the frosted earth. Once they were gone, once they had left him, he would have no choice but to follow Ciara.
Then it was time. He couldn’t avoid it any longer. He barely heard the thrum of hoofbeats in the distance, like the gentle roll of weakening thunder. The hair pricked on the back of his neck as they dismounted and led the now calmer beasts down the steep hillside of the rock-strewn gorge.
They picked their way through the clumps of grass and scattered stones until they arrived at a spring gurgling up from the ground. Ciara motioned toward a good-sized limestone shelf canopied by several towering pines. She dropped the reins to her horse and allowed the beast to scavenge its way around. “Over there. We’ll be sheltered from the wind and still be able to see down into the water.”
With a skeptical glance first at the spring, then at Ciara, Faolan paused to rest his hand upon his horse’s warm neck as though the animal’s touch gave him reassurance. He didn’t know what the woman was about to do, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. His pain and loneliness had molded him into who he was today. He wasn’t certain he was ready to let that pain and loneliness become a part of his past.
Ciara spread a thick woolen blanket upon the stone ledge, then settled down, and fluffed her skirts around her. With a tender look, she patted the spot beside her.
Faolan crouched on the edge of the blanket. Those damn golden eyes of hers cut right through to his soul. They stirred him, forced his memories to where they shouldn’t go. It wouldn’t surprise him if the minx snapped him up like a wolf in a trap.
With a wary glance first in Ciara’s direction, he leaned forward toward the edge of the rock and peered down into the depths of the eddy below. The spring had etched out a natural well, the water pooling just beneath the stone ledge. The shadows of the drooping branches of the pines and the cut of the stone shielded the water from most of the sunlight. Darkened by the depths, the surface of the pool resembled obsidian glass.
Resting her hand on the crook of Faolan’s arm, Ciara gently squeezed while she waived her other hand over the water. “What do you see?” she whispered as his gaze focused on the shimmering surface below.
Shifting closer to the edge, Faolan stared at the water, his heart quickening as the faces of his parents flickered into view.
He ignored her question, leaning closer to the water while watching his parents at different intervals throughout their lives. He watched how they loved, laughed, fought, and shared their lives. He watched the connection, the way their eyes met. He noticed how their auras intertwined throughout every vision appearing on the pool.
“No,” he murmured as his mother sobbed over his father’s cold, lifeless body. “No!” he shouted, as she leaned forward on the edge of the cliff, arms extended into the air before she fell to the rocks below.
Faolan whirled on Ciara and shook her by the shoulders, his voice cracking with pain. “Why do ye show me these things? Do ye no’ think I can remember them clearly enough without ye throwing them up in m’face?”
“Keep watching.” Ciara pulled away and motioned to the pool below.
Faolan struggled for breath, gasping for air. It was as though he fought during battle. Hands clenched, jaw tightening, he turned back to face the water. He feared what else the visions would show but he couldn’t deny Ciara’s command. This time the surface of the pool rolled with the smoke of a pale misty light. Faolan leaned forward and focused harder on the surface to study the images playing below.
His father’s spirit hovered above his mother’s broken body where she lay bleeding among the jagged rocks. His mother’s spirit discarded her shattered form and rose to embrace her awaiting husband. Their faces shone with joy as they gazed into each other’s eyes and floated into each other’s arms. Then they turned in unison, their forms shimmering and slowly faded from view. But before they disappeared through the awaiting veil, they paused and looked Faolan full in the face. His father gifted him with a nod of acknowledgment, a hint of a smile reassured Faolan that all was as it should be. His mother blew him a kiss and then laid her hand on her heart, an obvious testimony of her love for her son.
Faolan struggled with the images he’d just seen. He raised his eyes to meet Ciara’s watchful gaze as he knelt on the cold, unforgiving stone ledge. “So, they are together? Ye mean for me to believe they’ve crossed over into the next time and ye expect me to truly believe they’re together and they are at peace.”
Ciara remained silent, her eyes dark and unreadable; Faolan couldn’t fathom her expression. She waved her hand over the water again, without breaking her gaze from his. Pointing toward the pool once again, she directed him to the surface of the waters.
