“Good,” Clíodhna said, as she turned back toward the sea. “Until the equinox then, my trusting child. Rest easy. All will be well.”
Aveline clapped her hands as the sea goddess gracefully sank into the waters. Her heart was so light, she danced in circles across the beach, only pausing when a deep, satisfied laugh rumbled up from beneath the waves. Movement made her turn and stare into the shadows beneath the shelf of the washed-out embankment. Were those eyes? An eeriness stole across, making her tighten her hold on the plaid and run up the hillside toward home.
“Something is not right.”Rachel stared out the window, unease and a worrisome unrest nagging at her with the relentlessness of time and tides.
Caelan glanced up from grinding the whetstone along the edge of his claymore. “What do ye sense, my love?”
She shook her head while worriedly picking at the cord of the tapestry she’d pulled back from the window’s edge. “I don’t know. But there is an imbalance in the energies. A quickening of sorts, and it’s not anything good.”
“The Fates?” He rose from the bench and proppedhis claymore against the hearth. “Do ye think they have chosen Aveline’s punishment?”
She struggled to find the words to describe the malevolent breeze. “No.” With a slow shake of her head, she narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the eeriness in the air. “It is not the Fates.This is—different. Threatening. And slowly gaining strength.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the weather settled across the room.As she eased down into her chair beside the hearth, she stared into the fire. “Aveline seemed happier today. Almost as if she was relieved.”
Caelan’s broad shoulders sagged, and he ran a worried hand through his graying hair. “Surely, ye dinna think the lass is up to something yet again? Has she learned nothing?”
“The only punishment she has received so far is her brother’s anger. His ire never affected her very much when she was a child. What makes you think it would affect her now?” Rachel flinched as though in pain. “What if she thinks the Fates have let her off?”
“But we banned her from doing magic. Kept her from Emrys’s room and the Mirrors. Forbidden her to use any of his tools. What the hell else could she do?”
Rachel rose and leaned against the hearth, idly poking at the burning logs with an iron rod. “Aveline may have finally realized what I’ve told you all along.” She gave a defeated shake of her head. “She is the strongest among us in the ways. Her ability to access the energies is phenomenal. Aveline doesn’t need any conductors to concentrate her powers. All she needs is her will and her mind.”
“God’s teeth,” he muttered. “Must we lock her away?”
“You do not understand,” Rachel said. “We cannot stop or control her—no matter what we do.”
“Then ye’d best be calling out to the Goddess Brid.” Caelan threw open the chest at the foot of the bed and drew out her finest candles for connecting to the mighty goddess. “Since Brid is the one who foretold of her powers, perhaps she can bring her under control.”
CHAPTER 16
Her heart was as light as the wind in her hair as they galloped across the fields. Harley couldn’t resist tossing a teasing glance back. Ronan’s black stallion could easily overtake her little mare but for his restraining hand on the reins. He was obviously letting her win, and judging by his joyous expression, did not consider it a loss.
They reined in their horses beneath a sprawling oak, both laughing with the exhilaration of the run. She smiled to herself as she compared riding the horses with the freedom her parents had found on the open highway with their motorcycles. Now she understood their excited connectedness, especially when talking about their times on the open road.
She untied the plaid from her saddle, unfurled it, and let it float down across the ground. Ronan fetched the skin of wine, bread, cheeses, and apples Ellen had packed for them in a cloth knotted at the corners.
“She packed so much.” Harley arranged the food on the cloth, knowing they would never eat all of it. “I wish she’d understand I do not need fattening up.”
Ronan laughed and settled down beside her. “Ye might as wellgive up, lass. When Ellen gets something in her head, there is little room for anything else.”
“I believe you’re right.” She snuggled into the curve of his arm as they reclined back into the huge gnarled cradle of roots that made the perfect armchair.
The horses meandered close by, finding their contentment beside a tasty overgrowth sprouting up beside a gurgling burn of the clearest water. A peaceful meadow stretched out past the stream, golden seed heads of the waving grasses mesmerizing as they rippled in the breeze.
A sigh of contentment slipped free of her. She’d finally made peace with her fate. Maybe this wasn’t exactly the life she’d expected to live, but the longer she was here, the more she realized that perhaps this was where she should have been all along. She leaned her head on Ronan’s shoulder and sighed again.
“Ye seem happy,” he said as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face. The tickle of his fingertips, even from such an innocent act, immediately ignited a fiery response within her.
“I am happy.”And aching for you, she silently added. He had made it painfully clear that until he fully won her trust,or served his time, she thought to herself, there would be no dismantling of her virginity.
“Since ye seem happy and contented—perhaps it is time I gave ye this and asked ye to be my wife.” He opened his hand and revealed a delicate bracelet made from woven strands of gold, silver, and copper. The intricate knots of the weave interlocked with no beginning and no end, forming a beautifully symbolic band. He slipped the cuff onto her wrist, his fathomless eyes locked on hers.
She stared at the work of beauty, then looked up at him and gave herself fully to the emerald storm of emotions in his gaze. He loved her. More than life itself. It wasn’t what he said that mattered. He told her more when he said nothing at all. His actions and the way he looked at her—they told her everything she needed to know.
She meant to speak. Really, she did. But the words wouldn’t come as she stroked the band encircling her wrist. As she admired it, firstangling her hand one way and then another, all she could do was press her other hand to her heart and blink hard and fast to hold back the happy tears. The precious metals of the bracelet caught the rays of the sun and sparked them back with delightful fire. The unending knots made the perfect statement, glowing with a passion all their own.
“It is so lovely,” she whispered, finally finding the power to speak.
