He rubbed his cheek against her hair. “Wherever ye wish to live, my love. As long as I have ye by my side, I care not where we are.”
Her fine round arse pressed against him in a most irresistible way as she arched back and kissed him. “Then I choose the sea. The rocking of the ship on the waves adds a very nice rhythm to—things.”
A groan rumbled free of him as he deepened the kiss and decided they’d left the bed too soon. When he lifted his head and gazed into her eyes, he gave himself over to their whiskey-colored depths.“Thank the goddess Dagun is my first mate. I dinna think we two shall spend much time on deck.”
She pressed a finger to his lips as he started to kiss her again. Her demeanor changed. “Before we—well—before, there is something I need to tell you.”
Her hesitancy and the worry in her tone made him stop unbuttoning her tunic. “What is it, my love?”
Her sleek, dark brows drew together in a worrisome frown as she ran her fingers up and down a fold of his léine. “I don’t want to keep secrets from you.”
“Lore a’mighty, lass. Tell me.” What the devil was troubling her?
She patted his chest and peered up at him with the same look he had seen his mother give his father many times. “There is nothing wrong with us. We are perfect. It’s about Aveline. And her safety.”
“Aveline’s safety? What say ye? Last I heard, her punishment still had not been handed down by the Fates.”
“Not her punishment.” Harley cringed, tensing him even more.
“Harley—tell me. Straight out, my love. Yer emotions are fair shouting at me that something is troubling ye, and it is scaring the living shite out of me.Now, what is it? There is nothing we canna face together.” He tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze to his.
“I saw something in Emrys’s Mirror,” she said softly, as though afraid to say the words aloud. “I think it was something from the future.”
Ronan swallowed hard. He’d not expected that. “What did ye see, my love?”
She twitched a shrug and slowly shook her head. “Not quite sure. Aveline was there. And another couple I couldn’t see. But the worst part was the furious woman. I mean—I thought she was a woman, but then she sort of changed.”
“Changed?” A deep foreboding stirred in Ronan’s gut. “Changed how?”
“She sort of—I don’t know—morphed into a dark, shrouded figure. Like the grim reaper looking for some souls to gather.”
He frowned. Harley’s description just confused him more, and this was something about which he needed to be certain. “I would like to try something with ye, love. It might frighten ye a wee bit, but it would show me exactly what ye saw.”
She eyed him with a wary frown. “Try something like what?”
He took her hands in his. “I promise ye will be in no danger. But I would like to join with yer mind. See what ye saw.”
“Join with my mind?” Her dark brows rose to her hairline, and she backed up a step.
He did his best to calm her by pulling her closer, gentling her with his touch. “Aye, love. If ye will open yer mind to me, then I can see the vision—exactly as ye saw it. I promise to go no further into yer thoughts than what ye saw in the Mirrors of Time.”
She studied him for a long moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she narrowed her eyes. He waited. Gave her all the time she needed. This was not something he relished doing, but itwould help him understand what was troubling her. She tipped a hesitant nod. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
Placing his hands on either side of her face, he rested his thumbs against her temples and stared into her eyes.“Associo.”
Her hands resting on his chest fisted into his tunic, but in her mind, he took her hand and waited for her to guide him to the vision she had seen in the Mirrors of Time. She smiled at him and pointed at the memory. He studied the figures, their actions, and all their responses. The longer he watched, the tighter he clenched his teeth—until his jaws throbbed. Then he vanquished the image with a wave and closed Harley’s eyes with a brush of his hand.
“Was that so bad, my love? Having me in for a wee visit?” He bent and brushed the lightest of kisses across her parted lips. Thankful that during the mindwalk, he’d transported them back into their bed.
She stared up at him from the scattered nest of pillows scented with the sweet fragrance of their earlier loving. “So, what did it mean? Is Aveline going to be all right?”
Ronan pulled in a deep breath and gusted it out in a heavy sigh. “I am not sure. ’Tis my hope that Mother and Emrys can help. What ye saw may be Aveline receiving her punishment from the Fates.”
“But who was the couple? The two people we couldn’t quite see? It seemed like Aveline was trying to shield them.” Rolling over onto her stomach, Harley propped herself up on her elbows and rested her chin in her hands. She aimed her worried frown at the great bay window at the back of the ship, scowling at the rise and fall of the horizon as the ship gently rocked on the waves while docked.
Ronan rose and paced the length and width of the room with his hands clasped behind his back. “I believe the woman—or the grim reaper as ye called her—is actually the Goddess Clíodhna. What I dinna understand is what part she plays in Aveline’s punishment, and what exactly she is attempting in that vision.”
His eyes narrowed as he stared out the window at the waves. He couldn’t ignore the growing sense of unease as he kept replaying the scene in his head. Clíodhna had been furious, but not quite as furious as she was capable of becoming. He had seen her destroymighty cargo ships with the slightest tip of her head. In the vision, however, it was almost as though she merely pretended to be angry. Her calculated motions were almost theatrical. No. There was definitely more to this than there seemed and acting upon such things was always risky.
