“There is not that much to explain. When the Draecna hybrid slashed open my chest with his poisoned fore-claw and struck me with his venom, I died.” Torin waited, watching the flush of anger creep its way up her delightful body and spread across her. A fair-skinned woman couldn’t hide her emotions andloreshe wore them well.
“Torin,” she warned through gritted teeth. “Stop dragging this story out.”
He chuckled, scooting up to a sitting position against the headboard and pulling her to his chest. “I died, Emma. But the goddess mended my body as best she could and ordered mysoul returned. A stone guardian’s existence in this world doesna end until the goddess makes it so. Only then are we free to pass through the veil and move on to the next reality.”
Emma pushed away from him and sat bolt upright in the center of the bed. God’s beard, but the very sight of her stole the wind from his lungs. Her full, rounded breasts jutted through her golden red hair cascading across her shoulders. His groin ached, stirring to attention. He could never get enough of her.
“But you keep saying I’m a stone guardian. In fact, the spirit walk worked for me the other day and I finally figured out how to return fire when you decided to start lobbing sheep shit.”
Clenching his hands against the burning itch to touch her, he forced his gaze to her troubled eyes. “You are a stone guardian. And before ye ask, the answer is yes. The same rules apply to you.”
She backed away to the end of the bed and crossed her arms across her breasts. “So, you’re telling me I am cursed to live forever? I’m going to have to watch my sister die?” Tears welled in her sad eyes. Great round drops spilled over and rolled down her flushed cheeks. “I don’t want to be a stone guardian, Torin. How could the goddess be so cruel? How can she expect someone to serve her if they are cursed to watch everything they’ve ever loved die away and turn to dust?”
His heart lurched at the sight of her suffering. Her sorrow knifed through his chest. He had no words to console her against this truth. Their heritage was what it was. “We are notcursedto live forever, Emma. Ye must look at it as a gift. We are merely trapped within this particular reality until the goddess sees fit to release our souls to move on. Think of the possibilities.”
“Well, I don’t like it!” she said as she rose from the bed and scooped her robe up out of the chair. Yanking her arms through the fluffy, terry cloth sleeves, she jerked the belt tight around herwaist. “I never asked for any of this crap. Tell the goddess I want to return her gift.”
With a worried glance at the moon peeping in the window, Torin raked both hands through his hair. “Our heritage is not something ye can refuse. We were born this way. Chosen by the Powers. We are who we are because the magic flows through our blood.” He hoped the goddess was busy somewhere else and wasn’t hovering anywhere nearby. NeitherCailleach na Mointeachnor her sister Brid appreciated an uncooperative guardian. He had learned that lesson firsthand when he’d tried to leave this plane without their permission.
Glancing around at the odd contraptions scattered about the room, resentment filled him. That was how he had ended up in the chaos of this accursed place. If he’d listened to theCailleachand tended to his clan, perhaps she wouldha allowed him to pass through the veil along with his chosen people long ago. Returning his gaze to Emma’s furious scowl, his heart lurched again.Aye, but ye never wouldha met your heart’s true mate if ye had not awakened to this time.
“I know it’s not easy to accept, Emma. I understand your pain more than ye know.” Sliding across the bed, he tucked his plaid around his waist in one fluid move. There would be no more loving tonight. That fact was evident. “But once ye embrace it and conquer the energies, the goodness ye manage far outweighs the bad.”
“What about the people I love? The one’s who will leave—who have left me behind?” Her lower lip trembled as another tear rolled down her cheek, and she dropped into the chair.
Her sorrow troubled him, settled over him like a cold, dark cloud. How could he help her accept her fate? He couldn’t tell her there would be no misery. He wouldn’t offer her that lie. “I canna tell ye there willna be times when your heart breaks. But ye must ask yourself this simple question. If ye had not beenborn a stone guardian, would ye have known any less pain in your life?”
Her mouth tightened into a flat unhappy line as her gaze shifted to the floor. Pressing the back of her hands to her cheeks, she sniffed and swiped away the tears. A faintnoechoed from the depths of her wadded sleeves as she used them to dry her eyes.
Tensed with the uncertainty of what response he might get, he braced himself as he knelt at her feet. “But know this, Emma.Ican always be at your side. We can survive our existence together and never experience loneliness again.”
She peeped from behind the fluffy white folds of her robe, her eyes still shimmering with unshed tears. With a shuddering sniff, she buried her face again and curled away from him, farther back into the chair. In a tiny voice, muffled by her arms, Emma released a heavy sigh. “I know Torin.” She sniffed again. “You know how much I’ve come to care about you. But I can’t get past the idea of never seeing my sister again.” She cleared her throat and rubbed both eyes with the heels of her hands. “But I guess—at least there’s some consolation in knowing I don’t have to go through this alone.”
He swallowed hard and closed his eyes as he slumped to sit on the floor in front of her. Disappointment filled him at the wariness in her words. He didn’t want to besome consolation.He wanted to be her reason for breathing.
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
Torin wrapped his plaid tighter around his shoulders and leaned back against the unyielding edges of the wall of stone at his back. The rhythmic roar of the crashing waves shooshed against the base of the debris strewn ledge and spattered ice-cold spray onto the faded leather of his boots.
Consolation.He inhaled a despondent lungful of the brine-filled air. He hated that word. Surely, he meant more to her than the fleeting reassurance that she didn’t have to face her future alone. A shore bird screamed across the water as though mocking his dilemma.
A subtle shifting of shadows along a lower level of the cliff’s face drew his attention away from the foaming waves rippling out to meet the horizon. He leaned forward, bracing himself against a boulder while focusing on the darkened ledge below.
A bit of cloth fluttered beyond the rim of the shadowed rock; a heavy bit of material colored the same shade of green as the sea when the depths of the water are denied any sunlight.
Uneasiness stirred deep in Torin’s gut. He had seen that exact shade of green cloth many times. It was the shade worn only by the women of his clan. A delicate pale hand darted out from the shadows and pulled the cloth back out of his view. Hewaited, holding his breath, willing the owner of the cloth to step out of the darkness.
The lightest tinkling of laughter wafted up from the cave, followed by a delicate, high-pitched voice calling out his name. His heart nearly stopped beating and a chill stole over him. It couldn’t be her. What trickery lurked in those shadows?
Torin gripped the razor sharp edges of the boulder until his palms bled and stained the soft gray of the Lewisian gneiss into a mottled damp blackness. He fought against the mindless urge to scramble down the side of the cliff and face whatever lurked in that cave.
The musical voice called out his name again, nearly singing as it lilted his entire given name and echoed out his title. He hadn’t been called Chieftain Torin Grey, Guardian of the standing stones since…he closed his eyes against the impossible sound.
His full name hadn’t been called out since his wedding feast toher.
“Show yourself!” he bellowed into the wind, adrenaline pumping through him until his heartbeat pounded in his ears.
