“What?What am I missing?”
“Her fated mate is not in this time,” Mairwen said, inserting herself into the conversation.“I have seen it, and so has Ishbel.”She shot a pointed look at Jessa.“Do ye not wish yer Emily to know the same contentment ye found with yer husband?”
“Well, yes, that goes without saying.”But Jessa acknowledged and fully owned her selfish side.“I just thought it would have been nice if one of them was her fated mate.Then I wouldn’t lose her.”
“Ye’re nay losing her, love,” Grant gently reminded.“The two of ye will always have Seven Cairns as common ground, remember?A rare gift from the goddesses.”
“Why aren’t more fated mates offered that gift?”Jessa fixed Mairwen with a pointed look of her own.“You said Emily and I were allowed that because of our sisterly love.We can’t be the only pair of friends or relatives separated by a rogue mate bond from a different century.Wouldn’t it help the Highland Veil if more were given the same opportunity of meeting at Seven Cairns?”
From her pale, almost silvery horse that came amazingly close to matching the shade of her hair, Mairwen stared back at Jessa as if she had never seen her before.“Unlimited access to Seven Cairns?A meeting place for those separated by the planes of time and reality?”
“Wouldn’t that make your job easier?”Jessa shifted in the saddle and adjusted an uncomfortable wad of petticoat that had wedged against her right hip and was rubbing it raw.“And can I have my leggings back for when I ride?”
“No,” Grant said before Mairwen could answer.“I dinna ken what leggings from yer time might look like, but I know well enough what the ones from now show, and I will not have ye wearing them.Perhaps Mrs.Robeson and Molly can help ye design amodestyet comfortable skirt for whenever ye ride.”
“As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted by male insecurity,” Jessa said to Mairwen, “wouldn’t everyone being allowed to meet at Seven Cairns make your job easier?”
“What are we talking about?”Emily asked as she rounded back and brought her mount up alongside them on the other side.
“All fated mates being allowed to meet with their closest friends and family at Seven Cairns,” Jessa told her.
“That would risk revealing the true nature of Seven Cairns.”Mairwen slowly shook her head.“Discretion and secrecy are some of our greatest protections.”
“Well, how have you been explaining when people disappear?”Jessa couldn’t believe that Scotland Yard or Interpol or whoever ruled that part of the world hadn’t picked Seven Cairns to pieces because of missing persons’ cases.
Mairwen shrugged.“We make them forget.”
“You make who forget what?”Emily asked.
“The families and friends looking for their loved ones are made to forget they exist.”
“That’s terrible.”Jessa looked at Emily for support on this.Her friend nodded in agreement.“It’s cold-hearted, selfish, and uncaring.Do you make the fated mates forget, too?”
“At times.It depends on the situation.The good of the all is far more important than the good of the one.”Mairwen’s tone had become snappish and defensive.
“Then why didn’t you do that with me and Emily?Make us forget each other?”Jessa wished their horses were close enough so she could reach over and shake that old woman.While she now fully understood the importance of stopping the Morrigan and those who fought with her, that didn’t excuse what Mairwen had just confessed that she and the Weavers did with people’s minds.
“The two of ye were…are…different.”Mairwen frowned as she stared off into the distance, idly fidgeting with the reins that appeared to be useless because the horse knew where to go.She slowly shook her head.“Ishbel noticed yer gifts right away.”A faint smile danced across her pale pink mouth.“Then I sensed Emily’s Weaver blood.The two of ye possess an ancient greatness, and ye dinna even realize it.I am not so certain we possessed the power to erase yer memories.”
Grant’s arm tightened around Jessa’s middle and hugged her closer.“And ye’re mine.Daren’t ye ever forget that.”
“I would never forget that.”She patted his arm but was determined to convince Mairwen that wiping people’s memories was wrong.“When you make a person forget, you realize you’re changing who they are?”
“How so?”Mairwen tossed her head, obviously ready to be done with that subject.
“Our memories, the way we process them and either learn from them or learn how to escape them, make us who we are.Erasing those memories takes that way.While I have a lot of memories I’d like to forget, I can’t deny that I learned things from them.Some of what I learned wasn’t pleasant, but I learned it just the same and use it like backfill to keep my foundation solid, keep me aware of just how far I’ve come, and all I have survived.”
Mairwen snorted.“I have seen memories cripple some.Many a mortal has thanked me for freeing them from their past’s prison.”
Henry and Lachie halted their mounts and drew their weapons.
Grant drew his sword—the mighty Caladbolg already hummed and shone with a blue-white glow.
“What do they see?”Jessa scrubbed her arms.Every hair stood on end, and a nauseatingly familiar eeriness washed across her.“She’s here.I thought she told you she was going to leave us alone?”
“Not in so many words,” Grant said quietly.“It was more implied than stated.”
“Lovely.”Jessa motioned at Emily.“Get behind us.I don’t know if it will help or not, but it can’t hurt, and she’s sure to go for you next.”
