Prologue
The cool smoothness of the tarot cards, worn to a comforting, familiar softness, brought Mairwen, Master over all the Divine Weavers, little solace today. The faded blues and reds of the symbolic images, all the colors, in fact, were tired, and she understood that feeling completely. Struggling to earn her husband’s freedom from mighty Danu’s prison seemed futile of late, especially with the loss of their son, imprisoned along with his father and supposedly protected—but that had turned out to be a promise too fragile to survive the evil of the witch Carman’s sons.
Even though the goddesses Danu, Bride, and Cerridwen had recovered the shards of her son Valan’s essence crystal and intertwined them with Jessa and Grant MacAlester’s firstborn son’s soul, her beloved Valan was still gone. Mairwen pulled in a deep breath and released it with a heavy sigh. How did a mother come to terms with the loss of their precious child? How was life supposed to go on even though she occasionally glimpsed her dear Valan in wee Lucian’s laughing eyes?
“Mairwen?” Keeva, more like a daughter than an apprentice, gently knocked on the open door. “I have tea for ye.”
“Any word from Bedelia?” Mairwen didn’t bother to look up from the tarot spread that refused to speak to her. The cards had taunted more than guided ever since her cruel sister Morrigan had shared the news of the attack on their sons. Mairwen had done a rare thing that now muddied her second sight. She had aimed her mournful fury at the goddesses. She gathered up the cards and dealt them again. “Bedelia and the Love Weavers must make haste. The only true reason Emily remains in Seven Cairns is to maintain contact with Jessa, and that hold is waning. If we do not find Emily’s fated mate soon, she will leave us and return to her family across the waters.”
“How could New Jersey possibly tempt our Emily away from the magic of Scotland and Seven Cairns?” Keeva set the steaming cup of tea on the table and gently nudged it closer. “Drink yer tea, Mairwen. I brought yer favorite biscuits too.”
“A family who loves and cradles Emily in caring and familiarity begs her to come home. I hear them calling to her. Their love pulls at her heart and soul. Ye can see it in her face too. Her loneliness unites with theirs. We are not enough, Keeva, even with our temptation to teach Emily how to connect with her ancestor’s magic.”
“But she enjoys her lessons with Ishbel and loves Jessa like a sister. Surely, she would never leave to return to New Jersey. Especially not with her being the godmother to the babies. Lucian, Kiran, and Meira need their Auntie Emily. They would be lost without her.”
“Emily was never meant to live her life on the sidelines watching others fulfill their destiny.” Mairwen swept the tarot cards off the table with an irritated flick of her hand. “Fetch Bedelia. I want answers as to why the Love Weavers have yet to locate Emily’s mate.”
Keeva bowed her head and backed toward the door. “Yes, Mairwen. Right away.”
Mairwen closed her eyes and covered her face with shaking hands while sagging forward to prop her elbows on the table. Never in the history of the Highland Veil or the Divine Weavers had they ever experienced this much trouble finding a chosen mortal’s fated mate. Perhaps it was because of the trace of Spell Weaver blood running through Emily’s veins, or a sign of the times, this world’s age of disbelief in magic. Mairwen didn’t know what it was; all she knew for certain was that the Highland Veil cried out for the strengthening it would receive when Emily bonded with her one fated love. The Veil had to remain strong at all costs. The many worlds, planes of time, and realities it separated could not be allowed to merge into apocalyptic chaos.
“Mairwen?” Bedelia stood in the doorway, waiting.
Mairwen lifted her head. Her heart fell at the somber weariness slumping the Master Love Weaver’s shoulders. “Why can you not find him for her? Help me understand why, Bedelia.”
Bedelia slowly shook her head. “All my Weavers sense Emily’s mate. It’s as though his spirit dances just beyond our fingertips, teasing us with his presence while refusing to tell us where he is. But the main thing is—he exists. We know it. We simply must find him and bring them together.”
“The tapestry of the Veil needs them. Jessa and Grant’s bond strengthened it immensely, but the darkness picks at its threads, threatening to unravel it. We must make haste.”
Bedelia offered a resigned nod. “We will find him, Mairwen. I swear it.”
“I hope so,” Mairwen whispered. “I truly hope so. This time feels more crucial than any of the others.”
Chapter 1
Modern Day - Autumn
Scottish Highlands
Village of Seven Cairns
“Mama…Mama…” Emily Mithers gave up. She snapped her mouth shut and nodded in all the right places of her mother’s long diatribe about missing her, missing Jessa, and wanting to hold Jessa and Grant’s babies rather than coo at them over video calls. What her mother didn’t realize was that it had taken a battle of epic proportions to convince the goddesses and the Weavers to back down off their stance of erasing the memories of family and friends to protect the secrecy of fated mates brought together through time travel and magic so their loving bonds could strengthen the weave of the Highland Veil—a mystical shield of sorts that separated all the worlds, realities, and timelines in existence.
Emily and Jessa were the first outsiders able to convince the goddesses that they should be allowed to maintain contact with their loved ones as long as they handled it delicately and protected the secrets of the Highland Veil, its Order of Defenders, and the Divine Weavers who cared for it.
“If you are not going to listen, we might as well end this call—even though it is long overdue.” Her mother sniffed and assumed the aloofness of a parent more than willing to hand out a generous helping of guilt. “But I’m not complaining. I am just thankful you spared a few moments out of your busy schedule for a brief chat with your mother.”
“Passive aggressiveness is beneath you, Mama. Save it for the fearsome five. It always works on them.”
Her mother just jutted her chin even higher. “At least your brothers adore me.”
“I adore you, too, and you know it.” Emily rested her fingertips on the computer screen, wishing she could reach through it and touch the softness of her mother’s cheek. As the youngest of six and the only girl, her parents had lovingly spoiled her rotten, and she missed them with a fury. “You and Papa are still coming to Seven Cairns in the spring. Right?”
“Are you coming home for the holidays?”
“I’ll be there for Christmas. You already extracted that promise. Remember?”
“And what about our Jessa? And the babies? We consider her family too. I never want her to forget that.”
