Page 16
Eight
Deep breaths.
Not knowing wasn’t sustainable.
I sat in the same place as the first time I’d met Riven. Nolan had left. The shop was closed. My earlier bravado and curiosity gave way to fear but there was no help for it. This had to be done.
Flipping the book open to the same passage as last time, I read.
When hearts echo the same vow …
And that was it. Apparently intent mattered because I’d been picturing that inn, The Wild Boar, and intently attempting to find Rowan again. One second, I’d been sitting on the floor in my back room, and now I sat on a pile of hay in what looked like a barn. No, scratch that.
A stable.
Scrambling as best I could within a thick dress to the edge of the loft, I peered down to see at least four horses stabled. The air was thick with the scent of hay and horse, warm and earthy. Wooden beams arched overhead, rough-hewn but sturdy, and moonlight filtered through the gaps in the slats. Harnesses and tack hung neatly on pegs, and a low whicker from one stall reminded me I was nowhere near home.
This time, I wasn’t surprised by his presence.
Rowan filled the door frame, noble and erect, like a prince or a king had just appeared, not just a knight.
Just a knight. You’re really losing it now, Lena. Let’s not aim too high, girl.
“You’re back.”
He strode toward the ladder that would take him up to me. As I scrambled back, away from the edge, it occurred to me that this dress wasn’t just familiar from my last visit. How had I missed it last time? It was the one I wore to a costume party my senior year in college. Same color. Same gold trim. Just way more authentic-looking and a hell of a lot tighter, courtesy of a corset. My boots were familiar too. They looked strikingly similar to a pair I’d just thrown out last year after finally admitting defeat. Tall brown ones with the smallest of chunky heels. Although these were actually more comfortable and, probably real leather. With ties instead of a zipper.
“Why are you up here?”
He finished climbing and sat surprisingly close to me, as if we’d been intimate before. I left before kissing him, but the compulsion was still there. Rowan’s very aura was strength and stability.
When he took my hand, I allowed it.
Wanted it. Mostly. There was a part of me that felt a little guilty too, as if I were being disloyal to Nolan. But I kept it there, needing his grounding.
“I don’t know. One moment, I was back in my time, reading Father Simon’s chronicle and then next … boop.”
“Boop?”
When he said it in that deep voice, all chain mail and strength, it made me laugh.
“I’m pretty sure you’re the first medieval knight to say ‘boop.’”
“If it means an age long past, then aye, I suppose I am.”
“Why do you hold my hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world?”
He smiled faintly, thumb tracing the inside of my wrist as if testing a memory.
“Father Simon says the soul knows its mirrors across time. That some hearts are … written twice.”
My pulse stumbled. “Written twice?”
“Aye. As if one life were not enough for what the heart swore to protect.”
He looked down at our joined hands. “You believe this is the first time we’ve met, Lena. But my heart remembers you.”
What did that mean, exactly?
