this very glade as the vibrations pulsated all around them, calling the dead, calling forth creatures from out of the cave and holes and up from the deepest, coldest depths of the pool to witness the union. They were everywhere, red-eyed and leering.
I felt myself sway toward him, and something in my eyes seemed to startle him. He held me at arm’s length for a moment before he swore and pulled me roughly against him.
The next thing I knew we were kissing, and I told myself I should push him away…this was all happening too fast. It wasn’t real. It was this place. It was that strange vision, that strange vibration.
I could do nothing but melt into him. Something at the core of my being had been awakened. Whatever had drawn me here, whatever was keeping me here, had also driven me into Thane Asher’s arms.
His tongue slid into my mouth, and the hum grew louder and louder until my whole body pulsated with need. I’d never felt anything like it. It was like a heartbeat, like the throb of blood through my veins, but it was coming from the mountains and from the cave and from the very land on which we stood. And it was coming from inside me.
The vision came back to me and I saw the woman rise over the man, her head thrown back in carnal abandon. As their cries and moans melded in that dark glade, I could have sworn it was Devlin and his dead wife, Mariama. Then the woman turned with a seductive smile, and I saw that it was…me.
As if in the throes of his own orgiastic dream, Thane drew me closer, one hand on my back crushing me to him, the other hand tangled in my hair, tilting my head back. He buried his face in my neck, pressing his mouth to my pulse as if he could devour my very essence. And there was nothing,
Something intruded—a sound, a ripple, a whisper of fear—and he jerked back very quickly, looking stricken. For the longest moment we stood there with ragged breath and raging emotions, until he glanced away and broke the spell. “Damn. What just happened?”
The buzzing subsided, and I stared up at him in confusion. “I don’t know.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t meet his gaze. “That was…unexpected.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t just you.” I glanced around with a shudder. “It’s this place. It makes you think strange thoughts.”
He lifted a hand to push back a lock of hair. “It never has before. But just then…I thought…”
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.” But his gaze clouded. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine—” I broke off abruptly. “Where’s Angus?”
Thane glanced around, too. “He can’t have gone far. He was here a minute ago.”
I started to call to him, but Thane put a hand on my arm. “Shush. Listen.” He cocked his head.
In the silence, I heard the distant echo of a bark. “Oh, no. Thane, he’s gone into the cave.”
We were still standing face-to-face, and I hadn’t realized that my hand had crept to his chest. When I noticed, I quickly dropped it to my side.
“I’ll go in and get him,” he said.
“I’ll come with you.”
“No, you stay put. I know that cave. I explored every inch of it as a kid. It dead-ends about a quarter of a mile in, so he can’t go far.”
“But you don’t even have a flashlight.”
“I have a penlight on my key chain and I have my cell phone. Don’t worry. I’ll find him.”
I glanced anxiously at the opening in the cliff. “What if he’s cornered something in there?”
“All the more reason I should go in alone.” When I would have protested, he said, “I’m not trying to be all protective. Like I said, I’m familiar with the cave. Alone, I can move a lot faster if I need to get the hell out.”
It seemed foolish to argue with that logic. I watched him slip through the opening into darkness, then I waited by the cave for a moment, trying to pick up the sound of Angus’s bark. I heard Thane call to him, and then all was silent. I told myself they would be fine. Thane was more than capable of taking care of himself and Angus’s instincts would keep him safe. It did no one any good for me to stand there working myself up into a panic.
Nor would I dwell on that kiss. I had no idea what had happened, how I had let myself get carried away so quickly because that wasn’t at all like me. I was the cautious, reserved type. Or at least…I had once been. Before Devlin.
Moving away from the entrance, I knelt by the pool and dipped my fingers in the water. Thane was right. The water was as cold as a melted glacier, the spray from the falls like the chill of a winter rain. As I stared down into those dark depths, a leaf dropped into the water, and my reflection wavered in the tiny spirals. But even as the leaf floated past me, the ripples continued as though the water had been disturbed by some underwater eruption. Once again, I heard a hum, like the ghostly vibration of a tuning fork.
I was still staring down into the pool, watching the tiny undulations, when a reflection appeared over mine in the water. I thought it was Freya’s ghost at first, but then I realized that someone stood at the top of the cliff gazing down into the glade. Even as I lifted my head, the spirals intensified, and the reflection quivered into nothingness.
She had been there, though. I hadn’t imagined her any more than I’d invented the silhouette in the laurel bald. Someone was following us. And for that split second the face had appeared in the water, I could have sworn it was Ivy.
A sound came to me from the cave. A bark and then Thane’s voice. Thank God, they were coming back.
I was still staring up at the top of the cliff when they emerged from the cave a few moments later. Angus must have caught the girl’s scent because he began to bark excitedly.
Thane frowned. “What’s the matter with him? He was perfectly fine in the cave.”
“Someone was up there.” I pointed to the top of the cliff.
Thane glanced up. “Just now?”
“Yes. I saw a reflection in the pool, but when I looked up she was gone.”
“She?”
“It was a girl.”
He shrugged. “Probably just some kids camping out in here. I saw the remnant of a fire in the cave. Maybe that’s why she disappeared so quickly. This is Asher property. She was probably afraid of being caught trespassing.”
“Is there another way to the top of the cliff besides scaling the wall?”
“Yes, there’s a path a little farther on.”
“If someone was coming from the laurel bald, would they have had time to get up there by that path?”
A brow lifted, but all he said was, “Assuming they know the area.”
I started to mention Ivy, but then I wondered if what he’d told me earlier had planted the idea in my head. That cliff was at least fifty feet above the pool. An accurate identification from a wavering reflection didn’t seem all that plausible even to me now. And maybe that silhouette at the gravesite had been nothing more than a shadow. The sun had been in my eyes, after all.
But I hadn’t imagined those traps last night. I hadn’t imagined being lured into the woods.
“You want me to climb up there and take a look around?” Thane asked.
“You don’t need to do that. It was probably just a camper like you said.”
“You still look upset. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. But I’m ready to get out of here.”
“Let’s head back, then.”
As we walked through the archway, I glanced back into the glade, my gaze lifting to the symbols and then to the top of the cliff. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I glimpsed a shadow moving stealthily along the edge, as if trying to keep pace with us.
