'What did you see?'
'Breandan standing over Devlin, victorious with a fairy-girl stood beside him. I saw alternates of course, but when the fairy was gone Breandan failed and died. Lochlann comes back to his brother's body and turns his back on us.'
Of course I was going to ask, 'So, who's the fairy-girl?'
'Seriously? I have to answer that question?'
Pressing a hand to my throat, I searched for the invisible fingers crushing it. 'How did you know where to find me?'
'I saw you and Breandan running hand in hand behind the Wall. You wore the green blazer with the Sect sigil. Oh, the fact you are training to be a Cleric went down a treat with the rebels, by the way.' She sighed. 'Damn that boy, I'd kick his ass if I didn't owe him. He played such a dangerous game.'
I sunk to my knees amongst the leaves and settled down onto my bum, legs flopping weakly in front of me. My hands burrowed into the dry dirt either side of me, and fisted beneath the surface.
'What game? How is any of this a game?'
'Wrong choice of words.' She waved her hands in apology. 'Breandan sought you out, no matter how much he may try to deny it. The moment I told him what I saw, he wanted to see you, but it's screwed things up. I always saw you bumping into each other and your love growing. I told him to stay away, that the time for your meeting would happen naturally. Then I found out he was spying on you for the last month.' She smiled. 'This morning when you saw him, by the slope before you fell, he didn't help you up because I called him away. You were not supposed to meet like that. But when you got lost the future changed again, and in pops the vampires chance.' She grimaced and looked down at her hands. 'But I guess, it's my own fault for blurting out the truth.'
'A few things are starting to make sense,' I said, and breathless, lifted a finger to signal time out.
I thought of how Breandan reacted toward me the first time we'd met. He'd been horrified at who I was, annoyed at me, and yet so persistent. Always coming back no matter how many times I told him to back off, so sure that I had to listen and trust him. My wings curled around me, and my tail flicked about behind me disturbing stone and insect. It was daunting to hear someone you had just met and were beginning to feel something for had known you, and what you would become a long time before you knew they existed.
'And Devlin? How did he find out? I doubt Breandan would have proclaimed my existence to the Tribe.' I remembered the reluctance in his expression when he held me for the first time. And I remembered his words, the white witch was right and now I'll never hear the end of it. 'And as much as you tell me he wanted me meet me; I have a hard time believing it.'
Ana pulled her top up and I recoiled. The skin across her stomach was a ghastly sight of lumpy flesh and pink scars. 'The Tribe caught me and I was not strong enough to hold my tongue.' Pulling the top back down a tear rolled down her cheek. Scrubbing it away she looked disgusted at herself for showing weakness. 'Breandan saved me, and carried me to Conall for healing. But the cuts were done with magic, and Devlin's consort, Wasp,' she spat the name, 'is a tricky bitch with a special gift for knife work.'
I yanked my hair a few times, the feeling of helplessness threatening to overwhelm me. 'Only you've foretold this showdown between Breandan, Devlin and me?'
'There has been no one with such a strong gift of Sight in a long time. I'm good and my gift has yet to improve but trust me, I'm never wrong.'
'You can't see things, say, fifty years from now?'
'That's not how it works. I don't see visions, I see future possibilities,' she explained wiggling her fingers and nose. 'I look at you or touch you and in my head I see you taking different actions, making decisions and the future steps you take altering because of them. Like ghost images moving on top of what I see. It's hard for me to attach time to it or remember it all. It doesn't help I have a memory like a sieve. I judge time by appearance and significant events.' Ana's creased face broke into a playful grin. 'Sounds mental.'
'I hate to admit it, but you're one of the sanest people I've met today.'
'I'm the most awesome person you've met.'
There was a question that pressed on my mind. I didn't want to seem self-absorbed, but the more I ignored it the louder intuition chimed it meant something, something big and scary.
Chapter Six
'When I first met Breandan, he touched me and it feltstrange. Then he said something about us no longer having a choice. That is was sealed. And a while ago Conall said he sensed something odd. I think he was feeling thethe after effect of whatever it was.'
Ana sucked in a breath. 'Ah, that surprised even me, and boy did I feel it. The disturbance slammed into me like a sledge-hammer. Others sensitive to such things would have sensed it too. The moment it happened the future shifted so dramatically it gave me a killer headache.' She turned her head and her eyes echoed her reaction to whatever future she saw moving over me. They looked haunted. 'But it does explain why you and Breandan coming together is so important. The connection itself, well, it's happened once before and it didn't end well.' I threaded my fingers through the grass at my side and waited. Ana focused hard on my face then looked away. 'You must avoid speaking of it, Rae. Don't tell anyone,' she said in a rush. 'There are those who will not accept.'
The sudden urgency threw me, and I leaned up. 'Why? And don't evade the question.'
She saw my surly expression and sighed. 'In the end they died and they took thousands of fairy lives with them.' The curiosity in my face prompted her to continue. 'The word you're looking for to explain what you feel is a nexus. When you touch something is created between you and Breandan that is unbreakable, untouchable. It grows. The longer you are apart the greater the need for contact with him will become. When you do touch it will be likelike a direct tap to the Source. The longer you are apart the greater the, ah, release of energy will be.'
By the scared look on her face, I don't think the big release of energy was a good thing. The larger implications of what she was saying sunk in and burned a hole.
'What if I don't want to be tied to him?'
'It's done now.'
'But, I-, I still don't even know what it means.'
'Bonded ones can never rule or lead because they end up too wrapped in each other to think or see straight.'
'That's not what I meant. What does it mean in real terms? Like does it mean Breandan and I are destined to be together?'
The idea was so cliche it was gross, but it was one I understood easily.
'How the hell would I know?' I shot her a look. 'Oh, you're forgetting what I can and can't do again. I can tell you if you'll turn right down a fork in the road instead of left, but I can't tell you why you chose that direction.' She paused thoughtfully. 'Unless say, the right was blocked and you had to go left. See what I mean?'
With a tremble, I digested what I had learned. Breandan and I were tied together by an unbreakable magical bond, for life. And I wasn't even sure I liked him.
'Does Breandan know?' I asked.
'After you met the first time I saw what would happen should it grow beyond control. I warned him to stay close and to touch you skin to skin as often as he could.' She grinned. 'I don't think he minded the instruction once he'd met you.'
'I don't understand. We can connect to the Source. Big deal. You can touch the Source.'
'This is more complex than a simple channeling of power. When the nexus opens you become a living embodiment of the energy in its raw form. A Source in your own right.'
I frowned and chewed my lip. 'Sounds intense.'
She barked a laugh and rubbed at her eyes. 'You have no idea.'
I sensed her close up on the subject and thought of something else. 'Why does Devlin want me to go with him? He seemed very insistent that I go home with him.'
