Odara chuckled and shook her head. “I have known Mairi my entire life. She’s stubborn, and once she decides something, she won’t let it go. Had I not sensed the evil inside her, I would have said something. I tried to talk to a few of the women, but Mairi was very convincing in her lies. Or I should say, Deirdre was. I kept quiet so I could watch Mairi.”
Marcail leaned forward and put her forearms on the table. The gold bands at the ends of her tiny braids clinked together each time she moved her head. “I want to know about Reaghan, if you know more than what Galen was able to learn from Mairi.”
“Mairi and I were told of Reaghan together.” Odara bit her lip and looked down at her hands, hands that now trembled with age, her once beautiful skin marked with dark spots. “We were told that under no circumstances should Reaghan ever leave the village.”
“Why?” Lucan asked.
Odara shrugged in response. “We were never given a reason, just told that she should never leave.”
“Do you know any part of the spell Reaghan used?” Cara asked.
“Nay.”
Larena sighed loudly and glanced toward the stairs. “I was afraid of that.”
“How long was the spell supposed to last?” Fallon asked.
Odara lifted her brows as she looked at the leader of the Warriors. “As far as we were told, forever.”
Lucan drummed his fingers on the table, his forehead puckered in thought. “Do you know what Reaghan is attempting to hide from Deirdre?”
Odara hestitated, unsure if she should speak of what she knew little about. She wanted to give these people truths, not something she had no proof of.
“Please,” Sonya said. “Tell us what you know.”
Odara swallowed and leaned forward. “When my mother lay on her deathbed, she told me Reaghan kept within her knowledge of a place that held vast power.”
“Hm. Vast power is something Deirdre would certainly want to obtain,” Fallon said.
Lucan grunted. “How would it hold the power? And where?”
“I don’t know,” Odara said. “My mother died right after, so I was never able to ask her.”
Isla dropped her chin into her hand. “We may never know. There are too many uncertainties. We cannot help Reaghan unless we know everything. I fear we will ultimately harm her, and I’ve no wish for that.”
“Is Reaghan speaking of strange dreams?” Odara asked.
Sonya sat straighter, her mouth pinched. “Aye. Why?”
“It’s the start of her spell regenerating. Usually by this time the headaches are almost constant and she falls into a deep sleep where a fever overtakes her. She wakes a day or so after, and then she remembers nothing.”
“Sonya’s healing may have slowed it,” Quinn said.
Odara slowly nodded. “Or altered it somehow. I’ve not seen much of Reaghan lately. I know of her headache upon arriving, but nothing after.”
“As far as we know, there have been no more,” Cara answered. “Galen would have sent for Sonya if she had had another headache. When Reaghan isn’t with him, she’s with one of us.”
Odara rose, her old knees creaking. “Then the spell has been altered, and mayhap for the better. I never liked seeing her in pain.”
“Will you stay with us?” Marcail asked.
Odara smiled as she walked to the stairs. “I’ve sworn to guard Reaghan, wherever she may go. I will stay as long as she does.”
Galen felt better as soon as he opened his eyes. The strength he had become accustomed to after two hundred and fifty years had returned once more. Now he could stand with the other Warriors and protect Reaghan.
A soft, feminine sigh caught his attention. He glanced to his side and found Reaghan curled beside him. She had one hand tucked beneath her cheek, her lips slightly parted as she slept.
Galen shifted onto his side to face her. He never grew tired of looking at Reaghan. To him, she was the most beautiful, stunning woman to ever walk the earth.
The night before had been horrid. Galen wondered how he could have survived it without Reaghan by his side. He had always thought himself a rational, tolerant man, but Reaghan gave him more clarity. She opened his eyes to new possibilities.
She lived each day to its fullest. She looked ahead, never to the past. Some could argue that was because she couldn’t recall her memories, but Galen knew it was just how Reaghan had decided to live her life.
It was a lesson Galen wished he had learned a century earlier.
Reaghan’s eyelids fluttered open. Her sleepy smile stirred his passions and caused the blood to rush to his cock. He fisted his hand so he wouldn’t reach for her, wouldn’t feel the warmth of her satiny skin, wouldn’t taste the sweetness of her lips.
Her gray eyes were warm, soft as they met his gaze. “How do you feel?”
“I’m myself once more.”
She licked her lips and frowned as her gaze dropped. “You scared me. You’re supposed to be immortal.”
“I would give up my life if it meant saving you.” He said the words from his soul, and he’d never spoken words so sincere.
Her gaze snapped to his. “Oh, Galen. I’m not worth it. I’m unimportant, while your quest to end Deirdre’s tyranny is vital.”
Galen couldn’t hold back any longer. He drew Reaghan against him, their faces breaths apart. His body focused entirely on her long, very feminine form pressed against him. Of her lush curves and the promise of pleasure.
Her eyes widened a fraction before darkening with desire, desire he recognized and had come to crave with increasing regularity.
“You’re important to me. Never forget that,” he whispered.
He didn’t give her time to argue. He took her mouth in a kiss, putting every ounce of his yearning, his longing … his need into it.
He wished he could give her pretty words to tell her how much she meant to him, how much he desperately needed her, but it wasn’t his way. Instead, he would show her the only way he could — with his mouth and hands and body.
His heart hammered when she melted against him. She opened her mouth to him and plunged her hands into his hair. He pulled at her gown and heard a seam rip. Suddenly, her hands joined his as they tore at each other’s clothes, tossing garments around the room until they were both blissfully naked, their limbs intertwined.
Need unlike Galen had ever experienced surged through him. Reaghan’s scorching kiss, her hands, urgent and grasping, only spurred him onward.
He pulled his mouth from hers and fastened his lips over her nipple. Her nails dug into his back as she arched into him, seeking more.
Galen alternately tongued her nipple and suckled the tiny bud. Her body shook, her soft cries filling the chamber. With a small nip, he moved to her other breast.
His fingers found her curls, stroked her hot, silken sex. He burned to be inside her, to have her pull him in deep and hold him tight.
Ruthlessly he teased her clitoris before plunging a finger inside her. Her hands were greedy as she caressed his shoulders, his back, his neck, feeding the uncontrollable, undeniable hunger he had for her.
Unable to hold back any longer, Galen moved to stand beside the bed. He grabbed Reaghan’s hips and turned her so she lay lengthwise, her hips at the edge of the bed.
He smiled down at her, recognizing the flushed skin, the heavy-lidded eyes. Her breasts rose and fell with her rapid breathing. She watched him with her storm-colored eyes, wordlessly waiting, silently impatient. With her thighs spread wide, Galen filled her slowly, penetrating deeply into her snug channel.
Reaghan’s lips parted, a small moan of pleasure spilling from her mouth. Her fingers dug into the blanket as
