“Don’t you?”
I groaned. “Why are you always so cryptic? You are cryptic in my dreams—”
“Memories,” she cut in, her face pinching beneath her glasses.
“Whatever: dreams, memories, it all feels the same.”
She slid from the bed, readjusting her shirt and skirt. She was nothing like the Heather I may have known before. “You should know, you aren’t alone.”
I stared at her blank face. “Why do you always talk in riddles?”
“Mae, I can guide you. I’ve waited a long time to make sure I can help.” Her lips pursed for a short pause. “But, I can’t lead you.”
“Why?” My hands fisted the cotton of the bed sheet.
She smiled and beneath the sparrow form of Mrs Cox, Heather grinned back at me. “Because you are our leader.”
“In what?”
If someone didn’t give me an answer soon, I’d implode with questions.
“The old ways. You hold their future, it was always your gift.”
My face scrunched. “The old ways? Not those damn stones?” I shuddered when I thought of Mae and Tristram tied together in their final embrace.
“Older.”
“And Tristram? Why did we both die?” The necklace pulsed as my thoughts scattered in his direction. “Is the necklace to help us find one another?”
A small frown carved itself between her eyebrows. “No. I gave you the necklace that day, so you’d find yourself again.”
“So you knew I’d die?” It was my turn to frown. “Jeez, some heads-up would have been nice.”
“I don’t know anything. I’m a conduit, not a seer.” Her glance was pointed. “You are the one with the power.”
“Power for what?”
“Everything.”
I stared at my hands. If there was power—magic—beneath my skin, I didn’t know how to access it or what to do with it. Those memories hadn’t come back yet, and when I’d walked through the stones, I hadn’t seen anything more.
“How can I walk through the stones?”
“You and Tristram sacrificed yourselves so your father wouldn’t get your power. Tristram was never meant to be with you on those stones. Your father cursed you both on the chance your souls would ever meet again. But I believe the tie of your blood shifted the allegiance of the stones—they have been waiting for you as long as I have.”
Her lips quirked into a grin. “But nothing can stay in the way of gold and red united. Not even a power-hungry druid keen to control the universe with magic.”
“Tristram died for me?” My mouth tingled and dried. “Is that why? Because her father wanted to steal my power.” I shuddered. “I would have given it to him to save Tristram.”
Heather/Mrs Cox shook her head. “Your father.” She let her words sink in. “You can’t ever allow the magic to fall into the wrong hands, Mae. It’s only safe in your hands.”
“How can I stop them, they can take it surely?”
She shrugged, and I muttered how incredibly unhelpful that was. She turned away. “Get some rest, Mae. I think you’re going to need it.”
Her heels clacked away with the sharp angled form of Mrs Cox replacing the image of Heather, the plump old Kneel Woman. She turned at the door. “You and Tristram, you were bonded by more than love.” Her gaze was piercing. “It’s blood that ties you.”
Rest? Was she crazy? What did she mean blood? What was there that was bigger than love? It wasn’t a question I could answer. Love wasn’t something I could remember feeling.
As I lay there, fiddling with the crisp cotton of the sheet tucked around me I thought of something else.
Today I was eighteen.
Today was the day I could leave. When I’d arrived I’d never wanted to come, but now I could leave of my own free will… suddenly I didn’t have anywhere I wanted to rush to. I’d spent five days wandering in the past and it was five days I’d missed spending with Phil and Tristan.
I didn’t have to stare at the ceiling by myself for long before the fall of footsteps pulled me from my puzzled thoughts.
Phil’s hair was wild as she rushed into view. Tristan followed behind, his own golden skin pink with exertion. My heart stuttered when my eyes met his. “Guys, where the hell have you been?”
“Mae.” Phil landed on the bed with a thump. “You should see what we’ve found.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense.”
“All around the stones, we’ve found these stone soldiers, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Really?” I pulled the sheet off my body, my eyes drifting to Tristan whose own gaze was settled on the skin of my legs. My blood warmed, my cheeks tinging pink, and I coughed to clear the obstruction sticking in my throat.
“Should you be up?” His own voice was deep and gravelly, and it only made the boiling of my blood bubble harder.
“Yes.” I snapped.
He held his hands up, a chasing smirk flitting across his lips. “Okay, concerned individual backing down.”
“Tell me everything.” I grabbed at my pile of neatly folded clothes and darted behind the cotton hospital screen. I didn’t know where the dress I’d come back through the stones with had gone. Probably a good thing I could slip into my own jeans and zipped hoodie. If I’d had to face the cotton dress I’d worn dripping wet, my brain may well have exploded over the walls.
“We were searching for anything that could explain where you were.” Phil didn’t meet my gaze and I glanced at Tristan.
“Didn’t you tell her where I was?”
“Yes.” His own gaze was wandering as he looked at anything other than me.
Phil’s hesitation was palpable. For a girl who never stopped moving she was achingly still.
“You don’t believe me.” My stomach plummeted.
“The past, Mae? It’s just not possible.”
I straightened up. “Well, I stepped through the stones. I can remember every moment, every feeling.” My gaze flicked to Tristan, remembering with desperate detail how wide the chasm was between Mae and Tristram. Yet they were going to die together… between when I was there and
