The records we were reading though weren’t written until much later. Sheena had needed to translate some of the entries written in ancient Gaelic.
“We don’t know what happened that afternoon to unlock her abilities.”
Tristan’s dark gaze settled on my face. “Your abilities?”
I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, but Sheena was watching me like she was expecting a miracle to spontaneously happen.
Screwing my eyes shut, I breathed slowly through my nose. ‘I can’t do this.” I stood, abruptly scattering papers. In my haste, I knocked at a small table containing a vase. Water spilled over the floor as the glass crashed. “I’m sorry.” I couldn’t meet Sheena’s gaze, couldn’t meet the expectation she held for the person I’d never be.
My fingers pulled on the door handle, and I escaped out into the dark night. My hands shoved deep down into my pockets as I paced away, back down the lane.
“Mae, wait up.” I turned to find Tristan jogging up behind me. I couldn’t meet his gaze either, but he caught my hand, pulling me around to face him. “Don’t run from me. Please?”
“Why? We don’t even know each other. This is all crazy, stupid…” I struggled for a suitable word. “Shit.”
He grinned, and I stared wordlessly at his face as the moon and stars shone on his white teeth and turned his golden hair into a pale silver. He turned my palm, planting a kiss on the sensitive skin before placing it over his heart. My own heart thrummed and raced. “Then it’s shit we are in together.”
“You died for me before. I won’t allow that to happen again.”
“Good, because I don’t plan to allow history to repeat itself. If someone wants you, wants your magic, then we will fight them.”
“I don’t have magic, Tristram.” It was an accident allowing his original name to slip from my lips and I dropped my gaze.
“You loved him.” His gentle acknowledgement ached inside my chest.
“And you loved her.”
“I only have the snapshots of the dreams, but yes, I did.”
Silence spun a delicate web around us. I closed my eyes, lost some place between the past and the present. My feet wanted to run for the stones, to walk back through, to feel all that again. But my head told me to stay where I was. In my now. Here. With him.
“Mae,” his words were a brush of air as his lips skimmed mine in the lightest of fluttering kisses. I gasped, my hands sliding along his chest, running from his heart to his throat to his hair. His lips found mine again, firmer and harder. I tasted his tongue as it teased the edge of mine.
His arms wound me in tight, cocooning me within his hold.
My heart banged against my chest.
Every fibre in my body tingled with scorching flames. He pecked kisses. “I’m glad we found one another again.”
My eyes met his in the dark. “You really believe this, don’t you?”
“I believe you.”
“Even when I said I walked through the stones?”
“I know how I felt when you were missing. You weren’t here, I couldn’t feel you. The moment you came back I could sense where you were.”
“More than love.” I mumbled Mrs Cox’s words.
“What did you say?”
His hands cupped my face. “More than love, it’s what we are.” My voice was louder, firmer than I would have thought possible.
He kissed the tip of my nose. “More than life, Mae.”
“Let’s go back to Fire Stone.” I never thought I’d say those words. “We can see the books again tomorrow. Maybe it will all be clearer in the light of day.”
He slipped his hand to mine, linking our fingers. So natural, yet so alien, all at once.
The school was dark when we approached up the sweeping drive. “It can’t be that late, can it?”
I stepped up the worn stairs and a shiver passed over my skin. “Wait.” I clutched Tristan’s arm.
“What? We should get back before we get detention for the next hundred years.”
“I can feel something.” My skin prickled, a chill tensed my stomach. I closed my eyes briefly, and within my veins a hum of golden energy coursed free and wild.
My eyes flew open. “I feel…” I hesitated to find the right words. Tristan turned and squinted at the forest.
“What’s that? A fire?”
I followed his gaze, my stomach turning, my hand slipping from his grasp with cold sweat. “Come.”
“Mae, no. I have to keep you safe.” He tried to pull me back.
“No.” A dark sensation of despair settled on my shoulders, pushing me down towards the earth. “Not this time.”
I pulled on his hand dragging us towards the glow in the forest. Sadly, I knew what we would find. I could see it before we even reached the scene. Within my mind’s eye the trees sent me the images. I could make out the shapes in white robes, the startling fire and…
“Phil,” I screeched as we ran into the clearing with the stones. From under the white-robed hoods murmurs lifted into the air. I couldn’t hear them clear enough, couldn’t work out what they were asking for. “Father?” I blinked up at Mae’s father. There he was, and not a day older than when I’d seen him last on my trip through the past. Next to him, with hair as bright at starlight was the woman I’d seen in my vision before I’d come back to Fire Stone.
“Mae.” This was the woman who’d marched through settlements full of women and children in her search for me, destroying everything in her path.
My breath hitched. Tristan tried to plant himself in front of me, but I wouldn’t let him. Phil stared at me with wild eyes. Tied onto the stones she was in the spot where Tristram and Mae’s bones had settled for thousands of years. Her eyes leaked droplets of water down her cheeks and onto the rough grey stone.
“All you need is a little nudge, Mae.”
