“I need to know who I am,” Evina said. “I need to know why I was left, what part of my life is missing, what I’m capable of. But love…” She gave a mirthless chuckle. “I’ve spent my entire life alone. Companionship was as much as I’d hoped for.”
He nodded in a vain attempt to let her realize he understood enough to not need her to go on any further. He didn’t want to hear any more.
His decision had been made. And so had hers.
But she did go on. “Love is…Love is something I fear. It’s a weakness I dinna have right now, and I canna say I want a weakness when I dinna know who I am. What I am.”
“And that’s exactly what I wanted to tell ye,” he said. “Gillespie found a way for ye to see Morrigan. Yer mother.” The words came easier now, spurred by his decision to do the right thing. For her.
She may need more time to uncover her love for him, but he had already made up his mind about her. Her strength, her beauty, the way she brought his world to life with vibrant energy and incredible stories. He would give her the world if she asked it of him. In his heart, he knew he could not give her a relationship poisoned with an unspoken secret. He could never take joy in such a life, not when he truly cared for her.
His heartbeat stuttered.
Not when he loved her.
Evina’s breath sucked in. “My mother,” she repeated. “Ye’ve found a way for me to see her?” Her eyes went wide with disbelief.
Duncan’s chest swelled to bring such eager hope to her eyes. It almost made up for his sacrifice. Almost. “One of her daughters can revisit within a week of her death, even if she has been healed and her life restored.”
“A week,” Evina breathed. “That would mean today…”
Duncan nodded. “Ye’d need to go today, or ye may no’ have another chance.”
EVINA HAD one opportunity to meet her mother, and she would not miss it. After all this time, she would meet one of her parents, perhaps learn of the other, and unravel her past.
Her mother!
The very idea caught in the back of her throat and held fast there.
Duncan’s stare fell heavy on her, his demeanor strangely shadowed. She met the darkness of his gaze. His expression was shuttered, the openness of his soul earlier had snapped closed.
“Ye dinna want me to go,” she surmised.
“I want ye to learn about ye past, to meet yer mother. I know how much this means to ye.” He ran a hand down her cheek, a caress as sweet as his others had been.
“But…” she probed.
“I’ll miss ye, my love.” He smiled as he said it, but the action did not reach his eyes.
Evina couldn’t help but warm with the endearment. “I imagine I willna be gone long.”
“Time is different there. From what Gillespie has told me, it’s slower than the mortal world. An hour with your sisters will be a full day here.” His focus slid to the window where the rowan tree grew in the center of the garden. Strange, the leaves were nearly gone from the great tree, leaving the branches thrust out like bony fingers.
Duncan turned back to regard her. “A mere seven hours there would be a week here.”
“Then I suppose ye’ll have to wait for me,” Evina teased. Before he could offer a retort back, she caught his face in her hands and kissed him. She’d meant it to be tender, but once their lips touched, the passion ignited between them and flared with hungry desperation once more.
After so many years of pushing away people who might otherwise have been friends or lovers, this man had endearingly edged past her defenses. The thought of leaving him caused a strange and physical ache in her chest.
“I’ll be back,” she said breathlessly against his lips. “I’ll be back for ye.”
A hearty knock sounded on the door and Duncan gripped Evina’s waist, pulling her tighter to him. “It’s time,” he growled into her ear. He turned toward the door, and blocked her near naked body with his. “A moment.”
“Laird…” Gillespie’s voice held a questioning tone to it from the other side of the closed door.
“She knows,” Duncan replied.
“Then she must prepare.” Gillespie’s tone was heavy and resonate. “Her bath is ready. She must go into Morrigan’s home clean.”
Evina’s pulse kicked up and her limbs trembled with a sudden nervous excitement.
“Have Ala bring her a robe,” Duncan said. Gillespie did not answer, save the gentle pat of his retreating steps.
Duncan remained where he was a moment longer before shifting toward Evina once more. He searched her face, as if he were memorizing every line and curve. It wasn’t until she swept her gaze down his strong, straight nose to his full lips that she realized she was doing the same. She wanted his face etched in her mind as she entered the unknown before returning back to him.
“I’ll seek answers for yer curse while I’m there,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Get the answers ye need for ye.”
“My lady?” Ala’s soft voice shattered the moment into a million pieces.
Evina sucked in a breath and nodded before remembering the servant would not see the action as she was still hidden behind Duncan. “Aye,” she whispered. “I’m here.”
Ala appeared beside Duncan and held out a robe, her head averted with the arc of her long neck.
A warning tapped in the back of Evina’s mind, the same as it did in battle when a nearby warrior lunged at her in preparation to deliver a killing blow. Evina hesitated. The air around her felt no different, the aged scent of dusty books did not alter, the silence in the room did not break. Nothing was changed.
And as suddenly as it had started, the ominous sensation ceased.
“Evina?” Duncan regarded her
