’Tis a good suggestion. I am makin’ an enemy of this one and ’twas not my goal. I keep tryin’ to reach Tristan with no reply and this woman will not aid us. It infuriates me.
“Stop doin’ that!” she shouted.
“Doin’ what?” Daegan frowned at her.
“It feels like you two are talkin’ somehow. Are you telepathic?”
Quinn offered nothing.
Daegan said, “Aye. We speak mind-to-mind.”
“Just don’t,” she grumbled, sounding tired and stressed.
Daegan had made a mistake by frightening her. He seemed to be making lots of mistakes since meeting her. He’d sent Tristan off on his own only to be captured. He’d started on the wrong foot as an adversary of this woman by entering her home uninvited. Now, he’d tried to get the information he needed by threatening her.
He’d never been so heavy-handed with a woman who had not presented herself as a threat to him or his people.
Daegan held his arms out wide in a show of being unarmed.
She stared at him with suspicion. “What are you doin’?”
“I did not come here to battle ya or threaten ya, Luigsech. I came to find the grimoire volumes and my man went missin’. We started on the wrong foot last night. I wish to aid ya in findin’ Fenella. If ya put your weapon down, I propose we start over and work together.”
“What can you do to find Fenella?” She slashed a warning look at Quinn who put his hands up with palms out.
“If I may?” Quinn interjected.
Daegan lowered his arms to his sides. “Go ahead. See if ya can get her to understand.”
His Maistir explained, “We have exceptional resources for tracking people. If you could help us figure out who Cavan is, we can probably find him quickly and determine if he has either of our people.”
She gave Quinn her attention, but remained with her guard up while she thought. “With all you’ve said so far, I have a feelin’ you might know who Cavan really is if you had his true identity and just need to narrow it down. Is that so?”
No point in pretending otherwise, especially now that she knew he possessed telepathy. Daegan admitted, “My man called to me while I was at your cottage. He only got out a few words, but he said ‘Cavan is’ then his words were cut off. I am convinced he recognized Cavan and knows that I would recognize him. Discoverin’ Cavan’s true identity is the one thing standin’ between us and freein’ our friends.”
She took two slow breaths then lowered her sword, but warned, “If this is a trick to disarm me, you will regret it.”
“’Tis no trick. Savin’ my man, and Fenella, is too important to play tricks. Now that ya know what we know, the wise choice would be to work together, would it not?”
“How can I be trustin’ you two?” she put to them both. “What will stop you from takin’ off just to save your friend and not Fenella?”
How one small woman could infuriate Daegan so much was beyond his understanding. “I do not care how ya come to that point, Luigsech, but sooner would be better than later for both of us. ’Tis easier to negotiate the end of a war than to gain one inch with ya.”
“You should have thought about that before pissin’ me off last night, buster.” She slid her sword over her shoulder and into the hidden sheath.
The hint of a smile tilted Quinn’s lips.
Daegan glared the smile off his face.
Moving around until she settled on her rock again, she said, “What more can I possibly tell you that will help you figure out if this Cavan is someone you know? I’ve described all I saw. No tattoos. No unusual markin’. Nothing else.”
Finally, Daegan felt the blockade between them begin to crumble a little.
Quinn scratched his jaw and gave Luigsech consideration. “I don’t usually share this, but I have an unusual gift where I can look into a person’s mind and see a memory of a place they’ve been or someone they’ve met. Would you allow me to do that?”
Her eyes widened. “Go into my mind? No. Not a chance.”
“But if Cavan has your friend and sent no ransom demand, plus you missed his meeting, how long do you think he’ll keep her alive?” Quinn’s voice drifted off at the end.
Daegan heard the insinuation in Quinn’s voice that Fenella could be facing death even at this minute.
Luigsech’s eyes turned shiny, but this was no weepy woman. Still, Quinn had touched her heart, the one place Daegan had failed to get near.
She stared off past them with a battle of thoughts playing out on her face. Without addressing either one specifically, she started speaking softly. “Cavan warned me if we did not meet he would harm Fenella. I thought she was safe until that meetin’. I expected to find her before he arrived to get her out of the way, but I couldn’t find her last night and she never showed this mornin’.”
“So that’s where you went when you disappeared from your cottage last night?”
“Yes.” She shifted a dark glance Daegan’s way when he reminded her of last night. “Fenella left early yesterday from the centre to pick up goats from a farm owned by Mr. Peadar. She’s known him a long time. I had called several times to reach her last night before you showed up. When I couldn’t get in contact with her and had no phone, I ran to her farm. She wasn’t home. No lights were on. Her truck wasn’t there. No goats. She would have called me if she had broken down or had any issue, but she didn’t. Her farm is halfway between the centre and the goat farm. I had to be at the centre in time to meet Cavan or I guaranteed puttin’ Fenella in danger, so I made that choice, thinkin’ I’d reach her by phone at the centre. I called Peadar and he said she
