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Colleen is right to worry. Sion is farther from safe than I’ve ever dared travel before. My version of her chest sparklers warns there may be no turning back if I continue the way I’m headed. Up until Sion, I’d be collapsing with fear to fall into a life too big to handle, but with him, I’m holding it together.
Colleen blows a breath that makes her bangs dance. “Watch. Shanna will be enchanted with Sion and think Charlie is a goof.”
I pat her knee. “Charlie is kind of a goof, but so are you.”
Colleen raises her hands in surrender. “Guilty.”
Our trip to Wexford is on. One more hurdle behind me to keep tonight’s Veil traveling from becoming crazy difficult or worst-case scenario—impossible. With time ticking away, that can’t happen.
Colleen’s phone trills. “Look, you’re calling me.” She hands me her cell. “Do me a favor, La. Make the guy get a phone.”
Chapter 15
The Breach
Sion fakes sleep during the drive down to an adorable coastal village and our rendezvous with Granny O’Halloran. I’m grateful he opted for the snooze ruse instead of butting heads with my friend and her new man during the nearly two-hour trip.
Colleen’s grandma treats us to drop-dead delicious fish and chips with a side of mushy peas. After buttering up Granny O. with compliments and mutual admiration for her favorite Bishop’s Water Irish Whiskey, Sion and I head off on our own. It takes roughly fifteen minutes of his driving to ruin the afterglow of a yummy meal.
I long to be back at Fitzpatrick’s Inn with its whitewashed cinder block walls and red door, taking in the gorgeous Irish sea. Better yet, lazing on a dune surrounded by the salty tang of ocean air while I digest culinary bliss. Instead, I grip the edge of my seat while Sion whips the small rental along questionably paved backroads.
“When did you learn to drive?”
He grins. “Before I bought my first cell phone.”
I wonder how long before cell phones were invented, or phones for that matter, it was since Sion was born. Why isn’t he sharing more personal bits about his life? I wonder if it’s because I’m not asking.
Sion slides his hands along the sides of the steering wheel. “With his mad display of peacock feathers, I had my doubts Charlie would surrender the car keys.”
Maybe I nudged Colleen partway over to Sion’s camp, but the fire in Charlie’s eyes says he believes this rogue lured then ravished me in the woods. “You sure won Colleen’s grandma over with whiskey talk and your story about visiting dear Uncle Finnegan.” I cock my head to one side. “Do you even have an Uncle Finnegan?”
Sion pops his lips. “Can’t take all the credit. It was this car that did the trick, not my Uncle Finn.”
I smile, recalling the skepticism in Granny O’Halloran’s eyes as she sized up Charlie and then the well-worn car. “We’re lucky Colleen’s grandma insisted they take her car to visit Glendalough.”
His lip quirks. “Glendalough and the Wicklow mountains are grand. The round tower and the whole of the Monastic City are a sight to see.” He sighs with pleasure. “You don’t need Veil travel to sense the past there.” He glances over at me. “I’m sorry to make you miss it.”
I shake my head. “Miss it for now. Take me there another time.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Hanging around for a bit, are you?”
“If things go south back home with my job, I might consider becoming a volunteer at Charleville Castle and lingering in Ireland for a while.” The unspoken question is: Will Sion be here with me?
His smile fades, and he makes a low sound in his throat.
“What? You don’t think I’ll do it?”
His voice is quiet. “I think you’ll do as you do. I’d like to be around to see it.”
I press a hand against the sharp pain in my chest. I’m blathering about a future Sion may have no part in. He saves the souls and moves on, or—No, I can’t let my imagination run wild on dark speculation about what may become of him if we fail.
We trade the seacoast for a palette of green. Growing up in New York City, I never appreciated the phrase rolling hills. Here, the land undulates under a blanket of grasses, donning crowns of gold where the sun catches the crest of a hill. Bands of rich cobalt sky house congregations of clouds so dense I could jump from one to the other. It’s almost too much, the enormity of land and sky without the gray specter of buildings to obscure the view.
My world grows larger every minute. I’m a pendulum swinging between missing the comfort I created in my slice of a huge city or the security of a small college town for awe at the vastness of this land whose beauty holds me on the verge of weeping.
I can’t tell if the silence I created between Sion and me is relaxed or tense. Judging from the hyper-focus he has on the road; tense takes the lead. I kick myself for thickening the air when my time with Sionnach, a man whose essence calls to me, is so limited.
I begin to wonder if I’m romanticizing this thing between us too much. Despite my growing affection, is our connection at the same level for him?
