“Mayhap,” he agreed, sensing his cousin was right. “Which makes me wonder.”
“Aye,” Tiernan murmured, understanding. “Ye've some fresh perspective, then?”
Did he ever. Had Maeve been the only one cast under a spell?
“Aye.” He truly felt as though he'd been ensorcelled. “’Tis true I loved Maeve.” Hadn't he? “But now, my fierce devotion to her since her death feels out of place somehow.” He tried to put his finger on it. Why he had been so obsessed. Why his strange behavior hadn't been more obvious to him before now. “It almost feels as though it were unnatural.”
“No doubt.” Tiernan was careful but honest with his words. “Whilst I mean no harm, ‘twas stranger still yer unending devotion considering her feelings for Cray.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Not to say such strong emotions arenae possible. Ye are of MacLomain blood, and we do love our lasses.” He shook his head. “Yet still...it has struck all of us as off somehow.”
He nodded in agreement, seeing that now. Feeling the shift inside him.
“Aye, Cousin, ‘tis becoming clearer to me that things havenae been quite right. Not until now...” He rested his elbows on his knees, thinking about his dreams. About his growing sense of familiarity with Chloe. “I think I knew my Broun before.” He recalled how different he had looked when dreaming. “I think I’ve known her many times...”
“In many lives,” Chloe said softly when he trailed off.
She stood at the tent entrance looking utterly lovely with her tangled curls and soft, near glowing skin. She wore a dark brown linen dress with a plaid around her shoulders.
“Good morning,” Julie said on a yawn, exiting her tent at the same time. Her brows perked in amusement when she spied Chloe’s hair. Though about to comment on it, she stopped when she realized she had walked into something. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, actually,” Chloe murmured. At Aidan’s urging, she sat beside him. “Or at least I think so.”
When Julie joined Tiernan and looked at Chloe in question, she went on, speaking to all of them though she met Aidan’s eyes.
“I meant to tell you last night, but I must’ve dozed off,” she said. “I saw me when we...” She cleared her throat, not ready to divulge to everyone that they’d lain together. “I saw my face when I was...a faery...in another life.”
“I think I did too,” he said softly, touching her cheek because he couldn’t help himself. Though he’d only been looking at her face for days, somehow it felt like years, eons, as if he knew it better than his own. Yet he hadn’t known this face. But hehadknown her. “Sometimes, I saw you, sometimes I didnae, but you were always there.”
“I think I was,” she whispered, stunning him when her thoughts pulled him closer and let him see what she had seen.
“Ye,” he whispered, awed. He still touched her cheek, yet for a moment, saw another. One as soft but more pixie-like. She was just as lovely with the same curious eyes filled with wonder and sparkles. Her skin, as it could often look now, was almost luminescent. Her lips, full and rosy like they’d appeared before he kissed her.
“I dreamt of you last night,” she murmured. “Only you were different. Another man entirely...yet you were in there. Hewasyou.”
“You’re finally remembering each other,” Julie said softly, pulling them from their reverie. Her eyes were a little different, her magic ignited. “Finally starting to remember what happened...”
“What happened,” Chloe echoed when Julie’s words trailed off, and her eyes returned to normal. “Somehow, that ties into all this.” She gave it some thought, her inner journalist mixing with her magic. “Whatever I did to lose my immortality affected Adlin and, in turn, Iosbail. Which means it tied in with whatever the monks tried to do.” Guilt flashed in her eyes. “And I have a sneaking suspicion about what that might be.”
When she blushed and glanced at Julie and Tiernan, Aidan realized what she alluded to.
“You think we were intimate in a former life too,”he said into her mind, having caught her thoughts when they made love. Having sensed her tentativeness.
She nodded and blushed even more. “While I appreciate you’re trying to be a gentleman by not speaking aloud, I think it’s best we keep everyone in the loop.” She looked at the other two. “I think I slept with Aidan in another life and...” She paused for a moment, gathering herself. “I think I was a virgin when it happened.”
“How do you know,” Julie began before a knowing look crossed her face. She bit back a smile. “Never mind. Based on last night, I can guess.”
If possible, Chloe blushed even more when she realized how loud she must have been.
“Anyway,” she continued, clearing her throat, more bashful than he anticipated when it came to this. Endearingly so, actually. “I have a feeling whatever I did—”
“Whateverwedid,” he corrected, knowing full well he took part. Beyond the obvious, that is.
“Whateverwedid,” she conceded, however hesitantly, “had an impact. To what extent, I can’t be sure.”
“Well, whatever it was,” Tiernan said kindly, removing the hare from the fire to cool, “I’d say it was meant to be. Because things wouldnae have gone the way they did for generations of MacLomains and Brouns had Adlin and Iosbail not lost their immortality. ‘Twas in its own way, the start of so much.”
Julie nodded in agreement. “So I’d say whatever it was wasn’t all that bad.” Her tender gaze went to Tiernan. “How could it be when love was at the root of it?”
“Aye,” Aidan murmured, certain he was right as he brushed a wisp of hair away from Chloe’s eye. “Not just one-sided love either.”
