Todayas they knew it.
“If we don’t see this through, we might not even exist, sis.” She met Riona’s eyes. “And if we do, that reality might look a lot different. A whole lot scarier.”
She sensed rather than saw Cian’s appreciation that she preferred to see things for what they were. To face whatever was coming with all her facts rather than dodge reality.
“Okay, so we do this.” Riona’s shoulders slumped a little. “Only I can’t go yet because our sisters need to be told about everything.”
“Might you just call them?” Cian surprised them with his knowledge of their era. “One of my closest friends is from this time period, so I know what a cell phone is.”
“Right...Raven.” It was odd actually relating Adlin’s book with Cian now. To realize it was fact, not fiction. “The friend whose spell you were cast under.”
A friend who, according to the book, he was never intimate with.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“I see I’m going to need to read that book.” Riona’s gaze flickered from said book to him. “So you’re pretty familiar with twenty-first-century women. How about your brothers?”
He shook his head. “Other than what they sense in my mind, not at all.”
Riona’s brows swept up. “In your mind?”
“Ta,” he said. “We can speak telepathically and oftentimes catch each other’s thoughts.” His steady gaze returned to Madison. “Something I suspect you and I will be able to do soon. Have likely already done.”
The moment he said it, she understood. “In my dream last night when I helped you.”
“That’s right.”
When his telling gaze dropped to her lips before he blinked and looked away, she realized they had done more than just communicate telepathically.
“How?” she murmured before she could stop herself. Her cheeks warmed as intimate flashes flickered through her mind. Skin touching skin. His scent all around her. His lips on hers. Both taken aback and aroused at the same time, she narrowed her eyes. “Did we...have we...?”
“No,” he replied quickly enough to satisfy her. “But there was a moment of...” he cleared his throat again. “A moment of shared passion.”
“Shared passion?” Riona mouthed before she grinned at Cian. “Do tell. I’d be inclined to say you must’ve had to work hard to pull those kind of emotions out of her lately but given the fireworks between you two already, maybe—”
“He didn’t pull anything out of me,” Madison said softly. She saw another flash of her dream. Howshehad kissedhim. Howshehad wanted so much more. “It was just a dream...a fantastical moment.” Eager to get away from the conversation, she went to the kitchen sink and dumped out her coffee. “A moment we need to forget so we can focus on what comes next.”
“I agree,” Cian replied with equal determination. “Will you come with me then, Madison? Now? Today?”
She braced her hands on the counter and stared out the window at the old oak. Where part of her feared, a larger part knew this was unavoidable. Had been for a very long time. Her destiny lay with Cian. That didn’t make taking a plunge like this any easier, though. Especially when she had to ignore the crazy attraction she already felt toward him.
It’s only because I’ve been alone for so long,she tried to convince herself but knew it was more than that. Something she suspected was going to be a far greater trial than fighting a medieval king.
“And wizard,” Cian said. “Not to mention his sorceress, Siobhán.”
She spun at his proximity, surprised a man his size could move so quickly without her hearing him. Then again, he was clearly a seasoned warrior, so he likely knew how to move around without being detected. “You caught my thoughts?”
“I did.”
Interesting but not altogether unwelcome. “And there’s a sorceress?”
“Yes.”
He was close. Too close. She tried to ignore her pounding heart. “Is that as bad as it sounds?”
“Only because it has torn apart my brothers.”
She cocked her head. “How so?”
