“You are, aren’t you?” Madison considered her. “You knew it would be Ireland, didn’t you?”
“I suppose I did.”
“Why?”
Riona shrugged. “Just a feeling.”
Whether it was or wasn’t, she knew by the way her sister hid behind her camera and continued snapping pictures that she wouldn’t be sharing more at the moment.
“Anyway, my dream was so different this time....” she went on, then trailed off. For a split second, she felt like she stood beside the oak from her dream. Felt it call to her somehow. Welcome her. A blink later, its ancient twisting trunk and branches were gone, and the original tree reappeared.
“Are you okay?” Riona asked, concerned yet still snapping away. “Because for a moment there, you were someplace else.”
“Yes, I’m fine. I just thought for a sec....” She leaned against the tree when the world tilted.
“Sonot fine.” Riona stopped taking pictures and joined her. “What just happened?” She frowned and rested a supportive hand on Madison’s arm. “Your face has gone pale.”
“It was the tree.” A little winded, she shook her head. “It seemed different for a moment.” When the world tilted more, she closed her eyes. “I could have sworn it was the one from my dream.”
“Seriously?” Riona squeezed her shoulder in concern. “Why don’t we get you inside?”
She nodded and opened her eyes, relieved to see everything had returned to normal.
“When’s the last time you ate, anyway?” Riona eyed her with concern. “You’re way too thin, and I never see you eat anymore.”
“Yesterday sometime.” Or at least she thought so. “And I’m not way too thin.”
“Thinner than you should be.” Riona linked arms with her, and they headed for the house. “Let’s get you a muffin.” She pouted when Madison thought to argue. “They’re your favorite. Blueberry cinnamon. And Ididbake them fresh for you after all.”
“Muffins it is then,” she managed, grateful when Riona sat her in a seat at the kitchen table. What just happened outside? She’d never felt like she was going to pass out before.
“Good girl.” Riona plopped a buttered muffin on a plate and set it in front of her, then whipped out her laptop and plugged her camera into it. “I figured we could see what I captured while you eat.” She narrowed an eye at Madison when she merely stared at the muffin. “Which means you actually have toeat.”
She nodded and nibbled to satisfy her sister, but she wasn’t hungry. Ever since she had felt stalked by something unseen, her appetite had waned more and more until it was pretty much non-existent.
Her gaze drifted to Cian’s ancient-looking book. She had read it several times over but got the urge to read it again for no other reason than to be close to him. Inside his head, if for but a moment.
“You’re becoming pretty obsessed with him, aren’t you?”
Riona might seem immersed in her work half the time, but she never failed to catch what was going on around her.
“Honestly, I’m more into the idea of Cian rather than obsessed with him,” she replied. “I know it’s silly, but still.”
“Not so silly, really.” Riona joined her at the table with her laptop. “Considering you’ve pretty much shunned men, and you’re lonely.” She patted the book. “Now, here’s one you can get to know without ever really knowing him.”
“I haven’tshunnedguys.” Yet she had. “I’m just taking a little break from dating. That’s all.”
It had been hard enough seeing guys when she knew their futures. Worse yet, when she started to tell them the bad with the good. A major no-no in her profession. Her clients certainly hadn't liked it.
Andforgetabout romance.
What guy wanted to know he would have a failed career or die young? Or, God forbid, be told he would continue to suck in bed until he learned some skills? Suffice it to say, her newly born compulsion to be far too honest had tanked her career and killed her chance at ever finding happily ever after with a man.
Before Riona could go on about her love life, Madison gestured at the laptop. “Show me what you’ve got.”
“Working on it.” Her sister turned it so that both of them could view the images when they popped up. “There we go.” She enlarged the first photo. “I’ve been busy this morning.”
Riona had started inside, capturing the quaint colonial, then ended up in the woods at Salem's Stonehenge before she finished up at the tree. While spectacular all, nothing seemed out of the norm until she clicked through the pictures of the old oak. At first, they simply seemed like stunning snapshots of nature until she came to one photo in particular.
