A chill went through Cian at those words. At what he sensed coming. Then heartache filled him every bit as much as what he’d felt before Madison first traveled back to him as a little girl. A horrible sense of fear that she might be lost to him for good this time.
That they might never find each other again.
“Then came rage,” he ground out, feeling what he'd felt in another life when they had been torn apart. “Blasphemous, untouchable rage.” He clenched his fists. “They took ye from me, so I was going to kill every last one of the righteous bastards. Every last Unnamed One walking.”
“Ye did a few of them, too, and it nearly cost ye everything,” Oran said. “For slaying an Unnamed One is to curse your soul. To invite in pure evil.”
“That’s why I was nearly born evil,” he realized. “Would have been had Raven not helped me.”
“Ta, ‘tis interesting how everything worked out.” Oran flickered a little lower. “How all our fates are ultimately intertwined. Because truly, ‘twould not have bode well had ye been born evil, m'Lord.”
“Yet someone was clearly willing to take the chance,” he muttered.
“Tell us what happened, Oran,” Madison urged. “I’m getting glimpses, but it’s still fuzzy.”
“Ye were given a chance at redemption,” Oran replied bluntly. “For someone had to save Ireland. Someone needed to see the prophecy through.”
“Me and my druid sisters.” Madison’s eyes grew moist. “We agreed to it...to save their souls....”
“That's right,” Oran confirmed grimly. “For Cian and his brothers angered not just the Unnamed Ones but the gods by daring to love ye. Daring to touch ye.”
“Yet they were special in their own rightbecausethey could touch us,” Madison realized. “Most especially because they could love us.”
“Ta, ‘twas a great feat indeed, for typically a man’s heart would freeze in his chest if he even dared.” Oran flickered around them. “It took not just magic and tremendous willpower but a connection that hadn’t existed until that point.”
“Sounds like evolution to me,” she commented. “And extraordinary love. Something you’d think they would have marveled at rather than shunned.”
“Ye must remember those were different times,” Oran said. “As today’s ways are much different than a thousand years from now. Back then, ye were the first of yer kind, and that frightened them. ‘Twas seen as a cancer among their ranks. For how could a druidess love a mortal man as much as she loved nature? Her gods? ‘Twas the worst kind of blasphemy.”
“Yet we made up for it.” Madison shivered a little. “By agreeing to forfeit our lives until the time was right. For being willing to be reborn so that we might save Ireland’s history. To keep not just this country but the world on track as time went on.”
“Ye did,” Oran said. “As did the men who loved ye.”
“Because we would follow them anywhere.” Cian shook his head. “If only for the chance to reunite.”
“’Tis safe to say that was a great deal of yer reasoning.” Oran sounded proud rather than disappointed. “But not all.”
He flittered a little closer as if wanting to make his point. “Each and every one of ye were part of this land. Loved it. Fought for it. Ye were great warriors. Fearless to the bone. ‘Twas part of yer very soul. So betwixt the unheard-of power ye showed by bonding with an Unnamed One and yer inner fierceness and strength of spirit, ye were the best choices for what they needed. WhatÉireneeded.”
“I know because I was there before being reborn myself so that I could guide Madison once more,” Oran continued, shifting back up into the branches again. “Ye were well suited to taking on this task, to be sure.”
“So why put us women in the twenty-first century?” Madison wondered. “Why risk us not being here where we’d be ready to help?” She shook her head. “Because one way or another, we needed to find Cian and his brothers.”
“My guess?” Oran replied. “So that ye would not be easily found. For there were darker Unnamed Ones. Those who saw the prophecy as an opportunity to grow more powerful. To rule the land of man. To change the course of history.”
“Which explains King Raghnall,” Cian surmised.
“One would think, but nay, not at first.” Oran turned quite serious. “For he was punished right along with ye and yer brothers. Doomed to be reborn here. And like ye, m'Lord, born of blasphemous love, rage, and a murderous heart only without Raven’s help.”
“So he loved an Unnamed One too?” Cian frowned. “Does that explain Siobhán then? Is she an Unnamed One reborn?”
“I cannot say as my path was to follow Madison.”
“Why would they risk it?” she wondered. “Why would they allow Raghnall and Cian to be reborn when they both might have turned out evil? Worked against the cause?”
“Because they were the only five of their caliber,” Oran said. “And the prophecy told of five unknown kings.”
That piqued Cian’s interest. “So Raghnall is part of the prophecy?”
