“Tell me about King’s Echo,” she repeated. Having already told him about her blue dress dream, she eyed the sketch. “Better still, why do you think my dream took me there this time?” She flipped the page and sketched haphazardly without paying much attention. “Why do you think I finally made it through those doors?”
“King’s Echo is what you, in particular, given your gift, would call an anomaly,” he replied. “’Tis a cave that only echoes back the voices of kings.” He shook his head. “No one else.”
“Seriously?” She perked her brows. “How is that possible?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Magic, we assume.”
“So, just your and your brothers’ voices?” She narrowed an eye. “What about King Raghnall? Does it...” She trailed off when a sharp shiver rippled through her. When she knew for certain, it did. “But of course, because that’s the voice I just heard calling to me in my dream.”
Madison told her that she and their sisters would come into their druidess magic swiftly once they traveled back in time, but she got the feeling hers was already kicking in. That maybe to some degree, it had been her whole life. How could it not be, considering the strange things she caught when she took pictures? Things undoubtedly drawn to her?
“’Twould make sense you heard Raghnall as well.” Liam frowned, obviously disliking the possibility as much as her. “Especially if both he and Declán loved you in a previous life.”
She was still trying to wrap her mind around that possibility. Moreover, that she might have loved them in return. It was a lot to swallow if for no other reason than both were considered the enemy right now.
“Then, why would Raghnall try to kill me in my dream?” she wondered, certain that had been his goal when she nearly stepped off the cliff. “He would have been successful had Declán not stopped me.”
Because he had. She was certain of it. She could almost hear the deep rumble of his voice in her ear though he never had a chance to actually speak.Don’t go. Do not go outside. Don't listen to him. Then she swore she felt him pull her back against him. Felt the heat of his strong body.
“You feel Declán closer now than ever, do you not?” Liam asked softly as if sensing her thoughts. Sensing what she might have forgotten from a dream that seemed so brief. He gestured at her sketch. “Because ‘tis clear you made it through his bed chamber doors this time.”
“Hiswhat?” She frowned, looking from the doors she had just sketched to Liam. They were the same doors she always tried to get into in her dreams. “These doors are huge. Like front doors to a castle.”
“Declán’s castle is sizable,” he revealed. “Because he shares the largest border with Raghnall, ‘tis built more like a fortress, but the inside has long been considered...different.”
“Different, how?”
“Different like that.” He pointed at the ornate door handles. “More regal than mine and my brothers' castles.”
She thought the door handles were lovely. Enchanting to her fanciful mind. Like something that belonged in a magical castle from a fairytale rather than in medieval Ireland. In fact, much like a castle she had drawn as a child to feel safe. Sheltered. Surrounded by beauty and happiness rather than the cloying darkness she sometimes felt in her reoccurring dream where she wore the blue dress.
“Why would Declán design his castle like that?” she whispered, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“I do not know.” Yet Liam eyed her with interest. “Other than when asked, he said to appeal to a more creative sort. Make them feel welcome.” He arched a brow. “And are you not creative, my friend?”
“Creative, yes,” she managed softly, finding what Liam implied almost impossible to believe. “But not by any means someone who needs or expects wealth like these doors imply.” She shook her head. “And definitely not someone who would expect such grandeur. I’m not that kind of girl.”
“’Tis not so much grandeur,” Liam said, “as ‘tis...unique.”
“Right.” She eyed her drawing. “But hisbedchamber?” How embarrassingly obvious. “That’s...well....” Despite rolling her eyes, she warmed at the thought of what might actually exist beyond that door. “I think we both know what that is.”
Something she had never indulged in but she sure as heck wasn’t about to admit to at her age. She had enjoyed men. Loved being around them. Had gone far in bed but not all the way. Something always stopped her, and now she feared she knew what.
Orwho.
More alarming still, she sensed Declán hadn’t been the only thing holding her back. No matter how terrifying, the enemy king had given her pause too. Because there had been more to his call than magic. More than compulsion.
She’dwantedto go to him.
She had, however briefly, craved him every bit as much as she had Declán.
And that wasn’t the worst of it. If her igniting magic was anything to go off of, there was something to be much more alarmed about.
