If she wanted to save everyone, she had to go to Raghnall.
How to go about that, though? How to get to him before it was too late?
While tempted to go through the tunnel she’d had Declán build, there was no way to know if she would make contact with Raghnall before his warriors took her out. Or better yet, Siobhán because she didn’t doubt the sorceress would give anything to finish her and her sisters off.
Yet it seemed her inner druidess knew where she needed to go because she was suddenly running as if caught in a dream.
“What are you doing?”Declán said into her mind. His fear grew as if he sensed she was about to do something that would change everything.“Where are you going, wife?”
She didn’t respond for the same reasons she wouldn’t communicate with Madison right now. Instead, she flew into the castle and raced up the stairs, only to figure out why her magic had brought her here.
Why her dream had brought her here over the years.
More specifically, she understood what the last dream before traveling back in time had been telling her. Why the tree tapestry meant she would have to let Declán go to save him. So she raced for Declán’s chamber doors, flung them open, and raced right at the tapestry, convinced it would bring her to King’s Echo and into Raghnall’s waiting arms.
Only it did not.
Instead, she ended up right back where everything began beneath a young King’s Heart in another time. This go around, she watched as an outsider as her younger self smiled warmly at a young Declán when he wrapped the cloak around her.
This time she saw what happened moments later.
“’Tis the foal of the blasted horse that nearly killed me,” young Raghnall cursed. He pulled his blade free as a little horse stumbled into the clearing, lost and confused.
“Caith?” she whispered, shocked. No wonder the horse Raghnall killed had reacted so strongly. It had been protecting its baby from a monster.
“A monster ye protected me from when he tried to take my life moments later,”Caith said as the scene faded and she stood in the stables outside his stall.“’Twas a kind and chivalrous thing ye did, Riona, and it bonded us.”
“And for an animal to bond to such a young Unnamed One turned you into my familiar,”she realized.
“Ta.” Caith rested his head over the stall door and eyed her fondly.“It became my cherished duty to protect ye in return for yer protection when I was such a wee one. ‘Twas my honor.”
“So what now?”She shook her head, confused.“Why did my dream lead me here? Lead me to you?”
“I think ye know the answer to that.”His gaze grew wise.“I think ye always knew the answer from the moment ye began traveling back to yer king. Yer truest love.”He nudged the stall door.“Might we take a ride? I suspect ‘twill help ye find all yer answers at long last.”
“A ride?”She frowned and opened the stall door.“Not sure if you’ve heard the roars overhead, but hell’s raining down, so a ride might be tricky.”
“A ride on a horse that is every bit as connected to the enemy king as ye?”Caith walked out of the stall and stood beside her.“I think ye might find it not just enlightening but helpful.”
She eyed him for a moment before she sensed he was right and swung onto him without a saddle like she’d been doing it her whole life.
“Hold on.” Caith wasted no time but took off, flying out of the stables and through the crowd. Sure-footed, he flew past the mayhem toward the tunnel leading out.
More than that, toward a flood of memories that explained everything.
