“Oh myGod,” she whispered as it finally,really, hit her. “I’m in eleventh-century Ireland, and it’s....” She shook her head, baffled. “Unbelievable.”
Andsofamiliar despite having never been here that she teared up.
“Riona,”Madison said so clearly she thought for a moment she stood next to her.“They’re coming. You need to run now!”
“Sis?” she responded, startled when she realized Madison spoke telepathically. More startled still when Aodh flung her over his shoulder again and bolted.
“What the heck?” she gasped, both frustrated and scared. But above all, wondering why he stayed in human form if they were in that much danger. As unsettling as it might be because she hadn’t believed in dragons up until a few days ago, it seemed like a logical way to handle this, and she said so.
“I don’t shift,”he said telepathically.“Not anymore.”
“Not even to save our lives?”
“Not even.”
Although tempted to say that was foolish because she could only imagine what a dragon could do against their enemies, somehow she knew better. Whatever kept him from embracing his inner beast was a deep wound. One he didn’t let anyone close to.
“Riona?”Madison repeated.“Where are you? Tell me you’re close.”
“She’s close,”Aodh said into both their minds by the feel of it.“But ye and Cian best be waiting with everything ye have because....”He groaned in pain from an injury she hadn’t realized he’d suffered to his leg, fell to a knee, then leapt up and kept racing forward.“They don't want to let her go.”
She didn’t have to ask whotheywere. She felt Declán and Raghnall getting closer. Knew they were coming for her. More than that, she sensed they were coming as her allies, not her enemies.
“How is that possible?”she said into Madison’s mind, certain she was right.“How, after Siobhán clearly knew you from another life, would Raghnall not have already turned on Declán? Why would they consider me an ally?”
If they had both loved her, wanted her in a previous life, why hadn’t Raghnall already killed Declán or vice versa? Or could it be Madison and Cian were wrong? That somehow, Declán had been in league with Raghnall all along? Even in another life?
“I don’t know, sis.”She felt Madison’s distress. Her need for Aodh to move faster.“All I know is you need to get to King’s Heart as fast as possible. You’re running out of time.”
“Ta,” Cian agreed, clearly speaking to both her and Aodh.“They draw close. Run, brother. Run for all ye are worth!”
She hated that she couldn’t see. Hated that she was being controlled by the whims of Aodh, her sister, and Cian. That they seemed to be pulling her away from something she needed.
Craved.
More so by the moment.
“No,” she roared, bucking against Aodh so hard he dropped to his knee again. “Let mego.”
“Stop,” he roared right back and catapulted forward again.
Yet she kept fighting him.
Declán and Raghnall were close.
So close.
Calling her.
Needingher.
“Let me go,” she roared again, this time not just aloud but internally and with an unnatural vehemence.
With more emotion than she’d ever felt.
As if crippled by her words, Aodh fell to his knees, and Riona rolled away from him. She came to a stop on her hands and knees and looked up to see her sister and Cian standing a few hundred feet away. She locked eyes with Madison before her gaze rose to what stood beside them.
A glorious towering oak tree.
