Chapter Four
“WHAT IS IT, lass?” Liam tensed and stopped Kane when Shannon went rigid against him. When he felt her fear. “What’s the matter?”
“I know that area.”
She swung down before he could stop her and strode into the woodland to their right, seemingly not concerned about the animals despite how dangerous some of them were. So he swung down and followed, ignoring Tréan when he fell in beside her and growled at him over his shoulder.
“I know this place,” she muttered, talking to herself. “This is it...this is...”
“From your dream,” he deduced when a small bridge over a river appeared ahead.
“Yeah, how did you know?” She shook her head. “Never mind. You’re catching my damn thoughts.”
“In part,” he granted. “But mostly because it leads to King’s End.”
While eager to get her back to his castle, he knew he needed to give her this time. That the dozens upon dozens of animals hovering around might very well attack him otherwise. Had his magic been behaving better, he would have thought nothing of it, but it wasn’t.
“Itdoeslead to King’s End, doesn’t it?” she said softly. Her eyes rounded when the bridge appeared ahead. “I can’t believethis.” She strode faster before she slowed down right before it. “In my dream, there was a warm light ahead beckoning me. There was...” She swallowed hard. “You were...”
Despite how frustrated she could make him, he was tempted to pull her into his arms. Offer comfort. Feel what he had felt when she was on his lap earlier. Having her there affected him more than the countless women who had been there before her. He’d never experienced that kind of desire. Never felt so aroused, he didn’t think he’d be able to walk again if he didn’t sink into her first.
Something about touching her for the first time, then holding her in his arms, only proved why he’d been wise to keep her at arm’s length in New Hampshire. Why he should never have brought her here. Touched her.
Now it was too late.
He had felt her against him. Breathed in her sweet scent. Felt her soft skin.
Knew just how aroused she could get for him.
It was different than what he’d felt with other women. More somehow. And as much as he already craved it, was already addicted to it, he didn’t want it. Did not want the collar he felt closing around his neck. The leash already tethering him to her.
“I was what, lass?” he prompted, focusing on the here and now before he became too aroused again. She stood at the foot of the bridge with her hand hovering over the railing as if she were afraid to touch it.
“You were pulling me here and pushing me away all at once,” she murmured. “First from somewhere over the bridge.” She glanced back at him. “Then from right there. So close.”
Recalling the same urgency from his dreams, he frowned. “Why, though?”
“I have no idea.” Her gaze returned to the railing, and she took a deep, shaky breath before resting her now tremblinghand on it at last. The minute she made contact, her dress momentarily shifted to another one entirely. Just as it had been in his dreams, it was long, flowing, and turned her into more of a vision than she already was. A blink later, it returned to the dress he had manifested earlier.
“That was it,” she managed, staring down at where the other dress had just been. “That was the dress I wore in the dream.”
“’Twas...nice.” Beyond beautiful. Had suited her perfectly.
It also made it clear that whether or not she found her druidess blade, shewasvery likely an Unnamed One. For her sisters had magically come into the dresses from their dreams as well.
“Itwasa nice dress.” She shook her head. “Not really my style, though. Then again, dresses, in general, aren’t.” As if compelled, she dismissed the dress as quickly as she had marveled at it and started over the bridge. “This is just so uncanny. So hard to wrap my mind around.” She eyed the water beneath and the trees overhead. “Truly bizarre.”
Shannon hesitated on the other side of the bridge, as wary, it seemed, to step foot off of it as she had been to first touch it.
“This is where it all went wrong.” She peered ahead at the path cutting through a few more trees, then sharply down before vanishing between cliffs. “This is where you caught me, but I still met my death in a wall of water. Still...”
She broke off and shook her head, then squared her shoulders and kept going. Not before he leapt ahead of her, though. She might drive him mad, but he would not see her slip and fall to her death because such could happen in this location if one wasn’t sure-footed.
“I would’ve been fine,” Shannon said. “Remember, I’m active. Hiking’s one of my favorite pastimes.” She shrugged and frowned at her attire. “Though I’ll give you this. I’m not dressed for it. If nothing else, my shoes are all wrong.”
