They started down the shore in the direction of King’s End.
“Our story is definitely tied in with that place.” Shannon eyed the darkening woodland, then glanced back at the castle. “I’ve walked this shore before.” She looked ahead again and veered onto a path like she had done it her whole life. “And I’ve walked down this path with you.”
She had. They had. So said glimpses of her at various ages. Walking just ahead. Smiling back at him over her shoulder. He had felt so strongly for her. Undoubtedly loved her. Had been eager to see her whenever she returned.
“Sometimes you visited me in dreams,” he murmured. “Other times you were here in person....” He shook his head. “Yet not here.”
“That’s why I remember everyone.” Shannon shook her head as well. “But they don’t recall me. I had to have been ghostly like the vision we just saw.” She frowned, unsettled. “How did we forget all this?” As upset as him, she blinked back tears. “How did we forget how much we’d come to care for each other? Worse yet, go on to be with others when that’s the last thing we wanted?”
“I don’t know, lass.” He stopped her and wrapped her in his arms for no other reason than he needed to feel her close. “Other than to say, Siobhán must be at the heart of it.”
“Which would mean she knew I visited you.” She rested her cheek against his chest. “Which you would think meant she knew where I came from. Where in time.”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “Not if she couldn’t follow you there.” He looked to the west when the wind chilled. “We should get back soon. ‘Twill be a storm of ice and snow this eve.”
“Eventually. But for now, we need to press on, Liam,” Shannon said softly, gazing at the path ahead. “Can’t you feel it? Answers lay ahead.” She narrowed her eyes as if sensing something. “Besides, in a pinch, we can stay out here overnight.” Her voice dropped an octave. “Shouldstay out here.”
She was right. They should. There were several small hut-like cottages nestled here and there for those who came to worship at King's End, so there were places where they could take refuge.
“I eventually went to the castle to visit you,” she said as they continued on, “but this was where I liked to be the most. Especially with you.”
The closer they drew to King’s End, the more he remembered and agreed. They had played here often. Became the best of friends.
Then eventually became more.
“Not that it mattered,” she said sadly, following his thoughts. Remembering as he remembered. “Because I was never really here. Not in a solid sense, anyway.”
No, and he wondered at that. It sounded like Madison had, and possibly even Riona, so why not Shannon? Why was it crucial they not touch? Because he was certain, there was something to that.
“I don’t recall seeing Tréan again after that first time,” he commented. “Do you? Did you dream of him again?”
“Not that I recall.” She detoured off the path and went a way only him and his brothers knew about. A route he had discovered when he was much younger.
“With you,” he exclaimed, seeing it clearly enough now. “You found this location first.”
“Not me.” She made her way along the rock wall at the base of the cave system that was King’s Heart. “I was wrong. Ididsee Tréan another time. I followed his wolf here before he vanished.” She shook her head, incredulous. “Why would he have led me here?” She was about to go on but stopped and cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”
At first, he heard nothing, then it seemed he heard soft weeping.
“’Tis ye,” he said, pained.
“How do you know?”
“Because I heard such for days before traveling back in time,” he said softly, reminding her of how sad she had been. “’Tis a hard thing to hear.”
“And an equally hard thing to feel,” she said just as softly.
It seemed she wanted to say more but held back. He knew why, too. So he took her hand and stopped her before she continued walking. Made sure she looked at him.
“I might have been the person you longed for during your unexplainable sadness,” he cupped the side of her neck, “but your inability to have children was in there, too, wasn’t it?”
“It was,” she confessed, her gaze pained. “Which was odd considering I had dealt with it years before.” She shook her head. “Seriously. I went to a therapist and everything. I had coped with it. Dealt. Sure, I still got sad on occasion, but nothing like that. Certainly nothing that lasted for days.” She rested her hand on his chest. “I know it’s tied in with you somehow. Tied in with what we just learned had happened in our past life.”
She was about to go on when the woman weeping seemed to draw her because she continued on as though compelled.
“She’s so lonely,” she murmured. “I’mso lonely...and incredibly sad.”
“You should let me go first,” he said, but it was too late. Shannon braced herself against the cliff wall at the shoreline and walked along the tops of random slick stones barely visible at low tide until she made her way into a narrow tunnel leading upward.
