“Here, lass.” He lit a torch that he’d left in a wall bracket and handed it to her. “If you’re determined to go first, at least light your way.”
“Thanks,” she said absently, compelled by what was distinguishable now as a woman crying. It was clear as she made her way upward that she knew this route just as well as she had the woodland path. Had traveled it many times.
“And not just in this life,” Shannon said as they arrived in a small cave he had visited often over the years. One with a brush-covered open-air ceiling far overhead. The cave had a semi-circular design, blocking a good portion of it from the biting wind coming off the sea.
He stilled at the memory they had come upon, and his heart broke. It was Shannon, but not in this life. Rather, curled up on a cot by a small crackling fire, she was swollen with child. Shannon here and now understood what she looked at. Sensed the unbelievable truth moments before he did.
“I had the baby before my coven found out what I had done,” she gasped, as overcome by emotion as him. She shook her head. “I don’t understand how, though.” She frowned at their surroundings. “I understand why I couldn’t marry you, buthowis this possible? There’s no way I could have left my coven for any length of time, and my fellow druidesses would have put meto death the moment I started to show. That would have been the epitome of sin. Almost worse than falling in love, to begin with.”
“Well, ‘tis clear you found a way.” He pulled her into his arms and rested her cheek against his chest as they watched the woman. Felt her sorrow. Where was he in this life? How had she evaded her coven? Because that’s all that made sense. Despite what she said, she had to have run away and hidden here.
“That wouldn’t have worked.” She shook her head. “They were too tuned into nature. Into Ireland itself. They would have found me no matter where I went.”
“Yet they did not,” he murmured as the memory faded. “And ‘tis very likely you had our child.”
The torture in her gaze matched how he felt when her eyes met his. “Then what happened to him or her?” She shook her head. “I have no memory of them...of any of this.”
“Not yet,mo leath eile.” He wiped away her tears. “But I suspect you soon will. We both will.” He flicked his wrist, grateful his magic worked well enough to light a fire in the small pit to replace the ghostly one that had been there moments before. “And I have a feeling those memories will return to us here. That ‘tis as you said. We should spend the night.”
“I agree.” Shannon nodded and eyed the small space. “As sad as it is that this was my hideaway for nine months, it’s surprisingly sheltered.” She glanced at the ever-narrowing tunnel that led upward. “That ends near where we stood at the bottom of the king’s face, right? The wishing well of sorts?”
“It does,” he confirmed. “Outside of a few small crevices which have caved in over time, ‘tis mostly sealed off with rock. The way we came in is the only way out.”
“And an especially dangerous way out at high tide, I imagine.”
He nodded. “’Tis.”
She eyed him, then the scarce furnishings. “You come here often, don’t you?”
“Ironically enough, I do.” To the point that there was a crude bench that could seat two in front of the fire. “And it seems now I understand why.” He chanted, and a trunk appeared he'd kept safe with magic to protect its contents from moisture. “Why I felt so compelled to be here. To seek comfort here.”
Her brows inched up when he pulled several heavy furs out of the trunk and a couple skins of whiskey. “So it appears.”
“Ta.” He put a fur over their laps when they sat, then wrapped his arm around her and threw another fur over their shoulders.
“Your magic seems to be improving,” she commented when he chanted the flames a bit higher for added warmth.
“’Tis, thankfully.” He threaded his fingers with hers. “And I imagine that has everything to do with you.”
“I’m glad.” She took a swig from her skin and eyed the cave warily. “However sheltered and private it might be, this seems like a pretty dangerous place to carry a baby to term.”
“Not as dangerous if you had someone here helping you.” He drank from his own whiskey, strangely certain it hadn’t been him. “Which makes me wonder who it was? Could it have been another druid? They would have had to forage for food for you, assuming you didn’t eat meat in that life too.”
“Interestingly, I think Idideat meat then,” she replied. “We only ate what we needed to survive. Because if you think about it, what grew from the ground was every bit as precious to us as the animals. I have a feeling there were lots of prayers involved with it. Thanks people in my day and age just don’t have anymore. Everything’s taken for granted.” She shook her head. “Too much wasted.”
Shannon narrowed her eyes and went on. “Not just that, but I have a feeling I’m even more connected to animals in this lifethan the last.” She tilted her head in consideration. “In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s why I became a vet. Because Ihadto be around them. Had to....”
“What?” he asked when she trailed off, unable to catch what she had just been thinking.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “I thought I did for a second, but it got away from me. Something to do with my career choice.”
“Was it not because you wished to care for animals?”
“It was,” she conceded. “At least for a while.” She surprised him with her confession. “If I’m being honest, my heart really hasn’t been in it the past few years. While I still liked the healing part, putting animals down was starting to wear on me. When I first started, I was able to remain emotionally detached, but something changed as time went on. I let it become too personal. Grew attached to animals when I shouldn’t have.”
“Yet you had no animals of your own until Tréan came along?” he asked, sensing as much.
“No.” She shook her head. “They wouldn’t have received the attention they deserved with the hours I worked.” She took another swig. “I guess Tréan was my breaking point. I knew what kind of life he would have in a zoo and was sure he wouldn’t be set free at a wolf preserve, so I took matters into my own hands. I took care of him until he was old enough to be released into the wild...maybe a tad longer than I needed to.”
