He trailed off, baffled, overcome with what just occurred to him.
Sensing his thoughts and fears, Shannon shook her head. “No...it couldn’t be.”
“Let me see your blade, sis.” Riona frowned and held out her hand. “If Siobhán influenced it, she would have used her connection to you and Liam via ending you in your last life to blind you from it.” She shook her head. “Not me, though, because she had no part in my death.”
True. So, Shannon handed it over.
“Hell,” Riona swore under her breath after she gripped the hilt and closed her eyes. “While I don’t feel her attached to it anymore, this blade was definitely touched by Siobhán. Influenced by her.”
“So shewashere,” Liam said through clenched teeth. “Whether actually with me or not, she found her way into our kingdom, and what?” His brows whipped together. “Put Shannon’s blade in the mast of my ship?” His fury only grew. “Tried to drown her before we had a chance to remember one another?”
“I’d say so,” Riona confirmed. “Even a spell designed to make her pass out the first time she touched it would have done the trick underwater.” She shook her head, just as upset. “Shannon’s fully embraced her inner druidess now, so if either of you had put it there, you’d know by now.”
“She had to have known you would be there to heal me, though, Riona,” Shannon argued, refusing to believe it.
“Why?” Riona asked. “When she planted it there, she had no way of knowing you and I would have reconnected again. That I'd even be there that night. And if she did, I don’t think I had control of my gift to such a degree in my last life.” She shrugged. “Besides, she wouldn’t have had the time or opportunity to remove the blade in this life even if she’d sensed the possibility.”
“Nay, but it makes sense she would have found a way to influence the blade at some point regardless.” Tréan looked between Shannon and Liam with remorse. For the anger they felt. “’Tis without question she hated ye both in yer last life. Ma because Siobhán wanted an alliance with her. Da, because ye took away that possibility. Took away the power she'd hoped to gain through ma.”
It was almost as if his saying such made Shannon see things clearly. Made her understand how connected she and likelyConstance had become to Siobhán in that life. Perhaps even Riona and Madison in some twisted way.
“You think the moment she hid my blade in Liam’s ship,” she murmured, starting to see it all so clearly now, “that it started influencing not just me but your father too.”
“I do,” Tréan said. “I think it affected a great deal. Yer odd behavior when ye first arrived at this castle. If she influenced that blade, then she had the power to influence ye and da. The ability to make ye repress knowledge of one another for her sake and to reinforce her plan.”
“Which would be to break us apart,” Shannon realized.
“At the very least.” Tréan nodded once. “I think yer motion sickness was heightened when ye first traveled back in time because ye were starting to surface from that repression. Starting to make yer way back to da.” He looked from her to Liam. “And the sensation only grew stronger when ye saw this castle. When ye stepped foot in its courtyard.” He shook his head. “Ye were never possessed by anything but yerself, ma. So ‘twas an awakening, so to speak, as ye slowly found yer way back to who ye were always meant to be to this kingdom.”
Tréan clenched his jaw, clearly upset, before he went on, quoting what she’d said when she first arrived in the courtyard. “After all, this castleiswhere ye started when ye first locked eyes with da.” He shook his head again. “But ye never needed to leave. If anything, ye were forced to leave by whatever magic the enemy managed to put into yer blade. Or even worse, any magic she might have used when she killed ye in yer last life.”
“That’s why I’m a dark wizard,” Liam exclaimed. “Because of my brief contact with Siobhán upon death.”
Tréan nodded in agreement.
Baffled Siobhán might have had so much influence over them, Shannon narrowed her eyes at Liam. “When was your ship built?” She looked at Tréan as though he had the answer.Must.“Better yet, how would she haveevergotten her hands on my blade before me?”
“Because of me,” Riona said softly, handing the dagger back to her. “I created our blades in another life without realizing it. Prayed they would protect my druid sisters who had sinned.” Remorse lit her eyes when she looked at Shannon. “If Siobhán knew I created them, she could have retrieved one or even both of the remaining ones after I died. If she did, then it stands to reason she might have found a way to access them before you and Constance in this life.”
“Which means she could have found a way to get the blade into the mast when it was built.” Liam sighed and squeezed Shannon’s hand. “Which was right around the time I last remember seeing you here,mo leath eile.”
“You mean to say Siobhán broke our contact? Separated us?” She felt sick to her stomach when she realized how much more she might have been capable of. “That she might have even....”
She couldn’t say it. Put words to it.
“Might have caused what she thought was an impregnable divide betwixt us?” Liam ground out. “Might have, through the blade meant to connect us, made us forget each other? Made me crave lasses endlessly. Made my lass go so far as to fall in love with another man?”
“But she didn’t know where I was, what time period I was in,” Shannon countered, praying he was wrong. “She would have had to know where I was if she hadthatmuch influence.”
“Not necessarily.” Riona pressed her lips together and shook her head. “Again, when I created the blades, I prayed they would protect my fellow druid sisters. You, Madison, and obviously Constance.” Her brows drew together. “That means the power behind your blade would have hidden your whereabouts but by no means protected you from simple deception. Maybeeven manipulation if she caught wind that you and Liam had reconnected somehow here in the eleventh century.”
“Reconnected.” Shannon scowled. “But not in ways we could actually touch. Nothing substantial.”
“Wasn’t it, though?” Tréan asked gently enough, looking between her and Liam. “Any connection betwixt ye two, whether physical or not, waseverything. From the moment ye first laid eyes on each other as wee ones, I suspect.”
“You don’t suspect butknow.” Shannon reached across the table and took his hand. Needed to touch him. Thank him yet again. Acknowledge just how powerful he was. “You know because somehow, between lives, you found a way to come to me in my dreams and led me back to your father.” She glanced from her dress to him. One entirely influenced by the color of the sunset when she first locked eyes with Liam. “If it wasn’t for you, we might never have found one another again.”
“’Twas my honor.” Tréan squeezed her hand without delving into how he had managed such. Instead, he winked and remained realistic. “Some might say ‘twas merely me trying to find my way back to life. If not for yer bond, I would not be here. Yer familiar would have never been reborn.”
