Chapter One
North Salem, New Hampshire
Present Day
––––––––
CONSTANCE BOLTED AWAKE, gasped for air, and blinked away the flames that had just consumed her. She stumbled from her sweat-soaked sheets, raced to the stand-up fan in the corner of her room, and fell to her knees, so her steaming skin took the brunt of the cool, refreshing air. Her heart slammed, and her hands shook as she untwisted the cap of a nearby bottle and poured water down her parched throat.
“Constance,” Madison pleaded from what sounded like a great distance away. “Let us in!”
When she shook her head and willed her sister’s voice away from the other side of the door, it faded. She knew Madison and her husband had been trying to get in for hours. Tried to push past whatever this was blossoming inside her. Swelled in the midst of all her turmoil. A battle she had been waging with memories from another life for days now.
A battle between good and evil. Right and wrong. A call to arms from a druid sister who plagued her night and day. Who called to her during every waking hour. Who would not take no for an answer.
But then, did she really want to say no?
When she first forced herself to live here and accept that her nightmare was finally catching up with her, she knew better than to trust Siobhán’s voice in her head. Her silent lure.
Now everything had changed, and she understood standing by the enemy was her only option. The only way to have revenge on a far greater threat.
Aodh.
When this all started, and Madison first traveled back in time and embraced her inner druidess, Constance had finally seen the end of her nightmare. Knew Aodh hadn’t finished her off swiftly when she confronted him in another lifetime but stole her away instead. Became obsessed with her. Made her life a living hell only to seal her fate when he claimed to love her in the end. When he lied and accused her of loving him back.
How could she have loved a beast like him? Something so grotesque and unnatural to animal kind? Something half man, half monster? She wouldnever. Yet she had been put to death by her own coven regardless. Cursed to be born again and deal with him.It.
Now it was her solemn vow to see such through.
She had hoped when she prompted Shannon to save him from Siobhán’s clutches, he would attack her and Liam, and they would end him once and for all, but no. Instead, her sister managed to free him from Siobhán, and he had escaped.
“Why didn’t you just end him for me, Shannon?” she muttered under her breath. “Better yet, you, Siobhán?”
When her skin didn't cool down as quickly as it usually did, she grabbed her good luck charm off the table and prayed to feel better soon. It was nothing more than a small piece of driftwood she'd found washed up on the beach years ago, but it always leant her comfort. One would have thought the cross would do that, and itdid, but she always inevitably grabbed her driftwood or talisman first. Maybe because its shape reminded her of a husky's profile, and she had a particular fondness for that breed.
Either way, it tended to work just like it did now when her overheated skin finally cooled enough that she could stand. The room tilted precariously but righted itself after several deep breaths.
