“Aye,” Sloan concurred. “As the willow has lingered on occasion when it wants us to travel a wee bit more than expected.”
It had, but I didn’t want to revisit that right now, given it had once brought us to where Sloan proposed to me. I had to keep him at arm’s length despite the tree, ring, and now the Viking sword-turned-dagger seemingly trying to nudge me his way again.
Even so, still drawn to the blade, I wrapped my hand around the hilt and took it from Sloan, surprised by the odd surge of power I swore rippled through me. It was brief but there, in some strange way, telling me it was time to go, and I said as much.
“Aye, then,” Sloan rumbled, clearly feeling the same when he chanted and manifested a sheath for my blade, wrapped it around my waist, and secured it rather than handing it over. While he had done it swiftly with the expertise of a seasoned warrior, he’d been close enough, however briefly, to make my temperature spike all over again and sharp arousal to flare when that's the last thing I should be feeling.
“And youwon’tbe doing that again,” I made clear, narrowing my eyes at him because us being that close could lead to trouble. Better still, lead somewhere I didn’t want to go so long as Lorna was in the picture. “You taught me how to secure a sheath and wield a blade, years ago, so don’t pretend I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“As you wish,” he rumbled, his voice husky enough to tell me being so close affected him just as much.
“What about sleep?” Ellie wondered as we headed back outside. She looked at me with concern. “I know that’s not something you tend to need a lot of, but will you be able to rest in your Morrow?” She shook her head. “Because something tells me you’ve done less of that than usual lately.”
“I’m fine, sis.” I gave her a big hug, then nodded at her in reassurance, and lied through my teeth. “I slept really well yesterday afternoon before I headed this way.”
It was believable enough, given I had flown both commercial and private planes at all hours of the day, meaning I slept when I could. Yet Ellie was right. As a rule, I didn’t need much sleep. In fact, I hadn’t slept well since I was young.
Ever since I had last seen Sloan.
Needless to say, that was my business, so I assured my sister I’d be okay as Adlin and Sloan crossed arms, hand to elbow, in parting, and Adlin wished both of us well. He would watch over Ellie until he heard where things stood.
Rather than linger and draw out the moment because I sensed both Adlin and Ellie were tempted to give me some sort of pep talk, I had never been one for sentimental moments or sweating things most would fear, so I moved right along. Much like Aspen, I preferred to leap headfirst into the unknown. Not so much because I was eager for the next thrilling adventure, but because there was no point looking back, only ahead.
And this time it was the Morrow.
So I offered my sister one last reassuring smile and strode toward the tree, knowing Sloan would follow, and it would take us where we were meant to go next. I wasn’t any more afraid now than I had been in my youth. Instead, I felt only sheer determination to leave it all behind and escape, just like I had back then, only for different reasons now.
This time, I wanted to stop being so angry at Sloan, despite missing him so desperately. This time, I wanted to find a way to let him go once and for all, even if it meant I was forced to feel all those old feelings. Even if it meant ripping open old wounds so I could finally heal.
Little did I expect where the beginning of that journey would take me, because it did the very opposite.
CHAPTER SIX
–Sloan–
THE LAST PLACE I expected to end up when I followed Willow into the willow tree in front of the colonial in twenty-first-century New Hampshire was back at MacLeod Castle. Just as surprised, and perhaps a little nostalgic, she gazed at the castle perched high on a seaside cliff.
“It’s been a long time,” she said softly, taking it all in, because it was particularly stunning, caught in the vibrancy of the Morrow. Its rugged angles seemed softened, and the deep blue greens of the ocean sparkled. Yet, as always, the beauty of the Morrow paled in comparison to how Willow looked within it, and that hadn’t changed in the least.
“Ithasbeen a long time,” I agreed, having missed seeing things like this alongside her. Being trapped in her fairytale with her, as she used to put it.
“But I always wanted to see what it looked like outside of the Morrow,” she murmured, catching my thoughts as swiftly as she ever had. “I assume the Viking blade is going to help with that.”
“’Tis verra likely,” I said, when for the first time, our surroundings shifted ever so slightly, and it seemed she caught it as well.
Her eyebrows edged together. “Whatwasthat?”
“’Twas a glimpse of my homeland as it truly is.”
She might have tried to hide it, but I still caught the flash of awe and hope in her eyes before her expression smoothed, and she frowned. “Any idea why we ended up here?” She shook herhead. “I’ve only ever seen this from afar, never on the inside, so I don’t see how this is going to help.”
That was fine when we were kids because we relished living in that fairytale world where we could do anything we wanted, however briefly, but the older we got, the more I wanted to bring her home to meet my kin. My clan. Show her firsthand where I had grown up, rather than only look at it from afar.
When I was younger, she was my best-kept secret, but as I grew older and we fell in love, I wanted to marry her. Make her my own. Watch her shift for the first time and fly with my kin, and she wanted the same, yet we could never travel beyond her Morrow into reality together.
“And in the end it was a good thing,” she muttered under her breath, right there in my thoughts, referring to my betrothal. “So what gives? Why are we here now?”
I was about to tell her I wasn’t sure until I spied the grey pup born of Storm’s Wolves of Ossary trotting over the drawbridge in our direction. Perfectly visible, he moved at a normal clip while everyone else went by in a blur. But then, animals had always been a part of both worlds, able to function in both realities.
