Page 46 of Shaw

“I shall bring water, food and clean robes for you to wear,” the monk told him as he stopped in front of an open door. “Please rest in this room.”

Shaw inspected the interior before he carried Julianne inside. The monk slid a panel of the parchment covered wood over the doorway, giving them some privacy. Carefully he knelt down on one of the long reed mats and placed his lady on her back. When he saw beads of sweat frozen on her brow and upper lip he gently brushed them away, and grew shocked at how cold her skin had grown.

“My lady.” As her golden eyelashes fluttered he stretched out beside her, hoping to warm her with his own body’s heat. “Can you hear me?”

“Mmmmm.” She shifted closer, winding her arms around his waist. “You smell good.”

“Shall you wake for me?” he murmured, kissing her brow. “For we cannae return without your boon.”

She blinked a few times before she was able to focus on his face. “Hey. I don’t want to go back to that druid settlement. Those people are going to die soon.”

If the DayBridge had sickness among them, then Julianne could suffer the same fate. “You ken what shall end them?”

“They’re all going to drown when the valley floods after a big storm in a few days.” She yawned into her palm. “I saw it when the green fairy lady showed me through the window tree.”

Now she was making no sense at all, which made him touch her brow to check her for fever. “Do you ken this place, my merrow lass?”

Julianne sat up just as the parchment screen opened, and the monk entered carrying a tray of food and drink. Two others followed him with folded garments and odd-looking slippers in their hands, which they set down and bowed over before they retreated.

“Good morning, Mistress,” the monk said in English. “Welcome to the Temple of the Eternal Forest.”

“Hi.” Julianne leaned closer to Shaw, and whispered, “Why are we in Japan?”

“You brought us here, my lady.” Shaw kept his gaze locked on the monk, who had knelt down and seemed to be fretting over the food. “I’ve never seen the like of these men, and yet I ken them.”

“That is because this is not your first visit to our temple,” the monk chided. “We have welcomed you both many, many times since your first incarnations. It seems fate brings you to us so we may help you understand what your destiny requires of you.” His gaze shifted to Julianne as he placed a broken chain with a gold heart-shaped pendant on the mat in front of her. “This was found where you and the chieftain appeared. A gift from your sensei, I believe.”

Julianne snatched up the necklace and got to her feet, and then swayed and pressed a hand to her brow. “Maybe this time it will be different. My head hurts. What’s a sensei?”

Shaw rose, only to catch her as she swooned again. When he lay her down on the mat she remained limp and unconscious, and he eyed the monk.

“You need tell me everything you ken of my lady and me,” he said.

“I may only speak to you of what I know of your life, Chieftain,” the monk said. “Just as I may only speak to your mate of what I know of hers. She may be correct in that we are meddling, to a degree, but we will not alter your course. We keep the histories of those bonded for eternity, as you and your mate have done.”

“So you say naught of the present or future, then?” As the monk nodded Shaw wished he had something he could strike, but anything he touched would catch fire unless he kept holding his lady’s hand. “Then tell me what you may.”

“I may reveal what you never knew, but that cannot harm you to know,” the monk said, his expression sympathetic now. “Your father saw you watching him from your hiding place before he ended his life, just as he knew your brother Fletcher watched from the tower. He smiled at you because he knew what you would soon endure at the hands of the NightRiver, and he wished you to have one final good memory of him.”

“My last remembrance of my sire, ’twas seeing his flesh tear itself asunder in the waves and leave naught but churning, bloody foam,” he said, furious now. “If he knew what I’d soon face, why didnae he warn me?”

“It is your fate to be possessed by the dark one,” the man said softly. “It has come to you in one form or another in every one of your lives, for you are the only being in the mortal realm who may possess it as well.”

“I possess the facking thing?” He uttered a short, bitter laugh. “Aye, right. You’re as mad as the beast.”

“The woman shall sleep for some hours. I shall take you to where you may see the proof of my claims.” The monk drew from his sleeves a pair of gloves made from plates of stone etched with Fae charms. “You must wear these, for aside from your mate only they may null your fire touch.” When he made no move to take them the monk sighed. “We cannot slay you and your woman, Chieftain. The dark one would never permit any harm to come to either of you.”

That he did believe, Shaw thought, and reluctantly took the stone gloves from him. “You say the lass and I, we’re bonded for eternity. Why should such a fate befall us?”

The monk’s lips curved. “It did not befall you, Chieftain MacMar. You both chose to walk this path, and your woman brought you to us so you could learn why.”

Meg reined in the little mare pulling her work cart, and climbed down from her seat to hobble the horse. Turning and facing the back gate of Dun Ard seemed harder than driving across the island. Returning to the MacMar stronghold had not been her choice, but she could not ignore the message sent by the laird’s wife. She walked up and nodded to the men standing guard, who raised the portcullis to allow her inside.

Valerie came hurrying from the gardens to meet her. “Thank you for coming. I know this is the last place you want to be, but we can’t risk making this common knowledge.”

“My lady. Ever I’m happy to see you.” She curtseyed before she smiled at the laird’s wife. “Shall we go in and discuss such over a mug of brew, then?”

“I’d rather not talk where any of the maids can overhear us. You know how they gossip.” Valerie grimaced. “Would you mind walking down by the bay with me?”