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The low murmur of many voices drifted to him, but he paid no attention to them. He was entirely focused on the faces of the two women he loved.
“Am I dead?” he asked.
Echo smiled and shook her head. In spite of the smile, there were tears in her eyes. “Your daughter healed you.”
“I did,” Cassidy said. Her grin was wider, fuller. Older somehow. “It was hard, but I did it!” There were no tears for his gifted daughter. She’d likely never doubted for a moment that he could save her from Doyle. She smiled at Echo. “I’m so glad you got here in time. Did the fairies lead you here again?”
“Yes,” Echo said suspiciously. “How did you know?”
Cassidy giggled. “Silly, there are no fairies anymore. That was me. They were pretty lights meant to lead you where you needed to go.” She glanced over her shoulder before Echo could respond. “Granny and Mr. McManus are here!” She jumped up and ran, and he heard her shout, “Granny! Guess what I did!”
Echo placed her head on his chest, as if checking for a heartbeat. He put a hand in her hair and held on. Maybe Cassidy had healed him, but he wasn’t quite ready to move.
“I’m so cold,” he whispered in her ear.
“Sorry,” she responded just as softly. “That was me.”
>
Snow and ice beneath his fingers, beneath his entire body. Yes, that was her.
“I convinced Doyle to take my powers instead of Cassidy’s, and he did.”
“You don’t have any powers,” Echo said without lifting her head.
“Now neither does he, I assume.” His hand settled in her hair, held her to him.
“He’s not very happy about that turn of events,” she said. She was so warm, so soft and so very much...his.
“I suppose not. Doyle was after supreme power. He was willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to have it all, and he came away with nothing.” Rye realized that he had always relied on his abilities, even when they’d been dampened. Now what? He didn’t know who he was, what he was. Unless he, like Doyle, was now nothing.
“Not nothing,” Echo whispered.
Great. She could still see into his head, he just couldn’t see into hers.
A town like Cloughban needed a mayor who was one of them. An independent, a gifted person. Cassidy needed someone who truly understood what she was facing to guide her. And Echo...Echo Raintree deserved better than an ordinary man.
“I’ve always wanted an ordinary man,” she whispered.
He didn’t believe her.
Gideon and his wife arrived to put an end to the conversation, and Rye found the strength to sit up, dislodging Echo in the process.
All his life, he’d experienced a surge of energy when he was amid the stones. He’d felt the power here as if it were a physical thing. Today, he felt nothing.
Gideon Raintree was another matter. Lightning danced on his skin, and he could not stand still. His wife laughed at him lovingly as he moved back, out of the circle.
Rye looked at Echo and said, “Believe it or not, I’m glad your cousin is here.”
“Me, too.”
Their reasons were likely not the same. Rye gathered all his courage to say, in a calm and detached voice, “He can take you home.”
Chapter 26
“Of course I have a room free!” Maeve Quinlan said as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. Showered and changed, hair fixed and makeup applied, she looked very little like the woman who had wielded an iron skillet as an effective weapon just a few hours earlier. “Not Maisy’s room,” she added in a tight voice. “I am shocked, shocked, I tell you, to think that she would...well, we won’t discuss that unpleasantness.”
Echo trailed behind, allowing Maeve, Gideon and Hope to go ahead of her.
