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Niall’s gaze drifted toward Rion, her mate even more pensive that he was moments ago, if that were possible.
But Niall only chuckled. “Unlike Móirín’s extreme gift, we only need to be in the remote vicinity.”
“Gift?” She interrupted. “I’d hardly call it a gift.” She shuddered at the memories of the shriveled bodies she’d left on the battlefield. Their husk-like forms were one of the many terrors that haunted her nightmares.
His brows rose again. He seemed surprised by everything. Or was acting like it. “I wasn’t aware you had the ability.” She hadn’t given it much thought really, she’d just . . . done it and regretted it but didn’t regret it at the same time. Because in battle, it was her or them, and she’d chosen to live.
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t.”
“You’ve never seen it work to benefit life.” Niall’s gaze studied the garden as if looking for something. He pointed to a wilting flower. “Instead of taking the particles, try giving them.” She stared at him and he stepped back, expectant. Could she do that?
Arianna reached toward the purple flower, its petals barely clinging to the stem, and searched for the tiny current every living thing possessed. But instead of taking, Arianna studied the trickling current and carefully poured magic into its almost dry path.
The flower perked and rose, spreading its petals toward the sun in silent greeting.
She supposed she’d once done something similar with Rion. When he’d been poisoned, she’d pulled the particles from his body and replaced them with water. She just hadn’t realized—
“Gift,” he said again and smiled at her. Arianna couldn’t help but smile back. “Now,” he led them back outside the hedge. “While I don’t need to touch you, I will ask your permission before entering your mind.”
“Will you be able to read it?”
He laughed again. “No, nothing like that. I’ll simply be projecting images.”
She nodded and Niall gestured toward a bench. “In case you get dizzy,” he clarified.
Arianna could feel Rion’s instincts raging against the idea, but she’d never encountered their magic before and if someone could project false images, then she needed to understand what she was up against in the event their promises ever proved false.
Arianna sat and Rion stood at her side, his intense gaze focused on Niall.
“Ready?” Niall asked and she nodded again.
Moments later, a breeze rustled through the garden and a chilling mist seeped through her head ever so carefully. She shivered. Gentle. Giving. Subtle. Another moment passed and Arianna wondered if anything had changed. Then she saw a single white butterfly floating in the breeze. It drifted toward her, then past. Three more appeared from around the hedge, then an entire flock covered the garden, their translucent wings beating as they soared around her, Niall, and her mate.
Rion didn’t seem as if he saw them at all.
One landed on her finger and Arianna studied it closely. Dark veins shown through its velvet wings and its tiny feet walked across the back of her hand. It felt so real she would never have known it was a glamor unless he’d told her.
“This is incredible,” she said.
Niall appeared pleased. “Would you like to see more?”
“Please.” Rion’s magic circled her faster now and she felt his desperation down the bond. It’s okay, she willed to him, but it didn’t seem to make a difference.
The ground shifted beneath her feet, shimmering like the far off distance on a hot summer day, then she heard Niall’s voice whispering in her head as if he too, were somewhere distant. “If you wish to stop, you have but to say the word.”
Arianna gasped when the vision jolted, then she was standing in a great hall covered from floor to ceiling in white marble. Columns reached toward the ceiling and Arianna noticed familiar intricate carvings inlaid into the marble with gold. Vines and plants that seemed to tell their own complicated story.
“This is Brónach?” she asked.
Arianna thought she heard a hint of surprise in Niall’s voice. “You’ve seen the palace of Nàdiar?”
“No, I—” Arianna paused. She didn’t want to tell anyone about Rion’s cabin, not when the place was so personal to him. It was a sanctuary he’d only shown her and a place they could run should they ever need to. “I’ve read a lot.”
The answer seemed to satisfy his curiosity. “What you’re seeing is a memory, so I’m afraid some parts won’t be as clear as others.”
The vision moved forward as if they were walking and they stepped through a pair of doors at the end of the hall. The vision blinked as if they’d lost a moment in time, then the doors to the throne room swung open.
Most of the figures darting past were nothing but shadows, remnants within the memory, but the image of the woman standing beside the High Lord of Brónach was as crystal clear as if Niall had studied every strand of her long auburn hair. It flowed to her waist in beautiful waves. A braid wrapped around her head, holding a thin silver crown in place.
