by Nora Roberts
“It’s the world.” Cal’s voice was soft and thick. “Here in my hands.”
“The heart of it. The hope for it. Power gleams there. In your hands now.”
“Why?” He lifted his gaze to hers. “Why in my hands, Bryna?”
“I am the guardian of this place. My heart is in there as well.” She took a slow breath. “I am in your hands, Calin Farrell.”
“I can refuse?”
“Aye. The choice is yours.”
“And if he—Alasdair—claims this?”
She would stop him. It would cost her life, but she would stop him. “Power can be twisted, abused—but what is used will turn on the abuser, ten times ten.”
“And if he claims you?”
“I will be bound to him, a thousand years of bondage. A spell that cannot be broken.” But with death, she thought. Only with death. “He is wicked, but not without weaknesses.” She laid her hand on the globe so that they held it together. “He will not have this, Calin. Nor will he bring harm to you. That is my oath.”
She stared hard into his eyes, murmuring. His vision blurred, his head spun. He lifted a hand as if to push back what he couldn’t see. “No.”
“To protect.” She laid a hand on his cheek as she cast the charm. “My love.”
He blinked, shook his head. For a moment his mind remained blank with some faint echo of words. “I’m sorry. What?”
Her lips curved. He would remember nothing, she knew. It was all she could do for him. “I said we need to go.” She placed the globe back on the pedestal. “We’re not to speak of this outside this room.” She walked toward the door, held out a hand. “Come. I’ll pour you that whiskey.”
7
That night his dreams were restful, lovely. Bryna had seen to that.
There was a man astride a gleaming black horse, riding hard over hills, splashing through a bright slash of river, his gray cape billowing in a brisk and icy wind.
There was the witch who waited for him in a silver castle atop a spearing cliff where candles and torches burned gold.
There was a globe of crystal, clear as water, where the world swam from decade to decade, century past century.
There was love sweet as honey and need sharp as honed steel.
And when he turned to her in the night, lost in dreams, she opened for him, took him in.
Bryna didn’t sleep, nor did she dream. She lay in the circle of his arms while the white moon rose and the shudders his hands had caused quieted.
Who had loved her? she wondered. Cal, or Caelan? She turned her face into his shoulder, seeking comfort, a harbor from fear on this last night before she would face her fate.
He would be safe, she thought, laying a hand over his heart. She had taken great pains, at great risk, to assure it. And her safety depended on the heart that beat quietly under her palm. If he did not choose to give it freely, to stand with her linked by love, she was lost.
So it had been ordained in fire and in blood, on that terrible night a millennium before.
For a thousand years we sleep, a hundred years times ten. But blood stays true and hearts are strong when we are born again. And in this place we meet, with love our lifted shield. In the shortest night the battle will rage and our destiny be revealed. My warrior’s heart his gift to me, his sword bright as the moon. If he brings both here of his own free will, we will bring to Alasdair his doom. When the dawn breaks that longest day and his love has found a way, our lives will then be free of thee. As I will, so mote it be.
The words of Bryna the Wise, lifted high the blazing castle walls, echoed in her head, beat in her heart. When the moon rose again, it would be settled.
Bryna lay in the circle of Cal’s arms, listened to the wind whisper, and slept not at all.
When Cal woke, he was alone, and the sun was streaming. For a moment, he thought it had all been a dream. The woman—the witch—the ruined castle and tiny cottage. The globe that held the world. A hallucination brought on, he thought, by fatigue and stress and the breakdown he’d secretly worried about.
But he recognized the room—the flowers still fresh in the vases, the scent of them, and Bryna, on the air. True, then. He pressed his fingers to his eyes to rub away sleep. All true, and all unbelievable. And all somehow wonderful.
He got out of bed, walked into the charming little bathroom, stepped into the clawfoot tub, and twitched the circling curtain into place. He adjusted the shower for hot and let the steam rise.
He hadn’t showered with her yet, Cal thought, grinning as he turned his face into the spray. Hadn’t soaped that long, lovely body of hers until it was slick and slippery, hadn’t seen the water run through that glorious mane of flame-red hair. Had yet to ease inside her while the water ran hot and the steam rose in clouds.
His grin winked off, replaced by a look of puzzlement. Had he turned to her in the night, in his dreams, seeking that tangle of tongues and limbs, that slow, satiny slide of bodies?
Why couldn’t he remember? Why couldn’t he be sure?
What did it matter? Annoyed with himself, he flicked off the water, snatched a towel from the heating rack. Whether it had been real or a dream, she was there for him as he’d wanted no one to be before.
Was it you, or another, she moved under in the night?
Cal’s eyes went dark as the voice whispered slyly in his head. He toweled off roughly.
She uses you. Uses you to gain her own ends. Spellbinds you until she has what she seeks.
The room was suddenly airless, the steam thick and clogging his lungs. He reached blindly for the door, found only swirling air.
She brought you here, drew you into her web. Other men have been trapped in it. She seeks to possess you, body and soul. Who will you be when she’s done with you?
Cal all but fell into the door, panicked for a shuddering instant when he thought it locked. But his slippery hands yanked it open and he stumbled into the cool, sun-washed air of the bedroom. Behind him the mists swirled dark, shimmered greedily, then vanished.
What the hell? He found himself trembling all over, like a schoolboy rushing out of a haunted house. It had seemed as if there had been…something, something cold and slick and smelling of death crowded into that room with him, hiding in the mists.
But when Cal turned and stepped back to the door, he saw only a charming room, a fogged mirror, and the thinning steam from his shower.
Imagination working over, he thought, then let out half a laugh. Whose wouldn’t, under the circumstances? But he shut the bathroom door firmly before he dressed and went down to find her.
She was spinning wool. Humming along with the quiet, rhythmic clacking of spindle and wheel. Her hands were as graceful as a harpist’s on strings and her wool was as white as innocence.
Her dress was blue this morning, deep as her eyes. A thick silver chain carrying an ornately carved pendant hung between her breasts. Her hair was pinned up, leaving that porcelain face unframed.
Cal’s hands itched for his camera. And for her.
She looked up, her hands never faltering, and smiled. “Well, did you decide to join the living, then?”
“My body clock’s still in the States. Is it late?”
“Hmm, nearly half-ten. You’ll be hungry, I’ll wager. Come, have your coffee. I’ll fix your breakfast.”
He caught her hand as she rose. “You don’t have to cook for me.”
She laughed, kissed him lightly. “Oh, we’d have trouble soon enough if you thought I did. As it happens, it’s my pleasure to cook for you this morning.”
His eyes gleamed as he nibbled on her knuckles. “A full Irish breakfast? The works.”
“If you like.”
“Now that you mention it…” His voice trailed off as he took a long, thorough study of her face. Her eyes were shadowed, her skin paler than it should have been. “You look tired. You didn’t sleep well.”
She only smiled and led him into the kitchen. “Maybe you snore.”
&nbs
p; “I do not.” He nipped her at the waist, spun her around and kissed her. “Take it back.”
“I only said maybe.” Her brows shot up when his hands roamed around, cupped her bottom. “Are you always so frisky of a morning?”
“Maybe. I’ll be friskier after I’ve had that coffee.” He gave her a quick kiss before turning to pour himself a cup. “You know I noticed things this morning that I was too…distracted to take in yesterday. You don’t have a phone.”
She put a cast-iron skillet on a burner. “I have ways of calling those I need to call.”
“Ah.” He rubbed the chin he had neglected to shave. “Your kitchen’s equipped with very modern appliances.”
“If I choose to cook why would I use a campfire?” She sliced thick Irish bacon and put it on to sizzle and snap.
“Good point. You’re out of sugar,” he said absently when he lifted the lid on the bowl. “You spin your own wool, but you have a state-of-the-art stereo.”
“Music is a comfort,” she murmured, watching him go unerringly to the pantry and fetch the unmarked tin that held her sugar supply.
“You make your own potions, but you buy your staples at the market.” With quick efficiency, he filled her sugar bowl. “The contrast is fascinating. I wonder…” He stopped, stood with the sugar scoop in his hand, staring. “I knew where to find this,” he said quietly. “I knew the sugar was on the second shelf in the white tin. The flour’s in the blue one beside it. I knew that.”
“‘Tis a gift. You’ve only forgotten to block it out. It shouldn’t disturb you.”
“Shouldn’t disturb me.” He neglected to add the sugar and drank his coffee black and bitter.
“It’s yours to control, Cal, or to abjure.”
“So if I don’t want it, I can reject it.”
“You’ve done so for half your life already.”
It was her tone, bitter as the coffee, that had his eyes narrowing. “That annoys you.”
She cut potatoes into quick slices, slid them into hot oil. “It’s your choice.”
“But it annoys you.”
“All right, it does. You turn your back on it because you find it uncomfortable. Because it disturbs your sense of normality. As I do.” She kept her back to him as she took the bacon out of the pan, set it to drain, picked up eggs. “You shut out your gift and me along with it because we didn’t fit into your world. A tidy world where magic is only an illusion done with smoke and mirrors, where witches wear black hats, ride broomsticks, and cackle on All Hallows’ Eve.”
As the eggs cooked, she spooned up porridge, plopped the bowl on the table, and went back to slice bread. “A world where I have no place.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Cal said evenly. “Did I choose to be, Bryna, or did you will it?”
She uses you. She’s drawn you into her web.
“Will it?” Insulted, struck to the bone, she whirled around to face him. “Is that what you think? After all I’ve told you, after all we’ve shared?”
“If I accept even half of what you’ve told me, if I put aside logic and my own sense of reality and accept that I’m standing in the kitchen with a witch, a stone’s throw away from an enchanted castle, about to do battle of some kind with an evil wizard in a war that has lasted a millennium, I think it’s a remarkably reasonable question.”
“Reasonable?” With clenched teeth she swept back to the stove and shoveled eggs onto a platter. “‘It’s reasonable,’ says he. Have I pulled him in like a spider does a fly, lured him across an ocean and into my lair?” She thumped the laden platter down and glared at him. “For what, might I ask you, Calin Farrell? For a fine bout of sex, for the amusement of having a man for a night or two. Well, I needn’t have gone to such trouble for that. There’s men enough in Ireland. Eat your breakfast or you’ll be wearing it on your head like a hat.”
Another time he might have smiled, but that sly voice was muttering in his ear. Still he sat, picked up his fork, tapped it idly against the plate. “You didn’t answer the question. If I’m to believe you can’t lie to me, isn’t it odd that you’ve circled around the question and avoided a direct answer? Yes or no, Bryna. Did you will me here?”
“Yes or no?”
Her eyes were burning-dry, though her heart was weeping. Did he know he was looking at her with such doubt, such suspicion, such cool dispassion? There was no faith in the look, and none of the love she needed.
One night, she thought on a stab of despair, had not been enough.
“No, Calin, will you here I did not. If that had been my purpose, or in my power, would I have waited so long and so lonely for you? I asked you to come, begged without pride, for I needed you. But the choice to come or not was yours.”
She turned away, gripping the counter as she looked out the window toward the sea. “I’ll give you more,” she said quietly, “as time is short.” She inhaled deeply. “You broke my heart when you shut me out of yours. Broke it to pieces, and it’s taken me years to mend it as best I could. That choice was yours as well, for the knowledge was there in your head, and again in your heart if you chose to see it. All the answers are there, and you have only to look.”
“I want to hear them from you.”
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “There are some I can’t tell you, that you must find for yourself.” She opened her eyes again, lifted her chin and turned back to him.
Her face was still pale, he noted, her eyes too dark. The hair she’d bundled up was slipping its pins, and her shoulders were stiff and straight.
“But there’s something that’s mine to tell, and I’ll give you that. I was born loving you. There’s been no other in my heart, even when you turned from me. Everything I am, or was, or will be, is yours. I cannot change my heart. I was born loving you,” she said again. “And I will die loving you. There is no choice for me.”
Turning, she bolted from the room.
8
She’d vanished. Cal went after her almost immediately but found no trace. He rushed through the house, flinging open doors, calling her. Then cursing her.
Damn temperamental female, he decided. The fury spread through him. That she would tell him she loved him, then leave him before he had even a moment to examine his own heart!
She expected too much, he thought angrily. Wanted too much. Assumed too much.
He hurried out of the house, raced for the cliffs. But he didn’t find her standing out on the rocks, staring out to sea with the wind billowing her hair. His voice echoed back to him emptily, infuriating him.
Then he turned, stared at the scarred stone walls of the castle. And knew. “All right, damn it,” he muttered as he strode toward the ruins. “We’re going to talk this through, straight. No magic, no legends, no bullshit. Just you and me.”
He stepped toward the arch and bumped into air that had gone solid. Stunned, he reached out, felt the shield he couldn’t see. He could see through it to the stony ground, the fire-scored walls, the tumble of rock, but the clear wall that blocked him was cold and solid.
“What kind of game is this?” Eyes narrowed, he drove his shoulder against it, yielded nothing. Snarling, he circled the walls, testing each opening, finding each blocked.
“Bryna!” He pounded the solidified air with his fists until they ached. “Let me in. Goddamn it, let me pass!”
From the topmost turret, Bryna faced the sea. She heard him call for her, curse her. And oh, she wanted to answer. But her pride was scored, her power teetering.
And her decision made.
Perhaps she had made it during the sleepless night, curled against him, listening to him dream. Perhaps it had been made for her, eons before. She had been given only one single day with him, one single night. She knew, accepted, that if she’d been given more she might have broken her faith, let her fears and needs tumble out into his hands.
She couldn’t tell him that her life, even her soul, was lost if by the hour of midnight his heart remained unsettled toward her. Un
less he vowed his love, accepted it without question, there was no hope.
She had done all she could. Bryna turned her face to the wind, let it dry the tears that she was ashamed to have shed. Her charge would be protected, her lover spared, and the secrets of this place would die with her.
For Alasdair didn’t know how strong was her will. Didn’t know that in the amulet she wore around her neck was a powder of poison. If she should fail, and her love not triumph, then she would end her life before she faced one of bondage.
With Cal’s voice battering the air, she closed her eyes, lifted her arms. She had only hours now to gather her forces.
She began the chant.
Hundreds of feet below, Cal backed away, panting. What the hell was he doing? he asked himself. Beating his head against a magic wall to get to a witch.
How had his life become a fairy tale?
Fairy tale or not, one thing was solid fact. Tick a woman off, and she sulks.
“Go on and sulk, then,” he shouted. “When you’re ready to talk like civilized people, let me know.” His mood black, he stalked back to the house. He needed to get out, he told himself. To lose himself in work for a while, to let both of them cool off.
One day, he fumed. He’d had one day and she expected him to turn his life around. Pledge his undying love. The hell with that. She wasn’t pushing him into anything he wasn’t ready for. She could take her thousand-year-old spell and stuff it. He was a normal human being, and normal human beings didn’t go riding off into the sunset with witches at the drop of a hat.
He shoved open the bedroom door, reached for his camera. Under it, folded neatly, was a gray sweater. He pulled his hand back and stared.
“That wasn’t there an hour ago,” he muttered. “Damn it, that wasn’t there.”
Gingerly he rubbed the material. Soft as a cloud, the color of storms. He remembered vaguely something about a cloak and a charm and wondered if this was Bryna’s modern-day equivalent.