by Lora Leigh
But she understood him. He was evil. Evil had no heart, it had no soul. It survived only to feed on the pain and terror it could create.
“What goes around, comes around, Markham,” she told him then, keeping her voice cool, confident. Any sign of weakness would be exploited by him, used to weaken her. “Whatever power you’re using isn’t natural. It’s not Earth power. You can’t sustain it forever.”
“I won’t need to,” he assured her, his voice all the more evil for the very gentleness of the assurance. “I will only need it long enough to remove that cursed crystal you wear. After that, you’ll be powerless. Won’t you, Ariel?”
He stepped toward her.
Ariel didn’t bother to fight. She could feel the power building inside her, drawing on the others. Even if the winds couldn’t reach her, the other crystals could. She could feel that power moving through her, in her, as disjoined bits of information flashed through her mind.
Could she do it? she wondered painfully. She could feel the demand rising inside her, the power reaching out of her, but not to strike against her father. Rather to aid Shane. There was no wind, no air to draw on, and she didn’t have the strength to fight against the force her father was controlling. But Shane could, with her help. With her power.
Shane was her strength. His arm was her protection. She reached out to him, drawing on that strength to hold the link with her sisters, concentrating on the power slipping through the shield Jonar had placed around the cabin.
She smiled herself then. A brutal, cold smile that had him pausing before he reached her.
“Jonar is helping you,” she said then. “It’s his power you’re using. Isn’t it?”
“It will be mine soon.” He shrugged, though she saw the rage burning in his eyes, the knowledge that he could never possess such power.
She laughed at him. Mocking, cold, a slap in the face of his arrogance.
“Jonar doesn’t share, Markham, didn’t you know that? You were no more than a sacrificial lamb. A final desperate attempt to weaken the warriors. Nothing more.”
“That’s a lie,” he snarled furiously. “Had it not been for me he would have never found you to begin with. He failed to kill you as he was paid to do. But I, daughter, I will destroy you forever.”
He raised his hand and Ariel saw the power he used to throw them across the room. The small metallic disc began charging in the air around them, she could feel it because it weakened the shield around the cabin, needing more force than the small room could afford.
She didn’t waste time trying to strike at him herself. While he was focused on her, on thoughts of her death, she opened herself to the forces that had gathered within the crystal. The winds couldn’t reach her, but her sisters had.
As the force Markham was drawing on began to reach its full limits, Ariel leaned back, closed her eyes, and directed the energy filling her now, to her Viking. He was her strength. He was her protection. His sword would smite her enemies, his dagger would sever the heart of the evil stalking her.
She couldn’t see what happened. As the energy flowed out of her, weakness and exhaustion overcame her as she slumped against the wall. But she felt Shane. She heard his war cry, louder, stronger than ever as she felt the weapon Markham was using begin to discharge.
Had she been too late? Had she trusted Shane too late? Turning the power over to him had been one of the hardest decisions she had made in her life. It had been that power, unfocused and dormant inside her that had helped her keep her sanity through her father’s cruelties. It had been that power that had saved her from Jonar, that had kept her alive until Shane could find her. It had been that power that had saved her sanity.
Finally, she forced her eyes open, staring in shock at the warrior who stood before her, deflecting the power that would have killed her. His arms were outspread, a violet glow surrounding his body, his sword held ready in his hand as waves of power shimmered on the air around him.
His head was thrown back, his mane of hair rippling down his back a second before it jerked up again and he was ready to battle.
The sword arm came forward as he went into a battle crouch, an almost inhuman growl of savage triumph echoing in the air around them as Markham slammed another blast his way.
Shane tilted the sword, catching the force and sending it back toward the other man. Markham jumped to the side, his face twisted into a grimace of rage as chunks of wood flew from the logs where it struck.
As Shane paced to face him once again, Ariel saw his face, a gleam of bloodlust glittered in his eyes as he twirled the sword before him, a snarl pulling his lips back from his teeth as his other hand motioned Markham to try again.
“I’ll kill you both,” Markham growled demonically as he sent another wave of energy slamming toward Shane.
Shane’s laughter mocked him as he ducked and rolled beneath the strike, using his long legs to kick out at the other man and send him flying against the wall.
“Does it feel good, you little nit?” Shane snarled. “Being slammed into the wall, your weaker body absorbing a blow it was never meant to know. I imagine it’s much the same as Ariel felt when you threw her to the wall. Come little man, let me pay you back in kind once again.”
The sword deflected yet another strike, this time, sending the force slamming into Markham’s midsection. His body heaved and lifted against the wall as his eyes widened in shock and fear, choking gasps emitting from his mouth as he fought to breathe.
Shane didn’t waste time playing with him. In an instant, before Ariel could protest or voice her shock, he sent the sword deep into Markham’s chest, piercing the black heart as blood sprayed in the thickened air around him, falling slowly, almost like molasses, to the floor below.
Shock held her rooted in place as she stared at the other man’s expression. Shock and horror rounded his eyes a second before life left them. That expression would live with her for the rest of her life, Ariel thought. That look of complete surprise, the shock that he had been defeated.
A second later, Shane jerked the blade back, turning away in unconcern as the body dropped bonelessly to the floor, crumpling like a forgotten doll tossed in a corner after a child’s tantrum.
The winds rushed into the house then as the front door shattered, and once again the warriors stood en masse. Swords drawn, Devlin, Chantel, Derek and Joshua rushed into the cabin, staring at the destruction in shock.
At the same time, the power she had sent surging into Shane, began to ease back into her body. Not the same, energizing force she had sent, and it was different than it had been. As though in sharing her power with him, it had met and merged with his own, changing its structure forever.
“Get him out of here,” Shane snapped as Joshua and Derek moved to the body.
“Boy, this one is going to be easy to explain to the authorities,” Derek grumbled as he checked the body. “Do you have any idea how much power it takes to make those suspicious bastards overlook things like sword wounds to the chest? Not to mention how hard it is to mess with a coroner’s mind.”
“You’ll manage,” Shane snapped.
A tremulous smile crossed Ariel’s lips as he bent to her then, his fingers reaching out to touch her cheek.
“Welcome back, wife,” he whispered then.
She shook her head slowly. “There has been no love as strong as I feel now,” she whispered tiredly. “Thank you, husband, for believing in me.”
A smile crossed his bloodstained features. “Always, Ariel. I always knew you could do it.”
Trust. Love. The foundations of power surged within her. She hadn’t believed in them, she had never sought either out. But now, they bloomed inside her like a newly formed rose, opening its petals to the world and embracing the warmth awaiting it. Awaiting her. She was free. Who she was and who she had been was no longer separate, no longer a mystery. There was pain to face, and many things that she and Shane had to discuss. But for the first time in two lives, Ariel felt free. Fre
e to laugh, to trust and to love. As free as the very winds…
Epilogue
The castle was just as she had seen it in her dreams. Ariel stepped into the huge great hall and stared around her in wonder. Within these walls, the modern coexisted perfectly with the past. Centuries-old artifacts gleamed on tables, as ancient tapestries filled the walls, and paintings from a bygone era stared down at them with an eerie sense of familiarity.
There were several areas of comfort laid out in the room. Couches and chairs arranged for discussion, or private areas enclosed by ornamental, potted trees. At the far end, a long table gleamed beneath a crystal chandelier, filled with an arrangement of light foods, sandwiches and salads.
The castle itself was huge. As they had flown over the fortress, Ariel’s eyes had widened in disbelief. She had visited many ancient castles while searching out unique little buys for her store over the years, but never one so large. It was two stories high, with two excessively wide wings coming off the central stone building. A wide moat, bridged and running with beautifully clear water surrounded the entire castle and its gardens, with many small houses and buildings scattered surrounding the grounds around it.
It was the size of a village, or larger. And it was one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen in her life.
“Welcome home, Ariel.” The voice that greeted her wasn’t that of the warriors, but of a tall, older man who had stepped from the left hallway and walked slowly toward her.
He wasn’t as tall as the warriors, but he was muscular, strong-boned and held himself proudly. His nut-brown hair was flecked with gray, his blue eyes quiet and sad despite the gleam of pleasure within them.
She stilled, feeling Shane’s hand at her back, his comforting presence surrounding her as always. For a moment, she truly was back in time and she saw this man, perhaps a bit younger, tears wetting his face as he held the nearly broken form of the child she had been…
If I had known where she had taken you, he had whispered tearfully, I would have come for you before. Dear God, Ariel, if my life would have prevented this, I would have gladly made the trade…
Ariel stilled the pain that the memory brought. She knew Jonar had raped her in that first life. Little more than a child, terrified and desperate to save her mother, she had lain beneath him, little knowing what he had in store for her.
The memory wasn’t as brutal as she would have expected, though. It was misted, an event that happened in another place and time, and dimmed by Shane’s love. But she remembered this man, her father then. Her father now.
“Mother kept your picture,” she said as he stopped just in front of her. “When she died, it was placed with her only belongings until I was old enough to collect them.”
His expression twisted in pain as his eyes closed briefly.
“I couldn’t find her, after she left,” he told her then. “I met her while she vacationed in Paris. She never told me where she lived, or much about herself…”
“Because she was married,” Ariel said tightly, though she felt no resentment toward him, or her mother. “She would have tried to protect you.”
“As she couldn’t protect you,” Galen sighed wearily. “If she had told me, I would have come for you, Ariel. I would not have left you with such a monster.”
Ariel could feel the others behind her, watching this reunion with curious eyes. They were her family now, but she still hadn’t grown used to having so many people around her.
“I’m not sure how to be a daughter,” she said then.
“That’s okay, child.” He smiled gently. “I know well how to be a father. I will guide you, if you will allow me.”
She didn’t fight the tears that welled in her eyes, instead, she walked to the arms that opened wide for her and then enclosed her in a circle of warmth and protectiveness. She had known Shane’s security, his strength and determination to keep her from harm. But this was different, innocent, and renewing. It was a father’s embrace. A true father.
“I missed you, Father,” she whispered, thinking of that first life, when he had often held her just like this, against his heart, chasing away the demons that haunted her dreams and filling her life with a measure of joy.
“As I missed you, daughter. As I have missed all my daughters…”
*
Ariel was home. Caitlin sighed in relief as she felt the emotions that surrounded her in the early morning mist, called to her by the crystal she commanded. She reached into the stone, immersing herself in the soul of it, and letting her sister’s joy wash over her. Did they know how adept she had become at connecting with them, she wondered? If they did, they never spoke of it.
Ariel had sent the breeze to her several times, enfolding her with the love she and Chantel sent her. Sisters. They were indeed sisters, not just in the past life, but in the present as well. Sisters that would always be separated.
As she stood within the damp comfort of Ireland’s mists once again, a new sensation came to her. A touch to her cheek, her neck, the feel of lips feathering against her breast.
“Bastard!” she muttered fiercely, immediately attempting to break the connection the Wizard was invading.
Damn him, he was giving her no rest, no respite from his determination to find her. She broke the connection quickly with the crystal as she pulled the mists in further, thickening them to hide her from him as she hurried back to her stepfather’s home.
Unlike Chantel and Ariel, Caitlin enjoyed a very loving relationship with the man who had adopted her at her birth. Sean O’Reilly had loved her mother with a passion and tenacity that survived her death and enabled him to love and raise her daughter as well. His sons, one from a former marriage, the other younger than she, but from his marriage to her mother. Both were devoted, caring brothers. They had followed her for years, ensuring her safety where she allowed it, though they often raged in anger at her stubbornness each time she trained for the steal of a lifetime.
She was a cat burglar. And a damned fine one too, she assured herself as she reentered her father’s home and headed for her bedroom. She had been training since her sixteenth year, and had excelled in ways she never imagined she could. She wasn’t Robin Hood, yet neither was she criminal. She stole things back and returned them where they belonged, for the most part. But she also stole those objects that would add to the power she already held, such as the Sapphire Dagger.
As she entered her room, she paced to the small chest that contained the priceless object. It was over a thousand years old, perfectly preserved and once again with its rightful owner. Beside it lay the sapphire, emerald, amethyst and ruby bracelets that had once belonged to the daughters of Galen. She had finally managed to locate all four, but hadn’t yet been able to part with the three that were not her own.
Above the dagger was a gold ring, the Celtic inscriptions more of a curse than the promise others saw them as. …until time is no more, my love follows you…
Fury burned in her heart at the thought of the words. His love. The bastard Wizard had never known love; he had known only deceit and treachery. But his hold would be broken on her soon, she promised herself. There were three pieces left to steal. A slave bracelet of gold and Connemara marble, a headband of gold, dripping with marble tears, and a gold and marble armband, inscribed with the words to break the hold the Wizard had on her.
Each piece was said to be fashioned of the purest gold and silver, dripping with tiny, beautifully carved tears. The Wizard’s Tears, created to hold the heart of the bride he had deceived, enchanted with the magic that reinforced his commands when he stole her mind.
They would be next.
She closed the chest, smoothing her hand over the gleaming wood as she closed her eyes and allowed a smile to touch her lips.
They were where she had left them. She touched the crystal, seeing in her mind’s eye where they lay. They lay in a box identical to her own, the velvet that cushioned the jewelry after they were removed from her dead body. The ch
est was then set beside the bed she had shared with the demon who had taken her. Derek.
She pushed back the instinctive protest that coiled within her mind at that thought. God, what pleasure she had known in that bed, even before he had stolen her mind. She had come to him, lured by the dreams he had invaded before she met him, believing him to be the man her soul had been born for. Instead, he was the demon her family had reviled for centuries.
He had brought plagues to their land, had cursed their people, and had seen her as little more than the whore upon whom he spilled his vengeance. Your daughters will lie as whores beneath my body…
The curse he had laid on the family had come to pass. For she had lain beneath him as a whore, accepting his touch, begging for it.
Her hand fisted as she pushed herself violently from the desk that held her stolen treasures.
“I curse you,” she whispered painfully. “As I have cursed you since the day these memories returned to me. I curse your touch, the very breath you take…” But she could go no further.
Her lips thinned as she inhaled through her nose, forcing control, forcing back her rage. She had sworn to her mother as she lay dying that she would never, ever curse the man who had begun to invade her dreams.
At that time, the dreams had been soft, filled with love, with pleasure. There had been no darkness, no hint of the fury she would feel later. But somehow, her mother had known what would come.
Swear to me, Cait, she had whispered, weak with the illness that stole her from her family. Upon my life, swear you will never curse this man you dream of. That you will never whisper aloud a need for his pain, or his destruction. Swear it to me, daughter, or I will never rest when death takes me from this life.
I swear. Her words haunted her to this day.
“I may not be able to curse you, Derek,” she whispered. “But I can destroy you on my own. Beware, husband,” she sneered the title. “I’ll own your tears, and when I do, I’ll own your soul…”
Derek lay on the bed he had shared with Caitlin, her words echoing in his mind.