Stepping through the deep field he brushed his hands over the soft blossoms, and then abruptly sensed the ocular flickering, both a gift, and a burden of his destiny…a vision. Already, he knew that this was not a minor vision regarding wealth or other relatively unimportant issues. It had been over 500 years since he had felt an impulse this strong! Alex’s heart dropped into his stomach as he realized it was like…his visions of Cassandra.
The flickering formed a circle in his range of vision. Soon, it would obscure his view and his ability to walk. He felt a slight trembling, as he suddenly became desperate to see her beautiful face again. Just as suddenly, he felt his chest tighten in dread, terrified that a vision of her from the past would send him reeling back into that nowhere land where his grief ruled. Still, to think of seeing her face…he felt his heart rate climb as he closed his eyes. Then the thought occurred to him, causing hope to germinate—what if she had come back?
Immediately, Alex realized the error of his thinking. The vision could be of Kristiana’s safety. Then he shook his head as the corners of his mouth turned up momentarily. He would hate to see the fate of anyone attempting to best her! Kristiana was a woman of fire…she was well-known for her adept handling of a dagger.
Giving into the inevitability of the moment, Alex slid to the ground, as the kaleidoscope effect overtook him. He placed his head in his hands, closed his eyes, and looked…
The breeze gently caressed the tall grass as two women moved along the trail.
His heart leapt! It was Cassandra! But not a vision from 500 years ago—her clothes were more modern. She was alive! He choked as his heart rushed to his throat. Then he remembered Myrdd’s instructions: Pay attention to the details! Alex pushed back his emotions and watched. Oh, to see her beautiful face again!
She was wearing a Roman toga and her brown curls were tamed in a long braid, with tiny tendrils that escaped around her face and neck. He noticed that her eyes were no longer the extraordinary shade of oracle blue that they had been; though they were still breathtaking, with the deep blue framed by her dark lashes.
Furrowing his eyebrows, he wondered for a moment if this vision was some kind of trickery. But he immediately disavowed that thought, in what he realized was a desperate attempt to believe that she could come back to him.
A fast moving cloud moved over her, creating a momentary shadow. Then he heard the soft resonance that he loved above all others, her laughter—beautiful and joyful. He breathed it in, attempting to make it a permanent part of his soul. He had forgotten the sound of her voice.
To see her face after all these years was surely a gift from the gods…or a curse. His only desire, at that moment, was to take in the vision of her. But he knew to protect his heart, he had to force reason into this new reality. Cassandra had died. He had watched her body disintegrate until Mani had insisted that he bury her. This could not be real—but Alex watched, just the same.
Habit forced him to determine time in the vision; it could be only a few years away. She looked to be sixteen, he decided, as he wiped the tears of joy from his face.
She was walking with another young girl, possibly a servant, who ran ahead to the river. It appeared to be the Tiber. Cassandra stepped into the crystal clear water to cool herself.
He tried to guide his glances, feeling that he was peering on a private moment—betraying her. But he could not. As usual, the vision would dictate.
From a bend in the river, the servant girl was talking to someone. A moment later, Alex saw the servant, face down on the now blood-stained bank of the river, out of Cassandra’s view.
Alex involuntarily sucked in a deep breath; he couldn’t bear to see Cassandra harmed again! But he forced himself to pay attention to the details—he heard Myrdd’s wise council from the past; the old man who was the first oracle, and Alex’s mentor. “Where is it, boy?” Myrdd would ask.
It was obviously summertime; the vegetation was a deep green along the river. There was a hillside ahead; a stone building peeked from behind the trees.
Hearing the footsteps in the water, Cassandra turned and smiled. Then, seeing something out of Alex’s view, her eyes became suddenly wary as she started to back away toward the shore. The water was so clear Alex could almost see a reflection. Then he saw the struggle, and the flash of a dagger.
Easily controlling her, the attacker skillfully drew the dagger in a fine line across Cassandra’s throat. The loss immediately caused his gut to wrench. He watched as the red line on her neck rapidly widened, while Alex choked in pain. He saw the horror of realization seep into her eyes…and then he felt the enormity of the loss of his symbolon renewed in his soul.
The murderer carelessly dropped his beloved in the river, and the film that coated the water parted, allowing a clear view through the water of the face that he adored. She stared blankly upward, as red ribbons of blood streamed around her. His Cassandra was dead…again.
∞
Once the violent sobs and retching had ended, and the shaking had subsided to a point where he could see something other than that final vision of her, Alex stared helplessly at the sky analyzing and reanalyzing every detail. Was it now? Did it already happen? Was she alive? Was there any possibility that he could change it?
Then he remembered—Kristiana! How could he tell her? But there was no choice!
∞
The ground moved by in a blur, as he rode on one horse, while leading a second. He would arrive in Rome, nearly two hundred miles to the south, by midday, if he rode all night and only stopped to water and feed the horses.
Kristiana had taken the news as expected. He had broken her heart—though she knew no outlet for negative emotion other than rage. Alex didn’t have a chance to talk to Paolo, though he was certain that Paolo would insist on a physical battle to defend his sister’s honor. Alex had no intention of fighting Paolo!
As the sun set behind the hills to the west, Alex tortuously replayed the scene in the vision, searching for clues; he remembered the clear water as the murderer approached, and he scanned for anything that might be a reflection. Then his thoughts jumped to that last awful scene, with Cassandra’s eyes staring up at him. The water was clouded with debris…a fine mist that prohibited any reflection.
Suddenly, Alex’s eyes narrowed in thought, with the realization of the incongruity. The debris in the water floated on the surface, but it wasn’t there before the murderer approached—the murderer had tracked something into the water. Alex drew in a deep breath and ran it again. There was something familiar about the debris. Was it pollen? No, he decided, pollen was yellow and this was white. Then he noticed something that had escaped his attention before—because it was something that had become a part of his new reality; a crystalline sparkle on the water. His eyes narrowed…was it Carrara marble?
CHAPTER 2
Present Day—Morgana
Asleep in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms, Alex struggled. Valeria saw the signs of another one of his nightmares—his tense movement and sweat-drenched brow, the rapid breathing and near-words. In fact, they had occurred almost every night since her return home from the hospital. He would refuse to tell her about them, saying it was all “old news,” but she wished that he would talk to her.
Camille had said it was to be expected; he had spent eons fighting very real threats to Valeria’s existence. How could that all be forgotten in the few months since what they had termed, optimistically, “the final battle.” In her mind, it was akin to calling World War I, “the war to end all wars.” It simply begged to be proven wrong. But she would keep her sentiments to herself. Alex had been through enough!
She had finally recovered from pneumonic plague and the near drowning; though not in twenty-four hours as she would have if she were the same as the rest of the oracles. On the bright side, an MRI at ten days revealed that the massive lesions in her lungs had completely healed! The doctors, stunned by the results, said it should have taken at least eight weeks for her lungs to heal,
and asked for another MRI. Mani had halted those discussions fairly quickly. However, she still seemed to need a lot of sleep. Mani had warned that, although the lesions were gone, pneumonia was still a very real possibility due to the weakened state of her lungs.
Still, they all clung to the dream that she was now immortal. She had survived the curse that had killed her over numerous lifetimes on her twenty-seventh birthday. Valeria remembered the moment when Tavish had asked the question that was on most of their minds. Could the curse have been delayed a year? As soon as he let the words slip from his mouth, she could see his regret. The flash of terror in Alex’s eyes had been almost more than any of them could bear. Tavish was crushed!
Despite the fact that he seemed like a big, tough Scotsman, she had discovered just how sensitive he was that day. He slowly kneeled in front of the leather sofa where Alex and Valeria sat, with what she was certain were near tears in his eyes.
“Laddie...” He drew in a breath, then continued, “Lass…I dunnot know what causes me mouth to ramble on without thought!” Then he stopped as if he was afraid of his emotions. The whole room sat speechless, no doubt trying to find the right words to erase the fears and hurt that had just been released.
“Tav, it’s all right,” Valeria said. Leaning forward while clinging to Alex’s hand, she stroked the side of Tavish’s face. In response to her touch, Tavish pulled back and dropped his head as if ashamed of himself.
Camille jumped in. “Tavish, we all know that you were simply talking through what was going on in your head and that you don’t really believe that it’s a possibility. Isn’t that right?”
Swallowing, Tavish nodded and rose.
Finally, Alex was able to push his fears back and speak. “Thankfully, we no longer need to concern ourselves with curses.” His arms worked around Valeria in a way that hinted of his fear that his love might not be with him for the eternity, they’d been promised.
Still, all indications were that the threats had been handled and that she was now immortal! It also seemed likely that they had rid themselves of their enemy, the immortal Aegemon, who had probably placed the curse to begin with. And Valeria’s eyes had returned to the unique oracle blue color that was really just multiple, extraordinary shades of blue. It was still a shock for her to see them every time she looked in the mirror.
In addition to that, Mani had tested Valeria’s blood before and after the final battle and discovered that on both tests she carried the DNA of an immortal oracle. The question was, did she only have that DNA this lifetime, or since her life as Cassandra of Troy? And based on the DNA, why didn’t she recover as an immortal might? Needless to say, there were a lot of questions that didn’t appear would be answered unless Valeria became sick or started to age.
Aging was the other question. Had she already suffered her Prima Mortis—the first death of an immortal that would stop the aging process and identify her Achilles’ heel? If so, was her Achilles’ heel the plague, drowning, pneumonia, hypothermia, or high fever? They might never know the answer to these questions. She laughed and said that she had decided to steer clear of all of them…at least for a while. But as much as Alex loved that she was happy, he simply didn’t have the ability to find any humor when it came to talk of her possible mortality.
Over the past few months, with all they had been through, Alex and Valeria had grown even closer. As he continued to struggle in his sleep, she brushed his face and whispered his name. He always had that moment when he took a harsh breath—as if a door had closed and he seemed to be wondering which world he was now in.
Then his arms would find her and cautiously, as if she might disappear, they would move around her with so much longing, that she could almost feel his eons of pain. It always brought tears to her eyes. But she tried to hide it from Alex. Especially today!
“Hey,” she said, gently stroking his face. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay.” His breathing slowed as he clung to her tightly.
Finally, he relaxed and pulled her into him affectionately. He took a deep breath, trying to cleanse himself of the memories, and brushed her hair back from her face.
“Are you kidding?” He smiled, but the nightmare still clung to him. “It’s way more than okay!” He pushed the smile to his eyes. “I’m marrying the woman of my dreams in just a few days!” And then she saw that the dream was now behind him. It was always a marvel to her how he could do that!
Cocking her head to the side, she thought about asking him if he wanted to talk about it. But seeing his spark back, she didn’t want the worry to return to his extraordinarily beautiful face.
She pulled his left hand into hers, in a move that was now familiar to him, and began tracing the continuous loops that formed a triangular mark on the back of his hand between his thumb and forefinger.
“Tell me about it again,” she said, as she pressed her mouth to his hand.
“It’s our unique mark; the one that is only for you and me. This particular shape is called a triquetra or more commonly, a trinity knot,” he said, his voice still sexy with sleep. “Apollo gave a special mark to symbolons…soul mates, if you prefer,” the corners of his mouth turned up in the way she loved, “so that we would know our other half.”
“But our mark is more significant,” she said, her eyes focused on his.
Alex brushed her face with his free hand, as his eyes glowed with love. “Yes. Most of the marks I’ve seen appear fairly arbitrary. But ours does seem to have particular significance.” They laced the fingers of their left hands together, in a need for more closeness.
“I do think that Apollo could have made it easier on us and placed mine someplace more obvious,” she joked, and then lowered her brows. “Alex, do you really think I have our mark?”
“Absolutely!” he said, and then glanced down toward their hands. “But…you know, I have never needed a mark to know that we belong together!”
The sun flitted through the windows; he smiled as he pulled her head down to his and kissed her sweetly. With her face still inches away, his eyes filled with playful joy. “Besides, I was thinking that searching for your mark would give me something else to do,” he drew a quick breath, “on our honeymoon!”
It was the first time either of them had mentioned the honeymoon, and what occurred in her body at that moment was a reaction of a previously unknown magnitude that both shocked and thrilled her! She felt an electrical charge that forced her heart into high gear and revved her internal engines. He responded by running his hands down her spine, as his mouth covered hers.
Then, just as suddenly, he sighed and rolled her onto the bed next to him. With his voice husky from sleep and desire, he drew a deep breath and muttered, “Just a few more days…”
Shaking it off, Alex offered her a cursory glance and a smile before jumping up. “Coffee?”
She pulled up on her elbow. “You need to ask?”
“Good point!” He grinned.
“I’ll shower, while you make the coffee,” she proposed.
She went into the bathroom and turned on the water, and while the temperature of the water warmed, she peeked into the great room. “So, where exactly are we going for our honeymoon?”
“You’re just going to have to wait and see,” he said without turning his head from the task at hand. But she could see the hint of his smile from her angle.
She pouted. “But you know I don’t like surprises!” He turned to bring the coffee pot to the sink on the marble island. Now facing her, he began filling it with purified water.
“Yes, I do know that.” He winked. “And as you well know, I did share that with Camille. But she has insisted.” He raised his eyebrows innocently and shrugged. “I am, therefore, sworn to secrecy.”
This had become a standard line of question and answer between the two of them. Because she was still looking at him expectantly, he sat the pot down and cocked his head to the side. Leaning his arms onto the counter, the corners of his mouth turned up in a mischievou
s smile. She attempted to match his expression, except her eyes widened in expectation when he began to snicker…which always caused her to giggle, effectively ending the stand-off. As he went back to the coffee-making, she went back to the bathroom.
Stepping into the warm shower, she realized that it was useless—she had been trying to get it out of both of them for months now. Despite the fact that he said it was Camille’s secret, Valeria knew that a part of Alex was anxious to surprise her. He seemed to live to please her!
Camille, being very organized about things, had come by daily with a very long list of details from colors to flowers. Valeria hated to admit it, but it was kind of the best of both worlds; she didn’t have to plan the wedding or worry about the results. She just had to show up to what she knew would be just what she would have wished for…and then marry the beautiful man who was well beyond anything she could have ever dreamed up. Tears of joy formed at the thought of how very fortunate she was that he had found her…and loved her. She blinked back the tears as she stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in the rich Turkish towel before heading into the bedroom.
To her surprise, Alex was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for her, holding her coffee cup. He normally avoided being near her when she wasn’t fully dressed. Especially fresh out of the shower—the temptation was just too great! She gave him a brief quizzical look before taking the coffee.
“Here you go. Just the way you like it.” He winked.
Sipping the coffee, rich with cream, she sighed, “Hmmmm!” Taking advantage of his sudden mood, she leaned in just enough to kiss his neck. “Thank you!” She smiled seductively at him.
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