He wished, as he had many times in the past, that he could protect Cassidy from knowing who and what he had been. He wanted to protect her from the past, a past long before her birth. What he’d done...it was behind him, well behind, but he could not erase it.
Rye wanted to give his daughter a hug, but if he reached for her his arms would go through her as if she were made of mist. Cassidy was not here. She was in the cottage she and her grandmother called home. That cottage was not far from Cloughban, but it was far enough away to keep her safe.
“It won’t be much longer, I promise.”
“I really would like a new mother someday,” Cassidy said, and then she was gone. She didn’t fade away, she just disappeared.
He liked Echo more than he should. Last night had been great, and he was realist enough to accept that they weren’t done.
But no matter how much he liked her, how much he wanted her, she couldn’t stay.
If the Raintree found out about Cassidy, they would take her away. She was too powerful, too unpredictable. He had never known or even heard of anyone who could do the things Cassidy could do. They’d lock her away, study her or use her as a weapon. He didn’t trust them; he didn’t trust them at all.
And that meant he couldn’t trust Echo. Much as he wanted to, he could not afford to trust her.
Chapter 11
Echo woke warm and happy, and sore. Holy cow, Duncan knew what he was doing in the bedroom.
Ryder, not Duncan. A name no one but she called him, a name that suited him. She liked the way it rolled off her tongue. Ryder.
She’d only been awake a few minutes when he came into the room with a tray. She sat up as he presented the tray for her inspection. Breakfast in bed. Eggs over easy, toasted brown bread, marmalade, both coffee and tea. No one had ever brought her breakfast in bed before!
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Starving.” He placed the tray on the bed near her. She looked over and up to him. “You’re wearing pants.” She made that sound like the accusation it was. Damned if she didn’t want him again.
“I make it a point not to cook naked.” He sat on the edge of the bed. Close. Not close enough.
“I suppose you do have to protect yourself.” For a moment she focused on the scar on his chest, a scar that looked nastier by morning light than it had by moonlight. She wanted to ask him about it, but not now. She also wanted to ask him about the amulet at his throat and the leather wristband, but she recognized both as being protective in nature. He had not removed either last night.
The real question was, what did a man like Ryder Duncan need to be protected from?
Echo took a cup of coffee and a piece of toast, leaning over the tray as she took a bite so as not to get crumbs in his bed. She wasn’t shy about being naked in front of him. In fact, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. He didn’t eat, but he did drink a cup of coffee. Maybe he’d eaten downstairs. Once she started eating, she realized that she really was starving.
When she was finished, she leaned away from the tray and asked, “So, do we have to keep this a secret? Do we have to pretend in front of everyone else?”
Ryder gave her question a few seconds of thought before responding. “No. Someone, probably several someones, would know, anyway.”
Of course. “Because this is not an ordinary town.”
“Not at all.”
She should’ve seen it all along, should’ve felt it, but she had not. “Is everyone here...different?”
He hesitated. “Not everyone. There are a few spouses and children who are not gifted.”
“The little girl I saw my first day here!” Echo sat up straighter, on alert. “I saw her again last week when I was walking, and...she told me about fairy forts.” Both memories seemed dreamlike. Were they real? They seemed so, but something was off.
“Sometimes I actually forget about her, and that’s not normal. The memory just fades away. It always comes back, though, like I’m remembering a dream or someone I haven’t seen since I was a child.”
Ryder didn’t say anything, but his jaw got tighter, his eyes more distant.
“She told me I would stay,” Echo continued. “I thought she was a delusion, a fantasy, because she just disappeared. I mean literally disappeared. Cassidy. She said her friends call her Cass but she prefers Cassidy.” She looked up into a stony face. “Do you know her? Surely you know everyone around here, Mayor Duncan.” She smiled. Ryder definitely did not fit her mental image of a small-town mayor.
His hesitation was minor, but she noticed. She noticed everything about him, and had since day one. His voice was perfectly even when he said, “Never heard of her, love. She probably was a delusion, as you say.”
Ryder took the tray and moved it to the top of the dresser by the door. The tray out of the way, he kicked the door shut, gently but firmly, and then he removed his jeans to join her in the bed. The mattress dipped and creaked, and she rolled into him. It was the most natural thing in the world to drift together. He held her close; she held him. Just like that, she dismissed everything from her mind but Ryder.
“Do you know what I dreamed last night?” she whispered.
“No.” His lips found her shoulder and rested there for a long moment.
She sighed in deep contentment. “Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s been days since I had a vision, sleeping or awake.”
“You’ve gone days before without a vision.”
“Yes, but there’s something different this time.”
He threw one long leg over her hip, capturing her in the nicest way. “And what’s that?”
She whispered, truthfully and with joy, “I am not afraid.”
* * *
Walsh paced in his room, a too-small, too-shabby rented room, which was not much more than an hour from Cloughban. He didn’t dare move any closer until it was time. Just a few more days, and he’d never be forced to sleep in such an ordinary place again. He’d have anything and everything he wanted. He was so close. Years of planning, and he was so close he could taste it.
Almost. Almost. It was a shame that Rye Duncan knew his face so well. Walsh wanted to watch every step of his plan; he wanted to be a part of it from beginning to end. When this was all over, would he have the ability to watch without being seen? To be invisible, or to shift into something—or someone—else? He could hardly wait to find out.
He’d be a part of it soon enough. The Raintree woman was a fly in the ointment, but she wasn’t much of a worry. She was a girl of limited powers, despite her surname.
Just a girl, not an oracle to be feared.
The knock on his door should not have surprised him, but it did. His number-one soldier was early for their meeting.
Walsh invited the man in, but he shook his head and said, “Not here.”
His older brother—half brother, and that half did make a difference—was a suspicious man. Walsh was careful, as well, but he wasn’t paranoid. Still, until things were settled it was best to humor this man he had relied upon as the plan came together.
They walked around the building, into a deserted field. The grass that grew so high all but disguised a long-deserted famine graveyard. Walsh felt as if a ghost were walking up his spine, but his brother didn’t seem to be bothered at all.
The man who walked in step beside him finally said, “I think we should move up the timeline. We need to move now, tonight.”
Walsh tried to be patient, he truly did, but this man and the woman, they were not as reliable as he had initially thought them to be. When this was over... Well, when this was over he would need them still, for a while. But if all went well, he would not need them for very long. “No. We’re not changing the plan now.”
“Why not?”
Walsh had been very careful about what in
formation he shared. He only had two soldiers in Cloughban. One was family. The other had shared his bed on several occasions. The others—those headed this way very soon—were pawns he had no qualms about sacrificing.
His brother was anxious. Until now, Walsh had kept much of his plan to himself. They were so close to success, so very close. Perhaps he could afford to explain why the wait had been necessary. It wouldn’t do for things to be set into motion too soon.
The girl was of the proper age for optimum transference. He’d waited for this. He’d waited four long years. Four years of research, careful planning and waiting.
“The cycle of the moon must be just right for the incantation to work,” Walsh explained. “The girl is the right age, and soon the moon will be full. Days, we are down to mere days.”
“Days.”
“On the three nights when the moon is fullest, the time to take her will be perfect. Be patient, brother. Our rewards will be great.”
He would rule. His brother would be his right-hand man. His woman would have everything she’d ever wanted, and more.
And he would bring his mother’s people, the once-powerful Ansara, back. When his army was strong enough, he’d wipe every Raintree off the planet.
Some might argue that he was not true Ansara, that they had been wiped out when the Raintree had defeated them, six years earlier. True, his mother had been adopted; she’d had no true Ansara blood in her veins. But in Walsh’s heart the Ansara survived through him. He was the last, but he would soon rebuild what had once been a powerful clan.
The grass was waist-high where his brother came to a stop and turned to face him. “You have the incantation with you?”
“Of course.” The words were few, the language ancient. But they were powerful words. Beyond powerful.
His brother smiled. It was a smile much like his own; it was their father’s smile. Their father had been gone for years.
Walsh didn’t see the knife until it was too late. The fact that his brother’s hands were visible and empty and relaxed meant nothing. The blade appeared from behind him. It flew through thin air, twisting and turning, rising up to slice across Walsh’s throat.
His last thought was, This was not part of the plan...and then...
Betrayal.
* * *
Echo climbed into her own bed, burrowed under the covers and closed her eyes. She was so exhausted she’d thought sleep would come instantly...but it didn’t.
Her life had been a series of disasters. There had been good moments, too. Family, friends, making music. But disasters had always been a part of her life. She would willingly admit that more than a few of those had been of her own making. Other disasters had been seen and experienced through dreams and visions.
Her curse. Her gift.
Why did she never see anything nice of the future? Why did she never see happiness and joy?
She went to sleep on that thought, and dreamed.
She dreamed of green fields, fairy forts and children. Not her children, certainly, since she did not plan to have any of her own. Maybe these were her cousins’ children.
No, Emma was not here, and neither was Maddy. She saw no sign of Dante’s kids, or Mercy’s. These children were...
Hers. Hers and Ryder’s. There were blonde girls and dark-headed boys. They danced around some strange stones that glimmered with amazing energy. The fairies were there, sparkling like stars that had fallen near to the ground.
She didn’t want kids, never had, and with good reason. But as she watched these children her heart filled with a love she had never imagined possible. These little people lit the world with a new light. She loved them with a bone-deep mother’s love.
Echo realized she was in a dream. Not a vision, not a premonition, just a dream. In case there was some grain of truth here, she attempted to see...how many kids? There seemed to be a lot of them, but she couldn’t tell. Maybe what she saw were the same children again and again. Children at different ages, at different stages of their lives.
Suddenly Ryder was with her. She couldn’t see him but he stood behind her. She felt him there. As with the running children, that feeling was bone-deep. Love. Not infatuation, not lust. Love. She had never known such a deep love could be real.
His arms went around her; he pulled her back against his solid body, and she settled there.
He whispered in her ear. This is a possible future. It is not set in stone, not a surety, just a possibility. There are many possibilities.
His arms tightened around her. He picked her up, off her feet, and spun her around.
And she found herself facing a graveyard, looking at a row of headstones. Ryder Duncan was there.
So was Echo Raintree.
Chapter 12
Rye walked across deserted green fields. It was a path he’d walked many times in past years. Echo had gone back to her rented room to catch a nap between shifts. He had a million things to do, but he needed to see his daughter in the flesh.
The thatched-roof cottage that had been Cassidy’s home for her entire life sat on an emerald-green hill an easy half hour’s walk from Cloughban. The cottage was small but sturdy, a safe home for a very special girl and her grandmother.
When Cassidy was older and had better control over her abilities, maybe she and Bryna could move to town. Until then, until she’d made it safely through puberty, he didn’t dare it. It was a risk enough to allow her to see anyone other than him and his mother-in-law, but he knew complete isolation would not be good for her.
She normally went to school, but had not been lately. Everyone in town was determined to protect Cassidy from the Raintree. His daughter had friends, but even though those friends all had gifts, they were not in the same class as Cassidy. Not even close. They were gifted. She was exceptional.
The villagers were also determined to protect the stones, which was the reason the book about Cloughban had been snatched from Echo’s hand. It was a shared fear that the stones would be discovered. That others, gifted and not, would flock here in droves. That the roads would be widened to allow for buses filled with foreign visitors to gawk and stare, to touch and take photographs. The very idea was a nightmare to those who had found peace in this village.
The stones were sacred. They were not meant to be a tourist attraction.
Bryna knew he was coming; she always did. Rye got the evil eye as he walked through the front door. That was the norm, too. He couldn’t blame her.
Cassidy ran toward him; she threw herself into his arms. “Da!” she said in an excited voice. “I’ve missed you.”
Neither of them mentioned the early-morning visit. Bryna did not approve of Cassidy’s out-of-body excursions. Neither did he—they were potentially dangerous—but that was a talk they’d have in private. Later.
Bryna didn’t miss much, but her granddaughter had the ability to hide whatever she wished to hide.
Cassidy grinned at her grandmother without letting Rye go. “Da has a girlfriend. She’s very pretty.”
“It isn’t polite to snoop into other people’s thoughts,” Bryna said sourly.
“But, Granny, sometimes I can’t help it. Sometimes the thoughts just scream at me.”
True, Rye thought as he watched the two of them interact. Echo’s thoughts were so strong, so clear. Were his own the same? He hoped not.
Bryna’s expression softened. “I know, ma chroi, but you must try.”
Cassidy nodded and turned her attention back to Rye. “Can we go for a walk? Can we visit the stones?”
Rye nodded. “Fetch your jumper. It’s nippy out.”
Cassidy nodded and ran for her room, and that’s when Bryna turned her hard attention on Rye.
“A girlfriend, eh?”
Their past had been difficult, that was inescapabl
e, but love for Cassidy brought them together and kept them together. The past was the past; Cassidy was the future. “It’s nothing serious,” he said. “Just a fling.”
Bryna scoffed. “Well, that’s too bad. It’s past time you moved on. Sybil’s been gone nine years. That’s long enough for you to be alone. More than long enough. A woman would be good for you, I imagine.”
Anxious to change the subject, Rye said, “What about you? Your husband has been gone many more than nine years.”
She almost smiled. The corners of her mouth twitched. “James McManus calls on me now and again, usually while Cassidy is at school.” A snort followed that statement. “Which means I have not seen him lately. The Raintree lass has put a damper on my love life.”
Love life? “He calls on you?”
Bryna lifted her chin. “That’s all you need to know.”
And more than he needed or wanted to know.
The conversation ended when Cassidy appeared, wearing sweater and boots and shouting, “Let’s go, Da, let’s go!”
Rye’s heart swelled when he looked at his daughter. He had never known a love like it and never would again. She was his world, his reason for existing. She was also the reason Echo Raintree could not stay in Cloughban.
* * *
The thought of a coffee and pastry from the shop on the square drew Echo out of her rented room. She looked at the pub as she walked past and wondered what Ryder was doing at this moment. He should be taking a nap. She should be sleeping herself!
She’d tried to go back to sleep after she’d awakened from her disturbing dream, she really had, but her mind had been spinning and sleep would not come.
She was tempted to check the door to the pub to see if it was locked, maybe climb the stairs and slip into Ryder’s bed...
No. It was not the time to be impulsive. She’d been impulsive all her life! This thing with Ryder was happening too fast, and she needed to think. Right now she was wrapped up in emotion, almost giddy with what she’d found. Emotion would only hold her for so long. Before this went any further, she needed to examine the pros and cons.
Raintree: Oracle Page 11