Though his language wasn’t hers, her Fae blood allowed her to understand him. In most of his lives, he spoke Irish Gaelic, but this time it was Scottish Gaelic because his soul now resided in Scotland.
As always, she wished she could help him. That the women he loved saw him as she saw him. But they never did. And as always, as each lifetime passed, she fell in love with him and had to watch him die then wait for him to be reborn.
Over and over.
An endless cycle.
“Just give it time,” she assured him in one of his many lives, wishing she could touch him. Wishing her hand didn't pass right through him. But alas, Fae were not allowed to touch humans. For if something so unnatural happened, there would be consequences.
“Once she gets to know ye,” she said, “she will see what I see and never want to let ye go.”
He offered her a sad but hopeful smile. “Ye really think so?”
“Aye.” She smiled in return, speaking with his accent. “I dinnae doubt it in the least, my friend.”
She never told him that the women he loved would never love him back but remained by his side whenever she could, a friend to the end. Even this time, when years later, he lay on his deathbed.
Yet this go round, she sensed he had changed.
Not sad to say goodbye but eager to be reborn and see her again.
“Ye’re sure then?” he murmured. “We will meet again? I willnae lose ye?”
“Nay,” she vowed, resting her hand beside his on the bed. The closest they could ever be. “I will find ye and be there for ye always.”
“Then I shall die in peace,” he whispered, his heart in his eyes. “For I love ye dearly, lass. I always have.”
He had never said that in any life, and she cherished it, not caring that it wasn't the type of love she sought. That it was but the love of a friend rather than a soulmate.
“Aye, I love ye too, friend,” she murmured because she did with all her heart.
“I dinnae think ye ken.” He rested his hand over hers. “I am in love with ye, lass. I have been for—”
Sadly, his life faded away before he finished his sentence, leaving her not only startled but heartbroken. Had he just said what she thought he said? Could it be possible? Her vision blurred with tears, and her gaze fell to his hand.
He was actually touching her.
“Oh, my love,” she whispered, threading her fingers with his, feeling him for the very first time. She hung her head and cried, as the last of his warmth seeped away.
The memory faded only to be replaced with another.
She once again flitted through the trees, waiting for him to be reborn.
She’d never been so excited as she was this time. Would he remember what he had said? How he’d felt? That they had touched? If so, would he love her again? Touch her again?
She was so lost in thought she barely realized she had zoomed over a seaside castle until she heard the wail of a newborn and froze.
“’Tis ye,” she exclaimed. “Ye have returned, my love!”
Bursting with excitement, she flew down, zinged over the drawbridge and moat, twirled through the courtyard unseen, then raced up the castle wall. She popped from window to window until she skidded to a halt outside one.
Having just handed a swaddled babe to a handsome highlander, a woman smiled at him and murmured, “He looks just like his da.”
Seeing through the eyes of her former faery, Chloe was shocked by what she saw. How familiar the man looked. The colors of the plaid in which the newborn was swaddled.
“Aye, he does look like me,” the man rumbled, peering at his son with love and adoration.
“Might I hold my great-grandson too?” came an all-too-familiar voice from the doorway. “Might I hold wee Aidan?”
She blinked, startled, as the pieces clicked together, and she finally understood.
Better yet, she remembered everything.
Chapter Twenty-Six
DREAMS CAME AND went, all of Chloe in his previous lives. Sometimes he was a wee lad, other times old then others somewhere in between. Each and every time, when he fell in love, she coached him along, helping him to woo the lass who stole his heart. But he never did, and she was always there.
His faery and closest friend.
Again and again, over and over until one day, it all changed.
They had been chatting as they always did about one thing or another until she asked about the lass he loved. So he told her of his undying devotion only to realize when she smiled, coaching him on how best to win his lass’s heart, he wasn’t quite listening.
Rather, he stared at her, suddenly wondering a great many things.
Why had he never noticed how beautiful her sparkling eyes were? How gloriously her strawberry blonde locks shined? How selfless and charming she was? How utterly lovely both inside and out?
Suffice it to say, from that day forward, things would never be the same.
Though he pretended to go about pursuing the lass he supposedly loved, he fell head over heels in love with his closest friend. While he meant to tell her time and time again, he was too shy, or the moment was never quite right.
Not until the day he lay dying and knew they were almost out of time.
He finally looked into her beautiful eyes one last time and told her, all the while, eager for his next life. Knowing without question that the love he felt for her would never diminish.
Then all faded away until fresh memories surfaced.
A new life.
Though only a newborn, he remembered staring up into the sparkling eyes of an enchanting creature. She came to him whenever he was alone, a constant companion as he grew. She was there holding his hand when he toddled then when he formed his first words. Nobody else saw her, but she was there, holding him when he cried, laughing when he laughed. He was so enchanted with memories of her as they wisped in and out of his dreams, that he didn’t catch how familiar his surroundings were at first.
Until one particular memory stopped him short.
“Ye need a name,” he had said, no more than three or so and not able to form words all that well. “Every faery should have a name.”
“As I have told ye many times before my wee one,” she said kindly, “I have a name, but ‘tis impossible for humans to pronounce.”
“But, I am a wizard.”
“Ye are indeed.” She smiled and shook her head. “But no creature, even wizards, can pronounce it. Though quite quick to say for my fellow faeries, ‘tis nearly a hundred syllables long in yer language.”
He cocked his head. “What is a syllable?”
She proceeded to explain what it was only for him to sigh and shake his head. “That doesnae sound right at all.” He considered her, taking in the way her skin seemed to possess its own radiance. Inner light. It seemed ‘glowy,’ and he told her as much. Of course, his made-up word didn’t come out quite right. “I shall call ye how ye appear. Chloe!”
Startled, his eyes shot open, and the dream snapped shut.
At the same moment, Chloe gasped and jolted awake.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, sitting up.
Shocked, he sat up as well, trying to gather his thoughts.
Her teary gaze met his eyes in the early morning light. “I remember everything...all of it.”
As their gazes held, he began to as well.
“I remember falling in love with you, then finally being with you.” He cupped her cheek, astounded. “Not in any previous life but this one...the one I’m living now.”
“Yes,” she whispered, leaning into his touch. “For the first time since I met you, your appearance reflected how you looked on the inside. So very handsome.” She pressed her lips together for a moment, emotional while she remembered. “As it turns out, even arch-wizards as powerful as Grant and Adlin can’t see faeries.” She shook her head. “Because nobody knew I existed even within your thoughts.”
“And as it was in every life, I never told
anyone about you,” he said softly, recalling with startling clarity how deeply he had loved her. First, much like it had been for Tiernan loving Julie, it was the love of a child for an adult who cared for them. Then it became so much more as he grew older.
“I remember sitting with you on a cliff overlooking the sea,” he mused, wondering how he could have forgotten this. Forgotten her. He smiled, recalling the amber of her sparkling eyes. How despite being delicately tilted at the corners, they rounded when she jested with him. Just like they did in this life when her curiosity sparked.
This sort of thing happened on occasion. Reincarnates took on a similar experience to their previous life. Sometimes they even had a similar if not the same name. It seems that applied to faeries becoming humans as well. That he had named her warmed his heart.
“You were teasing me about a lass that day,” he murmured, wondering why this memory stood out. Until that is, Chloe replied.
“I was teasing you, wasn’t I?” A flicker of confusion and worry crossed her face when she figured it out. “Oh, no...the woman I teased you about liking...”
“Bloody hell,” he whispered when it came to him. “’Twas Maeve!”
“It was,” she murmured, upset. “When it seemed you didn’t remember loving me, I assumed you never would. So I waited for the inevitable. Who would you ultimately love so fiercely this time?” Her voice grew hoarse with emotion. “How would I bear coaching you how to approach her when I knew no woman would turn you away? Not when so many already wanted you.”
“So when Maeve visited the castle,” he said softly. “You thought she would be the lass.”
His heart went out to her for the sadness she must have felt. Yet he knew full well she had no reason to dread. His heart had always been hers.
Or at least it should have been.
“I had seen the affect she had on Cray and thought for sure when you two met, she would be it.” She bit her lip and groaned. “Oh, no, Cray.” She braced her forehead in her hand. “I saw it...I saw what they shared yet still...”
She trailed off, mortified.
“What is it, lass?” He wrapped his arm around her, trying to offer comfort. “What happened?”
“I didn’t realize...” She shook her head. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I was warned about my love for you. That there would be repercussions if I touched you...If I let things go too far.”
The stone in her Claddagh ring didn’t just flash with color but shined the color of his eyes as her memories became his. Everything became heartbreakingly clear as he relived lost moments. Ones magically stolen from him because of Fae magic.
“I told ye that whilst Maeve is verra nice and a catch indeed, she isnae the lass for me, Chloe,” he insisted, following her into the woodland. “Nor will she ever be.”
“Are ye quite sure?” She touched trees in passing, their trunks sparkling in her wake as she played coy. “She is lovely, and ye have not been taken with any lass yet where usually ye are by now.”
“I didnae say I wasnae taken with a lass.”
That’s when it happened.
He reached out for her hand to stop her, forgetting she was untouchable, only to feel her soft hand in his. Startled, they looked at their adjoined hands, and it came rushing back. He remembered what had been lost to him.
This had happened before.
He had placed his hand over hers in his last life.
This wasn’t the first time he had loved her.
“Och, lass,” he swore under his breath as their eyes met. Dozens of lifetimes narrowed down to that single moment. A great divide was finally crossed. “Why did ye not remind me?”
Before she could answer, he pulled her into his arms, cupped her cheek, and finally kissed her.
After that, there was little hope for them. Within moments, their love for one another blossomed into something untouchable. Something that, as true love could, swept them off their feet and consumed them. Their past infiltrated their present.
There was simply no stopping what happened between them.
They knew there would be consequences. While he tried to turn away so that she didn’t lose her immortality, in the end, he couldn’t any more than she could. They were helplessly in love and lost in their own world. Before they knew it, they found themselves where most did when they felt this strongly.
Loving each other in every sense of the word.
Though they knew it would change everything, that she would lose her immortality, she was willing. She wanted a life with him far more than being able to live forever. And him? He wanted her any way he could have her.
“That’s why I felt virginal the first time we had sex,” she murmured. “Because I was and must have sensed it. I must’ve remembered the sensation without understanding where it came from.”
“Aye,” he replied, understanding. “You first found me when you were fairly young.” He shook his head. “Then never slept with one of your kind afterward.”
“How could I?” she whispered. “When I only wanted you?”
So alas, they finally lay together in the woodland, and it had been perfect.
Coming together beneath the shelter of an old oak, their love translated into passion neither could have imagined. The grass beneath them sparkled like her eyes as did the tree overhead. Despite no wind, sparkling leaves danced about, as if applauding their union. It almost felt like the tree had watched them over the centuries, waiting for them to come together at last. She was a creature of the forest, though, and all trees were interconnected, so it probably had.
Yet as forewarned after they came together, there were consequences.
What they did not know, perhaps nobody did, was how dire those would be.
But then, she only knew what they said about faeries touching a human, not a wizard, never mind an arch-wizard. And she certainly didn’t know what further consequences there might be for lying with one.
It had never been done and likely never would be again.
For as they held each other under the tree after making love, those consequences began to unravel. As foretold, she lost her immortality, her features changing from that of a faery into a human. Not surprisingly, one who didn’t look all that different than how she appeared now. While they rejoiced in her humanity, looking forward to a normal life together, they soon discovered how very short that would be.
“At last,” her former self had said, cuddling against him. “We finally get...”
She trailed off, alarmed when he went too still. When ice filled his veins, and he became cold to the touch. He could not speak nor feel his lips.
Then he could no longer breathe.
“Aidan,” she cried, trying to rouse him only to go very still when sunlight cut through the branches overhead, and the forest went silent.
Caught betwixt the land of the dead and living, he saw a glorious woman appear over them, part of the sunlight itself.
Goddess Étaín.
Though Chloe spoke to the goddess, he couldn’t hear what was said. He could, however, see the heart-wrenching emotions on his lass’s face. See the love in her teary eyes when her gaze returned to him.
“I love you,” she whispered. Her crimson highlights were afire in the setting sun. “I will always love you.”
She touched his cheek, and the world grew dimmer and dimmer until everything faded away. When he awoke, alive and well, she was gone.
As was all memory of her.
“Dire consequences indeed,” he whispered, returning to the present.
He met Chloe’s eyes, so in love with her, it hurt. “’Twas as you said along our journey. Lives were sacrificed. We just didnae know to what extent until now.” He cupped the side of her neck, emotional, understanding what she had done. “You lost your immortality, and I was supposed to have lost my life, but you wouldnae allow it.”
“Never,” she whispered. “I gave my human life for yours then exchanged the chance Étaín gave me to return to the Fae for y
ou having a life of love like you deserved.” She pressed her lips together, just as emotional. “It could no longer be me, so it became Maeve.”
Moments later, it sounded like Cray figured out the same thing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
THOUGH AIDAN TOLD her to stay put and let him handle this, she did no such thing when Cray pounded on their door, roaring mad. Instead, she scrambled into her dress as Aidan wrapped his plaid around his waist, grabbed the Viking sword, and stood on the other side of the door.
“I willnae open this door until you calm down, Cousin,” Aidan warned. “You’ll not harm my lass.”
“Ye’re lass,” Cray growled, muttering a slew of curses, his brogue so thick she barely understood him. But his rage translated just fine. “Ye’re lass took Maeve from me! Took who should have been my wife from me! Any future bairns we would have had from me!”
“Och,” Aidan muttered under his breath. He looked at Chloe, shook his head, and spoke softly. “There’s no reasoning with him when he gets like this normally, let alone when his dragon’s repressed.” He flinched, evidently sensing more. “Nor when he cannae lie with a lass because your friend doesnae keep quiet about her opinion on the matter.”
She frowned, still hardly believing Madison was in Cray’s head that much. More so, that she was interfering with his sex life. Had this been any other situation, she might have laughed. Mainly because it was so damn hard to picture. Then again, while Madison wasn’t necessarily a prude, she was more reserved than most. So just maybe if she found herself in Cray’s mind, she might have a word or two to say about him sleeping with a woman he’d known for mere minutes.
Still, Madison tended to be a little timid when it came to men. In fact, before Chloe caught her discreetly checking out Tiernan then Aidan, she was starting to wonder if Madison was even interested in the opposite sex. Now she was in Cray’s mind counseling him on his sex life of all things? She couldn’t imagine it any more than she could imagine Madison being able to deal with the moody, short-tempered MacLeod when they met in person.
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