Born In Water

by Sarah Hegger

  Dust and sand sprayed as the tires hit the side of the road. The Landy rocked on its axle and recovered.

  And then it all stopped as the wards brushed Bronwyn’s skin.

  Alexander slumped on the floor.

  She scrambled to his side. He had no heartbeat. Her ear next to his mouth gave her no breath sounds.

  “No.” She refused to give up. She had lost so many people in her life, too many. If she was this powerful healer, then it had to count for something now when she needed it most.

  Roderick was out before the Landy had fully stopped. He hauled Alexander’s limp body over his shoulder.

  Bronwyn stayed right behind them, taking the stairs to the caverns three at a time.

  Alexander’s head lolled from side to side over Roderick’s back, but there was no time for gentleness.

  Goddess Pool was pale, milky lavender.

  Crashing into it, Roderick dropped Alexander in the water.

  Sloshing in after them, Bronwyn reached for Alexander and held him suspended in the water. “How do I do this?” She looked at Roderick. He had to have the answer. “How do I heal him?”

  “I don’t know.” Roderick shrugged and touched his fore and middle fingers to her breastbone. “Listen to what your power tells you.”

  “Trust your instinct,” Deidre whispered.

  How long had Alexander been without air? He didn’t have time for her to work this out. “Goddess!” Her voice rang through the caverns. “Wherever you are. If you’re even there. I need you.”

  Roderick’s harsh breathing, or maybe it was hers broke the silence.

  Niamh and Maeve stood by the side of the pool, arms around each other. Mags ran in with Sinead and Alannah behind her.

  “Your magic,” Maeve shouted. “Reach for it.”

  Bronwyn yanked for her magic. Honey and sage filled the air. “Please, Goddess. I need to save him.”

  Alexander’s hair floated like seaweed around his head.

  “Child.” So soft she nearly missed it

  “Mother.” Bronwyn reached for the voice. Words she had never known popped into her head. “Mother, in water I come to you, in water I serve you, in water bind me to you.”

  Light flared beneath the pool, lavender darkening into purple and finally changing into cobalt blue so pure it almost hurt to look at it. “Blessed, you are mine. You are of me and I am of you.”

  Blue light surrounded her, sliding through her and around her, holding her in its nascent power. It burst through her pores razor sharp and pure, and Bronwyn screamed. Blue light surged out from the pool in blinding glory, swallowing Roderick and then Maeve and Niamh. It reached Mags, and she smiled as it enveloped her and went on to surround Alannah and Sinead.

  “In water are you born, child, and water is born through you.”

  A chime rang through the caverns, so clear it hurt the ears.

  Honey and sage swelled to her command and Bronwyn gathered it and pushed it into Alexander. It surged through his veins to his still and broken heart. Bronwyn pulled water and the power galloped through her, almost too strong to control.

  “Hold it.” Roderick’s voice reached her as if from down a long tunnel. “The power of water is yours to control and channel, don’t let it take you over.”

  It was hers. It responded to her touch. Bronwyn ripped the dark, roiling manacles away from Alexander’s heart. They surged into her and through her and shriveled and died as she shoved them into Goddess Pool.

  Then she eased up and used gentle, precision arrows of her gift to knit the broken flesh together, to repair the torn arteries and clear the spilled blood from Alexander’s heart chambers.

  His heart contracted and grew dark red with fresh, healing blood.

  Alexander’s heart beat. Once, twice, and then fell into a rhythm. His lungs filled with air and he took a breath.

  “Let it go.” Roderick cupped her elbow.

  Bronwyn’s knees buckled as she let the power rush away from her.

  Roderick supported her as she almost collapsed and sank beneath the sparkling blue water.

  “Look.” Maeve stared at the cavern walls in wonder. “Water lives.”

  All around the caverns, blue crystals flickered into life and glowed. There were large dark areas on the cavern walls where crystals still lay dormant but for today, they could celebrate the waking of water. One of the four elements was alive.

  Along with Rhiannon’s son.

  Alexander had dragged himself to the side of the pool and lay on his back looking at the crystals. He turned to look at her and smiled. “Little water witch. You did it.” He wheezed a chuckle. “Mummy dearest is going to be so pissed off.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Bronwyn opened the door to the healer’s hall and walked inside. The astringent smell of herbs comforted her. What fun she and Deidre would have had in there. She trailed her fingers over the worn wooden surface of the big central table.

  Her power rested like a slumbering dragon within her. In the two days following her waking water and bonding herself to Goddess, she had only begun to explore her gift.

  Piled up in the center of the table was the stack of books Roderick had carried in for her. Some of them ancient with their covers embossed in precious gems. She was almost afraid to open them, but she would open them and discover all the knowledge of her craft. So many healers had come before her and written their knowledge in these books. Her family had died not knowing anything about Baile, or the cré-witches or their blessing as healers. She owed it to them to be the healer they hadn’t been able to be.

  Maeve had told her the healers had been fascinated by all aspects of healing and had been as interested in making cures as they had in using their abilities. These books would only open for another healer.

  She reached for water—its response was instantaneous and sweet—and touched her hand to the top book. The clasp released on a soft click, and Bronwyn opened the book.

  A Study of the Persistent Problem of Warts.

  “Hey.” Alexander stood in the doorway.

  She’d left him in the kitchen, trying to weigh in on the raging argument about which element they woke next.

  Roderick’s assertion that Goddess would decide had done nothing to quell the argument. Maeve and Niamh were fighting for fire to be activated, Sinead and Alannah going for earth. Mags sat in the middle smiling mistily into a mug of tea, like she knew what came next, which she probably did.

  “Hi.” She felt awkward around Alexander. So much had happened between them that she was confused, pulled in so many different directions.

  Strolling in, he looked around him. “So this is the healer’s hall. I heard about this place.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “It used to make Rhiannon froth at the mouth. The first healer, Deidre, and Rhiannon never got on well.”

  Her Deidre would have gotten a kick out of her name being the same as the first healer. Bronwyn kept her tone light. Rhiannon squatted like a steaming pile of offal between them. “Who would have thought anyone could disagree with your mother’s winning personality?”

  He winced. “It’s been a long time since I’ve thought of her as my mother.”

  “Sorry.” She did understand, but she couldn’t pretend the connection between him and Rhiannon didn’t exist. “Will you stay in Baile?”

  “If I want to keep breathing, I don’t have much choice for now.” He shrugged. “Baile is the only place I’m safe from her.” He looked so melancholy, staring out the large window to the sea.

  “Is that what you want?”

  “I want many things, little witch.” He looked at her, his eyes holding the wisdom of his hundreds of years of life. “For the first time in longer than I can remember, I want something badly enough to wait for it.”

  The truth of their feelings for each other sat unacknowledged between them. “Even if you can’t be sure you’ll ever get that thing?”

  “I have time.” His swagge
ring smirk appeared, and he cocked his head. “And I’ve been assured I am an extremely persuasive and patient man.”

  Maeve found Roderick standing in the central cavern, examining the sigils. He sensed her there through the bond.

  “Water is awake.” She stood beside him and shared his appreciation for the gentle blue glow of the water crystals. “Any change to Goddess or Baile.”

  “Alexander tells me Goddess will strengthen as our witches use more magic.” He grimaced. “I cannot credit that I just spoke thus of Alexander.”

  His disgruntled expression drew a laugh out of her. “Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  “I would have said impossible.” Turning, he looked down at her, his gaze warm. “Baile feels more alive each day.”

  “Good.” The look in his eyes disconcerted her and made her shy. She could peer into his heart through the bond, but that felt intrusive and wrong. “What happens next?”

  Raising her hand, he kissed it. “Take a stroll with me, Blessed?”

  “Why?” Had she missed something important that he needed to tell her? Her hand still tingled from the imprint of his mouth.

  Laughing, he placed her hand on his arm. “Because the day is beautiful and balmy, and I want to take a stroll in the sunshine with a lovely woman.”

  “Oh.” When he put it like that, it made perfect sense, and there was nothing more she’d rather do.

  Arm in arm they left the caverns and took the stairs down to the beach. With the tide out, the sliver of sand, golden in the warm sun, invited them to join it.

  The sea was languid and the air still. Gulls swooped and dived from the boulders, arguing noisily with each other. Beneath her feet, the sand was warm and the sun gentle on her head.

  Where the tide reached its highest point, Roderick stopped and tugged her in front of him. Wrapping her in his arms, he pressed her back against his chest.

  Matching her breathing to his, Maeve let the welcome warmth and comfort of him surround her.

  In the day’s beauty and peace, it was almost possible to forget the still looming threat. “What happens now?”

  “Now we enjoy the sunshine.” Roderick’s voice rumbled through her. “When we return to the castle, we will have to find the cardinal point for fire and discover how to wake it.”

  She nodded but stayed where she was. “Fire as the next point makes sense. I need to spirit walk, find what answers and help I can amongst the witches past.”

  Waves frothed closer to their feet, and a playful breeze tugged at her hair.

  “I regret Edana,” Roderick said. “But I cannot change the past.”

  “I know.” She sighed because she hadn’t been fair to him about that. When he and Edana had been bedfellows, none of what they now knew had yet revealed itself.

  “You were not my first witch.” Roderick’s deep voice blended with the whisper of the waves. “But you will be my last, Maeve.”

  “How can you know that?” Her heart beat erratically as he came closer to acknowledging what lay between them.

  Roderick chuckled. “You know how I know that Maeve, because you can see into the deepest part of me.” He rested his cheek atop her head. “But for now, let us be a man and a woman together on this beautiful day. Nothing more.”

  “Just a man and a woman on the beach,” she said. “Nothing more.”

  Roderick tightened his arms about her. “For now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Bronwyn padded through the great hall with only moonlight to guide her. She pushed open the barrack’s door and entered.

  “Blessed.” Thomas materialized in front of her. “You are well?”

  “I’m well.” Her magic coursed inside her, ever present, a living part of her that she couldn’t imagine now being without.

  Thomas smiled. “You are strong in your power, Healer. I feel we will have more need of you before we are done.”

  She nodded, because as much as she didn’t want to acknowledge it, she knew he was right. “We need more Rodericks.”

  “Anything is possible.” Thomas smirked and drifted away.

  Roderick’s door was open, but he wasn’t in his room, and his bed was still made. He didn’t admit it, but the big guy was no fonder of sleeping than Maeve was, and the two of them often spent their nights together.

  Light glowed from the doorway beside Roderick’s, and that’s where she was headed. There was so little certainly around them, and it really left her with no good options but to follow Dee’s advice. Her gut had kept her alive this long, and she would need to trust it more and more in the days to come.

  Alexander stood with his back to the door, staring into the night. “You should be sleeping.”

  “So should you.” She joined him by the window.

  Twinkling village lights ended in the dark mass of the sea.

  They’d never spoken about what had happened in that cottage, and it poisoned the air between them. Alexander’s guilt writhed like living flame. It had taken her a few days to process it, but making her pact with Goddess had helped heal her pain.

  Bronwyn put her hand between his shoulder blades. Her magic quested for his heart, swirling around his previous injury, searching for residual damage.

  A soft smile tilted his mouth as he looked down at her. “I’m fine.”

  “I know.” She smiled back. The low light from a bedside lamp loved on the clean, aquiline lines of his beautiful face. Rhiannon had succeeded in making a nearly irresistible man. “We should talk.”

  “Three words no man relishes.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the view.

  Bronwyn took that as a sign he was listening. “I don’t blame you,” she said. “For what happened, for what she forced you to do.”

  “Really?” He scoffed. “Because you should.”

  “Really?” She’d let him explain why she should.

  “You know you should.” He hunched his shoulders. “I knew what was happening, and you didn’t. You were mine to protect, and I failed you.”

  “That doesn’t make you responsible for me.” Yeah, this medieval man thing had its drawbacks. “I belong to me, and I am responsible for my safety.”

  “Indeed.” He didn’t believe a word of what she’d said, and they needed to work on that. “It might have been better had Roderick left me there.”

  Pain pierced her chest and robbed her of breath. “No.”

  “For as long as I am alive, you are not safe.” He finally turned to look at her. In his eyes, she read a torment so long and soul-felt it made her want to cry.

  She did the next best thing and put her arms around him. “Don’t say that. Your dying is no longer an option.”

  “Little witch.” He cradled her face. “You and I can’t be together. You must know that.”

  She was so tired of people telling her what she could do, and what she couldn’t. This beautiful man had appeared in her life like a blessing, and then it had all turned nasty. She hadn’t even had the chance to enjoy him before everything went to crap.

  Strangely, all the players in this drama agreed one thing: Alexander was hers, and she was his. But she was also tired of everyone—including some ridiculous prophecy—telling her what life looked like and what she should and should not do.

  “I’ll tell you what I know.” She covered his hands with hers. “I know you had ample opportunity to get into my bed. I wanted you there, and you could have had me at any point, yet you didn’t.” Rising to her toes, she looped her arms around his neck. “I know that you almost died trying to protect me from her and trying to fight her.” She pressed her face to his warm, smooth neck and inhaled the unique scent of him. “And I know I’ve never felt anything close to this with anyone else, and I don’t believe I ever will.”

  “That could be the prophecy talking.” His expression gentled, and his gaze warmed.

  “It could be.” Bronwyn brought her body flush with his. “It could be a lot of things, but putting labels on things seems
truly counterproductive right now.”

  His hands gripped her hips and his voice sounded rougher as he said, “We cannot take chances with the prophecy. If you and I lie together, we will create a child.”

  “About that.” She gave in to temptation and kissed the underside of his jaw. “I know something the prophecy couldn’t possibly predict.”

  He groaned and pressed her closer to him. “What’s that?”

  “Durex.” She positioned her mouth over his. “Birth control.”

  Heat flared in his eyes, and a flicker of hope. “It may not work. I’ve seen stranger things happen.”

  “I’m also on the pill.” She touched her lips to his. “Got any more thoughts you want to discuss?”

  He lifted her off her feet and headed for the bed. “Not at this precise moment.”

  Lowering her to the bed, he came down beside her. Gently, he brushed the hair from her face. “You are so lovely.”

  “You’re biased.” She was pretty enough, but with him looking at her like she was the center of the world, she felt beautiful. Tugging his head down to hers, she kissed him.

  Unlike their other kisses, this one was tentative and unsure, as if they were both waiting for something.

  His tongue touched her bottom lip and she opened for him.

  Still, he was hesitant as he explored her mouth. Beneath her hands, his muscle was taut with controlled tension. He was holding back, because of her.

  She broke the kiss and slid her hands into the silky hair at his nape. “I want this.”

  “I don’t want to frighten you.” His eyes were dark with concern.

  “I know.” Bronwyn shifted and rolled them over. “I’m not frightened.”

  Taking control of the kiss, she let her reaction to him catch fire and burn. She kissed him like she had wanted to from the first moment she had seen him.

  Alexander groaned and caught her buttocks in his hands. “Bronwyn, be sure?”

  “I’m sure.” She pressed against his growing erection. “I’m more sure than I’ve been of anything in my life.”