Chapter 17

Aveline hadn't gone to the outer wall even though that was what she had told Ronan. Instead, she waited in the shadows just past the gate until she was positive all but the night guards had gone to their beds. Worrisome guilt nagged at her. She hated lying to anyone but most especially to her favorite brother. He was just now trusting her again, and she feared losing that precious trust once more.

After one last glance back into the silent gardens and at the keep's darkened windows, she hurried to the large, round cobblestone that served as a secret lever to open the wall to the hidden escape passage. It took both her hands and swinging the full weight of her slight body back and forth to make the lever move enough to activate the mechanism. The hidden door finally shifted with a long, low grinding.

She grabbed the sputtering torch from its iron hook and eased down the treacherous steps, made slick with black moss and dark, green lichens. At the base of the stairs, she set her shoulder against the next lever and shoved as hard as she could. A raspy clicking rewarded her efforts. She held her breath as the entrance to the last passage appeared.

With the torch held low to light the damp stairway, she did her best to avoid touching the walls as she descended. The wet chill of the passageway sent a shiver through her. The deeper she descended into the very bowels of Castle MacKay, the more cloying the moldy air became. "Almost there," she said to herself as she pulled her plaid tighter around her shoulders. "And all will be well. The goddess will understand." But the nauseating worry knotted like a stone in the pit of her stomach tightened even more.

At the end of the staircase, she searched for the second torch she knew to be there. With a touch from the torch about to go out, the new torch sprang to life and filled the cavernous room with eerie shadows. It opened into the mouth of an underground bay. The water shimmered like a pool of blackness. Her wise MacKay ancestors hadn't been foolhardy enough to believe their castle impenetrable. So, they had connected their fortress to a cavern that led to the sea. To ensure a safe escape if the MacKays were ever attacked, trusted clan members kept several small boats at the ready at the water's edge. This was the quickest and most secretive way Aveline could think of to contact the sea goddess.

She retrieved the conch shell she kept hidden in the cave and filled it with seawater. With it held high overhead, she closed her eyes and silently called out to the sea, imploring the goddess to grant her another visit. Nothing happened. She opened one eye and checked to be certain. "Please, Clíodhna, please come to me," she whispered.

She opened both eyes this time, fueling her call with every ounce of her power. Finally, the waves within the cavern rippled with an eerie strength and deposited a swirling puddle of sea foam at her feet. The goddess slowly rose from the froth, twisting into her human form.

"What is it, child?" Clíodhna asked. "I not only heard yer cry but also felt yer worry. Have ye forgotten how we plan to make everything right? We've not much longer to wait now. The equinox is nearly upon us."

Aveline found herself mesmerized by the goddess's soothing voice, quiet and shushing like water trickling across stones. She shook herself free of the foggy haze, blinking hard to concentrate. "Everything has changed. Ronan and Harley are to marry. Nothing must be done." She clasped her hands, squeezing them tightly together as if in prayer. "Please, mighty goddess. Please forgive me for troubling ye, but all is well. Mistress Harley has found happiness in this time. She needs to stay here."

Goddess Clíodhna arched her silvery brows high above her stormy eyes that grew darker by the moment. She gracefully floated along the water's edge, but the foam at her feet churned into angry, frothing bubbles. "And why would ye think that Mistress Harley's happiness is any concern of mine?"

"What?" Aveline went still and an icy dread tightened its fingers around her heart.

The Goddess Clíodhna"s essence surged large and powerful, filling the cave and making the waves crash against the stones. "Are ye daft?" She drew her frighteningly beautiful face closer and bared her pointed teeth. "I asked why would ye think that mortal's happiness is any concern of mine? Nothing has changed, Aveline. All will proceed as planned. The woman goes back to the future, and Ronan returns to me."

Aveline bowed and clenched her hands tighter, lifting them in supplication. "Please forgive me. But Ronan and Harley have found love. To separate them now would be truly wrong."

The goddess's menacing laugh echoed through the cave and became deafening as she trailed an icy, wet finger along Aveline's cheek. "Since when are ye concerned with what is right and what is wrong? It didna stop ye from meddling with the fabric of time in the first place to change another's fate—now did it?"

"I…I…should not have done that," Aveline stammered, forcing herself not to stand tall as Goddess Clíodhna"s cold, angry face hovered mere inches from her own.

"Then we must make it right. Do ye not agree?" The goddess arched a brow and bared her teeth again in a sinister smile. "We must return everything to the way it was before." Her eyes narrowed into malicious slits. "The woman goes back, and Ronan returns to me. At the equinox, ye will cast the spell as planned."

"Please dinna make me do this, goddess. Please—I canna hurt my brother this way." Aveline dropped to her knees and rocked in place. "Ronan loves her so much. He will hate me forever if I tear her from his side."

Turning her back, Clíodhna slowly disappeared into the ebbing waves. "It shall be done, as we agreed. Call to me no more with yer troubles. The woman goes back to her time."

Aveline covered her face with both hands, choking on her uncontrollable sobs. May the devil take her straight to hell. Ronan would truly hate her now, and her family would never forgive her.

"Ye were quitecruel to my little one. I was tempted to strike ye down when her sobs filled the air." The deep voice vibrated through the cave as though the sea scolded the stones.

"Now, now, ye ken it is all part of the plan. We must subtly guide her to seek ye out. She must come to ye to stop me from my evil ways." Goddess Clíodhna"s laughter bubbled up through the cave's formations sprouting from its base.

A deep sigh ruffled the darkness, rippling the water into whitecaps and shoving the froth to the shore. "This mortal is special. Her powers are exceptional. I want her to choose me willingly.

"Aye, and ye ken as well I that Brid willna allow ye to take her unless she goes of her own free will. The mighty one protects the MacKays, and even though the child overstepped her bounds, Brid willna allow the family to suffer overmuch for those deeds." Goddess Clíodhna"s current form of bubbling sea foam floated on the crests of the waves.

"Brid knows what I feel for this mortal. She is nay against my joining with one so strong in the ways." A deep tidal pool appeared in the cavern, spinning the foam off the water's surface. "What do ye gain from this, Clíodhna? The mortal ye cherish no longer considers ye his only love."

Sea spray filled the air along with Clíodhna's knowing huff. "A mortal's love only lasts as long as the beating of his heart. Once his soul escapes his fragile body, his memory of me is lost. But if Ronan and his wife remember me to their children, sing tales of me down through the generations their love will create, then I will be adored forever as his goddess of the sea."

The tidal pool spun faster, as the rich voice echoed through the darkness. "Then let us hope these mortals play out this game as we plan, so that both of us can find the love and adoration we seek."