Chapter 18

Harley tried to ignore the strange smell in the room as she eased another spoonful of soup into Emrys's mouth. No stranger to the sometimes unmistakable scent of the elderly that could be a bracing mix of mentholated rubs, assorted breath mints, mothballs, and sometimes even horse liniment, she had to admit that Emrys's aroma had a tang all its own. Not only did it almost burn her eyes, but also made her nose hairs tingle. It was a strange, sinus-opening smell of vinegar, a hundred and twenty proof alcohol, and aromatic herb clippings that had to have come from the garlic family. She wiggled her nose to keep from sneezing.

"Ye can leave, if ye wish. I can take care of m'self."

"Absolutely not. You've not finished your lunch." She gave him a stern look along with another spoonful of broth.

The old soul had taken a chill a few days back and couldn't quite seem to shake it. From her experiences in the nursing home, she feared the worst for the white-haired druid whom she always thought of as a wizard. Rachel had told her Emrys had been ancient when he'd taken Caelan forward in time over twenty-eight years ago. As to how old he was now, Harley couldn't fathom a guess. She figured he must be at least in his seventies—and for this century—that was quite a feat.

"I am seven hundred and seventy-seven," he said, his eyes narrowing beneath his bushy white brows.

Harley paused with the spoon in mid-air. "That's impossible. And stop reading my mind. You know how rude that is."

Slumping deeper into his pillows, he wrinkled his nose at her. "Ye should know by now that nothing is impossible." He weakly thumped his chest. "I be the master druid and am an excellent cheater of time."

Harley set the bowl on the table beside the bed, sensing he had probably eaten all he could tolerate. She tossed her heavy braid behind one shoulder and eyed him, trying to gauge if he was telling the truth. "Why would anyone want to live that long? Didn't it break your heart to watch everyone you loved pass on?"

His unkempt mustache twitched upward into a shaggy smile. "Thank goodness Aveline chose a woman with some sense to bring love into her brother's life. Most think they want to live forever simply because they fear what's on the other side."

Harley leaned forward and took hold of Emrys's hand. Why do I feel you already know what's on the other side? Can you tell me what you've seen?"

With a wink, he brought a shaking finger to his lips. "Some knowledge can never be understood unless it is experienced firsthand. Why do ye think religion spawns such terrible wars? 'Tis because everything is so grossly misinterpreted."

She gently squeezed his hand. "What I understand is that you need to get better. Ronan and I want you to perform our wedding rites."

"If the goddess wills it, then it will be so. We must bide our time and see." His voice weakened and his eyelids fluttered as he struggled to stay awake. Tell Rachel to stop drugging my broth with herbs. I shall sleep when I damn…well…please." And then he cut loose with a rattling snore and a wheezing sigh from deep within his chest.

Unable to keep from smiling, Harley tucked his hand under the covers and pulled the blankets up to his chin. She truly hoped the old man would somehow conquer this ailment in time to bless the wedding ceremony.There was a priest from a nearby village who would gladly perform the wedding for the son of his laird, but it meant so much to Ronan to have the rites performed by the cantankerous old man he had known all his life—the one he loved like a grandfather.

She glanced around the room, grimacing at the contents of some of the jars on the shelves. A few of those bottles and crocks reminded her of the science lab she had avoided back at college. She wrinkled her nose and squinted at the scrawl of Latin on some of the labels.

As she pushed up from the stool and stretched, she glanced back at Emrys while wandering around the room.He might be weak, but she had no doubt he'd find the strength to scold her for snooping around his workroom and library.She meandered back to the farthest alcove and found herself in front of three of the largest mirrors she had ever seen. At least, she thought they were mirrors. The surfaces were as black as obsidian and polished smooth with a glossy shine. But it took her a few passes in front of them to realize that no reflection appeared inside the ancient frames. "Hmm…I'm not a vampire." She tried to peep behind them, but there wasn't enough space between them and the stone wall.

Each frame was different, intricately carved with eternal knots and symbols she didn't recognize. She admired the design on the frame of the mirror farthest to the right, barely tracing her fingertips along the unusual pattern. As soon as she touched the ornately decorated frame, the black surface of the mirror sprang to life. She backed up a step as faces appeared, then forgot to be frightened and leaned in closer, trying to make out who the people in the image might be. She caught a hand to her throat when she finally recognized Aveline as one of the figures at the center of the scene.

"What is this?" She squinted at the vision as Aveline placed herself between what appeared to be a furious woman and a couple standing so far back that Harley couldn't make out who they were. Ronan's sister appeared to be trying to shield the pair from some sort of harm. Horror made her gulp and back up again as the angry woman changed into a dark, shrouded figure, pointing an accusing hand first at the couple and then at the weeping Aveline.

"Get away from the Mirrors!" Emrys coughed and sputtered as he floundered to push himself up in the bed.

Jumping back as though she'd been burnt, Harley whirled around and faced him. "Dammit, Emrys! Do not scare me like that."

Wheezing for air as he made his way to a sitting position, he sagged back into the pillows and shook his head. "Ye have no training. The Mirrors of Time are not…not harmless toys."

Harley shook her head and waved the accusation away. "I was just looking at them. I thought they were just old mirrors."

Emrys rolled his eyes while still struggling to catch his breath. "Nothing in this room is quite as it seems.Ye would do well to bear that in mind."

Harley pulled her stool closer to the bed while pointing at the mirror that had shown the eerie reflection. "Those images were moving. Was that the future I saw?"

With his chin jutted to a stubborn angle, he stared upward like a spoiled child, refusing to answer. "I barely survived training the MacKay sons and their headstrong sister. I will be damned if I take on the task of training the wives."

"Emrys!" Harley thumped the feather ticking of his bed. "Tell me what's going on. It looked like Aveline could be in trouble. If there's a way for us to figure out when this happens, and what it is, then maybe we can stop it, or change something to alter the outcome to something good rather than bad."She glared at the hard-headed old man, willing him to listen.

"I said no, and I meant it. What ye saw was a mere snippet of time, and those snippets are easily misread." He shook an arthritic finger in her face, his tired blue eyes snapping with renewed vigor. "Tampering with events when ye dinna fully understand them, always makes things worse. Ye of all people should know that."

She jumped up and paced back and forth beside the bed. "Well, I could at least tell Ronan. He's trained and powerful. Maybe he would know what we should do."

Emrys cocked an eyebrow while pinning her with a sardonic glare. "So ye would endanger yer betrothed by enmeshing him in a vision ye dinna understand? Leave the Mirrors alone, girl. Do as I tell ye."

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. What if Emrys was right? She couldn't bear the thought of endangering Ronan. And the harder she tried to focus the vision in her mind and decipher it, the more confused she became about what exactly she had seen."Fine. I'll leave it alone. But I can't help but feel it was a warning. Something is about to go very wrong."

Emrys dropped his chin to his chest while slowly shaking his head. When he looked up at her, he gusted a heavy sigh. "It more than likely was a warning since the Mirrors never respond to an untrained touch unless it is most dire. Once I am stronger, I swear to search them myself." He scowled and shook a finger at her again. "What ye should do, lass, is pray I have enough time before that vision comes to pass."

Harley stood at the bow,looking toward the horizon, smiling as the wind tugged at her long dark hair, making it flutter behind her like a dark angel's wings. Ronan unabashedly stared at her, drinking her in, unable to get his fill of her wondrous presence in his world. Gulls cried out overhead while circling the masts, soaring ever higher as the rigging snapped its eagerness to head out to sea once more.

He came up behind her and hugged her back against his chest. With his chin propped on the silkiness of her head, he couldn't remember when he had ever been so content, so complete—and yet, he wanted her again with the same fury he'd burned with earlier when they'd properly christened his grand feather bed in his quarters. Whenever he was with her he raged with the need to join with her and also felt more complete than he ever had before. She was the missing part of his heart. The other half of his soul. There was nothing in this world he couldn't conquer with her at his side. He knew Aveline had ignored the rules of time, but he could not honestly say he was sorry for it. His sister had given him the greatest gift of all. She had presented him with the one he would love, as he had never loved another.

"Will we live here on the ship?" Harley asked, her voice dreamy. "Or will we live at the castle?" She leaned back against him, wriggling in his arms and making him strongly consider picking her up and carrying her back to their bed.

He rubbed his cheek against her hair. "Wherever ye wish to live, my love. As long as I have ye by my side, I care not where we are."

Her fine round arse pressed against him in a most irresistible way as she arched back and kissed him. "Then I choose the sea. The rocking of the ship on the waves adds a very nice rhythm to—things."

A groan rumbled free of him as he deepened the kiss and decided they'd left the bed too soon. When he lifted his head and gazed into her eyes, he gave himself over to their whiskey-colored depths."Thank the goddess Dagun is my first mate. I dinna think we two shall spend much time on deck."

She pressed a finger to his lips as he started to kiss her again. Her demeanor changed. "Before we—well—before, there is something I need to tell you."

Her hesitancy and the worry in her tone made him stop unbuttoning her tunic. "What is it, my love?"

Her sleek, dark brows drew together in a worrisome frown as she ran her fingers up and down a fold of his léine. "I don't want to keep secrets from you."

"Lore a'mighty, lass. Tell me." What the devil was troubling her?

She patted his chest and peered up at him with the same look he had seen his mother give his father many times. "There is nothing wrong with us. We are perfect. It's about Aveline. And her safety."

"Aveline's safety? What say ye? Last I heard, her punishment still had not been handed down by the Fates."

"Not her punishment." Harley cringed, tensing him even more.

"Harley—tell me. Straight out, my love. Yer emotions are fair shouting at me that something is troubling ye, and it is scaring the living shite out of me.Now, what is it? There is nothing we canna face together." He tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze to his.

"I saw something in Emrys's Mirror," she said softly, as though afraid to say the words aloud. "I think it was something from the future."

Ronan swallowed hard. He'd not expected that. "What did ye see, my love?"

She twitched a shrug and slowly shook her head. "Not quite sure. Aveline was there. And another couple I couldn't see. But the worst part was the furious woman. I mean—I thought she was a woman, but then she sort of changed."

"Changed?" A deep foreboding stirred in Ronan's gut. "Changed how?"

"She sort of—I don't know—morphed into a dark, shrouded figure. Like the grim reaper looking for some souls to gather."

He frowned. Harley's description just confused him more, and this was something about which he needed to be certain. "I would like to try something with ye, love. It might frighten ye a wee bit, but it would show me exactly what ye saw."

She eyed him with a wary frown. "Try something like what?"

He took her hands in his. "I promise ye will be in no danger. But I would like to join with yer mind. See what ye saw."

"Join with my mind?" Her dark brows rose to her hairline, and she backed up a step.

He did his best to calm her by pulling her closer, gentling her with his touch. "Aye, love. If ye will open yer mind to me, then I can see the vision—exactly as ye saw it. I promise to go no further into yer thoughts than what ye saw in the Mirrors of Time."

She studied him for a long moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she narrowed her eyes. He waited. Gave her all the time she needed. This was not something he relished doing, but it would help him understand what was troubling her. She tipped a hesitant nod. "Okay. I'll do it."

Placing his hands on either side of her face, he rested his thumbs against her temples and stared into her eyes. "Associo."

Her hands resting on his chest fisted into his tunic, but in her mind, he took her hand and waited for her to guide him to the vision she had seen in the Mirrors of Time. She smiled at him and pointed at the memory. He studied the figures, their actions, and all their responses. The longer he watched, the tighter he clenched his teeth—until his jaws throbbed. Then he vanquished the image with a wave and closed Harley's eyes with a brush of his hand.

"Was that so bad, my love? Having me in for a wee visit?" He bent and brushed the lightest of kisses across her parted lips. Thankful that during the mindwalk, he'd transported them back into their bed.

She stared up at him from the scattered nest of pillows scented with the sweet fragrance of their earlier loving. "So, what did it mean? Is Aveline going to be all right?"

Ronan pulled in a deep breath and gusted it out in a heavy sigh. "I am not sure. 'Tis my hope that Mother and Emrys can help. What ye saw may be Aveline receiving her punishment from the Fates."

"But who was the couple? The two people we couldn't quite see? It seemed like Aveline was trying to shield them." Rolling over onto her stomach, Harley propped herself up on her elbows and rested her chin in her hands. She aimed her worried frown at the great bay window at the back of the ship, scowling at the rise and fall of the horizon as the ship gently rocked on the waves while docked.

Ronan rose and paced the length and width of the room with his hands clasped behind his back. "I believe the woman—or the grim reaper as ye called her—is actually the Goddess Clíodhna. What I dinna understand is what part she plays in Aveline's punishment, and what exactly she is attempting in that vision."

His eyes narrowed as he stared out the window at the waves. He couldn't ignore the growing sense of unease as he kept replaying the scene in his head. Clíodhna had been furious, but not quite as furious as she was capable of becoming. He had seen her destroy mighty cargo ships with the slightest tip of her head. In the vision, however, it was almost as though she merely pretended to be angry. Her calculated motions were almost theatrical. No. There was definitely more to this than there seemed and acting upon such things was always risky.

"I shall consult Mother. Share the vision with her. If she is unable to untangle the mystery, then we must remain vigilant for when the time of the vision arrives."

Harley rose from the bed and joined him, linking her arms with his as she snuggled against him. "I hope your family's magic is strong enough to protect Aveline from whatever Clíodhna is trying to do."

Kissing the top of Harley's head, Ronan pulled her closer. "So do I, my love. So do I."