Page 139 of The Seeker
The keening cry tore loose from her throat as angry magic gave way to unrelenting agony.
My child. My child. My child.
The angel spoke softly to her. “Meera.”
“Why won’t you leave?”
He stepped closer, his cold expression never changing. “Meera, you must wake.”
She wokefrom the memory with a gasp.
Rhys gripped her wrists. She was gasping for breath, her eyes darting around the tent.
“Rhys?” She folded into herself when she realized where they were.
Rhys and Meera were still in the mating tent. They had been there two nights, and today was their last day in seclusion. Rhys had tattooed his mating mark the day before, then made love within the heady rush of magic tattooing brought. Meera had fallen asleep, peaceful in his arms, only to step into the deepest well of memory, pulling him with her.
“That was Adelina,” Rhys said softly. “TheAdelina.”
Meera nodded. “She was one of the first keepers.”
“Have you shared her memories before?”Do you know what that was?
She sat up, drawing the silk sheets with her. “Adelina’s memories are some of the few that come like that. Usually—like I explained yesterday—they only come when I seek them. They are… intense. And engrossing.”
Yesterday had been the host of more than one very complicated conversation. Rhys was still confused how he could share Irina memory as a scribe, but Meera could only explain so much. As far as she knew, no other of Anamitra’s line had ever been mated to herreshon, especially areshonrich in Chamuel’s empathetic blood. So while other bonded mates like Firoz would have experienced memories as Rhys did, none of them were as intimately involved.
For the time Meera and Rhys had been in Anamitra’s memory, Rhys hadbeenFiroz. He’d had no knowledge of Anamitra’s memories that Meera shared later. No idea what their child’s fate would be. He had experienced that moment as Firoz had. No more and no less.
And he’dbeenJargrav, enamored of his mate, dedicated to discovering the sacred and numerous ways of bringing pleasure to the mating bed. Knowledge that had led to more than one very arousing episode once Rhys managed to conquer the creeping sense of voyeurism.
Rhys stroked Meera’s hair. “You told me you had to open up for the memories to come. That your shields protected you from being taken over by the past.” The idea of Meera locked in some memory with no control over it terrified him. Would there come a time or a memory where he could not reach her?
“That is what happens.” She glanced at him. “Most of the time.”
“But not with Adelina.”
“She was one of the firstsomasikara,” Meera said. “I carry her blood. There is a very deep connection.”
“I didn’t know any of her children lived.”
“They did.”
“But not the one in that memory,” Rhys said softly.
Meera looked up suddenly. “You were there. You joined his mind like you did with Firoz and Jargrav the first night.”
Rhys nodded slowly.
“Rhys…” She blinked. “Heaven above, you know what that angel saw. You know why he did it.”
His heart sank. “Do you need to know?”
“What?”
“What I saw in his mind…” Rhys shook his head. “Ask me later, Meera.”
“How can you say—”
