“Sure, it is,” Caitlin agreed. “Some will follow the other into death rather than be alone.”
Jonathan’s eyes met mine, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. Just the idea of being apart from Jonathan for that long made me want to crawl out of my skin, and it didn’t take touch to know he felt the same.
I considered the last thoughts that echoed from Penny’s mind. She had wiped her memories of nearly everyone she loved at that point, all for our protection. But her mate’s name still came to her with an unwavering belief that they would be reunited at last.
Caitlin watched both of us curiously, and I felt a slight pressure near my right temple. I dipped a finger into my tea.
Not now, please, I thought.I’ll share later.
The pressure ceased.
It was too much to process. The regression of last night, the news of my apparent “mate,” how I was supposed to manage that on top of my training…
And then, of course, there was the fact of Jonathan here. Now.
Given this news, I wasn’t even going to pretend to try to stay away from him. I wasn’t convinced it was even necessary, given Caomhán’s opinions. It certainly wasn’t possible in the long term.
I just wanted time to figure things out.
As if he knew what I was thinking, Jonathan pushed up from the table, making the chair leg screech on the floor. “I’m only back for the week to…check in. This time.”
It was an innocuous statement, but when his eyes found mine, his meaning was clear: he couldn’t stay away from me any more than I could stop thinking of him. Both of us were stuck in a position where being around either was both dangerous and confounding, but being apart grew increasingly painful. He would leave for as long as we could bear and return for as little time as possible to prevent the worst from happening and save both our futures.
Ihatedthe plan. But I could think of no viable alternatives.
“I’m sure Robbie would be happy for your help in the north field today,” Caitlin put in. “We’ve training. Today we’ll be goingto the shipwreck and mine for memories. Perhaps to the burial mounds too. I hear there was quite an ordeal there last night.”
I absolutely refused to meet her eye.
Jonathan nodded. “I’ll leave you to it. Cass, I’ll see you at dinner?” His voice was as deep and serious as ever, but hope threaded through it.
I couldn’t quite say no. Nor did I really want to, as confusing as that was. “Yep.”
“We’ll go out with you on our way to the ship,” Caitlin said.
The three of us exited the cottage to the jeering cry of crows overhead. A flock wheeled in the sky.
“Omens,” Caitlin remarked. “Do you know the poem, Cassie?”
“One for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a funeral, four for birth.’” I laughed. “Gran used to recite it to me. So what happens when there are ten?”
Caitlin smiled. “I suppose we should just assume it will be a very good day.”
The flock dipped and dived in the summer wind with the glee of a child on a roller coaster. With a final gust, they veered to the right and began a swift descent to the cottage roof. It was only then I realized they weren’t all crows.
One lark continued to fly above the house, circling low around the walls a few times and finally coasting through the air to the field where we stood. Caitlin’s expression tightened, and Jonathan stiffened beside me.
“Damn,” he said, in a voice so low it sounded more like a hush of the wind than a man’s voice.
But I still heard him.
The little bird looped to the ground just outside the gate of the garden. I blinked, and a small, slight man with a beakish nose and the kind of mouth that always seems to be pointed down at the sides had appeared, his beady eyes peeringimperiously from under a thatch of graying hair that stood up in a crest just over his forehead.
“Don’t say anything,” Jonathan murmured.
“But—”
“Cassandra,hush,” Caitlin snapped just before the man crossed the gated threshold and entered the yard.