Page 68 of A Celtic Memory
Fires were down to embers. All had gone to sleep. Thankfully she hadn’t wandered out here nude but wore her green dress again.
“Cian?” she whispered, confused. How had she gotten here? When had she walked out?
She gazed up into the branches when thunder cracked, and lightning flashed. Then something else. A burst of magic she knew all too well.
“Because ‘tis yer magic, my friend.”Oran landed on a nearby branch in the form of a raven.“Ancient magic.”
“Magic that connected me across time with this tree.” She felt out the knowledge coming to life inside her. “That connected me to Cian.”
She drew closer to something. As though a doorway was opening in her mind. As though so many answers were just beyond the darkness.
“King’s Heart had been trying to bring us together,” she realized. “That day in the woods was the turning point.” She kept feeling out what had been lying dormant inside her until now. “The sadness we felt at losing each other, of possibly not connecting again, was too much for me to bear....”
“Ta,” Oran confirmed.“Ta indeed.”
“My need to be close to Cian sparked my magic for the first time.” She fingered her dress, recalling the green one she had worn as a child. “It changed over time, but this dress represents that moment. The power I wielded without being the wiser.”
The various dresses flickered through her mind. All green to reflect the original one. To remind her where she started. Where she first connected with Cian.
“Yet ye became wiser about the power ye possessed, did ye not?”
“My God, I did,” she whispered, amazed. “After traveling back just a few times, I knew what I was thanks to King’s Heart.” Shocked, she looked at Oran. “I was pretty powerful, wasn’t I?”
The many times she had spent with Cian over the years swelled up. Became clearer by the moment. From their long conversations to the numerous walks they shared not just here but all around the castle. Within the castle.
“Because I could be here without anyone seeing.” She stared at her hands, remembering clearly how she had healed that little girl. “Only the innocent saw me if needed.” She shook her head, looking deeper. “And Cian. Always Cian.” She blinked back tears. “Because we really did fall in love....”
When she trailed off, Cian spoke.
“We did,mo dhraoi.” He had awoken and joined her, his gaze more tender than ever as he remembered what she remembered. As it all started to come back. “Because you were able to hide our love within a spell.”
“A spell within a spell,” she said softly, recalling how it had felt hiding herself within Raven’s spell. Keeping their love secret lest it affect the fate he was meant to have with the other woman. The lives he was meant to save. Which meant not risking lying together because it could have had consequences they couldn't hide.
Namely, a pregnancy.
She recalled how difficult it had been holding back. How brutal it had been every time she returned to the twenty-first century. How much she missed him and wished they could be together. She had longed to share everything with her sisters but couldn't. It would have been too risky.
Even more came back to her. “A spell within a spell made possible because you’re a Keeper of Memories.”
“Memories hidden from all, even us, when I went to Raven's aid.” He shook his head, marveling at what their combined powers had done right down to creating memories that they had lain with others.
“So we were virgins when we slept together yesterday?” she exclaimed, remembering how they had given the appearance that they slept with others over the years but never really did.
“So it seems.” He pulled her up into his arms. “Because not just my heart but my flesh could only ever belong to you.”
She held onto him for a moment before she frowned up at Oran. “Why is it all coming back to us now? Why not sooner?”
“Because your spell was built around Raven’s.” Cian figured it out moments before her. “So when I was released from her spell, I was released from yours as well. Free to love or, in this instance, find my way back to love.”
“And so ye found yer way back to each other,”Oran said, switching to his Fae form.
“And so we did,” she echoed. “For me, it started months ago where it’s been days for Cian.”
“Because of how time passes differently between here and there,” Oran agreed. “Usually, time passes more quickly in the past than the future, but in this case, because Cian was battling in Scandinavia at the heart of Raven's spell, things worked differently. Now thanks to the magic of King’s Heart, those who travel via its power lose no time at all.”
“Which doesn't necessarily mean we need to travel through the tree directly,” she realized.
“That’s right,” Oran replied. “Now that you and Cian have traveled through it, your sisters and, very likely, his brothers have access to its time travel magic via you.”
