Page 74 of A Celtic Vow
She was about to go on when even more became clear.
When the last blanks were filled in, and she finally understood why from the beginning, she felt she needed to go to Siobhán.
Why she was the key even if it meant her end.
Chapter Twenty-Four
AODH WAS STILL reelingfrom everything they had learned. How had he forgotten so much? Forgotten the moment he reunited with Constance in this life? Something they finally recalled and talked about after strategizing with their siblings for a while and then took some time alone.
“I knew from the beginning that I wasn’t alone,” he marveled as they strolled through the forest hand in hand. “I knew there was another like me. Another person with a beast inside them.”
“I knew the same,” Constance replied. “Because my dream wasn’t always a nightmare.” She shook her head. “Originally, it was anything but.” An affectionate smile ghosted her face. “Instead, I ran down the tunnel as a little girl without fear. Ran into your flames because I knew they would lead me to something marvelous.”
“King’s Fall.” He remembered it all so clearly now. “I had forever been drawn to that location and played there alone that day.” He narrowed his eyes. “It always felt like I was supposed to remember something there.”
“Me, I imagine.” Constance squeezed his hand. “The time we’d spent there in another life.” She stopped and leaned against a tree, her eyes a little dreamy. “Then again, it seemed your dragon had left his mark in our last life. Made it a place that would lead us back to each other if Siobhán succeeded in separating us.”
How else could it be, considering the dragon magic he had sprinkled throughout the place? He might have wrecked all her father had built, but he left a trail for them to follow in this life. From the crown to the hole in which they could replant a tree. A protective golden sheath that would appear when it needed to. A warning that she should flee here if she ever returned in a nightmare.
That it might not be safe.
Not just that, but a memory within the tunnel along with a forever echoing dragon roar humans still heard well into the future. A ghostly roar they themselves had heard when they first entered the tunnel.
“Your dragon knew all along,” she said softly. “Because it seems full dragons have the gift of foresight. So you saw what was going to come to pass.”
“I did,” he said sadly. “And as much as I wanted to fly you away and avoid it, I knew it was the only way back to you. That Siobhán using her magical fire in the midst of my dragon fire would bring me back as half beast, half man.”
“What you didn’t realize was the combined fire would do the same to me,” she said. “That our love was a tether that would keep us together no matter what.”
“And ye’ve no idea how sorry I am for that.” He cupped her cheek. “I never would have done it if I’d known. If my foresight had shown me as much.” He shook his head. “I would never have cursed ye to be anything like what I had become.”
“Yet I’m so glad you did.” She leaned her cheek into his touch. “And I’m especially glad for the reminder in the tunnel. One that brought my soul back to where we first met.”
It seemed his dragon left an enchantment of sorts for her spirit to be drawn back there in a dream. Drawn to what was left of the chamber they had first stood in together as children. He had even created the same window.
“Yet the chair was different,” she murmured.
