Page 31 of A Celtic Vow
The deeper they went, the more obvious the sound of a waterfall in the distance became. Where did the tunnel come out, though? He knew or at least thought he had known this area inside out. “We grow closer to King’s Fall, to be sure.”
“You were here,” she exclaimed, slowing. “Righthere.”
He slowed as well and looked back at her. “When?”
“I don’t know.” She pressed her lips together, fighting back emotion. Outright fear. “But this is the route your dragon took when it stalked me in my nightmare. The very tunnel I fled down to get away from you.”
“Do you want to stop? Go back?” He shook his head. “We need not go any further,mo thine.”
He startled at the strange endearment.
“My fire,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes. “You called me your fire.” Her brows furrowed in confusion before she figured it out. “An endearment if said by a dragon.”
“Ta,” he agreed, not entirely sure how he knew such. “For nothing is more intimate than sharing your fire with another dragon. Becoming part of another dragon’s fire.”
“But that would mean....” She trailed off and shook her head. “That would mean we were both dragons before, right?”
“’Twould seem that way,” he conceded. “Unless we grew that close in this life.”
“Has to be because I’m certain I wasn’t a dragon before.” She shook her head and urged him to keep walking, or she would pass him. “You? Absolutely. But not me. I was terrified of you. Captured by you.”
“That we know of,” he reminded. “From a nightmare and nothing more.”
“But itwasmore,” she swore. “And finding this tunnel proves that.”
“Mayhap.” He nearly argued that the nightmare could have very well led her here without the vicious dynamics she’d felt between the two of them but held his tongue. Now wasn’t the time to argue but to stand strong together as they moved forward. He was about to go on when a stronger breeze gusted past them, and although dim, light appeared ahead.
“This is exactly what I saw in my nightmare,” she said as they drew closer to the dim glow. “Only I was running for my life. Terrified you were right behind me.Feltyou right behind me.”
For a split second, he swore he saw what lay ahead through a red haze. Through the haze of an angry dragon.
Or a desperate one.
“Are you sure I meant you harm?” He narrowed his eyes as they drew closer. When he felt a flash of fear and worry that didn’t belong to the moment. Terror for her when he knew no actual terror lay ahead.
“Absolutely.” She stopped him at the entrance of a chamber he had no idea was here. One that almost appeared to be part of a castle’s ruins.
“This is it,” she said softly, awed as she sidled around him and took in the relatively small space. From the open-air stone window rounded on top and flat on the bottom, which looked into the forest leading to King’s Fall to the singular piece of furniture. A tall-backed regal red velvet chair near the window.
Constance drifted to the window and ran her finger over the dusty arm of the chair. “I finally touched this in my last dream. Touched it before I, at last, found the courage to face your dragon.”
He touched the chair as well and wondered at it. “This was built for someone special. No doubt for a royal before ‘twas stolen.”
“I know.” She shook her head. “Who, though? And why is this where I always end up in my nightmare?”
“I don’t know.” He joined her at the window and kept shaking his head. “Nothing about this makes sense.”
“Even this window.” Constance looked from the sunlit path beyond to him. “Surely you know where this ends up? We can clearly hear the waterfall now.” Her gaze drifted back outside. “And it’s so inviting. Forever a sanctuary when I felt so terrified time and time again.”
“Then let’s see where this sanctuary lands us outside of the obvious.” He hopped up and held down his hand. “Without you being pursued by a monster but welcomed by him,ta?”
“Ta. Yes.” She offered a small smile and let him pull her up.
Almost the moment they stepped away from the window onto the path, he knew exactly where they were. He spun back, confused, only to find the window gone. But then that made sense considering it had never been there before.
“It’s gone,” Constance whispered, staring at the sizable tree that grew up along a rock wall beside where the window should have been. She looked from him to where they had just been in confusion. “It wasjustthere!”
“It can only be magic, lass.” As baffled as her, he shook his head. “Mayhap even a memory come to life.”
