Beyond the Highland Myst(664)
" 'Course I do, Daddy." She giggled. Then she gave him a thoroughly four-year-old look of exasperation. "But I can't see what she sees. She says only fairies can."
Adam's heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be.
Could it?
"Oh, God," Gabby said weakly, her gaze flying to his. She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. They stared at each other for a long moment.
Adam nodded, wordlessly encouraging her to ask the question they were both thinking. He'd ask himself, but he couldn't seem to find his tongue.
He knew of only one thing he'd been able to see around humans when he'd been a fairy that humans couldn't see. He could scarcely breathe with wanting it so badly. With aching to be able to follow his wife from this life, into countless others. Five years ago, when he'd wed Gabrielle in a romantic Highland ceremony, the MacKeltars had offered him the use of their Druid binding vows: those sacred vows that united lovers for all eternity. He'd refused to say them— not because he hadn't longed to with every fiber of his being— but because it would have been to no avail, as he'd had no soul with which to bind himself.
Breathlessly Gabby said. "See what, Tessa? What can fairies see that you can't see?"
Tessa yawned. Snuggled deeper into the covers. "That Daddy's all glowy and golden."
Adam's mouth worked, but nothing came out.
"Adam glows golden?" Gabby said faintly.
Tessa nodded. "Mmm-hmm. Ah-veel says now he's just like you and me, Mommy."
Gabby made a soft choking sound.
For a long moment Adam couldn't move. He just sat on the edge of Tessa's bed and stared at his wife. She stated back at him, wonderingly, her eyes misting with tears of joy.
Then the enormity of it electrified him, galvanized him into action— there wasn't a moment to waste! If, by some miracle, he'd been gifted with a soul, he wanted it bound to Gabrielle's now.
Hastily dropping a kiss on Tessa's brow, Adam turned out the light, scooped Gabrielle up into his arms, and carried her from the room, hastening down the hall to their bedroom.
"Ka-lyrra," he said urgently, "there's something I want you to do with me. Vows I want to exchange, but you must know that they will bind our souls together for all eternity. Are you willing? Would you have me forever?"
Laughing and crying at the same time, she nodded.
Exultantly Adam deposited her on her feet, placed the palm of his right hand above her heart, and rested his left above his own. "Place your hands on top of mine, Gabrielle," he commanded.
When she did so, he spoke with quiet reverence and conviction:
"If aught must be lost, it will be my honor for yours. If one must be forsaken, it will be my soul for yours. Should death come anon, it will be my life for yours. I am Given."
Smiling up at him, her eyes sparkling with joy, she repeated the vows, and, the moment she finished, emotion crashed over him so intensely that it nearly brought him to his knees. He felt the bond quickening inside him, heating his blood with fierce passion, as their souls were united for all time.
Backing her against the wall, he buried his hands in her hair, slanted his mouth over hers, and kissed her hungrily.
He had a soul. He knew love. He was pledged to his soul mate forever.
And Adam Black was finally truly immortal.
The End
SPELL OF THE HIGHLANDER
KAREN MARIE MONING
* * *
This one’s for my husband, Neil Sequoyah Dover.
Were not there you—I’d be not too.
I love you.
* * *
Synchronicity: 1. The simultaneous occurrence of two or more meaningfully but not causally connected events; 2. The coinciding or alignment of forces in the universe to create an event or circumstance; 3. A collision of possibles so incalculably improbable that it would appear to imply divine intervention.
* * *
Dear Reader—
When I am uncertain how to pronounce certain words in a book, it makes my brain stutter each time they occur in the text, jarring me from the immediacy of the moment. Toward that end, I have attached this brief key of significant names:
Cian: Key-on, with a hard C.
Dageus: Day-gis, with a hard G.
Drustan: Drus-tin, U like drum.
The Draghar: Druh-gar, U like drum, hard G.
Tuatha Dé Danaan: Tua day dhanna
Aoibheal: Ah-veel
* * *
FIRST PROLOGUE
Aoibheal, queen of the Fae stood in the catacombs beneath The Belthew Building, concealed by countless layers of illusion, a formless projection of herself, beyond any Sidhe-seer’s vision, beyond even her own race’s perception.
In the dimly lit labyrinthine tombs, Adam Black was pacing furiously, holding his ears and cursing a wailing Chloe Zanders.
But it was not Adam’s plight that concerned her now.
It was her own.