Fifteen
“Oh dear.” They were the first words Grand
had spoken since Eve began her recounting of everything that
happened at Hazard’s. Well, not everything. She went as far
as the moment Taggart took off after Pavane and kept the rest to
herself. First, because it was no one else’s business that she and
Hazard had made love . . . had sex . . . call it what you will. And
second, because she wasn’t sure herself what it meant. Or what she
wanted it to mean. Especially in light of his abrupt shift from hot
to cold just before she left.
It would be easy—humiliating and disappointing, but
easy—to conclude that she had misread things from the start and
that he’d never been interested in anything more than the
time-honored, adrenalin-fueled WBTM. Talk about a lack of truth in
advertising. He appeared to be the antithesis of the
wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am type, but she supposed anyone could crack
under pressure. They’d just been through a highly charged
and stressful situation; he was wired, she was wired. Spontaneous
combustion happens.
Except that wasn’t what happened.
There had been more to their coming together than a
surge of unruly hormones. Much more. She’d felt it. What’s more,
she’d felt him feeling it right along with her. For some reason
he’d tried to hide the truth from her afterwards. Maybe because he
was trying to hide it from himself. Maybe his way of dealing with
complicated emotions was to deny them until they went away. That
might be good enough for him; it wasn’t good enough for her.
Hazard was a fascinating man, on many levels, and
Eve wanted to know more about him. Poking and probing and gathering
information was one of her talents, but before she turned herself
loose on Hazard, there were some things she needed to know about
herself.
That’s where her grandmother came in, or should
have. Eve shook her head in exasperation.
“Oh dear? That’s it? I tell you Phineas
Pavane is alive and that he claims it was the talisman and me that
returned him to this realm, and that he’s stolen the talisman for
the second time and is right now off God-knows-where, doing
God-knows-what with it, and that Hazard is two hundred years
old and possibly also immortal, and you say oh dear?”
“Oh dear, that is quite an amazing tale. Better?”
There was a faint glint of humor in her grandmother’s blue
eyes.
“Amazing but true,” Eve countered. “You believe
me?”
“Of course I do. I believe every word of it,” Grand
assured her. “I’m just not as certain of what we should do about
it.”
“What can we do?”
“Oh, there are a number of things. We could appeal
to the High Council of Mages; the theft of a magical implement as
powerful as the talisman would fall within their purview. The
problem is they have limited recourse for dealing with anyone
calling solely on dark magic, which I’m certain is the case with
Pavane. And they’re slow.”
“Slow?”
“Yes. You would think that after countless
centuries they would have streamlined operations, but oh, no, the
council is ruled by conservatives. Not that I’m opposed to
tradition, but there is such a thing as being too much of a purist.
I mean, really,” Grand drawled in exasperation, “where is it
written that council decrees must be done by scribe on parchment
rather than computer?”
“Beats me,” replied Eve, reaching for her
wineglass. Her grandmother did the same.
They were comfortably ensconced in the family room.
It would be hard to be anything but comfortable sitting on the
overstuffed cream suede sofa . . . or on any other seat in the
house for that matter. It was the antithesis of Hazard’s place. For
starters it was a home, not a home décor ad. The furniture was a
casual mix of new and old, the overall look lovingly fine-tuned
over the years and still an ongoing group effort. There were
handmade pillows and bright jewel tones and offbeat pieces of art
Chloe had brought home from all the exotic places she’d visited.
And there were family photos everywhere, a happy hodgepodge of
them, all in silver frames.
“You said there were a number of things we could
do,” Eve reminded her.
“Yes. I have friends I could call on to help
recover the talisman. Their methods can be a bit . . . unorthodox,
but they work much faster than the council.” Her expression grew
troubled. “There is great risk involved in confronting a dark
sorcerer as experienced and ruthless as Pavane, however, and I
would be asking others to assume that risk for what is really
T’airna business. In the past, T’airnas have always prided
themselves on dealing with these matters directly.”
Eve felt the weight of the unspoken word in her
grandmother’s calm, unwavering gaze, and her chest tightened with a
sense of foreboding.
“In the past, T’airnas had the talisman, and the
power to get the job done. Do we?”
Grand expression was sphinxlike. “One of us
does.”
Eve tensed. Damn, damn, damn. She had to go and
ask. She’d thought she was ready to hear what Grand had wanted to
tell her for so long, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure. Maybe it was
better to let some questions go unanswered. Life was certainly
easier that way and maybe easier was better. After all, it
wasn’t as if she could unanswer them if she didn’t like what
she heard. Did she really want to know something that could
complicate her life even more than it already had been complicated?
Forget complicated, was it smart to go poking a stick at something
that could change her life in ways she couldn’t predict,
much less control?
Of course, a better question would be did she still
have a choice in the matter.
The auction had bumped her off the neat orderly
path she’d chosen to walk, spun her around and dropped her onto a
new and unfamiliar path, one with sharp turns she couldn’t see
around and no exits. She couldn’t get off and she couldn’t turn
around and go back. She had to keep moving forward and find her way
out as best she could. And now she had to do it knowing Pavane was
lurking out there somewhere, waiting. His promise that she would
see him again very soon had sounded more like a threat . . . a
threat she doubted she could avoid or outrun.
So the answer was pretty much a resounding no, she
didn’t have a choice; she had to take the threat seriously and act
accordingly.
Part of her didn’t want to hear it . . . or hear
what Grand had to say; it wanted to find the nearest bedcovers and
hide under them until the problem resolved itself, for better or
worse. But another, braver part had responded fiercely when Grand
spoke of T’airna pride, and that part of her was feeling greater
indignation and animosity toward Pavane with every passing minute.
The man deserved to pay for the harm he’d done to her family, and
to Hazard, and to who knew how many others. He was a predator, and
she’d reported on enough predators of the human variety to realize
that he would go on hurting others until someone stopped him. If
that someone was supposed to be her, she at least ought to know
about it. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.
She might long for an easy way out, but it wasn’t
in her to take it, or to run and hide. She was a survivor; she’d
survived tragedies and crises before, and she would find a way to
survive this one. She sighed, steeling herself, and surrendered to
the inevitable.
“Tell me about the prophecy,” she said to
Grand.
“I’ll do better than that,” her grandmother
responded, slowly getting to her feet. “Come with me.”
Eve followed her to her bedroom.
Her grandmother waved her hand in the direction of
the bed, a cherry four-poster with pineapple finials, one of which
still bore teeth marks from the time Chloe had tried to take a
bite.
“Sit,” she ordered.
Eve sat.
Grand lifted a box from the center of her dresser
and joined her, placing it on the bed between them. The dark wood
box had an intricate parquet band just below the lid and brass
corner pieces. Eve looked on as Grand pressed two fingertips to the
brass keyhole and murmured a few words in the language that flowed
like honey from her tongue, and she heard the metallic click of the
lock opening as smoothly as if Grand had used the key that had been
lost years ago.
Her grandmother lifted the lid and removed the
fitted tray inside, then carefully took out the items underneath
and put them aside as well. Each of them was familiar to Eve,
evoking happy childhood memories of being allowed to peek inside
Grand’s treasure chest. There was a pair of combs that had
belonged to Grand’s mother, with silver filigree as fine as lace; a
locket that held a baby picture and lock of hair from Eve’s own
mother; and a small stack of old letters tied with a faded red
ribbon. The letters were from her grandfather, sent home from the
region in France where he had fought and died. Before putting them
aside, Grand gave the letters a kiss, the way Eve had seen her do
so many times before.
When the box appeared to be empty, she did
something Eve had never seen before: she ran her fingertip along
the inside edges, her lips pursed in concentration. Curious, Eve
leaned forward to get a better look just as Grand located a slender
black cord and tugged on it to remove a panel Eve hadn’t known was
there.
“A false bottom,” Eve exclaimed. “Very clever. But
couldn’t you have just set wards to protect whatever it is you have
hidden under there?”
“I used wards as well. I wanted to protect it, but
I also wanted to be certain it was somewhere you would find it if
this moment never came and I was no longer around to give it to you
myself.” Grand held out a yellowed parchment scroll tied with a
black cord.
“The prophecy?” Eve asked as she took it from her,
a flash of excitement overriding her trepidation.
“Yes . . . gently, gently please,” she cautioned as
Eve started to unroll it. “That scroll is at least four hundred
years old, and very fragile.”
Now that it was actually in her hand, Eve was eager
to see what it said, but she paused to give her grandmother a
skeptical look. “Four hundred years old? Really? I would have
thought something that old would be in worse shape . . . a lot
worse. In fact, without any special preservation treatment, I
wouldn’t expect it to be here at all.”
Grand’s shrug was philosophical. “It is what it is
meant to be. The prophecy itself is far older than that scroll, and
far more sweeping in its entirety. The original is locked away in
the council’s archives; what you’re holding is a transcription of
the passages that most concern our family. I hope it will answer
the question you have yet to ask.”
“Don’t rush me,” Eve grumbled without any real
rancor. “These things take time.”
“Would it pique your interest to know that the
prophecy foretold the loss of the talisman and the magic it
represented, and the long stretch of misfortune that followed?
And,” she said and then paused a beat, to heighten anticipation,
Eve was certain. “It tells that there is only one way for T’airna
magic to be restored, and only one who can bring it about.”
“The Lost Enchantress,” Eve said, running her
fingers over the parchment.
Grand nodded. “Yes. It says she will be both
blessed and marked, and you are both, Eve.”
“Blessed?” Eve countered, trying not to sound
cynical.
Again her grandmother nodded firmly. “You are
blessed with innate magic greater than any I have ever seen. I
recognized it in you from the time you were very young. And you are
marked with the sign of the goddess. It cannot be happenstance that
your birthmark and the markings on the talisman are the
same.”
“Does it happen to say exactly how this blessed and
marked woman will do it?” Eve inquired.
“It does indeed,” Grand assured her. “She does it
by choosing to do it.”
Eve rolled her eyes. “That’s exactly why I hate
prophecies; the instructions are always so damn vague. Not like the
Ten Commandments. When something is carved in stone, you know
exactly what you’re supposed to do.”
“Which I imagine is why prophecies are not carved
in stone. They’re not commandments,” Grand argued. “They’re . . .
possibilities. To be seized or lost as we see fit; it’s always a
choice . . . or hundreds of small choices we make along the way,
most without a moment’s thought. The talisman was lost by an
enchantress who chose not to claim her power. Maura had no
patience for magic; she considered it a burden and refused to be
taught or trained to use it. She was very young; perhaps in time
she would have changed her mind, but she never got that
chance.
“The choices she made led to a devastating loss for
our family, the loss of love and magic.” A current of raw emotion
ran through Grand’s words. “They will only be restored to us when
the one enchantress meant to claim the full power of the talisman
freely chooses to do so.”
“And you really think I might be the one who can do
that?” Eve asked her.
“I don’t think it,” said her grandmother. “I
believe it. I always have.” She waited a few seconds for
that to sink in before adding, “But what I believe is not
important. The future depends on what you believe. And on what you
choose to do about it.”
Eve shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know what I
believe. I don’t even know what to think about . . . all this.” She
indicated the scroll.
“That’s why you must read it. Reading the prophecy
will help you understand what is possible; you must choose for
yourself if that is the path you will take.” She began to return
things to the box, holding on to the letters just a little longer
than anything else.
Observing her, Eve felt a rush of tenderness. “Do
you ever read them, Grand?”
“The letters? Not as much as I once did. There’s no
need; I know by heart most every word he wrote.” She pressed them
to her chest, her lips curving in a gentle smile. “Your grandfather
was quite romantic for a young man.”
“How old was he?”
“Barely twenty. I was eighteen when he went off.
Officially, Ireland remained neutral during the war; it was even
referred to as ‘the Emergency,’ as if not calling it a war made it
somehow less pressing. But your grandfather would have none of it;
off he went to join a British regiment.”
Eve turned her head to look at the sepia-toned
photograph on the bedside table. In it, the grandfather she’d never
met was a young man with wavy hair and happy eyes, a man clearly
proud to be in uniform. “I suppose to a young man war can seem like
an adventure.”
“That wasn’t his reason for going. He told me he
did it because he was needed and he couldn’t turn away from what he
knew in his heart was right. People were suffering and dying, and
he was young and fit and brave. Liam Conor believed that if it was
within your power to do good, you ought to.”
“Smooth, Grand,” Eve said with a bemused smile.
“Very smooth. You reeled me right in. And I get the message.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking
about,” Grand responded, closing the box with a satisfied air.
“I’ll just leave you to read in peace.
Eve read; she read of power lost and power claimed,
and of an enchantress lost to the art, and to herself. And as she
read, time seemed to slide backwards. The ornate script and dated
poetic language reminded her of reading the Winter Rose Spell for
the first time.
The gift of power bestowed by a goddess and
stolen by darkness
can be restored only by the enchantress
Born with the mark of ancient favor,
Decieved by tragedy of her own making,
And lost to destiny by her own choice.
can be restored only by the enchantress
Born with the mark of ancient favor,
Decieved by tragedy of her own making,
And lost to destiny by her own choice.
And like the first time she read the spell, she was
swept by a sense that the words before her had been written for her
and her alone.
With one enormous difference: then she had been
fifteen and fearless, and now . . . now she was neither.
When she left the room, she found Grand sitting at
her kitchen table, a thick book with gilt edged pages and a worn
leather binding open in front of her. Maura T’airna may not have
wanted to learn the family business, but Grand had never stopped.
It suddenly occurred to Eve that all that hard-won knowledge and
experience might well end with her grandmother. She used to believe
that would be the best thing for all concerned; now she wasn’t so
sure, and the thought of Grand’s legacy being lost forever filled
her with sadness. And regret that things hadn’t turned out
differently . . . that she hadn’t turned out
differently.
Grand lifted her head and peered at Eve over the
top of her reading glasses. “All done?”
“Done reading. But I still need more time to
think.” Eve held up the scroll. “Do you mind if I hang on to this
for a while?”
“Not at all. By rights, it belongs to you.”
“Maybe,” Eve demurred. “That’s what I need to
figure out. But I did make up my mind about something else. I’m
going to take some time off from work. I’ll call and clear it with
Angela first thing in the morning. Between vacation days and comp
time, I have nearly a month accumulated. I’m hoping I won’t need
that long, but however long it takes, I intend to get the talisman
back from Pavane. And I won’t be asking the council or your friends
for help doing it.”
A deep V formed between Grand’s lowered
brows. “I’m delighted that you’re taking this to heart, but Pavane
is not the sort you should confront alone.”
“I have no intention of doing it alone. I agree
that we shouldn’t ask others to put themselves at risk on our
behalf, but we’re not the only ones with something at stake
here.”
For just an instant her grandmother appeared
puzzled, and then she smiled. “Of course. Gabriel Hazard. Do you
think he would be willing to help us?”
“Willing? No. But he’ll do it anyway. I may not
know Hazard well, but I know something about him that he’s
forgotten; he’s an honorable man. We made a deal, and he’ll live up
to his end whether he likes it or not.”
“He’s not going to like this,” Taggart told her.
They were standing just inside Hazard’s front door. “He’s not a
pleasant sort on the best of mornings, and being woken before he’s
ready will make him even less bearable, especially seeing as he
only went to bed a few hours ago. He was holed up in the turret
with that web thing of his until the wee hours.”
Eve eyed him curiously. “Web thing?”
“Right, that Internet web thing he carries
about.”
“Oh, you mean a laptop . . . a computer.”
“That’s it,” he confirmed with a vigorous nod. “He
was at it long after I called it a night, and he was good and
nettled even then because I lost Pavane’s scent and couldn’t ferret
out a clue to where he might be holed up. I doubt a few hours’
sleep will have improved his mood any.”
“His mood is irrelevant,” she retorted, not
bothering to mention to Taggart that he wasn’t the only one who’d
contributed to Hazard’s lousy mood last night; he’d been good and
nettled when she left and for reasons that had nothing to do with
Taggart or Pavane. “I need to talk to him.”
She wouldn’t have been dissuaded even if Taggart’s
demeanor had matched his worried protests, but it didn’t. He looked
slyly amused that she’d shown up just past the crack of dawn,
demanding to see Hazard. In fact, he looked as if he’d like nothing
better than to see what commotion would result if she insisted on
waking the grizzly bear before he was finished hibernating. Which
is exactly what she was determined to do.
Hazard was the one who’d dragged her into this. If
not for trying to help break his curse, she might never have done
whatever it was she did that summoned Pavane back to the realm of
the living. Hazard was responsible for things going from bad to
worse, and he could damn well get down here and help her come up
with a plan to fix it.
“Coffee?” she inquired, flashing her sweetest smile
as she offered Taggart one of the three cups in the cardboard tray
she was carrying. She’d stopped at a coffee shop on the way because
she was pretty certain there wouldn’t be a pot of anything on when
she got there and she needed Hazard awake and firing on all
cylinders. She’d picked up a cup for Taggart to be nice, not
intending to use it to bribe him, but, hey, if that’s what it took,
so be it.
He grinned happily. “Cream and sugar?”
Eve nodded at the bag in the center of the tray.
“Plenty of both to go around. There are muffins in there
too.”
“Muffins?” His blue eyes sparkled as he took the
cup from her. “What kind?”
“Blueberry and cinnamon raisin.”
Eve held out the bag; he took it.
“Go on up,” he said cheerfully before turning and
heading toward the kitchen.
“Me?” Eve called after him. “Wait! I thought you
would go up and wake him and tell him I was here.”
“You thought wrong,” he tossed over his shoulder.
“It’s the room on the right, darling. Best of luck to you.”
Eve stared glumly at his back and realized this was
her own damn fault. She was no novice at trading perks for favors
or information; she should have held on to the coffee and muffins
until after he’d fetched Hazard. Now she was stuck doing her
own dirty work.
The room on the right, Taggart had said. That must
mean that changes had been made since she’d last been there, she
thought as she climbed the stairs. Back then, there had been only a
bathroom, a linen closet and a tiny room designed to be a nursery
on the right. The bath was now at the end of the hall, with a large
bedroom on either side. The new look made being there a little
easier, though she still had to take a deep breath and concentrate
to keep her memories in check.
She stopped in front of the closed door on the
right and shifted the tray to one hand so she could knock.
There was no response. She put her ear close to the
door and listened. Silence. Either the door was especially
soundproof or Hazard didn’t snore.
She knocked again, harder. “Hazard?”
The response came in a sleepy growl. “Piss off,
Taggart.”
Taggart was right; Hazard wasn’t a morning
person.
She cleared her throat and tried a third time.
“It’s not Taggart. It’s me. Eve.”
Again she heard that rough growl, but this time it
was impossible to decipher what he said, and she had a hunch that
was for the best.
“Hazard, I need to talk to you,” she said
loudly.
There was a short pause.
“Now?” he asked, his deep voice heavy with sleep,
and annoyance.
“Now.” There might have been some movement on the
other side of the door, but Eve couldn’t be sure. “So either you
come out here or I’m coming in there.” She waited about thirty
seconds. “I’m going to count to three and then I’m coming in. One.
Two. Th—”
The door was yanked open and she was face-to-face
with Hazard, looking all sleep mussed and sexy as hell. His hair
was tousled, his jaw stubbled. She had sudden wild urges; she
wanted to smooth and pet and do other inappropriate things. He had
the disheveled look of a man who’d grabbed the first thing he saw
and dragged it on. His black jeans were zipped but unbuttoned; his
black cotton shirt hung open. She had a vision of herself stripping
both off him and shoving him back onto the tangled sheets on the
bed behind him.
Get a grip, she told herself, suddenly
realizing that his lips were moving and she had no idea what he’d
said.
“Umm,” she stalled, fooling no one.
He looked daggers at her blank stare. “I asked what
was so important that you had to come pounding on my door in the
middle of the night to talk about it.”
“Oh. Well. This is obviously not the middle of the
night,” she pointed out.
“It’s the middle of my night,” Hazard
retorted.
She looked into those gray eyes dark with
irritation and held out the cardboard tray. “Coffee?”
“Coffee? That’s what you dragged me out of bed
for?”
“No, of course not. I just thought a nice hot cup
of coffee might make up for waking you.” She shrugged and lowered
the tray. “Obviously I was wrong.”
“What do you want, Eve?”
“I want the pendant.” Her tone was suddenly as
abrupt as his, her expression as unsmiling. “I want to find Pavane
and get it back. And I want you to help me.”
He shook his head. “Not a good idea. Not after last
night.”
“What’s the matter, Hazard? Afraid you were so good
I won’t be able to keep my hands off you?”
“Maybe you should be afraid that I won’t be able to
keep my hands off you,” he countered, his voice soft and
lethal.
“Well, I’m not.” She ignored the little trill of
excitement his heated gaze sent dancing along her spine. “Let’s
just forget last night happened and focus on the fact that we had a
deal. You were supposed to return the talisman to me
unharmed.”
“And you were supposed to help break the
curse.”
“Exactly,” Eve agreed. “And thanks to Pavane,
neither of us got the job done. So instead of standing here
bickering and wasting time, get dressed and meet me downstairs so
we can figure out what we’re going to do about it.”
He didn’t like the idea; that was evident in the
quick, disparaging slant of his mouth and the slight narrowing of
his eyes. Eve suspected he was searching for a reason to refuse . .
. a way to weasel out of their deal with dignity. Well, that wasn’t
going to happen. She didn’t know the reason for his sudden,
mysterious aloofness, but she wasn’t about to let it interfere with
what she had to do . . . with what they had to do. Finding
Pavane and recovering the pendant was more important than his
broodiness.
“You gave me your word,” she reminded him. “And no
matter how bitter and detached you think you are, I’m willing to
bet that still means something to you.”
He gave her a hard look. “Tread carefully,
Enchantress. You stand to lose a great deal betting on me.” He took
one of the cups from her tray. “Wait downstairs.”
Hazard closed his bedroom door and stood for a
moment with his hand pressed flat against it. Annoyed. Worried.
Elated. The only thing he wanted more than he wanted to stay the
hell away from Eve was to be with her. It made no sense. Not much
did since she’d come into his life. Thanks to her he was
questioning things he knew to be true, and wishing for things he
could never have. The woman had brought more than color back to his
world; she’d brought longing and confusion and—most dangerous of
all—hope. It was a futile hope, of course, but that didn’t stop it
from creeping into his head, and his heart. He had to fight to keep
it in check.
And to make the task even harder, he’d gone and
agreed to work side by side with her for God knew how long,
ostensibly to honor the bargain they’d struck. He could have walked
away from it . . . and from her. He should have walked away,
for her sake if not his own. What they shared last night was
amazing. He knew exactly what she’d felt because he’d felt it too,
with one important difference: he knew that it was a dead end. That
he was a dead end. Eve deserved much better.
His situation alone ought to be enough to scare her
off. A man with a death wish is the wrong man for any woman.
Unfortunately, everything he’d learned about Eve warned that she
didn’t scare or discourage easily. Faced with a dead end, she was
the sort to dig in her heels, roll up her sleeves and find a way
over, under or if need be, straight through in order to get where
she wanted to go. Just the thought of her doing that for his sake
made his heart beat recklessly. It wouldn’t take much to encourage
a woman like that.
Moving away from the door, he did something he
rarely did: he shrugged off his shirt and stood in front of the
mirror. His unlined face and never-changing body were to him what
steel bars and shackles were to a prisoner, ever-present visual
reminders of his captivity, and he needed no reminders. The silence
and loneliness of his existence made the point well enough. It
didn’t matter how much music he listened to on the finest sound
system money could buy, or how many noisy crowds he emerged himself
in; he couldn’t escape the crushing stillness of never hearing
someone say his name or inquire about his day or wonder out loud if
he’d remembered to lock the door or feed the cat or pay the bloody
rent. Someone to whom such things mattered because they shared with
him all the trifling details that make a life.
Taggart didn’t count. Taggart was . . . a
necessity, like the man who picked up his laundry or the caterer
who provided his meals. His voice couldn’t break this silence any
more than his presence could pierce the loneliness. Besides,
Taggart was of the world of magic and that alone made him as much
foe as friend.
Or so he’d believed until a few days ago. Eve, an
enchantress, had somehow managed to do both . . . and in defiance
of his best efforts to keep her out. Maybe it was because in spite
of the magic in her blood, she didn’t embrace that world. At first
he hadn’t believed her claim that she hadn’t deliberately used
magic to cheat him out of the pendant. It had taken time and
persistence to comb through countless old news stories and magical
texts and piece together the details to solve at least part of the
puzzle that was Eve Lockhart. Now not only did he believe that she
had long ago sworn off magic, but he also understood why.
Was that what accounted for the strong and unusual
sense of connection they’d felt from the start? A shared aversion
to magic? Or was it magic itself that had drawn them
together?
He stared into the mirror at the mark on his chest.
A circular mark identical to Eve’s birthmark. He hadn’t paid
particular attention to the honey-colored birthmark while they were
making love; his senses had been spinning far too wildly to focus
on any one thing. It was only later, when she’d gone to the
bathroom and he was alone that it hit him. They both had the same
identical mark, in the same exact spot. Over their hearts. His had
been seared into his flesh when Pavane held the base of the pendant
in a white-hot fire and then used it to curse him. Two centuries
later, an ocean away, Eve had been born with hers. And in time
their paths had not simply crossed, they’d become tangled and
interwoven.
Coincidence?
Or something more portentous?