Gwen groaned. “That water is like ice.”
“The best you’re going to do out here, sweetheart.”
“Sweetheart, huh?” She leaned into him. “You’ve never called me that before.”
“Hmm, my mistake,” he said, nuzzling her cheek lightly with his nose. “A man should be much more affectionate toward the one he loves.”
Gwen felt her hand shake, even as she lifted it to touch the curve of his jaw. “You’ve never said that, either,” she whispered, her voice shaking as much as her hand.
“Another mistake.”
He kissed her, his lips so soft and gentle against hers. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent, the feel of him against her. He was so warm…so alive. It made her heart skip a beat as the true impact of his words finally made its way through the walls she had put up around her heart.
No one had ever said they loved her and truly meant it…or, at least, said it so that she believed them. She believed Cei. After everything they’d been through, how could she not?
His confession gave her hope that there might be a future for them after all of this was said and done. And that was something she hadn’t even considered until this moment. The idea that there was anything beyond finding the gate and reversing the curse was hard to imagine when it seemed like every time she turned around someone was threatening her life or telling her there was no way she could succeed at this? When everything seemed to be about this one thing, it was hard to see beyond it.
But now, in this moment, she was beginning to hope again.
Cei broke their kiss, letting his lips slide down her throat for a brief moment.
“I need to go clean up the breakfast mess,” he said against the curve of her jaw, clearly not in a hurry to get up. “Don’t want to attract any unwanted animals.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
He pulled her a little closer to him with a hand around her hip. “Or we could just hide out here for the rest of the day…let whatever happens out there happen.”
“There’s that, too.”
His hand slid low over her thigh, then back up again. “But, again, I left my pack out there, and it has most of our food in it.”
Gwen groaned. “Then, I guess you better go.”
“Yeah.”
He kissed the top of her head, his movements slow, before he finally sighed and pulled away. Gwen watched him stand, stooped over because of the low ceiling of the small tent, and then step, somewhat clumsily, out the door.
She sighed, too, as a shiver ran through her. She was suddenly cold in the absence of his body heat. A month ago, her only desire was to finish high school so that she could go to the East Coast and attend college. A month ago, she had no intention of messing up her plans by letting anyone get close to her. A month ago, this wasn’t even on her radar.
But now…
She climbed out of the tent, catching her breath as a wave of cold air hit her right in the face. It was raining, a fine mist that seemed to coat everything all at once. Cei was hunkered over a low fire, putting it out with scoops of dirt he was gathering with his hands.
“I’m going down to the brook,” she said.
He glanced back at her. “I’ll be there in a minute. Just gotta finish with this.”
Gwen nodded, even though he was focusing on the fire again. She wrapped her arms around herself and made her way through the thicket of trees, grateful for the cover even if it wasn’t enough to keep all the moisture off of her.
She paused just before stepping out of the cover of the trees when she reached the brook, scanning the low tree limbs for any sign of her mother. She didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. Another sigh and she stepped close to the brook, dropping to one knee so that she could use her cupped hands to wash her face. If Cei’s kiss hadn’t woke her up, this certainly did. The water was even colder today than it had been last night. But her desire to clean up was stronger than her need to stay warm.
Gwen wet her hair, running her fingers through it to work out the worst of the tangles. Then, she ran her finger over her teeth, wishing she had remembered to bring her toothbrush with her. She hesitated a moment before lifting off her shirt, glancing behind her to make sure Cei wasn’t coming through the trees just yet. Silly to be afraid to let him see her in her bra, but they had yet progressed to that point, and she didn’t want to make him think that just because he said he loved her…
If things were going to progress, she wanted them to progress naturally, not because he thought she was sending him some sort of signal.
Not that she needed to worry. There was no sign of him.
Gwen was shivering by the time she was done. But she felt more refreshed than she had before she cleaned herself up.
She climbed to her feet and walked along the edge of the brook for a minute, curious about the landscape. The majority of the trees were pine, but there were others, ash and birch and one she thought might some variety of hazel. A couple of yards down from where she had been kneeling, there was a huge oak that seemed to be calling to her. She couldn’t really explain how…she wasn’t hearing voices again or anything. But it was like the sun shined just on this one tree, like a spotlight.
She walked over to it and ran her hand along the rough bark of its trunk. Her fingers immediately began to tingle, followed by a sort of warmth that moved slowly up the length of her arm. In a matter of seconds, she felt the warmth all through her, her skin warmed as though she had been wrapped in a heated blanket.
“Thank you,” she said quietly to the tree.
Welcome home.
Just a few weeks ago, that would have freaked Gwen out. When the oak tree in the school yard began to speak to her, she thought she was going insane. But now…she didn’t exactly expect it, but she wasn’t shocked by it, either.
“It does feel like home,” she said.
The tree sent this hum through her, almost like a cat purring. It made her laugh, and that only made the hum grow stronger.
“You are a beautiful tree,” she said, running her hand over the bark again. “I don’t think we have many trees like you where I come from.”
I am one of the oldest tress on this mountain, it said proudly, if a tree can be proud.
“That is an accomplishment,” she said.
You are here to free the sons of Don.
“I’m going to try.”
I would like to help you with your task.
Gwen stepped back slightly and looked up into the tree, at the beautiful foliage that was almost completely yellow. As beautiful as it was tall and…yes, proud.
“I would love all the help I can get.”
Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, an image filled Gwen’s mind. It was of a place she didn’t know with landmarks she wasn’t sure she would recognize again if she saw them. It was dark, quiet, a place that didn’t seem to be within the confines of a city or a well-populated area. Somewhere remote…a canyon, perhaps. As the image sharpened, Gwen just barely caught sight of a shimmer of copper, or something, brass, maybe. It was large, set into something—the image was so blurred she could barely tell if it was a man-made wall or something more natural. It was tall and thin, slightly rounded at the top.
“The gate,” she whispered.
Yes.
“Where is this? Where can I—”
“No, sir,” Cei’s voice, loud and nervous, floated toward her. “We weren’t aware of that.”
Cei was in trouble.
“Have to go,” she said, already turning and retracing her steps. She wanted to run, but the ground was a little rough there alongside the brook. She could hear the low rumble of a man’s voice—one that was not Cei’s—but she couldn’t quite tell what he was saying. However, she could hear Cei. It was like he was purposely speaking loudly so she could hear him.
“I apologize. We’ll move on,” Cei said just as she reached the edge of the tree line.
“That won’t be
acceptable,” a stranger’s voice said. “You cannot camp here, and you especially cannot have a fire. I’m afraid I’ll have to take you down to Penrhyndeudraeth.”
She stopped, not revealing herself to the people in the clearing. But she could see them—Cei standing near the remnants of the fire, a mallet tucked into one fist behind his back, and a stranger dressed in hiking clothes, his skin wind-burned as though he spent a great deal of time outdoors. The stranger was on the far side of the clearing, his hand resting on a pouch at his waist that likely contained a large knife or some other weapons if the way he was touching it was any indication.
Trouble.
“Is that really necessary?” Cei asked, his hand flexing around the mallet. “We haven’t done any harm.”
“Fires are not allowed here. You do realize that a lot of this property does not belong to the park, but is actually private property?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Well, ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you’ll move your hands where I can see them.”
“Am I under arrest?”
The man stepped back slightly, a look of uncertainty crossing his face momentarily. “I don’t have that authority,” the man said. “But that doesn’t change the facts.”
In that moment, a gust of wind suddenly burst across the clearing. Leaves and dirt blew up into the stranger’s face, causing him to turn away from the clearing for a brief moment. Gwen stepped out of the line of trees and joined Cei, laying a hand lightly on the hand that still held the mallet.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
The stranger turned toward the sound of her voice, but his eyes were watering so much from the dirt that he continued to rub them, clearly not able to see her clearly.
“Are you with this man?” he asked.
“I am.”
“Did you know that having a fire up here is prohibited?”
“A fire?” Gwen asked, trying to make her tone sound as puzzled as possible. “What fire?”
“There,” the man said, gesturing to a space just in front of Cei’s left foot.
Gwen made a big show of looking at the spot. But there was nothing to see but a pile of leaves and sticks. The small fire pit Cei had made was gone.
The stranger realized it at about the same time as Cei. Both stared at the spot for a second. Cei recovered first, dropping a wink in Gwen’s direction. The stranger whispered something unintelligible under his breath as he stepped forward, still rubbing the dirt from his eyes.
“What did you do? Kick leaves over it? That’s not going to change things.”
“We didn’t do anything,” Cei said.
“We were just hiking, and we heard water, so we decided to have a little picnic here,” Gwen said. “It’s all quite innocent, I can assure you.”
The man shook his head. “You were camping,” he insisted as he kicked at the leaves over the fire pit, but revealing nothing. “He already admitted it.”
“Admitted what?” Cei asked, quite innocently.
“That you were camping,” the man said, his puzzled gaze coming up to meet Cei’s. “You already said…how do you explain the tent?”
“What tent?”
The man turned to point to the tent, but it too had disappeared. He stared at the space, mumbling under his breath again.
“What did you do?”
“We were standing here the whole time,” Cei said.
The man turned circles in the middle of the clearing, staring first at the place where the tent had stood and then to the small area that held the fire pit. He kicked the leaves again, baring a two foot square in the center of the clearing, but never found any evidence that there had been a fire there. Even the rocks that Cei had carefully arranged around the pit were gone.
“I don’t understand,” the man said.
Gwen walked to him, offering a gentle pat on his shoulder. “Perhaps you misunderstood.”
“But I saw…”
Gwen just nodded. “It’s getting late. We need to get back on the trail.”
“Oh, of course,” the man said, glancing up at the small section of sky that was visible above the clearing. “I should go, too.”
The man looked around the clearing one more time. “Just make sure you stick to the trails from now on. The private land owners have been complaining about trespassers.”
“We will,” Gwen assured him.
The man was still shaking his head in puzzlement as he walked away.
“That was brilliant!” Cei exclaimed, coming up behind Gwen and wrapping his arms around her. “You are brilliant, my love.”
“Thank you,” she said, a blush rising over her cheeks. She waved a hand, making the tent and all their belongings reappear. “A little trick I learned from Branwen.”
“You’ve really figured out this powers thing, haven’t you?” He kissed her neck almost roughly. “That’s good. It’ll likely come in handy before this thing is all said and done.”
Gwen ran her hand over his arm. “We should probably move on before he comes back with reinforcements.”
“Yeah,” Cei said quietly. He kissed her neck one more time before he let her go.
As they packed up their belongings, Gwen found herself staring at the mallet Cei had dropped beside the fire pit. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would have used it against the stranger. Was Cei really capable of that kind of violence?
She hoped she would never need to find out for sure.
Chapter 3
They walked until the sun went down and then walked a little more. The terrain changed and became rockier, as they made their way south. Gwen stumbled once or twice, nearly twisting her ankle. It was rough going, especially in the dark.
“We need to stop,” Gwen finally said.
Cei looked back at her—he was constantly pulling yards ahead of her—and sighed.
“I guess you’re right,” he said.
He turned in a slow circle as he surveyed the area. Finally, he pointed to a spot about a dozen yards above them.
“That should work.”
They set up the tent in silence. No fire this time, despite the fact that the temperatures continued to fall as the night wore on. Gwen was shivering as she crawled into the tent and began to slip her shoes off.
“You need to eat,” Cei said.
She didn’t look up, just rubbed her sore ankle. She’d sprained that ankle not long ago when Branwen attacked her—the same night Branwen used her magic to hide herself and Gwen inside a protective bubble to keep anyone from coming to Gwen’s rescue—and, despite the fact that Blodeuwedd healed it for her, it still ached from time to time. Walking between boulders hadn’t helped much.
“Gwen.” He touched her shoulder. “I know you’re exhausted, but we have less than ten days to figure out where the gate is.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“You need to eat. Then, you need to rest.”
He dropped some sort of protein bar in her lap before moving back to his side of the incredibly small tent. It was like trying to move around inside of a Mini Cooper.
Gwen kicked her shoes away and climbed into her sleeping bag, clutching the protein bar in her hand. She made a show of opening it, wanting Cei to see that she was obeying his orders. It tasted like sawdust, and she only finished half before she set it aside.
“Better than nothing,” Cei said, rolling toward her, his own sleeping bag rustling up against hers.
“What if we don’t find it?”
Cei didn’t answer at first. But his hands—his big, warm hands—slipped under the thick material of her sleeping bag and sought out the bottom edge of her much-too-thin-for-this-weather t-shirt. She relaxed, moving back against his chest so that he had greater access to those hidden places that she only wanted to share with him.
“We’ll find it,” he finally said.
“But what if we don’t?”
Cei sighed, the force of his breath moving the hair at the top of her
head. “Then, we find a safe place to hide you until next year.”
“Rhein said we might be able to try again in February.”
“Imbloc,” he said. “It’s a celebration of spring. It marks the end of the dark half of the year.”
“Wouldn’t it work the same as Samhuinn?”
“Samhuinn is the traditional Druid New Year. It’s the beginning of the dark half of the year. It’s a celebration of death, a time of connecting with our ancestors. It’s a much more powerful day than Imbloc.” Cei sighed again. “We suspect the curse was first enacted on Samhuinn, so our chances of success are stronger on Samhuinn.”
“Oh.”
The only problem was, Samhuinn was less than ten days away and Bran had already told her that he was not going to allow her to live if they had to wait another year. Already Bran’s sister, Branwen, had made three attempts on her life, not counting the kidnaping just a few days ago. Even Gwen wasn’t confident that she would survive to see this thing through.
“If we don’t find the gate in the next few days,” Cei said, “then we need to start thinking about the best way of keeping you safe.”
“Is that even possible?”
Cei was quiet for a long moment. That told her all she needed to know.
Gwen tucked her body back against Cei and closed her eyes, not sure sleep was even possible. But she must have been more exhausted than she thought because she was drifting in seconds.
She wasn’t even fully aware that she had left consciousness until she found herself floating in a place she didn’t recognize. And then she was in a canyon that seemed slightly familiar. The image the oak tree had shown her.
“This is where you must go,” a quiet voice whispered somewhere near her ear.
“But I don’t know where it is.”
“You will find it. Very soon. But you must be careful who you take with you.”
“Why?”
“Because not everyone has the best intentions. There is someone who wants to destroy this gate so that no one can ever find it again.”
Gwen turned around, tried to find the person speaking to her, but there was no one there. “I don’t understand,” she called, but there was no response. Whoever had been there was gone now.
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