It really was. Sean and Svala had done an outstanding job.
Shannon only had a moment to enjoy her daughter’s pleasure before her attention was snagged by the other vessel. A transparent little boy had drifted down and stood on its stern looking at Emily’s boat. At first, he seemed happy, then confused.
Shannon knew nobody else saw him.
Nobody ever did.
Not for the most part.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
When his surprised eyes met hers, Shannon focused on remaining as calm as possible. It was the best way to deal with those from the other side. If one thing had been proven again and again, if she got tense, so did they.
“Am I in the right boat?” he whispered back, his green eyes more and more confused. “Is mother still here?”
Her heart hammered into her throat. She wasn’t seeing a ghost but something she had only witnessed a few times before. An echo of the past merging with the present. A spectral image caught between two worlds. Both dead and reborn at the same time.
Matthew.
As a child.
She was viewing him before he made his way back into life with the memories of a child who had already lived it. The man he was today had nothing to do with it, but this explained a lot. It helped fill in some pieces.
This was why Matthew was so intricately wound with the beyond. Why he was haunted far more than most. He was a reincarnate still bound by the land of the dead. Not only that, he was recently pulled back there. Maybe when he had been hit by the enemy’s dart?
One way or another, he was heavily influenced by another reality entirely.
Shannon knew his story. He was conceived in Svala and Sean’s boat. Before that, he had been the spirit of his mother’s deceased child. He’d died in a car accident in the twenty-first century when very young then was reborn in ninth-century Scandinavia. Oh yes, reincarnation worked in all directions and followed no particular timeline. Not when it came to dragons.
Not when it came to him.
Now here he was as a child, more confused than ever. Her eyes went to the mast and sail on Emily’s new boat. Perhaps he was tied to them somehow? It was the only thing that made sense given she knew they had been on his boat before.
She had little practice in this sort of thing. Typically she helped spirits move on, not realign. And she wasn’t so sure she wanted to help this one reattach itself to her daughter’s new boat.
Sean lifted Emily into her boat, and she seemed mesmerized before her eyes turned to Shannon. “You should help him, Mama. He doesn’t deserve to be alone. Not when he’s so little.”
Everyone looked at Emily with confusion except Shannon. This wasn’t the first time her daughter had sensed a spirit. And now that her dragon blood was awakening, she imagined it might start happening more often.
“I think you belong here now,” Emily said softly, her eyes on the little boy. “I don’t mind sharing my boat with you.”
The boy didn’t respond only nodded, leapt in the direction of Emily’s boat then vanished in mid-air. But Shannon heard the small thump as he landed, and so did her daughter. Emily smiled, nodded then resumed admiring the boat as though nothing unusual had happened.
Nobody said a word, but Shannon felt their eyes on her and Emily. They all knew Matthew had seen his deceased wife and sister around Sean and Svala’s boat the last time he was here. They knew something wasn’t quite right. But then nothing had been since all this started.
“You made this for me?” Emily beamed as she continued to admire her boat. “Really?”
“Really,” Svala confirmed, just as excited as she got in and started explaining different carvings.
Sean chuckled, clearly pleased as he cracked a beer and watched them. Shannon joined him and thanked him yet again. “It’s a work of art, Sean. You and Svala outdid yourselves.”
“Thanks.” He took a swig and shrugged, a smile still in place. “We had fun doing it.”
She bet they did. Nothing seemed to make them happier than spending time around boats. She could only imagine how happy they’d be building one.
“Let me pay you for—”
“No way,” Sean said before she could finish. He shook his head. “You don’t owe us a thing, Shannon. We enjoyed doing this for you and Emily.”
“You mean Emily.” She thanked Mema Angie when she handed her a glass of red wine. “It’s all hers.”
“No,” Megan murmured. “That boat belongs to both of you.”
Shannon glanced from Megan to the boat as she sipped. Though tempted to question why she had said that, she decided it could wait. Right now she wanted to watch her daughter be happy. Too much sadness had filled Emily’s life, and this was a much needed reprieve.
Later that night, sitting in the garage alone, she continued to mull over not only her own role in all of this but also her daughter’s. When would she be pulled back in time? Would Emily be with her when it happened? How did she ensure that she was or wasn’t? Where was her daughter safest? Here or in the past? She just didn’t know anymore. Shannon tended to think she was always safest with her mother but how would she ever protect Emily from the kind of darkness coming their way?
It wasn’t easy being a single parent. Now more than ever, she had a better appreciation for what her father must have gone through. Then again, she only dealt with facing ghosts daily and raising one child. He had to deal with five daughters who weren’t just going through puberty but coping with their repressed inner dragons.
She pulled a small picture out of her back pocket and stared at it. Creased and in rough shape, it was a picture of her and her sisters with their parents. The only one she had left. It had been taken when they were still happy. Before her mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she and dad started bickering so much. Then it all became very stressful. Her illness. What it would be like without her. Dad didn’t handle it well, and she couldn’t really blame him. They had been so in love.
After her mom passed away, Shannon connected more and more with her father. That’s when she first learned to be calm so she could help others after they suffered the loss of a loved one. She wanted to help her father cope. Be there for him. And she had been. Or at least she liked to think so. He might be gone now, but to this day she still spoke to him, and though she couldn’t see him, she liked to think he listened.
“Pull yourself together my little light,” Dad would have said if he were here. “It’s time to be stronger than ever. You can do it.”
He had started calling Shannon his little light after her mom died because he said she felt like a light at the end of a dark tunnel. That she shined brighter than most. That she was stronger. She just wished she felt that way now.
Bright and shiny and strong.
“I don’t feel nearly equipped for anything that’s happening right now, Dad,” she whispered as she leaned her head back against the door.
“Well you better and soon,” came a firm voice.
Shannon sighed, eying the woman who partially materialized beside Sean and Svala’s boat.
“I know, Freydis,” she murmured.
Seeing her was just another thing that pretty much ensured she would be traveling back in time. It seemed Matthew had left his deceased family members behind. Family who had been bound to him since they passed away but for some reason seemed stuck here with her now. Both had died in battle but seemed unwilling or unable to pass on. To join their great Odin in Valhalla.
Freydis was Matthew’s sister.
“I grow tired of this,” Sigrunn said, materializing nearby. “I should be with my son and husband.”
Sigrunn was Matthew’s wife.
Some might say that only made this more awkward but then most women weren’t still in touch with their own deceased husband’s spirit. Fortunately, Anthony hadn’t followed her to Maine but continued to hover around Cameron. Thank God for small favors. Dealing with Freydis and Sigrunn on a constant basis was more than enough.
“The next place you will go is straight on to Valhalla, Sigrunn,” Freydis reminded. “And there you will drink with Odin and wait for Matthew and Håkon as will I.”
“Of course you are right.” Sadness darkened Sigrunn’s eyes as she looked out the window toward the ocean. As she seemed to seek out her long lost family. “Yet I do not have any desire to join my All-Father.” She frowned at Shannon as she always did. “I cannot seem to leave my kin behind. I should…” She shook her head. “But I cannot.”
Shannon understood all too well because Anthony felt the same way. Caught in tragedy. Caught in limbo. Needing to go but still so attached to what he was leaving behind.
As always, she nodded and said, “I understand.”
That seemed to appease them. Why, she couldn’t be sure. She hadn’t died, so she had not experienced it from their viewpoint. Nonetheless, she said it, and it calmed both Anthony and Sigrunn.
Freydis, however, was a different matter altogether.
Out of all the dead she’d met, and there had been a lifetime full, Matthew’s sister seemed entirely too self-aware. Almost as if she intended to be exactly where she was. Caught between here and there. Caught between a vicious death in battle and glory in Valhalla. The only difference between her and everyone else was that she was the first spirit of a dragon-shifter Shannon had come across. Perhaps that was it.
Or perhaps not.
If Shannon could sense nothing else about Freydis, it was that she made a point of being discreet. She shared very little with Shannon and kept Sigrunn under her ethereal thumb at all times. It was the damndest thing and on occasion, downright annoying. Why not just communicate more freely with the living? With Shannon? So that she could help them move on. So that the two of them no longer haunted Matthew?
Endless questions and no answers.
That was the story of her life lately.
“Where is my husband?” Sigrunn shook her head. “My son?”
“Just over the water,” Freydis said as she had again and again since Matthew vanished back in time. “Soon enough, you will see them again.”
As always, Freydis’ eyes met Shannon’s. And like every other time, a chill shot up her spine. Not a ghost-just-eyed-me-chill but something else entirely. More like Matthew’s sister was waiting for Shannon to get moving. To get them out of here and back to her brother. Then maybe somewhere else altogether. It was unsettling, and she didn’t like it in the least. She usually moved spirits along not the other way around.
“He tried to come,” Sigrunn said vehemently as her eyes went between Shannon and Freydis. “Matthew wanted to fight alongside me.”
Once again, Sigrunn focused on the day she died. That awful raid.
Shannon did what she always did and nodded, then Freydis said what she always said. “He did. He fought alongside you. He was there.”
Shannon got the feeling that wasn’t entirely true. There was far more to what happened that day. And while it was none of her business, it still saddened her. All of this did. Sigrunn was a lost soul. Stuck reliving the last moments of her life, her thoughts were consumed by her husband and son. She had come across plenty of spirits like her, and it never got any easier. The inherent sadness surrounding them. The non-stop confusion. They, more than any, deserved freedom. Peace. They deserved to move on.
“He did want to fight,” Sigrunn murmured, oblivious of Freydis’ words. The blue of her eyes started to fade as her body became more transparent. She puffed up with pride. “So did Håkon, my little warrior. My beautiful son.”
Shannon bit back emotion as Sigrunn began to fade as she always did when she started to focus on Håkon. For some reason, talking about him, the heartache it invoked, drained the last of her energy, and she vanished.
Freydis paced between the boats, her eyes finally landing on Emily’s. “It has the mast and sail that was on the other boat.” Her eyes swept to Shannon. “You do realize that, yes?”
“Yes.” Shannon said nothing more. She certainly didn’t share anything about Matthew’s young residual energy jumping aboard earlier. “I think it looks good, don’t you?”
“I think it confuses an already confusing situation,” Freydis said bluntly, her sharp eyes narrowed on Shannon. “What was Svala’s reason for building this?”
Shannon merely shrugged and sipped her wine. “I never asked her.”
But she had. Several times. Svala only said that it offered strength and guidance. That when Emily’s boat embarked on a new journey, it would follow a path determined by its sail. By the direction of her life.
“Call Svala out here then,” Freydis ordered, clearly not believing Shannon’s answer. “This is important.”
“It always is,” Shannon muttered.
As she did time and time again, Freydis grew more determined to find answers. Where was she? Where was her brother? What was happening to her dragon brethren? Did they know she still walked Midgard in this ethereal, unfortunate form? When she got the same old answers, she grew angrier. That, as it turned out, was always her weakness and she started to fade then vanish.
Shannon rolled her shoulders, sighed, bent over and rested her head in her lap. This was starting to wear thin, and she had no one to talk to about it. Not if she couldn’t get in touch with Cameron. He was the only one who knew everything she was going through. Even her personal struggles when it came to her own inner dragon. While he could not relate to the dragon end of things, he knew what it felt like to communicate with the dead. The toll it took. Right now, she imagined he must be dealing with his brother.
She closed her eyes and tried not to see Anthony. His smile. His handsome looks. Curiosity. Intensity. All those parts of him that made up who he had been when he was alive. More than that, she tried not to see how he appeared now. Just as sad as Sigrunn. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter and quelled heartache. A heartache that didn’t entirely have to do with a wife missing her husband. Even so, he had been her sounding board in many aspects. A man she would always care about. The father of her child.
“I’ll fix this, Anthony,” she whispered and clenched her fists in her lap. “I’ll find a way to help you move on.”
And she would.
She had to.
If she didn’t, things would only get worse for Emily. Her life would start to get bogged down by something she didn’t understand. Just like Matthew’s son, Håkon’s world was very likely suffering the same effects because his mother was still here.
Spirits were nothing to mess around with. Even the most innocent ones could deplete and make those they haunted ill. They could affect their mood, their energy, everything. They could literally and unknowingly change a person’s life without them ever being the wiser.
Shannon inhaled deeply and sat back. If one thing was for certain, the clock was ticking. Time was running out. And she wasn’t referring to the concept of traveling through time. She had no control over that. But she could control something else. She could seek help elsewhere. Instead of helping spirits pass on, she could perhaps find a way to invite them from the other side. Work it from the other angle.
She didn’t mull it over for long. If she did, she might change her mind, and that just wasn’t an option. Not if she was going to make a difference. To her mind, that meant dealing with Håkon, Emily, and Matthew. And ultimately what haunted them.
It was time to make a move, and she was the only one who could do it. Control it. She wasn’t cocky. Just practical. When others were foolish enough to try this, they always ended up being controlled. But not her. She would succeed where most had failed.
Even if it meant breaking a promise she had made to her mother.
She called on the land of the dead.
Chapter Two
Scandinavia
907 BC
“WHAT DO YOU mean you could not find him?” Heidrek frowned at Matthew. “Uncle Kjar is always available to us no matter where he is.” His expression darkened. “Especially considering Håkon
is with him.”
“I could not find him, Brother,” Matthew repeated. “And I could not find my son.” His eyes narrowed on his new king. “And we both know very well Uncle Kjar is not always available to us. Not if he doesn’t want to be.”
“Håkon is with him,” Heidrek said, clearly in denial, his voice rough with emotion. “Therefore he is available to us.”
“Then why can’t I sense him?” Matthew shook his head, frustrated, trying hard to keep fear at bay while he ground out, “Why can I no longer hear my son’s heartbeat?”
“You two are going in circles with this conversation,” Cybil said softly, her eyes on Lauren who sat across the fire from her. “So Sam helped you and Tait return to the future to protect Emily, but there was no sign of Shannon or my niece?”
They were in a room off of Heidrek and Cybil’s main lodge. A place that Heidrek and his immediate brethren often came together to talk about things they did not share with the rest of the tribe.
“No,” Lauren said, worried. “The last time anyone saw them was a few nights before when Sean and Svala gave Emily her new boat. The next morning they were gone as was the boat.”
Tait had remained behind to help Svala protect those in the twenty-first century.
“We’re thankful you’re determined to watch over them, Lauren. And that you and Tait are willing to be apart so soon after coming together.” Cybil kept her eyes on Lauren. “Are you all right, Sis? I know it’s not easy being separated from our mates.”
“I am.” Lauren nodded, but Matthew didn’t miss the flicker of sadness she tried to hide. “Tait and I have come too far to protect our family to stop now.” Her eyes met Matthew’s with compassion before she continued reporting what they had witnessed in the twenty-first century. “The boat wasn’t even pulled out of the garage. It seems to have vanished into thin air. Even so, Svala is convinced its sail will lead them in the right direction.”
Matthew scowled and shook his head. Apparently, it had the same sail that had been on the old boat. For some reason, Svala felt that it would help Emily and Shannon. She couldn’t explain why except that it had brought her and Sean together and now it would take the little girl where she needed to go.
Fury of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 4) Page 2
