“I keep telling myself that she just can’t get much better, but with every book she amazes and surprises me!”
—The Best Reviews
Praise for the futuristic fantasy of
Robin D. Owens,
Winner of the 2002 RITA Award for Best Paranormal Romance by the Romance Writers of America
“Another terrific tale from the brilliant mind of Robin D. Owens. Don’t miss it.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“A taut mixture of suspense and action . . . that leaves you stunned.”
—Smexy Books
“Sexy, emotionally intense, and laced with humor.”
—Library Journal
“Each story is as fresh and new as the first one was.”
—Fresh Fiction
“[A] wonderfully imaginative series.”
—Romance Junkies
“The romance is passionate, the characters engaging, and the society and setting exquisitely crafted.”
—Booklist
“Maintaining the ‘world building’ for science fiction and character-driven plot for romance is near impossible. Owens does it brilliantly.”
—TRRC Reading
“[Owens] provides a wonderful, gripping mix of passion, exotic futuristic settings, and edgy suspense. If you’ve been waiting for someone to do futuristic romance right, you’re in luck, Robin D. Owens is the author for you.”
—Jayne Castle
“Engaging characters, effortless world building, and a sizzling romance make this a novel that’s almost impossible to put down.”
—The Romance Reader
“Owens paints a world filled with characters who sweep readers into an unforgettable adventure with every delicious word, every breath, every beat of their hearts. Brava!”
—Deb Stover, award-winning author
Titles by Robin D. Owens
HEARTMATE
HEART THIEF
HEART DUEL
HEART CHOICE
HEART QUEST
HEART DANCE
HEART FATE
HEART CHANGE
HEART JOURNEY
HEART SEARCH
HEART SECRET
HEART FORTUNE
HEART FIRE
HEART LEGACY
HEART SIGHT
GHOST SEER
GHOST LAYER
GHOST KILLER
GHOST TALKER
GHOST MAKER
Anthologies
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
(with Sherrilyn Kenyon and Rebecca York)
HEARTS AND SWORDS
BERKLEY SENSATION
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2017 by Robin D. Owens
Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
BERKLEY and BERKLEY SENSATION are registered trademarks and the B colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Owens, Robin D., author.
Title: Heart sight / Robin D. Owens.
Description: First edition. | New York : Berkley Sensation, 2017. | Series: A Celta novel ; 14
Identifiers: LCCN 2017029533 (print) | LCCN 2017032826 (ebook) | ISBN 9780451488183 (ebook) | ISBN 9780451488176 (softcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Man-woman relationships—Fiction. | Life on other planets—Fiction. | Paranormal romance stories. | BISAC: FICTION / Romance / Paranormal. | FICTION / Romance / Fantasy. | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction. | Science fiction. | Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3615.W478 (ebook) | LCC PS3615.W478 H477 2017 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029533
First Edition: December 2017
Cover art by Tony Mauro
Cover design by Katie Anderson
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Praise for Robin D. Owens
Titles by Robin D. Owens
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Characters
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
About the Author
To Kay (Cassie Miles), can’t do this without you.
Acknowledgments
Many, many thanks to C. J. Rite for brainstorming ideas for chapter one, Charie Craig for the name of the shop that makes ice cream, and Betty Monych Shoenbaechler for help with a series blip I ran across . . . as well as Sandy Heaberlin for her fantastic character list of the Celta series. Sandy as well as Tine MacKay, Sarah Mallon, and Deb Swenson for information regarding the Hawthorn colors . . . Fred Riley, Sandy Kaye, and Michelle Kaye for being my beta readers.
Characters
The Hazels:
Avellana Hazel: second daughter of D’Hazel and T’Hazel (heroine!)
Rhyz: Avellana’s Familiar Companion FamCat
GreatLady Coll D’Hazel: Avellana’s mother
GreatLord Chess T’Hazel: Avellana’s father
Coll HazelHeir: Avellana’s sister
The Vines:
GreatLord Muin (Vinni) T’Vine: FirstFamily GreatLord, the Prophet of Celta (hero!)
Flora: Vinni’s Familiar Companion housefluff
Arcto Vine: tutor
Bifrona Vine: housekeeper, matriarch of the Vines
Vine Guards:
Duan Dewberry Vine (Chief of Guard
s)
Armen
Fera
Plicat
Southern Vines:
Bicknell Vine
Perna Vine
Baby Vine
And sundry cousins, including several cooks . . .
Investigators:
Garrett Primross: Private Investigator, liaison between the FirstFamilies and the Druida City Guards (hero of Heart Secret)
Ilex Winterberry: Captain of the Druida City Guards (hero of Heart Quest)
Other Important Characters:
GreatLord T’Ash: blacksmith, jeweler (hero of HeartMate)
Gwydion Ash: second son of T’Ash and D’Ash
Antenn Blackthorn-Moss: architect and friend of Vinni and Avellana (hero of Heart Fire)
Tiana Mugwort Blackthorn-Moss: Priestess and friend of Vinni and Avellana (heroine of Heart Fire)
Cal Marigold: a boy who is the reincarnation of Tab Holly
GreatLord Saille T’Willow: matchmaker (hero of Heart Dance)
GrandLord (FirstFamilies) Draeg T’Yew: fighter, consort of Loridana (hero of Heart Legacy)
GrandLady (FirstFamilies) Loridana D’Yew: personal armor crafter (heroine of Heart Legacy)
And cameo appearances by various others!
One
DRUIDA CITY,
424 years after colonization,
summer
He never saw visions of his own future, not Vinni T’Vine, the Prophet of Celta. No, he only experienced occasional tightening of the muscles at the back of his neck and dread slithering down his spine. Usually those symptoms indicated a threat to his HeartMate, Avellana Hazel.
Tonight the feeling morphed into the regular nightmare and he suffered through the horrific dream in his own ancestral bed. The vision where he held a pale Avellana, her gaze fixed on his, her last breath coming out with an I love you, Muin, then her eyes losing the lifespark and fogging with death. From the plague.
But even dreaming he knew the plague had finally been beaten back, this particular deadly one mastered and not to return to decimate the colonists of Celta. Healers now knew how to treat that sickness, to triumph over it.
Then his lover faded from his arms to stand waving at him from a balcony, and the balcony broke and she plummeted down onto unforgiving flagstones. He wrenched his mind from the sight, only to see her motionless and dead pale on the grass of a Druida City park, a poisoned candy in her hand.
More recent dangers giving rise to new visions.
WAKE UP! His heart gave a huge and heavy thump. He felt the warmth as if it had pounded outside his chest, groggily lifted his hand, and touched the soft fur of his Familiar Companion, a housefluff—a rabbitlike creature. With every stroke his breathing steadied along with the pulse surging in his blood, the twanging of his nerves.
Long soft ears brushed his face as Flora lowered her head. He felt the slightest damp touch of her smooth tongue on his cheek.
The rest of him was damp, too. He lay in his own sweat, the coverlet unable to draw away the amount of perspiration he’d emitted.
Only a few seconds had passed since he’d held a limp Avellana—no, opened his eyes so he’d see Flora, the embroidered canopy above him, rather than—
Yes, his Fam touched noses with him. He reached with all his senses for Avellana, felt their bond as open as usual. He’d instinctively hidden his fear from her. From her pulsed creativity and art and . . . a hint of spirituality . . .
Nevertheless, he needed to go to her.
He looked around him and blinked at the soft golden light—dawn? Hadn’t he had an appointment at T’Elder’s at dawn? Maybe that was yesterday?
Not dawn, Flora said mentally. Sunset. Dinner soon.
And the memories of the day wheeled in his head.
“I fell asleep?” he rasped, still confused by everything except that his HeartMate lived. He glanced at the viz panel that had stopped floating above the bed where he’d been watching a comedy, then turned his head to see that it had folded itself and lay on the cabinet next to the bed.
Yes, you napped, Flora said.
“I don’t nap,” he said stiffly. “Sometimes I rest. And it’s been a long day after a long night.” He sighed. “As the official birth Oracle, I attended the birth of the Honey twins last night. I also kept my consultation appointments today.”
The babies were beautiful.
“Yes, but the night stretched. GraceLady Mignontette Honey complimented you on your fur and thanked you for your help.”
Flora sniffed. She has useless FamCat.
“Who will be fine with the babies.”
He removed Flora from his chest but felt the burden of a vision unreleased, unresolved, untold. Even though he’d sensed Avellana was fine, he needed to see her. Make sure she lived and glowed with health and stayed safe. Defend her if any threat appeared.
Currently she lived on Mona Island, where he’d convinced her to go three months ago, the last time he’d felt danger to her in Druida City.
“Residence.” He spoke to the intelligent house itself, T’Vine Residence. “In fifteen minutes, inform the Family I will not be joining them for dinner.” He’d be gone by then, teleported away.
Again? Flora didn’t have much facial expression, but she scrunched her nose, lifting her upper muzzle from two big front teeth. Her ears twitched, then angled. You skip dinner more than one this waxing twinmoons, more than two. They will talk and talk and talk, and yammer and yammer and yammer, and argue and—
“I hear you, Flora.” He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Like the cover, his clothes should have wicked away the sweat, but he figured those daily spells had worn away after the long and stressful consultations he’d had today. He rubbed the back of his neck, drying it, flaking away old sweat.
“I need to see Avellana, to teleport to her.”
Again? A grass-scented huff came from his Fam. I will go, too. Avoid the talk and yammer. Though you will argue. Better you argue with FamWoman because you want her to stay away from the city with many scaries and she supposed to come home tomorrow.
True. Any time he’d sensed danger to his HeartMate since she’d been five, he’d persuaded her Family and Avellana to leave Druida City.
His whole body tensed, his nostrils widened, and he caught the odor of his own distress, the general smell of his suite—sunshine and an herbal mix he liked—and Flora. He should clean up. He couldn’t take the time. Yes, his whole spine stiffened, his muscles taut with warning. “Boots on,” he ordered rustily, not thinking he could handle that physically. They formed around his feet and calves.
He needed Avellana, his love, his HeartMate . . . though they had not HeartBonded yet. They’d promised their Families they’d wed first. Because they belonged to two of the highest-status Families, such an alliance demanded long negotiations of the marriage contracts, planning, and formal rituals. Two years’ worth of delays.
He’d only shared a few instances of intimacy, sexual teasing, and petting with Avellana. Only three real sessions of lovemaking. Just thinking about that hurt. Physical aching need for her, emotional loneliness that she continued to live apart from him and he couldn’t walk into the GreatMistrys Suite and see her. His own fault, that, though it didn’t mitigate the hurt . . .
The artist colony on Mona Island was easily within his teleportation range. He scanned for her location, found the nearest empty teleportation pad. “’Porting in three. One and holo, two and—” Flora hopped into his arms and he left.
Dusk had reached the low-lying island sooner than his hilltop castle. Or maybe he’d lingered too long in his bedroom. As soon as they landed in the outside garden, Flora jumped into leafy bushes. He heard munching.
He sensed Avellana in the Circle Temple.
Straining all his Flair, he tried to evaluate each droplet of the atmosphere
for threat to her. He felt nothing but didn’t trust . . . anything, not even his senses.
He leapt off the teleportation pad and flicked the signal to show that it was available, ran down the path in the direction of the Circle Temple. As he sucked in air, he smelled the heady aroma of flowers, blooms that didn’t flourish in T’Vine gardens. Summer scents that spoke of sunshine and heat and the humidity of an island instead of a plateau above an ocean. Around him lush trees and bushes grew in wild abandon, not carefully trained so they wouldn’t be a detriment to the security of a FirstFamily castle.
And he couldn’t see through those bushes to know if villains lurked.
Like everything else on Mona Island, artists had conceived and built Circle Temple. The stone appeared creamy and mellow in the fading light. As he surged toward the northern door, he found it ajar. His gut clenched. Without thought he teleported to the threshold, shoved the door wide open.
Stopped in surprise when he saw Avellana sitting on the floor, forehead furrowed in concentration as she moved curved fingers in the three-dimensional holo painting she worked on. A comprehensive scan showed him no one else in the one-room building.
Safe! He held his breath so as not to alert her to his panting, his running. He wanted her to stay here longer instead of return to Druida City. The setting where he’d just dreamed of danger. Again.
The small artist colony on an equally small island had kept her safe for three months. But to prevail upon her to stay, he must finesse the situation.
So he stood and watched her and calmed. A sweet jolt had gone through him at the sight of her, as usual, even though those big blue eyes hadn’t been aimed his way. He appreciated how the light touched a streak of white in her medium-brown hair, a lock at her left temple that had appeared after her last Passage to free her Flair.
Her old and comfortable clothes didn’t display her curves well, but he knew the feel of her breasts in his palms, the curve of her hips.
Brow furrowed, her hand gestured in a wavy motion. A line of textured color deepened the bark of the Ash tree in the center of the Great Labyrinth. He sucked in his breaths gently, let them out quietly, knowing better than to disturb her focus when in the midst of creative expression.
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