Stars of Fortune (The Guardians Trilogy 1)

“Whenever you’re sad or afraid, I’ll be there. This moment, and all the ones after.” He drew her back to look in her eyes. “Love is a serious business for me, fáidh. A serious and lasting business. I give you my oath, heart and body, love, loyalty, and fidelity. They’re yours, first and last.”

It stopped her heart, stopped it so it could beat stronger again. Not only love, she realized, but a pledge. He pledged himself to her.

“Will you give me yours?”

She thought she’d known joy, but here was joy with a promise. “Yes, I give you my oath, heart and body, love, loyalty, and fidelity. They’re yours, first and last.”

When he kissed her, the promise shone through it, bright as the stars.

* * *

He left her before the hour was up. Even amid joy came duty. She dressed for her vision, for the storm she knew would come. If not tonight, then soon. When it came, when Bran brought it, she would be with him, on the promontory, with the wind, the fierce lightning and pelting rain.

It would be enough; whatever they did would be enough. She believed it. And accepted, if she was wrong, and their best wasn’t enough, she’d known the true depth of love.

As she put on her hiking boots she considered her own preparations. She’d keep the crossbow close, within reach, and with a quiver full of bolts. The knife Bran had given her would be, from now on, sheathed on her belt.

If there was time, she’d practice—hand-to-hand, the damn push-ups, pull-ups, the tumbling. She’d practice until she was strong and quick. And she would open herself to visions—and that uneasy connection with Nerezza.

With some regret, she picked up her sketch pad. The time she’d given to her art had to wait now as she filled it with other things, immediate things.

But when she started to tuck it away, she found herself reaching for a pencil.

Open, she thought again, because something was pushing at her mind, something pushed to get in.

No, she realized. Something pushed for freedom.

She gave herself to it, stepped outside, in the light, propped the book on her easel. She heard voices below, battle plans and strategies, maneuvers and deceptions. For now, she closed them off, let the door open inside her.

Quickly, confidently now, she began to sketch what formed in her mind.

When it faded, her arm trembled with fatigue and the light had softened toward evening. She stepped back to stare not at a sketch but a painting. Her sketches littered the terrace floor, but on the easel stood a finished painting of an island of rough hills and bold flowers, of steep streets where buildings climbed and trees spread. And three crags rose out of the sea near it like guards on watch.

“Here.” Bran stepped toward her, held out a glass. “Drink this.”

She didn’t ask what it was, simply took it, drank it. Her throat was dry as dust, and the cool liquid slid through her, settled her.

“I don’t remember painting this. I felt something pushing to get out, and started to sketch. This.” She bent to pick up one of the sketches. “I saw it, so clearly. Not just in my head, but when I looked out, at the sea. It was there. Boats in the water, and those three rocks spearing up. I don’t know where it is, or what it is. Or if it’s real.”

“It’s real. Sit a moment. You’ve been at it for nearly three hours.”

“I’m fine.” She let out a half laugh. “In fact, I feel more than fine. What did I drink?”

“A restorative.” He touched her cheek. “Mixed in a little wine.”

“Well, I feel restored, so it worked. You know this island?”

“Riley recognized it from one of the sketches I took down. And more, Sawyer’s compass verified it as where we’re meant to go next. It’s Capri.”

“Capri? Italy?”

“It seems islands are the heart of the search. You and Sawyer have given us the direction.”

She wanted to go immediately, to pack up and go, and avoid what they’d face here. But she picked up another sketch, this one of the god who wanted their blood.

“She’ll be there—she’d come there. What we do here won’t stop her.”

Even with pencil and paper, the ferocity all but leaped off the page.