She needed a teacher; he had no choice but to become one, for her. One more time. One final student. “The strength is in you. Find it.”
Unexpectedly, she reached out a hand and cupped his cheek. The darkness he had buried deep leaped; his body responded to that simple touch. He instinctively jerked away from her touch.
She leaned back, moved away from him. “Sorry. I...” She stood, grabbed her sweater and purse and headed for the exit. “Sometimes I’m a complete moron.”
He heard the unspoken end of that thought as she walked through that door without looking back.
Where men are concerned.
* * *
It was her day off. She could very easily get into her rental car and drive to a bigger town where she could buy a nice meal, see a movie, shop in a store where she didn’t get the evil eye and—miracle of miracles—pick up a cell signal and Wi-Fi on her phone!
Instead, Echo left the boardinghouse and her rental car behind and started walking. Down the road a bit, then easily over a low stone fence and into a green field.
She’d heard that Ireland was an amazing green. The Emerald Isle. It was the kind of visual that couldn’t be explained in mere words. Even pictures didn’t do it justice. She walked until the boardinghouse was well behind her, allowing her mind to wander as she moved farther away from Cloughban.
It did wander. To songs and visions, to her family and to friends she hadn’t seen in a very long time. It even wandered to Ryder Duncan a time or two. Those annoying thoughts she attempted to push aside, but they always came back.
Duncan was necessary, nothing more. The fact that he was gorgeous and had those great, dark eyes, that he sometimes made her heart beat faster than it should, those were simple distractions. Nothing more.
And, if she were being honest, not so simple.
After she’d been walking twenty minutes or so a strange, thick fog moved in. It carpeted the green fields, hid what might be over the next knoll from her curious eyes.
There were a few odd cottages here and there. Beyond the few primary streets of the village, there were no neighborhoods. No subdivisions. Just small cottages spaced randomly, as if someone had sprinkled them across the countryside with a casual wave of their hand. All the houses she saw looked as if they’d been built a hundred years ago, or more.
In the distance she caught a glimpse of something unexpected. Stones. Lots of them. A few more steps and a shift of the fog and she realized it was—or had been—a structure of some kind. As she drew closer she realized that what she’d spotted had once been a castle. A small castle, but still...a castle. The fog danced around the base of the stones, thick and white. Not much of the castle was left, but a large part of what had once been a tower remained standing. Not very sturdily, but still standing.
What little girl didn’t dream of being a princess in a castle? She had, long ago. She’d had her share of plastic tiaras and scratchy princess dresses.
It wasn’t until years later that she’d decided being queen would be much better. Queens answered to no one. They commanded; they did what they wanted to do when they wanted. I
f a queen ordered a princess to dance until she dropped, the princess would do so.
Wishes aside, she had always been a princess. She danced to a tune that was not her own, and always had.
Echo stopped for a long moment; she stared at the picture before her. Green grass and ancient gray stone, nothing and no one for miles around. This was the Ireland she had always dreamed of. She had the unexpected thought that she could live here. She could stay in this quiet and beautiful place.
No, beautiful as it was, it was not her place.
“Hello.”
Echo recognized that voice, and then she caught sight of a head of red, curling hair coming out of the fog.
“Cassidy!” Echo said, surprised and pleased. The child was not a hallucination. At least, she didn’t think so...
“You found the fairy fort,” the redheaded girl said as she drew closer, her figure moving out of the fog and into the light. “Be careful or one might try to hitch a ride home with you.”
Echo smiled. “Fairies. This castle is their fort?”
“Don’t be silly. The fort is over there.” Cassidy pointed to a slightly raised mound not far from the ruins.
“And these...” Oh, she could hardly say it! “Fairies. They’re a problem?”
“They’re usually quiet and well behaved, as long as you don’t disturb them.”
It took Echo a moment to realize the child was serious. “I will do my best. What are you doing here?”