Rye watched his daughter run away. She was scared of him, but that wouldn’t last. When she realized what they could do together, what they could have...
Echo walked into the circle. She was powerful, too, but what she possessed was nothing next to him and his daughter. He could not allow her to get in his way.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn around,” he warned.
“I’ve never been very good at knowing what’s good for me, either.” She smiled. Smiled!
“You asked me once, more than once, to take away your powers. I can do that, here and now.” That act would wipe away who she was, perhaps even her memory of him and her idea that she should be here. It would remove any hint they were connected. The way the power was washing through him, he’d likely kill her in the process, or at the very least leave her brain-dead.
She walked up to him, placed a hand against his chest as she so often had. Her palm rested against the scar too near his heart.
Rye reminded himself that the last woman he’d loved had tried to kill him. Had almost succeeded. This one was as much of a threat as Sybil had been. Perhaps more of a threat.
“I can do it,” he said. “I can take it all away.”
She responded, still far too calm, “Whatever you think is best, love.”
He placed the palm of his right hand against her temple.
* * *
His eyes were wrong, and she still couldn’t see into his mind the way she once had. She felt his emotions, though, and they were strong. Hate, fear, ambition, lust and somewhere, buried deep, love. He’d done his best to deny that love earlier, but she saw it now. She felt it.
“I love you,” Echo whispered.
“You’re a fool.”
“Am I? I don’t think so, not anymore. I think maybe love is the only thing worth living for.” And dying for, she supposed. Not that she wanted to die.
The hand that had been pressed to her temple dropped away.
“I’ll show you what you think is love, Raintree.” Ryder was rough as he pulled her shirt over her head. She lifted her arms to assist him. “Sex, that’s all it is. You could be replaced by any woman, and I could be replaced by any man. Did you really think there was more to it than that?”
“Yes.” She knew there was more. “I love you.”
“You fooled yourself into thinking you love the man I used to be.”
“The man you still are.”
He unfastened her jeans and pushed them down. She kicked off her shoes and stepped out of them.
She stood naked in the center of the stone circle that gave Cloughban—White Stone—its name. By day the stones themselves would be an ordinary gray, but by the light of the full moon they were gleaming white. She felt the energy in the stones, in the ground, in the air. It was good energy, white magic. The only darkness here was within Ryder.
“I love you,” she said again.
“Stop saying that!”
“Why? They’re just words, unless you give them meaning with your heart as I have.” She leaned into Ryder, went up on her toes and kissed him gently.
He stiffened, but he did not move away.
The stone circle sat upon an unimpressive plot of land with a pond to the north and a field to the west. It was far from any cottage, and on this night it was far from prying eyes. Anyone touched with magic would sense the danger here. They would sense the danger Ryder had become and stay away. She was the only one around who didn’t have the sense to flee.
Most people didn’t realize that Stonehenge wasn’t the only stone circle in the world. Not by a long shot. It was just the most well-known. The Cloughban stones were smaller, but the circle here was just as ancient and every bit as powerful.
The clouds that had brought the snow drifted away, broke up to reveal the dark sky above filled only with countless stars and a bright full moon.
Lightning danced on Ryder’s fingertips, fire flickered along his arms and in a circle around their feet. The heart of a panther beat within his chest. He could rip her apart as he had Maisy, but he wouldn’t. She believed that with all her heart.