Page 311 of Primal Bonds

She shrugged, but he could tell she was pleased. “My training as a Seer includes meditation techniques.”

“Well, it worked, but now we need to get the fuck out of here.” He indicated the deck behind her. “We can stash the bags under there and come back for them later.”

His quartz was engineered to be a smartphone. While Rosana stowed their bags beneath the deck, he notified the Lewes police about the break-in at the B&B.

“A man’s hurt. Send an ambulance ASAP.”

“Your name, sir?”

“That’s not important,” he said, and ended the connection.

He and Rosana peeled off their clothes and tucked them under the deck, and then he dragged her long, lush body up against his. Her skin was icy, and even though he knew river fada had naturally cool metabolisms, he hated that she’d been pulled out of a warm bed because of him.

“The Breakwater Light,” he reminded her. “Stay in the water until I signal you. Three flashes with my quartz.”

She wound an arm around his neck. “’Kay.”

He brushed a strand of her hair back from her temple and then frowned. Rosana was a river dolphin, not an ocean-going dolphin like a bottlenose. “The salt water isn’t a problem?”

She shook her head. “The bay is actually an estuary—a mix of fresh and salt water. And I can take salt water for short periods of time. My mom’s a bottlenose.”

“Okay, then.” He kissed her nose. “Watch for a blue light—I’ll flash it three times in a row, then pause and repeat it.”

“Got it—three blue flashes.” She touched his cheek. “Be careful, okay?”

He blinked, bemused. When was the last time anyone besides Marjani had told him to be careful? He was the strong one, the alpha. Even as a teenager, he’d been the one his friends looked to for direction.

“Yeah. Sure.”

He watched as she glided across the deserted street to the beach, sticking to the shadows, silent as a ghost. She sprinted across the sand and dove into the shallow water. Shining bits of green and blue and purple glimmered beneath the surface, so beautiful he caught his breath. A slender torpedo-shaped body sketched an arc against the night sky and disappeared beneath the waves.

Adric waited another minute to make sure she got away safely. Then he shifted to his cougar—and headed back to the B&B.

Chapter 8

“What’s the use of being a Seer,” Rosana muttered as she jogged into the icy bay, “if you can’t See your own freaking future?”

She hadn’t had a hint the fae were coming. They could’ve been in the room before she’d known they were there. Why couldn’t she have a useful Gift, like being a healer?

“You don’t choose your Gift. It chooses you. Lucky us.” She could almost see Colm’s mouth twisting in a self-mocking smile. “And you know Seers almost never See what lies ahead for themselves.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she snarled. “Can’t forget Rule 1.” She dove into a wave.

Colm had drilled several truths about being a Seer into her. Colm’s Rules, she called them.

Rule 1: A Seer almost never Sees his or her own future.

Rule 2: The Sight is unpredictable. You can train it, but it’s like trying to ride a tiger. You never know when it will turn on you.

Rule 3: Belief is as important as skill. To free your Sight, you must believe in its essential truth.

Freaking rules. As far as she could tell, being a Seer was worthless. People were wary of you, and they didn’t want to listen to you even when you knew you were right.

You couldn’t even use your Gift to save yourself. If Ula had Seen that King Sindre was laying a trap for her and Nisio, they wouldn’t have left on that trip across the ocean and Rosana wouldn’t have grown up without her parents.

She gave a hard kick and let the change take her. Magic shimmered over her skin. For a timeless few moments, she was neither human nor dolphin, but colorful fragments of light and energy. Then her legs fused, became a tail. Her face elongated into a river dolphin’s beak, and her arms became flippers.

She sucked air through her blowhole and with a powerful thrust of her tail, skimmed through the midnight sea. She was Rosana, and yet not Rosana.

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