Page 317 of Primal Bonds

“You know I’m a Gifted Seer. The fae who’s training me believes that someday I’ll be one of the most powerful Seers in the world. And he says sometimes you don’t See something, you feel it—a gut instinct. And my gut tells me I should go, too.”

“Yeah?” he said in that same flat voice. “Well, my gut says you should stay home.”

“Listen to me!” She gave him a shake. “There’s more. After I left you that night, I Saw it in my scrying bowl. You—”

“Forget it.” He rolled onto his back and dropped an arm over his eyes. “I don’t care what you Saw, I’m not taking you with me.”

She let out a breath through her teeth. “You know, Dion says you’re smart. A bastard, yeah, but a smart bastard.”

“I love him right back.”

“Well, a smart man would listen to a Seer’s warning.”

A charged pause. Then he lifted his arm. “Okay, then. Talk.”

She hesitated. How do you tell a man you foresaw his death?

That night in December, she’d Seen him going after Langdon. But later, there’d been more. Something so raw that just recalling it made her lungs lock.

The night fae capture Adric, drag him to a clearing in a dark woods. Stake him, spread-eagled, to the ground.

A black-haired priestess in a silver dress steps forward, a gleaming knife in her hand. She raises the knife above her head, brings it slashing down...

Rosana squeezed her eyes shut, but that just made it worse. The image was burned on her retinas. She opened them and stared fiercely up at the trees.

“Hey.” He rolled over, touched her arm. “Take it easy. I did think about what you said, okay? But a vision is just one possible future.”

She started, focused on him.

He was still free. There was still time to change his fate.

“I—I Saw your death. You go after the night fae, and you die. I Saw you on the ground. I smelled the freaking blood.”

His swallow was loud in the clearing. When he spoke again, his voice was gentle. “I’m sorry, but my mind is made up. I’m going. Alone.”

Her heart sank. “But why?”

He shook his head. “It’s the only way.”

“Adric. You have to listen. If you won’t take me, take someone else—one of your men, or Marjani. Yeah, a vision is only one possible future, but it can only be the changed if you change the path you’re on.”

His face shuttered. “Enough, already. You had your say. Consider me warned.”

She growled. “Deus, you’re pigheaded—even more than Dion. And that’s saying something.”

Colm had warned her in his sardonic way that being a Seer was a thankless task, saying you might as well piss into the wind for all the notice most people will take of you.

But Deus, she hadn’t realized how hard it was to have your warnings ignored.

Adric scrubbed a hand over his face, and then with a sigh, rolled over to face her. “Thank you, love.” He took her hand, pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

“For what?” she snapped.

“For caring.”

She looked down at the calloused fingers wrapped around hers. Sadness washed over her. “Oh, Adric. You don’t have to thank someone for caring.”

His mouth contorted. “Maybe not in your world.” He reached for her. “Let me hold you. Okay?”

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