Page 47 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“Will we meet again?”

“Blessed be,” she repeated, then she swiped her hands in the air as if shooing me off and disappeared from view.

My eyes popped open to find the beautiful Connor squatting down next to the chair, holding my hand. “Hey, babe,” I said groggily through a half-smile.

He audibly relaxed. His taut shoulders melted back into a position of calm.

“You were gone an hour, Simone. I thought… I thought…”

I brought my hand up to hold his cheek. “I’m back. I’m fine. Sirona had a lot to say.”

“Well?” he asked.

“We’re headed for Orkney.”And our impending doom, but I thought better of relaying that bit of information for now.

I had a connection to Simeon. I am him. He is me. Whatever the hell that meant. We both had a connection to Lilith.

Dread filled me.

I literally carried the fate of the world.

But Connor, Connor carried me.

We could do this.

We had to.

Chapter

Twelve

“Eat more of the cake before you leave,” Ainsling said. “It will help to recharge you.”

Once Connor heard that he immediately spun to grab my only partially eaten butter cake, dropping that and the regular, old lemon ginger tea onto the table next to my chair.

“Eat,” he ordered.

I picked up the cake, taking a huge, overly exaggerated bite to make him feel better, but also to get him to see he was being a bit pushy. Yes, I needed a power-up. But I wasn’t dying.

“You must eat, too,” Ainsling ordered Connor. “The road ahead is fraught with danger. To protect yourself and your mate, you must fuel your body.”

He looked about ready to argue, but I raised my eyebrow in challenge. He dropped back down into his seat and proceeded to cram the whole slice of cake into his mouth. I laughed when he started to cough.

“Serves you right for being an idiot,” I said, taking another daintier bite than him.

Once we’d finished with our tea and cakes, I used the bathroom and then I dropped a cloak over myself again. Ainslinggave me a backpack to carry Connor’s clothing in. Although the cakes started to help, we moved faster with Connor in hound form. She opened the door for us. I called up Orkney in my mind and the directions began to flash for me again.

Nobody told me they were located in the Atlantic Ocean off of Scotland. Seriously? The scenery flew by in a blur. Despite how fast Connor ran, it took us way longer to reach the ocean off of Scotland than it had for us to reach Cork from Kerry.

Once we made it to the shore, and after we made sure no one was around to see us, I dropped the cloak and Connor shifted back to man. He dressed quickly because neither of us wanted to waste time with me keeping him out of jail on exposure charges.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked.

“A little tired.”

“Can you get us to the island or do we need to find other transportation?”

“I think I can get us onto the island.”

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