Page 6 of Love Beyond Wanting
“I’m sure ye are wondering why I’m here.”
I laughed uncomfortably as I wondered if she’d read my thoughts.“Yes, though I really am pleased to see you.I have a lot of questions for you.”
She nodded and moved to sit down on the couch.“Aye, and I’ll answer what I can.First though, do ye have any tea?”
Nodding, I went to turn on the kettle of water and get us a couple of cups.By the time I returned to the living room, Mr.Crinkles was curled up in Morna’s lap, purring like crazy.
“Kate, who is this handsome young man in the photo with ye and Laurel?”
Mr.Crinkles watched me with his one green eye as I moved to sit across from Morna.
“That would be my boyfriend, Dillon.”
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me and said nothing for a long moment.When she did speak, her tone was admonishing.“I dinna see him while watching ye.Not at all.”
“You’ve been watching me?”
“Aye.”
“Well, I haven’t seen him in a few days.We’re supposed to go out tonight.”
“I doona mean visibly, lass.I mean in yer heart and mind.Ye doona think of him unless someone else brings him up.There are only two reasons a woman distracts herself from thinking of her man—either she loves him too little, or too much, and she doesna wish to experience how either of those realities make her feel.Which is it?”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew it was this sort of thing my therapist had been talking about.Thinking about Dillon made me uncomfortable.So, most of the time, I didn’t think about him.I enjoyed my time with him when we were together, but I never felt as if my life was missing anything when he wasn’t around.If Morna was right, and there were only two reasons that I would distract myself in such a way, I knew it wasn’t from loving him too much.
It must’ve taken me too long to answer.For after a brief moment, Morna gently leaned forward and placed a hand on my knee.
“Ye should let him go, lass.Yer life is about to get much more complicated.If ye doona love him, there is no room for him along this new path.”
For the first time in months, I felt tears threaten to build up in my eyes.I quickly shook my head to push them away.
“How is Laurel?Is she really in the past?”
Morna righted herself as she nodded and gently began stroking Mr.Crinkles’ back.I couldn’t believe he was sitting there so contentedly.
“Aye.She’ll be calling ye tonight.’Tis why I needed to speak with ye this morning.”
“Calling me?From the seventeenth century?”
“Aye.I sent her a way to speak with ye, for I canna speak with her myself.”
“Why?”
“Because she would ask for my help, and I would be too tempted to give it, which I canna do.’Twould doom not only her but every man that lives in the castle with her.”
I repeated the same question.“Why is that?”
Morna sighed, and I could sense that whatever she was about to tell me had been weighing on her for some time.“Ye’ve done a fine job of piecing things together, but there is one piece yer information got wrong.”
“Just one piece?If that’s all, then I’m pleasantly surprised.Which part was wrong?”
“The prophecy given to Machara by her father was no prophecy.It was a curse.He dinna tell her whatwasto be, only whatcouldbe.He cast into existence a way for her to be defeated—a way to end her immortality.”
I thought back on all I’d read about faeries over the past days, and Morna’s revelation made sense.Faeries didn’t die easily, if ever, and all that I’d read indicated that, at some point, Machara would—or perhaps the right word wascould—be defeated.
“Why would her own father create a way for her to die?”
“I canna tell ye that, lass.All that I know, I learned from a friend long ago.He is no longer around to give us any more answers than we already have.”
