Page 237 of A Winding Wave of Magic
I’d asked the river for safety, and it had brought us to that spot.
Which had somehow transported us here.
“Many ancient cultures used sex as an offering,” I murmured, more to myself than to Jonathan. “It was more common at Imbolc—planting season—than at the solstice, but not unusual. And Bonfire nightwasonly a few days ago.”
He nodded though. “Sex has its own magic, so that makes sense. Fertilize the fields, and whatnot.”
“Or a few thousand years.” It was meant as a joke, but obviously it wasn’t. Not when we were looking at an ancient Irish countryside in the flesh.
Something else, however, had just occurred to Jonathan as he turned to me. “Goddess,” he muttered, looking down at my belly as if he could already see something growing. “Ohgods, what have I done?”
I held a finger up to his mouth. “Don’t. Start. You did nothing.”
“You—you don’t know that.” His eyes flashed as he looked over me, as though he would be able to See the evidence of life growing within. “And we’re…the gods know where. And we—” He honestly seemed to stop breathing.
I just waited. If he could See it, I was certain I would be able to feel it. Know it in the depths of my soul. If conception caused the monumental change he was talking about, there was no way I wouldn’t know it happened. Would I?
At last, he shook his head when his search revealed nothing. “My magic isn’t the same here, but I don’t suppose you are pregnant. Still, though?—”
“Stop,” I said again. “We’re not going to think about it. Or feel bad about the fact that we gave in to our base instincts when wethought we were going to die, and the sex was so fucking good it literally transported us to another time and saved our lives. I’d say that’s a pretty solid first go at it, wouldn’t you?”
Jonathan’s lips twitched. “I suppose it’s one way to spice up our relationship.”
I grinned. “Who knew that a near-death experience could lead to time travel and a whole new level of intimacy?”
As we stood on the hill overlooking Ok’lura, a sense of urgency tugged at my thoughts. It didn’t feel like it was coming from me or the man currently holding my hand.
The feeling tugged harder, followed by a vision of the seeress who had found us.
“We’re being summoned,” I told Jonathan.
He turned to me curiously. “By our hosts? How can you tell?”
I nodded. “Pretty sure. And I’m not sure. But I think my magic is different here too.”
We turned back to the village, which the woman and her daughter (I assumed) were just entering. It was quite the idyllic scene, with men and women working in small fields encircling the houses while children skipped between them, followed by the occasional barking dog. When the seers arrived, most of the people stopped to greet them with a hug or kiss. Shouts of laughter rang through the air. The sizzle of barbecued meat floated through the air towards us, making my stomach growl.
It had been a very long time since breakfast.
“They seem happy to see them,” I said.
Jonathan nodded, still watching the scene.
“Maybe they’ll be happy to see us too.”
He hummed. “Maybe.”
“No one knows us there,” I found myself saying. “No Penny or Council or Secret anyone’s chasing. We can take our time here. Find something to eat. Talk to the fae who found us. Figure out why we’re here and how to get home when we’re ready.”
He still didn’t speak, lost somehow in the view of the town, and then, I Saw, another vision that overlapped in his mind.
A picture of his mother, who lived in a tiny village just a little bit larger than this one.
A white house with a thatched roof and a red door that Jonathan had left after she died.
A different house made of stucco and stone on a warm country hill, from which a black-haired woman with blue eyes emerged carrying a child in her arms with gingery blond hair and eyes the color of the sky.
I turned to face him. “Is that the future? Is it my vision or yours?”
