Page 48 of Shaw

Something hard inside her chest shattered, and she wound her arms around him, clutching him tightly.

“Ever and always I shall love you, Merrick.” She pressed her cheek to his. “But if you kiss me, I’ll never leave you again—and well you ken that, ’twill end me.”

Slowly he released her, and put enough distance between them not to risk any further contact. “Why came you here, then?”

“Shaw and a tall blonde female from the future, they’ve gone missing.” She repeated what Valerie had told her, and then said, “’Tisnae the first time the chieftain’s gone off on his own. Why should my lady fret over such?”

His expression grew shuttered. “Ask your lady. I must go.” He turned away, his back rigid now.

“Merrick–” Meg reached out to him, but the king dove into the cove’s waters, and vanished.

Chapter Thirteen

Julianne smelled spices and wood smoke, and for a moment thought she was at her aunt’s place. Klee had always loved the most exotic scents, and gathered rare incense during her trips around the world. The thought that her aunt wouldn’t even be born for hundreds of years made her wish she could sleep that long, so she would wake up in her own time.

Do you not know this world even better, my child?

That odd voice in her head made her roll over, wincing as the hard mat under her shifted. She pushed herself up as she opened her eyes to see she was alone. She’d been left in an almost empty room that had what looked like white paper and dark wood slatted walls and a scroll with Asian writing hanging on the wall. A tiny low table held an empty mug with no handle and a small tea pot, both made of dull, dark gray metal. Shaw was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t worry her too much; she sensed he wasn’t too far away. The scroll on the wall, that really bugged her, although she didn’t know why.

The wall across from her slid to one side, and the monk she’d seen before entered and bowed. “Are you recovered, Mistress Scott?”

“I’m fine.” She looked up at the monk’s blue-green eyes, which seemed weirdly familiar to her. “Where’s Shaw? Ah, the man I was with?”

“He walks the temple grounds at the moment.” He gestured toward the little table. “Have some tea. It is bitter, but it will revive you.”

“I’m not thirsty.” She glanced down and for the first time realized what she was wearing. “Where are my clothes?”

“They are being cleaned.” The monk gracefully knelt on the mat and rested his elegant hands atop his thighs. “Do not fear us, Mistress. We are an ancient order, sired here in the mortal realm by our elders to assure the balance between dark and light remains. What is now being bred in the waters of Caladh shall destroy that, and all this world that you love.”

Julianne thought of all that Caroline had told her. “Are you talking about the shark shifter?”

The monk inclined his head. “The immortal who created that creature desires your lover above all other beings, so he may transform him and command the dark one. He doesnae realize he has already put the mortal realm in great peril. Now that you have come home, you present even more danger to humanity.”

“I don’t live here.” A chilly sensation made her rub her arms. “Besides, what can I do about any of this? I’ve never seen the shark shifter. I don’t know where to find the guy that made it.”

“You have only to do that which you’ve already done many, many times in the past.” He smiled, showing small teeth that gleamed like ivory pearls. “You and Shaw shall save the world by perishing together, as you have in every other incarnation you’ve shared.”

She watched as he pulled a scroll out of his wide sleeve, and unrolled it to show a painting of a golden-haired woman and a dark man jumping off a cliff. The next image on the scroll was older, and illustrated a similar couple embracing in a dark cave as flood waters crept up to their waists. A third, very faded painting above that showed a couple wearing furs and holding hands as they looked up at a bunch of huge rocks tumbling down a mountain side toward them.

Something about each painting resonated deep inside Julianne’s chest, as if she had seen the same thing in real life. Then she understood why he was showing it to her.

“Are you saying that these people…they’re me and Shaw?” When he nodded her belly made a sickly flop. “How could you possibly know that we lived before, and how we died?”

“My order recognizes those of the darkness and light who become soul-bonded, and we record their passages through time. We have followed you and the chieftain since the beginning of our quest. You and Shaw MacMar have returned from death every time to seek each other in your next lives, as you did now, and as you always will.” The monk rolled up and tucked away the scroll, and then stood. “I know you do not yet believe me, but I can prove my words. Would you come with me, please?”

Julianne reluctantly followed him to another room that was filled with huge jars filled with scrolls, and a long, low desk with pillows around it that had slender brushes, new scrolls, and a funny kind of bowl with black paint in it. The air smelled musty, and from the way the scrolls in the jars looked they had been made a long time ago.

“My order has recorded all of your lives since the first.” The monk made a sweeping gesture. “These show the end of every one of your incarnations. When you meet for the first time, you fall in love at once. You give each other great happiness for a time, but the burdens of your destiny soon come to bear on you both. Unhappily your shared fate is always the same. The only manner in which you may save the world is to perish together.”

“Why do we have to die? Because of Shaw’s Pritani spirit,” she answered before he could. “If all this is true, then why do we come back when we know how it’s going to end?”

“Love,” the monk said, smiling a little. “Your devotion to and affection for one another, like your return to the mortal realm, is constant and unwavering.”

“Well, that’s not helpful.” She knew she should ask more questions, but everything he said just confused her more. Frustration made her want to smack herself in her empty head, but that would hurt. “This is way unfair, you know. Why should we have to keep dying to save the world? Is it like we totally messed up the first time, and this is how we’re being punished? Like that movie with all the scissors?”

“I cannot tell you,” the monk said softly. “Perhaps this time when you and your lover reach the Well of Stars, you will remember our discussion, and convince him to remain there with you. Whenever you return to the mortal realm, you are both doomed to suffer this fate again. You cannot escape it.”

“Okay.” He seemed to know everything, so he might have some insight she didn’t. “If you were me, what would you do?”