Clare waited a moment, but no more information seemed to be forthcoming.

  “I’m worried about my family,” Clare said, moving on to the next topic that was circling in her too-busy brain. “I feel like I’ll be leading danger right to their path.”

  “I’ve had them protected for a while,” Blake said. “And I sent more when I knew we were coming this way. I just underestimated the protection we’d need on the way, is all.”

  “Is it good protection? Is it enough?” Clare asked, worry still kicking through her stomach. Judging by what she’d seen this morning, the Domnua were sneaky and they moved in packs.

  “Aye, it’s good. I promise no harm will come to your family,” Blake said, reaching over to squeeze her hand softly. His touch reminded Clare of just where she’d been when she had been startled awake. Heat washed through her in both embarrassment and lust as she thought about sharing a bed with Blake.

  “How much longer to your parents’ home?” Bianca asked.

  “Not far now.”

  “Will they be up? It’s not quite full light,” Bianca asked, and Clare looked to where the sun was just beginning to poke over the hills. Seeing the sun on a day in January was always considered a good thing.

  “Up before dawn most days. They are farmers.”

  Nerves descended upon her as they drove toward Clifden. What would her parents think when she showed up on their doorstep at such an early hour with three friends in tow?

  “Right here,” Clare said, directing Blake away from the village and down a winding road. Soon, the sight of the village was hidden by hedges that grew wild and free along the side of the road.

  “But a few moments more, up on the left,” Clare instructed, and they all fell silent as Blake directed the car along a few more turns and then paused at a gravel driveway.

  “This the one?”

  “This is the one,” Clare said softly, trying to see her childhood home through the eyes of her friends.

  A ranch-style home, it was all one level with white stucco walls and simple brown trim. Her mother’s window boxes weren’t planted for the year, but in the summer, they would boast cheerful red blooms. Behind the house, a few outbuildings and a stable sat clustered together. Gently rolling green hills unfolded as far as the eye could see from there on.

  “Is all this land your parents’?” Blake asked.

  “Aye. They live simply, but they own a large tract of land,” Clare said.

  “It must have been lovely growing up here,” Bianca said. She’d never been to Clare’s home as they had rarely taken weekends away from the city.

  Clare felt some of the tension in her stomach ease. “It was fun to run the hills, I won’t be denying that,” she admitted.

  “I can see how you ended up in geology. I mean aside from the obvious part regarding you being a seeker and all that,” Seamus said.

  “Yes, plenty of land to dig in,” Clare agreed as the car pulled to a stop. Her father, hearing the crunch of tires on the gravel, had poked his head from the barn.

  “My dad,” Clare said, pointing to her father. Wearing bib overalls, a canvas jacket, and a red knit cap, he pulled his gloves off and waved a hand as he moved toward the car.

  Clare opened the door and hopped out.

  “Dad!”

  “Sure and that’s a welcome surprise,” Madden MacBride called out, laughing as he picked up speed across the yard. In moments, her face was buried in his neck, smelling the earthy scents of his aftershave and dirt, mixed together to make his own unique scent.

  “I’ve missed you,” Clare admitted.

  “Why, it hasn’t been that long since the holiday,” Madden asked, his blue eyes searching hers. Caught for a moment in thought, Clare studied his ruddy face and light features.

  “I’ve brought friends,” Clare said, the thought still niggling at her brain, as her mum opened the front door of the house.

  “Clare! Is something wrong?” Mary MacBride strode across the front yard, a plain blue apron tied over a long-sleeved jumper and khaki pants. Her blonde hair was just beginning to show grey and her blue eyes were alight with pleasure that held a hint of worry. Catching her in a hug, Mary pulled Clare tight.

  Clare let herself be held for a moment as her mind whirled. Gently extricating herself from her mother’s arms, she looked between both of her parents.

  Why had she never seen this before?

  “Will you introduce us to your friends?” Mary asked, looking over her shoulder at Blake, who had gotten out of the car. Clare watched him for a moment, and shook her head for him to stay back. Nodding, he slipped back into the car.

  “Who is that man? Clare, what is going on?” Mary asked, running her hand down Clare’s arm.

  “Mum, why don’t I look like either of you?”

  Mary’s hands dropped to her side as her eyes met Madden’s.

  Silence stretched between them as the moment drew out, the only sound coming from a sheep bleating in the barn.

  Clare felt like her heart had jumped into her throat, and she tried to swallow as the moment stretched on seemingly forever.

  “Clare, we need to talk.”

  She closed her eyes as the last remnants of the person she had known shattered in pieces around her.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Though her world was rocked to the core, Clare waited quietly while her mother insisted on bringing everyone inside and serving them tea. When everyone was settled in the front room, Mary glanced at Madden.

  “Clare, if we could speak to you in the other room?”

  Clare knew her mother was trying to spare her any embarrassment or dramatics in front of her friends, but Mary wasn’t the only one holding a secret. It didn’t matter if her friends heard what Clare thought Mary was about to reveal.

  “You can speak freely in front of them,” Clare said, waving to where her friends sat huddled on a small settee and an arm chair. The front room was her mother’s favorite, and was covered in lace doilies and lace curtains, the walls crowded with prints and pictures. Clare’s eyes fell on a picture of herself, not quite one year old, grinning like a cherub with fat auburn curls springing from her head.

  She looked up to see that Blake had followed her eyes to the picture and then back to her. He smiled at her briefly, silently offering her his support. Clare gave him a small smile, dimly aware of his overt masculinity as his size made the lace-covered armchair look diminutive.

  “I’m not sure…” Mary trailed off, wringing her hands. Madden stood stoically at her side, his arm wrapped around her.

  “You’re going to tell me that you’re not my biological parents,” Clare said, deciding to do the difficult part for them.

  Mary gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth in a fist as tears welled in her pretty blue eyes.

  “You knew.”

  “No, I didn’t. A series of recent events has lead me to believe I might not be your child. But, no, I never knew. You are my mother, that’s the truth of it,” Clare said, crossing the room and wrapping her arms around her mother, who was now crying openly.

  “You’re our daughter and that’s that,” Madden said, nodding his head as though the matter was decided.

  “Of course I am. Nobody can take that away from us,” Clare assured him. She was too caught up in the grief on her mother’s face to even try to deal with the tumult of emotions that swirled in her stomach.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you,” Mary whispered and Clare reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek.

  “I don’t think you were meant to tell me,” Clare said gently.

  “Can you tell us how Clare came to be in your life?” Blake asked and Mary looked past Clare’s shoulder.

  “Ah well, sure and that’s not of interest to all of you,” Mary said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Clare glanced at Blake, then back to her suddenly nervous parents. Were they scared to reveal that there was magick involved?

  “I know that I’m… special,” Clare said, breaking the silence.

  “We… we were struggling with having children, if ye ken,” Madden said gruffly, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment at the subject matter.

  “Of course, I understand,” Clare said quickly, her arm still around her mother.

  “And when she came to us, well, we couldn’t turn our back on you, you see,” Mary said, wiping the corner of her eye.

  “Who was ‘she’?” Blake asked.

  “It was a rainy night in January,” Mary said, then turned to look at Madden. “Maybe we should sit.”

  “I’ll grab some whiskey,” Madden said and Mary laughed, her first real smile since seeing them all arrive on her doorstep at such an early hour.

  “It’s a wee bit early for that, aren’t you thinking?” Mary asked.

  “Oh, right. More tea then,” Madden said, and disappeared. Mary turned and addressed the room.

  “He doesn’t like to talk about that night. Makes him nervous,” Mary said softly.

  “Because of magick,” Seamus said easily.

  Mary started, her eyes going wide for a moment. “Ah, so it would seem,” Mary said softly, slumping onto the arm of a chair.

  Madden entered the room with two more steaming cups of tea and a small package tucked under his arm.

  “Oh, dear, so it’s time,” Mary said, looking at the package under Madden’s arm.

  “Isn’t that what she said? To give it to her when the time was right?” Madden asked.

  “Yes, I suppose it is,” Mary agreed, then blushed when she realized the younger people were all listening to them.

  “Tell us about that night,” Clare instructed, moving to sit across from them.

  “We were in the stables with one of our dogs. She was pregnant, and we both wanted to sit with her while she went through her labor,” Madden said, shrugging his shoulders. “You know, just because she was a stable dog doesn’t mean she wasn’t a good dog.”

  “You loved that dog,” Mary agreed.

  “Yes, well, we sat with her since we could tell her time was near. And the rain and wind had really picked up.”

  “But it was cozy there, you know, with the warm glow from the lights, and the dog was tucked up in a little nest of blankets on some hay. It was nice,” Mary said, looking over at Madden fondly.

  “It was nice. We were a bit nervous, but in a good mood. Excited for the puppies,” Madden agreed.

  “And then the dog began to growl,” Mary remembered.

  “Yes, that was it! The dog growling. At first we thought it was because she was in pain, but she was staring at the barn door.”

  “And then it blew wide open,” Mary continued.

  “And a woman stood there.”

  “I swear she was glowing.” Their voices toppled over each other, the story that had been buried for so long now rushing to see the light of day.

  “She was beautiful,” Madden mused, and then patted Mary’s leg. “Not as beautiful as my wife, that’s for sure. But still, quite lovely.”

  “Oh, go on with yourself. She was stunning. In an ethereal way, you know? Just, almost lit from within really,” Mary said, staring off into space for a moment before shaking her head. “She all but glided into the stable.”

  “Aye, it looked like she was floating, but maybe we were imagining it,” Madden agreed.

  “And her face, aye, it was pure kindness and joy. It wasn’t until she was close that we realized she held a bundle in her arms,” Mary said.

  “Did she speak?” Bianca asked, her eyes the size of saucers.

  “Aye, she said she was answering our prayers with a gift from her heart,” Mary whispered, her eyes welling up as she looked over at Clare.

  Clare felt her own eyes well up in response. There was no doubting the love her parents had for her.

  “And she held out this tiniest of bundles,” Madden said, holding his arms out in front of him as he remembered. “And we could just barely make out the teeniest face buried in the blankets.”

  “I started crying, straightaway,” Mary said.

  “Aye, she did. So I stood and walked to this woman and held my arms out for the bundle.”

  “I finally got a hold of myself and asked her who she was and where this baby came from,” Mary said.

  “What did she say?”

  “She said her name was Danu and that you were a gift from the gods.” Mary laughed a little and shook her head. “Which, you know, didn’t really make sense because there’s only one God.”

  Clare slid a glance at Blake and then back to her parents. They were both staunch Catholics and now would not be the time to get into a religious discussion with them.

  “Maybe she did say God,” Madden mused, the edges of the memory blurring with the years.

  “Either way, I’m telling you, it was as if we were in the presence of an angel. And she handed me a package,” Mary said, pointing her finger at the leather-wrapped package. “She told me to give this to you when you came asking us about what you are. And that was it.”

  “Where did she go?” Clare asked. Though her heart was pounding like crazy in her chest, she wanted to hear the rest of the story.

  “Um, well.” Madden’s cheeks colored again.

  “She blinked out of sight. It was just… she was there and then she wasn’t. And we had a baby on our hands,” Mary said, her eyes alight as she recalled the astonishment of that moment.

  “It was quite a shock. I mean, we didn’t have any formula, no breast milk, obviously, no baby supplies… really, just nothing.”

  “Madden left right on the spot and drove to the next town over to pick up some formula,” Mary remembered with a smile. “And I held you the entire time. You looked at me for the longest time, and then closed your eyes and slept.”

  “What did you tell people then? About me?” Clare asked.

  “Well, since you were such a teeny thing, we faked the pregnancy for the next few months,” Mary said with a smile. “I put a pillow in my dress and stayed at the farm for the most part. It wasn’t too long until I claimed I’d given birth, and your weight was more in line with a normal baby’s weight by then. Everyone just accepted it and we went about our lives.”

  “And yet you knew I was magick,” Clare said, watching both of their faces.

  “I wouldn’t call it magick, love. You were touched by an angel, is all. That makes you special,” Madden said, a stubborn look on his face.

  Clare glanced at Bianca, who just shrugged her shoulders. After considering for a moment, Clare decided to let the subject drop. What would the point be of arguing magick over religion? Arguing with someone rarely changed their beliefs. Ultimately, what mattered was that they had taken Clare in, given her a loving home, and allowed her to be exactly who she was. If they chose to believe she was a gift from the angels – so be it. She couldn’t ask for anything more than that.

  “Thank you for raising me,” Clare said with a small smile.

  “What happened to the dog?” Bianca asked, startling them all.

  Madden slapped his knee and boomed with laughter.

  “She had four healthy pups that very night. Great dogs. We kept them all, too. Felt they were special since they were there the night we got Clare.”

  “Can I see the package?” Clare asked, bringing their attention back to the package that lay on Madden’s knee.

  “Of course,” Madden said, holding it up. Clare crossed the room to get it from him, but then bent and pressed her lips to his cheek and inhaled his scent again. “I love you.”

  “You too, my girl,” Madden whispered in her ear.

  “And you, as well, my sweet mother,” Clare said, straightening and hugging her mother as well.

  “Oh, I just… I have to say I feel like a weight’s been lifted,” Mary said, fanning her face and half laughing, half crying.

  “Thank you for telling me,” Clare said, clutching the package to her body and feeling the power radiating from it.

  “Can you stay the night? I’ll get breakfast on,” Mary said.

  Clare turned and raised an eyebrow at Blake, but he shook his head ever so slightly.

  “We’ve got to keep moving. We can eat though,” Clare said, looking at Blake and raising an eyebrow in question. He nodded slightly, and Clare smiled. Nothing made her mother happier than fixing a meal for a group of people.

  “Perfect.” Mary jumped up and clapped her hands, immediately bustling to the kitchen.

  Madden stood. “I’ve got to finish my morning feeding. I’ll be back in shortly.”

  “I’ll help you with that,” Blake said, and Clare looked at him in shock. What was he up to?

  “That’s great. It’ll certainly make things go more quickly. Tell me, Blake, what do you do for work?” Madden asked as they stepped outside. Clare almost wished she could follow and listen in. Aside from being a protector, what did Blake do with his time?

  “Are you going to open the package?” Bianca hissed from where she still sat, her hands clutched in her lap.

  “Oh! Right, the package,” Clare said, shaking her head as she looked down at it.

  Would it hold answers – or more questions?

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “I think I need a moment,” Clare admitted as she sat down next to Bianca.

  “Sure and that’s a lot to process,” Bianca said, reaching over and squeezing Clare’s hand for a second. “I mean, you just learned you were pretty much adopted, your parents don’t believe in magick, and now you have a gift from the Goddess Danu. That’s quite a bit to take in.”

  Clare felt a laugh begin to bubble up her throat.

  “I love you.”

  “You too. But you’ve got to hold it together. Let’s see what we’re dealing with here,” Bianca said, nodding at the package.

  “It’s weird, right? Like a gift from a mother that I never knew?” Clare asked.

  “Let’s just hope it’s something that aids you on your quest,” Seamus said easily, his eyes alight with curiosity.

  “It feels like it is. It’s humming with power,” Clare admitted, running her hands over the soft leather. She slowly unwrapped the leather cord that kept it closed, then unrolled the butter soft material until it lay flat against her legs. Inside was an item wrapped in tissue paper and a small card.

 

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