Bound by Forever - (True Immortality #3) Page 0,100
she answered.
“Niamh?” It wasn’t Bran. It was Fionn.
“Yes, it’s me. Can you help?”
“That’s why I’m calling. I think Bran is right and the transformation will probably heal Kiyo, but is there anything I can do in the meantime?”
A sob swelled out of her, but she choked it down.
Fionn must have heard it anyway. “I can come to you. Rose will have to stay behind, but I can come to you if you need me.”
The offer made her feel less alone, but she doubted Fionn could get there before the full moon. There was nothing to be done but wait.
Yet something occurred to her. “You know things I don’t about our magic.”
“Yes …”
“I’ve had to knock Kiyo out. He asked me to. The pain was too much.”
Knowing it had to be an incredible amount of pain for Kiyo to ask that, Fionn cursed in old Irish.
“I’ll have to continually hit his carotid to keep him knocked out until the change, unless you know a way for me to keep him in a stasis of some kind?”
Rose’s mate was quiet a moment before finally replying, “You can hold him in that moment of unconsciousness by creating a cocoon around him with your magic. Pour your emotions, your want for him to be pain-free, into it. It should hold him within for as long you want.”
Feeling more useful, Niamh thanked him.
“Niamh, who is this woman?”
Knowing it was time to warn Fionn and Rose, she told him about Astra and her vision. About how she had the ability to use her mind manipulation against Rose and Elijah if they weren’t prepared.
“But we can still stop her?” Fionn asked once she’d finished.
“You know all futures are possible. And she wouldn’t be going to these lengths with Kiyo if I wasn’t destined for another path.”
Fionn considered that and then asked gently, “Does Kiyo know?”
“No,” she choked out, knowing what he was asking. Perceptive bastard. “And I doubt he’d want any part of it, even if he did.”
“That’s not how it works, a leanbh.” His tone was gentle with a tenderness that surprised her. And although Niamh couldn’t remember as much Irish as she should, she was pretty sure he’d just called her “my child.”
She frowned. She was the same age as Rose.
“Tell him. Once he knows, you’ll only be stronger together against Astra.”
She ignored the thought because the hope of it hurt too much. “That castle of yours,” Niamh replied. “The one with the spell that hides and protects it from the world.”
“You know about that?”
“I know about a lot of things. Take Rose there, Fionn. Until this is over. Astra can’t get her hands on all three of us.”
“What about this man, the last of the fae-borne?”
“I was hoping a vision would come telling me how to help him.” She laughed bitterly. “But look what happened the last time I followed a vision. I came to Tokyo because my instincts told me I needed to be here to protect Kiyo. And look what I’ve done to him.”
“Your visions are never wrong, Niamh. Kiyo will survive this, and you’ll figure out why you’re there.”
She had to believe he was correct.
Otherwise she was completely lost.
“Okay,” she agreed. “Okay.” She looked up to stare at her wan complexion in the mirror.
“Remember who you are, Niamh.”
He was right.
She needed to remember who she was.
“Look after Rose,” she demanded.
There was a smile in his voice when he promised he would.
“Remember, the only limitations to your magic are the ones you place upon it. Call if you need me, a leanbh.” He hung up.
The silence in the bathroom seemed palpable without Fionn’s reassuring voice echoing off the tiles.
“Remember who you are, Nee,” Ronan whispered in her mind.
Leaning toward her reflection, Niamh placed her hand on the mirror. Energy pulsed from her and she watched as the reddish-brown hair that reminded her too much of Astra dissolved in a shimmer of pale blond.
Strangely, her skin glowed again, and a renewed strength filled her.
It wasn’t about returning to her natural blond. She threw back her shoulders.
It was about returning to herself.
Marching out of the bathroom and straight to the bed, Niamh lifted her hands over Kiyo’s body, closed her eyes, and imagined her energy surrounding him, cocooning him in warm sleep where no pain could touch him. The air glittered like the sun on her skin until the process felt complete in her mind.
She opened her eyes and stepped back in wonder at the sight of Kiyo looking peaceful beneath a barrier that