on the car were darkly tinted and, when we crawled into the backseat to let Brylanna drive, I couldn’t help the flashback to getting in the car with Tarrek only days ago. I felt like I had neglected him today, though I’d needed the actual sleep, and it left me feeling guilty.
We settled into the backseat without a word, Bahlin pulling me under his shoulder protectively. I snuggled into his side as we bumped down the country lane toward the highway. Snapshots from my earlier dream and ass kicking kept coming back to me, and I couldn’t help but try to focus on specifics.
First, I knew the forest was dense and old. The decaying vegetation on the forest floor was seasons worth, and there was little undergrowth except a few shade-loving plants. No solution to the mystery there.
Second, I knew that the attacker had been cautious about attacking me from the front. I thought about my fight with Gretta. Women tend to attack other women from the front. We’re programmed that way, typically because we throw taunts first. Verbal creatures, we. But instances of assault prove that men will often attack a woman from behind. So that led me to believe my attacker was male.
Assuming my second assumption was accurate, then he had, thirdly, disguised his voice. Between the attack from behind and the disguised voice, I deduced that I must have seen him before at some point and would, thereby, recognize him. Brylanna’s foretelling that I had seen him before only reaffirmed my suspicions.
And fourth, and most importantly, I knew Tarrek was the light in the forest because he’d dressed me in almost the same dress he’d brought me in the sithen. He’d reached out to me in my dream, tried to give me answers, and had been stopped by the owner of the voice. He, the voice, had to have some pretty serious mojo to leave me with the creepy crawlies so long after waking.
The car bumped and shifted from the dirt lane to the paved highway and suddenly our travel was quieter, the purr of the engine more intent now than during the careful traversing of the earlier rutted road leading from the house. I sighed and leaned into Bahlin’s shoulder more. I was sore and tired.
“Rest, a stór, and I’ll wake you before we get to the hotel,” Bahlin said gently, seemingly reading my mind. He stroked my head with those talented fingers, and I found myself waning to sleep.
“Not for a while yet.” I looked out the window and watched the scenery go by, content but contradictorily tense. I didn’t want any of this to be happening, but I was so happy, at that very moment, where I was.
Something caught my eye out the window and I shouted, “Stop the car!”
Seatbelts tightened, brake pads ground and people grunted as the car came to a radical stop, swaying back on its shocks. I fumbled with the locked backdoor and finally got it open. Jumping out of the car, my exhaustion forgotten, I raced across the empty highway and scrambled over the fence, never taking my eyes off the prize—the stone circle. Stumbling into the center of the circle I fell to my knees, though I felt nothing beyond the bitter taste of desperation. I got up and walked the perimeter, tracing my fingers over the stones, my mind racing in random patterns trying to figure out what I had done that night that made the stones come to life for me. I turned to find that the altar stone was not there. I stared, slack-jawed, at the empty center circle.
“Maddy?” Bahlin asked quietly. “What is it?”
“I thought… See, I thought…” I stumbled.
“Ah, you thought this was the same stone circle you were at previously, right?” His voice came from behind me.
“Yeah, I thought this was it. But it’s not, is it?”
“No, Maddy, it’s not. You’ll remember I told you there are many stone circles about Europe. This one is only a partial circle, thereby its magic is disrupted. It couldn’t have compelled your change.” A heavy hand came to rest gently on my shoulder. “Do you wish so badly to unmake your decision, then?” His voice was carefully devoid of emotion.
“I don’t know what I want. I thought…”
“Come back to the car. We’ve got to make it to London as early as possible so Brylanna can make her drive home.”
He slid his hand from my shoulder to hand and directed me back to the car. He