the fissure and disappeared into it.
Kylah barreled right through the stone. She followed him to the edge of the grotto, her light reflecting off the softly lapping water. Something about the way he fit his lips around the opening of the shell and blew caused a curious tightening of everything beneath her belly button. Two long calls and one short emitted from the shell, echoing in the cavern and yet muffled by the water. He lowered the shell and listened.
Kylah remained utterly still. What was he showing her? What was she supposed to infer?
His arms flexed as he raised the shell again, but a high-pitched whistle followed by a series of ticks exploded into the cave. A smooth grey body jumped from the grotto, glistening as it executed a perfect flip and dove back into the water with barely a splash.
Daroch turned to Kylah, his lip curling in a devastating half-smile as he waded in to the knee and greeted the dolphin who came up to him with a welcoming cry.
He ran his large hand over the smooth skin and the creature chattered and groaned in obvious pleasure.
Kylah bet her soul the dolphin was female.
Entranced, she moved to lurk just behind his shoulder and was startled to find the dolphin noticed her.
“Hello,” she whispered, awed by the rare moment. A gift from the Druid she’d never be able to return. The dolphin’s ever-present smile seemed to widen as it rolled and nodded, spouting water until she laughed.
“Impressed as I am by your animal ken, I have to admit I don’t understand what you’re trying to express to me,” she murmured, watching Daroch launch the incredible creature back into the deeper water of the grotto.
“Did ye know sound is one of the most powerful forces in the Universe?” he asked. “In fact, most of my Druid ancestors believed sound was the material by which the Universe was created.”
Kylah shook her head, though he wasn’t facing her.
“It’s actually a wave. A mechanical vibration that can travel through any form of matter,” He gestured around them. “Air. Water. Stone. It leaves nothing untouched or unaffected.” He turned and waded back toward her, his wide shoulders turning with the effort of walking through the water. “Creatures like the one I just summoned use sound to navigate and to detect danger. We all use sound to communicate. To perceive. To identify. To seduce.”
He didn’t stop until he loomed in front of her, and Kylah could only stare at his deep chest, a curious lump in her throat and an even more perplexing heat in her loins.
“Every powerful force produces its own identifiable sound. The wind, the sea, a storm… And ye, Kylah, ye are a creature of pure, dynamic resonance.”
She turned from him, her heart surging beneath her breast. Something in his words resonated, all right, and she thrummed with the power of it.
“To a Druid, the understanding of it goes even deeper than that,” he murmured.
“Deeper?” she breathed, catching her lip in her teeth.
“Every soul, every scream, every emotion leaves an echo in this world. Every conscious being is made of energy. Every heart beats with it. Every thought is shaped by it. And that energy canna be created or destroyed. Not by magic. Not by death. Not even by the Gods. It can only be manipulated or changed. Therefore, everyone who ever existed still continues to do so, in one way or another.”
Though they weren’t touching, Kylah could feel the energy he spoke of leaping off his potent, vital form and melding with hers. The sensation was like no other, arcing between them as though charged with lightning. His tattoos glowed blue in her light, seeming to rise off his skin and pulse with magic.
Kylah tilted her head back to look into his eyes and what she saw in their brindled depths caused her to jump away from him.
“You know,” she gasped. She didn’t have to clarify. He’d somehow found out about Angus, about her darkest and most terrifying shame. About the violent loss of her innocence and the hour of hell she’d endured before her death.
His eyes closed in a protracted blink, and when they opened she saw none of the pity she feared. She couldn’t feel it, either. But she did feel the anger, the sorrow, the helpless, masculine rage that burned within him, searching for the absolution of retribution and finding none. It roared at her from his aura, from his eyes, from the tension in his dangerous body.
It drew