“I think it can, and now more than ever that can’t be allowed. Both Fin and I know we can live without each other. We have done so, and well enough. We know what we have now may only be for now. Whatever the rest, with or without, waits until Cabhan is finished.”
“You’re happier with him,” Iona pointed out.
“And what woman isn’t happier when she can count on a good shag with some regularity?” After Iona’s snort, she held up a finger for silence, then holding her hands over the cauldron, brought the brew to a fast boil. Murmuring now, drawing light down with one hand, a thin shower of blue rain with the other. For an instant a rainbow formed, then it, too, slid into the pot.
Branna took the brew down to the slowest of simmers.
Satisfied, she turned, found Iona studying her.
“Watching you work,” Iona explained. “It’s all so pretty, so graceful, with power just flowing all around.”
“We’ll want this restorative on hand, as well as the balms and salves I’ve been stocking up.” Branna tapped the door to a cupboard she thought of as her war chest.
“Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
“A good policy.”
“It’s what you’re doing with Fin?”
“Being with him—and not just for the sex—lets me remember all the reasons I fell in love with him. He has such kindness—and I wanted to forget that of him. His humor, his focus, his loyalty. I want to remember all that now, for the comfort of it, and for the unity. Remembering who he is means I can give him all my trust in this. All of it. And I’m not sure, no matter how I tried, I did before. Because I can and do, there’ll always be some best to hold on to.”
“Is he coming today?”
“I told him no need. We’re still shy some of the ingredients so we can’t begin to make the poison as yet. He has his work as I have mine. And I appreciate you giving me so much of your off day.”
“I like playing with your store stock—and the more I can do, the more time you have for demon poisons. I want to take Alastar out later, and was hoping you’d want to go for a ride with us.”
“A ride?”
“I’ve seen you ride, and Meara mentioned you don’t take much time for it, the way you once did.”
She hadn’t, Branna thought, as it reminded her of Fin. But now . . . He’d brought Aine for her, and she hadn’t given herself the pleasure of testing the bond with the horse.
“If what needs doing is done, I would. And if the pair of us rode out for pleasure, it’s a nose-thumbing in Cabhan’s direction.”
“We’re seeing him every day now.” Idly, Iona stacked the pretty soaps into colorful towers. “Skulking around.”
“I know it. I see him as well. He tests my borders often now.”
“I dreamed of Teagan last night. We talked.”
“And you’re just telling me of it?”
“It was like a little visit. Sitting in front of the fire, drinking tea. She’s showing, and she let me feel the baby kick. She told me about her husband, and I talked about Boyle. And it struck me—what you’d said about all of us being connected—her husband and Boyle are so alike. In temperament, his love of horses and the land.”
“Boyle’s connected to the three through the man Teagan married? Yes, that could be.”
“We didn’t talk of Cabhan, and isn’t that odd? We just drank tea and talked of her husband, the baby to come, Boyle, the wedding plans. At the end of the dream, she gave me a little charm, and said it was for Alastar.”
“Do you have it?”
“I put it on his bridle this morning before I came. I had a charm in my pocket, one I’d made for Alastar, so I gave it to her.”
“We’ve exchanged tokens, each of us with each of them. I think it’s more than courtesy. Something of ours in their time, and something of theirs in ours. We’ll want all three gifts with us when we face Cabhan again.”
“We’re still not sure when.”
“It’s a frustration to me,” Branna admitted. “But it can’t be done until we have all we need to destroy the demon. I have to believe we’ll know when we must.”
“Demons and visits in dreams with cousins from centuries ago. Battles and whirlwinds and weddings. My life is so different from what