you for far too long, made you unable to see all the rest.”
She turned her cheek from his touch. “That sounds incredibly scary.”
Adlin sighed and pulled her to a nearby rock. “Sit with me.” When she hesitated he said, “Please.”
Mildred slowly sat. “I’m so overwhelmed.”
“I know. While my words will not likely help that, lass, I intend to give you answers. Help you cope a little. Let me begin by telling you that though this is the second time we’ve met in reality you traveled further back in time. The year is no longer 1050 but 1006.”
She blinked rapidly. “Oh my goodness!”
“Aye,” Adlin said. “I know ‘tis confusing. Time-travel is very much that way. And while the date is earlier I still remember you from the first time you traveled, my future, rather than now. ‘Tis the way of all things magi.”
She frowned. “So when you meet me for the first time in 1050 you won’t remember having seen me now?”
Adlin liked her quick wit. “Oddly enough, now that you’ve traveled to this time I most likely will. It’s somewhat a one-time-experience, if that makes sense.”
“Barely,” she murmured.
“I wish I could explain it better but things in my world dinnae often make sense to mortals.”
“Mortals,” Mildred mouthed silently, as if she was trying to taste the word on her tongue. Yet, the lass had a certain admirable resilience and acceptance about her that made her able to see things clearer than most. “That’d be me I suppose. But I must be some amazing sort of mortal to be caught up in this.”
Though she appeared unable to carry on with her train of thought at first, she speedily regrouped and quite logically said, “So I really did end up traveling back to the wrong time, that’s what you and Iosbail had meant.”
He nodded. “Aye. But that is the very least of it. I need you to listen and ken. I need you to know who I really am.”
She nodded but said nothing.
So he continued. “As you might have guessed, I’m much older than I look. Though born in Ireland to a king and a Druidess over five hundred years ago I never saw the land but was immediately sent to Scotland to be the first of the MacLomain Clan. My blood is that of the Vikings, my soul that of the Scots. With my ability to harness powerful magic came also the unexplainable inability to age beyond my mid-twenties.”
Mildred’s eyes were round as saucers. Her mouth hung open.
Adlin continued. “I have spent my life building my clan. By doing that I have fathered a few but ensured my clan intermarried with many. It has been my life’s goal to make Clan MacLomain into what is fast becoming the most powerful clan in Scotland. I’ve done this for several reasons, the most important being for their very safety in such a tumultuous time and land.”
Sliding his hand into hers, Adlin offered her comfort via both physical touch and magic. His touch would only sooth her nerves. He let silence rule while she gathered her thoughts.
Eventually she spoke and said the very last thing he expected. “I possess very little magic compared to the rest of my family.”
Adlin looked to the sea specifically because he quickly realized how much courage it’d taken her to say those words. He’d always known exactly how much power she possessed. And it had nothing to do with his feelings toward her. No, his feelings had nothing at all to do with what he’d always thought made up the very core of his being.
Magic.
What existed between he and Mildred was far more potent and impressive than mere magic.
It was love.
But how could he ever tell her that?
She’d never believe it.
Nor would he have before that first dream so many years ago.
Interesting how hard it was to know he had to tell her the truth… to show her the truth and risk it all. In a perfect world, she’d remember it all and come into his arms in relief. However, the world wasn’t perfect and twenty years were very few. In the end he knew it was all about fear on his part. Something he hadn’t felt in so very long.
And this type of fear made a man do selfish things.
Adlin turned to Mildred after she declared she had little magic and said, “If you have so little magic then why are you here?”
Mildred’s eyes barely met his. “There’s only ever one reason a Broun comes back in time,