Cameron’s head rested in her lap. She had never felt so weak or so strong in her life. Every muscle ached, every inch of her body had been licked and kissed and touched and explored as though Cameron wanted to wash away her past and replace all the memories with new ones, tender ones, that would see her into the days ahead.
Cameron turned to stare up at her. “Judging by the afternoon light coming through the window I would say we are approaching the isle.”
“I can feel power inside me that wasn’t there before.” She stretched her hand out before her not noting any changes, but inside something was happening. “It’s bubbling up from inside me the closer we get.”
Cameron sat up and pulled her into his arms, caressing her back with his hands for a heartbeat before he stilled. “Mariam? What is happening?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
His hand smoothed down her back, then up again. The flesh beneath felt almost smooth, unblemished. “Your scars are fading. It’s as though they are melting away.” Wonder lingered in his voice.
She put the back of her own hand against her back. She drew a breath and slowly released it. “Magic?” She shivered.
Cameron pulled the coverlet over her shoulders. “It can only be that.”
“There is so much I do not know about who I am,” she whispered, leaning her forehead against his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat near her ear. “What else will I discover? What else will I become?”
He stroked her hair. “I will be beside you the whole time,” he promised with an urgency that sent another shiver though her. He would try to protect her, but how could he save her from something neither of them understood?
“If only my mother had left me more clues.”
“It matters not,” he said. “There is no going back. Together we will see this through.”
She knew he was right. There was no altering their course. She could feel herself changing. It wasn’t just the healing of her scars. There was something far more elemental happening to her.
For years she had tried to be just as everyone else. Ordinary. Unexceptional. Yet in the past few days since she’d broken her shell, she’d come to realize she was nothing of the sort.
She was magical. Different. Perhaps even special.
Mariam reached up and wrapped her fingers about the shell at her neck. It warmed beneath her touch, filling her with strength that hadn’t been there before. “Thank you for bringing me here.” For better or worse, in the hours ahead, she would finally know who and what she was.
“There is nowhere I would rather be than at your side.”
Mariam closed her eyes as the warmth from the shell blossomed inside her. She let it flow through her body as she closed her eyes.
Hours or perhaps minutes later, her eyes flew open and her heart pounded in terror as the remnants of a dream faded.
Death.
She came fully awake as a shudder went through her. It was only a dream. Cameron was next to her, breathing deeply, evenly, his arms still about her in a loose embrace.
Her breath caught as it had in the dream. She struggled for air as a dark force overwhelmed her. Only a dream, she tried to tell herself, even though she knew that it wasn’t.
Chapter Seventeen
“You’re trembling.” Cameron’s hand tightened on Mariam’s as they stood at the railing of The Fortune. The late afternoon breeze had a bite to it, promising a chilled start to their journey ahead. “Are you frightened?”
She could not meet his gaze, fearful of what might show in her eyes. He would never allow her off the ship if she told him about her dream. Instead, she would find a way to change the outcome. Even though she had never done so before, who was to say that she could not change her own fate?
But what if she didn’t prevail? What if these moments were the last they would spend together? Careful to hide her thoughts, Mariam brought her gaze back to his but despite her best efforts, tears gathered, yet she refused to let them fall. Now was not the time for tears.
She turned away, focusing on the shores of Scotland behind them. The shoreline was no longer visible through a haze of yellowish gray. “Behind us, there is still danger to so many.” She returned her attention to the shores of the isle that grew ever closer. “Ahead of us, the sky is clear, blue, and