my head as his gift was transferred to me.
Brody stopped reading to take a bite of cheese. Had the Seer’s gift been transferred to his daughter last night? When would she be arriving here? He slathered more jam on a piece of bread so he could eat while he continued reading.
Tonight, in my sleep, I may experience my first vision. According to my father, it will come to me in my sleep as a dream.
A dream. Brody finished his slice of bread, then licked the jam off his fingers. A dream? Something needled his thoughts, something just beyond his reach. Dammit, what was it?
He took a long drink of wine. “I saw him in a dream. He was burying someone on a bluff overlooking the ocean.”
He choked and sputtered wine onto the table. Good goddesses, when Maeve had said that, it had sent a chill down his spine. How the hell had she known? He hadn’t been able to believe it, and so he had dismissed it. Ignored it and gone on with his attempt to get rid of her and Nevis as quickly as possible.
But had Maeve actually dreamed of him burying the Seer?
With a jolt, Brody leaped to his feet, causing his chair to topple over with a clatter. The cat sprang into the air, then hissed at him and ran out the front door.
“Maeve.” The cottage swirled around him, and Brody stumbled, catching onto the edge of the table to keep from falling. The Seer had claimed that his daughter was coming, and the only female to arrive so far . . . “Maeve.”
She’d come to the island. She’d had a dream that had come true. And she’d grown up not knowing who her parents were.
“Goddesses, no.” Brody shook his head. If Maeve’s father was the Seer, then her mother was Cahira. Her parents would be the first two members of the Circle of Five.
“Oh, shit, no.” He dragged a hand down his face and was surprised by the large number of wrinkles he felt. Oh right, he was still in the guise of the Seer. But dammit, if the old man was her father, then did that make Maeve the Seer now?
“Oh, hell, no.” He paced about the cottage. No, dammit, he didn’t want that kind of future for Maeve. He’d known the Seer for fifteen years. He knew too well how heavy the Seer’s gift had weighed on him.
And how would Maeve feel if she ever found out that both her parents had been in the Circle of Five? As far as Brody could tell, this Cahira had been the one to pervert the Seer’s idea and turn it into an evil plan to take over the world. Cahira was the one he needed to get rid of in order to protect the Seer’s reputation.
Oh, dear goddesses, how could he kill Maeve’s mother? He winced. That would certainly put an end to any feelings she might have for him. But how devastating it would be if Maeve learned what her parents had done.
He couldn’t tell her. If what he suspected was true, it would tear Maeve’s heart in two. It would destroy any chance she had for a happy life.
Hadn’t he promised the Seer that he would look after his daughter? So obviously, he had to keep Maeve from becoming embroiled in this mess. It would be too dangerous for her. Too painful.
Tomorrow night, he would convince her to go home. Then he would take care of Cahira himself. And the Chameleon. The Circle of Five would be no more. The world would be safe. The Seer’s reputation would be safe. And Maeve would be free to live her life without the burden of knowing the truth.
Brody took a deep breath. He could do this. For now, he needed all the information he could gather on Cahira. As far as he could tell, she was not a nice woman. She’d used the Seer to promote her own evil plan. And she’d abandoned Maeve as a wee babe. Hell, she’d even told the Seer that his daughter was dead.
If Brody was going to succeed in this masquerade, he needed to know everything the Seer had known. He set the chair back on its legs and sat down to read.
For the next fifty pages or so, the journal described the Seer’s daily life and the visions he had several times a week. Always bad. War. Destruction. Plague. Despair.
Brody finished the bottle of wine and kept reading. When