she asked, “You have this house ready for me. Any chance there are clothes here, too?”
He snapped his fingers and instantly he was clothed, in black jeans, a black T-shirt and boots that looked as though they could kick their way through hell without a problem. He smiled at her as he stood up.
“Nice for you,” she said.
His fingers snapped again and she was suddenly dry and warm and dressed in the very clothes that had just a moment before been lying in a sodden heap on the floor. Even her favorite cowboy boots were dry and tucked securely on her feet. She couldn’t help giving him a smile. “Now that’s something I want to know how to do.”
“You will,” he assured her. “In time.”
“Right.” Time. It all boiled down to time. Her powers needed to be fully unleashed. She and Rune had to fulfill the Mating ritual. They had to find the Artifact that she had once hidden from the world. All they needed was time. Trouble was, the people chasing her were determined not to let them have it.
And just like that, they were back to the business at hand. “So what now? Where do we go?”
“You hold the answer to that question.” He came close enough to lay his huge hands on her shoulders. “You’ve been having visions?”
“Yes,” she admitted, staring up into his gray eyes, swirling with power and secrets as old as time. Teresa felt as if he was looking into her mind, though she didn’t feel his presence in her thoughts. Was this new connection between them strong enough for him to sense what she was thinking and feeling?
If it was, then he would be able to see everything as she thought of what had been happening in her life the last three weeks. There were signs she might have missed if she hadn’t been trained since childhood to be on the lookout for the magical world.
A black dog seemed to be outside her house day and night. Candles melted and the puddles of wax formed symbols that resonated with a part of her she didn’t recognize. Ancient whorls and circles and symbols of eternity and rebirth. Storms had rolled into Sedona often enough that the TV weatherman was completely flummoxed by what was happening. He couldn’t explain where the storms were coming from or why there were so many of them.
But she could.
The electrical energies were being drawn to her. To her power. Her growing strength and burgeoning magic.
Her dreams were haunted every night, too. Even now, the jumbled images came back to her in a flood. She didn’t understand most of them. Cages built of fire, burning ferociously in what looked like a dark cave with ancient carvings on the walls. People she didn’t know—two women with long red hair, smiling at her, and tall, powerful men like Rune, covered in flames—holding swords crossed over their chests as they took up protective postures.
In her dreams, she was chased by darkness. She could hear voices whispering behind her and footsteps that raced closer every night. Their pounding beat seemed to resonate within her for hours after she jolted awake, her heart in her throat.
Frowning, Teresa rubbed her forehead, closed her eyes and tried to focus. To sift through the memories choking her. There were more. Snippets of other lives that weren’t her own. A woman who was her—and yet not—sitting beside a campfire as coyotes howled and the night sky blazed with stars rarely seen now because of city lights. She saw the woman chased into the desert, saw her running in terror. Saw her stumble and fall, and then a rockslide rattled down a mountainside to cover her body.
And she saw her grandmother’s face. Her abuela had been in every dream. Every vision ended with those well-loved features smiling at her in encouragement. Whispering, “Ahora, Teresa, ahora.”
Now, Teresa, now.
“Tell me,” Rune said, the weight of his hands pressing ever more firmly on her shoulders. “Tell me what you see.”
“My grandmother. I see my grandmother. We have to go to her in Chiapas. Mexico.”
Chapter 11
Elena stepped outside, key in hand to lock the clinic door. It was still raining. Seemed like someone in heaven had upended a bucket on Sedona.
That thought brought a smile despite the trickle of icy water that sneaked beneath the collar of her jacket to roll along her spine. She shivered at the sensation, like a ghostly finger trailing along her skin—then she whirled around to look over her