back, watched that moon shining down on her through the dancing limbs of the trees and whispered the long-ago chant she had learned from her abuela.
Sister moon, shine for me.
Mother moon, hear my cry.
Sister moon, I call on you
To share your magic and mystery.
She inhaled slowly, deeply, feeling the warm, humid air fill her lungs with the scents of nature. She drew strength from her surroundings as the moon seemed to pulse in the sky. Silvery light dropped like rain to where she stood, enveloping her in a glow that fed her soul and spirit.
Smiling, Teresa sighed as magic slid through her veins, bubbling, frothing, filling her with an incredible wash of something mystical and ancient. She recognized it and welcomed its return.
“Oh, my goddess …” she whispered, her voice no more than a sigh on the wind that lifted her hair into a tangle around her head. The stars seemed to spin in the sky as the moon continued to throb along with the beat of her heart.
Such a connection. How had she ever managed to live without this incredible sense of well-being? Her body hummed, every cell bristling with life and burning with need. The wash of moonlight brightened all around her and Teresa felt like a pillar of light in a sea of darkness.
The moon’s essence deepened in her, swelling, growing, until she felt like an overfilled bucket and the magic was literally pouring from her in a stream that couldn’t be stopped. And along with her power, her body awakened. Her breasts felt heavy, her nipples so sensitive that even the delicate contact with her lacy bra was nearly painful. She hungered for her mate.
Her center was damp and hot and her legs trembled as sensation pumped through her. It was as if she had turned on a faucet, opening herself to the moon, and now she had no idea how to turn it off. More and more of the mystical energies filled her until she trembled with the onslaught and had to fight for breath.
She swayed unsteadily in that pillar of light as the moon reached for its child, as if it were as hungry for the connection as Teresa had been. A door opened in her mind and the past rushed forward, image after image, demanding to be seen, recognized, accepted. She closed her eyes against the frenzied clip show her brain was presenting her with.
But these memories would no longer be ignored. Visions rose up and faded away in a timeless yet hurried slide show. She saw herself across the ages, changing from one lifetime to the next. She watched as the witch she had been took part in that last spell. Watched as demons poured through the opened gate to hell.
Teresa screamed and the images changed. She was a woman in London, a servant in Venice, a wife in Holland. More lives remembered and then cast away. More times with Rune. Always Rune. He was there, in the captured photographs in her memory. Her warrior.
Her mate.
She was so many women in the march through time and yet she was always herself. The heart of her, the soul of her remained the same. Then one clear thought screamed into her consciousness and Teresa finally understood why he couldn’t trust her. Why he held himself back from her even as they moved forward on the most important quest either of them would ever undertake.
She’d betrayed him in the past. More than once. She had hurt him and cost herself the respect of the man she now loved more than she would ever have thought it possible to love. God, she loved him. Hadn’t wanted to. Hadn’t planned to. But maybe, she thought, she’d never really had a choice in that at all. They had been destined. And destiny, she was beginning to understand, was not easily fought or ignored.
The moon scrambled her thoughts, its energy creating a tumult inside her that she simply couldn’t withstand much longer. She gasped and fell to her knees, bracing her hands on the dirt and grass in front of her. Her back bowed, her head down, she struggled to find the peace she had enjoyed when she first opened herself to the moon. But she had gone past that now and crossed a threshold. There was no peace to be found anymore—there was simply too much chaos churning inside her.
And still the moonlight entered her, like a persistent lover. Pushing into her body again and again even after