Insanity or rage. It didn’t matter. The river turned against him. It flung the boat out of the water, sending it smashing back down into savage currents that were intent on killing him.
What do you seek?
“I seek—” Why was this happening? He was being honest about what he sought!
A wave crashed against the boat, almost knocking him into the river. He flung himself to his knees, grabbing the side of the boat with one hand while the other fumbled to slip the leather collar over his arm to give him that much connection to the boat.
What did he seek? Caitlin Marie. The answer to a riddle. Help defeating the Destroyer of Light before it consumed the parts of the world he knew.
The currents changed, knocking him this way and that.
What do you seek?
Like a series of pictures, the world changed around him. For a moment, he was surrounded by fog, and he could hear the voices of doomed men forever lost. A moment later, he was gliding over a mist-filled lake toward an island he could barely see—and didn’t want. A moment after that, he saw a rib cage partially buried under rust-colored sand. Then the currents, the river, and walls of water.
“I seek Belladonna!” he screamed.
Why do you seek?
Going under. Going under. No chance of surviving.
And in that moment, as he surrendered to fate, he felt the warmth of her as she leaned against him, as he wrapped his arms around her in dreams. Almost home. Almost…
My heart’s hope lies with Belladonna.
Yes, the river whispered. Yes.
Glorianna leaned against the wall next to her garden’s gate, catching her breath and her balance.
A heart wish that was full of joy and yet bittersweet. Separation and homecoming.
Right here. On her island.
She recognized the resonance of that heart. It had struggled to free itself from the Eater of the World, had almost pulled the Eater into her landscapes.
Now that heart was here on her island—and Ephemera was responding like a pet whose best friend had returned home after a long journey. Responding like that to another heart here, on her island. The world didn’t respond that way to Lee or Nadia when they came to visit. Didn’t respond to anyone that way. Not here.
Until now, something inside her whispered.
Then she saw him coming up the path from the little harbor. He looked scruffy, despite clothes that appeared to be fairly new. And clearly the river had given him a hard ride, which meant he had tried to hide his true purpose in coming to the island. That was reason enough to be wary of him, even if he hadn’t come into her landscapes in such an unusual way.
He stopped and looked around, his smile as warm as spring sunbeams after a long winter as he took in the grounds that were carefully balanced between created flower beds and the natural flow of the land. As he turned toward her two-story house, she stepped away from the garden. She didn’t want him in her house until she’d taken a better measure of the man.
Catching the movement, he turned toward her. Moved toward her.
Another jolt of recognition when he got close enough for her to get a good look at his face. Here was the moonlight lover from the painting Sebastian had made for her. But that man had been a fantasy that was…
…as real as a dream, a wish, a desire.
A yearning washed through her. It flowed into Ephemera’s currents before she could stop it or deny its importance.
But it didn’t go beyond the island. Didn’t have to in order to find fulfillment.
More than wariness jangled inside her now. She wasn’t sure she could—or should—trust the man coming toward her. But she knew with absolute certainty that, where he was concerned, she couldn’t trust herself.
He smiled at her and raised his hands as if to prove he held no weapons.
No weapons? Ha! She’d wager he had toppled a good many women’s defenses by wielding that oh-so-charming smile. And did he think she didn’t notice his eyes doing that quick, assessing sweep men always did when they saw a woman whose body appealed to them and got them wondering if…
Guardians and Guides. Heat flooded her face when she remembered she was dressed in her grubbiest gardening clothes—and had been working in her garden all morning, so she certainly wasn’t looking her best.
Which meant the look of appreciation in his eyes was nothing but a deceit.
You said once that the only man worthy of being loved was one who saw you in your gardening clothes and still thought you looked beautiful, her romantic side murmured.
Shut up, she told her romantic side. “What are you looking at?” she growled at him.
His smiled warmed. That son of a succubus was amused by her!
“More than an image that haunts my dreams,” he replied, his voice flowing over her like warm, silky water. “A woman. A beautiful, real woman.”
And because her stupid heart actually went pitty-pat in response to the words, she whipped her temper awake.
“Wasn’t sure that bit of a boat would make it,” he said, still giving her that charming smile.
“You’ll have to be tested,” she said, putting an edge in her voice to warn him she wasn’t the least bit charmed.
“Already was.”
When she didn’t respond, his smile faltered. Good.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Glorianna.”
He looked puzzled. And a trifle disappointed? But he rallied fast enough and polished up the smile.
“It’s obvious you passed the river’s test since you’re here,” she said. “But there is another test.”
Now the charming smile gave way completely to frustration and a hint of ripening anger. Which only stoked her own temper since being mad at him seemed the safest thing to do until she could get him off her island. Not the fairest thing, true, but the safest. Besides, she needed to see the results of this test.
He slapped his hands against his legs. “Another test? Don’t you people do anything for fun?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “We give strangers tests and then laugh at them while they make fools of themselves.”
The frustration vanished as quickly as it had come. He grinned at her as if he’d figured out the answer to a puzzle. “You’re just snappy because you got caught out wearing your old clothes.”
A mortifying assessment of her temper. Especially because it was partially true.
“Since this is my island, what I wear is no one’s business but my own. And I am not snappy!”
He rocked back on his heels. “Oh, but you are. Which is a fine thing because the temper brightens your eyes and puts color in your cheeks. Makes you even more beautiful.”
He was taller than her and heavier than her, but at that moment, riding on temper and embarrassment, she was pretty sure she could pick him up, haul him down to the shore, and toss him into the river. “Take the test or go back to the river. With or without the boat.”
He gave her his most woeful wounded-male look.
She just stared at him.
“Got a brother, don’t you?” he asked after a long moment of silence.
“I do.” And Lee had perfected that woeful look by practicing on her until she had perfected the Stare.
“Thought so.” He sighed. “All right, then. Let’s get this test done before you have time to think up another.”
He followed her to the spot she called the playground. Then he scratched his head and pursed his lips as he looked at a calf-high wooden box that was about the size of a marriage bed and was filled with sand. Another box, about half that length, was attached to it and held a wooden bench and gravel.