Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(103)
The dreams felt so real she believed he did watch over her.
Maybe he’d sent Vyan. That brought a smile to her lips until she realized the warrior had stopped talking about his dead wife. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you for that.” His eyes seemed to gaze back through time, then dropped away, embarrassed. “I can no longer see her face.”
That had to be hard. To not have a picture to remember someone by. “Will you find her when you go back?”
He shook his head. “I cannot go back to the time when she was alive, only the last day of my life before being sent to live beneath Mount Meru.” Giving another little shake of his head as if wiping something from his mind, he said, “It was long ago and I am glad she did not have to live beneath Mount Meru. What of your family?”
“I have none now either.” She could still see her granddad’s face, but he hadn’t been gone eight hundred years.
Lifting a hand scarred from battles, Vyan touched the small pottery vase she had on the table, which held fresh thyme and mint cuttings from her small garden out back. “I wish to toil the land, not fight with swords.”
“Then don’t fight.”
“I fear that decision has been taken from me for now, but perhaps one day I will be able to lay down my sword.” Pushing his plate away, he sat back. “Will you hand over the rock?”
“No. Will you try to take it from me?”
He shook his head. “I will not harm you nor allow anyone else to as long as I have breath in my body.”
Her heart melted at his pledge. Why couldn’t this man be from her time? She’d shared more time with him this morning than she had with any other man in many years.
She’d never turned the heads of men like other women. Not with a head of wild red hair and the pale features that went with it. Being an artist had turned her into even more of a recluse.
“I have realized my warlord and Tristan are planning revenge against the Beladors. They will need the Ngak Stone for this. I fear our people will be cursed further if we seek revenge, but even if we don’t we still need the power of the stone. I want to send my people home or wherever each one wants to go.”
“Where else would they go?”
“Some are tired of living and would rather cross over to be with family they have lost. If I held the power of the stone I would ask that their wishes be met.”
“Do you want to cross over to be with your wife?” Laurette experienced a sting of regret over the idea of him leaving, which was absurd, since she’d only just met this man and he seemed so lonely. She would never want to keep him from finding peace.
“I do not wish to die yet, but I do not wish to live forever either. You would gift my people with the chance to go where they choose if you could?”
“Of course I’d do that.” She couldn’t imagine living in another world and not being able to return to everything she considered her life. But she wouldn’t hand over the stone to anyone.
“I will talk to my warlord, Batuk, and see if I can change his mind. If I am not back by four hours past midnight, go to the Beladors for help. They will protect you.”
Go to another bunch of people with powers? That might not be a good idea. “Why? Can’t you come back?”
“I don’t know. A powerful black witch is helping my warlord, and she bespelled me once yesterday already to use me to capture two young people for blood sacrifices.”
Her look of fear, which must have registered at that, had to be the reason he quickly added, “I feigned a weakness to allow the two youths to escape and warned the Belador standing with them to be on guard against a witch. Go to the Beladors if I do not return in time.”
Laurette couldn’t believe how much worse this got by the minute. “How do I find them?”
“Ask the stone to bring a Belador to you. If that does not work, do not have that stone in your hand when the sun rises tomorrow.”
“Thought you told me the Beladors were your enemies.”
“That is true, but I believe they will not harm you, and I cannot say the same for my Kujoo warlord. If you meet the Beladors, that means I have lost, so I will give you a message for them. Tell them the Kujoo will return to their time as stronger immortal warriors and will leave no Belador standing.”
What did that mean? “Will the Beladors try to take the stone from me?”
Vyan reached over and placed his hand over hers with a gentle touch. She held still, but not out of fear. The compassion that passed from him in that moment filled her with a sense of security and peace she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
His sad voice matched his eyes. “I wish that you could keep the stone to regain your sight, but to do so would incur a curse you would never be free of.”
She wanted to believe that was an empty threat intended to frighten her away from the stone, but after talking to this man for fourteen hours she could hear the truth in his words. “What curse?”
“The stone is selfish and dangerous. It teases you with power as one would tempt a child with sweets, tricking the child to follow them into danger. Once you are joined with the stone for the rest of your life, it will force you to do its bidding, whether you want to or not.”
Vyan withdrew his hand, drawing his warmth and strength with it. She sighed like a teenager and didn’t care. Life had been anything but normal for the past few days. If she could survive finding a magic rock, watching a man throw lightning bolts at a woman with invisible powers, and meeting a man who lived eight hundred years ago, she had no problem with being attracted to a stranger.