Spellbound

sent the white stag to lure me into the woods, away from you.”
    “I did, yes. I see now that Alasdair knew, and he used it against me. I wanted you safe. Knowing you now—the man you are now—that became more important than…” She looked at the castle. “Than the rest. But he tricked you into removing the protection I’d given you, then sent you into dreams to cloud your mind and make you doubt your reason.”
    “There was a woman…she said she was your mother.”
    “My mother.” Bryna blinked once, then her lips curved. “Was she in her garden, wearing a foolish hat of straw?”
    “Yes, and she had your mouth and hair.”
    Clucking her tongue, Bryna strolled toward the ruins. “She wasn’t meant to interfere. But perhaps it was permitted, as I bent the rules a bit myself. The air’s clearing of him,” she added as she stepped under the arch. “The flowers still bloom here.”
    He saw the circle of flowers, untouched, unscarred. “It’s over, then. Completely?”
    Completely, she thought and fought to keep her smile in place. “He’s destroyed. Even at the moment of his destruction he tried to take us with him. He might have done it if you hadn’t been quick, if you hadn’t been willing to risk.”
    “Where’s the globe now?”
    “You know where it is. And there it stays. Safe.”
    “You trusted me with that, but you didn’t trust me with you.”
    “No.” She looked down at the hands she’d linked together. “That was wrong of me.”
    “You were going to take poison.”
    She bit her lip at the raw accusation in his voice. “I couldn’t face what he had in mind for me. I couldn’t bear it, however weak it makes me. I couldn’t bear it.”
    “If I’d been a moment later, you would have done it. Killed yourself. Killed yourself,” he repeated, jerking her head up. “You couldn’t trust me to help you.”
    “No, I was afraid to. I was afraid and hurt and desperate.Have I not the right to feelings? Do you think what I am strips me of them?”
    Her mother had asked almost the same of him, he remembered. “No.” He said it very calmly, very clearly. “I don’t. Do you think what I’m not makes me less?”
    Stunned, she shook her head, and pressing a hand to her lips, turned away. It wasn’t only he who had questioned, she realized. Not only he who had lacked faith.
    “I’ve been unfair to you, and I’m sorry for it. You came here for me and learned to accept the impossible in only one day.”
    “Because part of me accepted it all along. Burying something doesn’t mean it ceases to exist. We were born for what happened here.” He let out an impatient breath. Why were her shoulders slumped, he wondered, when the worse of any life was behind them? “We’ve done what we were meant to do, and maybe it was done as it was meant to be.”
    “You’re right, of course.” Her shoulders straightened as she turned, and her smile was bright. And false, he realized as he looked into her eyes.
    “He can’t come back and touch you now.”
    “No.” She shook her head, laid a hand briefly on his. “Nor you. He was swallowed by his own. His kind are always here, but Alasdair is no more.”
    Then with a laugh she brought his hand to her cheek. “Oh, Cal, if I could give you a picture, as fine and bold as any of your own. How you looked when you hefted that sword over your head, the light in your eyes, the strength rippling in waves around you. I’ll carry that with me, always.”
    She turned then, walked regally to the circle of flowers. In the center she turned, faced him, held out her hands. “Calin Farrell, you met your fate. You came to me when my need was great, when my life was imperiled. In this place you stood between me and the unbearable, fought against magic dark and deadly, wielded sword for me. You’ve saved my life and in so doing saved this place and all I guard in it.”
    “Quite a speech,” he murmured and stepped closer.
    She only smiled. “You’re brave and true of heart. And from this hour, from this place you are free.”
    “Free?” Understanding was dawning, and he angled his head. “Free from you, Bryna?”
    “Free from all and ever. The spell is broken, and you have no debt to pay. But a debt is owed. Whatever you ask that is in my power you shall have. Whatever boon you wish will be yours.”
    “A boon, is it?” He tucked his tongue in his cheek. “Oh, let’s say, like immortality?”
    Her eyes flickered—disappointment quickly masked.