Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Lorcan trailed off, and Kierse saw the pain etched into his features at the memory of Graves killing Declan. It was a mirror of what Kierse felt about losing Nate. Her heart ached, and she didn’t want to share this pain with him, but she couldn’t deny it, either.
Lorcan cleared his throat. “My people, my lands, my throne. For a hundred years, that was all I cared about, and I like to think I was a pretty good ruler. And now everything I care about is gone.” Then his eyes lifted. “Except you. I can’t lose you, too.”
She stilled at the words. Feeling tugged on her chest despite herself. She didn’t want to feel anything for Lorcan. She didn’t want to feel bad for him. He’d done this to himself. But…
“I’ve been on this earth for more than five hundred years, and I was told that soulmates only happen once. For it to happen to me twice, how could you expect me to ignore that?”
Kierse pulled her hands into her lap to keep them from shaking. “If you had respected my choices from the beginning, then I wouldn’t have expected you to.”
He nodded once, straightening into the Oak King once more. “Perhaps. I hurt you. I can understand why you’re upset with me. If I had felt like I had any other choice, I would have taken it. I would see my people and my throne restored to me and you at my side.”
It was a fantasy, of course. He’d lost the Druids. He’d lost his place. And he’d never even had her.
But she couldn’t discount his pain. Even if she was still furious with him. She checked the time on her phone. They needed to talk about something else.
“Tell me about the door, Lorcan.”
“What do you know about ash trees?”
She shrugged. “Besides the fact that the one we created in Brooklyn is made out of ash, literally nothing.”
“Ash trees feature in a lot of historical accounts in the Celtic tradition but also all around the world,” Lorcan explained. “In the Norse religion, they had Yggdrasil, the world tree, which connects the nine realms. Vikings and Celts were closely tied through much of early history, and we had a similar association with the ash tree.” He fiddled with the sushi on his plate, arranging it into the shape of a tree. “The tree of life had branches reaching for the heavens, a trunk representing the physical earthly plane, and the roots reaching to the underrealm. The tree itself was a bridge between the realms.”
“Okay,” Kierse said carefully. “Is this supposed to be…metaphorical?”
Lorcan shrugged. “Sometimes. I am the Oak King figuratively and literally. I am connected to the Druids and the oak trees and robins and control the coming of spring. I am the physical manifestation of a natural phenomenon.”
“Not to toot your own horn.”
He grinned at her. “Folklore as most people see this is supposed to explain parts of the world around us that had no explanation. Before there was science, for the explanations we had magic and religion. Why the sun rises and falls, why the trees grow, where the rivers flow. The natural world needed explanation, and those explanations are as valid as the modern scientific explanations. They were grounded in their own reality, and they still ground our reality to those who believe in them.”
“So you’re saying that the tree I created in my triskel is another physical manifestation of the Celtic religion?” she asked, trying to process what exactly he was saying.
“I’m saying that your ash tree is the tree of life.”
Kierse’s eyebrows rose. “What?”
“And when we linked in Scotland and you drained that warlock, we connected to the tree and created the door.”
Kierse sat back hard. “But…”
She almost told him about her portaling. That it had to be because she’d been drawing doors. That she had been trying to use the magic he didn’t know about or could leash. Except she didn’t want him to know about that.
“What other explanation is there?”
“I have no idea. I thought it was just a thing that sacred trees do?”
“No,” Lorcan said. “I’ve never heard of this happening.”
“So you don’t know that it’s our connection that did this.”
“I’m not certain. We’d have to try again.”
“Ah,” she said with a slow nod. She slid toward the end of the booth and stood up. “You’re trying to find a way into my life. You’re making shit up that fits your narrative so we have to work together.”
“That is not what I’m doing.”
She leaned forward on the table and dangled his wallet from her hand. “I’ve been a thief a long time. I can tell a con artist when I see one.”
“I’ll let you take that,” he said with an easy smile. “It’s yours if you want it. Everything I have is yours.”