Page 24 of Dark Embrace

Brie leapt back. So much pain went through her that she was blinded by it. The pain came from him, not her ribs.

Aidan seized her arm, shouting at her. “Who do ye speak with?”

Brie fought the pain flooding her. That terrible knife was in her heart again, and with it there was so much despair. Her vision cleared, and she looked at the boy. He started speaking to her. She did not hear a word.

Her heart slammed as a vague memory tried to surface.

Aidan seized her shoulders now, hurting her. “Who do ye see?” he roared at her.

Had she seen this boy on Five? Brie looked at the frightened, expectant child, then at Aidan. “Oh my God. You don’t see him?”

Aidan turned white. “Nay, I see no one!”

CHAPTER FOUR

BRIE GASPED. SHE COULD SEE THIS CHILD as clear as day, as if she had perfect vision. But the boy was invisible to Aidan. She was facing a child’s lost soul. “It’s a little boy,” she whispered, her gaze locked with Aidan’s.

Aidan’s pain struck her so hard that it sent her to her knees.

“Where is he?” he cried in anguish. “Why do ye see him? Do ye see him still? I canna see him!”

On her knees, Brie held her chest, fighting the pain, fighting to breathe. She looked up at Aidan, past the waiting ghost, but couldn’t speak. No one could live with such torment, she thought. She felt tears start to trickle down her face. “He’s…here…beside you!”

Aidan moaned. Then, pulling her to her feet, he demanded, “What does he want?”

“I don’t know…what he wants,” she gasped, his grief hitting her in brutal wave after brutal wave. “I can’t…this hurts too much…. please, stop!”

Aidan stared desperately at her, his fingers digging into her arms.

“Stop,” she wept. “I can feel everything you’re feeling…you have to stop!”

The little boy began fading. He was talking swiftly now, but not making a sound.

“Wait! Don’t go!” Brie cried.

It was too late. The little boy had vanished.

“Did he leave?” Aidan asked, ravaged.

Brie nodded. He was clamping down on his pain. It took her another moment before she could speak. She was left with a dull, throbbing heartache. “Who is he?”

Aidan released her. “My son.” His eyes mirroring the terrible torment he was shielding from her, he strode from the room.

Aidan was haunted by his child.

Brie collapsed onto the bench, her head on her arms on the table, overcome by what had just happened. Aidan’s soul was tormented. He was grieving for his dead child. No one should ever have to go through the ordeal of losing a child. Was this how he had lost his faith and his way?

Her grandmother’s ring suddenly began pinching her finger. Brie was certain Grandma Sarah had something she wished to say. But Brie was so upset she couldn’t sense whatever it was.

Aidan hadn’t been able to see his child, but he’d known right away who she’d spoken to. Had Aidan seen his son’s ghost before? Why was she the one who could see his son today?

But then, why was she so shockingly and painfully empathic toward Aidan, even across time?

Somehow it was all connected, she thought, and that included her being in the past at Castle Awe, where his little son’s ghost was.

Suddenly, a wolf’s mournful howl sounded.

Brie sat up, every hair on her body standing on end. The lonely howl was endless, a sound of impossible anguish and deep, dark despair. The grief and hopelessness slowly crept into her, filling her, until she felt as if she was lost in an endless black maze with no possible way out, an eternity of despair ahead.