Taking the slip her mother held out for her, Jessie looked at the two o'clock appointment with Dr. Leslie Uhl. "Fine," she said, stuffing the slip in her pocket. "But you need to call Daniel and ask him what really happened. It's only fair you get the truth from him since you don't want to believe me. He'll tell you what Chris is all about."

Rick's eyes looked even sadder than when she walked in. "We did talk to Daniel, honey."

This rocked her. "And?"

"And he said Chris was okay."

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Jessie felt her blood thin. "Did you tell him what Chris said about me?"

"We told you," Reena added, "We're not going to drag your little brother through your mud."

"You didn't ask him about me at all? "

"We asked him what he thought of his new friend, Chris, and he told us that Chris was okay."

"Did you even ask him about the whole drug thing?"

Rick shook his head. "It would crush him to know you were still in that sort of life. He believes in you. He believes the promises you made to him."

"How do you know I promised him anything?"

Rick sighed. "Daniel told me a couple of days ago how he thought you were finally better. He told me you'd promised him you were through with drugs."

Reena sniffed back her tears. "How could you, Jess. You know he adores you."

Jessie's spine straightened. "I. Am. Not. In. That. Life. Anymore."

Jessie's jaw hurt from gritting her teeth so hard. "I can't believe this."

Standing, she paced over to the fireplace. "So, you sent him away without even asking him anything? You just naturally a.s.sumed that little doper Chris is an innocent cherub."

"What was there to ask, Jessie? Daniel doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong with that boy. He stood here and told Chris's Dad that he . . ."

Jessie turned on her mother. "You asked him in front of the kid's Dad?" Jessie hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. "Are you two nuts? What did you expect him to say in front of the kid's Dad? How about, Well, gee, Mr. Nimrod, your drug-addled son is pushing dope on me? Unbelievable." Jessie shook her head. "Absolutely unbelievable."

"That's enough."

Jessie nodded. "It sure is. I'll be in my room." Grabbing the keys from the kitchen, Jessie started up the stairs. "I'll see your shrink at two, but I guaran-d.a.m.n-tee you, she won't like what she hears."

Jessie ignored her father's pleas to talk to them, choosing, instead, *

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to do the only thing that made any sense to her. At least, on the other side of time, there were people who loved her and cared about her, and believed in her. They believed in her so much, they sent her across time to help them. More than ever, Jessie was ready to find a way to let Cate know she would do whatever she could to help her out.

Slipping the key into the numberless door, Jessie took a deep breath before opening it. Whatever was happening somewhere in time was sure as h.e.l.l better than what she was enduring now. Jessie stepped into the room, closed the door behind her, and entered a world that was becoming more familiar to her with every single day.

When Cate opened her eyes, Lachlan and Maeve were squatting down in front of her, watching her with concern.

"You have returned to us at last," Maeve said softly.

Cate nodded, feeling lightheaded and hungry. She had never been a big eater, but since she started her quest, she discovered that hunger came along shortly after she finished. "I am happy to see you," she said, as Maeve helped her to her feet.

"Well?" Lachlan asked with impatience.

"Hush, Lachlan," Maeve scolded. "Let her return to us completely before you interrogate her."

Cate rose and looked about. It felt as if she were seeing the woods for the first time. It wasn't that they were unfamiliar, as much as they were awe-inspiring. "Jessie is trying," she whispered, realizing that, at this moment, she was not quite alone in her spirit. "She knows about you, Maeve. She knows I have made contact with her. She knows she is needed. She knows."

"Excellent," Maeve answered, pulling Cate to her in a warm embrace. "I had no doubt you could do it."

"What happened in there, Cate?" Lachlan blurted out at last.

Cate swallowed hard. She had gone from the Otherworld to Jessie's world. Had she intended to do so? She could not remember going to the portal. What had happened after she spoke with Blodwin? "A great many things, Lachlan, but mostly I now know I can do what you are *

134 *135.

asking me to do, and so can Jessie." Suddenly, Cate's face fell.

"Catie, what is it?"

Cate blinked trying to hold back the tears, but they came anyway.

"It's not me. It's Jessie." Cate shook her head sadly. "Like us, Jessie is persecuted at every turn. She tries to be free, but there are chains binding her. She is attempting to throw off these chains to help us, but she is so young, still. She'll need help, but she is telling me she is with us."

"Did you discover this in the Otherworld?"

Maeve tossed Lachlan a look of her own impatience, but Cate lightly touched her arm and shook her head. "No. Jessie was not there.

She has come through the portal."

"Do you mean-"

"Yes. She is here with me now, as part of me. Perhaps all of me. I can feel her, and her life's memories-as if I, too, had eaten a-cinnamon roll this morning."

Lachlan and Maeve looked at each other in silence.

"Blodwin visited me in the Otherworld and told me I must allow Jessie to freely see me for who I am, and when I do that, it might embolden her to be stronger and braver in her attempts to contact me.

Already, her courage is mounting."

"It must be from Blodwin's help." Lachlan pushed his hood back.

Cate shook her head. "I am afraid Blodwin cares not to a.s.sist me, and perhaps I slighted her in a minor digression about the G.o.ddesses, but nonetheless, Jessie has already become stronger-without Blodwin's a.s.sistance."

Maeve laid her hand on Cate's shoulder. "Is it odd?"

Cate nodded. "To see pictures in your mind that you have never really seen, and trying to make sense of what they all are, well that is very strange, indeed. To know that the one I have contacted is so young and not so very wise is also very strange. It might have been easier if she were a priestess of some sort, but she is not. She is just a brave young girl willing to risk her life."

"Risks. I like not the sound of that, Catie. Is there more to what you are saying?"

136 *137.

Cate could feel Lachlan's eyes boring into her, and knew if she told Maeve the truth, she would put an end to her attempts here and now.

"Blodwin reminded me of the risks involved, and I do understand them better. Jessie is so far in the future, I cannot conceive of most of what is in her mind. It will be much easier if I allow her access to mine."

Lachlan stared at her. "If Jessie is so far in the future so much so that you cannot understand what you see, she must be much further ahead than we realized. Are you sure she is the one?"

"She is the only one, Lachlan. She is the right choice. I know her. I hear her."

"What-what does she say?" Maeve whispered.

Cate closed her eyes and listened to her own spirit now embedded with memories of a world she knew nothing about. After several minutes went by, she opened her eyes and grinned. "She wants to know what it is we need from her. She believes she is ready."

"Outstanding!" Lachlan said, rubbing his hands together. "At last.

At long last."

Maeve cut her eyes over at him and silenced him immediately. "And what of these risks Blodwin shared with you, Catie? What are they?"

Cate did not look at Lachlan when she answered. After all, he knew.

They knew. Clearing her throat, she answered. "Just those we spoke of earlier, Maeve. Blodwin was preparing me for the potential dangers, but she also believes I am strong enough to overcome those risks. If Jessie has slipped through the portal, now would be a very good time for me to reach out to her. As one in this body, we cannot communicate. We must go where separate communication is possible."

Nodding, Maeve walked Cate back to the house with Lachlan trailing behind. Once in Maeve's house, she sat Cate down on the bed she had made for herself. "Lay down and relax, Catie. It will be easier for you to reach her in your Dreamworld than on this plane." Maeve picked up a bowl and pestle and ground several herbs up in it. Then she sprinkled the dried herbs on Cate's top lip. "Lay back, breathe deeply, and think of the warmth of the sunlight streaming down upon your face. Inhale softly-slowly-yes, that's it." Lightly stroking Cate's brow with one hand, Maeve held on to the other until she recognized the *

136 *137.

slight tremors signaling sleep.

Lachlan, who had remained suspiciously silent at the wooden table, rose and paced across the floor. "That did not take long."

"You know how visits to the Otherworld can sap one's strength.

She is weary. She has not your training nor my prowess. Can you not see the dark circles around her eyes? This is beginning to take a toll on her. Mind you, Lachlan, and mark my words. Catie shall not come to any harm."

Lachlan sighed. He had to be very careful when speaking with Maeve. She had an uncanny ability to read people. "She knows the risks, Maeve, and is acting accordingly."

Maeve did not take her eyes off Cate. "In her dreams, in the corner of her mind, Catie is about to meet herself from far, far into the future.

How does one 'act accordingly' for that?"

"I imagine it must be disconcerting." Lachlan stared out the window, his voice heavy with regret. "It must be-somewhat terrifying."

The tone of his voice made Maeve glance over at him. "She is not your mother, Lachlan, and no matter how gifted you believe her to have been, Catie is a far more powerful Druid than ever your mother was."

Lachlan stiffened. "Speak not of that which you know so little."

"I know enough to know she should never have gone. Malcolm advised her to cease with her obsession, but she could not, she would not. She had not the sight Cate has. She was powerful, yes, but not like Cate."

Lachlan's eyes burned as he stepped nearer to Maeve. "Enough."

His voice was deep and flat.

"Do not presume to command me, Lachlan. I do not appreciate your tone. Catie is not your mother and I am not your subject. You would do well to remember both."

"I see your fear, Maeve. I know you are not as sure of her as you'd wish me to believe."

"Catie will return. Of that, I am sure." Maeve softened her own tone. "I am just sorry your mother was not so fortunate."

Lachlan nodded and sighed loudly. "In all these years, I have yet to *

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know what she went after. I have never known why she went and how it was that she never returned. She just-left us. Sight or no sight, a woman just does not leave her children."

"You treat her memory unkindly, Lachlan. Your mother was a strong and knowledgeable healer, but she should never have entered the Sacred Place alone. She was advised-"

"I know what Malcolm told her, Maeve."

"Then perhaps she never went to the Sacred Place at all that night.

Did you not tell me her body was never recovered, that not a trace of her was ever found?"

"Nothing." Lachlan sighed heavily again. "Not a single st.i.tch of her clothing. Nothing."

"Then you do not know-"

"I know, Maeve, as a Druid priest would know. As a son would know."

Maeve took Lachlan's hand in hers. "It still hurts, I know."

Lachlan pulled his hand away. "It exists, as she once did, in a place in my heart that will never heal. My only concern now is making sure that Cate does not endure the same fate as my mother." He stared hard into her eyes. "I would spare you what happened to me, Maeve."

As the two of them turned around to look at the sleeping Cate, Maeve nodded. "She will not suffer that fate, Lachlan, nor will I. This time-this time we will succeed."

Jessie wasn't the least bit surprised to find herself roaming through incredibly old forests of-were they oak trees? They were. Yes. Large, handsome, powerful oaks whose trunks were the diameter of picnic tables and whose leaves were the size of dinner plates.

She knew where she was and felt no fear at the thought of being alone in a forest she knew was far, far from home. Ceara had told her fear could be deadly; that fear forced people to make mistakes and see things that didn't exist. Fear had no place in her world right now. As foreign and unfamiliar as all of this was, she could not afford to let fear touch her. She must be brave-willing to go wherever she needed to go *

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