"I know."

He climbed up on the bed beside her. "Have you seen anything else?" he asked.

"Only the same. Danni has the Book, but I don't know how she got it."

"We can't let her use it."

Dairinn knew this already. She'd seen it enough times, in dreams. In visions. The Book of Fennore was greedy and it would take more than Danni could give. Danni didn't understand how different she was. How special. But the Book knew and it was hungry for her. It would devour her, and she would make it more powerful, more dreadful than anyone could imagine.

Danni could do what no else could even guess. She alone had the power to unlock the Book of Fennore. She could unravel the ancient Celtic spiral of life. And once pulled apart, it would never go back together again. Not in the same way. Not as it should.

It would remain open and searching, preying on the defenseless, using the evil in the world for its own purpose.

Rory had told her this. Her brother understood the Book of Fennore, though he didn't know why he was connected to it. Dairinn had no doubt it was the truth though. Rory never lied.

"You have to find, Sean, Rory. He's the only one who can stop her. But be careful. It wants you, too."

"I know it," Rory said solemnly.

Dairinn gave her brother a hug, feeling again the plunging anxiety deep inside her. She didn't know the future, but she felt it dragging away her hopes like the tide eating away at the beach beneath the ruins.

Chapter Thirty-eight.

SEAN sat on the front porch of his grandmother's house as the sun went down. He hadn't knocked or let her know he was there, but he didn't think he needed to. Colleen had a sixth sense where he was concerned. He'd thought it was her love for him that brought it, but now he realized it was simply her way, her connection to the other-world. The world he belonged to.

"And what is it you're wanting out here in the dark?" she asked as she closed the front door behind her.

"It's where I belong, isn't it?"

She studied his face for a moment before taking the seat beside him. "Aye, some might see it that way. I'm not of that mind, though. I see you in the light plain enough."

At least she hadn't lied or pretended not to know what he was talking about. "Why did you bring me here?" he asked, and his voice betrayed the depth of his feelings.

"'Twas not I who brought you."

"You sent me to her, though. You sent me to find her and bring her home. You even bought me a plane ticket. Why go to all that trouble when you knew I was-"

She held up a hand, face blanched and eyes blazing. "Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, do not be saying it in my presence, Sean Michael Ballagh. You're no eejit. Why do you act one?"

No, not an idiot. Just dead.

He asked, "Why did you send me to bring her back?"

"Sure and there are things that we all must live with. If you're thinking I don't know that, then you're a fool yourself. The Lord paves my road, and I can do no more than follow it. He would not blame me for the choices I've made. Yes, I sent you to bring her back. And how can you even ask me why? She can change what happens tonight. I'd not be the woman I am if I didn't want her to try."

Sean didn't have a fucking clue what she meant and said as much.

"I'm saying there's a chance to change what will come. I'm saying, Danni is that chance."

"What about the Book of Fennore? Did you plant the idea of using it in her head?"

"What do you take me for? Sure and don't I know the Book of Fennore is not a toy to be played with. It's not a wishing well to toss a penny in. But it can be used, that's a certainty. And sure it can be used unwisely. 'Tis not a part of God's will, but it has power enough to be godlike. Whether or not our Danni uses it at all is up to her and her alone."

Sean turned in his seat and looked at the old woman who'd been his only companion for longer than he could remember. "She saved Trevor," he said.

Colleen nodded and her eyes glittered with tears. "When I saw him walk through me door, I thought my heart would shatter with happiness. It was like a dam breaking inside me."

It felt like a black void had suddenly filled with laughter and love. Trevor had been the heart of their family since the day he was born. His death had wrapped them in a dark shroud they'd never escaped.

"Does she know it?" Colleen asked.

Sean frowned. "Know what?"

"That she saved him?"

"How could she not? He was dead and now he's alive."

"But she wouldn't know that, would she now? Unless you'd told her?"

Sean slowly shook his head. He hadn't said a word about Trevor-not before and not this morning either. He'd assumed, of course, that she knew what she'd done. But he'd never mentioned Trevor to her, had not been able to say his name since the day he'd seen his little brother slain in the kitchen of their home.

At first he'd been too stunned to even speak. And when he'd returned from his father's boat, he'd found her gone. After that . . . he felt his face grow hot when he thought of what had come after that.

He frowned at his grandmother. "If you know what's going to happen tonight, why don't you stop it?"

"And what do you think I'm doing now? Twiddling my thumbs and dancing a jig?"

"You're putting a lot of responsibility on Danni's shoulders. A lot of faith in her . . . abilities. What if she can't make a difference?"

"Aye. But what if she can?"

"What if she makes it worse?"

"And how could it be worse, Sean?"

He didn't know the answer to that. But the question filled him with dread.

"She's trying to save you," Colleen said, placing a gnarled hand over his. "It would only be good manners if you did the same for her."

Before he could ask what she meant or how he could do it, they heard feet pounding the dirt, and suddenly, Rory MacGrath burst from the shadows. He was red-faced, out of breath, and could only manage to gasp a few unintelligible words while they stared at him in shock.

"Sit down, child," Colleen said. "What are you about?"

Rory pointed at Sean. "You have to come. It's Danni."

Chapter Thirty-nine.

DARKNESS had never felt so thick and consuming as it did when Danni left the little cottage all alone. It waited just outside the small porch light's glow, impatient, hovering. Complete. She'd found a flashlight in one of the kitchen drawers, but the batteries were old and the beam was no contender against the blackness of the shrouded night. Shivering, Danni looked to the mottled sky, thick with clouds that blotted out the stars and cursed the thin sliver of moon.

A cold wind had picked up and it cut through her clothes and froze her to the bone. With the tide crashing in the distance, she felt numb and displaced. Unsure of her next step. Certain only that she must take one.

Carefully she clutched the Book, still wrapped in her jacket, as she traveled the uneven path leading down to the rocky beach. Her footsteps sounded unnaturally loud, but the frantic beating of her heart was louder still. Twice she stopped and turned, convinced someone was following. Against the hope that it might be Sean, came the fear that it wasn't. Hairs rose on the back of her neck, and she scanned the shadows, finding nothing more than her imagination stalking her in the dark. But the feeling of being watched persisted.

She stumbled on her way down the steep trail, but made it to the bottom without falling. A miracle, because halfway down, the Book of Fennore began to call her, pulsing frantically for her to hurry. Each step forward made it more demanding, more anxious. Made Danni more reluctant and more terrified. The sickening drone shook her resolve and filled her with dread. The thought of unwrapping the Book and gazing at the jewel-encrusted cover . . . of touching it . . . She wanted to run away and never look back.

But somehow she kept moving until the doorway cut from stone loomed in front of her. She forced her shaking legs to take her through.

"Just do it," she whispered to herself.

She'd held onto to her courage when she'd gone back to her mother's house to steal the Book. She could-she would-be fearless now. Just a few minutes more, and she could put all the wrongs of her life to right. She could save Sean. She could help her mother-make it so she wouldn't have to disappear. And Dairinn and Rory wouldn't be torn apart and abandoned. She could have everything she'd ever wished for, if she could just keep it together now.

Danni took a deep, calming breath, refusing to let thoughts about the magnitude of what she intended to do crowd in. She was going to change the past. Not just her past, but that of many people. She'd seen enough sci-fi movies to fear the ripple that might wreak havoc on the world from doing so. But she had to believe that if she'd been given the power to do it, it was for a reason. Perhaps this was her purpose. She needed to be brave. To believe in herself.

She would have to send her father somewhere else to succeed. Somewhere far away. Another time, another place where he couldn't hurt them anymore. Without the Book, he would be just a man she would never have to fear again.

She repeated this in her head as she picked her way over the uneven stones to the cavern beneath the ruins. Her waning flashlight beam reflected on the rippling water inside, turning it black and white, transforming it into a living beast crouched at her feet. With another look over her shoulder, she propped the flashlight on the ground and removed her jacket from around Book of Fennore.

The canvas wrapping felt oily to her touch and the strange humming repulsed her as she lifted the massive Book. It throbbed in her hands, responding to her nearness by whining with more intensity and volume. The barriers she'd constructed in her mind wobbled and then crashed around her. Her fingers shook as she set the Book on top of a huge boulder beside her.

Carefully she pulled back the canvas, thinking of how her mother had done the same that first time when she'd shown Danni the Book of Fennore in the vision. Danni didn't want to touch it. With all her heart, she prayed she wouldn't have to touch it. But of course she would. How else could she do what had to be done?

She stared at the spirals that mated in the lock over the Book's cover and then at the embedded symbols on the cavern walls. The Book belonged to this place. She felt it. Feared it.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a man's voice spoke from behind her.

With a sharp cry, Danni spun to find her father leaning against the cavern wall a few feet away. Apparently not just her imagination had followed her. Why hadn't she trusted her instincts? Why did she always doubt what she knew?

"Stay back," she warned.

"Or what?"

"I'll use it."

The words felt clunky on her tongue. Ridiculous dialogue from an old gangster movie. She raised her chin, trying to look like she meant to follow through with her threat. The Book purred with satisfaction. It liked conflict. It liked the sparking tension in the air.

Cathan pushed away from the wall and moved closer. Taunting her. Daring her. In a moment, he would call her bluff. What would she do then? Let him take the Book away while she hesitated? He took another step, and she jerked her hand up, spreading her fingers wide and holding them over the cover.

"I mean it," she warned. Sweat beaded her brow and her legs felt rubbery. But he paused, considering her with his eerie glittering eyes. Would hers look like that when tomorrow came?

"Is it not what you plan to do anyway? Surely you did not steal it only to admire the thing?"

Danni didn't answer. Her throat was sealed by her suffocating fear.

"Do you want to know what happens when you touch it?" he murmured. There was a smile on his face, but the tremor in his voice gave him away. The Book scared him, too. But at the same time, it captivated him. His fingers curled and uncurled in anticipation of holding it again.

Cathan went on, his voice pitched low, harmonizing with the Book's ominous throbbing. "At first, it's like sinking into a bog. It's cold like you can't even fathom. It makes you feel so brittle that a strong wind might snap you in two. And then there's darkness. Like being buried alive, it is."

His eyes glittered wildly. They looked unnatural, hard and alien in his face.

Danni could sense his need, his desire for the Book and everything it represented. She was frightened of his answer, but at the same time, knew she needed to learn as much as she could about the Book of Fennore. With a deep breath, she asked, "So tell me, then, why you look like you can't wait to touch it again?"

He laughed and the sound bounced and fractured against the cavern walls and the rippling pool. "Crazy, isn't it? You're right-I can't wait. Watching you holding it, keeping it from me-it makes me feel nuts. Like I might rip your head off just to have it back."

The last came with a merry glance. Isn't that the most unbelievable thing you've ever heard? the look said. But there was promise in the words. There was threat and menace that Danni felt to the pit of her stomach.

He moved to her right, and Danni shifted to keep him in her sight. Using the thin barrier of canvas as protection, she gripped the Book tightly in her hands, but she was careful-oh so careful-not to let the canvas slip.

"My da could not tolerate me, did you know that?" he asked, confusing her with the random words. Frowning, she tracked him as he paced, circling the Book like a lion would his wounded prey. The pounce was coming. She had to be ready for it. If she faltered, she had no doubt he would devour her.

"I've no idea why he hated me," he continued, "for I tried very hard to please him. Still he looked at me like I was the devil's spawn. My own father."

She clutched the Book, thinking of Colleen, the baby she'd given up. The irony of Cathan's father thinking it was his wife who'd been unfaithful.

The glitter of Cathan's eyes darkened. "But I think you know why he couldn't stand the sight of me, don't you Danni? Is it the Book telling you, whispering in your ear? It does that, but you'll learn it for yourself in a few minutes, won't you? When you put your flesh against it. When you let it stroke your most cherished thoughts and fondle your darkest secrets. Like a lover, it is . . . a cruel and unpredictable lover that will shower you with gifts as it brands you with a burning iron."

He was playing mind games. She knew it, but she couldn't evade the picture he planted in her head.

"Oh yes, it's very intimate. Like making love, only without the affection, without the tenderness. I guess that makes it more like rape, doesn't it? But there is pleasure, once you submit."

"And do you?" she asked. Bravado raised her chin. She clung to it. "Submit? Roll over and give in? No wonder your father thought you weak."

"Brave words, but then you haven't touched it yet, have you now?"

She shrugged, leveling a steady gaze at his face, wondering if that was a crack she saw in his composure. Hoping it was, she pressed. "Maybe he thought you were someone else's son. Maybe he wished it."

Cathan's eyes narrowed. "Who told you that?"

"If he thought you were inadequate, of course he'd want to blame someone else for your lacking. It's what everyone thinks. They talk about it, about you. How you imagine yourself a king but you're nothing but a little man with an inflated opinion of his importance. They say marrying Fia was the only smart thing you've ever done."

Another fracture appeared in his composure, this one long and splintered. A smile curved her lips and satisfaction shot through her, warm and comforting, hot and thrilling. It's the Book, a voice whispered in her head. Pleasuring itself with pain.

"You're lying," he said softly. But he didn't quite hit that level of confidence with which he'd begun, and Danni pushed again.