She felt his thumbs on her palms, marking spirals on her skin, felt his lips trace her jaw as she leaned into him.
‘Get a room,’ a male voice shouted and the rowdy laughter jarred her out of the trance.
Beth shook her head as the men passed, tripping over each other as they wove drunkenly across the pavement.
Jonan pulled her into his side.
‘Did Amelia get to you too?’ Beth whispered, leaning into his body.
His breath caught. ‘Yes,’ he said, his voice rough. ‘In another lifetime, but it’s one I remember well.’
‘Was I there?’
‘You were.’
Beth nodded. Something was fizzing below the surface, a pain deeper than any she had experienced in living memory.
‘Don’t block it,’ Jonan said, pulling her in front of him. His eyes were hooded, blank, as he gazed at her. ‘Let it in, through and out.’
‘But I’ll be vulnerable.’
‘You’re already vulnerable. Awareness makes us strong. She plays on people’s blind spots.’
Beth nodded. She took a deep breath, leaned into Jonan, and sank into the energy.
She felt the screams. Didn’t know whether they were hers or someone else’s. They seemed to envelope her, permeating and surrounding her like a whirlpool that dragged her under.
As the picture cleared, she saw the woman standing in front of her, saw the flaming torch. The look in the woman’s eyes was so familiar, it sent fingers of ice threading their way down her spine as the cold spread through her body, fighting the heat that seared the skin on her face.
Her throat hurt. The screams must have been her own. Her voice was hoarse now, dry, burned from the choking smoke and the ash that surrounded her as the wood burned.
Other shouts rose in volume as her own drifted away. She heard the voice of her beloved, heard the pain and anguish as his deep voice cracked, broke her open so her sadness filled the fire, fanning the flames with greater fuel.
She felt the relief as she left her body, her energy drifting to the man on his knees by the fire, held back from the flames by the guards. She surrounded him, wrapping her energy around him like a blanket as he wept and keened. She felt his shudders as he broke apart in grief, as pain wracked his body and soul, leaving scars that would hold through lifetimes.
She watched as her body screamed one more time, wishing she could tell her beloved that she felt nothing now, that her pain was over despite the death cries that shook her physical frame. She felt him convulse with the body that was no longer hers. Then, as she crumpled into the flames, he collapsed, spent and unconscious on the ground.
She felt the touch of his energy on hers. She didn’t need to look: she felt him so completely as their vibrations blended in the shimmer of the heat haze from the fire.
‘It is done,’ she thought to him, knowing he heard her. She felt his grief, his understanding, the pain at their parting.
‘I won’t remember this,’ he sent into her mind.
She opened her heart to his. ‘No, but try to feel me. I will always be with you.’
He fought as his energy drifted back to his body, but that only made the pull greater.
‘I love you. Always.’ She sent the words to surround him like a mist, as he settled back into his body, shuddering as he woke to his new, broken reality.
‘It is done.’ The words vibrated through her energy as she felt the pull of the light.
‘Oh please, no!’ Beth slumped in the cold night air, feeling the warmth of Jonan’s arm around her waist, holding her upright.
‘Here, there’s a bench. Let’s sit for a moment.’
Beth sank onto the rough, cold slats, hugging her arms around her middle. The moon was huge and round above her in the black, inky sky. She closed her eyes, still seeing the flames, feeling Jonan’s grief.
‘Did that really happen?’
‘Yes,’ he whispered and the pain was still raw in his voice. ‘It happened. Did anything come into your mind as you watched? Does it connect with now in any way at all?’
Beth closed her eyes and took a deep breath, eyeing the scene from a distance this time. ‘Amelia. She committed me to the flames. We’ve been here before.’
‘We have, but this time it will end differently. The only way I will lose you this time is if you walk away.’
Her breath caught as he kissed her again, pulling her close. ‘Is that a promise?’ she murmured as he pulled back to look at her.
‘It’s an intention,’ he said. ‘Come on, let’s go and find Bill.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Beth
The Monk’s Inn was dark and Beth felt a cold dread settle in her stomach as they approached. There didn’t seem to be anyone nearby, but she felt the skin prickling on the back of her neck and kept turning to look behind her. There was nobody there.
Jonan reached for the handle, but the door didn’t budge. ‘Is there another way in?’
Beth walked to the side of the building and tried a small, dilapidated, wooden gate. It creaked open. ‘I’m not sure where this leads, but it’s worth a try.’
The path on the other side of the door was narrow with a dirty, whitewashed wall on one side, and a high wooden fence on the other. There was rubbish on the floor and Beth stopped as a rat ran across the path just in front of her.
There was a door at the back. It gave way a little, and then opened as Beth pushed it, scraping along the floor as though something heavy leaned up against the opposite side.
Voices came from deep inside the building.
Beth reached out, grasping Jonan’s hand. She nodded. ‘Let’s go.’
They walked through a narrow hall and into the main reception area. It was dark apart from a crack of yellow light around the edges of the door into Bill’s living room.
‘Look!’ Beth whispered, her heart pounding. ‘He’s there. He’s in his room. He must have got away.’ She let go of Jonan’s hand and reached for the handle. ‘Bill? Are you in the there?’
A flash of light blinded her as the door swung away. She almost overbalanced, swaying back, away from the light.
‘Well, look who it is!’
A shot of fear burned down Beth’s spine, settling in the pit of her stomach. She pushed it back. She would not let this woman control her.
Amelia raised her glass and laughed. ‘Come in, little mouse,’ she said, gesturing into the room. ‘Pour two more glasses of bubbles, Rolo.’ A man in a white suit nodded, stood up from Bill’s faded old armchair, and walked over to the table of drinks on the other side of the small room. There were already several discarded bottles, and a magnum sat open in the ice bucket.
He was familiar, but Beth couldn’t place why. His dark hair was cut short and styled off his face, accentuating the dark, slanted eyebrows that characterised his rounded face. His suit would have been too fitted, if it hadn’t been for his well-built but lean physique. As it was, it drew her gaze towards the biceps that almost stretched the fabric of his sleeves. She wondered if she would stand any chance at resisting him if it came to a struggle.
He poured out the drinks, crossed the room and handed them each a glass.
Amelia raised her glass and inclined her head. Her hips swayed in her purple silk jumpsuit as she walked over to the man, hooking one leg between his and leaning against him in a pose designed to be artful rather than comfortable. She angled her foot to show off her delicate ankle and the black stilettos that showed her toe cleavage and ended in two sharp points at the front of her foot. She looked like a fairy-tale enchantress.