Her hand closed into a fist so quickly, her eyes flashed with annoyance so abruptly, he could only gape when she rapped his chest. “And for the love of Finn, why haven’t you looked? Your powers are your gifts, your birthright, and more acute than any I know but your father’s. What have you been doing?” she demanded, throwing up her hands and whirling with a spin of white silk. “Prowling the woods, calling to the moon, spinning your games. And brooding,” she added, jabbing a finger at him as she turned back. “Oh, a champion brooder you ever were, and that’s the truth of it. You’ll torture yourself with the wanting of her, go keep her company during a storm—”

“Which I know bloody well Da brewed.”

“That’s beside the point,” she snapped, and skewered him with the sharp, daunting look he remembered from childhood. “If you don’t spend time with the girl, you won’t think with anything but your glands, will you? The sex won’t answer it all, you horse’s ass. It’s just like a man to think it will.”

“Well, damn it, I am a man.”

“What you are is a pinhead, and don’t you raise your voice to me, Liam Donovan.”

He threw up his hands as well, added a short, pithy curse in Gaelic. “I’m not twelve any longer.”

“I don’t care if you’re a hundred and twelve—you’ll show your mother proper respect.”

He smoldered, seethed and sucked it in. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Aye.” She nodded once. “That’ll do. Now stop tormenting yourself with what may be, and look at what is. And if your lofty principles won’t let you look deep enough, ask her about her mother’s family.”

Arianna let out a huff of breath, smoothed down her hair. “And kiss me good-bye like a good lad. She’ll be here any second.”

Because he was still scowling, she kissed him instead, then grinned sunnily. “There are times you look so like your Da. Now, don’t look so fierce; you’ll frighten the girl. Blessed be, Liam,” she added; then, with a shiver of the light, she spread white wings and soared into the sky.

Chapter 5

He hadn’t sensed her, and that irritated him. His temper had been up, blocking his instincts. Now, even as he turned, he caught that scent—female, innocence with a light whiff of jasmine.

He watched her come out of the trees, though she didn’t see him—not at first. The sun was behind him, and she looked the other way as she started up the rough path to the apex of the cliffs.