Abashed, Cathbad shook his head so hard that his circular leather cap fell off, and he dropped to the ground to look for it in the dark. While he fumbled, Emery pulled out her phone and messaged first Charlie with a simple "Where are you?" and then Tess with a "Come here now. Behind concessions."

"Emer--Emery," Cathbad was saying, getting to his feet again. He was trembling like a tadpole out of water. "Please. Don't ask me to call him. Cuchulain is not amenable to commands, particularly from me."

"I don't care. He's creepy, and he's acting like a real jerk. I'm sick of him messing with my life. He told you to get rid of Charlie, didn't he?"

"Oh, that--that was entirely of my own accord. I--I didn't like the way he smelled. Like, like some sort of young stag or something of that ilk."

Emery didn't laugh. "You're a terrible liar. Get him here, right now! I know you can do it."

"All right, all right. Please, Emery. I don't deny that it would be wise to allow the two of you to diplomatically work through some of your complications; I can't retain this intermediary position any longer. But can we at least go somewhere more . . . more remote?" Cathbad waggled his fingers in the air as if to flick away their current surroundings.

Emery stood and watched him, resentment welling up in her. She liked these surroundings. They'd been perfect for a secluded moment with Charlie . . . she'd been thoroughly enjoying herself. Had Cathbad and Cullen been spying on her? They must've been! "I'm waiting for Tess."

The druid blinked several times and adjusted his posture. "The Lady Tess is here?"

Smirking, Emery replied, "Don't get so excited about it. That was her brother you just disappeared."

"Her brother?" Cathbad gasped and asked for forgiveness, but Emery ignored him. Maybe he needed to feel a bit of remorse for what he'd just done. It had certainly ruined her otherwise perfect evening.

"Emery!" Tess's cry caused both Emery and Cathbad to turn toward her. There she was, hurrying toward them, the light catching on her sequined bag. The minute Tess saw Cathbad, she gave a squeal of excitement. "I knew you'd come back!"

Cathbad swung his arms out behind him and bowed in some way Emery supposed was meant to look gallant. "Always, Lady Tess."

Too annoyed to give him time to try to impress her friend, Emery shoved him aside. "Tess, Cat here has just sent Charlie home."

Tess looked from Emery to the druid back to Emery. "What?"

"Yeah. I know. And I've told him to summon or call his friend Cullen here. I'm done with this, Tess. It needs to end, right now. I am tired of these people interfering in my life. So we're going up to that parking lot, and he's bringing Cullen here, all right? And I want you to call your brother and make sure he made it home all right. And--and tell him I'm sorry, and I hope--" Emery sighed a little sheepishly. "I hope he'll come see me. Soon." She reached out and squeezed Tess's arm. "You don't have to come with me. I just wanted you to know."

Tess was left wide-eyed at her friend's outburst. "Of course I'm coming with you. I'll be right there. Let me call Charlie, like you said." Then she gave Cathbad a severe look. "I'm disappointed in you," she told him, shaking a finger. "How could you do that to my brother?"

The druid was at a complete loss; Emery hadn't seen him look more miserable than he did at Tess's chastisement. He said nothing and instead, like a scolded puppy, followed Emery up to the chain-link fence, where with a wave of his hand, he caused the metal net to lift enough for both of them to fit through. They left Tess behind to call her brother while they crossed a grassy expanse to a wide but mostly empty parking lot. The main lot was at the opposite end of the football field. This one was closer to the high school's entrance and was quite far from the ticket booth, so few people parked here. Emery walked out right into the middle of the lot and stood under a weak orange streetlamp, holding her arms out wide as if to encompass the world. "Go on, then!" she cried to the druid, who was some distance behind her. "Bring him here."

She was beyond determined. This had gone too far, tonight. Whoever he was, Cullen couldn't be hovering over her life, messing with it like this.

"Lady Emer," the druid muttered, forgetting, perhaps from fear, that she'd asked him not to call her either of those things, "I have to warn you--"

"I'm sick of your warnings. Just do what I said."

"But your curse--if either of you speak of it--it might worsen--"

"I don't care!"

"Yes, all right, Lady. All right." Silencing himself, Cathbad struggled to stand up straight, and when he managed, he withdrew from his robes a long staff. How he'd hidden it in there, Emery could only guess; it was as tall as he was, and it looked like some knotted branch forced into its role. Closing his eyes, the druid lifted the staff, placing his hands equidistant from either end of it, and raised it above his head. Some sudden wind picked up and began to move around them. Emery watched the air--it seemed tinged in faint blue light, undulating in slow liquid waves.

Cathbad whispered words she couldn't make out, there was a startling bright flash of light, and then, suddenly, someone spoke behind her: "Emer."

His voice was deep, and his greeting was simple, but she knew it was him. Before her, Cathbad lowered his staff and slumped tiredly, wearing a defeated expression. Emery began to turn, and when she'd done so, she saw Cullen there, standing under the same orange glow as she, looking as dark and inscrutable as ever. But he was different, now. He was not clothed in normal attire but resembled Cathbad and the warrior Cearnach, whom she'd seen in the forest the night of the search. Cullen stood stone still, dressed in some sort of tunic covered with what looked like chain mail, and then over that was draped a green tartan cloak, caught at the neck with a dog-headed brooch. A sword hilt was visible in his belt. His breeches were of a rough fabric like Cathbad's, and his leather shoes wound up to his knees in criss-crossing straps. In spite of his heavy clothing, his stature was large and imposing. He wore no helmet or head covering, but his hair was long and flowing, falling down around his shoulders in that auburn red that shone under the lights. There were still braids along the sides, over his ears, which kept the hair back. His face itself was clean-shaven and strong in its angles--a defined jaw and a straight, aquiline nose, a mouth in a tight frown. And then his deep eyes, which Emery knew were green but looked black in this light--they were thoroughly penetrating. The way they seemed to connect with and burn through Emery's own eyes made her heart pump wildly inside of her. She didn't remember him being this intimidating. It was something to do with the attire, she knew . . . but was he also taller, now? And broader in the shoulders?

Momentarily speechless, Emery realized suddenly that she had to gain the upper hand. She couldn't let him see her frightened. "You need to leave me alone," she began, her hands trembling in fists at her sides.

Cullen's hands, too, were at his sides, also curled, also almost imperceptibly trembling. He said nothing.

"You--you can't just go around watching what I do, sending your druid to get rid of people like that."

His eyes shifted briefly over Emery's shoulder, presumably to Cathbad, but then they were on her again.

Emery was irked that he wasn't responding; she couldn't just sit there in silence and felt compelled to go on. "I don't know what this curse is that has you so concerned, and I don't care about it. I just want to live my life without any of you bothering me again. Do you understand?"

She stood there and waited for him to say something, do something, but he just smoldered in his unfathomable silence. Had he even heard what she'd said? Was he angry? He must be angry. He certainly didn't look happy! After all the time she'd spent lingering over his kiss, what it'd meant, whether she should feel flattered or furious or confused, whether it'd sparked any sort of memory (which it hadn't), whether she wanted more of it or wished it had never happened--after all that time and energy wondering, bringing that moment to her mind, why did she feel miles and miles away from him right now? As if they were on separate planets? Had he actually ever kissed her at all? Had she imagined the whole thing? There was something between them, but she couldn't figure out what it was, and with him stoically standing there in that ridiculous costume, she was daunted. The longer he maintained his muteness, the faster she began to lose track of what she'd wanted to tell him in the first place.

Frustration boiled in her, threatening tears. She had to say something or risk crying in front of him. "I just want you and him," she waved a hand behind her at Cathbad, "and whatever else you've brought with you to go away and let me live my life. Adam didn't deserve whatever you people did to him. And neither does Charlie. I happen to like Charlie," she continued, beginning to have to force the words over her vexation. "And if I want to be alone with him, I have every right to be! I can kiss whomever I want to!"

Cullen stepped toward her so unexpectedly after all his inaction that Emery stumbled back a bit. "It's forgivable that you've forgotten," he said, his voice low, his jaw trembling slightly, "but I'll be damned if I sit idle while you break your vow."

Emery was beginning to shake. She didn't think he'd hurt her, but how could she know? He towered over her, hand at his sword hilt, and wouldn't break eye contact. Did he think staring at her would force some memory out of her?

"What are you talking about?" She steadied herself. She had to be strong. And Cathbad was behind her; he had sworn to protect her. He wouldn't let his friend hurt her . . . and yet the druid did seem rather afraid of Cullen--

A change came over Cullen's features. Actual emotion began to pull at him. Emery saw his eyes soften, his brow lower, and his lips part slightly and quaver. She could even hear his breath as it became a bit more uneven. Was he . . . was there . . . something like sadness? He lifted a hand from his sword hilt and reached toward Emery as if to touch her cheek, but she cringed and backed away from him.

Whatever softer emotion she thought she'd seen in him vanished immediately and was replaced with his familiar hardness. "We made our promise to one another," he said dangerously, emphatically. "You will not break it."

"Cuchulain!"

Emery tore her eyes from Cullen's and looked to Cathbad, who stood several yards away. Tess was next to him; Emery wondered how long she'd been there.

"You cannot speak of these things!"

"I will speak of what I must," Cullen insisted, loudly.

Spinning to him again, Emery regained her voice. "And I will do what I want! Who are you to stop me?"

He reached out with both hands and took hold of her upper arms. His grip was firm, his fingers digging into her skin. Shaking her though not too roughly, he drew her nearer and, his breath hot on her face, said between clenched teeth, "I am your husband. And you are my wife." Cullen's features twisted between anger and anguish, knowing he'd done something terrible, said something he shouldn't have. But he seemed unable to stop himself. "Why can you not recall the vows we made? How is it so easy for you to forget our wedding night when I live every moment covetous of the dawn that stole it from me?"

Too stunned to understand what was happening anymore, Emery fell slack in his grasp. There was no fight in her. She felt only fear of and revulsion toward this man's intensity, his obscene claims. How could he say such things? She didn't know him—most definitely not in the manner he'd suggested! This was all some massive cosmic mistake.

Sensing her antipathy, Cullen let go. He looked for all the world like his heart had broken, Emery thought, but then, no . . . he hardened again.

"My lord," Cathbad was suddenly standing beside Emery, but he was looking at Cullen. He was panting, as if afraid, and though Emery couldn't stop staring at the man in front of her, she sensed the druid was anything but happy at what Cullen had said. "The curse, lord! You've risked--"

But he cut himself off.

Something strange was happening to Emery. She felt as if a vacuum were expanding around her, so that the parking lot and the orange light and the distant sound of cheering and even Cathbad beside her and Tess saying something beyond her were disappearing and the only thing before her was a tunnel at whose end was Cullen, shrinking and shrinking until he appeared far, far away from her. An alien desire to hurt him crept into her, then, seeing him so tiny and weak, this person who'd made everything in her world so difficult. And when she spoke to him, it was as if someone else spoke through her, filled her with a message that had to have come from somewhere beyond: "Treacherous man! You are nothing. You are no one. I will never, never remember you--for who'd want to remember a nobody? A nothing? Only the greatest man alive could ever hope to win me--he who possesses Gáe Bulg, the Spear of Mortal Pain." An intense rushing filled the vacuum, shivered the tiny image of Cuchulain far, far away from her, and everything spun--

Emery dropped to the ground, hit the pavement hard, and Tess was suddenly crouching beside her, putting arms around her.

Cathbad's voice was somewhere above and away from Emery when he spoke, and while she heard every word he said, she knew he spoke to Cullen. "No! You can't go to her. You must leave! I never should've listened to her. I never should've brought you here! Oh, what's done, now? I tried to caution you--"

The druid stopped. A deeper voice interjected: "I'll find it."

"But Lord! We need you nearby--what am I to do if--"

"Find Cearnach. And bring the others."

"You might be gone for days. . . a year!"

Quiet for a moment, and then Cullen's response: "It's a goal, isn't it? It's a purpose. This suspension, this surveillance--it's no task for me."

"It's dangerous!"

"If it's what I must do, then it'll be done."

They might've said more; Emery's vision and hearing were murky, and her legs hurt. She was grateful for her friend's arms around her, and after an indeterminable amount of time had passed, Emery at last opened her eyes to see that she was in the brightly-lit back of an emergency vehicle, with EMT's hovering over her, telling her to relax, saying that she'd fainted and that everything was going to be all right. How she'd even gotten into the ambulance was a mystery to her, but thankfully, she was too tired to think much on anything else that had just happened and easily slipped back into a dark, dreamless sleep.