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“Kevin? Can I ask you something?” Reena tapped his shoulder lightly.

He nodded. “Sure. What do you need?”

“It’s about the legend.” She gestured him over to a more private part of Brian’s backyard.

“What about the legend?”

Reena took a deep breath, wanting to tell Kevin fast and then get off of Brian’s property. “You said you had dreams about the lovers, the legend, right?” When he nodded, she rushed out an explanation of the dream she’d had and watched his brows shoot up in surprise. When she’d finished, she let out a deep breath. “Well? What do you think?”

“I think there’s something happening with the legend because Callie’s very antsy about it, too,” he admitted. “I’ll have to talk to her about this because I have no idea what’s happening anymore. I’ll let her know about your dream, and then she’ll probably want to talk to you.”

“Okay. Just as long as I’m not losing my mind.” Reena nodded. “Thanks, Kevin. I, well, I’ve gotta get going, so I’ll talk to you later, then?”

“Definitely.”

He watched her meet up with Gwen at the gate as both of them left. Then, he made a beeline for Callie. She had to know the newest piece to the legend’s puzzle, and, much as he hated to complicate his life, he could feel himself getting sucked into it by his curiosity.

When he’d told Callie about Reena’s dream, she sighed. “She’s a part of it, too. These dreams are so cryptic, Kev. Who’s the ‘he’ Laurent told her about? Who does she have a connection with that could possibly help break the spell? You?”

When she looked up at him, he held up his hands. “Cal, it’s not me. I mean, maybe if Gwen had the dream, I’d be convinced that something’s supposed to happen between us, but she hasn’t had the dream, Reena has.”

“Still,” Callie insisted. “You have to admit something’s happening what with everyone having these dreams, now.”

“Okay, yeah,” he admitted. “I’m curious now.”

“Then you know you have to go up there soon. See if the ghosts come out. Or maybe you’ll have a dream.” She ran her hands through her hair, frustrated. “I don’t know! Something has to happen. This is so infuriatingly exasperating.”

Kevin rubbed a hand over her shoulder. “Relax, Callie. What’s the worst that’ll happen if we don’t figure it out? We’re not going to die, are we?”

“No.” She watched him now. “Kevin, what would it be like if you were stuck on earth for three centuries unable to be with the woman you loved, knowing that there was a way that you could be with her but you had to get a group of mortals to solve the puzzle first? And what if those mortals refused to take it seriously? Would it make you sad, angry? Would it be worse knowing that, if they didn’t solve it and three hundred years lapsed, you’d lose the woman you loved forever? Laurent’s one of my ancestors, he’s one of Kirby’s ancestors. Kevin, I’d feel awful if I didn’t help them. It’s my duty, and I’m trying the best that I can.”

Well, when she put it that way… “You’re right, Callie.” He sighed. “I guess I’ll make a trip up there tonight, then. Does that make you feel any better?”

“Yeah.” She gave him a small smile. “Much. Thanks, Kev.”

Well, at least he’d been able to put her mind at rest, Kevin thought. It was his night that was going to be disrupted again. The last time he’d actually slept a whole six hours had been Saturday night. Four days ago, he thought. But, he knew that the legend was important, not just to Callie, but to all of his friends. They’d all been affected by the legend in one way or another, and he didn’t want to let them down if his actions were going to make or break the spell.

Which was why he found himself cursing at the rocks he was stumbling over as he walked down the path in the darkness. The moonlight was barely touching him because he was in the shade of large, leafy oak trees. It would be a miracle, he decided, if he got to the bottom without killing himself.

He wondered if he’d actually find anything worthwhile on this trip. After all, most of what he knew of the legend came from his dreams. Only a few select things he’d learned while at the falls, and they’d come when he’d actually seen Laurent and Liliane’s ghosts. Maybe he’d see their ghosts, then.

Kevin stepped out from under the canopy of the forest and the falls speared up in front of him, illuminated by the moonlight. He loved them when they looked like this. They seemed magical in the almost blue light, and he’d always believe them enchanted, ghosts or not.

He didn’t want to take the risk of climbing into any of the caves in the dark and hoped he’d sense something just by being near the water. Settling on top of a large boulder, he studied the falls. They’d been his special place all of his life. He couldn’t remember when he’d started coming here just to sit and wonder. The first time his parents had brought him, he’d been four and enthralled with all the water falling down. As he’d gotten older, he’d convinced his father to keep bringing him on the weekends. He’d spend entire days here, drawing the falls or just dreaming. The dreams had started when he’d been eight, and, soon after, he’d begun riding his bike up to the falls. His family had lived only a fifteen minutes’ ride away, so it hadn’t been to difficult to make his way to where his heart had always found solace.

He’d wanted to propose to Mia here, but, when he’d discovered how much she’d disliked the falls, he’d ended up asking her to marry him in her parents’ home. It had never occurred to Kevin that it was an omen of things to come that the woman he loved didn’t care at all for the place his heart had always been called to. In retrospect, he could admit that, though they’d loved fiercely, a secret part of him had always wondered if they’d last. Mia had been headstrong, capricious, and selfish. Not in a bad way, Kevin reminded himself. She’d been selfish about the people she loved, but, oftentimes, that selfishness smothered him. She’d always believed she knew what it was that was good for him, that he needed. The falls, most assuredly, had not been a part of that list.

After Mia’s death, a part of him had secretly been relieved that he’d never know what might have been. Though he could look back on those memories with nothing but the sweet pangs of days gone by, he couldn’t help but be worried that he would never be able to let those days go—that he’d never be able to move on enough to be with Gwen.

When the weeping began, he turned, confused, thinking it was a broken-hearted teenager, as they were often compelled to come to the spot for crying jags. Instead of a teenager, though, Kevin found a soft blue light emanating from behind one of the trees lining the path he’d taken.

Quietly, he crept close to the tree until he could peek around it. There, sitting in the nook that the tree’s roots had created, was Liliane—or her ghost. She wore what Kevin assumed had been the typical French woman’s dress in the early eighteenth century, and her hands were covering her face as she wept. Her hair had come undone, so her dark curls hung around her face. Her sobs were heart-wrenching, and Kevin wondered what had happened. He’d never seen Liliane without Laurent, and he’d never seen either of them anything but hopeful.

“It’s awful,” she moaned to no one. “What can I do now? How do I tell Laurent? How will we be safe if anyone finds out?” Her sobs quieted as she began to rub the tears from her cheeks. “We’ll go,” she told herself in a stronger voice. “I’ll tell Laurent, and we’ll secretly join one of the caravans headed west. The New World has much land, and we’ll go make our own home. They’ll never stop us if we’re away from here. We won’t be in danger.” Her arms curled around her waist as she hugged herself in comfort.

Kevin took a step towards her, and Liliane looked up. Her jade green eyes warmed and looked older than they had seconds earlier. “Kevin. You’ve come.”

“Why…?” He found himself a little breathless, and his pulse was racing. How often had he talked to a ghost? he wondered dimly. “Why were you crying?”

Her eyes closed for several moments, and nothing could be heard except for Kevin’s breathing and insect song. When her eyes opened again, her face was solemn.

“I cannot give you the answers you truly need as it is not permitted,” she told him. “Look inside you, Kevin. In your heart is the answer that I need. You stopped listening to your heart years ago. Yes, you did,” she assured him when a stubborn look set in his features. “Open your heart. You’re not as hopeless as you think. Just believe.”

She stood and, stepping close to him, smiled quietly. “I believe in you, Kevin. You’ve done wonderful things with your art, and I like knowing I’ve had a hand in it. Listen to me again, please. Just believe in what you will find inside you.” Her hand lifted to his cheek, and he felt a soft, tingling sensation on his cheek. Then she was gone.

“What…?” He turned in a circle, but she was gone, and he was, once again, left in the dark. Muttering to himself, he pushed out of the forest again and stopped when he saw Gwen. Her face was tear-streaked, and tears still clung to her lashes. She was watching him quietly. “Gwen.”

“I saw her,” she spoke quietly. “I saw Liliane, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget this experience.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’ve only had one encounter before this with them. That was nearly eighteen years ago, but it was nothing like this. For one thing, they never talked directly to me.”

“She wants you to look inside you, huh?” Gwen smiled. “I guess you must be suppressing something that you need to let loose.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged, studying her face. “Why are you crying, Gwen? What upset you?” He brushed a tear from her cheek before pulling her into his arms completely.

She burrowed into him and sighed. “It’s just…when she was crying. It was heart-wrenching.”

“Yeah. I wish I knew what it was that happened then to cause her to be so upset.”

“I know.” When he said nothing, she leaned back so she could see his face. “Kevin, I know why she was crying.”

His brows shot up. “Really? Why?”

Gwen took a deep breath and stepped out of his arms. “She was pregnant.”