Read Online Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online

said to Brenna.”
    â€œI never gave her music,” Carrick said softly. He lifted an arm and with a flick of his wrist had the light blazing. “Jewels plucked from the fire of the sun. These I gave her, these I poured at her feet when I asked her to come with me. But she turned away from them, from me. From her own heart. Do you know what it is, Gallagher, to have the one you want, the only one you’ll ever want, turn from you?”
    â€œNo. I’ve never wanted like that.”
    â€œThere’s a pity for you, for you’re not alive until you do.” He lifted his other hand, and darkness fell with silver beams and sparkles. Fog, thin and damp, crawled over the ground. “Even so, even when she took another at her father’s bidding, I gathered the teardrops from the moon, and these I spilled into pearls at her feet. And still she wouldn’t have me.”
    â€œAnd the jewels of the sun, the tears of the moon became flowers,” Shawn continued. “And these she tended, year after year.”
    â€œWhat is time to me?” Impatience shimmering now, Carrick glared at Shawn. “A year, a century.”
    â€œA year is a century when you’re waiting for love.”
    Emotion swam into Carrick’s eyes before he closed them. “You’re clever with words as well as tunes. And you’re right.”
    Once more he snapped his wrist and the sun was back, winter pale. “Still, I waited, and too long I waited, to go to her that last time. And from the sea, through the deep blue depths of it, I took its heart. And from this, hundreds of sapphires I gathered for her, and these, too, I poured at her feet. For my Gwen, all that I had and more for Gwen. But she told me she was old, and it was too late. For the first time, I saw her weep about it, weep as she told me if I’d once given her the words that were in my heart instead of jewels, instead of promises of eternities and riches, she might have been swayed to give up her world for mine, her duty for love. I didn’t believe her.”
    â€œYou were angry.” Shawn had heard the story too many times to count. When he’d been a boy, he’d often dreamed of it. The dashing faerie prince astride a white winged horse, flying to the sun, to the moon, to the sea. “Because you had loved her, and didn’t know how else to show it, how else to tell her.”
    â€œWhat more can a man do?” Carrick demanded, and this time Shawn smiled.
    â€œThat I can’t tell you. But casting a spell that has you both waiting over the centuries was probably not the wisest action.”
    â€œI’ve my pride, don’t I?” Carrick said, tossing his head. “And my temper. Three times I asked, and three times she refused. Now we wait until love meets love three times and accepts all. Flaws and virtues, sorrows and joys. You’re clever with words, Gallagher,” Carrick said, and the edgy smile was back. “I’ll be displeased if you take so long to make use of them as your brother did.”
    â€œMy brother?”
    â€œThree times.” Carrick was on his feet now, his eyes dark and brilliantly blue. “And one is met.”
    It was Shawn’s turn to rise, and his fists were bunched. “Are you speaking of Aidan and Jude? Are you telling me, you bastard, that you put a spell on them?”
    Carrick’s eyes flashed, and thunder rumbled in answer. “You great fool of a man. Love spells are nothing but wives’ tales. You can’t play magic inside the heart, for it’s more powerful than any spell. Lust you can order up with a wink, desire with a smile. But love is love, and there is nothing can touch it. What your brother has with his Jude Frances is as real as the sun and the moon and the sea. You’ve my word on it.”
    Slowly Shawn relaxed. “I’ll beg your pardon, then.”
    â€œI’ll take no offense at a brother standing for a