“He’s good,” Esha said. “Says hi.”
“Hi back. Anyway, I was wondering if you found out anything about the Druid priestess called Druantia.”
“Yeah. She’s the top Druid priestess. Most powerful one alive. She’s creepy, too, from what I hear. Her magic is legendary, though I think she’s fallen on hard times.”
“I’m most interested in her location.” Though Ana had never met Druantia before, she too knew of her, and everything that Esha was saying was spot on. Druantia had once been extraordinarily powerful, the only mortal capable of contacting the gods directly. She hadn’t stayed mortal, though Ana had no idea how she’d made the switch to immortality. But she was grateful for it now. Druantia would be her ticket out of Otherworld. She had to be.
“I don’t have that yet,” Esha said. “I’ve asked around and someone will get back to me with something soon, I’m sure. This is about getting out of Otherworld, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s something wrong. What is it?”
“I’m fine.”
“Whatever. I can hear it in your voice.”
She hesitated, unsure of how to bring up any of the hundred things that were bothering her.
“I found Camulos,” she blurted.
“Really?” Nerves tinged Esha’s voice. “Are you okay? He doesn’t want to kill you, right?”
When she’d first learned that Cam might still be alive, she’d been afraid he’d want to kill her for shooting him with the arrows. Over the years, she’d repressed all the good memories of him and focused on the bad. After the nightmare she’d gone through, she hadn’t been able to help herself. But maybe repressing the good hadn’t been fair to Cam. “He doesn’t. And I’m fine.”
“How is Camulos?”
“Um, not bad.”
“Not bad? You’re holding out on me. What’s going on? Come on, ‘fess up.”
How did she even start? “He’s complex.”
“Complex?”
“We’ve got history. You know that.”
“You still have feelings for him. I can hear it in your voice.”
“You’ve got great hearing tonight.”
“Try morning. It’s three AM here in Scotland.”
“Damn, sorry about that. I guess with everything that’s going on here, I lost track of your time.”
“Don’t worry about it. Tell me about Camulos. He was your one big love.”
“That was a long time ago. And it wasn’t love. I was too young for love. And I’m not looking for that, anyway. I want to experience everything I missed out on while I was trapped in Otherworld.”
“Maybe you’re not picking the right things to make up for. There’s something to be said for quality over quantity. What I’ve got with Warren is incredible. Way better than partying and hookups. I want something like that for you, too.”
So do I. To be loved like Esha is would be amazing. Ana started at the thought, then crushed it. “Well, it’s not what I want.”
“Liar. You just don’t know how to cope with strong feelings anymore, after being locked up in Otherworld for so long. You say you want to party and hook up with a bunch of guys, and that’s great and all, but I think you’re hiding.”
She bristled, then fought it back. Esha was just trying to help. But she wasn’t right about her. “It doesn’t matter anyway. For me to be able to escape Otherworld, he would have to go back.”
“What?” Esha cried.