“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Me neither.”
“Looks like we both had someone on our minds.”
I started to come toward him, but his aura shrank back as I approached. “I’m sorry, Finn. I need to go see Giovanni.”
“Obviously.” He stared hard at me, like he was waiting for me to say something. When I didn’t, he blew out a raging, garnet breath. “I heard you, Cora. You said, I haven’t told him about us.” He held up his hands. The look on his face was pure pain. “So, tell me now.”
God. He’d heard me, but he’d misunderstood. “That is not what that comment meant. I’m just going to talk to him. His parents disappeared, too. We’re trying to help each other.”
“With all your things?” he asked, gesturing to my duffel bag at my feet.
“I think it’s smart to have everything with me. Just in case. I don’t really have a choice.”
Finn pulled a chair back from the table and plopped into it. His guitar sang out as he set it a bit roughly on the table. “Life is nothing but choice. Do I get up today or stay in bed? Do I turn left or right? Should I be a doctor and make my parents happy or please myself and study music? Do I stay in Ireland or do I find a way to go back to America to be with a girl who wants to spend time alone with some other bloke?”
“I don’t want him! I want to find out what happened to my mother. I need answers. Don’t you see, Finn? I don’t just need answers about her. I need answers about me. It’s like…life or death important to me. You don’t understand.”
“I understand how important this is to you. We all want to know about ourselves. Where we came from—”
“No, Finn. You don’t understand. You can’t possibly because there are things I’ve kept from you.”
More hurt flashed in his eyes. “Clearly.”
That whipped at the pain rising in me. I couldn’t indulge in it. Finn, his parents, they were distracting me, and I didn’t have much time left. “Seeing you again has been magic, but I didn’t come here for this. For us. You left me, remember? This is all confusing me and getting me off track. I have to do what I came here to do, Finn. I have to go.”
He stood abruptly and crossed the space between us. He took my face in his hands. “Are you trying to say good-bye now, Cora?”
I was right. Our first good-bye had been hard enough.
I swallowed hard, choking on my love for him, and answered. “You’re wrong about Giovanni and me. You have my heart. But my father’s likely on his way, and I have to go right now. I’m sorry.”
Thirty-Six
I needed to get my hands on a phone book to call a cab—and perhaps I could look up doctors whose names started with M, which would probably be a major exercise in futility because she most likely wasn’t referring to the medical kind of doctor. Finn was gone. He had walked out of the kitchen without another word. I’d never forget the colors of his heartache.
The phone book was on a shelf near the phone. I flipped it open.
“What’ll you be needin’?” Uncle Clancy said as he swept into the room. God, these people were early risers. He grabbed a scone from a large jar on the counter and stuffed it in his mouth. Crumbs dotted his shirt over his round belly.
I smiled at him and his sunny aura. “I’m going to call for a ride into Dublin.”
“Come with me, child. I’m going into town to open the pub anyhow,” he said, tossing me a lemon scone.
We walked together to the car. Clancy opened the door for me, which was very sweet. I wondered if Finn was watching us as we drove away. I know Ina was. Clancy waved at her. Ina’s cold stare from the front window was the last I saw of Rising Sun Manor.
“You come all this way to see that boy of ours?”
“I’ve always wanted to come to Ireland. It’s held a certain fascination for me my whole life. You might even call it an obsession. But I have to admit,” I said, picking at the seam on my jeans, “I’m glad I got to see your boy, too.”
Possibly for the last time. Pain rolled in my chest.
Clancy grinned through his white beard. “You’re sweet on each other, that much is clear. Do you have family here?”
“I-I’m not sure. I’m looking.”
He gave me a sideways glance and patted my arm consolingly as he parked in front of Christ Church. Giovanni leaned against a stone wall. He smiled when he saw me.
“You know him?” Clancy asked, peering at Giovanni with his eyes narrowed.
“Yes. He’s helping me, um, find my people. Well, thanks for the ride.”
“Good luck on your search, lass. I’ll be seeing you back at the house, I reckon.”
Giovanni didn’t move. After his ultimatum that had snowballed into my parting with Finn, I wasn’t in the mood to smile back. “Tell me you’ve had your espresso. Because I have a lot of questions and you’re gonna need to be alert.”
He raised one eyebrow and cocked his head, silver-blue eyes twinkling in the morning sun.
Giovanni opened the large church door for me and swept his arm in an exaggerated bow when I walked past him. I was about to start in on my list of questions, but the inside of the church vibrated with such a reverent hush I stopped in my tracks, causing Giovanni to bump into me.
“Scusi,” he whispered. His hand lingered on my shoulder a moment, making it tingle all the way down to the cut on my palm. I stepped away. We walked through the church in silence, awed by the ornate beauty and history. I came upon a beautiful rectangular table fashioned of scrolled iron, topped with a copper tub full of sand. Votive candles nestled in the sand, prayers for peace from pilgrims who came before us. To the right of this table was a painting with three figures—they looked to be women with ornately braided hair—seated around a pedestal table. All of them were painted with disks of light around their heads.
The longer I stared, the more sure I was. “Auras.”
Giovanni’s hushed voice answered from over my shoulder, so close his breath fell against my temple. “Of course. Go to the Bible. Even it says, ‘There is a natural body and a spiritual body.’”
“I’ve seen this in paintings before. I always thought it was how the artists depicted divinity.”
A quiet, sardonic laugh came from over my shoulder. “Sí. The divine in all of us.”
I turned to look at him, close still, staring at me with crystalline eyes. So close, shock waves of pleasurable energy darted back and forth between our auras. We stood there a moment and gazed at each other, our silver auras flickering, competing with the luminosity of the votive candles next to us.
Giovanni’s eyes settled on my mouth and his lips parted a little. His aura pulsed faster with his heart rate, and mine sped to match. He moved his head a fraction closer. I’m sure he could see my aura flare wildly as I realized what was happening. I put my hand on his chest to stop him. “Tell me everything you know about us.”
He covered my hand with his for a moment, then held on to it and led me to a row of wooden chairs. We settled in, facing each other. Sparks ricocheted from where our knees touched. I shifted slightly. At some uncomfortable point, we were going to have to discuss the obvious energy between us. I thought it was the unique alchemy of two Scintilla, but a girl knows when she’s about to be kissed.
“Since I was a boy, I’ve been researching this. References to auras are prevalent in many cultures: ancient Egypt, India, China, all over the world. The energy that dwells within us and around us has been called by many names. Chi, kundalini, Odic force, prana, electromagnetic fields. Hell, you could even look at pop culture: Obi-Wan Kenobi and the damn Force.”