To Trish Jensen—

the best pinch hitter I know.

You can be on my team anytime, Fluffy!

Thank you to my wonderful editor, Wendy McCurdy, for being sure this book was born.

As always, I appreciate my friend and agent, Meredith Bernstein. You know this book (and LOTS of other books) wouldn’t have happened without you.

And a special acknowledgment to my fabulous author friend Trish Jensen. You’re wonderful, baby! Fans o’ mine, please check her out at www.trishjensen.com.

“THEY will believe I entrapped you.” Coventina, the great water goddess, turned her head, unable to look at him.

“I am not entrapped, my love. I am simply resting from the darkness of this world,” Merlin said. He touched her smooth cheek so that she had to turn back and meet his gaze. “And since when have we cared what others say, Viviane?”

His use of the nickname he called her at their most intimate moments couldn’t even make her smile. “It is a curse to have the ability to see into the future,” she said.

“In many ways, love.”

“Yes. But have you always seen this for you? For me? For us? Why let me love you, knowing what you have known?”

“’Tis a man in the far future, a healer named Phil, who proclaims love is what it is. It has no future or past, but simply the present.”

“This healer does not impress me,” Viviane said. “We have a past, and we could also have a future. See it. Believe in it.”