Falling for Angels: A Scottish Time Travel Romance

by Hazel Hunter

  I opened my eyes to find the two of us standing in a small clearing. The strangeness of the place seemed just as scary as the first time, and I held onto Coco’s hand tightly.

  “She’s in the trees somewhere—over there.” I waved at her, but she just stood in between a couple of huge oaks and stared at us. “Deb, we’re here to get you back.”

  “You are.” She jerked her chin at Coco. “She’s not.”

  “You lied to me?” I turned to see her best friend’s eyes turn as black as the sky, and reflect all the millions of stars over us. “What the hell?”

  “Don’t freak out,” she said. “It’s a shamaness thing.”

  Deb laughed bitterly. “And you’re all about the shamaness thing now, aren’t you?”

  “You chose Ruith over us,” Coco said, and gestured around us. “This is your sister’s reward for your loyalty. I see no reason to bring you back.”

  “You might have mentioned this earlier,” I told her.

  “Why should my death be any different from my life? Fine.” Deb marched out of the trees and planted herself in front of us. “Take your sanctimonious ass back to the mortal realm.”

  I wondered if they were going to start throwing punches. “Maybe we should talk another time.”

  “Time’s up.” As her body began to turn transparent, Deb held up her left palm, which had a glowing circle on it. “Before you go, take my power, too. I don’t know why, but Ruith is afraid of it. Maybe you can use it to stop her from hurting anyone else.”

  “If I do that, you’ll never have another incarnation,” Coco said, and when Deb made an impatient sound she took hold of her hand. “Are you sure?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing says ‘I’m sorry’ like giving up any chance to live again, right?”

  Coco pulled her into her arms. “That’s called redemption, bae.”

  I woke up with Sorley sitting next to me. I smiled at him before I looked over at the empty space beside me.

  I sat up. “Where’s Coco?”

  “I’m here, Jessie.” She came to stand behind my husband, her smile tired.

  I pushed myself to my feet and grabbed her arms. “Where’s Deb?”

  “She’s here, too,” she said, and showed me her glowing palm. “Until we get Ruith out of her body, she’ll be sharing mine.”

  Chapter 30

  Sinful

  What druid lessons don’t teach me is that sharing your body with another person—even your bae—changes you. After I took on Deb I began adding honey to my morning oatmeal (I prefer fruit), parting my hair on the left side (I’m a right-parter), and forgetting stuff (memory like an elephant here.) I didn’t realize how much I was forgetting until I woke up in my husband’s arms, freaked out, and tossed him across the room.

  See, I totally forgot that Griogair was my husband. Good thing he heals almost instantly.

  After I cleaned him up and apologized, my guy went all mad salty and stomped out. I got dressed and went down to the great hall to find Kendric and see if he could help with my temporary amnesia problem. That’s when the shore patrol came in with the most lit Scotsman I’d ever seen.

  From the shaggy cloak, linen shirt and wool trousers stuffed into work boots I assumed the guy was a fisherman. Only he wore a heavy silver neck torque and a matching earring set with emeralds (fishermen can’t afford that kind of bling.) He also had gorgeous silver-golden eyes, the exact same color as his streaky hair, and a face like some ancient love god.

  Think of the handsomest man you know. He’d be a toad next to this pirate—and I felt like the biggest two-timer ever for thinking that.

  Gill looked all laird of the castle as he walked up to the guy and said, “You’ve sailed into treacherous waters, stranger.”

  “Ken I that, my lord.” The guy bowed. “Laird Sinclair MacMaren. My clan hunts the calpa on the seas, rivers and lochs of the mainland. Two days past all the shifters left together. We tracked them to your island, but they’ve since vanished.”

  As the two men talked I felt hot and weird. That was when the MacMaren turned his head and met my gaze. His eyes glittered with the same heat I felt flooding through me.

  I didn’t feel anything to explain my reaction. I was still totally in lust and love with my very hot husband. So why did I want to jump this man?

  “Griogair.” When my guy came to me I said, “Something’s wrong. Take me to Kendric, please, now.”

  The moment he took hold of my arm all the heat went away, and my knees gave out. Griogair swung me up in his arms, and things went black. While I could hear distant shouting and furniture crashing into walls, somehow I’d been trapped in a back corner of my mind. Once I fought my way free, I had to wade through what felt like half-frozen knee-high molasses before I came back to full awareness.

  When I opened my eyes and saw who was hovering over me I shrieked. Totally gorgeous laird had a big black eye now. As he stepped back from the bed, Kendric leaned over and squinted at me.

  “Be calm, Sister.” The druid swiped at some blood beading on his own split lip. “You’re Gabrielle?”

  “Who else would I be?” I looked around at the bed chamber, which I recognized although it was a mess. “Why am I in Deb’s room, and who trashed it?”

  “’Twas my fault, my lady.” MacMaren said that like something dirty and sexy, the same way he’d whisper “I want to kiss you all over.”

  “You, shut up.” I sat up and looked down at my reddened knuckles. “Start talking, Kendric.”

  “Ruith’s sister seized control over your body for some hours.” He glanced at MacMaren. “She struck down the McGillean and me. She fought with your husband and much of the clan and the Angels. She tossed the laird here through a wall, and then came to this chamber and did thus.”

  I felt horrified. “Why would Deb go crazy?”

  “We cannae say,” Kendric admitted. “She wouldnae speak.”

  “Deb’s my bae—my best friend in all the world,” I added so the laird would understand. “She’s furious about Ruith stealing her body, but she would never use me to hurt anyone.” I went still. “Oh, God. Did that witch hitch a ride with Deb?”

  “No, Sister. Of that I’m certain.” The druid reached out and took hold of my hand. “’Twillnae be long before she attempts again to take charge of you, so we must act.”

  “I’m not letting Deb go back to the Grove of Stars.” I turned to MacMaren. “It was seeing you that made me go fruitloopy. How come?”

  He looked at Kendric, who drew back and then left the room. The laird then gave me the hot and heavy eyes again.

  “Mess with me, Sinful, and I’ll throw you through several walls,” I warned.

  “You mistake me, Lady Gabrielle. You’re no’ the one I seek.” The laird grimaced and touched his bruised eye. “I’ve dreamt of her since boyhood. Never once I saw her face, but I felt her shadowed heart, and shared her endless longing. I saw her hand reaching to me.” He held up one hand to show me a very familiar-looking golden birthmark on the palm. “The gods touched us both.”

  I knew about his dreams because Deb had told me about hers. Seven centuries had kept her and Sinclair separated. If she had recognized the laird through my eyes…no wonder she’d gone berserk.

  “The lady of your dreams is sharing my body for now.” As I filled him in on all the details I noticed his black eye began to lighten. By the time I finished it had healed completely. “Oh, crap. You’re immortal.”

  MacMaren nodded. “Druids brought back my clan after the calpa sank our ships and drowned us. We vowed to protect mortal kind by hunting them on the waters.” He hesitated before he said, “I shallnae plague you or your mate, Lady Gabrielle. I’d ask but one boon.”

  I already knew what it was. “We’ll get Deb back for you. I promise.”

  Chapter 31

  Shown

  Spending weeks living inside Miranda hadn’t been easy for me. I still couldn’t get used to looking across the breakfast table at her in my body, or
sharing a room with her instead of Ualan (our guys had been bunking down in the stables.) But I wasn’t going to waste what we’d done just because Deb had already found out just how evil and conniving her sister Ruith was. There could be something in my memories of the dark druidess’s life that would help us fight the shape-shifters—something only Coco or Deb might understand.

  “Tonight’s the full moon,” I told Coco after we’d finished our afternoon workouts. “We need to do the memory transfer thing like now.”

  Before she replied some of the laird’s blue-gray messenger doves flew out from the tower windows and headed for the sea.

  “MacMaren is having his ships drop anchor,” Miranda said as she joined us. “His clan is going to come ashore and fight the calpa with us.”

  “We’ll be up to our ears in immortal warriors by dinner,” Coco said, and rubbed her forehead. “And Kendric just went to the settlement.”

  “He told us what to do,” I reminded her. “And we’re running out of time.”

  “Lola and I can handle it,” Miranda promised.

  We went to the warded chamber where Master Gowan did his druid thing, as that was the safest room in the castle to use our powers. Once there Coco sat down in his weird oak chair and had us tie her to it with some mistletoe vines, which would prevent her from using her strength power against us.

  “Don’t untie me until you’re done,” she warned us. “Also, if Deb takes me over, don’t untie me at all. Just wait for Kendric to get back. He’ll know what–”

  “Stop worrying. We’ve got this.” I knelt down in front of her, and held her hands in mine. “Netflix and chill.”

  “Close your eyes, Lo,” Miranda said as she came to stand behind me. “Go back to the day the grove pulled you in. Make your memories a movie in your head. Coco will be able to watch it, too.”

  I did what she said, and felt her druid power rising inside me as I replayed all the images I’d seen inside the portal. I felt them pouring out of me and into Coco, whose grip on my hands tightened.

  “I can see it,” she murmured. “Deb…she’s waking up now. Talk to her.”

  Her grip loosened, and a second later her hands jerked.

  “It’s your friends, Deb,” Miranda said softly. “We need you to look at these memories of what happened to your sister, Ruith. It’s what made her go all dark and twisted.”

  In a completely different voice Coco said, “Bitch was born that way.”

  I felt my head getting crowded as I tried to watch the memories and show them to Deb at the same time. It felt like it took hours, and on some level I could sense the room growing darker.

  “Sun’s setting,” I heard Miri say.

  Something made all my thoughts flood out of me. I would have fallen on the floor if Coco hadn’t been holding me so tightly.

  “No, no, pull yourself back, Lola,” I heard Miranda say from a long distance away. “If you don’t, you’ll end up inside Coco, too.”

  I thought of something that only mattered to me: my guy, Ualan. I’d always believed myself to be a loner, someone who could never love or be loved. He’d shown me my real self. He’d ended the horrible loneliness of my life by opening up my stony, stingy little heart. I loved being his lover and his best friend, because he’d become mine. No way was I giving up my one true pairing for anything.

  “You make me jealous,” I heard Coco whisper. “I’ve only dreamed of my OTP.”

  I slowly came back to myself, but I wasn’t kneeling anymore. I stood behind Miranda with my hands on her shoulders.

  She looked up at me and grinned. “Guess the full moon just rose.”

  I reached down to hug her, something I’d never done to another girl in my entire life. “You’re turning me into a pile of mush, you know.”

  “Good.” She stood and looked at Coco, who was squinting at us. “Gabrielle, you still front and center, girl?”

  “Yaaaaaaas.” The laugh that followed our agreed-on code word sounded tired. “Deb’s all wrapped up in Lola’s mind movie. You can untie me now.”

  Before we could do that the chamber door flung open and Griogair and the MacMaren rushed inside.

  “Gabrielle?” the captain demanded as he hurried to his wife, who nodded. He tore off the vines and lifted her into his arms. “Why didnae you wait for the druid?”

  As Coco explained I noticed the laird stayed back and watched them. I recognized the shuttered look on his face; I’d worn a similar one since birth. I went to him and touched his arm.

  “She’s worth the wait,” I murmured before I slipped out of the room.

  Miranda had me wearing a linen gown instead of the pants I preferred, but all I had to do was hike up my skirts to run through the passages and out to the stables. The love of my life had been working nights, and still lay sleeping up in the hayloft.

  I stretched out next to him, and watched him. He would always be the best-looking guy in the clan—for eternity, actually—but that didn’t matter to me. It was the look in his eyes when he opened them and saw me that made my stony, stingy little heart swell with love.

  “Hey, Handsome,” I said softly. “I’m back in my own body.”

  “Thank the gods.” Ualan pulled me on top of him, and kissed me, and looked at me as if I was the most beautiful girl in the squad.

  In that moment, I think I was.

  Chapter 32

  Besieged

  My day started with a very wet dove plopping on my shoulder. Val and I had gone out to collect deadfall for kindling when the bird landed on me in a flurry of drippy feathers. I felt it slump against my neck as if it were exhausted.

  “Coco, that’s one of Gill’s messengers,” Val said as I gently cradled it in my hands. “Wonder why it’s soaked. It hasn’t rained for weeks.”

  I could smell salt. “It’s been dunked in sea water.”

  We carried the dove inside to the hall, where the two lairds, Sorley and my guy stood studying a map of the island. After I explained what had happened, Gill carefully removed the tiny scroll it carried before he gave the tired bird to a guard to take to the aviary master.

  “The parchment, ’tis been waxed.” Bits flaked off as he unrolled it, and then read the message. “Fack me. Thousands of calpa swarmed your ships when they sailed for our shores, MacMaren, and near sank half before they retreated.”

  “Why should they retreat?” Sorley asked. “We cannae drown.”

  “We’ve mortals serving on our crews. My men wouldnae risk their lives.” Sinclair gave Gill a grim look. “’Tis a telling move. The calpa mean to attack your island from all sides, and soon. They’ll first strike the village to feed, and then slay the druids so they cannae provide you aid with their magics. Only then shall they come for your clan.”

  “Captain, War Master, send patrols with horses and carts to the village, the farms, and the druid settlement. Order them bring back all at once to shelter here at Dun Dorchas.” Gill regarded me and Val. “My ladies, Isabel went to bring our prisoner her morning meal. Tell her we need ready for another two hundred before nightfall.”

  “On it, my lord.” Val and I went to get Coach Jennings from the dungeons.

  We found her watching Ruith pace back and forth. I didn’t like looking at the dark druidess, who had hijacked Deb’s body before kicking out her soul, which I currently hosted. As Val related the news to Coach, I saw the dark druidess stop and turn to eye me.

  Her lips curled into a snide smile. “Fair morning, Sister.”

  “Now I’m your sister? Before I was just the slut you wanted killed.” I weighed the air with my hands. “No difference to you, far as I can tell.”

  Ruith came to press herself against the bars, and whispered, “Strike down these two and free me. For your loyalty I’ll permit you live.”

  “So tempting.” I fluttered my lashes. “But think I’ll pass.”

  “You call your friend bae as she’s before anyone else—prove it.” The druidess nodded toward Val. “Put the borrower in he
re with me, and I shall return Deborah to you.”

  I knew Deb could hear what she was saying, too, but after the Grove of Stars I wasn’t worried. “You’re so clueless you should be named Cher.”

  Coach ignored Ruith altogether as she said, “Come on, ladies. We have work to do.”

  Val stopped in front of the cell. “FYI, the borrower has excellent hearing. I’d also kill myself before I’d let your evil ass possess me, because I know I’ll get to come back.” She hopped back as Ruith swiped at her. “But please, keep trying. We can always use some laughs.”

  The dark druidess’s shrieks of fury followed us upstairs.

  By sunset the remaining mortals on the island had been transported to Dun Dorchas, where we settled them in. The druids brought their latest harvest with them and went to the kitchen to prepare huge vats of stew for the evening meal. Val and I and a couple other strong girls set up every trestle table the clan had in the great hall, where we were able to serve all the islanders together.

  Roxanne came to help me set out platters of bannocks and oatcakes to go with the stew. “Smith brought every usable blade he has, but it’s barely enough for half the village men. Plus, he doesn’t want me to fight.”

  I glanced at her swollen belly. “Well, duh.”

  “You think I want me and the baby to be the dessert course if we lose?” She demanded, and then sighed. “Sorry. I’m all hormones.”

  “You’re allowed.” I gave her a hug. “And we won’t lose.”

  After dinner Kendric sent the most powerful members of his tribe to stand watch along with the clan’s guards and sentries. Since Griogair had joined the nightly loch patrol along with Val and the strongest Angels, I stayed behind to keep an eye on the very nervous villagers.