“Aye,” he murmured, as bewildered before focusing on what he'd caught of her thoughts. “What nightmare?”
Tiernan had just returned with a hare that he skinned with a quick chant then roasted over the fire. He sat beside Julie, eager to hear what Madison was about to share. So even though she hated thinking about it, she told them about her nightmare from start to finish.
“I was going to the evil brotherhood,” she said in conclusion, shivering at the memory. “And doing everything in my power to make sure Cray didn’t follow me.”
She felt Cray’s troubled thoughts brush her mind before he spoke. “Until now, I didnae recall the Irish Stonehenge, but I have had strange sensations along these lines before. A feeling of desperation...”
“You have, haven’t you,” she murmured, feeling what he felt. Sensing the dreams he’d had over the years. “You’ve dreamt of that stone...of trying to get to someone.”
“Aye,” he said softly, narrowing his eyes as though that would help him see clearer. “I suppose I always just thought it was Maeve.”
“But now you think it was Madison,” Julie stated rather than asked. “Where do you think your stone was, Cray?”
“Without doubt, Machrie Moor Stonehenge.”
“You went there too, didn’t you?” Madison asked, knowing his answer already but curious regardless.
“Aye, I visited it,” he confirmed, leaving it at that. “But only because I was in the area.”
While his statement made perfect sense considering he’d dreamt of it, she knew his visit had little to do with Maeve and everything to do with his unborn child. Her heart broke for him. He was dragon, a mystical creature, so he paid attention to repetitive dreams, thinking perhaps his child was trying to reach out to him from the afterlife. It was curious that he didn’t think Maeve might be, but that was beside the point right now.
“I’d say this is all definite confirmation that you and Madison lived another life together like Aidan and me.” Chloe eyed Madison curiously. “So you saw Ethyn’s wolf at the Irish Stonehenge? Are you sure?”
“Unless it was the brotherhood playing tricks with my mind, I’m almost positive.” Madison glanced at Ethyn, who seemed unsettled rather than jovial. But then, as a whole, he had been since they traveled back from New Hampshire. “What do you make of that, Ethyn?”
“I dinnae know.” Ethyn shook his head. “Other than I dinnae ken how ‘tis possible when wolves arenae immortal.” He shrugged and removed the hare from the fire to cool. “It must have been a wolf that looked like Phelan.”
“Unless,” Julie theorized. “Phelan traveled via a ley-line back to the Stonehenge.” She perked a brow at Ethyn. “I mean, she traveled via one to get here, right?”
“Aye.” He shook his head. “And ‘tis curious too. How is that possible?”
“Honestly, I’m not completely sure,” Julie replied. “I’d say her connection to you brought her here. As to her traveling back and forth through time using a ley-line, I have no idea.” She glanced from Madison and Cray back to Ethyn, undoubtedly referring to Phelan’s odd behavior last night. “But then the more time goes on, the more unusual your wolf seems, wouldn’t you say?”
Ethyn nodded, helping Tiernan cut and disperse the meat.
“What’s the story with her, anyway?” Chloe asked him. “You found Phelan as a pup, right?”
“Aye.” Ethyn nodded, confirming what he'd said before. “I dinnae ken what happened to her pack, but she’d been abandoned and was injured, so I saw to her.”
“That’s so sweet,” Chloe murmured. “And she stuck around afterward?”
“She did, on and off.”
“More off than on over the past few years, though, aye?” Tiernan said.
Ethyn nodded. “I had assumed she took a mate and had pups, but I dinnae think so now.”
“Why?” Madison asked.
“I dinnae know.” Ethyn shook his head. “Just a feeling.”
“I think ‘tis wise if we pay attention to feelings like that,” Tiernan counseled. “Especially now that Phelan seems to have made herself a permanent fixture on your journey.” His gaze narrowed on the forest. “Even now, she’s out there as if waiting for us to make our next move.”
“Which is what?” Madison asked.
“To return to King David’s side.” Cray scowled. “Where I should have been long before now.”
“’Tis all right, Cousin,” Aidan said. “Fate brought you back here where you would be needed most. Besides Douglas wasting valuable time rallying an army to his cause and driving Balliol back to England half-dressed when he ambushed him in Annan, you’ve missed little.”
“Och, I would have liked to see that,” Cray exclaimed. “Were you there then?”
“Aye.” Aidan grinned. “’Twas a fine sight indeed!”
When Madison looked at Cray in question, he explained.
“Though Balliol might have crowned himself King of Scotland, there are still plenty about who consider David the rightful king. Something the false king found out when his own countrymen drove him from Scotland at Annan.” He chewed a piece of meat, swallowed, and shook his head. “Not surprisingly, he fled to his supporter King Edward of England who, having already been promised all of the counties of southeast Scotland in return, offered his assistance. Since then, they have made ready for war.”
“Aye, and as is often the case because it sits on the border,” Aidan continued, shaking his head, “Berwick-upon-Tweed is the first to suffer.”
“Ah,” Madison murmured. “That’s where we were close to yesterday, right? The town held under siege?”
Cray nodded. “And ‘twill only get worse for those poor people.”
“There’s nothing we can do for them then?”
“Unfortunately, nay.” Cray sighed, as upset about it as his brethren. “Not if history is to stay on track.”
“Right...history.” She glanced from the others to him. “And what is my role in this...our role?”
Because if she had figured nothing else out, it was that she and Cray were in this together. She glanced at Ethyn and offered him a small smile. She knew at this point, as did he it seemed, that the two of them ending up together just wasn’t going to happen. Not only because of the connection she and Cray’s dragons were forming but because they clearly had a history.
Not to mention undeniable attraction.
Though Cray’s expression remained unreadable, she sensed his triumph mixed with trepidation at her revelation. His desire for her mixed with fear of her. Something she intended to address when they had time to finally talk rather than waste it bickering. He knew where she stood now, and if she weren’t mistaken, his position wasn’t all that much different than hers.
“Our role is to protect wee David at all cost,” Cray said in answer to her question. “To see history stay on course and get to the bottom of why magic is waning in my time. Which means, no doubt, finding out what happened at the Irish Stonehenge so long ago.”
“So, what happens next historically?” She frowned, still trying to believe it as she looked at Chloe and Julie. “And which one of our friends do we think is a traitor?”
They shook their heads though it seemed they had come to a conclusion.
“It’s gotta be Ciara.” Chloe nodded once, convinced. “She hasn’t seemed all that crazy about any of us besides Julie since the beginning. Not to mention she hasn’t made an appearance at the colonial, right?”
Madison shook her head. “No, no texts either. Dead silence. She totally blew us off.”
“Or so she wants us to think.” Julie sighed. Though in agreement with Chloe, she clearly struggled with it. “I know she didn’t give you guys the warm fuzzies, but she really was, is, a nice person. Or so I thought.” She shrugged. “She’s just different than all of you. Rougher around the edges.”
“Right.” Chloe gave Julie a pointed look. “Cuz pure evil will do that to a gal.”
Cray rested his elbows on
his knees, his brows drawn together in consideration. “That would mean the two lasses who were at the colonial before rushing off were meant for Ethyn and my brother.” He arched a brow at Ethyn. “You met them, then, aye? Destiny and Alyssa?”
“Aye,” Ethyn confirmed.
“Good point,” Julie murmured, figuring out where Cray was going with this. “That means you must have been drawn to one of them, Ethyn.”
“Nay.” He shook his head. “’Twas only Madison who drew my eye.”
“Outside of the fact she’s totally hot,” Chloe winked at Madison, “what do we make of that? Because I know Aidan had eyes for me and me alone and Tiernan, only ever Julie.” She wiggled her Claddagh ring. “In fact, I don’t doubt for a second these things aim true every time.”
“Aye, they do,” Tiernan confirmed. He wore a contemplative look as he considered Cray and Aidan then Cray and Ethyn. “But that’s not to say they dinnae use what is at their disposal to accomplish their ultimate goal.”
Chloe’s eyes sparkled and widened a little as her Fae magic ignited, and she saw something they couldn’t. “You think Cray was put into another love-triangle on purpose.”
Julie nodded, her own eyes sparking with Guardian Witch magic, her voice a little off. “The only way for him to get where he needs to be is to see through his past. To face a similar circumstance, but see it ended differently this time.”
“To know that it can end differently,” Tiernan murmured, squeezing Julie’s hand.
Ethyn narrowed his eyes. “’Twould have to mean I am cast under a spell, aye?”
“I’d say so.” Chloe looked at him with compassion, no doubt relating it to her own backstory. “One done for the greater good.”
Ethyn glanced at Madison and Cray, clearly not sure what to make of that. Cray kept a stoic expression, his thoughts guarded but clear enough to her. While he liked Ethyn no longer being in the picture, he didn’t like the idea that he was being put to the test in another love-triangle. That Fate was forcing him to face things. To see this through in a way he knew full well went beyond the flesh and straight to the heart.
“Thinking along the lines of Ethyn having been under a spell,” Aidan contemplated. “Might he have been blinded to his Broun when he met her? Might he not have recognized Alyssa or Destiny as his one true love?”
“That’s a definite possibility.” Julie looked at Madison. “Did you notice if either of the girls seemed overly drawn to Ethyn?” She frowned. “Before they booked it out of there so mysteriously, that is.”
“Honestly, I was too busy being shocked he was attracted to me in the first place,” she confessed. “I’m not the type guys go for.”
When Ethyn and Cray looked at her with a baffled expression that did her ego good, Julie piped up.
“Well, their loss for not seeing what was right in front of them.” Julie's eyes flickered from Cray to Madison. “But then, based on what I saw this morning and the connection you clearly share with Cray, I’d say your inner dragon was just keeping them at bay.”
“Jessie and Erin said something along those lines too,” she murmured, still not sure she bought it.
“Smart women,” Chloe chimed in. She was about to say more when Tiernan glanced at the sunlight splintering through the trees and rolled up his sleeve.
“Oh, wow,” Madison whispered, finally laying eyes on the magical compass tattoo she’d heard about. Four arrow shapes pointed from an inner circle to an outer circle. The arrows and the inner circle represented the five standing stones. Interestingly, a stream of sunlight shimmered across the tat in such a way that the line looked afire.
“I’d say it’s time to leave,” Julie said, popping the last of her meat in her mouth.
“Aye.” Tiernan frowned as a blob of sunlit fire erupted on another part of the tattoo seconds before a line of fire cut across in a slightly different direction. “I dinnae think our direction is going to be quite so clear this time, though.”
“Nay.” Cray stood when he spied who stood at the woodland's edge fuming. “But I think who is supposed to continue on with us is abundantly clear.”
Chapter Sixteen
“BLOODY HELL, COUSIN, ye know Phelan wouldnae hurt ye.” Ethyn frowned at Marek. “So ye best not have hurt her in return!”
As it turned out, the second fiery line they had seen on Tiernan’s tattoo had been Marek magically thrust along on their journey as well. Something he didn’t seem all that thrilled about. Mainly because Phelan had been tracking him as though he were the prey and she the predator. Which was downright intolerable for any dragon, let alone an alpha like his brother.
“I didnae hurt the bloody beast,” Marek muttered. “But she’d do well to keep her distance from here on out.”
However frustrated Marek might be, he wouldn’t hurt the wolf any more than Cray would. She’d been Ethyn’s unfailing protector for years, and they would never harm something that watched over kin like that.
“’Tis good to have you along.” Cray clasped Marek’s shoulder and grinned. “Mayhap we’ll get the chance to fight alongside each other.”
Marek glanced at him in surprise, no doubt because his spirits were improved since he last saw him. “Aye, Brother, ‘twould be good.” He nodded hello to everyone else before homing in on Madison, sensing that she had shifted. “You did good, lass.” He nodded with approval at both her and Cray. “You both did.”
“She’s a bloody beautiful dragon, Brother,” Marek praised telepathically before he said the last thing Cray expected. “She’ll give you good strong offspring.”
Having clearly caught that, Madison choked on the water she’d just sipped. As to his own response, he felt nothing short of bone-chilling fear. Terror he knew his brother sensed yet didn’t respond to with surprise. Instead, shockingly enough, his level gaze met Cray’s in understanding.
Marek knew.
How, though, when he had buried his secret so very deep? So far down inside him, nobody should have ever known about his unborn bairn. Now both Madison and Marek knew?
Tiernan sighed and shook his head at his tattoo before looking at Julie. “There is only one way to decipher this now, aye?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and contemplated the lines going in different directions on his magical compass. One had remained fiery. The other was how sunlight had originally looked on Tiernan and Julie’s adventure. A single straight, unwavering line of light.
“I’d say things are clear enough.” Julie glanced at Madison, Cray, and Marek. “Dragons are supposed to go in one direction.” Her eyes flickered over everyone else. “Non-dragons in another.”
“Aye.” Tiernan looked north. “So the dragons to David and the rest of us in a direction I dinnae remember being related to anything historical.”
Julie nodded. “That’d be my guess.”
“Really?” Madison frowned at her friends. “We have to go in separate directions?” Her brows pulled together. “What if it’s a trap of some sort? What if the brotherhood is manipulating the tattoo somehow?”
“I don’t think they are,” Julie replied. “This compass is too connected to Tiernan and those with MacLomain blood to lead them astray.”
Madison nodded but didn’t seem convinced. “I hope so.” Her gaze went to Chloe’s swollen stomach, her inner dragon thinking the same thing as Cray. “Because I would think dragons could protect you guys better than anyone.”
“Maybe dragons who didn’t have fluctuating magic and were repressed,” Julie conceded, giving Cray and Marek an apologetic look. “Don’t worry. We won’t let anything happen to Chloe’s baby. Our magic is pretty strong, and the magic from Aidan’s Claddagh ring is right up there too.”
“Aye,” Aidan agreed. “’Twill protect Chloe no matter what.”
Cray knew his cousin would rather she be safely behind the walls of Hamilton castle, but Chloe was far too stubborn, insisting she needed to help. The fact of the matter was nobody could manipulate the trees like
she could, harnessing their magic for protection.
“’Tis good we brought the extra horse,” Aidan commented, gesturing at Marek. “One of the bigger horses at that.”
As it were, they had already brought two. One for Ethyn. The other for Cray and Madison because she would be riding with him. Always with him now that he knew where she stood. He just needed to figure out where he stood. How he would handle things. It was one thing to have a plan that ended with him handing her over to Ethyn. Another thing altogether knowing she might very well remain by his side instead.
“Be careful, you guys.” Madison hugged her friends goodbye as they prepared to depart. “Hopefully, I’ll see you again soon.”
“I’m sure you will,” Julie said. “In the meantime, I imagine Grant will remain our go-between until everyone can communicate telepathically again without an issue.”
“Are you sure you’re not supposed to travel with us?” Madison asked Ethyn, who shook his head and reminded her he wasn’t a dragon.
“Besides,” he embraced her, chuckling, “’tis probably best if Phelan steer clear of Marek and Cray for a while.”
Cray couldn’t agree more...for the most part. Though his dragon had no use for the wolf, his human half appreciated it protecting Madison last night. Even if it was from him.
“Is it me, or did Ethyn seem different when we left?” Madison asked him later that day.
She was still getting used to riding a horse and readjusting herself to the point of distraction. Not so much obsessively, but squirming her backside as if trying to get comfortable. It was driving his poor cock to distraction, and he couldn’t take much more. Something he had warned her about many times now. If she didn't stop moving, it would dispel their deal and earn her a good romp before they got to know each other any better.
As it were, they had already made a good start of getting to know each other as they chatted throughout the day. Fixation with numbers and all, he found her entertaining and truly enjoyable. But alas, in the end, he was too sexually frustrated to think straight as a whole. Between her meddling in his mind on Aidan and Chloe’s adventure, then tempting him to distraction since they traveled back to Scotland, he was strained. Now with her squirmy arse brushing his cock every other breath all day long, he was about done for.
A Scot's Resolve (The MacLomain Series: End of an Era, #3) Page 11
