by Anne, Meg
Visions of Triumph
The Gypsy’s Curse, book 3
Meg Anne
Jessica Wayne
True love can break the most powerful curse.
-Jodi Picoult
Visions Of Triumph
The Gypsy’s Curse, book 3
by Meg Anne & Jessica Wayne
Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved.
ISBN 13- 978-951738-94-5
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, businesses and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, or actual events is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Edited by Jessa Russo of Russo Editing
Proofread by Dominique Laura
Cover Design by AV Fantasy Book Cover Art & Design
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Meg’s Acknowledgments
Jessica’s Acknowledgments
About Meg Anne
Also By Meg Anne
About the Author
Also By Jessica Wayne
Chapter 1
Lucas
Lungs burning, Lucas pushed himself into a ground-eating sprint as the cottage came into view. While running, he checked the points of entry he could see. The door was still closed, windows unbroken, and although the Druid wouldn’t need to break in, it still eased a bit of his panic to find everything looking so normal.
Surely Skye would be inside. He would burst through the door and find her asleep on the couch, and then they would laugh it off over a drink tonight.
Everything’s fine. He repeated the mantra, hoping soon he would believe his own words. If only the bone-deep fear taking root in his gut would disappear. It was doing nothing to help reinforce his prayer.
“Skye!” Lucas shouted as he shoved open the door to the cottage, his heart pounding painfully in his chest.
The living room and kitchen were both completely empty and still looked exactly the same as he remembered leaving them. There were no signs of a struggle, so far as he could tell from his spot just inside the doorway. Lucas mentally put another tally in the ‘she’s safe’ column he was slowly building in his mind.
“Skye!” Lizzie repeated, coming in after him, Matthews hot on her heels. His sister’s voice bordered on hysteria.
Lucas glanced at them over his shoulder. “I'll grab the bedrooms, you two check the study. And stay together!” he added, already running toward his bedroom.
She has to be here.
He can’t have her.
Please don’t let him have her.
“Skye!” Lucas called again, the blood thundering in his ears making it impossible for him to hear anything over the sound of his internal terror.
The door to his room was open, so it didn’t take more than a passing glance to see that she wasn’t inside. Slowing down only long enough to change direction, Lucas sprinted to the room Skye shared with Lizzie when they’d first arrived in Scotland.
It took him less than thirty seconds, but each second without knowing where Skye was felt like a lifetime. When he reached the room, the door was slightly ajar. Lucas forced himself to suck in a breath and slow his racing heart before he nudged the door open with a surprising amount of gentleness, considering the state he was in.
He half-expected—or maybe it was half-hoped—to see Skye curled up in bed, fast asleep with one of her Gran’s journals tucked beside her.
But her bed was empty, as was Lizzie’s.
Lucas let out a low growl and slammed his fist into the door, sending it crashing into the wall. Where the fuck is she? She wouldn’t just take off without telling him where she was going. Not with the Druid still out there.
He moved farther into the room, scanning everything like he would a crime scene. A brisk breeze moved through the room, and Lucas’ skin erupted in goosebumps. He shivered as he moved to close the window, looking down as he walked past the bed. He paused, focusing on a piece of pale cream paper sticking out from beneath the bed.
Dread coiled in his belly as he knelt and reached for the familiar paper with shaking hands. It’s just a drawing that fell out of her sketchbook. Lucas flipped the scrap of paper over and breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized Skye’s looping script across the page. She must have run into town after all.
The page was stained as if she’d spilled something on it while writing. Lucas didn’t look too closely at the small, teardrop-sized splashes. If she left a note, the Druid hadn’t gotten to her. She was safe.
His eyes closed and some of the tightness in his chest eased. He’d gotten here in time. Heart returning to a more normal beat, Lucas started to read.
Lucas,
By the time you get this, I’ll be gone. I know you won’t understand, but please, trust me. I’m doing what’s best for both of us. I never imagined meeting you on that balcony would lead to this. I never thought I’d fall in love with you.
I’ve never cared for a person the way I care for you, and I wish with all of my heart that it was enough, but it isn’t.
Not even love is enough to keep me here.
I guess our ancestors knew what they were doing when they vowed to stay away from each other. Gypsies and Druids end up leaving nothing but chaos in their wake when they are together.
It’s time to break the cycle.
Do not come after me. There’s nothing you could say to make me change my mind. This is the way it has to be.
The way it was always meant to be.
Skye
Numb with shock, Lucas stared at the letter, words blurring and shifting on the page. The piece of paper fluttered to the ground as he struggled to breathe.
She’d left him. This woman he’d die for had left him.
A fist tightened around his chest, squeezing his lungs and his heart like a vise. He shook his head as agony consumed him. It didn’t make sense.
Lucas’ eyes flew open. What if she’d been forced to leave this note? Hope flared to life in his chest, and he pulled in a deep breath as he pushed to his feet. He started for the door but paused, turning slowly toward the closet as that knot of dread settled back into his gut. Doors ajar, the closet was empty. Swallowing hard, he turned toward the dresser. He started with the top drawer, pulling it out slowly. Empty. By the time he reached the bottom drawer, he tugged so hard he ripped it right out of the unit. Chest heaving, Lucas threw the empty drawer to the ground.
Empty.
They were all empty.
He scanned the room once more, searching for any remaining sign of her as the ugly truth began to sink in.
&nbs
p; Skye hadn't been taken. She’d left him.
Willingly.
All because she was too afraid to take a chance on loving him. Could he blame her? Fuck yeah, he could. Skye Giovanni was a lot of things, but he’d never pegged her for a fucking coward.
“Lucas.”
He spun around. Bile rising in his throat, he bent to grasp the paper from the floor, crumpling it in his fist before shoving it at Lizzie and Matthews.
“She’s gone,” he told them.
Lizzie’s eyes widened. “Did he—”
“No.”
His sister’s brows bunched together, and she started to shake her head. “Then I don’t understand. Where is she?”
“What’s to understand? Skye is a fucking coward. She bailed on us.” Lucas pushed past them, saying all he’d intended to say on the matter.
He’d loved her, body and soul. She’d told him she loved him, too, and Lucas had believed her. Turns out he’d been nothing but a way to pass the fucking time. Regardless of what her words read, when you loved someone, you stood beside them. No matter what.
She hadn’t loved him; she’d made a fool of him.
Lucas pulled a bottle of scotch from the cabinet and drank deeply, not taking the time to fill a glass with the amber liquid that reminded him of Skye’s eyes. The burn in his throat was nothing compared to the ache in his chest, so he ignored it, opting instead for the numbness the alcohol would bring. At this point, he’d kill for just a bit of relief from the pain of her leaving.
Lizzie snatched the bottle from his hand, sending droplets flying as she slammed it down on the counter. “Stop drinking like you’re some kind of fucking fish.”
He glared at her, and to her credit, she didn’t flinch. “I can do whatever the hell I want,” Lucas growled.
“Do you seriously not see what this is?” She shook the tiny scrap of paper in his face as Matthews came to stand beside her.
“It’s a fucking ‘Dear John’,” Lucas said simply. “She didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face. She waited until we were gone so she could sneak out of here like the coward she is.”
“I know we haven’t known Skye long, but we all know she is not a coward,” Lizzie argued.
Lucas pointed aggressively at the piece of paper in her hand. “That note proves otherwise.”
“Did it ever even cross your mind the Druid made her leave that for you to find? That this is all some elaborate game of his and that maybe he threatened her?” Lizzie shoved the paper in his face. “These are tear stains, Lucas. Which means she hadn’t wanted to leave it.”
Lucas shook his head. “No fucking way. Do you really think that bastard would want me to think she left? He would have bragged about taking her, would have rubbed it in my face that he had her. Shame will make you cry, too, and if I was leaving my friends and the person I claimed to love behind to deal with a psychopath on their own, I’d sure as hell be ashamed.”
Lizzie stared at him, eyes wide with disbelief. She turned to his partner for help. “James, talk some sense into him.”
Matthews put his hands up. “Sorry, Lizzie, the Druid’s an arrogant prick. It’s not far-fetched to think he would taunt Lucas if he could. It doesn’t take a profiler to figure that out.”
Her mouth gaped as she looked between the two of them. She shook her head, scoffing. “You two are fucking unbelievable.” She banged her fist down onto the counter, sending the scotch teetering off the side and shattering on the ground.
The liquid pooled on the floor, and Lucas scowled at his sister. “That's a fucking waste, Elizabeth.”
She winced. He never used her full name, and it’s use now had the effect he’d hoped for.
“You and your arrogant know-it-all attitude are a waste. I sure as hell hope I never get taken. I’d hate to think the two of you would give up on me so easily. You call her a coward?” Lizzie slammed the note down on the counter. “You two are the fucking cowards for not wanting to face something just because your macho feelings were hurt.”
Lucas glared at her, his upper lip curled in a snarl. “You think accepting that she willingly left me is easy?” His voice was low, but his sister’s eyes were wide, and she took a tentative step back.
Power bloomed inside him, answering the rage building in his chest.
“I fucking love her; do you understand that?” he roared. “Believing the Druid took her would be the easy way out, because it would mean I didn’t have to accept that she didn’t love me, too!”
The kitchen window shattered, and Lizzie whimpered.
Matthews pulled Lizzie behind him and stood tall. “You need to chill the fuck out, Lucas.”
“Why? Am I not allowed to be pissed off?”
“Sure, be pissed. Hell, go punch a fucking hole in the wall, but don’t you dare take it out on the one person who believes in you more than anyone else.”
Lucas swallowed hard and looked behind Matthews’ shoulder at his sister. She was bone-white, her cheeks losing their flush from her mad dash to the cottage. Pupils dilated with fear, they’d all but erased the bright blue of her irises. She regarded him like a cornered animal and he was the predator. Was that what he was becoming?
He straightened and reached into the cabinet for another bottle. “Leave me alone.”
“Not a damn problem.” Matthews took Lizzie’s hand and led her out of the room.
Lucas took a deep drink from the bottle.
Giving Skye the benefit of the doubt was foolish. She’d left, and now they were all going to have to figure out how the fuck to move on without her.
Even if that meant Lucas ended up drinking himself to death.
Chapter 2
Skye
Skye’s eyes fluttered open, and she pressed the heels of her hands against them. Pain radiated through the back of her neck and up into her forehead. Her right side ached as if she’d been repeatedly kicked by someone much larger than herself.
What happened to me?
She rubbed at her eyes, praying for relief that didn’t come. Giving up, Skye removed her hands and squinted, trying to focus on her surroundings.
Where am I?
The walls and ceiling of whatever building she was in were made of brick, as was the hard floor she was lying on. A single metal folding chair was the only furniture in the room. Looking up she counted six small windows, which were caked with dirt and grime. This was obviously not a place people frequented on any kind of regular basis.
Skye swallowed hard. So, it hadn’t been a nightmare. The Druid really did kidnap her.
What the hell am I going to do? Am I even in Scotland anymore?
Weak light pouring in through one of the dusty windows pulled her attention. Skye pushed to her feet. Maybe she could determine where she was by looking outside. Her stomach twisted as a loud scraping sound filled the heavy silence. Dread pooled in her belly at the sight of the heavy chain latched around her ankle. The fucker chained me to the wall.
She wasn’t going anywhere.
Bright blue eyes flashed through her mind, and her heart gave a painful lurch. Lucas. Skye slowly fell back to her knees, curling herself into a tight ball. How long would it be before he discovered she was gone? What would he do? Would he come after her? Of course not, you jackass, you told him not to. Skye’s heart broke all over again at the reminder of the note she’d left him.
She hadn’t meant a word of it, other than that she was very much in love with him. But she’d needed to make it believable so he wouldn’t follow her. A fact that was really going to bite her in the ass now that he was the only person who could save her.
If hurting the man she loved wasn’t damning enough, by leaving that note, she’d essentially signed their collective death warrants. Skye wasn’t an idiot; she knew the Druid wouldn’t leave the others alone now that he had her. Her vision would still come to pass.
They always did.
She should have known better than to try and change fate.
“
You’re a fucking idiot, Giovanni,” Skye muttered as tears burned in the corners of her eyes. A lump in her throat made it damn near impossible to breathe.
“Good, you’re awake.”
Skye’s head shot up. Speak of the devil…
She twisted as the Druid walked into the room from a doorway set in the farthest wall. He wore his cloak, but the hood was pulled back, giving her a full view of his scarred face and those eerie black eyes. He grinned, and her fists clenched so hard her nails bit into the tender skin of her palm.
“You fucking bastard,” she growled through clenched teeth.
He clicked his tongue. “Ah-ah-ah. That’s not a very ladylike attitude, Seer.”
“I never claimed to be a lady, asshole. And who the hell do you think you are, trying to teach me manners? You’re the furthest thing from a gentleman.”
The Druid laughed, the joyful outburst more terrifying for its sincerity. It couldn’t be a good sign that he was so happy.
“You aren’t wrong there,” he murmured as he made his way across the brick floor, taking a seat in a folding chair just out of reach of her tether. “Thanks for making it so easy for me, by the way. A goodbye note? I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“Lucas is going to come for me, and when he does, he’s going to tear you apart.”
“I very much doubt that. Your note will have broken his pathetic heart. He won’t be doing anything but drowning in liquor, which will admittedly make my job even easier.”
