Grace Unchained - Phoenix Throne Book Five

by Heather Walker

  The instant she wondered that, he shrank back into his usual form. He cowered whimpering on the floor. “I cinnae…I cinnae, lassie. It hurts….”

  She crouched down next to him and stroked his forehead. “Listen to me. It looks like it’s dislocated, which means we have to put it back into joint or it will never heal. Shift back one more time, and this time, you have to lie still while I put it back. I’ve never done this before, so it’s probably gonna hurt a lot. Once we do that, you can shift back. You can stay like this while it heals up. As long as you don’t shift into your dragon form, the wing will keep still and it won’t hurt as much. Can you handle that?”

  He sobbed under his breath.

  She didn’t say anything. She knelt at his side and caressed him for a long time until his breathing steadied. After a while, he peeked out at her. “It hurts.”

  “I know it does. We have to fix it, or it will just keep hurting. You don’t want that. Once we get it fixed, you’ll be back to flying around.”

  She didn’t rush him. She let him lie there for another long time. If he was going to do this, he had to do it in his own time. He closed his eyes and lay still for so long she wondered if he might go to sleep right there on the floor. He surprised her by opening his eyes. “Awright. I’m ready.”

  She stood clear, and when he shifted again, she didn’t shrink in fear. She watched him burst out of his skin and take the form of the magnificent creature she admired. He screamed worse than ever, but she saw what she had to do. She walked over to his side and touched his flank.

  He snarled and bellowed in rage, but he obeyed her touch. He knelt down, and she climbed onto his back. She tiptoed down his spiked shoulder to his wing. The joint where it connected to his body had twisted around the wrong way. She studied it carefully before she decided what to do.

  She sat down and straddled the joint. She laid her hands on either side of the bone, and Jamie shuddered. He went very still and quiet. Tension sizzled along his powerful body. Grace dreaded what he would do when the time came, but she couldn’t hesitate now. She seized the wing and wrenched it around. She felt the bone pop back into place.

  Jamie reared back and thundered to the rafters. His piercing cries vibrated the castle. He flailed in all directions and knocked Grace to the ground. She scrambled away before he crashed down on all four legs. He roared and spat flame at the ceiling.

  All of a sudden, he collapsed again, shifting back to human form. He sank into a curled ball at Grace’s feet. He drew his knees up to his chest and hid his eyes against his knees.

  Grace turned away. She couldn’t see him like this. She had to find a place where he could rest until he healed on his own. She searched around until she found a large bedroom off a long passage heading down the castle’s west wing. She threw the door open.

  The bedding looked as fresh as if someone changed it just yesterday. Alexis must have changed it. She’d put everything back the way it was. Grace returned to the hall and hoisted Jamie to his feet. “Come on.”

  He moaned low and leaned his weight on her. He offered no resistance when she supported him down the passage, and he tumbled onto the bed. He rolled over on his side—the side opposite his injured wing. He closed his eyes and moaned until he lay still.

  Grace left the room and shut the door. As long as he lay still and didn’t shift, he would be fine. His human form was the best splint for his wing. As long as he didn’t shift, he wouldn’t move it.

  Chapter 26

  Jamie picked up a block of firewood and placed it on the chopping block. He stepped back, swung his axe, and split the log in half. He rested his axe on the ground while he picked up one of the broken pieces, placed it on the block, and split it.

  The sun shone bright in the castle kitchen yard, but a cool breeze dried the sweat on his brow. He worked steadily all morning. The castle didn’t feel the same without a lot of people and animals around. He kept expecting to see one of his brothers come around the corner, or one of his friends from the village come to fetch him.

  Nobody came. No one spoke. No hens cackled. He never heard his mother calling his brothers or the servants. He never heard the horses stamp in the stable. Nothing moved but himself.

  The axe sent a satisfying thunk through his limbs. He enjoyed pushing himself and working to keep the castle going. After those first few days when he couldn’t move from the pain racking his whole body, he started to feel better.

  His dragon self itched to break out, but he pushed those urges away. He hesitated to shift now. He didn’t want to think about shifting. The memory of the pain made him seek out ways to avoid shifting. He would do anything to stop it happening again.

  He could almost look forward to spending the rest of his life as a man, but he couldn’t look forward to spending the rest of his life in this castle. He wanted to go home to Urlu. He wanted to take Grace back to his family, and that meant flying.

  He put it off, one day after another, but he couldn’t put it off forever. Even now, Grace encouraged him to shift, just to try out his wing to see if it felt better. He always shrugged it off and said he’d wait just a little longer.

  He chopped another log and turned around to pick up another one when he came face to face with a solitary figure. Jock stood before him with that perpetual frown. Jamie tossed his hair out of his eyes. “Mornin’, Uncle.”

  Jock nodded. “Lad.”

  Jamie set the log on its end and brought his axe down in a clean stroke. The log split apart to reveal its fresh insides. “Ha’e ye come fer tea? There’s fresh cream in the kitchen.”

  “No, I han’t come fer tea.”

  Jamie didn’t look at him. He already knew Jock didn’t come for tea. He put another log in its place. “We dinnae ha’e any eggs, if that’s what ye’re come fer, but I suppose ye ken that, as Grace gets most o’ her food from Ganny these days.”

  He set his axe aside and gathered up the split wood. He carried it into the kitchen and dropped it into the wood box by the fireplace. He returned to find Jock in the same place.

  Jamie refused to say any more. If Jock wanted to stand there in silence and watch him split firewood all day, so be it. He wouldn’t get any argument from Jamie, but Jamie would be blamed if he made this any easier on the old man. Jock came all this way to get something off his chest.

  Jamie went back to splitting wood. Vitality infused his muscles. He felt even better with Jock watching than he did alone. Jamie reveled in Jock’s discomfort. Hang the old man, if he couldn’t come right out and say whatever it was he wanted to say.

  At last, Jock blurted out, “Ye’ll no stay ’ere, lad. Ye cinnae.”

  Jamie kept working. “Ye can see yerself it’s no haunted as ye said it was. That witch has put it right, the same way she put the village right. I see ye and the rest o’ ’em livin’ there wi’ no bother, so ye ha’e naught tae say aboot me stayin’ ’ere.”

  “I’m no talkin’ aboot the castle,” Jock boomed. “I’m talkin’ aboot ye.”

  Jamie stopped what he was doing and planted his axe head on the ground at his feet. “What aboot me? I suppose I ha’e as much right tae live on me father’s land as any mon.”

  “Ye ha’e the right,” Jock replied, “but ye’ll no stay ’ere. Ye dinnae belaing ’ere—not anymore.”

  Jamie’s head shot up. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, he saw his uncle standing in front of him. “What do ye mean? Speak plain.”

  Jock took a step toward him. “Do ye think I dinnae ken? Do ye think I didnae see? What are ye, lad? Ye’re one o’ ’em the legends speak on. Yer Clan has returned tae its own country, and ye’ll no stay ’ere fer laing, I’ll wager.”

  Jamie stared at him. “Is that it, then? Ye kenned all alaing aboot me and me Clan?”

  He put extra emphasis on the last word. So that was it. Jamie belonged to a different Clan. He never really belonged to the Camerons—none of them did. They belonged to Urlu all along, and only a trick of fate kept them l
ocked in this human world.

  Now he would leave. He sensed it himself when he came back to the village after Alexis got rid of the giants. Jamie detected that subtle repulsion between himself and this human habitation. He wouldn’t stay. His own kind called him back.

  How ironic that Jock of all people should realize. All this time, Jamie did his utmost to stop the villagers finding out he was Urlu, when Jock knew all along. “How did ye ken?”

  “Yer great-grandfather….” Jock hesitated to get the words out.

  “Tell me, Uncle,” Jamie urged. “Tell me all. How laing ha’e ye kenned aboot us?”

  “I’m yer Uncle,” Jock replied. “That’s what I’m tryin’ tae tell ye. I’m yer uncle on yer mother’s side. It’s yer father as belainged tae some other Clan. Yer great-grandfather Andrew appeared in this village when he was just a wee bairn. The Camerons took him in, and we inquired all up and down the land fer tae find out tae whom he belainged. The folk questioned far and wide, and e’en among the neighboring Clans. They couldnae find the wee lad’s family, nor any woman who may ha’e gi’en birth tae him. They ne’er found out, so he stayed ’ere, and the village raised him as their own. He was ne’er a Cameron. That’s certain.”

  Jamie stared at him in wonder. “Then how…?” He cast his eyes around the castle.

  “This? He earned it workin’ fer the Laird as owned it afore him. Yer great grandfather had naught but the clothes off his back, but he was a right willing lad wi’ a way around people. He could charm the pennies out o’ an auld woman’s purse, and he made friends wi’ the Laird. He did jobs fer the auld man, and after a time, he became friends wi’ him. They used tae hunt taegether, and in the e’ens, Andrew’d sit by the Laird’s fire and tell him stories. He made ’em up out o’ his head tae entertain the man. When the Laird died, he left the whole estate tae the lad. That’s how he came tae live up ’ere and the rest o’ us mun’ stop in the village.”

  Jamie studied the man with new eyes. So that’s how it happened. Andrew was the ancestor who turned his back on the Phoenix Throne, and he wound up here. Of all the villagers, Jock found out. He knew all along Jamie’s family never belonged here.

  “I allus kenned yer father had summat different aboot him, he and his father and his brothers afore him,” Jock went on. “He had that power under his skin, and all ye lads had the same thing. Not a one o’ ye kenned what ye were—all but Fergus. He kenned.”

  Jamie looked away. “Well, now ye ken all. Ye ha’e seen me on the wing, so what’ll ye do aboot it? I suppose ye’ll drive me out o’ the land now.”

  “I’ll no do naught tae ye,” Jock replied. “Ye’ll go yer own way, back tae yer brothers and yer own people. I ha’e come tae ask ye ainly one thing.”

  “Name it.”

  “Leave Grace behind. She doesnae belaing tae ye. She belaings tae the human world. She cinnae belaing tae yer kind. Ye’d do her a grave disservice takin’ her away.”

  Jamie snorted. “Is that it? Did she ask ye tae come and tell me that?”

  “O’ course not. She would ne’er ask me any such thing.”

  “That’s right,” Jamie returned. “She would ne’er ask ye fer she wants tae go. She has begged me e’ery day tae take her there. Did ye ken that, or are ye makin’ this up out o’ yer head?”

  “Ye mun’ acknowledge a human woman cinnae belaing tae a race o’ dragons.”

  “I mun’ acknowledge no such thing,” Jamie snapped. “Ye dinnae ken naught aboot it. She’s her own woman. She can decide who she belaings tae and who she doesnae. It’s no me decision in the end. Why do ye no talk tae her aboot it? Gang ye down tae the village and tell her. Tell her she doesnae belaing tae a race o’ dragons, and she mun’ stop ’ere wi’ ye and yers instead o’ me. Get alaing and see what she says.”

  He turned his back on his uncle. He couldn’t show how angry he was, but he didn’t have to. He didn’t have to stoop to convincing Jock. Jock couldn’t possibly know about the other four women who married his brothers.

  Jock wasn’t there to fight Gakhra for the Phoenix Throne. Jock wasn’t there to watch Elle battle those ghouls, or Hazel destroy them with her spell. Jock didn’t see Sadie fighting the vampires.

  Jock couldn’t possibly understand about Grace. He couldn’t know the hidden power these women possessed, or how they belonged to the Urlus from the reaches of time. Jamie didn’t have to waste his life’s breath explaining it to him. He had better ways to spend a sunny morning.

  Jock lowered his voice in the way that told Jamie the old man was struggling to keep control of his emotions. “Ganny and I’ll gi’e her a home. She loves this village as much as we do. She’ll be happy ’ere. She allus has been. What can ye offer her out there? A life o’ battle and danger? Dinnae do that to a fine lass like her. Leave her ’ere, and we’ll look after her.”

  Jamie turned around to face him. “I told ye. It’s naught tae do wi’ me. If she tells me she wishes tae stay in the village wi’ ye, ye’ll get no argument from me. I ha’e begged her a dozen times tae stay in a safe place. Ye mun’ convince her, no me.”

  Jock frowned. “Ye’ll live tae regret this, lad. Do ye wish tae see her die afore yer eyes on some battlefield?”

  “Do ye think I told her tae come back ’ere wi’ those strange weapons o’ hers?” Jamie asked. “I sent her back tae keep her out o’ harm’s way. She came back on her own, wi’ no help from me. If I sent her away, she’d spend all her strength tae find a way tae follow me. I ha’e seen it a dozen times, and I’ll no waste any more time tryin’ tae stop her. She wants this. Do ye understand that? She wants tae go. She wants tae go a lot more than I do.”

  He chuckled to himself and went back to splitting wood. Jock glared at him. “I’m warnin’ ye fer the last time, lad. Dinnae do this tae her.”

  “I’m doin’ naught tae her,” Jamie replied. “Ye think I’m keepin’ her ’ere like some kind o’ bird in a cage. She’s free. She’s freer and stronger and more determined than I am. Ye ken it yerself, Uncle, or ye’d no be talkin’ tae me aboot this. Ye’re afraid o’ her. Ye’re afraid tae talk tae her yerself and tell her what ye just told me. Ye dinnae want tae hear the words from her own mouth. Ye want tae throw the choice on me when it’s no choice o’ mine. If ye cinnae convince her, I dinnae want tae hear any more aboot it.”

  He turned his back on Jock. The yard fell silent except for the thumping of the axe. Jamie worked for what seemed like hours. When he split another pile of wood and gathered it in his arms to carry it inside, he found the yard empty.

  That fool Jock! He didn’t understand women like Grace. He couldn’t. He’d never met one before. He couldn’t know the way Jamie did how determined they could be.

  Grace knew better. She knew better than anyone she belonged in Urlu. She only stayed until Jamie would be well enough to fly. Then she would go with a glad heart.

  The conversation only solidified the plain fact in Jamie’s mind. He never belonged here, and he didn’t belong here now. Even Jock knew that. Jock didn’t want these dragon people hanging around, even if one of them was his own nephew.

  Jamie took one last look around the yard. Now he hated what spoke to him out of the depths of his heart only a little while ago. How narrow and crude and ugly the whole place looked compared to Angus’s magnificent castle.

  The sun shone on that bright land. Dragons played in the clouds over the turrets. The Phoenix Throne beckoned Jamie back to the country populated by people who knew and understood and loved him.

  He set his axe in the shed where it belonged. He carried the last wood into the castle. He put an armload in the bedroom he shared with Grace. He determined to give her the ultimate choice. If she really wanted to stay here, he would give her a home she deserved.

  Chapter 27

  Grace set her basket on her arm and walked out of the cottage. “Thank you, Aunty Ganny. See you tomorrow.”

  The lady’s voice drifted through the open cottage door as Grace walked away. “Aye, la
ss. See ye tomorrow.”

  Grace headed up the brae. The wind blew in her hair, and the sun warmed her skin. She loved this place more than ever now. She knew everyone in the village, down to the cows and horses and dogs.

  She passed the time with everyone she met. They smiled and bobbed their heads in greeting. She was welcome in every doorway. She helped the women with their laundry and played with the children when they asked.

  She turned her footsteps up the brae to the path leading to the castle. As happy as she always was to visit the village and catch up with her friends, she was equally happy to go back to the castle she shared with Jamie.

  Her heart skipped a beat when she thought about seeing Jamie again. She settled into the life of the castle, now that she knew for certain she would never go back to America. This life enfolded her in peace and contentment, exactly the way she always dreamed since she first came here.

  She hiked up the long road, but when she passed into the castle yard, she slowed her pace. A strange man stood on the steps and examined every detail with sharp eyes. He turned around when Grace approached.

  At first glance, she recognized that mysterious power under the surface of his skin. He was a lot bigger than Jamie, taller and more powerfully built around the shoulders. His eyes snapped from one thing to the next. His curly brown hair smoothed off his high forehead, and he scanned Grace up and down as bold as you please.

  She stopped at the base of the steps. “Can I help you?”

  He walked up to meet her. “Ye mun’ be Grace.”

  “That’s right. Are you here to see Jamie?”

  “Aye. Is he ’ere?”

  “He’s here somewhere. Did you knock?”

  “I knocked, but he doesnae come.”

  She scrutinized him. “Who are you?”

  He thrust out his hand. “I’m Rob. I heard ye were ’ere and ye might need some help.”