He let out a ragged sigh. “Awright, lass. Do ye ha’e any notion where tae find the Stone?”
“Not at all,” she replied.
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came to his mind. For a painful instant, they stared at each other in matched hostility until Athol caught up with them. “Ye’ll be needin’ a mite o’ help tae find the Stone. I’m wi’ ye, lad.”
Douglas appeared with Sinclair on his heels. “We’ve naught tae do but come wi’ ye, as weel.”
Sinclair grumbled under his breath to the trees. “I’ve a notion the jobby fuds’ll make a muckle o’ it if I dinnae come.”
Athol rolled his eyes to heaven. “We’d best get intae the woods, lad. We’ll hunt us up summat tae eat afore sunrise. He’ll be a sight better tempered wi’ summat in his stomach. He allus is.”
The men headed into the trees. Fergus hung back until Hazel walked away from him. Then he brought up the rear. He didn’t want these men coming with him and Hazel, and he certainly didn’t want anything to eat. He wanted Hazel to himself, at least until he could get to the bottom of whatever caused this change in her.
He watched her body moving from behind. She wore the same cream dress she had on when he met her in the clearing. Her red hair hung in a braided rope down her back, but even her body moved differently under her clothes. She no longer jerked and juttered the way she used to. Her body flowed and swayed in fluid movements from her neck down to her knees.
Then again, maybe it was only his own opinion that changed his view of her. He did his best to keep a lid on his feelings, and he did a pretty good job of it—right up until last night when he almost kissed her in the dark.
Now here she was, kicking him in the guts. Only now, when she didn’t need him anymore, did he realize how much she meant to him. He never met anyone he wanted as much as he wanted her. She was Faery, just like him. They dwelled in the same world. Now he sensed her slipping through his fingers.
He pushed those ideas away. He never had her, and he never expected to have her. He never dared believe he could get her, so why did he let himself fall into disappointment now? She was alien to him. She came from a different country, a different time, a different dimension. He knew from the first day he ever laid eyes on her she would eventually go back. He never should have hoped for anything else.
He did hope, though. He hoped even back then when he first met her. He hoped when he helped her fight the ghouls, and he hoped when he took her to the Faery mound to show her what might be possible.
The men walked far into the forest, much farther than they camped last night. Fergus caught up to them under a rocky ledge. The rising sun peeped over the distant mountains. It shot its rays under the ledge to create a small pocket of warm air.
Sinclair, Douglas, and Athol sat in a line facing the sun. Sinclair rested his shaggy black head against the rock and closed his eyes. Hazel leaned against the wall and smiled down at the dark valleys spreading far away. She never looked happier than she did right now. She didn’t need him or anybody else, now that she had her power.
Fergus had no choice but to join them. What was the point in hanging around a woman who didn’t want him? He asked himself that so many times since this whole thing started it wasn’t funny anymore. He really ought to give it up, but somehow he kept coming back to Hazel.
Weren’t there enough beautiful Faery ladies at the parties he attended at the mound? None of them interested him. None of them was Hazel, and it wasn’t her vulnerability that attracted him. He wanted her ten times as much, now that she got her power.
Her power radiated off her. A halo of golden light around her filled the whole world. He never let himself imagine what she would look like with a confident, contented smile on her face, but there she was. She looked like a completely different person—radiant, comfortable in herself, and prepared for anything. She even fit in with these rough characters from the highest ranks of Faery.
He sidled over and squatted down next to Douglas. The minute he got there, Sinclair bolted upright. “Let’s get out o’ ’ere. I’m hungry.”
He got to his feet and set off down the mountain without looking back. The others exchanged glances. Then Athol and Douglas shrugged and started after him. Hazel smiled at Fergus in the most platonic way he could imagine before she went with them and left him squatting there alone.
Fergus let out a deep sigh. He might as well be cooked for a goose as for a gander, but he didn’t want to get up. He didn’t want to be anybody’s fifth wheel. He could change into his dragon form and fly back to Urlu in a few minutes. That wouldn’t help the situation very much. He might warn Angus the way the Faery King asked him to, but that didn’t get them closer to finding the Stone of Scone.
He pushed himself up and stumped down the mountain. The men stretched out in a single file line. Sinclair picked up a stream and followed it downhill for the rest of the day. The party camped among the trees that night. Sinclair grumbled more than ever while Athol and Faing got a fire going.
Fergus hesitated to enter the circle, but in the end, he sat down next to Hazel. Her benevolent smile maddened him to distraction. He would rather have her hate him than to look at him like a brother or a stranger.
No one said anything. In a few merciful hours, Sinclair fell asleep and the rest relaxed in the undisturbed silence. First Faing, and then Athol stretched out by the fire and closed their eyes. Fergus took his chance and turned to Hazel. “I meant tae thank ye for freein’ us from the Burgees.”
“That’s all right,” she replied. “I didn’t realize I could, or I would have stopped them changing you in the first place. I didn’t know I could do it until after I talked to the witch. Then again, I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to her if I had stopped the Burgees.”
Fergus gasped. “What? Are ye glad the Burgees attacked us?”
“I’m not saying that. I needed to talk to her, and I needed to talk to her alone. I needed to find out for myself what she knew about the curse.”
“What did she say tae ye?”
“She told me….” Hazel turned away and gazed into the fire.
“What, lass?” he pressed her. “Tell me.”
She turned her eyes on him. They studied each other in the firelight. That’s when he saw it. Far below the surface, far beyond the cold, hard exterior hiding her feelings from him, she still cared. The witch told her something in that castle that frightened her. That’s why she pushed him away. Now she would never tell him what it was.
He gazed at the old Hazel he knew before. The same light of feeling shone in her eyes, and she stared back at him with her old searching expression. Her features still questioned him the way they used to. Was it possible they could love each other the way he always dreamed? Was there still any chance?
He had to try. If he failed, he’d lost nothing. He already barely dared to hope, so what the devil did he have to lose, anyway? He bent forward and kissed her. Their lips met and stuck. He stared down deep into her to the place where she hid her secrets. She didn’t push him away with a disgusted snarl. She only stared back at him from the spot beyond his nose.
They stayed there with their lips locked for what seemed like forever. He didn’t care if this came to nothing. He was kissing her. He laid his hand against her cheek, and all the emotion in him exploded out to meet the same coming out of her.
She burst out laughing and immediately lunged at him to kiss him again. He plucked at her lips, and when he saw the bright happiness gleaming in her eyes, he dared to slip his tongue into her mouth.
The next thing he knew, they both attacked each other in wild kissing. She wrapped her arm around his neck, and he seized her around the waist to pull her toward him. He had to get as much of her as he could while he had the chance.
His blood burst into flame, and all his hidden desire for her surged to the surface. He never wanted her more than now. She vibrated in his hands with life and love and power.
All of a sudden, sh
e ripped herself out of his hands. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” In an instant, she raced away from the fire and vanished into the night.
He sank back, defeated. He closed his eyes, but he couldn’t be sorry. He finally kissed her. Her sweetness drifted into his nostrils and eyes and skin. Even if he never touched her again, he could hold her here in his mind. He could taste her saliva fizzing on the tip of his tongue. He could feel her heart beating against his chest.
He must have fallen asleep thinking about her, because he woke up the next morning to Sinclair and the others breaking camp. Hazel readied herself for another day on the road. She smiled at him with that same infuriating expression. She erected the barrier between them all over again so he couldn’t get near her.
She kissed him, but he knew better than to think he could ever get near her. He kept his distance from her for the rest of the day. Sinclair followed the same stream through the treacherous mountain passes until it widened. Farther down the valleys it became a steady river flowing through gently sloping farmland.
As the sun touched the horizon of the second day, the party came into sight of their first village. Smoke billowed from the chimneys, hens cackled and dogs barked in the distance. Sinclair humphed by way of expressing his satisfaction at returning to civilization, but Fergus hung back. A bunch of Faery blowing into town in search of hospitality might not go down very well with the locals.
Sinclair showed no sign of slowing down. He crossed a field headed for the first house when the telltale rumble boomed across the landscape. A creaking groan disturbed the peaceful scene. Fergus stopped walking and braced himself for the worst.
Sinclair roared out loud and jumped toward the sound, even though no one could see anything yet. He pulled his saber and planted his feet wide. At that moment, the soft night air scissored apart. The howling tempest hit Sinclair and ripped his clothes and hair out horizontal from his body.
He never flinched. He brandished his weapon at the hole gaping wide open to suck him in. The wind caught the others in its crushing fist. Athol stumbled toward it before he caught his balance.
Fergus darted forward and caught Hazel by the arm. No trees offered them shelter here. He drew her away from the hole. “Come on! We ha’e tae get out o’ ’ere.”
“We can’t!” she yelled back. “We have to go in there.”
“Go in there?” he repeated. “Are ye mad? Ye cinnae go in there. We ha’e tae find a place o’ safety.”
She turned around and pointed toward the great sucking hole. “We can’t run away. The Stone is down there. We won’t get hurt. We’ll wind up somewhere else, and we have to go in there to find the Stone. You know we do.”
He shook his head. He couldn’t accept what she was saying. “Listen, lass….”
“There’s no time,” she shrieked. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She tugged his hand and tried to take him toward that hideous opening. He pulled back. “Ye’ll destroy yerself, lass. Dinnae go in there. I’m beggin’ ye.”
She smiled behind her red hair whipping around her head. “It’s okay, Fergus.”
He stared into her eyes in amazement. She was right. Whatever else his sight showed him about her, he couldn’t deny the simple fact. That hole—or whatever it was—it was a part of her. This curse, all these horrible forces tearing the world apart—they were all her. They were manifestations of her power gone wrong.
If she said going down that hole was okay, he could believe her. What’s the worst that could possibly happen? For all he knew, the hole might take them back to Urlu?
She smiled and gave his hand another tug. She took one step toward that hole when a vicious green tentacle lashed out of the dark. Before he could react, it slithered around his legs and hoisted him on high.
It whipped high into the air. The village roofs flew downward out of his sight. He barely had time to hear Hazel scream out, “Fergus!” when the thing slammed him down hard on the ground and he lost consciousness.
Chapter 10
Hazel rushed toward Fergus lying on the ground, but the tentacle already flexed to retract. It would lift him off the ground in an instant. If it hit him against the ground or anything else like that again, he couldn’t survive it. He might be dead already.
For a split second, the thought of losing him crushed her spirit. She played it off when she released him from his stone prison. She made him think she didn’t need him. What was she thinking? She didn’t want to become an Urlu, but she couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to him. She had to protect him at all costs.
She put out her hands to stop the tentacle pulling him away from her. In a flash, two long thin swords sprang out of her hands. She had no idea how to use them, but that didn’t matter. They were here. They were her power. She didn’t need to know any more.
At that instant, the tentacle holding Fergus around the shins pulled back. It dragged him across the ground toward the hole. His arms flopped, and his head bumped limp and lifeless over the ground. She leapt forward and slashed with one of her swords.
At the same moment, a dozen more tentacles slithered out of the black mouth ripped in space. Shouts from the other men touched her ear, but she didn’t have time to turn around before a tentacle hit her in the shoulder. It sent her bowling sideways.
She rolled over and over through the grass. She came up on her feet with both swords poised to strike, but no tentacle came close enough to hit her again. The tentacle that hit her curled itself around Fergus’s neck while the other still pulled at his legs. Could those things think and decide? Did one slimy arm have any clue what the others were doing? They could tear Fergus in half with one yank.
She lunged forward with a feral shriek and severed the tentacle circling his neck just as the one holding his legs jerked him off the ground. He soared into the air, and the tentacle whipped him right and left high overhead.
All this time, the incredible wind sucked sticks and leaves and pieces of fluff from the field. Fence posts whizzed past Hazel’s head in their headlong plunge down that hole. The men cut the tentacles every which way, but it wasn’t enough without some shelter from the wind. No one could ever defeat that thing with swords.
One of the tentacles burrowed through the grass and exploded into view right in front of Athol. It came up in front of his face. He staggered back and lost his balance, and the wind caught him. It plucked him off the ground, and he tumbled screaming through the air with nothing to stop him.
At the same time, one of the flying fenceposts struck Douglas behind the neck and pitched him forward on his face. He struggled to get up when a tentacle wrapped around his wrist. It gave him a yank and pulled him off his feet. Sinclair rushed to his aid. He cut the tentacle holding Douglas when another piece of flying wood belted Sinclair upside the head. He stumbled into Douglas, and the wind lifted both of them off the ground tangled in each other’s arms.
Hazel couldn’t watch all the men at the same time. She turned this way and that, but she couldn’t help them all. She might not be able to help anybody but herself, but she had to try. She knew one thing for certain about these holes. They came from the curse. Althea used her power to close the hole, so Hazel could do the same thing.
She dropped one sword and raised her hand to the hole. The wind gave one last mighty suck that pulled Sinclair, Douglas, and Athol into it. The tentacle holding Fergus withdrew to pull him in, too. Hazel had to act fast. She summoned all her power and concentrated all her thoughts on closing the hole forever.
At that moment, another tentacle shot out. It whizzed so fast she didn’t see it until it was too late. It caught her around the waist, pulled her into the hole, and the darkness closed over her head.
A deafening crash hit her banged her ears and she fell against something hard. It knocked the wind out of her. For a long moment, she lay bruised and terrified before she dared to open her eyes.
She sat up on a flat grey surface as hard as any stone. The instant she touched it, everyth
ing made sense. She was lying on solid concrete. She pushed herself upright. The first thing she saw was Fergus lying on his side in front of her face. Blood trickled from his nose and mouth. His hair hung sideways over his forehead, and he kept his eyes closed. His flesh and skin sagged toward the ground. He was still unconscious.
Hazel turned her head and found herself face to face with the shiny blue side of a gleaming race care. Its chrome wheels shone in the sun, and its tires sat on the concrete near Hazel’s hand. She looked over her shoulder. A bronze sedan sat behind her. That’s when she noticed the white painted line running under her hip between the cars. She was in a parking lot.
She climbed painfully to her feet, but she already knew what she would see. She gazed out over a sea of cars. The distinct shape of a shopping mall stood up tall in the distance. People strolled through the parking lot going both ways.
Hazel thought fast. She had to get Fergus out of here before someone noticed a Highlander lying unconscious in a modern American parking lot. Maybe all these people didn’t notice the burst of light and sound that accompanied Hazel and Fergus coming through the portal, but they couldn’t fail to notice him. He would stick out like a sore thumb in this world.
She looked in on the scene from the point of view of the person she used to be before she traveled to Urlu in the first place. She glanced down at the gown she wore when she met Fergus in the clearing. Both of them looked like they just stepped off the stage of a local theater.
She knelt down next to him. He didn’t respond to her touch. She felt his head and limbs. He didn’t appear to have any broken bones. When would he come to? She had no way of knowing and no way to move him. He was too heavy to carry.
She could try to use her power, but they might not work the same way here that they worked in that magical world beyond the reaches of time. They might not work here at all. Magic had a way of failing in this sterile world of metal and glass.
Destiny Stone (Phoenix Throne Book 3): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 7
