“You think if you bring me up from the sea that I’ll be able to work some magic to lift that curse.”
“Aye,” Lachlan replied. “Hazel and Fergus said so.”
“I can’t,” Ivy told him. “I don’t have any magic. I’m not the one who worked the spell.”
Lachlan cocked an eyebrow. “But Fergus said…”
“He told you I was under the ocean. He told you the woman you were looking for was under the ocean, and you had to bring her up. He never said I was the one who worked the spell. That was Alexis.”
Lachlan scowled deeper than ever, but he didn’t answer. His eyes darted over the ground in search of some answers.
“This is what I’m trying to tell you,” Ivy went on. “I knew that spell from the time I was a little girl. I repeated it many times. I repeated it out loud almost every night before I fell asleep. I prayed with all my heart, again and again for years, that it would work and transport me to that other world, but it never did. If I had any power at all, the spell would have happened a long time ago. It never worked until I said it with Alexis. It was her power that made the spell work, not mine. She’s the only one who can lift the curse.”
Lachlan’s head snapped up, and he fixed his eyes on her. “Are ye saying ye willnae help me? Are you saying you’ll leave me and me Clan to twist in the wind on that curse?”
“I can’t help you,” Ivy replied. “I would if I could.”
“Would ye now?” Lachlan asked. “Would ye really?”
Ivy shifted from one foot to the other. She couldn’t look at him. “It’s just an expression.”
He squared his shoulders at her. “Is that what ye came here to tell me—that ye would help me if ye could? If that’s the case, then ye must come out of the ocean. That’s what I need most, and you’re the only one as can do it.”
“I can’t do it,” she replied. “That’s what I came here to tell you—that, and the other thing. I can’t come out of the ocean. I don’t want to come out of the ocean. I want to stay down there. I’m marrying Aegir—he’s the God of the Sea. I won’t come out of the ocean, so you have to give up this quest of yours to bring me up.”
“I cannae do that,” Lachlan told her. “I must protect my Clan, and to do that, I need to bring ye up. That’s what Fergus said, and now I ken it to be true. Ye must come up, and if ye willnae do it on your own, then I must find a way to bring ye up.”
“You can’t!” she cried. “Aegir will kill you if you keep trying.”
“Kill me, will he?” Lachlan snorted. “He may try, but he’ll find my head’s a bit tougher than all that.”
“He came close the last two times. He won’t stop until he does it. He’s already annoyed with you for trying to find me and take me away from him. He’ll stop at nothing to protect his realm.”
Lachlan shook his head. “I’ll no’ quit. He can stop me taking to the sea to find ye, but he’ll no’ stop me searching. As long as this curse threatens me Clan and my lands, I’ll fight it. I’ll fight him if necessary.”
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with,” Ivy insisted. “See? Look.”
She swept her hand out to sea. A tiny craft weaseled its way between the jagged shoreline and the long island off the coast. The boat tacked across the wind to work its way down south.
While Ivy and Lachlan watched, the sun shining on the sea turned suddenly dark-gray and cold. A powerful wind kicked up, and the boat struggled to hold its course.
Ivy’s heart twisted in knots. Lachlan went very stiff and still next to her. He whispered under his breath. “Arch! Aiden!”
The wind got stronger. The boat swiveled right and left on the choppy waves. In seconds, a gale blasted up the mountain to where Ivy and Lachlan stood. It ripped at Ivy’s clothes and stung her eyes, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the fragile little boat.
All at once, a powerful blast of freezing wind struck the boat and knocked it off course. The craft heeled, tilted, and tipped over. Its mast plunged into the water. From that distance, Ivy didn’t have to see the crew fighting to stay alive.
“Why is he doing this?” Lachlan whispered. “They never did naught to him. They were going somewhere else, away of all this.”
“He’ll never stop attacking you,” Ivy replied. “You made an enemy of him trying to take me away from him.”
The sea itself roared into the air. For a fraction of an instant, it towered high over Ivy’s head. It took on the distinct shape of a face, and hard, furious eyes glared down on her and Lachlan.
Then the wave struck. It pulverized the boat under a massive thunder of boiling water. It lifted the boat out of the ocean bed and flung it hard against the mountain. The deluge of sea water rushing back into its place washed the shattered vessel down to the beach, where it lay on its side. Its hull gaped open and showed the broken bulkheads inside.
Lachlan let out a tortured gasp like he’d been shot. He started forward, but Ivy laid a hand on his arm. “Don’t go down there. He’ll do the same thing to you if you go near the water.”
“I have to help them,” Lachlan exclaimed. “My brother and my cousin are down there, and it’s me who sent them here in the first place. I must go to them.”
She held him back. “No, Lachlan. Don’t go down there. I can’t stand by and watch you get hurt, too. That’s what I came here to tell you. I can’t watch you die. You have to give up this quest of yours. You have to leave me alone down there.”
He yanked his arm out of her grasp and took off running down the mountain. By the time he got to the beach, the sun came out and the sea settled into its old calm still flatness.
Lachlan raced all the way to the beach and ran up to the boat. He swarmed over the wreck and dragged out five men. He laid them out on the beach and listened to their chests until he satisfied himself they were all breathing.
He sank to his knees next to Arch. His chin fell on his chest. “Thank Heaven!”
Ivy observed him from a distance until it was all over. She strode to his side and stared down at his bent form. She’d watched him enough times through her mirror. Now he knelt before her, a living breathing man.
She told herself a lot of stories about why she had to see him. She had to convince him to break off his search for her, to leave her alone to marry Aegir, to save his own life and the lives of his men.
When it came down to it, she wanted to see him. She wanted to see him in person. From the moment she first noticed him in her mirror standing proud and straight and tall on the Lochbuie plains, she wanted to see him. She had to.
His shoulders rose and fell when he breathed. His shirt flipped in the wind against his arms and chest. His curly golden hair fluttered around his face. He looked so much more real in person than he ever looked in her mirror. She wanted to touch him the way she touched his cheek after the shipwreck, but she didn’t dare.
His eye roved over the calm sea. “I never wanted to make an enemy of the sea. I have lived with the sea all my life, and I’ll no’ stop now. I cannae live as Laird of the Isles without the sea as a friend. Now all my plans lay in pieces at my feet. We cannae bring Kincaid to Mull without the sea. We cannae fish. We cannae do naught without the sea. This fight with your man has destroyed us more than any curse.”
His words stabbed Ivy’s heart. She wanted nothing more than to help him, but she only wound up making it worse in the end. “I better go. Just remember what I said. I’m staying under the water. Once I marry Aegir, I won’t be any more use to you—not that I was any use to you to begin with.”
She turned away and stared walking up the beach. She ached to keep talking to him, to keep looking at him, but she had to tear herself away. If she wanted to go through with this, she had to leave now.
All at once, he grabbed her arm and spun her around. “Ye dinnae have to go back, Ivy,” he replied. “Ye can come with us now. Dinnae go down there. You’ll be free.”
“I have to,” she replied. “I gave my word.”
; The instant she faced him, he dropped his hand. That touch she wanted so much vaporized to nothing. “I cannae believe ye must stop with him and leave us to it,” he exclaimed. “I cannae believe even ye would do such a thing.”
“What does that mean?” Ivy asked. “What do you mean that not even I would do such a thing? Do you consider me your enemy, too?”
“How many times must I tell ye?” he shot back. “You’re no’ my enemy, and neither is your man. I’m a friend to the sea. It’s the sea has turned against me—and for what? To protect my Clan from this curse that’s thrust upon us? Would he attack me for that? I never wanted to stop ye marrying him. Go on and marry him if ye really want to. You’ll get no argument from me, and if ye really possess no magical power that can help us against this curse, then I’ll seek ye no longer.”
He couldn’t have spoken any words better designed to destroy her. Her worst enemy couldn’t stab her heart and twist the blade the way he just did when he said those words.
What would she be if he stopped searching for her? What would she be if he really accepted her marriage to Aegir and no longer tried to stop it?
She couldn’t accept that. She turned away and started walking toward the water. She had to get out of here. She had to stop this before it went any further. She swore to herself she would never look at Lachlan McLean in her mirror again. She wouldn’t care about him. She wouldn’t wonder if he was alive or dead. She wouldn’t follow his activities from afar.
She let her eyes blur. The scene over the ocean went into a hazy watery ripple. The mirror opened to take her back to her room. She would be safe there, and Lachlan could go his own way.
She shoved his words out of her mind. She told him the truth. She couldn’t help him. Now he would stop looking for her. He would probably start looking for Alexis. That thought hurt worse than anything.
She didn’t even know this man, and already her heart ached at the thought of him caring about somebody else. Aegir. Aegir would welcome her. She could take refuge in his love and protection.
The skin of her face hit the mirror’s surface. It surrounded her all over in comfortable liquid and sucked her down the familiar void to the ocean bottom. At that moment, Lachlan rocketed forward. He put out his hand and seized her by the elbow. His voice thundered down the void. “Ivy, no!”
The mirror had already caught hold of her and dragged her under the water. By the time she realized Lachlan was still holding onto her arm, it was all over.
Chapter 4
Lachlan spun around. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He stared all around him in wonder. He stood in a room. That was certain, but it resembled no room he’d ever seen before. The walls shone iridescent mauve and pink, mixed with some shades of blue and turquoise.
An enormous bivalve shell sat against one wall under a window, and piles of pillows and duvets made up a bed inside it. Outside the window, forests of waving seaweed swayed on the current. Strange creatures bobbed and swam past before they vanished out of sight.
Before he could react, Ivy rushed at him. “You can’t be down here, Lachlan. You have to go back right away. If Aegir catches you down here, there could be big trouble. Come on! I’ll send you back right away.” She grabbed his hand and tried to tow him across the room.
He stared all around him in wonder. “Is this…is this what I think it is?”
“You have to go now,” Ivy exclaimed. “Come on!”
He took one step toward a large mirror on the wall. At that moment, a booming voice filled the room. “Can you believe those fools tried it again? I never came across such blockheaded men in my life.”
Lachlan whipped around to see an enormous man materialize out of the wall, chuckling behind his flowing gray beard. A band of seaweed crossed his broad chest. He bent down to put something against the wall, and his eyes brightened when he looked at Ivy. That’s when he noticed Lachlan standing there holding Ivy’s hand.
The man’s face turned black with rage. His arm shot out, and a powerful shockwave blasted out of his hand at Lachlan. Ivy darted in front of Lachlan. She whirled around to face him and gave him a hard shove with both hands planted on his chest. “Run!”
The shockwave struck her in the back, and she crumpled in his arms. Her knees gave out, and her eyes rolled back into her head. She sank to the floor, only Lachlan’s supporting embrace stopped her crashing down hard.
He raised his eyes to the God of the Sea standing there. For an instant, the two men glared at each other in matched hatred. A bottomless rage exploded out of Lachlan’s heart. He hated this creature for everything he’d done. This being, whatever he was, destroyed two ships and almost cost Lachlan, his brothers and his kin their lives.
He launched himself at the Sea God in blinding fury. He got halfway over Ivy’s head when his skin turned coal-gray. His face exploded out of his bones, and a muzzle full of teeth broke the surface to gnash and tear. His spine bent forward, and he turned into a raving, snarling, spitting wolf.
He couldn’t move through this watery environment the same way he could in the air, but that didn’t matter. He knew how to fight, and he would vent all his frustration and desperation on this filthy underwater demon.
Aegir took a moment to react. Lachlan flew over Ivy’s head with a vicious growl. He made it within inches of Aegir’s face when the Sea God brought up one massive hand. He seized the wolf by the throat and hurled it across the room.
By some magic trick, the wall gave way and Lachlan sailed straight through it. He landed hard on his side out in that underwater landscape. A few fish scuttled away at his sudden appearance, but most of the inhabitants paid no attention to him whatever. They blew bubbles and waved their fins around.
The fall stunned Lachlan for an instant. The next moment, he launched himself to his feet. Rage burned in his mind. He wanted to kill Aegir for everything he’d done to Lachlan and to Ivy.
He loped a few paces toward the wall he just flew through, but his mind cleared before he got there. He was under the ocean. This was Aegir’s world. He was God here. He could command all the forces of the ocean to track Lachlan down and destroy him.
An enormous castle constructed of that same iridescent material rose up tall and grand before Lachlan’s eyes, undulating on the never-ending current. Creatures and beings of all kinds passed back and forth through the walls.
Lachlan shifted into his human form and thought fast. He would never get near Ivy now. Aegir would be occupied dealing with the consequences of Ivy accidentally bringing Lachlan here, right under Aegir’s very nose.
That little situation would keep Aegir busy for the time being, but Lachlan understood his predicament well enough not to attack the palace outright. He had to find a way to get out of here.
He took one more good look around him. This time, his judgment didn’t fail him. His emotions didn’t cloud his decisions. He set off through the strange landscape at an easy stride. He got five or six paces before he realized he wasn’t actually walking. He was floating a few inches above the ground.
He traveled a long way. He didn’t care about anything right now except putting as much distance as possible between himself and the castle.
What was Ivy doing right now? Was she all right? Had Aegir accidentally killed her? If he had, he would seek revenge against Lachlan.
That was the last thing Lachlan needed right now. He never wanted to get mixed up in this stupid war. Getting Ivy out of the ocean was one thing. Coming to the sea bottom to battle her raging husband—that was a different story altogether.
Lachlan would give anything to consult Fergus Cameron right now. Then he remembered. Fergus no longer possessed Faery sight. Lachlan would just have to deal with this on his own.
The image of Ivy crumpling in his arms hovered before his eyes. One minute, her bright gaze pierced his soul. Her sweet breath gasped in his face. The next instant, all the light went out of her eyes and she folded into a pile of lifeless flesh at his feet.
Her silky
black hair framed her delicate face. Her lips quivered when she spoke his name. Her voice burned his insides when she said it. He wanted her to keep saying it, to keep looking up at him with that bright, holy gaze of hers when she said his name.
She was the woman he’d been looking for. All his fantasies and dreams about finding a woman like Sadie, but not Sadie—it all came true when he met her on that hilltop. She was the one. She came from that other world, the world where women fought side by side with men. He had to get her. He had to take her out of here and get her back to Mull.
He shook those thoughts out of his head. She couldn’t be the one. Didn’t she just spend a whole lot of effort to convince him to leave her alone? She didn’t want to leave the undersea world. She wanted to marry Aegir. That’s what she told him.
He would probably never see her again. Either way, he couldn’t go back to the world above through the same channel she used to bring him here. He had to find another way, but where?
He walked until he started to get tired. He could walk for weeks across every kind of terrain on Mull and never get tired. This water made traveling slow and laborious. He inspected the sky, but he couldn’t see any change from when he first exited the castle.
He began to search for a place to rest when a good-sized cuttlefish slithered past his view. It waved its tentacles in the water, and a distinct voice came from its beaked mouth. “The wolf! The wolf!”
It raced away and vanished down a hole in a large coral bank. Lachlan stopped in his tracks and eyed the spot. Now that was something that should not have happened down here.
He turned aside and scaled the bank. He placed his fingers and toes in the clefts and climbed up to the hole. It turned out to be a lot larger than he expected, and he crawled inside.
Eerie light glowed through the coral all around him, giving off just enough light to see. Lachlan crawled on his hands and knees until he found the cuttlefish cowering in a back corner. He sat down on the rough coral to rest.
The cuttlefish whimpered in terror. “Oooh! The wolf!”
Sea Queen_A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 3
