by Donna Grant
Donald’s dark eyes blazed with hatred. “You’ll have to kill me.”
Alistair lowered his sword and took a step back. “I’m no’ spilling the blood of my brother. Everyone here saw your defeat.”
Daman couldn’t be happier. Alistair’s actions proved he was meant to be laird. The best thing to do would be to kill Donald, but Daman understood why Alistair hadn’t been able to.
Daman was walking toward them when Donald reached for his boot. Daman opened his mouth to call out to Alistair, but there was no sound. Daman rushed to Donald, but Donald had already risen to his feet and plunged a dagger into Alistair’s back by the time Daman reached him. Daman could hear Innes screaming.
Daman slammed into Donald, sending him crashing to the ground. Daman knelt beside Alistair and cradled his head as he looked into the dying man’s eyes.
“Doona let him rule,” Alistair said. “Doona let him hurt Innes.” Then he issued his last breath, his eyes closing.
Daman gently laid Alistair down and gathered his sword as he stood. He pointed to Donald’s sword with his own, waiting for Donald to pick up the weapon and face him.
As soon as he did, Daman attacked. He swung his sword in wide arcs as metal met metal time and again. Donald was taller by a few inches, but he didn’t have the skill Daman did.
Daman blocked Donald’s sword countless times. He kicked Donald and slammed his elbow into his face, which only caused Donald to become angrier. His swings went wide as his emotions took over.
He waited for Donald to get close and then plunged his sword into the man, feeling it sink deep into Donald’s body. Surprise showed on Donald’s face, as if he couldn’t believe he was dying. Daman then shoved Donald off his blade and turned around.
“Daman!” Innes shouted as she came running at him.
CHAPTER NINE
Daman gathered Innes in his arms and held tight, turning his face against her neck. She had lost both brothers that day. Daman should have paid closer attention. He might have been able to save Alistair.
“It’s not your fault,” she whispered, her hands stroking his head. “Alistair should never have turned his back on Donald.”
Daman opened his eyes to find Ronan and David watching them. A moment later, two more men rode up beside Ronan. Daman released Innes and pushed her behind him as he glanced over his shoulder to see if any of Donald’s men would attack. There were just two men who walked out from behind trees to stand over Donald and Alistair’s dead bodies.
There was no doubt Daman could take Ronan and the others. He would rather do it after Innes was back at the castle, but he doubted David would allow her to leave.
David’s lips compressed for a moment. “What a waste,” he said. “Alistair was a good man. That was quick thinking, Daman.”
Innes stood behind him, her hands gripping his tartan. Daman gave her a push. But just as he thought, she wouldn’t leave.
“Daman has always been quick,” Ronan said.
David grunted. “So you told me.”
Daman looked between the two before his gaze shifted to the newcomers. One man had sandy blond hair and yellow-brown eyes while the other had light brown hair and hazel eyes. Their gazes were a mixture of shock, surprise, and happiness.
“Daman,” said the man with the blond hair. “You know us.”
He snorted and shook his head. He didn’t know these men.
“He doesna recognize us, Morcant,” said the second man.
Daman took a step back. He needed to get Innes to safety. There was no way he was turning her over to David Sinclair. Not now. Not after she had lost her family.
“Where have you been?” Ronan asked. He nudged his horse and guided it across the border onto MacKay land. He drew up before getting too close. “We’ve been looking for you. It’s been a long time since the gypsy camp.”
A flash of brightly colored skirts in the grass flashed in Daman’s mind a heartbeat before an old gypsy woman’s face, her dark eyes filled with anguish and fury.
Ilinca.
The name sprang into his mind, but Daman knew that was the old woman’s name. She was a witch. A gypsy witch. She was the one responsible for putting him in the cave and having him sleep for two hundred years.
He hated gypsies for what she had done.
Daman jerked his head to Innes to see her dark coloring. Gypsy. He squeezed his eyes closed and turned his head back to Ronan.
Ronan slowly dismounted from his horse and dropped the reins. It made Daman frown because he had seen Ronan do that action before, he just didn’t know how or when. Somehow, Daman also knew that he had picked up the reins from Ronan afterwards.
“It was my fault,” Ronan said. He ran a hand down his face. “I can admit that now. I should never have gone to see Ana those times. I was the one who urged the three of you to accompany me,” he said, motioning from Daman to the other two men.
Ronan cleared his throat. “You were the smart one. You remained outside the camp.”
Daman closed his eyes as his head felt like it was splitting open. He grabbed it, doubling over from the agony. As if from a great distance, he could hear Innes calling his name. It took Daman a moment to realize he had fallen to his knees.
More flashes of faces and events filled his mind in rapid succession. He opened his mouth and tried to bellow, to ask someone for help, but there was only silence and the roar of pain.
Three pairs of large hands gripped him, steadying him. Daman kept his eyes closed for fear of letting in any light that might make the throbbing worse.
He saw Ronan, laughing as he put his arm around a dark-haired woman with bright skirts. Those same skirts he had seen lying in the grass. With blood.
Ana.
Daman felt something tighten around his chest, cutting off his air. He fought to fill his lungs with air even as an image of Morcant held immobile by Illinca filled his mind.
Then there was Stefan. The rage he dealt with constantly taking him over. In a blink, all three of his friends – his brothers – were gone. Illinca had used her magic to curse them.
All of his memories returned in a tidal wave, drowning him in sorrow, happiness, anger, and hope. And just like that, the pounding in his head stopped and the constriction around his chest eased. Daman remained still for a moment.
“He’s no’ rocking anymore,” Morcant said.
So the three of them were holding him. Daman lifted his head, intending to talk to them. But all he saw was David holding Innes who had tears coursing down her face as she shouted his name over and over.
Daman threw off his friends’ hold and jumped to his feet. How he wanted to demand that David release Innes. No sooner had the thought entered his head, than the words left his mouth.
Everyone stilled.
Innes blinked at him. She shrugged out of David’s hold and took a step toward him. “You spoke.”
Daman reached out and pulled her against him. “Aye. I can speak again.”
“What happened to you?” she asked with a sniff.
Daman leaned back. He gazed into her dark eyes before he looked over her head to David. Then he turned his head to the side to where Ronan, Morcant, and Stefan stood.
How many times had his friends told him that asking for help wasn’t a sign of weakness? To him, however, it was. Illinca had taught him the importance of asking for help by taking away his voice.
“I remember. Everything.” He drew in a deep breath. It felt great to be able to speak again. It felt even better to see his friends.
Now he knew why he’d had that unshakable feeling of needing to search for something. He was meant to look for Morcant, Ronan, and Stefan.
Instead, they had found him.
“Everything?” Stefan asked.
Daman nodded. “I saw her curse each of you. I saw each of you disappear. I crossed into the camp, and she used her magic to keep me still. She said she’d had a vision, knew we would be there, but she hadn’t seen Ana’s death.”
> “I still say Illinca needs to die,” Morcant mumbled.
Innes’s head jerked toward Morcant. “Did you say Illinca?”
“What of her?” Ronan asked.
“She’s the grandmother of one of my ancestors, Amalia. Amalia brought Daman to our land and married the MacKay laird.”
Stefan scowled. “Are you telling me that you were no’ in a dark prison, Daman?”
“I was asleep,” he answered. “I woke in a cave. It was Innes who pulled me out of my sleep.”
Innes touched his cheek. “It was foretold that he would save our clan.”
“So he has,” David said. “Alistair couldna kill his own brother, but Donald didna have such morals. With Donald dead, the MacKays will need a new laird. I think you’ve found him, Innes.”
Daman saw her smile as she looked at him. He shook his head. “I’m no’ a leader.”
“You always have been,” Ronan said. “You just didna want to take the role.”
Daman faced his friends. “I couldna remember any of you. I knew I was missing something, but I couldna figure out what it was.”
Morcant was the first to enfold him in a hug and pound on his back. Daman was smiling when Morcant stepped away, his head down as he brushed something from his cheek.
“Leana is making him soft,” Stefan said right before he pulled Daman in for a hug. “It’s good to have us all together again.”
Then it was Ronan’s turn. Daman couldn’t be happier. Until he saw David. His smile vanished as he faced the laird.
“I know you and Alistair had an agreement,” Daman began.
David held up his hand and grinned. “I doona have to ask Innes what she wants. I saw it in the way she couldna get to you fast enough. I wouldna dream of coming between the two of you.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard things you didna understand today,” Daman said.
David laughed and mounted his horse. “I know all about Ilinca’s curse and the four Highlanders she bound. It’s been a story told for generations in my family. Why do you think we had the mirror Ronan was trapped in?” he asked before he turned his horse around and rode away.
“Will you help me with Alistair’s body?” Daman asked his friends.
The four draped Alistair across his horse. Daman wasn’t surprised to see Donald’s two men cart Donald’s body off into the forest. He knew their faces, and he wasn’t sure he would allow them back onto MacKay land.
That’s when he stopped his train of thought. It wasn’t his land.
“What next?” Innes asked him.
He looked down at her. Her eyes were still red from her tears. He wanted to ask her to be his, but it wasn’t the right time. She needed to bury her brothers.
“We bring Alistair back home.”
Innes nodded and turned to Ronan, Morcant, and Stefan. “You are welcome to come with us.”
Us. Daman wrapped an arm around her, feeling more free than he ever thought possible. The only way things could get any better was if Innes agreed to be his wife.
He inwardly smiled. Wife. It was something he hadn’t ever considered, and yet as soon as he had woken, that’s all he had thought about. Well, not so much making her his wife but remaining with her. It was all the same in the end.
EPILOGUE
Three months later...
Innes was holding her cheeks, they hurt from laughing so hard. It was only a few months since Alistair’s death, but Daman had helped her heal in ways he would never know.
Donald’s body had never been recovered. Neither were the two men who freed him from the prison, which was fine with her.
Just as she’d assumed, the clan eagerly accepted Daman as their laird. Whether he knew it or not, he had the commanding presence, intellect, and warrior mentality that made a great laird. People recognized that.
In the months he had been laird, there wasn’t just peace with the Sinclairs. He, Ronan, Stefan, and Morcant, along with a handful of MacKay men, stole back the sheep the Blairs had taken.
The Blairs tried to steal them again, but Daman had been prepared for them. The Blairs now knew that the MacKays weren’t a clan to be messed with. Retribution would be swift if they did.
Daman’s laughter rang out in the hall as Meg elbowed Ronan in the stomach. Innes had heard each of their stories of how the men were cursed and how they came to be in this time. Their stories of finding love were even more interesting.
Innes had slept in Daman’s bed every night since returning to the castle. She wondered how much longer he would take before he asked her to be his. She was growing tired of waiting.
“I hated Ilinca,” Stefan said. “My first thought was to kill her when I realized I was out of the darkness. I still hate her. Some,” he added as he looked at Morvan. “She did bring me to my woman.”
Morcant lifted his goblet. “To our women. Even I’ll thank Ilinca for that.”
Innes watched as Daman smiled and lifted his goblet with the others, but he was restless. “What is it?” she leaned over and asked.
He shook his head.
Innes knew him well enough to know the look pinching his lips. He was worrying over something.
She rose and sat on his lap. When his gaze met hers, she touched his face. “I wonder, Daman, if you know that I love you.”
“Aye, lass. I know,” he said, his face softening. “Just as you know I love you.”
It was the first time he had said the words. She did know it by the way he touched her, treated her, and the way he spoke to her. But a woman needed to hear it all the same.
“Then when are you going to ask me to be yours?”
He tugged at her long, dark hair. She had left it free because he had asked her to. “I wanted to give you time. You lost both of your brothers in one day.”
“All I ever need is you.”
Daman set his goblet down on the table and cupped her face with his hands. “Innes MacKay, yours was the only voice I heard in my sleep. Yours was the only touch I felt. As soon as I woke, all I wanted was to find you. Even without my voice, we were able to communicate. With a voice or without, I’m no’ me without you.
“I wasna going to let David have you that day. I didna care if I had to fight thousands of armies. I was willing to do it to have you by my side, to have you as mine. From the first moment you spoke, from the first time you touched me, I’ve been yours.”
Innes felt the tears spill down her face. Daman’s face swam in her vision as she listened to his words.
“Be mine. For now and always. Will you consent to be my wife and rule this clan beside me?”
Her throat was clogged with emotion. All she could do was nod, and then he was kissing her.
Gypsies, magic, curses, and love. Innes didn’t know how Ilinca knew the four Highlanders would bring about such change in the clans, and it didn’t matter. The men were there, and the women who fell in love with them were willing to stand with them no matter what the future held.
Daman had saved the MacKay clan. He had also saved her. That last bit might not have been in the prophecy, but Innes didn’t care. She knew the truth in her gypsy heart.
“Marry me. Right now,” Daman said between kisses. “I’ve had the priest waiting for weeks.”
Innes laughed as she jumped up and started running out of the castle toward the chapel. She didn’t get very far before Daman grabbed her hand.
Then they were in the chapel, surrounded by friends – family, really – as they became husband and wife.
“My wife,” Daman said with a smile.
“My rogue.”
Look for the next LaRue story – MOON THRALL – Coming April 13, 2015!
It was the smell of bacon frying that pulled him from sleep. Court threw an arm over his eyes to block out the light coming through the row of windows behind him.
“This is beyond anything I’ve read in years,” his brother Kane said.
There was a thud that Court recognized as Kane firmly setting down his mug of cof
fee. Court released a breath, hoping to fall back asleep quickly. It wasn’t going to be easy when Kane was sitting at the table six feet away.
“What now?” Riley asked.
His cousin from Lyons Point had been sharing Kane’s apartment for weeks now, and it looked like she had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
“This...well, there’s no other way to put it. It’s shit,” Kane grumbled.
Court sat up and glared at both of them. It was wasted since Riley was focused on cooking and Kane was absorbed in reading the paper.
“It’s too damn early in the morning for this,” Court said as he rose from the couch and shuffled into the kitchen. He palmed a mug and poured himself some coffee.
Riley chuckled as she munched on a slice of crispy bacon and eyed him. “It’s not early for us.”
“Perhaps if you got in at a reasonable hour,” Kane said as he set down the paper. “Besides, tell me again why you aren’t at your place?”
Court took two sips of coffee and let the caffeine settle in his stomach before he replied. “It’s not my fault the women won’t leave me alone.”
“You might try not sleeping with the nut jobs,” Riley stated and pulled out the last of the bacon before she dumped eggs into the pan and began to scramble them.
Court frowned as he looked at the food, feeling a little jealous that he was missing out on such a delicious start to the day. “Do you cook for Kane every morning?”
Kane sat back in his chair. “Sometimes I cook.”
Riley shot Kane a smile. Court hadn’t been sure anyone could bring Kane out of his funk after the chaos that happened in Lyons Point when he had been cursed and sent after Lincoln’s woman. Riley was doing what no one else could.
Kane wasn’t his easygoing self – yet. But he was getting there. He didn’t snap at people as often, and Court even saw his mouth easing into what could almost be a smile more and more.
