Highlander's Magic

by Joanne Wadsworth

  Cover Copy

  Traveling through time…for a Highlander.

  Wearing the four-hundred-year-old amulet she inherited, Marie MacLean enters a faerie circle near the ruins of Dunyvaig Castle. A veil rises. A warrior from the past makes a wish to win the war against the Chief of MacLean, and as the veil thins, she falls through into his time.

  Highland warrior Archie MacDonald has been gifted a faerie who insists she’s from the future and the progeny of both his and his enemy’s clan. The last thing he expects is for her to stir him on a level he’s never experienced before. All he needs is her aid in the war, no matter where she believes she’s from.

  Determined to keep history on course, Marie enters the crux of the battle. She must ensure the MacLean chief who has yet to father her paternal line isn’t killed, and all without perishing herself. Can Archie see past his need for revenge before he kills his enemy? If he wishes to save the woman who’s crossed centuries to be by his side, he must.

  Highlander’s Magic

  by Joanne Wadsworth

  Highlander Heat, #2

  Dedication

  For my son, Rocco, who adores animals and has such a caring heart. Hugs.

  Acknowledgements

  Huge thanks go to my hubby, Jason, and kiddies, Marisa, Caleb, Cruise and Rocco, an incredibly supportive family who allow me so much time to write. My love for you is endless.

  I also have the most amazing editor, Penny Barber. The absolute best.

  For my readers, I can’t thank you enough for joining me, and taking this journey to where imagination and magic soar.

  Table of Contents

  Cover Copy

  Highlander’s Magic

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Author’s Note

  Joanne Wadsworth

  Books by Joanne Wadsworth

  Highlander’s Castle

  Witness Pursuit

  Bonus Novella: Hunter

  Cover Copy: Hunter

  Hunter

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Protector

  Warrior

  Sample Chapter 1: Enchanter

  Copyright: Highlander’s Magic

  Chapter 1

  The ruins of Dunyvaig Castle, on the Isle of Islay, Scotland.

  “I can’t believe these ruins were once the home of Mum’s MacDonald ancestors.” Marie MacLean belted her white woolen coat tighter. Dunyvaig Castle had stood guard over this sought after entrance of Lagavulin Bay, when a powerful stronghold and sea base meant the difference between life and death.

  “Clan MacDonald ruled Islay centuries ago.” Katherine, her twin, flapped her tour brochure open where they stood high on the craggy rise. “Yet Dad’s clan MacLean ancestors continually feuded with them from the nearby isles. We’re like the progeny of two bickering clans who knew very little peace.”

  “What about poor Mary?” Marie rubbed the silver amulet at her neck. The MacDonald clan crest was engraved on one side, and on the reverse, the MacLean’s crest. “The two clans should have come together in harmony the day Mary MacLean wed the MacDonald chief. Instead the feud became bitterer.”

  “Does the feud intrigue you because of Mary’s gift?”

  “Absolutely. Mary bequeathed this amulet to her eldest daughter requesting it be passed down through the generations until it once again came into the possession of a MacLean. That took over four-hundred years. It’s as if Mary is trying to send me a message, only I’ve no idea what.”

  “And you’re definitely the eldest daughter of both a MacDonald and a MacLean, Marie. She wanted you to have her amulet.”

  “Yes, but what am I supposed to do with it?” She hadn’t removed Mary’s gift since receiving it a few months ago on her twenty-first birthday. Mere weeks before Mum lost her battle with cancer, she’d placed it around her neck. Mum’s final wish had been for her and Katherine to bring the amulet home to Dunyvaig Castle as Mary had requested. So halfway around the world they’d traveled, from Australia’s Gold Coast, and then by ferry from Scotland’s mainland to this isle.

  Such a rugged, yet beautiful land. Marie lifted her face toward the sky. It would be even more picturesque if the heavy gray clouds above diffused. “It looks like we’re in for some bad weather.”

  “A storm I’d say. It’s strange how their seasons are in the reverse to ours. It’s autumn here, while Down Under we left spring behind. Everything feels off kilter.” Katherine ambled into Dunyvaig’s faerie circle and sat on the center stone. The tartan red and blue of her woolen coat made her a bright beacon of color. “Come and sit with me.”

  Marie perched on the edge of the large flat stone. “Why are we sitting when we should be exploring?”

  “Because I’m going to help you figure out what to do with Mary’s amulet.”

  “I wish Mary had left more precise instructions.”

  “Well, Mum said we had to—” Katherine blinked furiously, suddenly fighting tears.

  They talked about Mum all the time, but grief still consumed them. She’d been forty-five. In the prime of her life.

  Katherine scrubbed a hand over her face, composing herself. “I’m sorry. I miss Mum so much. This would’ve been the trip of a lifetime for her.”

  “Which is why we promised her we’d come. We’re going to live her dreams for her. At least we get to do this together.” She hugged Katherine, and her sister’s sweet vanilla scent, the same as what their mother had worn, soothed her. It wasn’t fair they’d lost both their parents. Dad a year past, and now Mum. It was only her and Katherine.

  “Promise me you’ll never leave me like they did.” Katherine squeezed her back.

  “I promise. I love you.” Her sister was her life.

  “I love you too.” Katherine let out a long breath. “So, back to amulet. You brought it here to Dunyvaig. We can check off that request.”

  “The first and only request following the bestowment. Hmm, maybe if we look around I might have an epiphany.” This place was so remote with its grassy moors rolling for miles in both directions.

  “Good idea. Let’s do that. This faerie circle is pretty amazing. Let me take a picture of us before we leave it.” Katherine lugged her cell phone from her jeans pocket and readied it for a shot. “Get closer, sis.”

  She flattened her cheek to Katherine’s and smiled. Throughout their lives, they’d done everything together, and this was yet another adventure.

  “Smile.” Katherine clicked and checked the picture. “Mirror images. I could’ve just taken a photo of me and not worried about you.”

  “You say that all the time.” She knocked her shoulder against Katherine’s, rose and wandered inside the circle. “I wonder how the faeries got these stones here. They’re massive.” Nine six-foot high stones stood six feet apart around the perimeter. A tenth stone, short enough to sit on but still as wide, sat plumb in the center. “What else does the brochure say about this circle, other than it’s sacred?”

  “Just to watch for changes within. It can go from still to wildly windy, but most of all, if a haze surrounds it, the faeries are at play.”

  “A haze? You mean like—”

  Thunder rumbled out at sea, and birds nesting along the rocky shoreline cackled and took flight. Their wings brushed the water as they flew across the inlet to the rushes hugging the other side’s marshy edge. />
  “Bad weather is getting closer, Marie. Maybe we should come back and explore tomorrow.” Her sister stood.

  “We can give it more time. If need be, we’ll make a mad dash to the car. This is a magical circle. Perhaps we could simply wish for fine weather.”

  “Wishes shouldn’t be squandered on weather.” A gleam lit Katherine’s eyes. “If we’re going to make one, it has to be interesting.”

  Katherine had always loved to make wishes, by the first star she saw at night, to blowing out her birthday candles, to when she lost an eyelash. She’d never been able to stop her sister from making them.

  “Come on.” Katherine gripped her hands. “I’ll make a wish for something both of us have always wanted.”

  “I’d like an endless supply of chocolate.” That would be fabulous.

  Katherine chuckled. “Yeah, we can buy chocolate anytime. How about an endless supply of adventure? You can’t always buy that.”

  “Sure. It’s why we’re here.”

  “Great.” Katherine winked. “Then here’s my wish. To the faerie folk of Dunyvaig Castle, I wish for a moment of magic, for Marie and me to live, for us to have untold adventure on your stunning isle. Bring on the fun. Bring on the—”

  Thunder boomed and lightning slashed the rippling waves of the bay with a sizzling crackle.

  “Okay, I think a mad dash is now in order.” She lugged Katherine toward the edge of the circle, hit a hazy barrier and bounced to the ground. “Ouch.” She rubbed her nose. “Where’d that come from?”

  “Whoa.” Gaping, Katherine hauled her to her feet. “It’s like a veil’s come down.”

  “You mean you weren’t joking when you mentioned the haze?” Beyond the fog, the darkening waves rolled in with a pounding crash.

  “This can’t be right.” Katherine inched forward and patted the sides. “Except there’s really something here. How do we get out?”

  “Try the other side.” This place already spoke of mystery and intrigue, and now it had ramped right up.

  “I thought the brochure was simply playing up the whole mystical fae thing.” Katherine tapped around the perimeter, knocking on something solid, yet nothing but foggy air swirled. She shot her a wide-eyed look. “Obviously not, and I just made a wish.”

  “There’s got to be a way out. Even if we have to dig, we’ll find it.” Marie grabbed her sister’s hand. Low cloud lit with lightning coasted across the sea. Within the mist a vessel materialized, one reminiscent of a sixteenth century Highland birlinn. “Do you see that, sis? Or is my imagination really going wild?”

  Katherine gasped. “A-are those warriors onboard that thing?”

  Thirty or so armed men wearing green and blue plaids plunged their oars into the sea and powered their vessel in. At the helm, a commanding man pumped his fist into the air and bellowed orders for his men to lower the sail.

  “I…um…I’d say so.”

  “They’re heading right toward us.” Katherine pressed her palms against the barrier. “I think my wish just got a whole lot more adventurous than I expected.”

  “Y-yeah, you’re banned now from making—look at the ruins.” The manned birlinn now appeared to be the least of her and Katherine’s problems. “You see the castle, right?”

  Her sister gawked past the clingy mist. “Holy moly. Birlinns. Warriors. Do you think we just fell back through time?”

  “Either that or the locals play out reenactments, of an incredibly spectacular sort.” She scrubbed her eyes with her knuckles, but the castle remained, standing three stories high on the hill. Battlements topped fortified walls, and candles lit tower windows. In the descending dark, the castle guarded the bay like a sentinel.

  “’Tis our captain, Archie MacDonald,” a guardsmen called as he rushed along the top of the barbican. This was too real to be a reenactment. No one could rebuild a castle in seconds.

  A portcullis rose from within the stone-arched entrance gate, its clunky chains reverberating across the moors. Boots clipped loudly on the stones as a warrior strode out in leather pants and a thick fur vest over a dark linen shirt. He halted at the edge of their circle. “Prepare the great hall for our men’s arrival.” He palmed the hilt of the sword at his side. “My brother returns.”

  Marie waved her hand in front of the warrior. “Okay, he can’t see us but we can see him. We must be between times, protected somehow by the veil.”

  “Here, but not here.” Katherine glanced at the bay. “Those men are huge. Look at the size of them.”

  Talk about intimidating. Highlanders, and clearly born of Vikings. Onboard, the men slashed their oars in the reverse direction and slowed their vessel. It skimmed the water as it cruised to the sea-gate. With another booming command from the captain, two of the men leaped into the waist-deep water, seized the bow and roped it to a catch alongside the stone landing.

  One by one, they disembarked, jogged up the trail and disappeared into the keep. The captain followed, veering toward the warrior standing before them. “John, is all well?”

  “Well enough. Welcome home, Archie.” John grasped the captain’s shoulders. “Do you have any further word on the chief?”

  “I have but ’tis no’ good. The king’s men have apprehended Angus, as well as his brother, Donald MacDonald of Sleat. I spoke with Donald’s second at Dunscaith Castle afore I traveled to Edinburgh.”

  “You’ve been all the way to see the king?”

  “Aye. Angus is being kept under strict guard, in the highest level of the tower. He and Donald have their own chambers. They’re together, yet isolated from the other prisoners.” He paced, displaying a massive two-handed claymore holstered to his broad back.

  A warrior born to fight, wearing a great plaid secured over his chest with a silver pin and belted low at his waist with a leather girdle. She surely wouldn’t mind meeting a man like—oh, what was she thinking? Admiring a man when she and Katherine were trapped like this. Where was her head?

  Archie stopped, planted his feet wide. “There isnae any way to rescue him, or at least no’ since our arrival raised suspicion and the number of guards increased. I left after being permitted a short conversation with him.”

  “What did he say? Why was he taken?”

  “Angus spoke of a missive he received from the king requesting he present himself at court to atone for his feuding with Mary’s brother, the MacLean of Duart. The missive had gone to all three chiefs involved in the feud, including Donald. Angus had no intention of presenting himself, but seeking further counsel with his brother when he made the trip to Skye. The king’s men caught him. Donald as well.”

  “Hell, the king needs to leave us alone to resolve our own issues, no’ alter the way we settle our disputes. He clearly wishes to stamp his mark of ownership on the isles, to control us as he does the rest of Scotland.” John clenched his fists. “Angus should have taken more care. Mary is so close to giving birth.”

  “There’s naught we can do about Angus, no’ since the king will have his way. Angus said the king is after a settlement, but without Lachlan MacLean, naught can be conferred. I say ’tis better MacLean be removed from the discussions. Angus believes so too. He instructed me to see to MacLean’s death, ensuring the king no longer has a reason to hold either him or his brother.”

  Marie grabbed Katherine. “He must be talking about Mary after she wed Angus MacDonald. We must have arrived at some point in the late 1500s.”

  “That’d make sense since you’re wearing Mary’s amulet from that time and this circle brought us here. Do you recall anything about the king capturing Angus and Donald MacDonald because of the feud? I didn’t read up like you did before we came.”

  “I do. All three chiefs involved were taken, but I’m not sure how long they were held. Mary must be here somewhere.” Incredibly, history was unfolding before her eyes. “Archie certainly can’t kill MacLean as he’s said though. If he did, he’d alter history. The king wished an intervention, and all three chiefs entered t
he discussion.” Damn, she couldn’t recall if the talks had helped though.

  “We’re in a different time, sis. History has yet to occur. Maybe we’ve been brought here for a reason. This has to have something to do with your—”

  “There’s a haze over the circle this eve.” Archie rubbed the towering stone nearest Marie. “Mayhap a touch of faerie magic wouldnae go amiss in winning this war against MacLean. He has to die.”

  John stepped in beside Archie. “It does appear the faerie folk are at play.”

  Mischievous imps for sure. These two warriors didn’t know the half of it.

  Archie pressed his palm against the veil. His shoulder-length brown hair wisped with blond fluttered in the night breeze. Marie edged closer to him. Gorgeous, if a warrior could be called such. His chin, sharply defined with a deep cleft in the center, held rugged appeal, and his eyes were a stunning shade of molten gold. She might drown in those liquid depths. “Archie, don’t make that wish and change history,” she murmured. “MacLean can’t die. It’s not his time.”

  “Did you hear that?” Archie frowned, shaking his head. “I swear I heard something. Whispers from within. Mayhap the faerie folk wish to aid us. We certainly cannae become vulnerable to an attack should MacLean take this opportunity to stake his revenge. Word will soon spread of Angus and Donald’s capture, if it has no’ already.”

  “No. I said MacLean can’t die. Don’t do it.” She pressed her hand against the barrier an inch from the warrior’s hand. Electricity buzzed through her, raising the hairs on her arms in a delicious, tingly way. She tried to inch closer.

  Katherine eyed John across from her and pressed against the veil nearest him. “Maybe this is why Mary wished for the amulet to return home. Maybe she needed help and asked the fae for aid.”

  “Do you really think so?” If her sister was right, untold adventure was on its way.

  “Why else are we here? Fae magic brought us back through time. This isn’t a reenactment.”