With a grin, Justin used his foot to shove Dale one more time. The man on the floor grunted as his second leg slipped over the edge and dangled into the hole.
The effort left Justin off-balance for just a moment and, in that moment, everything happened at once.
“What have you done?” Sallie screamed, straining to run forward.
Only the thin strip of material in Iain’s grip held her back. Until it gave with a ripping sound that tore at Iain’s heart. The sword slashed through the air, slicing into Sallie’s forearms as she lifted them to shield herself.
With a fury cry drawn from deep in his soul, Iain was airborne, leaping toward Sallie’s attacker as she fell to the ground. Justin swung the sword around and up, puncturing into Iain’s chest. The blade drove deep, piercing through muscle and bone as Iain threw himself into Justin.
Nothing so simple as a mortal wound could stop him. Not now. Not with Sallie’s life hanging in the balance.
He charged forward, not stopping, fighting through the pain as the sword cut deeper still, its tip finding exit from his body through his back. He didn’t stop until his hands closed around Justin’s neck.
“What are you?” the other man managed to choke out before Iain’s grasp tightened, strangling off his air.
“Naught but a ghost,” Iain whispered in return, loosening his grip only when Sallie’s screams brought him back to his senses.
As he released Justin, he shoved him backward, sending the man stumbling away from him, away from Sallie. Justin’s feet slid in the loose gravel, his arms wind-milling as he struggled to regain his balance. He might have, too, if it hadn’t been for Dale’s prone figure beside the shaft opening.
Iain ignored Justin’s cry for help as he tumbled into the gaping hole, his full attention turned to Sallie. Blood soaked her shirt from the shoulder wound that had reopened in her struggles. It also dripped down her arms and into her lap from the slices into her forearms.
“Stay with me, my love,” Iain murmured, dropping to his knees beside her. “We’ll get you help.”
“You’d better help you, first,” she said weakly, pointing to the sword that still jutted from his chest.
How could he have forgotten? With both hands wrapped around the shaft of the weapon, he gave it a mighty tug and dislodged it from his chest, tossing it to the ground once it was out. He paid only the slightest attention to the fact that it hurt much less coming out than it had going in.
He gathered Sallie in his arms and rose to his feet, his only thoughts on how quickly he could get her out of the mine where she could receive the proper medical attention.
“You were telling the truth, weren’t you?” she asked, her face wet with tears. “There’s no blood at all, even though that sword should have killed you. You are a ghost, aren’t you?”
“There’s no’ a need for you to fash yerself over such things now. We’re going to get you out of here and all patched up, aye?”
“Don’t leave me, Iain. I need you to stay here with me.”
She pleaded with him as if the decision were his to make. He’d already told her the decision wasn’t his. If it were up to him, he’d spend the rest of his days right here with her.
Behind him, Justin’s cries abruptly silenced and an eerie green mist wafted around his knees. He’d seen such a mist before, each time the witch had taken one of the men from the battlefield.
“The time has come, Iain. You’ve saved the lass. You’ve proved yerself and earned yer reward.”
Soni stood only feet away from him, the green mist swirling around her like a cocoon. A cocoon her extended arm invited him to join her inside.
“No’ this very moment, Soni. Please,” he said, tightening his hold on Sallie. “I’ve need of a bit of time. I’ve need to deliver the lass out of the mine. She’s hurt and needs care. If I leave her here, I canna say when someone will find her to get her that help.”
“That’s no’ yer responsibility, Iain. We’d a bargain, aye? Ye’ were sent here to perform a task. Now that ye’ve done so, ye’ must return to where ye are supposed to be.”
*
It was all true! Every single word Iain had said to her. All true.
Sallie tightened her fingers in the cloth of Iain’s shirt, determined not to let this woman in the mist, this witch, take him away from her. She’d fight for him, if only she didn’t feel so light-headed.
“No!” she said, surprised when Iain started, as if he’d forgotten that he held her.
“Ye’ve no say in this, lass. It’s Iain’s destiny we discuss,” Soni said, her arm dropping to her side. “The fulfillment of his dreams and desires.”
But going with the witch wasn’t his dream. At least it hadn’t always been. He’d told her as much, himself, that first time he’d helped her feed the animals.
“No,” Sallie insisted again, struggling to lift her head. “You may well be a powerful witch, but you don’t know what his dreams really are. I do. He told me. He wants land and animals to tend. And one day, a family of his own. He can have all that if he just stays here. He doesn’t need to go with you.”
“Oh, but he does,” Soni answered, lifting her cloak-shrouded arm toward him once more.
“Buy, why?” Sallie asked, hating that her voice cracked with the tears she wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer. “Because he’s dead? Because you have to deliver his soul somewhere?”
“The prince awaits your arrival, Iain. It’s time for me to fulfill my part of our bargain,” Soni said.
“No, leave him here. Give him a chance at all those dreams he had before he gave his life in battle,” Sallie pleaded.
If only the dizziness would allow her some clarity of thought. Instead, she felt as if she viewed the whole scene unfolding around her through a shrinking window.
“We have to go now,” Soni said, as if she’d heard nothing Sallie had said.
“At least allow me to carry her from the mine,” Iain said, his voice sounding none too steady.
“Now, Iain.” Soni repeated. “The prince is waiting.”
Desperation tightened Sallie’s throat until a sudden idea gave her new hope. “He’s earned his chance at happiness by doing what you asked of him. If you must take someone with you, take me. Look at me,” she held up one blood-streaked arm. “I’m close enough to being dead, right? Let him stay and have the chance he didn’t have before. Take me instead.”
“No!” Iain bellowed, his arms tightening around Sallie. “I’d choose the pits of hell before I’d allow that.”
“Ye’d choose eternity in hell for the sake of this woman, would ye’?” the little witch asked, her voice faint as if coming from somewhere far away. “But would ye’ give up that most dear to ye? Would ye’ give up yer chance to have yer revenge?”
Sallie felt herself losing her battle with the darkness that closed in on her. She tried to speak, tried to hold on so that she could tell Iain how much she wanted him to stay. But it was too late for any of that as her grip on consciousness slipped away.
Chapter 9
“I think she’s coming around at last, David. Should I get the nurse?”
Sallie struggled to open her eyes. Her brain swirled with a white fog of fluffy numbness that made it nearly impossible for her to sort out her thoughts. Was that her stepmother’s voice she’d heard?
“Hey, baby-girl,” a man who looked remarkably like her father said. He leaned over her, stroking her forehead. “You gonna wake up for us at last?”
He didn’t just look like her dad. He actually was her father.
“Daddy?” she managed to croak.
It felt like someone had stuffed a dry sausage into her mouth where her tongue belonged.
“I’m here, baby-girl,” he said, his rough fingers stroking gently against her cheek. “Netta is getting the nurse to let her know you’re finally awake. You need anything?”
Answers. She needed answers. The last thing she remembered was that pretty little witch insistin
g that Iain had to leave her there in the mine. Had he gotten help for her? Had her co-workers found her?
“Where is…what happened to…” She struggled to form the questions that haunted her. “How did I get here?”
“Those kids you work with,” Netta said, joining David at her bedside. “They got the sheriff out there and the ambulance and got you down the mountain to the hospital.”
“They got those two men that hurt you, too.” Her dad kept petting her head like he would a frightened animal. “And I know how soft-hearted you are, but I already told the authorities that we want the book thrown at them both. I don’t care what their stories are or how sorry you end up feeling for them. They belong behind bars so they can’t do this to anyone else.”
No mention of Iain.
Sallie closed her eyes and wished that she could melt away, back in the white fluffy world she’d been floating in before. Back into the world where she’d had no ability to form words or thoughts. The very idea that Iain was gone was more painful than anything she had endured up to this point. Without him, her world felt bleak and empty.
“Anyone else?” she asked, without much hope.
“It was one of the girls at your work who called us. Ashley, I think. Your Dad and I got right in the truck and headed out the minute he got off the phone so we could be here for you. We already talked about you coming home while we were driving up here and we decided, well, you tell her David.” Netta stepped back from the bedside, nodding toward her husband. “Go on. You tell her what you said to me.”
David cleared his throat. Twice.
Sallie opened her eyes once more, surprised to find tears glistening on her father’s cheeks.
“I was wrong, baby-girl. I should have never said that you had to leave home. I don’t care what happened in the past. You belong back out on the ranch, with us, where we can keep an eye on you and make sure you’re safe.”
“That’s what he said all on his own before we even got here,” Netta added, her head bobbing up and down. “It wasn’t any of my idea at all, Sallie. Your daddy was worried sick about you.”
Sallie smiled in spite of the pain constricting her heart. Netta had always been on her side, even when her father had insisted that she needed to grow up. Netta had been the one cajoling her father to reconsider when David had insisted that the only way that Sallie would learn to make better choices was by relying on herself, not her family.
“It’s okay, Dad,” Sallie said at last. “I’ve got a good job here. I’m happy where I am.”
At least, she had been. With Iain gone, the mine wouldn’t be the same. Of course, without Iain in her life, it didn’t matter where she was. One place was no better than any another.
A nurse bustled in, cheery and efficient, shooing everyone away from the bed so that she could check all the vital signs that held the story of how Sallie was healing.
“When can I get out of here?” Sallie asked.
Laying in this bed would only give her more time to think about how miserable she was.
“That’s up to the doctor,” the nurse said with a smile. “But, between the two of us, I’d be surprised if they kept you overnight again. You’re going to be sore for a while, with all those stitches. But that’s the case whether you’re here or at home. I’m sure he’ll just tell you to take it easy for a while.”
Being sore, Sallie already knew about. It was the invisible wounds, the ones in her soul, that would take much longer to heal.
Chapter 10
The long blare of the train whistle warned Sallie that she approached the station at Toliver Mine. She sat up straight in her seat and wiped her hands over her face, readying herself to face her crew. After a week away, she couldn’t help but wonder what she’d find when she got there.
As it turned out, the nurse had been correct in her assumptions. The doctor had released Sallie from the hospital that same evening. Her father had insisted that, if she wasn’t going to agree to come home with him and Netta, they would all stay in a hotel for a few days until he could satisfy himself that she was ready to return to work. He hadn’t even allowed her phone contact with the people at the mine.
“The doctor said you could leave the hospital if you promised you’d rest,” he’d said. “Worrying about work and trying to direct every little thing from your bedside isn’t resting. They can handle it without you for a few days.”
Her time away had morphed from a few days into a full week. If her father had his way, it would have been even longer. But, finally, Netta had convinced him that Sallie was doing more harm to herself worrying about what might be going wrong than she would by going back to work to see how well her staff had handled everything in her absence.
Sallie hoped her stepmother was right about things operating smoothly without her, but she had her doubts. She knew there was always more work than they could get done every day and that was when they were fully staffed. Operating smoothly when they were down four bodies? That would be a miracle.
She braced her shoulder against the seat as the train pulled to a stop, protecting her healing injuries from any unnecessary jostling. Putting stress on her stitches would only delay her recovery and keep her out of action that much longer. The platform was full of tourists, all waiting to take the last train of the day back down the mountain.
Dusty, Ashley and Tony gave her a wave, but kept their attention on their guests, assisting them onto the train and sending them off with the good cheer that everyone at Toliver Mine prided themselves in giving. It was that extra bit of attention that kept people coming back to the mine time and again.
It was reassuring to see that, although some things might have slipped while she was gone, her people had kept their focus where it was most important—on their customers.
There were so many things she needed to do. The tasks kept running through her head, tumbling over each other as to which deserved top spot on her list. She needed to check the schedule. Make sure tours were coordinated with the station master at the foot of the mountain. Check in with Manda to see whether they’d made a supply run since she’d been gone.
In spite of all the paperwork that waited for her in the office, her feet turned naturally to the one place she’d missed the most.
Above all else, she wanted to make sure her animals had been properly cared for in her absence. She didn’t doubt they’d been fed and watered. But it wasn’t the lack of food and water that concerned her. No one else here understood the importance of spending time with the animals. No one else understood that each of the sheep and the goats had their own individual personalities. They all wanted just a few moments of attention each evening. Even the llama needed a little extra love at the end of each day.
The sounds from the animal pens reached her ears long before she made her way around the stable. Not sounds of hunger or abandonment, but the normal, happy noises the livestock made when their dinner was being served.
She rounded the stable and came to a full stop, her heart pounding in her chest as she struggled to accept the scene in front of her.
He squatted on the ground, sheep on either side of him, scratching their heads as if they were big dogs. When he stood, he lifted a sack of feed on one shoulder, his path carrying him toward the llama pen.
How could it be?
“Iain?” she whispered, unable to move forward in her shock. And then more loudly, “Iain!”
He turned, the smile that so captured her heart, breaking over his face. The heavy sack he carried fell unnoticed to the ground as he started toward her, his jog quickly turning into a full-out run.
She grunted when he gathered her in his arms and pulled her close.
“I couldna’ find you,” he said, his voice little more than a breathless whisper in her ear.
“Me?” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I thought you were gone. Why didn’t you come to the hospital?”
“I did. The night you were taken there, I followed as soon as the sheriff w
as finished taking my statement. You were sedated when I arrived and they sent me home. When I returned the next evening, they told me you’d been released. I was in a panic when I got here and you were nowhere to be found.”
He’d looked for her. He’d stayed here, and he’d tried to find her.
“My father insisted on a hotel.”
“So I learned from Manda. She said yer father would allow none to interrupt yer recovery, so we none of us knew where to find you.”
Sallie pulled back from him, her hands sliding to his cheeks while she studied his face. “The witch let you stay? In spite of your bargain with her?”
“Aye,” he said, his grin returning. “She’s a tricky one, that Soni. Drives a hard bargain, she does. Though, in some ways, I canna help but suspect she knew from the beginning what it was she expected of me.”
As his words settled over Sallie, a new fear began to form.
“Does that mean that you’ll still have to go? Will she be coming back for you?”
He shook his head. “No, she’ll no’ be returning.”
“But what about the prince? What about your chance to have your revenge?”
Iain shrugged, his smile not wavering. “Giving that up was the price of Soncerae’s final bargain with me.”
He’d given up his chance at revenge? The one thing he’d told her he’d wanted for well over two hundred years? The one thing that had kept him going all that time?
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