by Donna Grant
“How do you know the Druids weren’t really Fae?” Aisley asked some time later.
“I doona, though I felt the Druids’ magic. I know they were Druids.”
“But you’ve never met a Fae. You don’t know what they look like.”
Phelan chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her waist. In three jumps he had them atop the mountain. He could have done it in two, but he was being careful with Aisley. “True. I’ve learned all I could about them through the legends and myths, but I’ve no’ talked to anyone who actually met a Fae.”
“I’d bet the entire royal fortune that you talked to one who know the Fae.”
“Corann.” Phelan rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re probably right. I was so caught up in answers for the selmyr that I didna even think to ask him.”
“So go back and ask.”
He looked back down to where the Fairy Pool was, but it was no longer visible. “I think our time is done. We need to get back to the mainland quickly.”
“Back to reality.”
There was no mistaking the distress in her words. Phelan could get them back to the hotel in about an hour. If he went at Aisley’s pace it could take all day.
“I can take you back to my cabin,” Phelan said. “Wallace didna attack you there.”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes, preferring to stare at his chest instead. “I don’t think it matters where I am. If Jason Wallace wants to find me, he will.”
“Do you know protection spells you can put around my cabin? If so, I can leave you there while I meet up with Charon and tell him all we’ve learned.”
“I know spells. I don’t know how effective they’d be however.”
He put his finger under her chin and lifted her face until she looked at him. “If you’re worried about telling me this awful secret you have once we get back to the mainland, then forget it. I know the person you are now. That’s enough for me.”
“You’re a good man, Phelan Stewart. A very good man. It’s because of who you are that you need to know all there is about me.”
“Why? What’s so damned important about your past?”
“It’s shaped who I am.”
“You say I’m a good man. I know you’re a good person, Aisley. Let that be enough.”
She looked away and let out a long, slow breath. “Will you leave me at your cabin?”
It had been his plan, but he suddenly realized she could run from him again. He didn’t mind chasing her. It was the thought that Wallace could get to her before he could that froze his blood.
“You wanted a nice dinner. I think I’ll give you that. Inverness has one of my favorite restaurants. I think you’ll enjoy it.”
He didn’t give her time to answer as he picked her up in his arms and used his speed to get them back to the hotel.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
Jason Wallace stared at his reflection in the mirror of his room. His skin felt too tight over his body. After being nothing more than mere consciousness for so long, he felt small.
And he didn’t like it.
It didn’t help that he’d returned to an empty house. No servants, no Dale, and no Druids. Had Dale and all the Druids died in the last battle with those ugly white-skinned creatures?
Jason ran his hand over his clean-shaven jaw before smoothing back his short blond hair. The blue eyes stared back at him. He might look the same, but he was far from the man he had been.
He wasn’t even sure if he was a man.
The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile. What exactly he was he couldn’t be sure. Not that it mattered. The potent black magic running through him could barely be contained. He could feel it moving through his veins hot as lava, scalding him the same time it empowered him.
There was a violent need to release his magic on anything and everyone. The ferocious, vicious necessity couldn’t—wouldn’t—be ignored.
He craved to unleash his magic. Because with every bit of magic he used, it helped to feed him. It seemed odd, this newfound magic.
The resurrection spell he used had worked far beyond his expectations. If he’d known what could happen to him, he’d have done it sooner.
“If only I’d been this strong when I first fought the MacLeods. They’d be dust in the wind now.”
But there was still time. Right after he found Aisley.
“Ah, cousin, do I have something in store for you,” he told his reflection.
With his magic it wouldn’t take long to locate her. It’s too bad he didn’t know where she’d been when he attacked. He had hurt her, but he was sure she wasn’t dead.
If she was, he’d simply resurrect her. She had to suffer for what she did.
He turned away from the mirror as he struggled to remember what he’d experienced when he found Aisley. It had been just a day since he attacked her then been made whole again.
Where had she been? And who was she with?
Jason grabbed his suit jacket as he walked out of his room. He put it on as he made his way down the stairs to his office. It was the same office Declan had used, the same office where Gwynn and Logan had destroyed things when they came to see Declan. The same office where he had held Ronnie and tried to convince her to become drough.
The same office where the MacLeods attacked and destroyed the house again.
He stood in the middle of the large office and looked at the wall of books behind the large mahogany desk. Magic had restored the house. Again.
The mansion had been in his family for generations. It had been remodeled and added onto with each owner, but over the course of several years there had been more death and destruction than in the entire history of the Wallaces.
Jason walked to the burgundy leather Chesterfield couch and sat. He stared at the glass-topped coffee table before he glided his hand about six inches over the top.
Instantly a landscape rose up like a 3-D model. Craggy mountains with jagged peaks surrounded by thick mist came into view.
There was no doubt he was looking at a place in Scotland, not with such rugged appeal and untamed beauty. But where?
“What am I looking at?” he asked.
The land blurred into a mass of green and brown as it changed from the mountains to a welcome sign near a port.
“Welcome to the Isle of Skye,” Jason read the sign. “So, cousin, you’re on Skye. What would bring you there?”
He leaned his forearms on his thighs and clasped his hands together. For several minutes he looked at the port trying to think why Aisley would venture to the isle.
“Show me Aisley,” he demanded.
Again the landscape blurred, but for only a second before it stopped in front of a hotel. Now that he’d found her, he could begin.
He raised his hand to dismiss the image when something made him pause. “Who is Aisley with?”
A small replica of Phelan Stewart replaced the scenery of Skye.
“Now this is too fucking easy,” Jason said and leaned back against the couch.
There was much he could do now that Aisley was with Phelan. Once he discovered why she was with him. She could be using him, but then again, Aisley was weak. When he originally asked her to be a drough, he’d expected her to be so much more than the weak woman she’d become.
Just because she lost a babe. Jason snorted. He’d made sure she’d lost much more than that. Her parents had died horribly. All while Aisley watched, unable to do anything about it.
That should have made things right. Instead, the silly bitch had tried to leave him. It had taken his resorting to inflicting physical pain upon her to get her on the right track.
Which had done the trick. Then something else happened. Jason wasn’t sure when, but Aisley had changed, softened again.
He’d planned to kill her before the last battle with the MacLeods, but then Mindy died and he needed all the Druids he could get.
His mistake was giving Aisley the opportunity to betray him. And no one betrayed Jason Wallace. Those who di
d paid the ultimate price.
Jason waved away the image of the Warrior. He rose and poured himself a dram of whisky as he contemplated his next move.
He could approach Aisley on Skye, kill Phelan, and then deal with Aisley as he’d dreamed of doing. It was a simple enough plan, but he was curious why a Warrior had teamed up with a drough.
After all the battles they’d been in, surely Phelan knew who Aisley was. If he somehow didn’t, he’d be able to feel her drough magic, which would tell him everything.
So what was going on?
Jason drained the amber liquid in one swallow and set down the crystal glass. There was an opportunity here, and he wasn’t going to allow it to pass by.
He didn’t need other Druids to find Aisley. However, they would come in handy should he need something. Jason closed his eyes and released a burst of magic into the air.
Any Druid within a three-hundred-mile radius would feel his magic. It was those inclined to the dark side that would seek him out.
He grinned and poured himself another whisky. Things couldn’t be going easier.
* * *
Aisley stood in the shower and let the hot water fall over her head. The disappointment she felt when they arrived at the hotel had been staggering.
She tried to play it off, but she failed. Phelan had known something was wrong. He just hadn’t tried to pry after asking her the third time.
The water hid the tears she allowed herself to cry. To have had such a glorious few days with such an incredible man made leaving Skye and facing the future even more difficult.
But it also gave her the courage to do whatever she had to in order to fight Jason.
Her finger traced the scar on her lower stomach as she thought of her precious daughter. No one knew the name she’d given her baby. She hadn’t allowed it to be carved on the headstone.
“Gillian,” she whispered.
She’d been unable to think of anything but Gillian ever since talk of the prophecy before they left the Fairy Pool. Phelan showed her the depth of his hatred for droughs. Though Aisley shouldn’t have been surprised.
Their time together, the way he smiled at her, touched her, kissed her had altered her perception of being a drough.
Phelan brought it all into crystal-clear focus.
But the prophecy worried her. Obviously it concerned the Skye Druids as well if they brought it up to Phelan. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Aisley how Ravyn and Corann glanced at her when they spoke of a Warrior sleeping with a drough.
She couldn’t exactly tell them that they needn’t worry since she couldn’t have children. Her only choice was to remain silent and learn as much as she could.
“Aisley?”
Her head jerked up when Phelan said her name outside the bathroom door. “I’m all right. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Take your time. We’ll leave in the morning.”
One more night. Maybe two, if she was lucky. But luck had never been something she could claim was hers.
If she were in a city, Aisley would find the nearest club and let the loud music take away her worries. If only for a few hours.
She shut off the water and wrung out her hair before reaching for the towel. Her movements were jerky as she dried herself.
A glance in the mirror showed red-rimmed eyes. The last thing she wanted was to explain to Phelan why she was crying. She didn’t hear him moving about in the room, so maybe he’d gone out for something. Aisley wrapped the towel around her and opened the door.
To find Phelan leaning his hands against the doorjamb.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” He stared at her with his blue-gray eyes, his voice soft but firm.
She was so tired of carrying the burden of lies that she knew now was the time to share her secrets.
“I doona care about your damned past,” he said before she could utter a word. “If that’s what is bothering you, then let it go. If it’s something else, then tell me so I can fix it.”
“You can’t fix this.”
“Try me.”
“Over the past few days I’ve been given the world. With you. I…” She paused to swallow past the lump in her throat. “I don’t want to lose that.”
He cupped her face and let his thumb caress her cheek. “We doona have to. The only ones who can tear whatever this is between us is … us.”
“This is the longest time you’ve spent with one woman, isn’t it?”
“Nay.”
She cocked her head to the side. “A lover then.”
“If you need to be specific, then aye. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“There is,” she argued. “You’ll get tired of me. That’s why you left those other women.”
He yanked her roughly against him and lowered his voice to a seductive whisper as he said, “I left those others because they were no’ you.”
Whatever argument Aisley had died on her lips. She let the towel drop and rose up on her toes to kiss him. His kisses were like a drug. They could give her unimagined pleasure with just one touch.
“I’m no’ letting you go,” he said between kisses. “You can run from me again. But know this, beauty. I’ll hunt you down. No matter how far you go, no matter how long you run … I’ll find you.”
She shivered at his words. They could hold a double meaning. He might proclaim to want her now. How drastically would things change when he learned she was drough?
Would he give her a head start in order to hunt her down like a rabid animal? Aisley wouldn’t allow that to happen because she wouldn’t run.
“Make me forget,” she begged him.
“What do you want to forget, beauty?”
“Who I am. Make the world fall away, Phelan. Please.”
He carried her to the bed where he lowered her to her feet. Together they divested him of his clothes until they were skin to skin, mouth to mouth.
Heart to heart.
“I’ll make it all go away,” he promised as he kissed her with abandon.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
MacLeod Castle
Britt puffed out her cheeks before blowing out a breath. She was well past exhausted. Her back ached from bending over the microscope, and her head hurt from trying to work around the problems of the drough blood.
“Just think. Months ago I was bored outta my mind and looking for something challenging,” she said to Aiden.
He was never far from her. She was thankful, because many times she’d wanted to chuck it all in and give up. Then she’d look at him and remember why she gave up her life to live in a magical castle.
“You need a break. You’ve been at it for days, sweetheart.”
She relaxed when he came up behind her and massaged her shoulders. Tension eased out of her as she sighed in pleasure.
“There are other ways I can make you sigh,” he whispered in her ear before he kissed her neck.
Britt spun around on the stool so that she faced him. “When this is over—and it will be over—we’re going to take a trip. I don’t care where we go because we’ll be in bed the entire time.”
“The entire time?” he asked, his green eyes gleaming with wicked promise.
“The entire time.”
“Then get that pretty arse in gear.”
She loved how he could make her laugh. Despite the threat that constantly surrounded them, Aiden always knew the right thing to say and do.
Britt was leaning in to kiss him when the analyzer beeped. She slid off the stool and hurried to it as the findings were printed on paper.
“Good news?” Aiden asked as he came up behind her and looked over her shoulder.
For a minute Britt couldn’t move. Her heart was beating so fast she thought she might pass out. Finally she turned to Aiden and looked from the paper to him then back to the paper in her hands.
“I found it.”
“What? What did you find?”
Britt blinked to keep the room from spinning. It
had been a chance she took by doing the testing. So far she’d been unsuccessful at finding the marker that made the drough blood more evil. She’d held out no hope for this last test either.
“The marker. I found the marker we’ve been looking for.”
Several seconds ticked by as she and Aiden stared at each other. Then he yanked her into his arms and hugged her tight. She was shaking with relief and only staying on her feet thanks to Aiden’s strong arms.
“You did it,” he said. “I never had any doubt.”
“I did. Buckets and buckets of doubt. Oh God, Aiden, I can’t believe I found it.” She buried her face in his neck while he rubbed his hands up and down her back.
“Are you ready to tell the others?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. Finding the marker is the first step, and I don’t want to give anyone false hope. Especially Fallon.”
“You’re probably right. I’d just like to give them some good news.”
Britt swallowed and stepped out of his arms, the paper clutched in one fist. “You’re right. They need hope. We all do. Tell them. I’m going to keep working. Between this and finishing the serum, I’ve got lots to do.”
“Come down to dinner. You need to eat.”
“I’ll eat in a bit. Go have dinner with your family.”
He grabbed her hips and pulled her flush against him. “You are my family now, too. I’ll bring you up some food, stubborn wench.”
“Ah, but you like me being stubborn.”
“Aye,” he said and rubbed his nose against hers. “You know I like it verra much.”
It would be so easy for her to fall into his arms. But work called. “Share the good news while I try to finish this.”
Britt waited until Aiden had left the tower before she turned back to her equipment with a sigh. She was a step closer, but they needed a miracle. In a big way.
“Think, Britt,” she told herself. “Everyone is counting on you. Nothing like pressure to get things done.”
She resumed her spot on her stool and smoothed out the crumpled paper in her hand to read over the results again. While more tests were being done on the synthetic blood she’d created that would combat any drough blood entering a Warrior, she was determined to find a way to eliminate the marker from Larena’s blood.
