by Donna Grant
Saffron dropped her hands as Camdyn turned to face her. She could see he wanted to say something, but before he could they were swarmed by the others.
“It was Deirdre,” Camdyn said.
Broc’s lips flattened. “Aye. We know. She didna break through the ground and see us, however.”
“We’ve wasted enough time here,” Fallon called out. “Sonya has already healed those who were injured. Are either of you hurt?”
“No,” Saffron said and glanced at Camdyn.
Fallon gave her a quick smile. “Let’s move on then.”
Saffron thought that a brilliant idea until she looked at the spot where Camdyn had kissed her as if there were no tomorrow, as if his very being had gone into that kiss.
She allowed Dani and Gwynn to pull her with them as they began to walk. Camdyn had retrieved the sword he had dropped and was soon back up at the front leading them. And she found she wanted to be with him.
Regardless of the dangers.
Camdyn had gotten her out of Declan’s prison when no one else could have. He had brought her out of her trance when no one else could have.
And he had calmed her when she knew no one else could have after the cave-in.
Her gaze was on the back of his head as he shook it from side to side, clearing his black locks of debris. She bit back a smile as he pulled his long hair back from his face and tied a strip of leather around it at the base of his neck.
A queue she’d heard him call it.
Yet, strands of his hair fell around his face to curl lightly. Again and again he raked them back from his face, but those locks of hair were determined to fall as they would.
“Are you all right?” Dani asked her.
Saffron smiled, her gaze still on Camdyn. “I am.”
“We thought you’d be freaking the hell out,” Gwynn said, her voice thick from her worry.
“Oh, I did.” Saffron was embarrassed to think of just what she looked like.
Gwynn’s head swiveled to her. “But … you’re calm now.”
Saffron shrugged. “Camdyn calmed me.”
“Ah,” Dani said, a smile in her voice.
But Saffron didn’t care. She battled through her terror, been kissed like never before, and helped to achieve a small victory over Deirdre.
All with Camdyn.
He turned a corner, and just before he walked out of sight, he looked at her. Their eyes caught, held. Saffron missed a step as her body hummed with the answering desire she had seen in Camdyn’s dark gaze.
Without a word, she walked away from her friends, meandering through the others until she stood beside Camdyn.
“You shouldna be here,” he muttered angrily.
She raised a brow to look at him. “And who else will protect me from the very thing I fear most?”
He let out a loud sigh. “You are better away from me.”
“Maybe, but I’d rather not stake my life on it tonight.”
Camdyn came to a halt and stared hard at her. “Which way then?”
Saffron ran a hand through her hair and grimaced when she felt the dirt there. She leaned her head to the side and ruffled her hair to get out as much as she could while she looked to the left. Then she switched sides and repeated it as she looked to the right.
“The left smells funny. I say we go right.”
A hint of a smile appeared on his lips before he turned away from her to start down the right-hand corridor. It was short, and he had just reached the corner where it only allowed him to go left when Saffron started after him.
She heard a loud crack ahead of her. Without thought to her own safety, she began running toward Camdyn even as the others tried to hold her back.
Camdyn let out a loud curse before she heard what sounded like claws sliding down rocks.
The Warriors tried to get around her, but the tunnel was too narrow. Saffron twisted away from Quinn and rushed to the corner where she slid to a halt when she saw the floor missing.
“Camdyn!” she bellowed as she fell to her knees and looked over the edge of the broken floor.
She found him dangling from one hand, his claws caught in the rock. Her heart plummeted to her feet as she realized how easily he could have dropped. She peered below him, but all she saw was darkness. There was no way to know when the hole ended. Or even if it did.
Saffron leaned over the edge to help.
“Have you lost your mind?” Camdyn demanded calmly. “Get back so I can jump up.”
She rolled her eyes, but stood to find the other Warriors behind her. Some were openly smiling at her exchange with Camdyn.
Before she could explain why she had rushed to him, Camdyn landed beside her and gripped her shoulders to turn her to face him.
His mouth opened, but he clamped his shut as a muscle in his jaw ticked repeatedly.
Saffron cleared her throat. “So, the left corridor then?”
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Deirdre’s rage knew no bounds. She lashed out with her hair at anyone standing close to her, including her precious wyrran.
When a lock wrapped around Malcolm’s neck and squeezed, the maroon Warrior simply raised a blond brow at her. “Killing me wouldna be in your best interest. Especially since I’m your last Warrior.”
As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She released her hold on him and threw back her head to shout her anger at the heavens.
She had heard and felt the ground move beneath her. She knew there had been a cave-in, but why couldn’t she get below the surface?
It was bad enough she couldn’t get close to the stone circles because of mie magic, but now she couldn’t even get below the ground where the MacLeods were to reach Laria before they did.
“Mie magic shouldn’t be able to stop me,” she said when she’d gotten control of her rage. She looked at Malcolm. “Do you know what I’ve done to have the black magic inside me? Do you know what I’ve had to sacrifice?”
“And how many innocents you’ve killed?” Malcolm retorted.
There was something in his tone that caused her eyes to narrow on him. “Do you feel sorry for those innocents?”
“Nay. Nor do I feel sorry for you. You chose this path, Deirdre. Doona try to make it seem like this was forced on you. You were the one who pushed it on Isla.”
Deirdre spat at the mention of Isla. “That bitch will pay for betraying me. Everyone who has betrayed me will get their comeuppance.”
“You mean if they doona awake Laria first.”
Her chest expanded as she took a deep breath. There was no mistaking the smirk on Malcolm’s face. “You find this humorous? They will kill you as well for aiding me.”
“I know my fate. I doona try to outrun it as you have,” Malcolm stated. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You willna get under the ground. Why no’ prepare for when Laria is awakened?”
“You have a point,” she conceded. She looked over the peninsula.
She would set up a blockade. The MacLeods and their group trying to kill her would have to get through her, her wyrran, and Malcolm.
* * *
Camdyn didn’t care that he’d almost dropped into the hole that appeared to go on forever. What scared the hell out of him was that Saffron had tried to save him.
Him!
He was immortal. Why did she keep forgetting that, especially when he couldn’t forget that outside the castle she was mortal? Her life could be wiped out with the simplest of occurrences.
Camdyn backtracked his steps until he came to the left corridor. Like Saffron, he didn’t like this hallway. It wasn’t just the smell either. Something just seemed … off.
“We doona have a choice,” Ian said from beside him. “This is our only way to go.”
Camdyn shook his head. “We could get over that broken floor. Broc could fly the Druids or Fallon could jump them. As for us, it would be nothing to leap over it.”
“True,” Ramsey conceded. “Except I have to believe th
at it was meant to keep us from going forward. This has to be the only way.”
Fallon gave Camdyn a nod, and Camdyn took a step forward when he felt Saffron’s magic move beside him. He’d thought he’d tortured himself by kissing her with such recklessness and no restraint, but the feel of her magic as she pushed it into him to fight Deirdre would be with him for eternity.
Her magic had felt wonderful before. But now … now it was as if it were living inside him, melding to his bones and muscles and flesh. As if it had taken residence in his soul.
Where he would sense Saffron. Always.
Forever.
He glanced at her to find her tawny gaze watching him with trepidation. She thought he was angry, and he was. He didn’t want her risking her life for him. He wasn’t worth it.
“Ready?” he asked her as they moved along the hallway, which was much longer than the last one.
“Not at all.”
He took her hand as he led the way down the hall that switchbacked several times. They walked endlessly, and appeared to be going down a slight slant.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Saffron murmured.
He squeezed her hand. “It’ll be fine,” he lied.
Behind them Camdyn could hear the other Warriors telling the same lie to their women. All of them were on edge, and none of them knew why.
Camdyn used his enhanced senses to look and hear ahead of them for anything that might be lying in wait. The labyrinth hadn’t been opened in centuries, so the idea that something or someone was alive down there was ludicrous.
Yet, none of the Warriors should be alive and they were. So who knew what awaited them?
The farther they walked, the more his apprehension grew. But nothing happened. The air didn’t even stir. It was eerie, even to Camdyn. Eerie, and just not right.
After one more switchback, Camdyn found himself facing a huge door with a knocker on it. The knocker itself was a massive dragon’s head that appeared to have been hung there by its long neck. It held the knocker in its mouth and had sapphires for eyes.
“It feels as if it’s watching me,” Saffron said.
Cara nodded. “I agree. I swear his eyes are moving.”
“You can no’ see in this half light,” Lucan told his wife. “Those eyes are just stones.”
Camdyn was about to agree with Lucan when white smoke poured from the dragon’s nostrils. “I doona know if it’s alive, but it’s certainly something.”
“Do we use the knocker?” Saffron asked.
Camdyn took a deep breath. Only one way to find out. He released Saffron’s hand and stepped forward. As he lifted his arm to grasp the knocker, he too felt as if the sapphire eyes of the dragon had just focused on him.
“Wait,” Saffron said before his hand took the knocker. She gave him a slight shove so that she stood directly before the dragon.
“Saffron, what are you doing?” Camdyn demanded.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just feels right that a Druid should do this and not a Warrior.”
“You could get injured.”
She smiled and looked over her shoulder at him. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Camdyn fisted his hands so he wouldn’t reach over and yank Saffron away from the dragon’s head. He held his breath as she reached up and gently stroked down from the dragon’s forehead to his nostrils.
She repeated the caress again, this time lingering on the dragon’s head. When she drew closer and wrapped her arms around the dragon, Camdyn managed to keep his feet rooted to the spot by sheer will alone.
“Camdyn, bring the sword,” Saffron whispered.
He didn’t question her. He cautiously held out the sword.
“Lift the sword above the dragon’s head. There is a slot there where I believe the sword belongs.”
Camdyn met her gaze and saw that she was now asking him to trust her. How could he not? She, as well as everyone there, knew the stakes and what could happen if they failed.
He lifted the sword so that the tip was over the dragon’s head. Again, he felt as if the dragon watched him, waiting for him to make a wrong move.
Saffron took the tip of the sword, and when she did the blade sliced her fingers. She didn’t utter a sound. Gently, she guided the tip of the sword into the back of the dragon’s head near its neck.
Camdyn slid the sword downward until the hilt of the sword rested across the dragon’s neck and the blade stuck out through the bottom of the dragon. At once the dragon’s eyes began to glow a bright blue as if lit from within. Camdyn grabbed Saffron’s hand and tried to drag her backward.
They had taken two steps when more smoke poured from the dragon’s nostrils. So much that they were able to follow it as it disappeared beneath the wall to the right of them.
“That’s where we need to go,” Saffron said as she walked to the wall and put her hand where the smoke had gone. “I feel air.”
Camdyn and the other Warriors stepped to the wall and tried to shove it, lift it, slide it. Anything. But it wouldn’t budge.
Saffron watched them for several moments before she put a hand on Camdyn’s shoulders and said, “This place was made with magic. Doesn’t it seem logical that in order to get inside you’d need magic?”
“Ah, yes,” Reaghan said with a short laugh as she rubbed her hands together and joined Saffron before the door.
Once all the Druids were there they looked at one another. It was Marcail, whose magic was strengthened by being underground, who put her hand on the wall first.
Saffron and the others followed suit and poured their magic into the stones. Excitement rang through Saffron when she felt the door move. It was just a smidgen, but it was enough to know they were doing the right thing.
“It’s not enough,” Isla said. “For mie magic to be as powerful as black magic, we need to combine our magic.”
With their hand still on the wall, the Druids placed their other hand on the person next to them. The force of the magic that raced through Saffron was incredible. She let it seep into her, through her, and into the wall and the Druids on either side of her.
The wall began to slide open. Step by step the Druids opened the door until they stood inside a small cavern. Saffron looked at the eight different doorways and inwardly groaned.
“What now?” Dani asked.
“We keep moving,” Camdyn said.
Logan walked to one of the doorways and peered inside. “Taking the wrong tunnel could be disastrous.”
Saffron wished she could have a vision to know which tunnel to take. She felt the others looking at her and she folded her hands in front of her so they wouldn’t see how nervous she was.
“We’re Druids,” Sonya said. “We have magic. There has to be a way we can determine which way to go.”
Gwynn nodded. “Or at least narrow it down.”
“But how?” Cara asked.
Saffron met their gazes. “You know I can’t have a vision about my future.”
“Nay, I have a better idea,” Reaghan said. “Broc, do you think you can find Laria?”
Broc smiled. “Unless she’s blocked as Declan is.”
They waited as Broc closed his eyes and used his power to find Laria. Saffron once more called up her magic. The more she used it the more it seemed to come easily to her. For so long she’d been afraid of her visions, and so she’d tried to pretend she didn’t have any magic.
It had been her father who told her of her great-great-grandmother who had been a Druid. Saffron had done research on the Druids, which had proved annoying since no one knew for certain what they could and couldn’t do.
With nothing else to do, Saffron had begun to use her magic after she went away to college. It had begun small at first, but grew quickly. By the time she took her trip to Europe her magic was as strong as it had ever been.
Until she had been brought to MacLeod Castle. And met Camdyn MacKenna.
Her mind was on Camdyn and how they continued to circle around their attraction
to each other, and how they could either move on or see where the passion led them.
The idea of being in Camdyn’s arms, of being loved by him and waking in his arms, was something she both feared and desired.
“There,” Broc’s voice rang out.
Saffron’s eyes flew open to find Camdyn watching her. The others hurried to the entrance Broc had pointed out, but Saffron and Camdyn stood their ground.
Only when the others had passed did Camdyn take the four steps separating them. She looked up into his dark, fathomless eyes and asked, “What are you thinking?”
“It’s better for both of us if I doona answer.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Camdyn was playing with fire, and he was about to get burned. The way Saffron watched him with longing and need sparkling in her tawny eyes made him yearn to pull her into one of the darkened caves and pin her against the wall as he had earlier.
To kiss her sweet lips and along her sexy neck. To have his hand on her bare skin again and to cup her breast.
His heart rate increased as he remembered how she rubbed against his cock, her soft moans music to his ears.
Camdyn had to turn away before he went to her the need, the hunger for her was so strong. He found the others gathered around the third entrance from the right, which Broc had pointed out.
“What is it?” he asked, anything to get his mind off Saffron so he could get himself back under control.
“I doona know,” Fallon said. “None of us can pass through the door.”
Camdyn watched as Hayden and Ian tried to walk through the doorway, only to be held back by an invisible barrier.
“The magic is so thick,” Ian said as he took a step back, his brows furrowed deeply in his forehead.
“None of the Druids can go through?” Camdyn asked.
Reaghan shook her head. “Nay. It’s very odd.”
“The only ones who haven’t tried to go through are you and Saffron,” Cara said.
Camdyn looked to Saffron, who stood next to Dani. Saffron’s gaze swung to him, and she lifted her shoulders in a shrug before stepping toward the doorway.
