by Donna Grant
He held his breath, both wanting her to be able to get through, but also wanting her to be held back like the rest of them.
Her head was high as she paused before the arched doorway. She touched the outside stones, a small smile playing over her lips. “There are Celtic symbols marked around the doorway.”
“They’re the same symbols as those on the cylinder that held the map within the Tablet of Orn,” Ian said.
Camdyn held his breath when Saffron dropped her hand to her side and took a step through the doorway. There was an audible gasp as she was allowed to pass.
He clenched his hands into fists, the urge to be with her crushing. Somehow Camdyn held himself in check as she stopped and turned to look at him.
“Why me?” she asked, her gaze moving from him to look at the others. “Why did it let me through?”
Gwynn hurried to the door and tried to go through again, but just like before she wasn’t able. “Maybe because you touched the dragon?”
Isla walked to the dragon’s head and stroked it just as Saffron had before she returned and tried to follow Saffron through the door. But it didn’t allow her through either.
“I don’t understand,” Saffron said. “I cannot be the only one it allows through.”
Camdyn heard the tremor of fear in her voice as every eye turned to him. He wanted to see if he could go through the doorway, but if he couldn’t …
With no other choice, Camdyn moved forward. He tried to look away from Saffron, but he couldn’t. His gaze, along with every fiber of his being, was trained on her.
He stopped before the doorway and glanced at the markings etched into the stone. Saffron stood still as stone, but he could feel the thread of fear in her magic that was growing as each moment passed.
Camdyn took a deep breath and lifted his foot. To his surprise, the doorway allowed him through. The relief that filled Saffron’s eyes made him want to take her in his arms and hold her, to tell her everything was going to be all right.
When he doubted very much it would.
She leaned a hand against the wall next to her and smiled. “Thank you, God. I didn’t want to be alone for this.”
He understood exactly how she felt, because he hadn’t wanted her to be alone either. Camdyn turned back to the others and scratched his neck.
“Now what?” he asked.
Galen leaned a shoulder against the doorway and smiled. “It looks like you and Saffron are meant to do this alone, my friend.”
“If that’s the case, you’re going to need this,” Logan said as he tossed something across the threshold.
Camdyn caught the gold cylinder that was the Tablet of Orn.
“And this,” Dani said.
Camdyn reached out and snagged the ancient iron key from the air, and handed it to Saffron.
Ian stepped to the doorway, a cylinder in his hands. He moved the wooden dials around the cylinder. “This is the exact order the symbols need to be,” he said.
Camdyn took the cylinder Ian held out and looked at the small squares with the same symbols that were on the doorway.
It took no time for him to memorize the order of the symbols from the cylinder, but still he handed it to Saffron so she could also have a look.
“Be careful,” Lucan said.
Camdyn nodded. “You doona have to remind me.”
“We’ll try to find a way to you,” Fallon said.
No sooner had the words left Fallon’s mouth than the wall the Druids had used their magic to open shut with a resounding thud.
“Shite,” Ramsey said, and tried to walk through one of the other doorways.
But whatever had held them back from entering with Camdyn and Saffron prevented them from entering any of the other doorways now.
Lucan caught Camdyn’s gaze. “It looks as though we’ll be waiting here until you can find Laria.”
“Make it fast,” Arran said as he rammed a shoulder into one of the invisible barriers at a doorway.
“Wait,” Sonya called out. She unzipped the backpack she was carrying and tossed several bottles of water across to them.
Saffron smiled and shoved them into the pockets of her coat. “Thank you.”
“Be careful,” Quinn told them.
Camdyn gave a nod and turned on his heel. He shifted sideways to squeeze past Saffron and sucked in a breath when his hand brushed her hip. One small touch was all it took to make him burn. And how he burned for her.
She fell into step behind him as they walked away from the doorway and their group of friends.
“I hate to admit this, but I’m scared.”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I know. We’ll make it though.”
“Why did it only let us through? Because of the dragon?”
“Maybe. It’s hard to tell. This place is so full of magic and traps that I doona know its intention.”
She snorted. “Its intention is to keep Laria from being found.”
“Even if we have the artifacts?”
“What if it was Deirdre that had found all the artifacts? What if her spy, Charlie, had been able to get Dani to tell him where the artifacts were kept in the castle?”
Camdyn growled. “I doona want to even think about what could have happened, but I see your point. If it was Deirdre or some other evil down here, the labyrinth would want to keep them out.”
“Do you think the magic here senses the god inside you?”
Camdyn stopped and turned to look at her. “You mean, does it know that I have evil inside me?”
She shifted her feet and shrugged. “Yes.”
“Most likely.” He looked over her shoulder, but the tunnel had curved and he could no longer see the others. “Regardless, it allowed us to come this far.”
“Does nothing frighten you?” she asked, her head cocked to the side so that a lock of her hair brushed the top of her breasts.
There was one thing in particular that scared the hell out of him, but Saffron didn’t need to know she was it. Camdyn arched a brow and said, “I’m an immortal Highland Warrior. What do I have to fear?”
They resumed walking, and Camdyn tried to keep his senses sharp for anything ahead as they made their way through the tunnel. The sound of her breathing, every step she took, every time their bodies brushed accidentally, sent his blood heating until his body sizzled with longing, a yearning that consumed him.
He was aware of everything regarding Saffron, and it was driving him to distraction. A wonderful, painful distraction. He longed to hold her against him, to feel her soft body and sweet curves.
Camdyn found himself staring at three steps that led down into a small room. He raised a hand so Saffron would know to wait and walked into the room himself.
He moved about every inch of it to make sure it was safe before he waved Saffron to him. Camdyn crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the walls and the evidence that they weren’t able to move onward.
“Did we miss an exit somewhere in the tunnel?” Saffron asked as she looked around her.
“Nay.”
“Damn. Now what?”
“We rest for a time.”
Saffron leaned against a wall and let herself slide down to the floor. “Good. I’m starving.”
Camdyn turned away so she wouldn’t see his scowl. He’d been so intent on keeping her away from danger he’d forgotten that she needed to eat. As a Warrior, he could go indefinitely without eating, though it weakened his body.
“I’ve got enough PowerBars in my pocket if you’d like one.”
He shook his head while he examined the walls in the round room. “Nay. You’ll need them.”
“You need to eat as well. I know you can go without, but despite being immortal, your body will grow weak. And … well, I need you, Camdyn.”
He slowly turned to face her. The last person that had needed him was Allison. He’d forgotten what it was like to be needed, that warm feeling that spread through him that he wasn’t alone in the world.
Camdyn took the proffered bar and tore open the wrapper. The bar was tasteless, but he ate it because she’d asked.
Saffron ate her bar, drank as much water as she dared, and then sat. And sat and sat. She walked around the room, looking for any clues to how they could move forward. But there was nothing.
Finally, she resumed her seat and raised her knees to her chest. “I can’t stand this silence. Talk to me, Camdyn.”
He sat on the steps in the doorway, his elbows resting on his knees. His inky black hair had all but come out of his queue. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Tell me about you? Where do you come from? What time?”
He sat up and removed the leather holding his hair. His black hair fell around his face and neck, making him look even more rakish than his normal brooding face did.
Saffron waited as he fiddled with the leather strip, almost as if he were trying to decide what to tell her. He was much more interesting to look at than the spiderwebs that seemed to grow bigger and more numerous the deeper into the maze they went. Was it some kind of cosmic law that said spiders had to be everywhere? Especially underground?
But her thoughts of spiders were halted as Camdyn’s voice filled the small room.
“I was born in 1333. My parents were like any family back then. They fought alongside our laird, raised sheep, and tried to make the best of life. My father was … a hard man. My mother a woman with a kind heart.”
She knew the Warriors were immortal, but to put an age on him, to know he was almost seven hundred years old, boggled her mind. “Did you have any siblings?”
Camdyn gave a short nod. “Two older brothers and three younger sisters.”
“A big family then.”
“The more children, the more help with chores.”
The way he spoke so matter-of-factly had Saffron trying to read more into his words. “You weren’t happy then?”
“It was the only life I knew. Until Deirdre found me. What about you? What was your life like?”
Saffron didn’t like how he had turned the tables on her. She wanted to ask him more questions, especially about how Deirdre captured him and how he got away from her. But fair was fair. He shared a portion of his life, so she would share hers.
“I adored my father. My mother was another story, one which you heard part of.”
He looked down at his hands. “My hearing is much better than yours, so, aye, I heard the conversation you had on the mobile with your mother.”
Saffron grimaced. “You heard everything she said?”
Another nod.
“The first thing I remember growing up was how I was always with my father. We did everything together. I’d see my mother at dinner or when she had bought me an outfit. She didn’t like having a daughter, but if she was going to have one, she wanted me to be perfect. I can’t tell you how many times she told me that throughout the years.”
Saffron laughed and leaned her head against the stone to look at the darkened ceiling above her. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness well enough that she could see better than before.
“Mother treated me like a doll. Always dressing me up and presenting me to her friends, then forgetting about me when she was ready to move on. My father was always there when it happened. He’d scoop me up in his arms, and we’d go do something fun.
“The older I got, however, the harder it was for Mother to control me as she wanted. I began to rebel. The fights were horrendous. And then, she stopped everything. Stopped talking to me, stopped acknowledging me, stopped looking at me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Camdyn’s deep, rich voice jerked her out of her memories. She smiled at him, and shrugged. “Things got better then. For me at least. For a while I was happy. Until my father began to push for me to attend the University of Denver so I’d be near them.”
“What did you want?”
“To get away. Far, far away from my mother.”
“What did you do?”
Saffron tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “The best thing in my life was my father. He begged me to stay in Colorado, so I did. Until I graduated college. All those years I was trying to begin my own life while he tried to keep me near him. I did everything I could to stay away from Mother, which meant I didn’t see my father. And then it was too late.”
She wiped at her eyes as she looked away from Camdyn’s piercing gaze. “My father had wanted me close because he was dying. He had a bad heart and never told me. I didn’t realize his intent until he lay dying and he told me. All those years I spent away.”
“But he understood.”
Saffron sniffed. “He did. I thought it would all end with his death, but then came the reading of the will. Mother thought she would get the money, but Dad had one last card to play. He gave her only a very small portion, and the rest was given to me. You can imagine how that went. I just thought I had problems with my mother up until that point.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Camdyn hated the sadness in her voice, but the more she talked, the more he wanted to know. “When did you come to Scotland?”
“After my father’s funeral, I had to get away from my mother. For a woman who never wanted me, she suddenly wanted to be my best friend. It was all for the money.”
“I discovered in my learning of this time that money is important to people.”
Saffron fiddled with her fingers as she lifted a slim shoulder. “To some. So many wanted to be my friends because of my father’s wealth. Even the guys I dated were only after the money. It got to a point that I didn’t think anyone was my friend just for myself.”
“What did you do?”
She chuckled, the sound dry and humorless. “I did the cowardly thing and ran away. I flew into Rome and spent a week there before I began a yearlong tour of Europe. I’d always wanted to come to Britain, so I made it my last stop, intending to spend the most time here.”
“You did all this by yourself?”
“Yes,” she said, and glanced at him. She seemed particularly interested in her fingers. “I had been in Scotland for just over a month when I met Declan Wallace.”
Camdyn’s breath locked in his lungs as he waited for Saffron to continue. He knew for certain he wasn’t going to like what he heard, but he had to know what Declan had done to her so he would know how much to make Declan suffer.
Saffron let out a bark of laughter. “Declan swept me off my feet. No man had ever done that to me before. He said it was because we both came from such wealthy families that we could understand each other. Like a naïve schoolgirl, I believed every lie that fell from his lips.”
Camdyn watched the way her body stiffened slightly when she spoke of Declan. Hatred for Declan was in every syllable, every word.
He recognized such hatred because it was what he felt for Deirdre. That loathing had festered in his soul for two hundred and fifty years before he time-traveled to the future.
“You know, I cannot believe I was so gullible,” Saffron said. “It felt so good to have someone like me for myself. Or so I thought. It took less than a week for him to make his intentions clear.”
“What did he do?” Camdyn hated that his voice came out mostly as a growl, but the rage inside him was building quickly.
Saffron suddenly rose to her feet and began to pace slowly, running her fingers along the stone wall. “First, it was all about me. He wanted to know every detail of my past, but then he began to toss around words like ‘magic’ and ‘Druids.’ It startled me at first, but when I didn’t jump in and tell him I was a Druid he decided to show me he was one.”
She paused and frowned. “At the time I didn’t realize there were two sects of Druids. I thought we were all just Druids, that we’d be like the rest of the world with there being mostly good people and a few bad people. I didn’t know…”
“How could you have?” Camdyn said. “You weren’t raised as a Druid.”
“No, and no rese
arch I did led me to anything about mies and droughs. Had I known, I’d have been more cautious. Had I known, I could have tried to defend myself against Declan.”
Camdyn caught her gaze. “As potent as Isla is with her mix of drough and mie magic inside her, someone like Declan or Deirdre could overpower her with their black magic. You didna stand a chance.”
“I suppose not,” she murmured and looked down as she leaned a hand upon the wall. “He wanted me to join him, Camdyn. Declan painted this picture of power and domination that made me sick to my stomach. He said all I had to do was perform a ceremony and my magic would increase tenfold.”
“The ceremony to become drough.”
She nodded. “I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s exactly what it was. I made him explain what was needed of me, and I figured out what would happen, that my soul would belong to Satan. I refused. He begged me, pleaded with me, but I wouldn’t change my mind.”
Camdyn flexed his shoulders. He continued to track Saffron with his eyes. “Good for you.”
“Maybe not,” she said with a snort and lightly kicked the wall as she faced it. “His patience ran out when I tried to leave the mansion. The next thing I knew he was torturing some guy with his magic. Declan said he was demonstrating what would happen to me if I didn’t join him. I’d never been so scared in my life.”
His claws extended from his fingers as he felt the icy dread run through her magic. She kept her back to him, but he didn’t need to see her face to know the memories were difficult for her to return to.
“You survived it. Just like a true Highlander,” he told her.
She put her forehead on the stones and made a choked sound. “He wanted me because I was a Seer. He thought I could control my visions.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Which time?” she asked.
Camdyn closed his eyes as he felt his god rising up through the fury that ran rampant through him. How could anyone dare to hurt someone as beautiful and pure of spirit as Saffron?
All he knew was that Declan was going to suffer a slow, agonizing death.
“He stripped me bare in front of his men.” Her voice intruded on his thoughts. “Every last stitch of clothing was taken from me. He strung my hands above my head. I thought he was going to beat me, but he stepped back. His men … his men began to fight over who would get to have me first.
