Alexis hung back on the steps. The dragons formed a line in front of the castle. A huge black monster stood on one end of the line. Next to him, a green one glowed in the sunshine. He dwarfed the copper dragon at his side, but they all arched their necks and flexed their wings to show their majestic power.
A brilliant blue dragon came next, with a bright golden one at the opposite end of the line. The creatures cast their flinty eyes over the terrain. Lachlan and Christie marched right up to them without fear.
At their approach, all five dragons shrank down and turned into the Cameron brothers. They stood up straight and walked forward to meet Lachlan and Christie. The closer they got, the faster they walked until they all flung themselves into each other’s arms.
They clapped each other on the back. Some wiped away tears. No one could figure out who to hug first. Finally, Robbie laid his hand on Lachlan’s shoulder and turned him around. “I believe ye havenae met my brother Angus. May I present Lachlan McLean?”
Lachlan and Angus shook hands. Lachlan bowed. “It’s an honor to welcome ye to me humble home. I wish I could give ye a better welcome. Circumstances are no’ exactly the most hospitable just at the moment.”
“Think naught of it,” Angus replied. “That’s why we’re here.”
Lachlan waved to the castle. “In that case, we’d best go inside.”
The group dissolved into conversation on the way back to the castle. They fired back details of everything they’d seen and done since they last saw each other. The spirit of their reunion infected their conversation until they stopped on the steps. All five brothers noticed Alexis at the same time.
Christie hurried forward to stand at her side. “This is Alexis Morgan.”
Angus held out his hand to her. “It’s good to see ye, lassie. Ye dinnae ken how happy I am to see ye here.”
“Thank you,” she replied. “How are all your women at home?”
“They’re gone. That’s why we’re here.”
“Gone!” Alexis gasped. “They can’t be!”
“They all left about a week ago,” Fergus told her. “A portal opened in front of our castle, and they all walked into it and disappeared without a by your leave.”
Lachlan and Christie exchanged glances. “It’s the same as Ivy.”
“Do ye ken anything about this?” Callum asked. “Do ye have any explanation for it?”
“Come inside,” Lachlan told him. “Let’s talk the whole thing over. We cannae talk about it standing on the step.”
He led everybody into the Great Hall, but when they got there, they found Ronald organizing the wounded on the floor. Lachlan took the brothers, along with Christie and Alexis, upstairs to his own bedroom. He shut the door behind him, and the group formed a circle.
“Ye say your women all went through the portal back to their own time,” Lachlan began. “Ivy did the same thing. No one could understand it. She said she would be safer there, and she also said she wasnae coming back. I…well, I havenae been myself since.”
Angus squeezed his shoulder. “None of us has. Fergus told us ye needed our help, so we came. Since we’re in the same position, perhaps we can help each other.”
Alexis couldn’t keep quiet. “What about Rosa? Did she go back, too?”
“She’s safe at home in Urlu, thank Heaven,” Angus replied.
“It’s the temporal portals,” Christie added. “They must be affecting ye women and naught else.”
“Then why didn’t they affect me?” Alexis asked.
“Ye have been going back and forth the whole time, have ye no’ been?” he returned. “Besides, these portals come from the curse. They’re affecting ye in a different way, and since ye are the curse, they wouldnae sent ye back. If all the others plus ye and Ivy went back, that would be the end of the curse. Am I right?”
“Actually,” she replied, “I think they did send me back, and it didn’t lift the curse.”
The Cameron brothers exchanged glances. “It appears we came to the right place. Ye ken more about it than we do.”
Alexis turned to face them. “Tell me everything that’s going on back in Urlu. Has there been anything strange going on—maybe bricks randomly flying out of their places, or roofs caving in, or people being crushed by flying rock?”
Robbie frowned. “Naught like that.”
“Everything’s in order, as far as we ken,” Jamie told her. “We left it all in good shape—all except the women being gone.”
“No one sick?” Christie asked. “No one dying of strange pains in the belly or spitting up blood?”
Robbie gasped and stared at him. “What are ye getting at, lad?”
Christie turned on Alexis. “They’re time portals. That’s what the King meant when he called them temporal portals. Do ye recall when we met at that inn? Ye said Ivy was as big as a house. Ye must have seen her months into the future. Then I met her forty years from now when everyone was dead of the sickness.”
“If that’s true,” she replied, “then maybe none of this has happened. Maybe we’re in the future now.”
“Maybe,” he agreed.
The others kept looking at each other. Christie and Alexis could have been speaking an alien language. “What’s this all about, lad?” Lachlan asked.
“I dinnae ken,” Christie replied. “We’re just trying to figure it all out while we have some time.”
“What about the village?” she asked him. “Is there a way we could repair it in time?”
“That would take weeks—maybe even years.”
“Then we must arm for another assault from these monsters,” Lachlan interjected. “We have lost a lot of men, so it’s a mercy ye lads showed up when ye did. Ye can hold them off for us.”
“We won’t see them again,” Alexis replied. “As long as Christie and I stay together, they won’t come back. Things will start to get better.”
“Ye dinnae ken that,” Christie told her. “We can hold off the trolls together, but until we get the fabric repaired, the holes’ll continue to appear elsewhere.” He faced Fergus. “You’re here, so we must have met at the Faery palace. That much at least really happened.”
“Aye.” Fergus laughed. “I didnae think I imagined it all.”
“Dinnae laugh, mon,” Christie replied. “Alexis and I have seen stranger things since last we met. Now tell me all. Ye were in conference with the King about the temporal portals on your southern boundary, were ye no’? Ye said they hadnae come across into ye territory yet, and ye were standing ready for the day they did. Am I right?”
“Aye. That’s about the size of it.”
“What were they doing?” Christie asked. “What did ye see?”
“We didnae see anything,” Fergus replied. “Our patrols caught a bunch of Faery—Black Watch, they were—hangin’ about our border. We questioned them, and they said they had a message for me from the King to report to him quick smart, which I did. He told me the portals had been appearing on his land, and to be on the watch. He said they were causing problems for his people, and he wanted me to report if and when they crossed into Urlu. That’s all.”
“He didnae say what was incurring?” Christie asked.
“He didnae want to,” Fergus replied. “He said they were trolls, but he wouldnae tell me anything else. He was unusually tight-lipped about it. I’d never seen him like that afore. He didnae want to talk about it, which isnae like him at all, if ye ken what I mean.”
“If only I hadn’t attacked him the way I did,” Alexis exclaimed. “I could have gotten more information about it.”
Fergus gasped. “Ye attacked him? Why?”
She blushed and looked away.
Christie came to her rescue. “If he was tight-lipped enough no’ to tell an official ambassador to the country directly affected by these things, he’d likely no’ tell ye, either.”
“Can ye do anything about these portals?” Lachlan asked. “If they took Ivy and the other women, perhaps they’ll appear agai
n and cause more problems.”
“I’m certain they will,” Christie replied.
“What will we do about them?” Alexis asked.
“I have no idea.”
Everyone looked at each other at once. Lachlan cleared his throat. “Well, that’s no’ very helpful, is it?”
“Sorry, mon,” Christie replied. “It’s all I got.”
“I’m going downstairs,” Lachlan declared. “I must get this knee tended to, and ye must oversee the evacuation, lad. You’re still Laird as far as I’m concerned. Ye lads, make my house your home. I’ll assign ye rooms, and we can meet up…no’ in the Great Hall, but…”
Christie cut him off. “I’ll sort it out. By the time the evacuation finishes, we’ll be operating on a skeleton crew. We’ll send all the wounded over the water with Robert, and we’ll have the Hall back in time for supper.”
Chapter 25
Christie gave his orders to Aiden to begin the evacuation. He checked the Great Hall to make sure all the wounded got the care they needed, including Lachlan. “I ought to send ye over the water, too, mon. Ye dinnae belong here.”
“I’m staying,” Lachlan returned. “With the Urlus here, we may have a fighting chance.”
“If Alexis and I are right,” Christie replied, “there’ll be no more fighting. We must concentrate on these portals and on repairing the fabric as quick as we can. Naught else’ll win this fight.”
He left and wandered upstairs. He was on his way to his own bedroom when he met Alexis coming the other way. He caught her by the hand. “Just the lassie I was hoping to see.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is it another attack?”
“There’s no other attack,” he replied. “I was thinking about what ye said about the village.”
“What about it?” she asked. “You said it would take too long to repair.”
“To repair the whole thing, maybe,” he replied. “We could do something. It could only help, and it might hold off the next attack until we understand what to do about it.”
Her eyes widened. “You want to go to the village?”
“My room’s right over there. We could sneak off and be back afore anybody misses us.”
Alexis’s eyes widened. “You want to…Whoa, dude. You want to go…do it, right now, when we’re in the middle of all this?”
He eased closer to her. His lips hovered near her face. “I never stopped wanting ye, lassie. Ye ken ye have me heart in that beautiful body of yours. Ye ken I always want ye, no matter what’s happenin’. Now I ken it’s the cure to all this horror. Come along. It’s no’ far.”
She started to resist, but he caught hold of her chin. He steered her mouth up to his lips and kissed her. She softened against him, and he put his arms around her. God, she felt just as good as ever. He wanted her in his bed right now.
She broke away from his kiss and laid her head on his chest. He hugged her head against him and kissed her hair. “What is it, lassie?”
“Nothing,” she murmured. “I’m just so glad to see you. I thought you were gone. I thought I would never find you again, or that you were dead.”
He pushed her back and gazed into her eyes. “Ye were magnificent on the roof. Ye were absolutely awesome.”
“Ha! I was hideous. I was a monster, just like all the other monsters.”
“Lassie!” he breathed. “Ye dinnae ken how truly beautiful ye are as a wolf. I never saw anything like it, and you’re all mine. I dinnae think I can bear all I feel for ye, and now you’re here. Everyone in this castle right now—all but the Urlus—they’re all wolves, just like ye and me. Do ye see? You’re home, lassie. You’re home with us, and you’re never going anywhere else. Do ye hear me?”
She blushed, and that blush shot straight to his balls. He had to get his hands on her before he exploded. He led her by the hand down the hall to his room. He ushered her inside and shut the door behind her.
When he looked into her face, he saw something there he’d never seen before. Her bright eyes gazed back at him. They searched his face for something. “What’s wrong, lassie? Do ye no’ want this?”
“I…I want it, but…I…I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
He put his arms around her again. She came to him, but her heart fluttered against his chest. Tension quivered down her body. When he stared deep into her eyes, he saw the truth. She was scared.
She loved him. She wanted him. She gave herself to him, but she was scared. She was scared of her own emotions, and she was still scared of her own wolf nature.
He hugged her closer, and his passion died. He whispered in her ear. “It’s all right, lassie. It’s all right.”
“Do you still want to go to the village?” she asked.
“No.” He led her to the bed. He lay down on it and held out his arms. “Come here and lie down.”
She climbed onto the bed and stretched her body out next to him. He put his arm around her shoulders, and she pillowed her head on his chest. He closed his eyes. He had all of her he wanted. He didn’t need anymore.
Her voice startled him. “Christie?”
“Aye, lass.”
“Are we gonna die?” she asked.
He kissed her hair. “No, lassie. We’re no’ going to die.” He was never so certain of anything in his life.
All of a sudden, she started shaking. She buried her face in his chest and burst into tears. She howled and sobbed. Christie folded both his arms around her. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he had to hold her tight. He had to protect her from this, just like everything else.
As long as he kept her near, he could heal her. He could fix whatever went wrong. He was the cure for her and she was the cure for him. Nothing else made sense.
She heaved and quaked. Her sobs wracked her body. She clasped her arms around his chest so tight it hurt, but he never wanted to let her go.
She leaned her head back and tried to say, “I’m sorry,” but she kept crying harder than ever. Her face contorted, and tears streamed down her cheeks to disappear into her hair.
Without asking, he intuited what was bothering her. She went through a lot getting to this point. She almost died in the forest. She almost fell victim to the trolls tearing her heart out. Now she had this wolf madness to wrestle with before she fought her way back to sanity.
He didn’t try to comfort her. He never went through half of what she went through, and now she was home. She finally got back to the one place she could really feel. She could finally let down her guard, and it all caught up with her.
She tried to kiss him, but her lips wouldn’t work. She let her grief and pain pour out of her, and he didn’t try to stop it.
After a time, she quieted down. She fell asleep in his arms, but he stayed awake and thought the whole situation over. If he was wrong about the trolls not coming back, if they attacked again, they would overrun the whole castle. Not even the dragons would hold them off.
If the trolls came, they would come in even greater numbers. They would overpower the dragons and peck them to pieces. It always worked out that way. In the end, whatever force the curse sent against them would swallow everything in its path. No one could defeat it.
Only one solution remained. He and Alexis had to repair the village, but how? First of all, they had to mate just to get to the village. They had to bury all the dead villagers, and they had to find the materials to rebuild the houses. That could take decades.
While he lay there thinking and watching Alexis sleep, someone knocked on his door. He slipped out of bed and draped a blanket over her. He opened the door and found Fergus standing in the passage. “Just the man I was looking for.”
Fergus’s eyes widened. “Ye were looking for me—in your own bedchamber?”
Christie laughed. “No, mon. I was thinking on coming to find ye.”
“Well, here I am. Your brother told me to come and tell ye all the women and children are ready to evacuate. They’re waiting on your word to start.”
“They dinnae need my word to start,” Christie replied. “They should have gone without my word.”
“You’d best go down and give it, then.”
Christie laid a hand on his arm. “Wait, mon. I need to ask ye something.”
“What is it, lad?”
“What do ye ken about Hazel repairing the fabric?” Christie asked. “What did she do and how did she do it?”
“I dinnae ken anything about it,” Fergus replied. “She didnae ever tell me the first detail. She kept it all to herself. That’s the way she is.”
Christie punched one fist into his palm. “Blast! That’s no help.”
“What is it, lad? What’s this village ye have to repair?”
“That’s the trouble,” Christie replied. “It’s no a fabric. It’s a whole village full of people, and it’s all destroyed. I dinnae ken how we can repair it, or even if we can repair it.”
“Who’s to repair it, ye or Alexis?” Fergus asked.
“Both of us,” Christie replied. “We both went there when we…ye ken, when we mated.”
Fergus’s eyes popped open. “What?”
“Aye. It’s a puzzle, and every time we’re together, we seem to repair something that’s come asunder from the curse.”
Fergus flew at him and seized him by the shoulders. “Do ye see? This means ye can get the women back. If the portals come from the curse, ye can reverse them.”
Christie tried to fight his hands off. “Wheesht, mon. Ye dinnae ken that. We dinnae ken anything about where the women went or how.”
“Dinnae rob me of all hope,” Fergus exclaimed. “Think on it, lad. She caused this, and now the two of ye together’ll repair the damage. Ye can bring them back. Ye can bring Hazel back to me. I ken it.”
Christie shook his head, but Fergus would hear no protest. He talked faster.
“Listen to me, lad. When I first talked to the Faery King about the curse, he said these manifestations converged on the woman that created them. It doesnae matter that ye two are together now. They’ll keep appearing. The trolls’ll come back, and the portals’ll keep opening. The same thing happened with Hazel and me. These holes appeared, and they sucked everything into them.”
Curse Breaker (Phoenix Throne Book 7): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 17
