Christie jumped. “Why did ye no’ tell me about this afore?”
“I didnae think on it ’til right now,” Fergus replied. “They kept getting stronger and more dangerous, and pretty soon, Hazel found she could use them to travel back and forth, not just in time but to different places out of sight. She used them to travel back and forth to wherever it was she repaired the fabric. That’s how it happened.”
Christie frowned. “If you’re right about this, then Alexis and I could use them to travel to the village, but…”
“Ferget that!” Fergus snapped. “You’re mated, are ye no’? Marry this lass and go that way. Why fight it?”
Christie blushed. “Wheesht, mon!”
“Gang ye downstairs. Your brother’s waiting on ye. Then ye can come back up here to your lassie.”
Fergus walked away and left Christie brooding. Too many strange ideas crowded his mind at once. He couldn’t think about them all at the same time. He had to figure this out. Sure, he wanted to sleep with Alexis. He even wanted to marry her. That would be his favorite way to get to the village.
What if he could reverse the portal? What if he could bring the women back? He could restore Ivy to Lachlan. A witch like Hazel would come in handy right about now.
He eased back his room door, and when he shut it, the latch clicking shut startled Alexis out of a sound sleep. She leaped off the bed. “What’s happening?”
He sat down next to her. “Lie down, lass. All’s well, and ye need to rest. I’m going downstairs for a moment. Stay here, and I’ll return in no time. I have to give the order for the evacuation and speak to Lachlan, and I’ll come back.”
She sank down on the counterpane. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Go to sleep. I’m worried you’re exhausting yourself.”
“I am pretty tired,” she breathed. “I didn’t realize it until I lay down here.”
He stroked her forehead and kissed her. “I must go downstairs. I want to find ye sound asleep when I return. That’s an order.”
She mimicked his accent. “Aye, my Laird.”
He laughed and left the room.
Chapter 26
Alexis crawled under the coverlet of Christie’s bed and buried herself in warm comfort. He was right. She never slept well when she was away from him. Thinking he was dead and she would never see him again left her distraught. Then she appeared in the middle of that battle.
The truth was her nerves never really recovered the shock of transporting to Scotland in the first place. She hadn’t really relaxed. She was too busy blipping here and there and everywhere. She was flying apart in pieces in more ways than one, and she couldn’t put herself back together again. Only Christie could do that.
Now that she was awake, she couldn’t fall back to sleep. Her mind wouldn’t stop churning. She tossed for a while. Then she got up. She looked out the window at the view down the island. The countryside rolled away south to the distant sea beyond. A fringe of dark woods bordered the castle.
She promised Christie she would be here when he came back, but she couldn’t stay in this room. She had to get out. She went downstairs and heard Christie’s voice coming from the Great Hall. She didn’t go near the door.
She passed through the entrance to the world outside and headed straight for the woods. Once she got under the canopy, her anxiety started to ease. Something about woods and wild places spoke to her heart as never before. She felt safe and alive and energetic. She could start to believe Christie’s promise that they could get through this disaster somehow.
She walked a short way when a young wolf loped out of the trees on its way to Duart. It stopped and regarded her. She felt no fear for the animal. A queer sensation burrowed through her insides.
Was Christie right that all these people were her people now? She was a wolf. She didn’t want to be one. She cringed when she remembered what she did and thought and experienced on the roof. Something called her to this wolf, though. She couldn’t turn away from it.
The wolf trotted toward her. Without missing a footstep, it changed into a young boy. He couldn’t have been more than ten years old. He gazed up at her with clear wide eyes.
Alexis smiled at him. “Hello. What’s your name?”
“Davy,” he replied. “Davy McLean.”
“McLean!” she exclaimed. “I know the McLeans. Who are your parents?”
“My father’s Colin, and my mother’s Abigail,” he replied. “Who do you ken of the McLeans?”
Alexis blushed in spite of herself. “I’m here visiting Christie…and Lachlan.”
His eyes widened further. “Ye ken the Laird? I ken him as well. He’s my cousin.”
“That’s nice,” she replied. “They’re very nice people. What are you doing out here, all by yourself?”
“I was just going for a run,” he told her. “I like to go for a run in the evening. Wheesht, I like to go for a run anytime, but evening’s nice. There’s more to hunt at evening, too, ye ken.”
Alexis looked away. “I guess so.”
He jerked his thumb toward the forest. “Do ye want to come for a run with me? I can show ye the best places to turn up a rabbit. They’re tasty this time of year. Nice and fat, putting on weight for winter and all.”
“I couldn’t do that.”
“Why no’?” he asked. “If you’re visiting, ye dinnae ken the good places. I can show ye. I ken all the good places all over the isle. That’s the good thing about going for a run every day. Ye learn. You’ll be running a lot on this isle, I expect.”
She couldn’t stop her cheeks burning. “Well, maybe.”
“Of course ye will,” he replied. “Everybody does it, the Laird most of all. Wheesht, he’s an expert. He’s been running since he was a bairn, and now he’s Laird of all the Isles. I wish I could be Laird someday, but he’ll have his own lads one of these days, and they’ll take the title. Me and mine’ll always be his cousins.”
“Are you talking about Lachlan, or Christie?”
The boy cocked his head. “Does it matter? One’s as good as the other. I met Christie out running one evening a for months back. He’s a master. Of course, he had to run slow so I could keep up with him. That’s just the kind of man he is. He always considers the other man. He even showed me a new gully I never kenned was there. I wish I could run with him every day, but now he’s too busy with his Clan business and all. Ever since Carson died, he keeps rising. Now he’s Lachlan’s right hand—or maybe Lachlan is his right hand. No one kens, and it doesnae matter much.”
“I guess so,” Alexis muttered.
“Ye should come running with me,” the boy insisted. “It’d be heaps of fun.”
Alexis couldn’t suppress her smile. She would love to run over the island with this boy, but he could only be talking about doing it as a wolf. The thought of letting her wild soul break out and run for all it was worth thrilled her beyond endurance. She couldn’t let herself go, though.
This boy lived and breathed wolf. Now that she was one, she saw wolves everywhere she looked. She saw the wolf hiding beneath the skin of everyone she looked at. They must see it in her, too. Davy saw it when he looked at her right now.
What would it be like to really break free? What would it be like to slough off this human shell and become one with the Earth? She wanted that. She craved it. Her very life depended on it, but she couldn’t let it go. The old shackles of humanity still bound her in chains.
She glanced over her shoulder. Christie might get angry if he came back to his room and found her gone. He encouraged her more than anyone to embrace the wolf inside her. Still, she held herself back.
If she let the wolf out of its cage, she might never come back. She might run wild for the rest of her life. What could go wrong with that, if she did? She was on an island off the Scottish coast, surrounded by other werewolves. They would accept her. They would even welcome her. It was herself who didn’t accept it.
Her vision cleared, and she
found Davy regarding her. He waited for her answer. She opened her mouth to accept his invitation when his arm jerked out straight from his body. Before either of them could react, the arm yanked out of its socket and went flying off into the trees.
Davy screamed. Alexis screamed. Blood fountained from the wound. Alexis ran to him and grabbed him. Before she even got to him, his ear ripped off and left a bloody patch of ragged skin with a few wisps of hair hanging off.
He screamed louder than ever. Alexis didn’t know what to do with her hands. She had to do something to stop this. She laid her hand over his torn shoulder. She called up every scrap of power she ever had, but she couldn’t heal the wound.
Davy’s legs folded under him, and he collapsed into her arms. She sank to the ground with him. He screeched in her ears. In front of her eyes, a chunk tore out of his neck. She saw the windpipe and the great blood vessels laid bare and throbbing. Only a trick of fate prevented the carotid artery and the jugular vein from tearing.
Davy sobbed and screamed. Alexis wasn’t far off the same thing herself. Her hands flew everywhere, but his body kept flying away in pieces faster than she could think. His big toe snapped away from one bare foot. One of his ribs poked through the skin, peeled out of the hole, and went spinning into the forest like a boomerang.
“Help me, Lady!” Davy screamed.
Alexis was in a panic. She gathered the boy in her arms. She could think of only one thing to do. “Come on. I have to get you up to the castle. We have to find Christie.”
She staggered up the hill toward Duart. One of the boy’s eyes exploded in her face. Blood and pulp spattered her cheek, but she couldn’t fall apart now.
She gritted her teeth and forced herself up the hill under her burden. This could mean only one thing. Another attack was starting. Alexis wanted to run for the hills. She wanted to vanish into the Earth rather than face this. She caused this. This horror was the consequence of her own actions.
She couldn’t run away, though. She had to face it and put a stop to it, and the only way to do that was to find Christie.
She carried the boy up to the castle entrance. He passed out on the way and hung limp in her arms. She kicked the door open and lugged him inside. She stumbled to the Great Hall. Lachlan and a few Urlu men stood around in conference.
“Where’s Christie?” she blurted out.
Lachlan spun around. “He went off with the evacuation. He’ll be right back. What’s amiss?”
Alexis staggered under her burden and laid the boy on the floor. “It’s started. I was just talking to him, and it started right in front of me. I can’t heal him. We need to find Christie right away.”
Jamie stood up from the table. “I’ll go find him.”
Lachlan bent over the boy. “Davy! Clyde, go find Colin.”
“We have to stop the bleeding,” Alexis panted. “His arm is still out in the forest somewhere.”
Lachlan leaned back on his heels. “We cannae stop the bleeding. He’s dead.”
“No!” Alexis cried. She flung herself on the motionless boy. She pressed her hand to his shoulder. Her hands flew all over him.
Lachlan sat back and didn’t try to stop her. Clyde and Colin appeared in the doorway, and Lachlan got to his feet and went to talk to his cousin.
This couldn’t be happening. Alexis couldn’t stand by and watch this curse take an innocent life in front of her eyes. She had to do something to bring him back. She saved Christie at Kinlochleven, so why couldn’t she do the same thing with Davy?
Someone laid a hand on her shoulder. “Let him rest, lassie.”
She glanced over her shoulder and looked up into Angus’s sad eyes. She spun away in a flash. “I can’t! I have to save him.”
Angus squatted down behind her and murmured in her ear. “Ye didnae do this to him, lass.”
“I can’t let him die,” she panted. “He was talking to me. He was inviting me to go running over the island with him and go hunt rabbits. I was just about to say yes when it started. Everywhere I go, this happens. I never wanted anybody to get hurt. I have to save him. I can heal him. I know I can.”
Angus took hold of her shoulders. With firm, steady pressure, he pulled her away from the body. She tried to resist, but he was too strong. He lifted her to her feet and turned her around so she stood with her back to Davy.
“Ye didnae do this, lass,” he told her. “You’re using your power to stop this curse. Ye cannae blame yourself for all these deaths.”
“You don’t understand,” she shrieked. “I just…”
“I do understand,” he replied. “I understand better than ye think. I blamed myself for it, too. I lost fifty men. I lost my own brother. I lost a lot more than that. I wanted to die so I wouldnae be responsible for it any longer.”
Alexis started to protest, but she stopped in midsentence. She stared at this man. “What did you do?”
“I realized they needed me as King,” he replied. “It wasnae just my own brothers. All Urlu wanted me. They didnae blame me for the deaths ’cuz I wasnae responsible for them. I was only responsible for stopping them and for protecting the realm to the best of my ability. That’s a King’s job, after all, is it no’?”
Alexis hung her head. She wanted to cry.
“You’re no’ responsible for any of this, lass,” he murmured. “It was an accident. You’re only responsible for stopping it as best ye can, and ye will stop it in time. Ye just have to figure out how.”
“I guess so,” she croaked.
“Do ye want to ken something?” he asked. “I have no spoken of this in years, but perhaps it can help ye. I was too ashamed of it, and my family’s too polite to remind me.”
Alexis’s head shot up. “What is it?”
“I nearly killed Hazel. Did ye ken that? No, nobody kens it but my own brothers—and Hazel, of course. I almost murdered her in cold blood, and then we would have been stuck with this curse forever.” He shook his head, but he couldn’t hold back his smile at the memory. “I was a dolt.”
Alexis’s spirit revived. “Really?”
“Just remember one thing in all this madness, lassie,” he told her. “This fight’s not over ’til it’s over. As long as you’re alive, there’s a chance to put a stop to it—ye and Christie. Just keep on and dinnae give up for naught. All of us need ye. We’re all following ye and depending on ye.”
Alexis blinked at him until he walked away. She never expected anyone to put it like that. She thought she was doing everybody a favor by leaving and staying away from them. She never realized they needed her and wanted her with them.
She looked around. Robbie leaned against the fireplace. Fergus murmured in his ear. Callum sat in an armchair. Alexis looked from one man to the next. Lachlan hugged Colin by the door. Not one of these men glared at her or turned away from her. None of them blamed her for this.
How many times had Christie tried to tell her? She couldn’t believe it until right now. They wanted her here. They didn’t want her to leave. They wanted to help her make this better so no one else had to die.
A low rumble vibrated through the building. Everybody looked around. Lachlan let go of Colin. The rumble came again, and the men lunged for the castle entrance. Lachlan took hold of the door latch, but Fergus caught him by the wrist. “No, mon. They might be attacking again.”
Lachlan hesitated. Then he slid back a small window in the door. A solid black wall covered the window. Alexis looked over his shoulder and recognized the shoulder joint connecting a wing to a small body. The thing couldn’t even move with so many more trolls sandwiched in behind it.
The men broke away. They ran to the windows and looked out. What the group originally took for nightfall was actually a solid blanket of trolls surrounding the castle. Lachlan bellowed down the passage. “To arms, men! Tumble out.”
Colin raced away. Alexis ran to Lachlan’s side. “We have to find Christie. He and I can stop the attack.”
“We cannae find him now,�
� Lachlan replied. “He went out with the evacuation. If Jamie finds him, they’ll never get back inside. We have to defend the place.”
Angus appeared at Alexis’s side and took her hand. “Dinnae bother yourself about Christie. If he’s outside the walls, he’ll be safe. They’re converging on ye.”
Lachlan grabbed his saber from the corner. “Get Ronald down here with his men. We’ll fight them off at the door.”
Robbie appeared in the doorway of the Great Hall. He strolled into the passage in no particular hurry. “This one’s all ours, mon. Hold your men back. When the door opens, we’ll open a hole for ye to go outside, but you’d best stop in here and let us handle this.”
Lachlan froze. He stared at his friends. Then he shrugged. “Of course. My mistake.”
The Urlus converged on the door. “I’ll go first,” Angus told them.
Robbie nodded and stood behind the door. He took hold of the latch.
“Dinnae come out until we clear the area,” Callum told Lachlan. “Keep your men here to kill any monster that gets inside. Ye protect your people. Leave this to us.”
Lachlan nodded. Callum turned to Alexis. “Ye stay here, too. Ye cannae do anything without Christie, so stay behind the door. That’ll keep the monsters concentrated here where we can wipe out as many as we can. Understand?”
Alexis nodded. She could barely breathe. She didn’t want to think about what was about to happen when the Urlus got outside.
Angus surveyed the entrance hall. “Too bad it’s so small in here. It’d work better if I could shift before I went outside.”
Fergus laid his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Let me go first. When he opens the door, I’ll clear a path. Then ye can go outside and take over.”
Angus brightened up. “Excellent idea. Go to it.”
He and Fergus changed places. Angus put out his arm and pushed everyone back. Only Robbie stood behind the door holding the latch. All eyes trained on Fergus. He took a deep breath and shifted.
Curse Breaker (Phoenix Throne Book 7): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 18
