Swept By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 3

by Preston, Rebecca

  “As much as I’d like to —”

  “Right, yes. Absolutely. My word.” He cleared his throat a little gruffly. “Not bad, Elena Cross.”

  “Not bad? We’ll have to shoot for better than that next time,” she said, clicking her tongue, and smiled at the blush that rose to his cheeks. “What?”

  “Pleased to hear there’ll be a next time, that’s all.” He shrugged, clearly trying to hide his smile.

  “Well, I certainly hope there will be. Or are you more interested in my lookalike?”

  A shadow passed across his face, and he shivered a little. She reached out to touch his shoulder, concerned by the expression on his face. “Sorry. I shouldn’t joke about her.”

  “Not until we’ve beaten her,” he said, rising to his feet resolutely — then staggering a little, clearly dizzy. “Oof. You’ve made me dizzy, woman.”

  “Not my fault,” she objected with a smile. “All you.”

  “Whatever you say,” he groused, pulling his clothes on. “It’ll be lunch soon. If you wouldn’t mind having lunch with Donal, Malcolm and I, we’ll be discussing the plan for how to deal with this creature. Your insights would be most valuable.”

  She hesitated, biting her lip. “Are you sure they’ll want to hear from me? If they suspect I’m still under Una’s control...”

  “Elena, don’t worry. We know what happened now. Donal and Malcolm, they’ll understand. The two of them know plenty about the effect of Fae mind tricks… anyone under the power of a Fae can’t admit it, even to themselves. As soon as you tell them what happened —”

  Elena sighed. “Do we have to tell them? Can it wait? I … Brendan, I’m sorry, but I just don’t trust them not to lock me up again. I can’t be put back in this room while she’s out there, hunting men down. I just can’t.”

  “Elena, Donal’s a good Laird.”

  “You look me in the eye and tell me you’re completely sure he won’t lock me up again when I tell him I was under the control of a baobhan sith, Brendan, and I’ll do it.”

  He looked at her for a long moment… then looked away, clearly defeated.

  She nodded, rising to her feet to collect her clothing and start dressing for the day, suddenly impatient to get away from this room — even away from the bed she’d spent such a pleasant time in with Brendan. “Brendan, I’ll tell them what happened after we defeat her, okay?”

  “If you’re sure,” Brendan said, spreading his hands. “I trust you, Elena. Took me long enough to learn that particular lesson, but I do. I trust you.”

  “In your defense, I was being partially mind-controlled by an evil Fae creature,” Elena pointed out, shrugging. “A little bit of distrust was… probably your instincts talking.”

  “Aye, but still. My instincts also drew me to you, so…” He smiled up at her from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed, and she smiled back, almost overwhelmed by fondness for him. God, so much had changed in such a short space of time… she felt like she’d cleared her head of cobwebs, like she was seeing clearly for the first time. And now that she was free, it was almost embarrassing to think of how obvious the solution to the mystery was. Of course it was Una who’d been hunting the men… who on earth else? She should have figured it out the first time she spoke to the woman… but of course, at that stage she’d already been well inside her head, meddling around. Real anger flared up in her at Una for the first time, and she grabbed hold of it, heartened by its presence. She had every right to be angry with the woman for messing around inside her head.

  “Brendan. If we kill the baobhan sith, will that free the men she’s got under her spell?”

  “Aye,” Brendan said. “That’s the best and only way… short of forcing her to give them up voluntarily, of course. But she’s unlikely to do that. Death’s the best way. But it’s no easy task, to kill a creature so powerful. Cold iron could do it, but it’s impossible to get up close enough. Fae like her can sense iron at a hundred paces.”

  “I think I have an idea,” she said, her mind racing. “Una can sense iron, that’s true. When I had that button of yours stashed inside my sash, she didn’t come to meet me on the docks at all... so she must sense it from a few hundred paces at least.”

  Brendan whistled. “That’s a powerful baobhan sith.”

  “Well, yeah. She’s been feeding on all the men of the area for weeks, right? I’m not surprised. But iron weapons won’t get anywhere near her… but what about bows?”

  “Bows could work,” Brendan said thoughtfully. “We have plenty of cold iron arrowheads from when we were under attack from water goblins, and most of my men are good shots. Malcolm’s been training with them,” he added, his usual spark of resentment for the tanist lighting up his eyes.

  “How many men are unharmed by the disease?”

  Brendan shut his eyes heavily. “None, I’m afraid. Though there are plenty like me — starting to feel the effects, but more or less functional, still. I doubt any of us have another night in us before we start looking like Eamon.”

  “Right,” Elena said, trying not to let that scare her. She was in action mode, planning mode… cop mode. Detective Cross did not get scared, or sentimental, or worried about her new Scottish boyfriend dying under the curse of an evil immortal witch. “So we have to kill her tonight.”

  “Easy as that?”

  “Easy as that,” she said, grinning at him. “I’ve got a plan, Brendan.”

  He looked doubtful. “Do you now.”

  “Listen, buddy. You’ve known me for a few weeks, right? But you haven’t known the real me. You’ve known the me with a witch in my head, messing up all my thoughts, dulling my detective senses. This is me, now, properly. Detective Elena Cross. Good to meet you.” She stuck her hand out, and Brendan chuckled as he shook it obediently.

  “Alright. I shouldn’t have doubted you. Tell me your plan.”

  “Una’s been in my head — but she can’t read my mind, or she wouldn’t have asked me as many questions as she did,” Elena explained, pacing back and forth in the room as she teased out the details of the plan she was forming. “So I don’t think she’ll know that I’ve shaken off her spell. She wants me to fight my way out of the castle and meet her on the docks after dark tonight.”

  Brendan’s eyes widened. “You’re not thinking of going.”

  “I absolutely am. I’ll tell her that I’ve killed you and I’m there to join her. Then, I’ll knife her in the heart.”

  “You won’t get an iron blade anywhere near her. She sensed a button last time, remember?”

  “Sure, but I won’t be using an iron blade. I’ll be using this.” And she reached into his pocket and withdrew the handkerchief-wrapped blade of faerie steel. “You said it does them as much harm as iron, right?”

  “Elena, it’s so dangerous.”

  “I know,” she said simply, looking straight in his worried eyes. “But it’s the best plan we’ve got.”

  Chapter 58

  They headed down to lunch after that, talking in low voices about the details of the plan. It felt so good — and so strange — to be back in the hallways of the castle after such a long time away. A few of the servants gave her worried glances, but for the most part, nobody seemed too disturbed to see her out and about. Brendan explained that Donal had put the word around that her imprisonment had been a test to ensure the spotlessness of her innocence — the whole castle had been waiting to see what would happen when she was locked away, and the whole castle had witnessed the continuation of the sickness of the men. Everyone knew she was innocent, now.

  “Well, I was just as innocent before I was locked up for a week,” she grumbled. “I know I was irrationally angry, like, mind-control angry because of Una, but I’m still regular-Elena angry about that. It was a sucky thing to do.”

  “I know,” Brendan said, squeezing her to his side in an unexpected bear hug. “I’ll make it up to you one day, Elena, I promise.”

  “See that you do,” she said arch
ly… but the apology had been far more effective than she was willing to let on. Amazing — without Una in her mind, it was so much harder to stay angry about anything. Especially with Brendan. But she definitely had a little bit of anger left to spare… anger with Una, for what she’d done to her. For what she’d almost made her do to Brendan. No, she was angry, alright. But it was the cold, calculating kind of anger… the kind of anger that was an asset in situations like this, not a liability. She was ready.

  They sat together at lunch, joined by Donal and Malcolm, and though Brendan shot her a few worried looks he was true to his word, saying nothing of what he’d learned about Elena’s relationship with the very baobhan sith that was preying on the men of the castle. Donal looked almost as miserable as Brendan — he was wan and clearly hadn’t slept much, stubble on his handsome face and a frown that never left his eyes, even when he smiled at Malcolm’s jokes. The tanist was doing his best to keep his Laird in good spirits — he was clearly the kind of guy who cracked jokes when he was stressed. It was a valuable quality in a group, and Elena appreciated what he was trying to do.

  “We’ve got a plan,” Brendan said, looking up at Donal and Malcolm and shooting Elena a quick glance as he started talking. “It’s risky, but… it has to be. From the results of our investigation, it’s pretty clear that this is a baobhan sith.”

  Donal nodded, looking tired and worried — but not surprised. This was clearly a prevailing theory, and Elena felt a twinge of annoyance that nobody had bothered to let her in on it a little earlier. Why, she might have recognized what she was dealing with and avoided all this trouble. Still, she couldn’t exactly complain now — not without alerting Donal to her little friendship. Best to avoid that, for now — though there would be a long, awkward conversation after all of this business was sorted out.

  If she survived, that was.

  “Baobhan sith like women,” Elena said frankly. “Or at least, they pity us. And this one seems to pity me specifically. You remember I mentioned someone pulled me out of the Loch that first night? I was talking to Brendan this morning, and something he said about baobhan sith reminded me of that night. How cold their hands are. I think this is the same person who pulled me out of the Loch. I think she escaped imprisonment with the Sidhe the same night they pulled me through. That’s why men started getting sick at the same time as I arrived here — she and I arrived together.”

  “That makes sense,” Donal said, nodding as he took a spoonful of his soup. “But what does that have to do with defeating her?”

  “I’m going to offer to join her,” Elena said, grinning widely.

  Malcolm choked on his breadroll. Donal thumped him hard on the back, not looking away from Elena’s face.

  “What?”

  “I’ll go down to the docks and call to her. And when she appears, the men on the walls will shoot her with iron arrows.”

  “It’s dangerous,” Donal said straight away, sounding like Brendan.

  She hid a smile. “I know. But I’ve done more dangerous things before. It’s hard to explain, but… this kind of thing was my job back home. I’m good at it. I can pull this off, Donal. You have to let me try.”

  He sighed, glancing sideways at Malcolm. “A few years ago, I’d have said you were mad. But you women from America have a knack for pulling off these crazy-sounding schemes.”

  “It’s true.” Malcolm shrugged. “My wife and I dove to the bottom of Loch Ness to stop a goblin invasion. I believe you can do this, Elena.”

  “As do I,” Brendan said gruffly, shooting her a quick smile — but she could tell his attention was on Donal, who was chewing on his nails as he considered the idea carefully.

  “You’ll be covered by every able-bodied man in the castle who can string a bow, mind,” Donal said sharply — and Elena grinned, elated that her plan had clearly been approved. “Myself included! And Malcolm here, and Brendan —”

  “Absolutely. Of course. From up on the walls, right?”

  Donal frowned. “I’d be more comfortable if we had a few closer than that —”

  “Won’t work,” Brendan said, shaking his head. “This creature can sense iron at a few hundred paces. Even the top of the wall might be pushing it.”

  Donal sighed, spreading his hands in defeat. “Just do what you’ve got to do. Sometimes I wonder why I’m Laird at all, honestly…”

  They spent the rest of the meal discussing the plan, as well as the details of the men who had fallen sick. Elena sat back and listened, frowning to herself at how serious the problem had become in the week that she’d been locked up. Several men had been found dead, wasted away completely under the touch of the baobhan sith. Yet more were in the same wretched, desperate state that Eamon had been in when she’d last seen him — barely conscious, completely obsessed with the red-haired woman from the dreams that were killing them. Life in the village had ground to a halt almost completely, with the majority of the able-bodied men unable to work — or locked in their houses surrounded by iron, terrified to even come out for a moment in case the ailment befell them.

  “Who’s unaffected?” Elena wanted to know, leaning forward. “Any pattern to who’s managing to keep the disease at bay?”

  “Precious few,” Brendan said, shaking his head with dismay. “I mean, until this morning we thought that all the men living here in the castle were safe from the beast… but that’s no longer the case. She’s even got her claws in me.”

  “That’s strange,” Donal said, frowning. “What changed over the last few nights? The castle has been a safe place since this contagion began — the men we brought here from the village even improved. But now her reach extends within the walls?”

  “It’s possible someone invited her in,” Malcolm pointed out, and Elena felt a cold lead ball sink into her belly. “Some Fae still operate under those rules. Perhaps one of the men saw her outside and suggested she come in from the cold… there are plenty of stories where that’s all it takes for a dwelling to become infested.”

  “Surely nobody of the Sept would be so daft,” Donal countered, frowning. “Everyone here knows about the Fae, knows how tricky they can be… they’d know better than to invite some strange woman inside.”

  Elena’s heart was pounding. She could feel Brendan deliberately avoiding her gaze, clearly apprehensive about this particular line of questioning. For a moment, she considered coming clean, telling Malcolm and Donal everything that had happened. But she knew in her heart it was a terrible idea. Brendan trusted her — he’d been there with her, he knew her well enough to know that letting Una in had been a terrible mistake that she was never going to repeat. But Donal and Malcolm — as much as they may have been good men who two of her best friends loved and trusted — weren’t likely to see her side. She owed it to the castle to keep this secret, for now — to make sure that she wasn’t imprisoned again. There was nobody else in the castle who could get close enough to Una to defeat her, and she wasn’t letting anything get in the way of that.

  Still, she fiercely regretted how much of her time here had been spent lying to these Scottish men. They had good hearts, even if they could be a bit backwards about the role women could play in their lives at times.

  But it hadn’t occurred to her that it was her fault that Una had gotten into the castle. She hadn’t even thought twice about it when Una appeared in front of the window — she’d invited her right in, and though she hadn’t physically entered Elena’s room, clearly the invitation had been strong enough to let her come in and walk the dreams of the men inside the castle. And the sickness had spread so quickly — even spread to her Brendan, she thought, her heart doing an angry backflip as she looked at his tired face. At least he was eating, she comforted herself, watching him mop up the last of his soup with the last piece of a bread roll. He’d be okay. Once they dealt with Una, he’d be able to mend. Once they dealt with Una, she’d be able to tell the full, regretful truth to Donal and Malcolm and throw herself on their mercy… well, a
t least if they were grateful to her for defeating the baobhan sith and saving their men, maybe she could leverage that in her own favor. Whatever happened, it was going to be the kind of chewing out that she used to get from Captain Jacques… but if she could survive those, she could survive this.

  Best to focus on the problem at hand, she told herself as they finalized the plans then left the lunch hall. Once night had fell, Elena would walk down to the docks by herself and wait in her usual spot for Una to appear. Once she did, she’d keep her there by whatever means necessary — telling her she was willing to join her, crash-tackling her to the ground, whatever it took. The men would be up on the battlements with iron arrows… but the part of the plan that Brendan and Elena hadn’t mentioned to Donal and Malcolm, over lunch, was that Elena would have the wicked blade of faerie steel stashed on her person. Even if Una saw or sensed that blade, she wouldn’t be bothered by it — after all, it was a gift from Una herself, which she would hopefully believe Elena had used to kill Brendan and a handful of other men of the castle.

  And if she could get close enough — and if it seemed that the archers couldn’t get a clear shot with their iron arrows — she, personally, would drive the blade straight into Una’s heart.

  She only hoped that when she came face to face with her old friend, she’d truly have the nerve to go through with it. But that was a fear she didn’t share with Brendan. As much as she adored him, and as deep as her trust in him was growing, there were some things that she just didn’t want to burden him with. Like the fact that a tiny, frightening part of her was worried that once she saw Una in person again, all of those strange, magically-induced feelings of love and loyalty would come rushing back in and take her over.

  Chapter 59

  The afternoon passed incredibly slowly. Brendan went off to rally his men and tell them the plan — feeling oddly bereft without him, Elena traipsed back upstairs to get her things out of her new room and return them to her old room. To her surprise, though, when she reached her old room there was a man spread out in it, fast asleep. He didn’t look at all well — he was incredibly skinny, with deep circles under his eyes, and even his sleep didn’t look restful. His lips were twitching, and his body kept tossing back and forth as though under duress. She frowned, gently closing the door, fairly sure she knew what had happened here — they’d run out of spaces for the guards and sicker men from the village, so had to spread out into whatever room they had. Well, she had always known that the little room they’d given her was a temporary guest room. Maybe she’d find some quarters of her own now — a proper, permanent room.