Later. When they’d finally vanquished Una, and the men were well enough to get out of bed on their own accord. Still, she felt a deeply anguished pang of grief when she thought about that poor man’s drawn, haggard face. The amount of suffering Una was inflicting on these men… no matter what the crimes of human men, this was too much. Too much of a punishment, too strong a reaction. Nobody deserved to die this kind of death.
And what was the death toll? The men had been a little cagey about it, but from what Elena could gather, it was at least half a dozen men who’d been claimed by their desperate love for Una… and more still who hadn’t been seen or heard of in a worrisomely long time. Hopefully, once Una was defeated (she kept forcing herself to think of it as a foregone conclusion) the men would come back to health and return from whatever strange corner of the countryside they’d gotten to. Had they gone to Una, perhaps, wherever she was spending her days? Had she recruited them as servants to keep her comfortable while she slowly drained the life from them and every other man in the area?
A shiver ran down Elena’s spine as she carried her belongings back to the prison room she’d been using. God, she hated this room — for all that her most recent memories of it, that morning’s session with Brendan, were quite pleasant. She’d definitely need to do something about the living situation. Maybe Brendan had a bit of spare room in his quarters? Was it too soon to be thinking of living together? It could be a temporary arrangement, she told herself, blushing a little at the thought of living with him. It would be fine, surely. After all, they already shared a castle.
She was avoiding thinking about Una, she could tell. And as the afternoon wore on and the sun got lower and lower in the sky, so did her anxiety start to skyrocket. So many aspects of this plan could go wrong… not the least of which was the fact that Una could control people’s minds. She’d been subtle, with Elena, but what if she realized that the subtle approach hadn’t worked, and decided to opt for the un-subtle one? What if she was capable of seizing control of Elena’s body like a long, red-haired puppet? She had no idea how magic worked, no idea how to predict the terrible things that could happen to her at Una’s hand…
Get it together, Elena. You have no idea of what’s going to happen on the streets of Baltimore every day, either, do you? But you still get out there and work your hardest. Same principle here. Something will happen. Do your best to make it the thing you want it to happen.
The self-pep-talk helped a little, she supposed. It made her feel more determined, at least, and a little more confident, even though she was no less frightened of losing her mind or screwing it up somehow. And she was anxious about seeing Una again, too. What if she lost her nerve? What if everything she felt for the woman welled up and stopped her striking when she needed to strike? Una had been a friend… still was a friend, really, for all that she knew how truly evil she was, now. And while some of those feelings might have been encouraged along by Una’s magic, the truth was that part of Elena really did like the woman. She’d always had a soft spot for tall, strange, feral women with strong views and eccentric presentation. In a way, she reminded her of herself… a dark, twisted version of herself, perhaps, but they had a lot in common beyond their similar looks. It was going to be painful to have to come up against her, to take actions to end her life.
But it is the only way, she thought, straightening her back and hardening her heart. To save all the sick men — to save Brendan, who’d also fallen under Una’s spell — she’d have to do it. And do it soon — before more men could fall sick and die. The guilt at having let Una into the castle, and by doing so allowed her to infect all the men of the guard, Brendan included… it was a lot for her to bear. She tried not to think about it, for now. Fix the problem first, then worry about grieving the losses sustained by not fixing it earlier.
By the time it was dark, she was ready. She’d dressed in travelling clothes, hoping to look the part of a woman who was running away with her immortal Fae girlfriend to start a new queendom together. She’d considered splashing some blood on herself to make it seem like she’d done some stabbing on her way down to the docks, but the prospect of procuring blood — and making the splashes look realistic — was a little too much to bear. She’d just tell Una she’d been very careful when she’d killed the men. With the faerie blade stashed safely in her belt, out of sight of curious eyes, she moved down the stairs, trying to steady her breathing as she went.
By now, the men ought to be up on the walls — and sure enough, when she emerged from the castle, she peered up and saw them all. No torches, as Brendan had instructed, to ensure their dark vision was at its best. She hoped their efforts wouldn’t be needed, but it did feel good to have backup… even if the backup was just a smokescreen for the real plan, which was to knife Una before the men could get around to shooting her.
She walked down to the end of the jetty like she had so many times before, keeping tight control of her breathing. This was it. The moment of truth. Would Una even come? Or had she sensed Elena’s change of heart — would she stay away, disappointed to have lost her friend? Elena felt a pang of real sadness at that idea — and as if the emotion itself had summoned her, she heard Una’s hooves clip-clopping down the jetty. Now she knew what was under the dress, she was surprised she hadn’t figured out that she had hooves earlier… or had Una been controlling her mind to make her hear boots instead of hooves? The idea made her feel oddly sick.
“Elena, my darling. Tell me.”
“It’s done,” she said simply, pulling the knife out of her belt as if to show Una. “I’m free of him. And a handful of others who tried to stand in my way,” she added.
“How do you feel?”
“Better,” she said, spreading her hands. “Free. Ready to start a new life.”
“Not quite,” Una said softly… and her heart sank. What was wrong? Had she figured out the ruse? But her black eyes were lifting up to the top of the wall… and Elena followed her gaze there, confused. What was she looking at? All the men up there were hiding — there was no sign of them…
“Una? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? What’s ever wrong? Men,” she hissed, real anger on her face, and suddenly Elena saw a twist to her features she’d never seen before. A kind of ugliness that had been hidden from her by the enchantment Una had cast on her mind, on her eyes? She raised a hand, and whispered a phrase in the strange language Elena had heard the Sidhe speaking. And to Elena’s horror, she heard the distant clattering of weapons.
“What did you do?”
“Dozens of men, iron arrows trained on us, Elena my love,” Una said regretfully. “Your new friends, ready to kill us both. No matter, no matter. I’ll always be here, now. To protect you. But your man isn’t dead.”
“What?” Elena’s heart started beating hard. How could Una know that? Had letting her into the castle increased her reach so far? But the baobhan sith was still smiling at her the same way she always had, that open, earnest, adoring smile.
“Your man. He lives. He’s up there, among the sleeping.”
“Sleeping — he’s dead? You’ve killed them all?” She tried to keep her face neutral, knew that Una had been working on turning her against men completely — if she was every bit the obedient puppet that Una wanted her to be, by now she’d be happy about the idea of a dozen men being dead, not horrified. The acting challenge of a lifetime. But Una laughed, merrily.
“No, dearest, I can’t kill so well or from such a distance! Just sleeping, just sleeping… and dreaming filthy dreams of me. Men are all the same, I’m afraid,” she muttered, sounding disgusted. “Dear Elena, you lied to me. I forgive you, of course I forgive you. But you must kill your man, before we go away together, or he’ll always hold your heartstrings. Come.”
She extended her hand imperiously, and Elena, completely taken aback by this unexpected development, took it. Una’s fingers were freezing cold, and gripped her hand tight as they walked back along the jetty, head
ing — Elena realized with a lurch of anxiety -for the wall. And to her dismay, when they reached the door, Una smiled over her shoulder — and stepped right through. Gone, it seemed, was her fear of the castle, of the men inside it. She was powerful enough to knock out a dozen men from several hundred feet away — why would she be scared of a few old walls?
They climbed the stairs toward the top of the wall, and Elena’s mind was racing as she tried to figure out a way out of this. What was she going to do? She was still holding the faerie steel knife — should she plunge it into Una’s back while it was turned? No — Una was too far ahead of her, and she was too low to get the knife into her back properly… she’d only have one shot, it needed to pierce her heart. They reached the top of the wall, and Elena stared down in dismay at the sleeping men.
“Pathetic, aren’t they?” Una snarled, picking her way through them, heedless of stepping on their limbs as she went. Elena followed — and realized with a jolt that Brendan was down the end of the collection of sleeping men, slumped against the wall. Una gestured to him, then beckoned Elena closer, her black eyes gleaming in the light.
“Alright, my darling. Here it is. Your moment of freedom. Take that blade… and sink it into his heart.”
Elena stared down at the man she loved, her heart pounding as, slowly but surely, she raised the blade of faerie steel.
Chapter 60
“Come away with me, Elena dearest,” Una was purring as she watched, her black eyes riveted to Elena’s face. “Come away and live with me forever. I have had so many human companions over the years, but they’ve all been men and they’ve all died sooner or later. But not you, my dearest Elena, my Baltimore girl. You’re different. With that knife in your hand, you can do what I do. Drain the lives of men to live forever. You and I, hand in hand, for all of time… it will be so wonderful. Can’t you see our future together, Elena? All that stands in the way is one little man. I know you feel for him now,” she crooned, “but I promise you, once you’ve driven that knife into his heart, you’ll feel nothing for him but delight at the end of his worthless little human life…”
Elena took a deep breath. Then, with all the power she had in her body, she twisted around and drove the knife toward Una’s heart.
A few things happened at once. First, the baobhan sith let out an unearthly shriek — a sound of rage, of anger, of grief and frustration, but overall of sadness and betrayal. Elena felt her heart twist, knowing that in this moment, Una had realized the scale of her deception — had realized she had been betrayed by her friend. Her only friend, from what she had been saying about her life… despite the evils that Una had done, Elena couldn’t help but feel pity for her in the moment. So it was with a mixture of relief and terror that she realized that the knife had sunk straight into Una’s chest… for all the world as though the woman was made of nothing more substantial than cloud.
“Elena,” she said softly, tears running down her cheeks as she stared down at the blade. Elena was still holding it, feeling stupid. Had it harmed her at all? “Faerie steel doesn’t harm Fae. Someone should have told you that.”
“Una, I —”
“Too kind,” Una whispered, her black eyes full of an emotion that Elena couldn’t read. But she was reaching up, taking the handle of the blade, drawing it out of her own unharmed chest — the tear in her green dress remained, though — and turning it towards Elena as she spoke. “Too gentle. Too trusting. Too naive. My Elena… I will grieve your death. And more than that, I will grieve your betrayal…”
Elena screamed as Una lunged — but then there was a clattering sound. She looked down, shocked to see the faerie blade lying harmlessly at her feet on the stone — and looked back up to meet Una’s horrified eyes. There, protruding from the center of her chest, was an iron arrowhead. And standing behind her, unsteady on his feet but wide awake, was Brendan himself.
“Elena,” Una half-sighed, half-wailed… and then the blackness of her eyes seemed to spread to envelop her whole body, and she disappeared completely, a puff of black smoke that danced away across the top of the wall and disappeared into the moonlight. Elena stood stock still, staring after her, hardly daring to believe that she was actually gone. But she didn’t return, didn’t reform… Brendan was still standing there, an arrow clutched in his hand, shaking a little. And as the men around them began to stir from their magically-induced slumber, she rushed forward to catch him as he fell forward.
“Brendan, how did you do that? She knocked everyone out…”
“I could hear,” he said with some difficulty, putting his arm around her shoulders to keep himself standing. “Could hear her about to hurt you — I had to get up, so I got up. Easy as that.”
“You saved my life,” she said blankly. “People keep saving my life in Scotland.”
“We’re a gallant people,” he managed with a weak laugh. “Is she gone?”
Elena took a deep breath, scanning the sky. Unexpectedly, she felt tears spring to her eyes, and she dashed them away, a little embarrassed to feel so strongly about the loss of someone who had been so monstrous. But Brendan seemed to understand — he pulled her into his arms, squeezing her tightly, and they stood for a moment, gazing out over the wall to the quiet, calm waters of the Loch. It was as though nothing had happened — as though Una had never been here. Around them, the men were talking to each other with shock about what had happened — and, to Elena’s delight, saying that they were feeling a lot more themselves since their short nap.
“Do you think the disease has lifted?” Brendan asked her, clearly listening to the same conversations.
“Only one way to find out,” she pointed out.
It was after midnight, but neither of them were going to wait until morning to check on the patients. They worked their way systematically through the castle — Brendan knew where all the extra sick people had been put, and they checked on one after the other. With each room, her spirits grew brighter and brighter — man after man, blinking blearily as he sat up in bed, new life in his eyes. Each of them looked at her warily, but none of them tried to reach for her, or beg her for a kiss. The man who was sleeping in her bed went so far as to pull the blankets over himself more closely, looking a little embarrassed to be seen in his bed by a lady, and she laughed, apologizing as she retreated from the room.
Once the sun came up, they rode into the village on their usual horses — and this time, Brendan let her try trotting, so impatient were they both to get where they were going. She waited on the outskirts of town while he rode up to a few doors — she didn’t want to risk getting grabbed by another angry mob, just in case the men were still unwell. But when Brendan returned to her, he had a grin on his face so broad that it couldn’t have been anything other than good news.
“Thank god,” she said simply, smiling at him — and they rode back toward the castle, exhausted but happy.
They arrived just in time for breakfast… and to Elena’s delight, it was a raucous affair. All the sick men had come down at once, and were greedily making up for lost time, wolfing down record servings of porridge — she giggled to herself, picturing Blair putting on extra pots of porridge and clicking her tongue with dismay. She and Brendan ate — well, she did, at any rate. Brendan was too busy tearing around the room, checking in on his men, making sure they were well again.
She sat with Nancy and Anna, both of whom were rather disappointed to have missed all the excitement… but were glad to see their friend in good spirits again.
“I owe both of you an apology,” Elena said simply. “I’ll tell you the whole story later, but for now… just know that I haven’t been myself, these last few weeks, and I’ll never be so unkind to either of you again.”
They both smiled and hugged her, and she felt so full of warmth and gratitude that she could almost forget the strange, but very real, feeling of grief that lingered deep in her heart… grief at the loss of Una, the loss of a very strange — but nevertheless real — friend.
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nbsp; After breakfast, she couldn’t stop yawning… but there was still the question of where she was meant to sleep. Brendan did away with that question, at least for a little while, by taking her firmly by the hand and leading her out of the dining hall. She could hear Anna and Nancy giggling with each other behind her but couldn’t even bring herself to care. There was so much joy pulsing in her heart — she’d survived, she was alive, they’d defeated Una, all the sick men would be well again… and now she could spend as much time as she wanted to spend with Brendan. Yes, there would be an uncomfortable conversation or two in her future when she described the true nature of her relationship with the baobhan sith who’d plagued the castle… but that was for her future self to deal with. For now, all she wanted to do was spend time with her lover. With the man who, against all odds, she’d fallen in love with.
He led her to his quarters, and she grinned broadly when she saw how much bigger his bed was than the one that had been in her tiny guest room. The door shut behind them, neither of them had any use for words — they almost melted into one another, kissing slowly and passionately, undressing each other with the slow, languid pace of people who had absolutely nowhere to be and all the time in the world to savor each moment of what they were about to do together.
Swept By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 3 Page 36
