Chapter 11
Jagosetarapidpace through the dark landscape.Jamie followed closely while Liam lagged, slowed by the pounding in his skull.The pain made him clumsy and foggy.How much longer could this go on?Sienna had said he’d hit his head on a chest of drawers, but something didn’t fit.She’d used drugs to knock him out.Could that be the issue?Surely the headaches shouldn’t still be this bad.If he could trust them, he’d see the local feline doctor for advice.
Despite their haste, they listened for hunters, kept to the shadows, and took care with their foot placement.Up ahead, Jago froze, and he and Jamie followed suit.Voices became audible, coming from in front of them.Jago dove into the undergrowth, blending with the deep shadows.Jamie slipped behind a scraggly bush.Liam frantically searched for a hiding place, but his only option was to go up.He swung into the tree branches and winced at the rustle of the sparse leaves.
Three hunters marched along the path seconds later.
“Did you hear that?”the one walking in the lead demanded.He paused, his gaze shooting from side to side.
An eerie, piercing shriek cut through the night, and Liam flinched, almost losing his grip on the branch.
“That sounds like a fox,” the man at the rear said, yawning.“I saw one earlier.”
And thank goodness for the sighting.Liam peered down at them and wished they’d leave.If they glanced up, they’d see him.
Finally, the trio moved on, but Liam didn’t risk drawing attention with a premature descent.He remained still, barely breathing, until he could no longer hear them.Then he climbed down and joined Jago and Jamie.
“They must’ve lost the trail,” Jago said.
“They sound tired,” Liam said, exhausted himself.“Perhaps they’ll call it a night.”
“I hope they don’t bring in more hunters,” Jamie said.“I’d hire more manpower if I were in charge.”
Jamie was right.Liam and Jago exchanged a glance, recognizing this truth.They needed to find a solution to their problem soon, or none of them would survive.The person who’d encouraged the hunters to stay in the village had created a significant problem.They might have considered eliminating the Teagues, but they had simultaneously brought suffering to the other villagers.
Jago led the way again, quickening his pace over the rocky ground.Sharp stabs of pain lanced behind Liam’s eyes, the discomfort worsening until he had to pause.His breath came in harsh gasps, and a sudden wave of nausea caught him off guard.Liam vomited at the side of the dirt track, his stomach churning as he struggled to stay upright.
A gentle hand touched his shoulder, and once he was confident he wouldn’t barf again, he glanced up, the sour taste still coating his tongue.Colors flashed in his vision—oddly familiar.He’d experienced this before.But when?The answer hovered out of reach, buried beneath a haze that clouded his mind and churned his gut.He gave up chasing the fragments of his past and focused on breathing.
“Liam,” Jago said.“It’s not far.About fifteen minutes.Can you make it?”
Liam wasn’t sure he could manage a hundred meters, let alone fifteen minutes of walking.But he gave a grunt of agreement and pushed himself upright, wavering.Without Jago and Jamie steadying him, he would’ve face-planted in the dirt.
He must’ve blacked out because when he came to, he found himself in a makeshift hut made of rocks.It was pitch black, apart from the light of a partially shaded lamp, and a drummer reverberated offbeat in his skull.
“Liam!”
The splitting headache he’d had for days was now a dull, erratic rhythm at his temples, but something else was wrong.The fog in his mind was lifting, and with it came a flood of images that hit him low and hard, leaving him queasy.
Scott.The castle.The gathering.The bar where they’d talked about…
“Middlemarch,” he whispered, the word feeling like home on his tongue in a way Australia never had.
“Liam, are you feeling okay?”
He looked up at the concerned faces surrounding him, and for the first time in days, they came into sharp focus.Not kin by blood or truth, but strangers bound to him by circumstance and secrets.
“I remember,” he said, his voice hoarse.“The gathering.Scotland.My friend Scott.”He rubbed the side of his forehead, where a dull throb persisted.“Your sister didn’t just find me after I fell.Something’s missing.How did she get me here?”
The silence stretched, heavy with confusion.
“She told you we were mates.But we’d never met before that night.”
Hedrek’s shoulders sagged.“Lad, I—”
“She kidnapped me.”The words slipped out flat, but beneath the calm, a storm brewed—anger, pain, and a raw sense of loss.
Silence hung thick for a moment, then tension rippled through the hut like a sudden chill.
