Eliza scooted to the edge of her seat; her face drawn down into a worried scowl. “Come back to the future, dear sister. Ye’ll be safe here.”
“I belong here. With Tamhas. My sweet man would never leave this time. Not even for me.” Granny’s soft laugh sounded sad and hollow. The flames flickered lower and the gray-white ash nearly covered the bed of coals. The fire was dying. Granny’s voice faded in and out, becoming muffled as the portal cooled. “We’ll be fine here once everything is settled.”
Eliza rose and slowly closed the cherry-red doors of the cast iron stove. She pressed trembling fingers to the inside corners of her eyes and hitched in a tearful sniff.
Ronan thought back to the uneasy atmosphere of MacKenna Keep. It was a sorry day when the MacKenna chieftain and his family could not breathe easy within their own walls. “Does she ken for certain what threatens them?” Ronan rose and moved back to the window. There was something about the rain shushing against the glass that soothed his raw nerves. He traced his fingers across the fogged pane. Perhaps the sound of the rain eased his soul because it was the last sound he remembered hearing before he and Mairi had drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms. Aye.He had never felt such a sense of completeness before.
Eliza sniffed, then coughed before she spoke. “I feel certain It is the evil trying to rise. The darkness senses yer closeness to Mairi.” She spat out the words as though ridding her mouth of venom. “The closer ye draw to Mairi and the breaking of the curse, the more determined the evil will become—hence the storms and unexplained difficulties at MacKenna Keep.”
Ronan rubbed his fist against the aching center of his chest. Anxiousness tightened an icy grasp about him and twisted until he couldn’t breath. “Are ye certain Mother Sinclair is prepared?”
Eliza frowned and worked her ring-encrusted hand inside the ruffled neckline of her silky tunic. She fished out a crumpled tissue from the cleft of her bosoms and daubed it to the corners of her eyes. Her scowl deepened as she pressed the tissue to her nose and delicately blew. After another sniff, she waved a sparkling hand through the air. “Nia hasna quite worked out all that must be done. The darkness will be determined to survive by any means possible. If the wickedness deems it necessary—it will obliterate all in its path.”
The MacKenna lands were situated in the remotest part of the Highlands, many a day’s ride from the witch’s watery grave. Was it truly the witch’s evil plaguing the clan or was it more earthly forces seeking to cause harm? Superstition and belief in the old ways flowed more surely through the veins of the clan than blood. Such beliefs had protected and honored the Sinclair women as the gifted beings that they were. But the new belief of late—the belief that anything unexplainable was the work of Lucifer and witchery and should be expunged—presented a great danger to the Sinclairs.
“I will keep the Sinclair women safe.” He glanced toward the ceiling at the stomping overhead. Mairi’s anger vibrated quite clearly down through two floors. “I will keep them all safe. Even the one who wishes me dead.”
Eliza frowned up at the steady racket. “I’ll fetch the lass before she brings every bit of plaster down around our ears.”
CHAPTER16
“Ye are not taking a single thing with ye?” Eliza peered out from under the dripping edge of her bright purple umbrella.
Mairi pulled the brim of her hooded rain slicker farther over her face, shivering as the wintry wind pelted sleet against her. She wasn’t cold. She had on enough layers to fully clothe a small community. No. She wasn’t cold. She was angry at the world and dreading the next few days . . . correction . . . the next fewhoursmore than she had dreaded anything in her life. “I’m not going to need anything. I told you—I am coming right back.”
Eliza’s knuckles whitened as a gust of wind yanked the umbrella. She jerked the collar of her heavy wool coat higher around her face. “I see.” Her tone clearly conveyed she did not approve of Mairi’s plan.
Mairi shrugged deeper into the vinyl-coated canvas of her raincoat. She didn’t care what Eliza thought. All she cared about right now was keeping the gas fire pit blazing in the rain and getting this thing done—and completely over with. Never again.When she came back, her number one task was going to be a concentrated drive to become normal. Whatever normal was.
Heavy boots splashed through the water behind her, making her stiffen. She and Lilia had already said a very brief goodbye, then Lilia had taken the new puppy and retired to her rooms. Mairi’s leaving was no big deal. She would only be gone for what would hopefully amount to several hours or at the very worst, a couple of days. Lilia hadn’t fully agreed with the plan either, but she also hadn’t pushed the issue. Lilia understood her better than anyone.
The boots splashing through the puddles of the small courtyard belonged to the lying rat bastard who had managed to weasel his way into her heart just to get what he wanted. Mairi clenched her teeth and consciously controlled her breathing. Never again.She intoned the words with every slow inhale and exhale. He was a liar.She blew out with every strained breath. She would never let him hurt her again.
“Do ye feel sure ye are ready, then?” His touch burned through every layer of clothing she had donned. Her traitorous body immediately shifted intotake me nowmode and double-clutched to a hummingI need youoverdrive.
She moved away from the weight of his hand on her back. “Definitely. This isn’t exactly my first rodeo. Let’s do this.”
His mouth tightened and the muscles of his jaw rippled as he jerked his chin down in a curt nod. Slowly, he pulled his hand away and clasped it behind his back. Sorrow and pain darkened the shimmering pewter of his eyes to a miserable murky gray. His broad shoulders sagged beneath the dark plaid draped across his chest. Ronan looked like a man who had lost everything.
Good. Mairi swallowed hard against the suddenly uncomfortable lump in her throat. She was glad that he hurt just like she did. She cleared her throat and pointed at the small gas-lit ring of flames sputtering in the rain. “You already know what to expect. It’ll be just the same as when Granny sent you forward.”
He nodded. The way he kept his somber gaze fixed on her tightened the emotional band already strangling her chest and squeezed. She turned away, blinking hard to force back the tears. No more crying. He wasn’t worth it.
“Ye will need to hold fast to him, child. When Nia sent him forward, she hooked him to the marker at this end—namely, you. She tagged him to yer spirit. He’ll not have that advantage this time.” Eliza motioned for Ronan to move closer to Mairi. “If ye dinna keep tight hold of him, who knows where he’ll land.”
Mairi struggled against the urge to blurt outWho cares?She glared at Ronan from under the brim of her hood and held out her gloved hand. “Don’t let go of my hand. I don’t have time to go back looking for you and figuring out where the time portal dropped your sorry ass.”
His eyes narrowed and he looked as though he could bite through a rail spike. As he closed his hand around hers, he pulled her hard against him and tightened his other arm around her waist. “I will never let ye go, Mairi. Ye best learn that straight away. Ineverbreak an oath, ye ken?”
The way Ronan stressed the wordnevertriggered warning sirens in her. The protective wall around her pounding heart shifted to DEFCON one: maximum alert readiness—war imminent. She pushed back, blinking against the rain dripping in her eyes. “I said hold my hand. A bear hug is not necessary.”
He scowled down at her, locking his arms tighter. “We travel this way or not at all.” He jerked his chin down in a curt nod. “The choice be yers.”
She squirmed around and glared at the fire. “At least let loose enough so I can breathe and say the damn chant.”
His arms relaxed a hair’s breadth, but his scowl only deepened.
How the hell was she supposed to concentrate and open the portal with six and a half feet of hard muscled Scot pressed against her? Her body tingled and ached. Every nerve ending pulsed with anticipation, longing for a repeat of last night’s delicious romp.He is a liar,she repeated over and over in her mind.I don’t care,her flaming libido argued.Neither do I,her heart whispered.
