The dog rose from his seat beside Graham and loped out of the camp.
Friend or foe.A bitter snort escaped him but Graham didn’t take his gaze from Lilia’s ragged breathing. How the hell could it be anyone other than more Buchanans? The boy had nary had the time to reach MacKenna Keep, much less fetch the Sinclair women. He settled Lilia more comfortably in his arms. He hoped it was more Buchanans. Surely he could goad them into sending him on his way to join his dear sweet love on the other side.
An excited happy bark traveled back to them from the stretch of open ground at the base of the glen.
Graham looked up. Colum and Gray both shielded their eyes with their hands, squinting at the approaching riders. Whoever it was—Karma liked them.
“It canna be.” Gray hurried back to Graham. “’Tis Mother Sinclair, Trulie, Lady Mairi, and Lady Kenna.”
“Ye’ve gone daft.” Graham gently lowered Lilia to the pallet of blankets Angus had spread beside him. He slowly rose, took up his sword, and positioned himself at Lilia’s feet. “They’ve not had time to receive word.”
“See for yerself,” Colum shouted, waving to guide the women’s horses into the clearing.
Granny rode in first, her twisted staff held high in one hand. Trulie followed, with Mairi and Kenna close behind. Granny dismounted with the ease of a woman a third of her years, not bothering to wait for the girls before rushing to Lilia’s side.
“’Tis as I feared,” Granny said in a broken whisper. She knelt and traced a bent trembling finger along the curve of Lilia’s ashen cheek. She closed her eyes and shook her head, pressing her other hand tight across her mouth.
Graham eased back a step as Trulie, Mairi, and Kenna rushed to their sister’s side. He had grown numb, hollow, and cold within his grief but the sight of Lilia’s kin weeping for her was nearly more than he could bear. “Heal her,” he rasped out. “Give her back to me—now.”
Granny looked up at him, the uncertainty on her face squeezing his heart with suffocating dread. “I don’t know that we can,” she said. “We always sense when one of our own is about to leave us.” She reached down and lifted Lilia’s limp hand into hers, staring sadly down into her granddaughter’s face. “That is how we knew to come so quickly. All of us saw what was about to be before it even happened. We’d hoped to get here in time to stop it. But then we knew . . . ” Granny closed her eyes, shaking her head against her sorrow. Her face crumpled with pain as she opened her eyes, her tears overflowing. Ever so gently, she lifted Lilia’s hand and pressed a kiss to it. “We met the messenger you sent when we were already over halfway here,” she whispered. She turned back to Graham, tucking her fist to the center of her chest as she struggled to speak. “It may be her destiny to cross over now. I don’t know if we can heal her or not.”
Graham dove to his knees beside Granny and stole Lilia’s hand out of her grasp. Theywouldheal his dear one. By the gods, he would make it so. “I dinna give a damn about destiny or fate. I choose to make my own. Heal her. Ye gave this woman to me—to love and protect. I’ll be damned if I allow ye to let her slip away without even trying to keep her from walking through death’s doors.”
Granny gazed at him for a long moment, silent tears rolling down her wrinkled cheeks. She hitched in a shuddering sniff, swiped her fingertips against the wetness on her face, then slowly looked at each of her granddaughters. Trulie, Mairi, and Kenna each barely nodded.
“We have to at least try,” Trulie said quietly.
Granny nodded with a stiff jerk of her head. Voice quivering, she pointed at Lilia’s chest. “We must lift her.” She motioned to Trulie and Mairi, kneeling on Lilia’s other side. “Raise your sister, gently now. She needs more blankets under her shoulders. She’ll breathe easier that way until we either get her healed or... ”
“She’s nearly gone,” Kenna said, tears overflowing as she rested her hand on Lilia’s shin. “I can barely sense her.” Her voice dropped as she moved to Lilia’s feet and took hold of her ankles. “We need to hurry.”
Help them,Graham silently prayed.Allow them to lead her back to me, I beg of ye.Colum and Gray stood on one side of him and Angus on the other. None of them touched him but their strength and support kept him steadied on his feet just the same.
Moving to kneel at Lilia’s head, Granny motioned to Trulie and Mairi. “One of you to the right and one to the left.” She nodded at Kenna. “Hold tight to her. Keep her soul grounded before it succeeds in breaking free.”
Kenna leaned forward, her knuckles whitening with the intensity of her grip on Lilia’s ankles.
Granny held out both hands. Without a word, Trulie grasped Granny’s right hand and Mairi took her left. All four women bowed their heads, then each of them went so completely still, Graham thought they had stopped breathing.
A building energy filled the air—a tightness that made Graham’s flesh sting. He felt as though his skin was two sizes too small and about to burst at the seams.
The women’s clasped hands began to glow as though they had trapped rays of sunlight within their grasp.
Graham held his breath as they lifted their glowing hands. The golden light escaped from between their fingers, bursting free and merging into a swirling current of energy flowing from one Sinclair woman to the next, creating a softly humming circle over Lilia’s still form.
“As we touch her with the circle of energy, call out to her, Graham. Call loud and strong and let her feel what is in your heart,” Granny said, her voice eerily hollow like the tolling of a great bell.
Graham stepped closer. The women slowly lowered their hands and touched Lilia, holding tight as the energy made contact and sparked all across her body.
“Return to me, Lilia! Come to me now!” Graham opened his heart, pouring out all his fear and his pain. “I beg ye, my love, come back to me for I need ye more than I can say.” He dropped to his knees, bowed forward, and beat his fists against the ground at her side. “I love ye, my dearest one,” he whispered. “Please—I canna live without ye.”
He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead atop his fists. She had to come back to him. She could not leave him—not now—not ever.
“Graham?”
He feared to look up and see if the sweetest voice he had ever heard was real or just a cruel dream. What if his sorrow was playing tricks? He couldn’t bear it if it wasn’t the truth.
A light touch rested on his shoulder. A tender kiss brushed against his temple. Afraid to take a breath, Graham slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes.
