Something about Mr. MacCallen’s expression, the strange light in his eyes, made it hard for Harley to breathe—as if the air in the room had gone thick with an eerie uneasiness. She tried to back away only to discover that she couldn’t pull free of the old man’s powerful grasp.Determined to remain calm, she tried harder to yank her hands free. “It is lovely, Mr. MacCallen. But I need to be going. Let’s put the necklace away and get you settled for the night. Okay?”
The aged Scot rose from the bed with amazing ease, transforming from a weak, arthritic old man into a tall, muscular impossibility with pure determination shouting from his very being. He moved to stand in front of Harley while keeping her hands locked in his.“It is time, lass.I have come in answer to yer call.It is time for ye to go to the one who needs ye as badly as ye need him.”He spun her around and yanked her back against his broad chest while keeping her hands trapped between his.
“This cannot be happening.”She should have run as soon as he somehow went from weak and old to young and strong. Panic mounting, she tried to wriggle free. “Enough is enough. Let me go or I’ll scream, and Rosa will smack you down like you’ve never been smacked down before.”
His mouth near her ear, MacCallen pressed the locket against her chest and whispered, “Close yer eyes, lass.What is yerfondest wish—yer deepest desire? What have ye called out for all those nights beside the river?”
Harley tried to elbow her way free, but he only tightened his arms around her. She tried to scream, but it came out as a pitiful whisper. The frail old man was long gone, leaving in his place a person impossible for her to escape.
“Who are you?”she weakly rasped. Her heartbeat thundered up into her throat, and her blood roared in her ears.
“Yer guide, lass.I have come to show ye the way.Dinna be afraid. I bring ye no harm.”He pressed the locket harder against her chest. The large moonstone dug into her breastbone as if trying to burrow its way into her heart.
Stricken with a nauseating dizziness, Harley tried to scream again, but no sound at all came from her this time. The locket hummed against her, branding her with a strange heat that turned her fears to hysteria.She tried to thrash her head from side to side but found herself unable to move. A searing flash of light blinded her, and a bone-chilling roar deafened her.
I am dying,she thought as the light disappeared and spun her into the suffocatingly silent darkness.
MacCallen smiled down at the locket in his hand. The moonstone glowed with a fiercely bright light.He held it to his ear, and his smile stretched wider at the quiet echo of Harley’s pounding heart inside.
CHAPTER 6
“There to the west!Those sails—are they Ronan’s?”Aveline stood on tiptoe and pointed over the protective stone walls surrounding the guard’s walkway that ran the perimeter of Castle MacKay.
Shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare, her father, Laird Caelan MacKay squinted in that direction.“Aye, that be yer brother.I can just make out his colors.”He dropped his hand away from his eyes and patted her shoulder as the ship cut through the waters, growing ever larger and more magnificent the closer it drew to MacKay Bay.
“Lucky for the lad we spotted him.Yer mother was about to pull him through the Mirrors if he didna show himself soon.”Caelan chuckled. “Ye shouldha heard her ranting about thoughtless males and their inconsiderate ways.”
“Aye, Mama has warned me many times about the thoughtlessness of males.” Aveline grinned at her father. “She always speaks well of ye, though, Papa.”
He snorted. “Dinna be telling lies to yer papa, my fine wee lass. Ye are not too old to be sent to yer rooms without yer supper.”
She ignored her father’s ability to see through her flattery and turned the conversation back to her brother. “Ronan has been gonetoo long this time.’Tis bad enough he leaves us at all.But when he stays away this long, he is hiding something.I just know it and so does Mama.We must help him. Take care of thisthingtroubling his heart before it is too late.”A worried edginess filled her as she tried to stretch higher to get a better view over the walls. She loved all her brothers, but Ronan had always been her favorite.She was tired of missing her seafaring brother and fretting about his safety. Just because he held dominion over the seas and everything in them didn’t mean he couldn’t be harmed. Her brother was still very much a mortal and could die. A deep breath and the knowledge that things would be different now made her feel better. If all worked out as she planned, there would be no need to worry about him sailing away ever again. As the ship skimmed into the bay and dropped anchor, she gave it a curt nod.Ye will never carry Ronan into danger ever again.
She noticed her father’s troubled gaze tickling across her like a butterfly flitting in her face. When he smoothed her wind-tossed hair out of her eyes, she knew he was about to question her. She had once overheard Mama telling Papa that even though she was the youngest and also a girl, she would still be the most powerful in the mystical ways.Mama had stressed the need to guide her down the right path and teach her to use her gifts wisely. Papa’s reply had been filled with leeriness.
But shediduse her gifts wisely. Or at least, she tried. She wished Mama and Papa would see things her way sometimes. A heavy sigh huffed free of her. They would understand this time. She had done things exactly right and left nothing to chance. Might as well have it out. She turned to her father. “What, Papa?”
“What have ye seen, Avie? Or more precisely, what have ye done?” He eyed her with the sort of stern glare that had always made her squirm—but not this time.
She swept aside the tendrils of her reddish blonde hair tugged loose by the persistent breeze.“I have seen nothing, and why would ye think I have done anything?” She hated hiding that she’d worked with the Mirrors of Time alone, but they had left her no choice. She twitched a shrug, hoping to reassure her father. “I worry aboutRonan.He was gone longer this time.” She shrugged again. “Maybe I miss him more than usual because I am older, and he has always understood me better than my other brothers.”
Caelan narrowed his eyes at her, clearly unconvinced that she was as innocent as she wished him to believe. “I would bet a keg of ale that ye are up to something, ye wee minx. Save us all a bit of trouble and confess yer sins afore ye commit them, aye?”
“Papa!” She used the same injured tone that always worked on her brothers, but Papa was not so easily swayed. “I am simply glad that my favorite brother is home.”
“Did I not hear ye tell Faolan he was yer favorite this past Sunday? And was Latharn not sworn to be yer favorite just yesterday?”
“My favorite is whoever has angered me the least at the moment,” she said while attempting a lofty yet somehow worldly innocence. When telling a lie, it was always best to build it upon a kernel of truth.
Caelan scrubbed his face with one hand as if admitting defeat. “Fetch yer mother.We shall go down to the docks together to greet yer brother.”
“Aye, Papa.” Aveline couldn’t resist a smile as she spun about and hurried away.
“Amergin’s beard, lass! Slow yerself.” Old Emrys, the druid of the clans, hugged the wall of the stairs as she bounced past him.
“Ronan’s home!” she sang out as if that excused anything she might do, including knocking the ancient wise man down the steps.
“What mischief is that one into now?”Emrys asked as he leaned against his twisted staff and hobbled over to Caelan.
