The Highlands bow before his name…”
Emma blinked.
Wait.
The tense silence settled even heavier over the room as the musicians lowered their bows and pipes.
“His words shake the trees,
His actions move mountains…”
Emma felt her throat tighten.
This cannae be happening.
The words felt like tiny shards of glass cutting through her skin.
“His eyes blink nothing but fire and ash…”
More faces turned toward the voice, and the speaker stepped into view as he finished the last line. Emma stared at him, her eyes narrowed. It was a young man she did not recognize.
“A tribute to the greatest warrior of the Highlands,” the man continued, his voice thick.
Emma felt Ava’s hand close around hers almost immediately.
“That’s yer poem,” Ava whispered.
“I ken.”
“How did he?—”
“That is exactly what I would also like to ken. Someone here is playing games with me.”
The man finished reciting the poem, and the silence that followed was incredibly heavy. Then, almost immediately, a wave of sharp applause cut through it, people rising from every corner of the hall.
“That was phenomenal.”
“I’ve never heard anything quite like it.”
Emma felt her breathing grow shallow. “It shouldnae be on his lips.”
“Or in his hands. How could he have gotten it?” Ava asked, her eyes also fixed on the man receiving the praise.
Emma’s chest clenched. She knew the poem. Every line. Every single word. She had written it for one of the most reputable warriors in the Highlands. It was supposed to be private, seen only by a close group of people, like her sister and her mother. It was never meant to be seen by the public.
Heardby the public.
She could not unhear the lines, no matter how hard she tried. She wanted to gather the verse back into her hands and burn it. She wanted to pretend it had never left her desk.
“Ye willnae do anything rash,” Ava whispered. “Promise me.”
“There is nothing to do,” Emma said.
“I ken what ye’re thinking, Emma. ‘Tis nae going to work.”
Emma opened her mouth to respond when a deeper voice cut across the hall. “It’s been a long time.”
The sound reached her before the sense did. The same voice that had haunted her for the past weeks. The voice she had struggled to forget. The voice she associated with danger and death.
