“Somehow our parents knew trees would play a vital role in our lives past and present, so our mother, Marjorie, requested that Malcolm paint them as tethers between us and our fated mates,” I went on, still recalling with fondness watching my father paint because he’d excelled at it. “Marjorie ensured they were part of a much grander unraveling spell than the one that brought Willow and Sloan together. Those four paintings now hang in the Sutherland’s private dining chamber, rooted by magic, and as you know, impossible to move.”
“Not just connecting us to our fated mates but connecting us to Sutherland Castle,” Willow realized. “And MacLeod Castle, where, if all goes as planned, our trees eventually end up.”
“That’s right,” I confirmed, trying to ignore Tavish’s growing tension because itwasgrowing and with good reason. “Hence, naming each of us after them, so we might be spun into the unraveling spell. It really was genius.”
“Yet every unraveling spell eventually unravels altogether,” Aspen said, her concern growing along with Tavish’s and everyone else’s. “And you and Dugal are at the end of that.” She shook her head. “How does that serve anyone, given the havoc the Sutherland’s will reap?” Her eyes narrowed. “And why you, Ellie? Why, when we’re all of the sorcerer’s lineage?”
“I don't know, and I’m not sure our parents did either.” I did my best to keep my emotions at bay to show my sisters my strength and to make them believe I wasn’t afraid because right now that’s what they needed to see. “All they knew was they could save three of us born into the twenty-first century who were destined for a MacLeod. Deep down, I always knew it would be me who would have to make the biggest sacrifice, and Storm’s letters strongly hinted that I was right.” I tried not to visibly shiver. “There's always been a connection between me and Dugal, pulling at my inner dragon in a way I can’t quite put to words.”
“Even as there is a connection to a MacLeod,” Tavish said, his voice deep with emotion as he made clear to all he was ready to move on from Elowyn and make me his when his dragon eyes flared. “Even as ye have a fated mate,me, who is a MacLeod.” He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “Who willnae be letting ye anywhere near that monster.”
“What of Aspen’s and Hazel’s mothers?” Sloan smoothly interjected, his dragon eyes flaring along with Broderick’s and Lucas’s as their inner beasts not only empathized with Tavishbut tried to harness in his dragon before it did something they would all regret. As it were, he was facing the loss of not just one great love but two, even if I were the same soul.
Sloan wrapped his fingers with Willow’s as if subconsciously recalling how close he had almost come to losing her, too, and went on. “Who were the other two women, given they were not Hazel’s and Aspen’s biological mothers after all?”
Grateful he had redirected the conversation, I looked at Aspen and Hazel with compassion, understanding this must be difficult to discover. “They were part of a coven Marjorie joined when she came to the twenty-first century. Witches who desperately wanted children but couldn’t have any, so they agreed to adopt Aspen and Hazel, and they loved you like you were their own when our mother couldn’t. I had a few years with our parents before being raised elsewhere, but I still saw them occasionally over the years.” I glanced from the ring on Willow’s finger to her eyes. “Willow, you were born toward the end of the larger unraveling spell, so they kept you with them since eventually you’d be the one who put the ring on and started the beginning of the end.”
“And sadly,” Hazel realized, “they thought it was best for the four of us to be separated, making it less likely for us to be discovered. Had we been together, the immense power we could wield would have been a beacon to anyone who knew of the curse. Undoubtedly, it would have made it easier for Elspet to sniff us out across the centuries because we were vulnerable and far too new to our magic.”
“That’s right,” I confirmed.
“So many victims in this,” Aspen said softly, shaking her head. “Not me or Hazel because the mothers who raised us loved us a great deal and took good care of us, even if there were some difficult years, but the pain they suffered at our father’s hands was substantial. They clearly loved him, and losing him wasn’teasy.” She frowned. “I don’t understand why, if they made a deal with Marjorie. How did our father figure into all this?”
“Sadly, from what I’ve been able to gather, it was an unfortunate side effect of the spell.” I sighed. “They were supposed to let him visit the two of you over the years, so at least one of your biological parents could keep an eye on you and forge a bond, but your mothers started believing you were truly theirs and that he’d sired you. They became convinced they were in love with him, even though that was never the case.”
Neither Aspen nor Hazel said anything at first as they processed what I had shared until, blinking back tears, Hazel finally spoke. “As Aspen said, our mothers were indeed victims in all this, but if my mother were here now, I think she would say it was all worth it because she loved me dearly.”
She looked at Lucas and squeezed his hand before continuing. “That the bond she and I shared, and knowing I would be reunited with my fated mate, would make it all worthwhile. Perhaps even the love she felt for our father, however magical a mishap it might have been. Because I know he came back, and I know he took care of her the best he could.” She glanced down at her thicker-soled shoe, which Malcolm had created to help her walk more easily. “He took care of me, too.”
“I agree,” Aspen said softly, blinking back tears as well, both finding forgiveness in their own way. “On all counts.”
I knew Willow found forgiveness, too, just like I had, because our lives hadn’t been complete either, but everything up to this moment had led us to what truly mattered. All my sisters were now safely with their fated mates, and they would have the life they deserved.
But that could only happen if I fulfilled the pact.
“No,” Aspen said, picking up on more and more of my thoughts. She looked at me and shook her head. “All of us got a Happily Ever After, and you and Tavish will too.” She narrowedher eyes, calling me out on what she could already see in my heart. “Tell me you don’t love him every bit as much as he loves you, no matter when you came across each other. Tell me he’s not your fated mate and your dragons aren’t struggling to remain together.”
“I could tell you all that, but I would be lying because Idolove him with all my heart,” I said softly, understanding I had no choice but to show her, all of them, what would happen if I didn’t, so I opened my mind completely. “Or I could show you what will happen if I don’t see the pact through.”
“Bloody hell,” Broderick cursed, wrapping his arms a little tighter around Aspen. His hand rested protectively over her womb and their unborn sons as everyone saw what would happen not just to their beloved clan but the whole of Scotland, over the next decade and far into the future, if I didn't go.
There was no missing how everybody, save Adlin and Grant, held on tighter to the hand of their loved one or looked into each other’s eyes, fighting back emotion because what I showed them was horrible. Just as terrible as what I saw in Tavish’s eyes when I looked at him again, because it was pure anguish. Not just for kin and country, but for what I would be subjected to, mated to a monster like Dugal, because it defied the imagination.
“Nay,” he said roughly, shaking his head. “This cannae be right...this cannae be our fate,yerfate, not after everything...”
Although tempted to slip my hand into his when he trailed off, because I knew he was horrified, I refrained. The less contact we had, the better.
“You’ve carried so much of the burden, Ellie,” Tavish’s father, Marek, said softly, having been silent up to this point. He stood behind Chara with his arms wrapped around her, keeping her steady through all this, because in the end, even after everything we’d all endured, he knew it would only end in heartbreak. The truth of it was clear in his pained eyes when he lookedfrom Tavish and then back to me. “So verra much...” His voice dropped an octave, and he spoke to me like the father figure he’d become in my other life. “Too much, my wee lass, and forever my daughter, no matter what comes of this.”
“Verra much our daughter,” Chara said gently, truly meaning it. Though she looked shattered and was fighting back tears, I felt the love she had for me, not just in this life but the last.
“That’s why you’re afraid of heights,” Hazel murmured seemingly out of nowhere, but a lot was becoming clear to them now. I flinched because her eyes were filled with so much torment. “You’ve always felt the pain we suffered on our journeys and have always known what was to come.” She blinked back more tears. “You felt the sheer terror when Aspen and I were thrown off the Sutherland’s battlement, and have carried it with you ever since.”
“Her taking on your pain and terror undoubtedly lessened your own when you fell,” Adlin said, filling in any blanks they might not catch, whether I wanted him to or not. “And opened you up not only to connecting with your fated mates but embracing your dragons.”
“And I’m okay with that since it got you where you needed to go,” I said without hesitation, using my big sister voice. I looked all three in the eyes as I spoke. “Because I know you would have done the same for me.”
They unanimously agreed and meant it. I not only saw it in their teary gazes but felt it in their inner beasts as we bonded more and more as dragons. We might have been close before, but this was a whole new level, and we felt it to our bones. In our hearts, down to our very souls.
