“I know.” I felt her dark presence growing closer, tugging at me almost as much as Dugal’s. “And she’ll figure it out if I don’t go, so it’s time.” I shook my head when my sisters were about to argue. “There’s no more debate here.” I held out my arms. “So bring it in one last time.”
Fortunately, they did, not helping me feel any better with their silent tears, but I got it because I would feel the same way. I looked each of them in the eyes after our group hug, and told them the only thing I needed to keep me sane, and they knew I meant it. “Promise me you’ll look after Tavish because he’s going to need you. All of you and the strength you can offer. The family unit only you can give him.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk like that,” Hazel said softly, her voice shaky with emotion. “But if it comes to that, of course, we will.Always.”
When Aspen and Willow agreed without hesitation, I knew he would be all right. It might take time, but eventually, he would be okay, as children were born, and he was surrounded by love.
I embraced Storm one last time and asked her to look after my sisters, and she promised she would. So after taking a deep, shuddering breath, I finally set out on the path I had been traveling without looking back. Best that they see me walking bravely into my future with my head held high rather than hanging my head in misery and fear.
Better they remember me for being strong even when all my strength left me as I walked out of their lives into a terrifying future.
Chapter Eighteen
–Tavish–
IPRAYED when Ellie took the Viking sword-turned-dagger, we would remain telepathically connected on Sutherland territory, lending fresh hope we might still end up together, but soon learned the wolf pup had taken the blade, and it wasn’t meant for Ellie.
And that was more than a little terrifying.
Soon after Ellie vanished out of thin air while wrapped up in my arms in front of our cottage, Broderick reached out telepathically and urged me to return to the War Chamber. There had been developments in the short time my lass had been gone.
When I joined everyone, I learned Ellie’s sisters had already seen her in the Morrow, where time passed by differently, and finally met Storm, who’d been penning them letters since childhood. While I’d only ever seen Storm fleetingly over the years when she visited from the twenty-first century, I was pleased to find her with the others.
“It’s so good to see you again, Tavish.” Although her eyes were sad, Storm offered me a kind enough smile. “I wish it could be under better circumstances.”
Despite confirmation that Malcolm Sutherland played a part in all this, I was left feeling adrift and not nearly as hopefulas I had been. How could I be given Storm agreed Ellie had to do this? Had to sacrifice herself for the greater good? And so, she walked away from her sisters in the Morrow, but not before she’d made them promise they would look after me and help me find happiness again.
“’Twillneverhappen,” I swore under my breath and meant it because this was it.Shewas it. I would never love again. Refused to when the only woman I would ever love was still out there and so very close. One castle over.
“And I well ken that, my friend,” Evan said, looking at me with compassion, truly the only one who understood what I was going through, given Dugal had taken the love of his life from him years before. Took Lilias and did to her what he intended to do to Ellie. Slake his lust and breed, whether his lass wanted it or not.
The only difference?
Ellie was half dragon, and Lilias wasn’t, so her horror story would be much worse, and everyone knew it. Knew how sick and twisted his dragon was. The things it wanted to do were vile. Decrepit. Broken. Ellie would never be the same if he took her that way, and hewouldtake her the first chance he got.
“I dinnae know how I can allow this to happen,” I ground out, raking a hand through my hair, pacing because I couldn’t sit still with her so vulnerable. I shook my head. “Iwillnaebe able to.”
“Yet you have no choice,”Ellie said gently, a strong, comforting presence in my mind when I thought our connection was severed. Strong despite her own fear.“We have no choice, Tavish, and you have to remember that. Have to remember who will suffer if you don’t. Your own flesh and blood.”
Then she surprised us all when she sensed something before the rest of us. It spoke to her own unique powers and was a point of persuasion she’d waited to share because it would drive home how important this was. “It won't just be your nephews, either,but your nieces because you have two on the way, and if I don’t do this, none of them will survive.”
“Bloody hell,” Lucas and Sloan exclaimed as they looked at their lasses, who were completely surprised when everyone heard the heartbeat of their unborn daughters.
“How could she have possibly known that?” Hazel gasped, tears springing to her eyes as she and Willow rested their hands on their wombs in awe.
“’Tis quite the thing being so close to the Hereafter,” Grant said, appearing beside Adlin. He clearly knew as well, based on the way he looked at Hazel and Willow warmly, despite a touch of sadness in his voice for Ellie’s plight. “We tend to have a sense of the souls coming and going and where they might next enter the world. Such is the case for Ellie, who not only sees death, yet incoming life, too.”
While happy for my kin, I couldn’t help but sink into a nearby chair in defeat, seeing now the sheer enormity of what my lass carried all by herself. What she'd been able to keep even from me if it served the greater good. The strongest females of my clan had to be protected at all costs, and their offspring protected above all others. I felt the palpable truth of that as a heavy silence fell over the room, when this should have been a moment of joy and happiness.
“And it still can be, my love,”Ellie said gently into my mind, her inner voice soothing my dampened spirits and broken heart as she kept our conversation just between us.“Please...for me. Because you have the power to do that. The power to be strong for my sisters when they need you most. When they need to see you as strong as they saw me.”
While it was a lot to ask, almost too much, I felt her worry and her need to see them comforted. Her need not to feel quite so helpless because she knew I would persevere.
“How?”I managed, because I felt directionless. Unable to summon the strength she’d so valiantly found. Unable to summon such strength when, mere days ago, I had been strong enough that the King of Scotland left me in charge of his armies.“How do I do it, lass?”
“By doing exactly what you would do if you were rallying the king’s men to your side,”she counseled, following my thoughts.“By being someone people look to during difficult times because you’re every bit as strong as I am and can think clearly in times of crisis.”She grew silent for a moment before continuing, the anguish in her voice unmistakable, calling not just to my human half but my inner beast to help her in her time of need. To be there for her, just as she’d been there for so many others.“Please, Tavish. For me. For my unborn nephews and nieces. Please give me one less thing to worry about...one less thing to fear.”
Although everything in me wanted to lash out in grief because this felt too final, I could only ever do what she wanted. Only ever try to relieve her fear and pain if I could. So I inhaled deeply, mustering more strength than I knew I was capable of, and assured her I would. More than that, I meant it, and I knew she felt it. Knew I had unburdened her in some small way as I broke the silence and congratulated my kin because this was no small thing.
