A sick feeling rolled in his gut, but he kept quiet, refusing to give in to her manipulations. Clenching his fists, he mentally calculated the distance between himself and Colin. His brother stood a few paces away, partly blocking his view of Aileana. If he could reach him in time to kick the claymore from his grip, he might find means to disable him before Morgana could…
“I understand that your stay in London Tower was a memorable one, Duncan. My spies tell me your recollections of the place are so vivid that even little reminders bring back a sense of…coming home, so to speak?”
Duncan snapped his gaze to her, reading the twisted satisfaction she was feeling as she spun her web of hate and vengeance around him. At the mention of the Tower, the sickness in his belly intensified, billowing into an ache. He tightened his jaw, refusing to answer.Christ. She was enjoying this the way his torturers had relished each new victim brought to their keeping.
“Aye, Duncan. I see that you remember. And that—” She flicked her gaze to his scarred hand, which was exposed he realized suddenly to her view, his gauntlets having been removed while he was unconscious. “That must be a delightful memory in and of itself.”
He felt rooted to the spot as she turned her attention from him to walk with measured steps toward Aileana. After staring down at her sister for a moment, she fixed her gaze on him again. “Since you will not ask, I will simply tell you. Your choice is this. You will submit to imprisonment in my dungeon, or Aileana will die right now in front of your eyes. Painfully.”
Her ultimatum ripped through him, shredding his protective cloak of silence. “You’re a murderous bitch, Morgana.”
“I am only what you and your kind have made me,” she answered smoothly. “But come, come. The decision is yours, and we haven’t much time to waste. Prove your love for Aileana by sacrificing yourself to my mercy, or condemn her to death.”
“Damn you,” Duncan rasped, his throat aching and tight. He clenched his fists, wanting to destroy this evil creature who dared to play with their lives. Who dared to taunt him with the hell she’d condemned him to for thirteen horrifying years.
Before he could react, the hissing arc of Colin’s claymore swung through the air, its point veering to within a hairsbreadth of Aileana’s neck. “Don’t try to do anything stupid, brother. Not unless you want me to sever the lass’s head from her pretty neck.”
Impotent rage coursed down Duncan’s arms, making them tingle. Every fiber of his body strained to shield Aileana, to protect her from the filth and danger she faced in this viper’s den. He took a moment to steady his breathing, resisting the weight of fear for her that bore down on him. Finally, he looked at Morgana. “You cannot think me fool enough to take you at your word. Even if I agreed to go into your cursed dungeon, what assurance would I have that you’d not kill Aileana anyway, once I was safely imprisoned?”
“None,” she said, “other than my oath that I’ll let her live.” She arched one brow, her smile wicked. “Then again, if you do not submit to me, you can rest assured that she will die. And I will arrange for you to watch, chained to the wall like an animal and knowing all the while that you could have stopped it if only you’d chosen differently.”
A war raged within Duncan, a struggle with no outcome. His own safety didn’t concern him, but allowing himself to be imprisoned would leave Aileana exposed to Morgana’s treachery. And yet, if he could occupy Morgana’s perverse imagination with torturing him, she might leave Aileana alone. She might live long enough to escape or to await rescue when Kinnon and the others launched their attack at nightfall.
Temporary surrender seemed to be his only option.
Duncan’s muscles relaxed as he accepted his fate. He tried to resist thoughts of what was to come, of the horrors he would know again once Morgana interred him in the bowels of her ruined keep.
Once she began to play with him as a cat does a mouse.
He knew that his first breath of fetid air would send him spinning back into hellish memories of the Tower, and it would take all of his strength to stave off the madness that was sure to follow. He shifted his gaze to Aileana, soaking in her beauty, the purity that shone from her, even though she slept with almost unnatural stillness. If he held on to that, if he kept this and the thousand other cherished memories of their time together in his thoughts, he might survive. He had to survive, to save Aileana.
Slowly, Duncan looked up. He nodded. “I’ll go where you bid me, Morgana, if you give me your vow that Aileana will not be harmed.”
“She’ll live. You have my oath.” Morgana moistened her lips, her pink tongue darting out, and her eyes sparkling. “And I’m pleased with your decision. It will be far more entertaining this way.” She nodded to Colin and soon Duncan felt the sting of rope as his brother yanked his wrists behind him to bind him. “A necessary precaution,” Morgana added when she read the question in his eyes. “Though you’ve agreed to go, I’d hate to have instinct take over once you reach your destination.”
“Nay, we wouldn’t want that,” Duncan answered in a voice thick with sarcasm. “Your lover might end up dead if it does.”
Colin jerked up hard on his bonds, making Duncan grit his teeth. Without further remark, Colin dragged him toward the door, slamming him into the stone wall that flanked the entry before pulling him around to face Morgana one last time.
She stood poised in the mellow light, looking wistful, and he couldn’t help but acknowledge that, though she was of an age with him, she wore her years well. She was still beautiful. But her proximity to Aileana only called attention to the qualities she lacked, traits that bloomed from a deeper source than physical beauty. They were attributes she’d never know, of a soul unsullied, sprung from the kindness and love that colored Aileana’s spirit.
As if she’d seen the slant of his thoughts, Morgana flinched, and a tiny scowl marked the smooth line of her brow.
“Memories are powerful things, Duncan.” She stood quiet, her presence almost otherworldly. “Those we wish most to forget are very often the ones that will not cease.” She leveled her gaze at him, and he saw that her eyes held no light. A shock went through him. They looked like the eyes of a corpse. Lifeless and evil.
Her soft voice billowed across the chamber, winding around him, suffocating him with tendrils of hate. “You’ll be learning that lesson as thoroughly as I have before I’m finished with you.”
Chapter 25
The stench slammed into him, making his stomach tighten. Duncan forced himself to take shallow breaths as Colin shoved him the rest of the way down the narrow corridor, into the bowels of the dungeon, trying to concentrate on anything but the dark reality of where this little journey was going to end. They’d not seen another living soul along the way, a fact that had surprised him; if Morgana had any followers, they weren’t large in number, and that gave him hope that Kinnon could overcome any there were and face Aileana, if Duncan was still imprisoned here come nightfall.
His brother’s torch shone off of the wet slime on the walls as he pulled Duncan along, the wavering light revealing all of the filth and rot that coated the floor and lay caked along the edge of the passage. With every step, Duncan heard the skittering of rats running for safety from the sudden illumination.
Yet it was better than the dark.
A sharp pain sliced into his shoulders, as Colin yanked him to a halt from behind.
“We’re here. I chose your new home with care, Duncan, to ensure that your stay would be everything you deserve.”
