“Was it a nice ceremony?” she asked. She looked around the small one-room building trying to envision what it was like to witness.
Wooden pews lined up like soldiers. At the front of the room, the alter where the bishop stood to deliver his sermon or where he had bound Callum and Evie together after they exchanged vows.
“I dinnae ken.”
She cut him a questioning glance.
“Wee Jamie and I were gathering the men to fight when they were handfasted.”
She tipped her head to one side. “To fight?”
“Did yer sister no tell ye?” he asked, surprise flickering over his face.
She shook her head. Yet another thing she had left out. She made a mental note to question her about that later when they were alone. These were things Chloe needed to know. What sort of fighting was there? Why?
“Ah. Well, MacDonald and his men attacked the keep. To take yer sister and the piece of the keystone she possesses. We were outnumbered. The battle was no going well. Callum sent Evie away with the keystone in the hopes she would return to hertime.” He walked to one of the pews and sat, the wood creaking under his weight.
She sat across from him, intrigued by this story. She held her hands in her lap. “But she didn’t return.”
“No, she dinnae.” There was a light of pride in his eyes as he told her the next part of the story. “She came to the battlefield. In her hand was the keystone. She used it as a weapon to help defeat MacDonald.” He paused there, as if remembering the battle.
It must have been horrific. And her sister was in the middle of it all. She tried to imagine it.
“How did she use the keystone as a weapon?”
“Och, lass, ye wouldna believe it. She held it in her hand. It was glowing, sending light shooting out from her fist. It was a strange thing to watch, to be sure. The world around us seemed to slow and then stop. But she…well, she had this strange sort of shimmering light around her, Callum, and Rory MacDonald. I couldna see what happened. But Callum told me later.
“The keystone, he said, gave her the power to show him what would happen if he continued to fight. If she hadna come, he would have died.”
Incredible. She stared at him, waiting for him to finish the story. Though she tried to imagine how Evie had felt knowing the man she loved was about to die, she could not.
“What happened then?”
He looked thoughtful as he remembered what had happened during this battle Evie failed to mention.
“MacDonald stabbed Callum in the shoulder. He tried to capture Evie and take the stone from her. But then…” He paused, a ghost of a smile flickering over his lips. “She punched the man right in the chest. Her fist exploded in blinding white light, and it sent him flying backward, soaring through the airuntil he landed on the ground. He was defeated. Then Rory MacDonald and his men retreated.”
Chloe was dumbfounded. She tried hard to imagine her sister punching a man bigger and stronger than her in the chest. She had renewed admiration for her and vowed to ask her about it the next time they talked in private.
“The light…that was this keystone, wasn’t it?” Chloe asked.
“Aye, it was. A powerful little object, that.”
Her own piece of the keystone was still in her pocket. She resisted the urge to reach for it and pull it out to examine it. How had Evie done it? How did she learn how to harness the power of the stone in such a short amount of time?
“That’s some story,” she said at last.
“Och, do ye no believe it, then?” he asked. Disappointment flooded his face.
She sucked in a deep breath, expelled it. “It’s not that I don’t believe it. It’s just that I know my sister and she would never harm anything or anyone and she certainly doesn’t know how to fight like that.”
He stood up quickly, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “If ye dinnae believe me, then ye should ask her yerself.”
“Oh, I plan to.”
Malcolm didn’t bother to hide his annoyance as he stomped out of the chapel.
CHAPTER 14
