“Is that so?”
She had serious doubts they would get the keystone to work. But she pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
“Aye and you’re going to help us with that.”
“And how am I going to do that?”
He bent forward and pressed his face inches from hers. “You will use your blood magic to activate the keystone and then the two of us will take over from there.”
Confusion settled in. How did they think activating the keystone for them would give them what they wanted? That was never the intended purpose of putting the keystone back together—it was keeping the Realm of Chaos sealed.
“You think it’s that easy?” she scoffed.
“Isn’t it?”
She didn’t know but she was going to continue this ruse for as long as possible.
“If ye don’t help us,” he continued, “then we choose one of yer sisters to help. We will spill all her blood to activate the magic in the keystone. Maybe the pregnant one.”
Brianna surged forward against her bonds. The ropes burned through her wrists.
“You stay away from her, you son of a bitch.” The searing anger heated every word as she punctuated it.
“Ah, so ye do care about them. Good. We’ll start with her. Unless, of course, yewant to cooperate.”
Panic pounded through her. The last thing she wanted was for him to do something to one or both of her sisters. And where were the MacLeod men? Likely locked up, too. Her heart pounded so hard against her chest she thought it might burst through. She clenched her jaw until it ached as she looked up at him.
“I’ll cooperate,” she said at last.
An oily smile creased his face. “Good.”
She pressed her lips together in a thin line. The last thing she recalled before she passed out was handing Jamie the keystone. The stone was hot when she pressed it, wordlessly, into his hand. Right now, this MacDonald assumed she still had it. She was going to let him continue to assume that. They couldn’t force her to use the stone if she didn’t have it in her possession.
She realized, though, that put her sisters in a terrible, dangerous position. Once the MacDonald realized she didn’t have the stone, they would go after them. She had to think of some way to escape.
He walked around behind her. She stiffened as she waited, holding her breath. She felt the cold steel of a knife as he sliced through her bonds. She was free. Her arms had been pulled behind her for so long, when she was released and she was able to drop them to her side, the blood rushed to the tips of her fingers. The tingling sensation was so sharp, she winched.
Glancing down at her wrists, she saw they were raw and bleeding. Her cut palm still oozed.
John didn’t wait for her to get her bearings. He grasped her arm and hauled her up from the chair, practically dragging her out of the great hall through the splintered doorway.
Outside in the bailey, the MacDonald clan had set up a crude camp. A campfire blazed brightly against the pre-dawn sky. The men were sitting around it, talking, laughing, drinking ale and whiskey from the MacLeod cellar. She heard the soft whicker of a horse. And smelled the acrid tang of cooked meat in the air. Her gut clenchedtight as he led her toward the circle of men.
“She’s ready,” he announced.
Rory MacDonald, the clan leader, rose to his full height from the circle and turned to her. His piercing eyes met hers. Fear shifted through her. A shiver of dread skipped down her spine.
“We ride for the mountain, then.” As he spoke, his gaze never left her face. “She’ll ride with ye so ye can keep an eye on her.”
“I can ride my own horse,” she snapped, the ire rising through her despite the fear.
He lifted a tawny brow. He stepped forward, closing the gap between them. “Ye will ride with him.” He jerked his head toward John MacDonald. “I cannae allow ye to have yer own horse. I think ye ken why.”
Hope died right then. She thought if she got her own horse, she would be able to ride away from the group. Maybe even find Jamie and the others.
“Ye are no’ so canny as ye think, lass.” He reached for her then, taking her chin in his sweaty hand. “Even if ye are a bonnie one.”
She jerked her head free. “Keep your damn hands off me.”
