She recalled this place with some clarity. It was the one from her vision, the one where the Triple Goddess hadstood and cursed Morrogh for all eternity. Before her, Rory held his great axe that continued to shimmer. Next to him, Bruce and John held torches, their flames flickering in the violent wind.
“Well?” he asked, taking a step toward her.
She lifted her chin a little higher, her heart hammering hard. “Well, what?”
He scowled, his brow furrowing. But it was Bruce who spoke.
“Are ye daft? The keystone,” he said.
She slipped her cut hand into the pocket of her dress in an elaborate show of reaching for the stone. Her fingers clenched into a tight fist, the pain pounded through her hand and up her arm from the cut. Her mouth had gone dry as her mind raced, trying to come up with a response. She had to tell them she didn’t have it. And when she did, she had to be prepared to face the consequences.
Finally, she brought her hand out of her packet and unfolded her fingers showing her empty palm. “I don’t have it.”
They stared at her in shocked silence, the only sound that of the flickering flames of the torches and the whipping wind.
“She fooled us,” John finally said. “All of us.”
Rory moved toward her, rage creasing his face. When he reached her, he placed the edge of the glowing great axe inches away from her throat.
“Do ye think this is a game? Dinnae think I willna kill ye here, now.”
She swallowed the fear clawing its way to her throat, remaining perfectly still. Her gaze stayed focused on his. “You can kill me,” she said, slowly, quietly, “but then your curse will never be broken nor will you be able to control the keystone.”
“She’s right,” Bruce said. “We need her and her blood.” He moved to stand next to Rory. He placed a hand on his arm and pushed the blade away from her throat. “Where is the stone, lass?”
She smirked, pleased with her decision to give it to Jamie.
“She doesna have to say,” Rory said then. “I ken where it is.”
“Where is it?” John asked.
“With Jamie MacLeod, aye?” Rory said. “Or one of the other two lassies.”
“You leave them out of this,” she snapped.
Ignoring her outburst, Bruce said, “We should have brought them, too, instead of leaving them to rot in the dungeons.”
Brianna winced hearing that. She hated they were imprisoned in their own home. She clenched her jaw and pressed her lips together tighter. Even though he guessed the truth, she didn’t need to confirm it.
“Tie her up. Bring her. And then we will go after the lad and I’ll kill him myself.”
“Nay,” Bruce said. “He will come for her. And then, when he arrives, we will capture him, too.”
Rory smiled a toothy grin. “Aye, ye have the right of it, lad. That’s just what we’ll do.”
Terror prickled the back of her neck, cold and relentless, her hair standing on end. She wished there was some way to get a message to Jamie, to warn him. But in his century, there was no such thing as cell phones or text messaging. She forced herself to breathe, to think. There had to be a way to warn him. Because if she didn’t find one, then he would never see the danger coming and she might never see him again.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jamie wasn’t surethe castle ruins would be where they’d take her, but it was the only place he had to start. He’d seen the image in the tapestries—the one of him and Brianna together. When he told his brothers that’s where they were headed, neither of them objected. They took him for his word, nodded, mounted their war horses, and headed away from Dundale at a full gallop.
They had left both Chloe and Evie behind. Callum refused to let his lady wife come along since she was with child. Chloe didn’t want to leave her alone in the near-deserted castle. So it was agreed the three of them would ride out to face their fate with the MacDonalds.
It was still dark as they made their way from Dundale toward the coast. He pushed his horse as hard as he dared for short bursts, the hooves pounding the ground, slipping slightly on loose gravel. He had to slow as the terrain became rocky and dangerous, but that made his heart race and his sense of urgency no less.
As dawn pricked the sky, he knew it was too dangerous to continue to push his mount. Every thud of the hooves on the ground matched that of his beating heart and brought him that much closer to Brianna. Still, he cursed the slowness and the delay.
The sharp salt-tinged wind whipped past them and he knew they were nearing the ruins of Castle Caelnar. Ahead, he saw what remained of the castle as it loomed against the first faint signs of morning. With a moonless sky, there was nothing to light their way.But that was just as well. He wanted to arrive by the shadows with, hopefully, the element of surprise.
