“Oh God! Finally, I thought I’d lost-”
“Harris, I have something important to do. Trust me, I can’t go back with you!”
Harris made a confused face. She was running out of time. “Brother, please, trust me.”
Harris looked at her and saw the face she usually made when they were children and she was determined to do something. Harris took a deep breath and nodded, “Okay!”
“That’s her!” Someone yelled.Not good.She was the only woman in this area. Harris jerked her behind him. Duncan turned and Grace peeked out from behind Harris to meet Owen’s eyes.
With urgency, Harris shoved her forward. She stumbled and caught her balance. His eyes were crazed as he shouted, “run! I’ll hold them off.”
Desperately, she attempted to catch sight of Duncan, but he was gone, swallowed up in the heat of battle.
“What are you waiting for? Harris shouted. “Go! I’ll find you; I promise.”
Breathing heavily both from exhaustion and heartache, she fled toward the direction she had come from. Both the lives of the men she most cherished were hanging in a balance. Grace wove her way through the crashing tents, dodging the fire sprouting like it spilled from hell itself.
Tears clouded her vision. She heard a scream that sounded like Harris. She ached to run back, to help him. But he’d told her to go. She told herself that it was for the best. They would meet again, she had to believe that.
She’d run several feet away from the clearing when she heard a clatter of footsteps advancing on her. Grace hastened, firing all her energy into putting one foot in front of the other, her lungs burning, as if that fire had caught her insides. Her hair flew in the wind, some tendrils getting into her eyes.
Still, the person got closer and closer.
Grace chanced a glance back. The sleazy human who was Ethan’s bosom friend was fast on her heels. Owen’s lips were wide with the glee of victory. She was on the verge of collapsing. Only through sheer will, did she keep moving.
At the risk of her life, she looked again and saw another dark figure. He was quickly gaining on Owen and her. Grace wanted to stop. She’d run enough. Every breath was a pain.
All of a sudden, the noise faded. She dared to take another look and saw the unmistakable figure of Harris, sharpened by the light of the fire. He stood over a squirming Owen. Grace’s breath whooshed out of her. He saw her stop and gave her a harsh frown. Grace swallowed a glob of tears and zipped into the woods.
Her body could not handle the speed anymore. She slowed, huffing out excruciating breaths. Under the shade of a large tree, Grace paused, doubled over and dry-heaved. Her mouth was filled with the taste of bile but only saliva came out.
She collapsed to her knees, holding her head and taking in large gulps of air. Still too close, she had to put more distance between her and the war. Fighting against every cell in her body, Grace trudged forward. The images of Duncan suffocated her as she widened that distance. The tears she’d managed to hold back, gush down her cheeks unrestrained.
Never again would she hear his voice, sleep next to him, watch him laugh, do anything. Their story was doomed from the beginning, and now it’d come to an end. She could only hope that his end would not be tragic. That he would win, even if it was against her people. That he would return unscathed to the clan that needed him. That he would thrive under the nurturing of a proper lass, who was deserving of his kind heart and gentle hands.
By now, Grace was gasping along with her tears. She ran now because she needed the pain to distract from the one twisting her insides. She could not see, nor did she care what directionshe was going. Harris had saved her and yet, she had had to leave him too, which carved yet another painful hole in her chest.
What if Owen reported him to Ethan? What would they do to her friend? Most importantly, she’d asked Harris to let her go, against his commander’s orders and he’d done it without thinking twice. Grace died inside, wondering what they would do to him.
Lost in harrowing thoughts, Grace could not see. Her foot slipped. She flailed her arms in search of a tree or a branch to grab. There was none. She landed on her bottom. She made to scramble up, and that was when she saw she was on dangerously steep ground.
She tried to grab grass, but it came out in her fist. Grace lost her foothold. A scream tore from her, as she rolled down the hill, desperately searching for something,anythingto grab onto. Still, she kept falling. She tried to see ahead of her, but it was pitch black. The moon could not pierce the immense darkness.
She prayed for an end. When it came, it was because her head bludgeoned a hard rock. She’d landed at the bottom. “Duncan!” She muttered. Grace’s eyes shuttered, darkness overwhelming her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Retreat!” one of the soldiers shouted. “Fall back!”
Duncan released the man he was fighting, allowing him to scurry into the wood with the rest of their troops. He was soon surrounded by his men and Craig.
Craig itched to run after them. “We have the upper hand ‘ere. Dinnae let them go!” Craig urged.
Duncan held him back, with a hand placed across the man’s chest. “They have admitted defeat. Find the wounded. Take them to the healer. I have to do somethin’.”
Craig opened his mouth, but Duncan had already taken off running. It was in the direction he’d seen Jo disappear. When he looked, there’d been two Englishmen in hot pursuit of her. He’d been surrounded. Duncan fought hard against the men pressed around him before their leader shouted for retreat.
With a frantic prayer on his lips, he took off toward the adjacent woods. He tracked the smaller footprints until they disappeared inside. Excruciatingly, he picked them out. Following her tracks, Duncan traced.
