“Tell me, Iris. Tell me that ye wish tae fight Lennox.”
“Of course I do,” she snapped. “I want tae win.”
“All yer life,” Ian continued, his eyes searching hers, “ye have been fighting, Iris. Ye have fought well, but if this is too much?—”
“Nay,” Iris cut him off, angered that he would think she would back down now. She had gotten this far, proved herself repeatedly to him and to all the other clans that she deserved a spot amongst the participants, but now he was telling her that she couldn’t handle this last match?
“I dinnae want tae think why ye are saying these things, but I’ve trained all mah life for this, Ian, and nothing is going tae stand in mah way of winning.”
Not even James. As much as she longed for him, she had to move past the thought of them being together, of them having the future and the family she had seen in her dreams, and face what truly was her life. She should have never kissed him, allowed him to do the things to her body.
He had allowed her to care for him. Iris, who never had a thought about caring for anyone in her life outside her family, was caring for a Scot she couldn’t even have. James made it allsound so simple with his proposition of running away, but it wasn’t what she could do at all.
He would never understand the lengths she had gone through during the night and in the dawn of the morning to push him out of her mind, to focus on what was supposed to be a grand day for her.
He was a weakness she couldn’t have today of all days.
Ian stared at her for such a long moment that Iris started to feel nervous under his intense gaze.
“Alright then,” he finally said, removing his hands from her arms. “I wilnae stand in yer way if this is wot ye want tae do. Let’s get this over with.”
Iris wanted to comment on Ian’s peculiar behavior, but as they drew closer, the crowds started to cheer and call out her name. She spied many of her father’s warriors amongst the crowd as they passed, a swell of pride growing in her chest. She had done it. She was on the last sparring match that could give her clan the victory!
It was what she had dreamed about since learning of the games, but her heart felt heavy regardless of what might happen today. It wasn’t a feeling she had anticipated, but it was one she could ignore somewhat.
Ian dropped back as Iris entered the ring, her chin held high as she did so. Iris knew that James had much with this match as well, and it only made her stomach knot with worry when she finally allowed herself to look at him.
He looked as weary as she felt, his gaze on her as she approached him. Iris was at a loss as to what to say to him, so she drew her sword from the scabbard at her back and held it aloft. Her heart wrenched in her chest, but she refused to let him see the emotions she was feeling, finding a smirk instead. She wasn’t going to be the lass that he had kissed so thoroughly only a fewhours ago, the very one who had let down her guard and had her feelings all tangled up in a dangerous web.
“Well, Lennox?” she drawled, clenching the hilt of her sword, her palm sweating. “Are ye ready?”
17
She was here.
James swallowed as he looked at Iris, seeing the frustration in her eyes when he didn’t draw his own sword. Even though his future was staring him in the face, all he could think about was how lovely and fierce she looked.
“Are ye ready?” she taunted, shifting her sword from one palm to another. “Come now, Lennox. I didnae come all this way tae have ye going deaf on me.”
He had two paths he could choose from, James realized. He could choose the path of why he had come to the gathering in the first place, which was to spar with Iris and win the games so that he would be victorious for his clan.
And so that he could garner the respect he was long overdue. His father and his laird already believed in him, but that left the warriors who were watching this very match, the ones who had chosen to tease him and believe that he was not one of them.
The other path was slightly less clear to him, a path he hadn’t seen until he had laid his eyes on Iris. It was the path that made her his future, the one where he would have her see reason thatthey should attempt to be together, even if their clans didn’t see their reasoning.
In order for that to happen, he was going to have to do something unorthodox.
Iris’s smirk faltered the longer she watched him as if she couldn’t understand what he was doing.
James didn’t even know what he was doing, but the path he would choose would define his future.
So he chose the one he wished for more, the one that was going to make him the happiest.
“I wilnae draw mah sword.”
Iris’s eyes widened, and she nearly missed a step. “Wot?”
James stepped toward her, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.
