“Well, can ye?”
“Can I what?”
“Pass through walls.”
Her gaze turned measuring. “When did ye begin tae believe that I’m a ghost?”
“I’m not sure that I do.” He raked a hand through his hair, spilling a wave of auburn across the bruise on his temple. It had darkened to a deep, vivid purple and would no doubt turn a few other colors before it healed. “But yearesomething, Mara. Something I’ve not yet encountered in all me years on this earth.”
Yes, she was something.
Something dangerous.
Something deadly.
Something damned.
“I was married when I came here for the first time.” Mara blinked. She had no heavenly idea where that admission had come from, or why it had spilled from her lips. But now that it was out, there was no taking it back. No path to follow but the one that led forward. “Ye asked how long I have been at the castle, and I honestly canna give ye an answer. Time…it passes differently for me now. But on that nameless day, so many years ago, I arrived with me husband.
“We were newlyweds, and he being an Englishman, and me being a Scotswoman, we said our vows before a priest at Gretna Green. Hugh…he wanted tae travel before we made our way back tae London tae face his family. Tae visit the sights and breathe the fresh Highland air. A stranger at a tavern that we stopped at mentioned Blackmoore Castle in passing, and Hugh had tae see it. He just had tae,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “There was no changing his mind.”
“Ye didna want tae go,” Callum guessed, and she parted her lashes to find him studying her closely, his passive countenance unreadable.
“I dinna recall feeling strongly one way or the other, but when we stepped foot on the grounds…when we stepped foot on the grounds, I knew that it was wrong. Thatwewere wrong, tae come here. I wanted tae leave. I pleaded tae leave. But Hugh didna listen.” Her mouth stretched in a flat, humorless line. “He never listened. It wasna enough that he tour the castle. No, he wanted tae walk along the cliffs. As if…as if something was luring him there. Luring him tae the sea.”
Callum’s hand closed over hers. He squeezed gently. “They say that the Black Bride threw herself off the Blackmoore Cliffs in a fit of desperation. But I canna imagine ye doing such a thing.”
“I dinna jump.” She wet her dry lips with her tongue. “I was pushed.”
Dark, insidious fury rolled across Callum’s face like a storm cloud. “Yer husband–”
“Hugh fell before I did. Neither of us had any part in what happened tae the other. Except, I suppose, we wouldna have been there at all had Hugh listened tae me. But he was always an impulsive man who liked tae act first and think later. Or else he’d never have defied his parents tae marry the likes of me.”
She didn’t love Hugh any longer. Perhaps…perhaps she never really had. In that month of firsts and feelings, affection and lust and excitement had spun her around so fast she hadn’t recognized her left from her right. But a vague feeling of grief still persisted. Not for the husband that she’d lost, but for the man he might have become had his life not been cut brutally short. For all his faults, Hugh hadn’t deserved his ending any more than she had earned hers.
“Who pushed ye, then?” asked Callum, grip tightening.
“TheCaoineag.” Her haunted gaze fell to the ground, then slowly met his. Tears born of shame, and fear, and longing burned in the corners. “TheCaoineagstarted all this, and if she has her way, she’ll end it with ye, Callum Campbell. That’s why ye need tae run.”
Caoineag.
It wasn’t a completely foreign name, but one that Callum hadn’t heard since he was a lad listening to stories on his nanny’s knee. Stories of witches, and wulvers, and water spirits that had foretold the death of their clans with ear-piercing shrieks that often drove the poor people to madness.
When he was a boy, he’d imagined such things truly existed. As a man full grown, he knew that they didn’t. But it was either believe in the fables of old, or believe that the lass whose hand he was holding was more than daft. She was deranged. But he saw no insanity in Mara’s green eyes.
Only sadness.
“I’ve told ye, and I’ve told ye again,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m not leaving here without ye. So either we both stay, or we both go, but yer days of being in this place alone are over.”
Distress marred her pretty brow. “Then ye remain at yer own peril, and ye canna say that I didna try tae warn ye.”
“And what of the peril thatyeare in?” he asked. “What has ye trapped here, Mara?”
She turned her head away from him, but he saw the working of her jaw as she struggled to gain control of her emotions. “The Blackmoore Cliffs they’re…they’reevil. Rotted right through the stone. They kept theCaoineaghere, fettered to them. Forced her tae foretell the death of her loved ones until there were no loved ones left. Until there was nothing of her own humanity left. She managed tae escape into the sea, but when Hugh and I came here, the cliffs called her back. Now she wants me tae take her place. Tae become what she is. But I dinna want tae. I just want tae gohome.” Tears thickened her voice, and the velvety rasp of them scraped Callum’s heart raw. “But I dinna have a home tae go back tae.”
Before, by the tower, he’d resisted the urge to take her into his arms. Now he didn’t hesitate. Ignoring Mara’s feeble protests, he pulled her right onto his lap, tucking her in against his chest as if they were in the midst of a howling wind and he was her port in the storm. He began to stroke her back. Up and down. Up and down. Using the rhythm to slow her racing pulse. For while she might not have been completely part of the mortal realm, she had a heart in her chest and air in her lungs. But most importantly of all, she had a soul. And if she had a soul, then she could be saved.
“Ye have a home with me, Mara MacLea,” he murmured, pressing his mouth to the top of her head. “And whatever we need tae do tae free ye from this place, we’ll do it.”
