Impossible!
He’d checked in on each of his search parties this morning and none of them had so much as spotted the thief, let alone retrieved the scrolls and returned with them.
And yet he would swear the scrolls were nearby. He lifted his head and sniffed the air.
He smelled them. By all that was unholy, he could feel them.
The scrolls were here.
“Man the gate!” he ordered in a roar, reversing his course back toward the keep.
If he could feel their presence this strongly, there was no time to waste.
Breaking into a run, he burst through the big doors of his keep and headed straight for the tower, where his power was strongest. From the window he leaned out to scan the courtyard and the wall beyond. He could see nothing out of the ordinary, but the feeling persisted, growing in strength.
The scrolls were nearby. Calling him. Taunting him.
Never again would he allow any creature to imprison him within the scrolls. It had taken too long for him to find the one who had set him free, and he wouldn’t give up that freedom easily.
He could transform into the big bird, but his last foray in that form had left him with a jagged, puffy red scar marring the skin from his shoulder to his elbow. A strong reminder of the vulnerability inherent in the bodies of this world’s creatures.
No, he didn’t like the idea of risking that again. He needed to be away from this place. A clean escape. Now.
Moving to the center of the room, he willed the change that had saved this body once before. As a smoky mist, he had risen above the fire that had threatened to consume him when he’d taken control from the MacDowylt laird. That same form would transport him, unnoticed, from this place to another, safer location.
Calling on the Magic to fill him, he waited, his body vibrating with an expectant hum, as if in anticipation of the imminent arrival of a favored lover. He waited for the familiar power to wash over him, to fill his senses. He waited until his patience abandoned him.
What was this travesty? He had never been bereft of his Magic, except during his confinement within the scrolls. Only the jewels had the power to limit his access in this way.
His stomach churned with a rising panic.
Not only were the scrolls waiting somewhere nearby for him, so, too, were the jewels.
Whoever, whatever, had gathered his treasures now thought to close in on him. To use the tools of his confinement to cast him back into that hell which had held him prisoner for so many centuries.
He wouldnotbe captured here. Not like this.
But how could he leave? Without access to his Magic, his only alternative was to seek escape as any Mortal might.
He would claim the fastest horse in his stables and break free from the trap that threatened to spring closed around him at any moment.
Once he was outside the net created by the jewels, he would again have access to his Magic. And then he would travel to safety, far, far away from this place.
Thirty-three
BRIDGET DREW HERhorse into position just inside the tree line ringing Tordenet Castle. From this distance she was well hidden but still had a view of the gates and the field where the Tinklers had camped. This had to be very near the spot Hall had described as where she should wait.
Hall.
Her heart hurt just thinking of him.
As much as she hungered for his touch, she prayed that after today, she’d never have to see him again. Every time she saw him, every time she touched him, walking away and leaving him behind became harder and more painful than it had been the time before. She wasn’t sure how many more gracious exits she had left in her before she’d break down and beg him to reconsider his rejection of her.
And wouldn’t that make for a pretty show? Her blubbering like some lost bairn, setting herself up for another round of disappointment.
Whatever destiny had in store for her after today, she only prayed it would cease to torment her with the delectable temptation of the man she would never be able to call her own.
She also prayed she’d hidden the damned scrolls well enough that he wouldn’t find them. Because if he did, he would come bursting out of those woods like a madman and ruin her plan.
