“It’s just a little cut.” She ran her hand over her throat, her eyes darting up to meet his when she touched the spot. “Hardly more than a scratch.”
He understood her drive. Her friend needed her. He stood and lifted her to her feet, holding an arm around her shoulders as she limped to the spot where Patrick cradled Elesyria in his arms, stroking her hair back from her face.
“I’ve seen this visage before,” his brother murmured to no one in particular. “In the garden, on Samhain. I thought it a trick of the moonlight.”
“What visage? What are you talking about?” Dani pushed away to drop down beside her friend. “Is she all right?”
“She lives.” Patrick answered. “I dinna ken how it’s possible considering the blood she’s lost, but she lives.”
“She wore a glamour,” Christiana observed as she joined them. “To disguise her true self, an Elf but not. The Magic dissipates when she’s no conscious to hold it in place. You’d best bind her wounds and get out of here before Torquil’s men arrive.”
“You say that as if yer no coming with us,” Malcolm observed, not liking the sound of it one little bit. “Which you are.”
“The Dream Vision showed me what’s to come. If I go with you now, everyone dies.” She shook her head even as she backed away from him. “I remain behind, as I must.”
Leave her behind and risk her life again? No. He wouldn’t allow that. He wouldn’t be defeated by the visions of the future the Norns chose to weave. If she stayed, the danger must be eliminated.
“Then you stay without the worry of what our brother will do to you.”
Malcolm strode across the open ground to reclaim his weapon. In two more steps he stood over Torquil, arms raised. No guilt. This was the same man who’d murdered his people and threatened the woman he loved.
“No!” Christiana was on her feet, running toward him. “You canna! I’ve seen what’s to come.”
He could. With a war cry, Malcolm plunged the sword down, with all the force he could muster.
The tip of the sword struck with the sound of metal on stone, inches above Torquil’s body, as if a shield of solid air protected the man. It reverberated through Malcolm’s body, rippling through muscle and bone with the finality of the sudden halt.
Not possible.
He lifted the sword again and thrust down as hard as he could, meeting the same invisible barrier that surrounded his brother’s body.
“By Odin,” he yelled, frustration filling every fiber of his being.
Christiana grabbed his arm as he prepared for a third try. “Listen to me! You canna do this. Ending Torquil’s life is no yer destiny, Colm. It falls to another. Just as freeing me of Torquil falls to another. I have seen it. I swear this to you. Now you must go. The soldiers are very near.”
Would his failures never end?
“I dinna want to leave without you.” He’d gambled everything to save her.
“I ken the truth of what you say, Colm. But this is no the way. Believe me when I tell you this. You must go. Torquil will need time to think on what has happened. Time you must use to build yer defenses strong. Trust in the future to deliver my savior. Now take yer women and go. Hurry!”
He could toss her over his shoulder and carry her away. There was no way she could stop him. He even considered doing exactly that as she stood on tiptoe to pull his head down and kiss his cheek.
But, ultimately, he had too much faith in the powers of the old gods to go against what Christiana told him she had seen.
One last look at Torquil’s body revealed something he’d missed earlier. Dani’s ring. He stooped down and pulled it from his brother’s finger.
That was not the hand on which this jewel belonged.
He gathered their horses and helped Dani into her saddle, waiting only a moment to make sure Patrick had the Faerie securely in his grasp before they rode.
Christiana had been correct about the soldiers. He could feel their proximity to the camp. But the soldiers would have plenty to deal with when they arrived. And with night as their cloak, they could put many miles distance between them and Torquil’s men before they’d have cause to worry.
Forty-one
IF SHE CONCENTRATEDreally hard, and squinted, Dani could just make out the towers of Castle MacGahan across the next rise.
Home, and yet not home, in the same way she wanted so badly to be back there and yet dreaded the arrival so very much. Nothing would be the same once they passed through the gate walls and the portcullis slammed down behind them.
