Page 135 of Outlaw Ever After

“My reasons matter nay!” MacGregor boomed, whirling back toward her. “Every man entered this tournament with desire for these bonny lands and castle!” The truth stung. Because even her charming warrior had done so. “And I shall fight this all the way to the Earl of Arran himself if I must! I will…”

“Nay if I have a say in it,” a hoarse voice croaked.

Gasps and whispering surrounded them as a shift in attention disrupted MacGregor’s rant. Peigi whirled around. Hands crept to her mouth, her hair fraying around her face.

“Caleb,” she breathed, as a body leaned with great favor against the wall, tunic matching her clothing, caked in dark, dried blood.

“Welcome back from Hell, Reaper,” Laird MacLeod said on a smirk, tossing him his war scythe. Caleb managed to catch it, even if he grunted and winced and let it thud to the floor limply. “Good at cheating death, ye are.”

“Hell didna want me.” He shrugged, his jest wan, but MacLeod chuckled all the same.

“How?” she whispered through her fingers. Is he a ghost?

He forced a smile, then waggled his brows at her, despite looking like death. She lifted her skirts and ran, colliding with him. He doubled over as she crashed into him, as she collapsed at his feet and grasped his face, planting kisses around it. “’Tis a miracle.”

His nose burrowed into her. “Finally ,” he wheezed.

She pulled back and riveted her brow. “Finally what?”

He grinned, despite his obvious pain. “My waggle worked on ye.”

She’d thought her well of tears had run dry, yet they bubbled anew.

“I nay understand.” She wrapped him more carefully in her hold, feeling his heartbeat at her ear. Still thumping. Nay a ghost.

“Seems Kendrew is as shite at stabbing a man in the back as he is at convincing ye to marry him,” he rasped. “Bale must be the one who murdered them, considering Kendrew’s aim, missing everything vital.”

She gazed up at his emerald eyes as he hitched up his grin. But there was something soft in his gaze. Innocent, just for her as he croaked, “Seamus, I have a few requests before the melee.”

“Ye canna possibly compete!” she gasped. “Caleb, it’s certain death!”

“I’d rather die than live without ye.” He brushed his thumb through her tears, silencing her.

MacGregor flexed his fingers to crack his knuckles.

Seamus held up a silencing hand. “Speak, man.”

“If I lose…” Caleb turned to Seamus. “I ask that ye protect Peigi’s babe. Kendrew wishes it harm.”

Seamus’s eyes flashed to Kendrew, so stony. He nodded once. “And?”

“And that ye let my people bury my sire’s skull with his body. That Mistress Joslyn be allowed to ken her brother finally lies at peace.”

Seamus’s face blanked. Jaw ticked. “And if ye win?”

“Ye keep the castle,” Caleb croaked. “I love my songbird more than I love any memory of the past. The only prize I ask for is her .”

Chapter Forty-Two

“For only when the veil thins can their love be free.”

– A Song of Samhain Night

Peigi shook her head, her hands covering her mouth. “Yer homeland, Caleb… Nay. I’ll nay let ye do it.”

He ignored her.

“Caleb, please, ye deserve this,” she argued in his silence. “Yer people deserve this. Nay give it away for me—”