Page 118 of Dark Embrace

Ian said tersely, in horror. “My God.”

Brie pulled away from him, onto her knees, and she saw Aidan.

He was twirling in the breeze. He was dead. The castle walls were behind him, the ground was snow-covered and a crowd had gathered. It was exactly as he had been hanged in her vision.

She staggered frantically to her feet, vaguely aware of Ian’s help. “Aidan!” she screamed in horror. She saw that his neck was broken, for his head fell at a grotesque angle. They had arrived too late? Disbelief came. “Aidan, come back to me!” She ran forward and Ian let her go. She loved him too much. This could not, would not, happen. To hell with destiny and the gods! She resolved then and there never to let him go. They could go back in time again!

“This is not written,” she screamed up at his body, standing below him, the top of her head inches from his bare feet. “We will rewrite this!”

His body seemed to shudder.

She seized his feet to stop him from swinging. “Come back to me, don’t leave me. Come back to our future,” she begged.

And a visible tremor went through his body. His chest rose—and fell. Brie stared up at his downturned face and saw his lashes flickering. “Allie!” she screamed.

Brianna.

Brie knew it wasn’t telepathy, for she saw his mouth moving. He was coming back from the dead because he was choosing to live.

And she saw Allie’s white light raining down on him. As it did, Malcolm, Guy and Royce leapt onto the scaffold, one of them cutting the rope, the other men taking Aidan’s body into their arms. A moment later he was laid out on the ground, and Allie was kneeling over him, healing him intently. His lashes moved and lifted, and Brie met his direct blue gaze.

His eyes began to shimmer with relief and love. “Brianna.”

She clasped his face, bent over him and kissed him. “You’ve come back to me,” she whispered. Their gazes met and locked.

He sat up, pulling Brie close against his side. Not looking away from her, he said, “Tell Frasier my men will war for the king.”

“I’ll tell him,” Royce said, striding away.

“Do ye ever listen to anyone?” he asked softly.

“I will never forgive Nick for taking me away from you when you needed me the most,” she said, seizing his hand. “Why did you choose to die?”

“To protect ye from my father,” he said softly. He lifted her chin and feathered her mouth with his. “But Brianna, I felt yer love. And even dead, even with the gods comin’, I realized I dinna wish to die. I want to live—I want to live with ye, Brianna.”

Tears welled. She stroked his beautiful jaw. “That’s a damn good thing, because on top of everything else, there’s someone you must meet,” she said, and she glanced up.

Ian Maclean was staring at them, his face hard and tight.

Aidan followed her gaze. His eyes widened and he paled. Slowly he stood, in disbelief. “Ian?”

Ian didn’t move a muscle, his face filled with tension. “If ye dinna hang—if we rewrite Fate this day—ye need to rescue me. I’m at Elgin,” he said, and he vanished in time.

“Ian!” Brie screamed.

Aidan looked at her, incredulous. “Ye found him in the future?”

Brie nodded. She was about to explain everything when she felt Moray’s black power. She cried out in warning, but Aidan had whirled.

He was coming fast and furiously. There was no time to scream again. A huge, armor-clad giant rushed them, blazing energy at them, roaring in rage. “Aye, Ian lives! But ye’ won’t ever see him again!” the knight shouted furiously.

Brie gasped as the force struck her and Aidan, sending her tumbling away from the gallows across the clearing, and into one of Urquhart’s walls.

She grunted from the terrible impact of being hurled against stone, but it wasn’t as bad as that day on the battlefield, because he had flung his energy at Aidan, catching her only peripherally.

Men roared and swords clashed and rang, louder than she had ever heard them.

Terrified for Aidan, certain that this was the final moment of truth, Brie felt hands on her. Allie’s powerful white healing light seeped through her body as she tried to sit. When she could finally do so, she saw Aidan.