Page 45 of Highland Prince of Darkness

Bruce left her after a while of trying to make small talk. May wasn’t giving him anything back, so he had clearly grown bored and left. She could see the concern on his face for the both of them, but Bruce was old and had seen a lot worse than a wounded shoulder. He was keeping up the appearance that he was fine with Iain’s condition, but May knew that he was worried too.

Her father hadn’t come to visit, but May hadn’t expected him to. She knew that he was still very reluctant to accept that Iain was her husband, even with his legitimate claim to be. Her father was also very sick, and traveling through the castle was no longer a luxury that he could always afford.

The night drew on and May sat there patiently with only the candlelight to keep her company. Iain was still twitching and shifting about next to her no matter how many times she would stroke his hair to try and soothe his movements. His eyes were moving under his shut eyelids and it was as though he was trying to speak through his closed lips.

The sudden sound of Iain groaning split through the room with the shock of a crack of thunder. May jumped forward at the sound of his voice, it was a development, but May wasn’t sure whether it was a good one or not. Iain was twitching and moving in his sleep again, but May didn’t want to call the healer. He had been doing that all day and the old man had given him an even stronger sleeping draft for the night.

She held onto his hand and flinched as he started to make noise. At first, there weren’t any words that May could distinguish, only sounds that were coming out in broken clumps.

“May,” he whispered and shuddered.

“I’m here,” May spoke, but her voice was much quieter than she had anticipated, “I’m here, dinnae worry.”

“Nae!” Iain shouted out.

May winced at the way that he was shouting so loudly. The last thing that she wanted was for him to draw any attention to them. She didn’t want the servants to hear him, but May didn’t know what to do.

“It’s all right, I’m right here,” she whispered soothingly, as she stroked his hair, “I’m here.”

“I never wanted this life I... I just never wanted it to be this way.” His voice was much weaker as he spoke, his words held desperation to them that May hadn’t heard before, and they broke her heart.

Iain continued to move through the strange dreams that he was having, his body seemed to be in a constant turmoil that showed no sign of stopping.

* * *

Iain stood in a bustling town that was being pelted with rain. He frowned in confusion as to how it was that he came to be in a town when the last thing that he remembered was riding on horseback to the castle where his wife slept. Iain grit his teeth at the dull pain that ran through his body. It wasn’t the worst pain he’d ever felt, and he was confident that it wouldn’t be the last pain.

“No,” he whispered, as he saw the man that had been plaguing his thoughts. Athol Cumming was stalking through the streets and was clearly trying not to be too suspicious with his movements.

His eyes locked with Iain’s for only a single second, but it was enough for him to know exactly who he was looking at. The familiarity in his face caused Iain to growl as he looked on at the man who had once been his friend.

Without waiting for another moment to pass, Iain broke off into a fast pace run toward Athol. He knew where he was all of a sudden and he realized the sudden severity of the situation. Iain was back in Stirling, he was in one of the busy outskirts towns and was trying to find the man who had recently dodged the grips of justice.

Athol had once been his brother, his best friend that he thought he could trust. But he had turned out to be just as bad as the men that Iain had once thought were the worst in society. He had never thought that the man he had shared everything with would ever be one of them.

Athol ran too. His legs pushed him down a nearby alleyway and out of sight of most people. It was narrow, but Iain quickly moved to follow his old friend through the streets of the town until his lungs were burning. Iain could feel people’s eyes following them as he moved, but he didn’t care about the scene that they were causing; he wanted to get to Athol before any guards did. He still wanted the chance to talk to the man, he wanted to be able to understand why he had done it and if there was any redemption for him.

Finally, Athol turned a corner to find that there was no way through the labyrinth of backstreets for him. Iain came to a quick stop and made sure to block his only exit so that he had him cornered.

“What do ye want, Iain? I thought that we were friends?” Athol spat as he glared at him.

“Aye, we were, but I couldnae be yer friend while knowing what ye’ve done.”

“I did what I had to do, the same as ye did,” he fired back, “I dinnae think that ye can say everything with yer reputation… Diabhal is nae a nickname that ye get from following the law.”

Iain swallowed thickly at his friend’s words. He knew that he was right and that he wasn’t in any position to tell the man what was right or wrong when he killed people for a living. But the difference was that Iain killed people that had a reason to die, the women and children that were suffering at the hands of Athol were innocent.

“I dinnae care, ye should ken better than to be so cruel.”

“Ye’re cruel too!” he shouted back at Iain.

“Women and children! That has been one of our only rules forever, Athol!” Iain shouted back at him, “Ye dinnae get involved in that kind of business!”

A silence settled between them for a moment as Iain tried to control his breathing.

“As I said, I thought that we were friends,” Athol shook his head.

Before Iain had the chance to reply, Athol was lunging for him. His arms connected with Iain’s torso and sent him flying back into a wall behind him, knocking the air from his body. Iain grunted but quickly recovered as he fought to get the man off of him so that he would have a chance to fight against him.