Page 71 of Highland Prince of Darkness

“Thank ye, Sarah, ye have always been so good to me.”

Sarah flashed her a smile in the mirror as she continued to untangle her long hair. May had noticed that it had grown since she’d last noticed and marveled at the length that she was achieving. She couldn’t help but think about how much the last few weeks had changed her life forever and how different things were going to be now.

Iain walked into the chambers shortly after, prompting the maids to slowly leave the room for them to have some privacy.

“Ye look radiant as always,” Iain smiled down at her. He tenderly placed his lips to hers and kissed her.

“Thank ye,” she bowed her head sheepishly in response to his compliment. May had never gotten used to compliments. Usually, they had come from her father and she could easily brush them off. However, she found that she became nervous whenever Iain would complement her, and she didn’t understand why.

“I hope that ye’ll sleep better tonight,” Iain said as he crossed the room and looked out into the darkness on the other side of the window.

“Aye, me too.”

One of the repercussions of the events had come in the form of night terrors. May had never experienced anything quite like it before, and she wished more than anything for a night where she wouldn’t wake up sweating and crying due to fear that coursed through her veins. Being scared to do something as simple as sleeping wasn’t at all helping with her recovery; in fact, it felt like the one thing that was standing in the way of her getting over the traumatic events that had happened to her.

In her dreams, May would be chased by Athol once again, except this time he would repeatedly catch her before she would manage to slip away. This would repeatedly happen until she was completely out of breath and out on the glen by herself where nobody could reach her to help.

Iain would hold her as she awoke, she would be screaming out for his help while she slept. May felt awful to be putting him through this as she knew how much he worried for her already.

“I’m sure that the sleeping draft the healer gave me will start to help tonight,” May tried to reassure him.

“Are ye sure that ye want to be taking something like that?” Iain asked, his face a picture of concern. His hand moved down to stroke her back in a calming way that allowed May to relax into his touch. “I just dinnae want ye to be stuck in one of those dreams.”

“I think that it’s worth giving it a go at this stage. I dinnae ken what else to do,” May admitted as she glanced at the bed that they shared every night.

She thought about the awful dreams and how much worse they could get if she wasn’t able to wake up from them. That was her only escape; the promise that she could wake up and Iain would be there to comfort and protect her.

“All right, well, I’ll be right next to ye if ye need me,” Iain smiled and squeezed her arm reassuringly.

May realized at that moment that her heart was beating incredibly fast at the idea of going to sleep. She turned to the vial that was waiting for her on her bedside and sighed heavily. She hoped that it would be the answer to her current problem.

That night, May slept easily with no nightmares plaguing her. Iain's arms were around her for the entire night, acting like a protective barrier for her. She awoke with a light smile on her face for the first time since she had been captured by Athol. She felt much lighter and less weighed down by the burdens that had suddenly been placed onto her shoulders. The same occurred over the coming days; each morning, May awoke feeling more and more refreshed and didn’t have any bad dreams.

She could tell that Iain had noticed the change in her too. She was trying to be more engaged in her daily duties now that the two of them were in charge of the clan. As the days continued to pass, time was easily proving to be the best healing agent. It came and went in waves, as though feelings of grief were made with the same pattern as the coastal tide. Some days May would find it a lot easier to cope without her father than others, and some days she couldn’t even venture over to the side of the castle where the dungeons were just below.

But the thought of Athol being dead was one that slowly started to melt into normality. May was growing accustomed to the security of the castle guards and stopped feeling so on edge. The danger was gone, but trying to accept that was another matter entirely.

“I’m so proud of how far ye have come,” Iain said one day as they walked through the gardens. May still didn’t ride out of the castle walls much, and if she did, she was accompanied by Iain and a couple of guards. She wished that she could just get over the fear of being outside without having to worry about being captured, but it gripped her so much that she just couldn’t do it.

“Thank ye, I still feel as though I have a long way to go, though,” May sighed as she leaned against him.

“If healing from the kind of trauma that ye went through was simple, there would be many more people that recover quickly. It’s a process that ye’ll get through, and I will be right here through it all.”

“I will always be here for ye too,” May whispered up to him. She moved her hand to press against his cheek as he looked back down at her. Their lips pressed together in a tender and passionate kiss, May smiled against him as she realized that she never wanted the moment to end.

Since the rescue, May knew that she had been much more reserved. She couldn’t help it, and she wanted to show Iain more affection – especially after the way that he had looked after her so much. May held onto him as though she would never let go, and in a way, she didn’t want to. She continued to smile properly until her cheeks hurt. It was the first moment of raw happiness that she had felt for weeks, and May wanted to savor every bit of its essence.