Page 28 of Scot of Seduction

Every way Catreena looked, there was fire. It was as if the gates of hell had opened up to claim this village and drag it down to the underworld. Great flames leaped between timber buildings and thatched roofs. The red and orange fingers of demons’ hands clawed at people and buildings, pulling them into despair.

Catreena looked away from the soldiers. Tad, Bran, and many of the men were trying to pull down one of the slate roofs with hooks on rope, trying to stop the fire spreading further to the rest of the village, but Catreena could hear a child screaming.

She left those she had already tended to. A group of villagers were now following one of the healers from the town, half bandaged in linen with smatterings of honey and cold water across their skin. They hobbled to safety between the flames as Catreena walked the other way.

There’s a child somewhere.

She could hear it as she reached for a small building where the whole ground floor had gone up in flames. She had to raise her hands to shield herself from the heat as she did her best to peer into the melting glass.

“Catreena? Catreena, get back from there.” It was Bran, ordering her to safety.

“There’s a child,” she screamed back. “A child, Bran.” She hastened around the building, now certain the cry for help hadn’t come from the building itself, but somewhere nearby. A small stable came into view. The roof was on fire, but the body of the building hadn’t yet caught light.

There, cowering in the doorway, was a small girl. She could not be more than ten years old. Frightened, crying, she was petrified to the spot.

“This way!” Catreena called and ran toward the girl. She took her hand and dragged her back.

The girl couldn’t say anything. She just cried floods of tears, her feet repeatedly driving into the ground. She fought all the way, not wanting to run because of her fear.

“Please, ye have tae come,” Catreena begged. “This way, and ye will be safe, I promise ye.”

Yet the child didn’t appear to hear her, for she was crying too much.

“Please,” Catreena called again. She managed to get the girl around the front of the building where Bran appeared. “Get her tae safety.”

Bran nodded. Bending down, he picked the girl up in his arms and ran away after the retreating group.

The sudden raging fire made Catreena stumble back. The nearest window had exploded with heat. The glass shattered loudly, the flames reaching out like long whips toward her.

“Nay!” a familiar dark voice raged from behind her.

An arm was around her waist, swinging her away from the flame before she could do anything about it. The sheer force knocked her to her knees. Catreena coughed on the smoke as she scrambled in the earth, turning to look at what had happened.

Tad stood where she had been seconds before. Across his right arm, the flames had caught him.

“Tad!” Catreena screamed, though her voice was drowned out by Bran’s shout.

Soldiers surrounded Tad. The flames were doused out with water and heavy cloths thrown over his arm, but the damage was done.

As Catreena moved back to her feet and ran toward him. Tad, flanked by his men, was weak and stumbling. The flames had singed away his shirt and part of his waistcoat, leaving his shoulder and bicep open. The skin was no longer perfectly smooth but puckered in a fierce red burn.

“This is Cillian’s daeing,” Bran hissed from Catreena’s other side. “Mark me words, he and his men will pay fer what they have done tae us today.”

Catreena couldn’t listen. She flung one of the soldiers aside and reached to take Tad’s good arm.

“Cat.” It was the barest whisper, but then he was gone. The soldiers took her place again and swept Tad away from the village, with Catreena running after them.

“Catreena. Catreena, ye must rest.” Ilyssa sat down beside her next to Tad’s bed.

Catreena couldn’t even look at her friend. Her eyes were fixed completely on Tad.

Once they had returned from fighting the fire, Catreena had thought it best that Tad sleep. She’d given him a sleeping draught, which had knocked him out cold. It had allowed her to work on his burn, following everything she had ever learned from Sophia and her books about healing. His shoulder and arm were now bandaged up, but it was his face that upset her still.

Even in sleep, it was contorted, as if in pain.

“He needs someone tae watch over him,” Catreena said, pressing a muslin cloth into a basin of water and placing it near the burn she had bandaged. She was doing her best to keep the skin around the wound as cool as possible.

“All right, that’s enough.” Ilyssa grabbed her arm, jerking Catreena around to face her. “What the hell is going on with ye and me braither?”