Forbidden Highlander (11 page)

“You have my word, MacLeod.”

“It seems I do.”

Malcolm bowed his head. “Take care of her.”

“I will. And Malcolm, if you ever need anything, you are welcome at my castle anytime.”

“Thank you.”

Fallon watched him leave. Malcolm was a fine Highlander. His clan should be proud of him for putting his life on the line for Larena. Fallon made a silent vow that if Malcolm or the Monroe clan ever needed assistance, he would lend it in any way necessary.

Without a backward glance at his chamber, Fallon strode from the room. He was ready to leave Edinburgh as well. He couldn’t wait to show Larena his power.

Fallon had found his power quite by accident. Lucan called it
leum
, the Gaelic word for “jumping.” The term had taken hold and everyone at the castle now used it.

Fallon still couldn’t believe he could do it. For hundreds of years he’d had a powerful tool to use, but he had drowned himself in wine instead of learning to control his power. He feared there would come a time when he needed to use it and he wouldn’t know how.

He followed a path through the garden until he came to a bench where Larena sat. It was secluded. Perfect for them to depart.

Fallon recalled the first time he had “jumped.” It had been by accident. He had let loose his god so he could learn not to fear it so. He’d been in the great hall and wished he was down at the beach. The next thing he knew, he stood ankle deep in the sea.

After that, he spent his time learning how to call up the power at any instance. He hated that he had to let his god loose in order to use the power, but he was determined to learn to use it without the god. He was sure it was possible, and he was going to make it so.

“Will you tell me now why we had to meet in the garden?” Larena asked, a welcoming smile on her face.

It struck Fallon that he had someone else now depending on him. Was it a trait of his to fail everyone? He hoped to God it wasn’t, because he couldn’t stand to have Larena look at him in disappointment.

“We’re leaving from here. By my power.”

Her brows rose. “Indeed? I cannot wait to see this power. What is it?”

“My brother calls it
leum
.”

“Jumping?” she asked with a frown.

He laughed and held out his hand. “Is there nothing you want to take with you?”

“Not a thing.”

“Then let me show you what
leum
is.”

Just as Fallon began to transform to use his power he heard a wyrran. He jerked and looked around for the creature.

“Another one?” Larena asked.

Fallon clenched his jaw. “You canna fight in your gown. Stay here. I’ll find this one.”

Larena didn’t like being left behind, but she knew Fallon was right. She sank back onto the bench and listened for the wyrran.

Fallon had told her to stay here, but she would help if she could.

As she sat there she contemplated all she had learned of Fallon. Never had she felt so beautiful, so cherished as she did in his arms. Every touch of his hands made her feel as though she were the center of his world.

Not even his admission of having been a drunk had any effect on her wanting him. He was trying to change from what he had been, and who was she to judge him after everything he had been through. She had known by being around him that he no longer drank. The reasons he had started she could understand, and she was happy to hear he had stopped.

The love he had for his brothers was obvious. All anyone needed to do was listen to his voice as he spoke of them. His brothers were all that mattered to him.

Larena wondered if she would matter to someone like that one day. She knew that something linked her and Fallon, but would it last? That, she couldn’t answer.

The one thing that bothered her was Fallon’s talk of the Scroll. He had no idea how close he was to it, and she wondered if he would take her ring if he knew what was inside it. She didn’t think so, but she knew he would ask her for it.

And could she blame him for that?

It wasn’t that she didn’t comprehend why he wanted it, but it was more than foolish to turn over such an important document to Deirdre. She didn’t like the idea of anyone being in Deirdre’s captivity, but nothing was worth the risk of Deirdre’s getting the Scroll.

There had to be another way to free Quinn, and she would help them figure that out. The Scroll wasn’t an option they could use, and she needed to guard her heart lest Fallon betray her for it.

Fallon already had her respect, and it wouldn’t take much more for her to care deeply for him. Once that happened, she wouldn’t be able to keep the Scroll from him.

She would have to keep her distance from him now. How was she going to endure seeing him day after day at his castle and not kiss him, not want his arms around her? It was going to be the most difficult thing she had ever done, but she didn’t have a choice.

Larena was ready for a new adventure even though it meant leaving Malcolm and being near a man who had touched her more deeply than she thought was possible. The connection between her and Fallon frightened her because it had been instantaneous, its pull too alluring to resist.

And she couldn’t afford another mistake like the one that had gotten her father killed.

MacLeod Castle

Lucan stood beside his wife in the bailey as they surveyed the castle. Cara’s chestnut hair hung in a thick braid over her shoulder and her mahogany eyes looked up at him with a wealth of love that he never tired of seeing.

“Fallon is going to be so happy,” Cara said. “I can’t wait for him to see how much progress has been made on the castle.”

Lucan glanced at the new gate and then to one of the reconstructed towers. “Aye. I think he will be pleased. I hope he returns soon.”

“He will,” Cara declared. “He didn’t want to go, so I cannot imagine him staying longer than necessary in Edinburgh.”

Lucan smiled. He remembered when Fallon had volunteered to go. It was evident by his brother’s curled lip that he would rather face an army of Deirdre’s Warriors than go to the king’s castle, but Fallon had said it was his duty.

It was easy to see Fallon had felt useless at the castle. While all of them worked to rebuild the once magnificent structure, little progress had been made on finding the Scroll, or even any information on it.

Lucan still found it hard to believe Fallon had stopped drinking. Lucan didn’t know how long it would last, but he was happy to have his brother back again.

Now, they just had to rescue Quinn.

“We’ll get him,” Cara said.

He glanced down at his wife and kissed her forehead. Her powers as a Druid had grown since Sonya had arrived. “Reading my mind are you?”

“Nay, husband,” she said with a mischievous smile. “I just know what you’re thinking by the way your lips compress. Don’t work too hard.”

Lucan watched Cara return to the castle to work with Sonya on spells that might help them bind their gods. There was much he needed to do, but his mind was on his brothers. He worried about them constantly.

Quinn was strong, but was he tough enough to endure Deirdre? And Fallon. He hadn’t been away from the castle in over two hundred years. He had just given up the wine, and he was still learning to control the god inside him.

Lucan prayed his brothers could withstand what destiny had put before them. They were stronger together since they shared the same god. He didn’t like them being parted.

He breathed in the sea air. “Hurry, Fallon. Please hurry.”

Larena leaned her hands back on the bench and looked up at the castle. Fallon had been gone longer than she expected. Was he having trouble finding the wyrran?

Just then she spotted one of the yellow creatures near her balcony and another at the castle’s roof. She had no idea what they were about, but she couldn’t sit here and wait for Fallon.

Larena jumped from her seat and hurried into the castle and up to her chamber. When she threw open the door, however, there was no wyrran to be seen. She listened to the sounds of the castle, waiting to hear the frightened shrieks as before, but none came.

Just where were the wyrran?

A sound on her balcony drew her gaze. When she saw the two Warriors, her heart froze in her chest.

She eyed the Warrior with skin so dark blue it looked almost black. He had wings that he folded against his back and that loomed over his head. He kept his gaze on her as he walked into her chamber as if he had every right to be there. Neither Warrior wore tunic or shoes, just loose breeches that hung low on their hips.

“Get out.” She was proud that her voice sounded steady and commanding since she felt anything but. She didn’t know why they were there, but she wouldn’t unleash her goddess unless she had no other choice.

“That we cannot do,” said the second Warrior, with pale green skin and short black hair. “We’ve come for you after all.”

Larena knew the door to freedom was exactly fifteen steps from where she stood. She couldn’t reach it before the Warriors got to her, so she didn’t think twice about escaping.

She decided to play dumb instead. “Is this some new costume the king has ordered for a masked ball? You are very frightening to look upon. And my brother will not approve of another man in my chamber, much less two.”

The dull green Warrior’s lips peeled back over his fangs as he growled. “Do not play coy with me, Larena Monroe. You know what we are.”

“All right.” She dropped all pretenses. “Why are you here?”

“As I said, we’re here for you. Deirdre is looking forward to meeting you.”

“Deirdre has never known of me. Why am I now of such interest?”

The pale green Warrior tilted back his head and laughed while the blue Warrior cocked his head to the side, his shoulder-length blond hair falling against his face. His eyes were intense as they studied her. Larena didn’t know which she feared more, the quiet one with wings, or the angry one.

It was the pale green Warrior who answered. “You’re of interest as a female Warrior. You see, the wyrran you killed the other night wasn’t the only one at the castle.”

Larena’s stomach dropped to her feet like lead. Sweat broke out over her skin, turning her palms clammy. If she had stayed with Fallon, she wouldn’t be in this mess.

Sooner or later they would have cornered you
.

“Why did Deirdre send wyrran here?” she asked.

“A seer told her Fallon had come,” the winged one answered.

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and lifted a brow. “I have no interest in going with either of you. Give Deirdre my thanks for the invitation, but I’m going to have to decline.”

Larena could have sworn there was a hint of a smile on the winged Warrior’s face, but it was gone so quickly she couldn’t be sure. As she expected, the pale green Warrior was the one who attacked.

She waited until he was almost upon her before she let her goddess out. She allowed herself a brief smile at the Warrior’s startled expression before she launched herself at him.

Robena had done her job well. Larena knew how to protect herself but part of that defense had been hiding. Now that Deirdre knew of her, Larena would be battling Warrior after Warrior.

If you get free
.

She wanted to scream for Fallon, but even if she did, he would never hear her. Malcolm was just in the next chamber, but she couldn’t chance him coming in and getting injured, or worse—killed.

Larena let her claws sink into the back of the pale green Warrior and raked them down to his waist. The Warrior bellowed and swung a meaty fist at her, connecting with her cheek before she could turn herself invisible.

She staggered away, dark spots blinking before her eyes. Something tore at first one arm and then the other. She didn’t need to look to know the Warrior had used his claws on her. Blood seeped from her wounds down to her own claws to drip onto the floor.

No matter how many times she tried to clear her vision, she couldn’t. The hit had addled her brain. She wasn’t thinking clearly, and if she couldn’t get her head together, she wouldn’t be able to get away.

Larena could sense the Warrior was close. She closed her eyes to stop the room from spinning and kicked out with her foot. There was a heavy thud and a grunt to let her know she had knocked the Warrior off his feet.

“Don’t make this harder,” someone said in her ear.

The dark blue Warrior. He had let the other battle her. Why? “I won’t go.”

“You have no choice,” he said.

She shook her head and jerked out of his arms. She opened her eyes and saw that her chamber tilted from one side to the next. Her feet tripped over themselves as she tried to get to the balcony. She would jump if she had to, anything to get away.

Before she reached the terrace, the pale green Warrior bellowed and grabbed her ankle. Larena caught herself from falling just in time. She kicked with her foot and landed a hit on the Warrior’s face. In an instant he was on his feet, his lips pulled back in another snarl to show his fangs.

“You will pay for that,” he growled.

She saw his claws come at her, and though she tried to turn away, she wasn’t quick enough. Larena bit back a scream as his claws plunged into her right side.

As a Warrior, she healed, but it always hurt to get injured. Her arms stung from the scratches, but it was nothing like the burning in her side. She clutched at her wound, feeling the blood flow thick and fast through her fingers.

“What have you done?” demanded the winged Warrior to the other.

The pale green Warrior shrugged and studied his left claws. “She shouldna have kicked me in the face.”

“You wouldna dare.” He spoke through clenched teeth, his fangs cutting his lips. “Deirdre will have your head.”

The other laughed and walked to the balcony. Without a backward glance he jumped from the railing.

Larena stumbled as lights began blinking in her vision. She reached for the posts of the bed to steady herself. The bleeding should have slowed by now, and the pain should have receded. She glanced down at her side and saw the blood was gushing so rapidly that it coated her gown.