“He had two blades,” Keenan said (12 page)

“If ye are the one in the prophecy, then ye will be my brother’s wife, Serena.”

Serena shook her head hard and fast. “Not likely.”

Keenan straightened abruptly and hit his head on the jagged ceiling. “Bloody hell,” he cursed, rubbing his scalp. “Serena, can ye read possibilities of yer own future, too?”

“No, I can’t read my own future.”

“Then how do ye ken that ye willna wed Lachlan?”

Serena paused. Should she tell him the truth and risk insulting his family? She wanted Keenan to know what was in her heart.

“Because I don’t respect him, I don’t really even like him, and I can’t imagine kissing him, let alone loving him.”

A mixture of bewilderment and outrage played across Keenan’s strained face as he stood.

“Ye will learn to love him,” he said.

“No.” She crossed her arms under the blankets.

“Aye, ye will,” he retorted, his voice rising slightly as if he commanded an errant squire.

Serena presented her fiercest scowl. “You can tell me what I will and will not do, Keenan Maclean, but I know enough,” she said, thumping her chest, “to know that I will never love someone who hides behind his brother instead of standing to help defend his clan.”

“I was born to protect him, Serena. It is my lot, my destiny.”

“What if the fates have something else in mind for you, Keenan? Ever consider that?”

A frustrated noise, somewhere between a snort and a growl, came from Keenan. “Ye’ve spent too much time with Elenor.”

“She’s a bright woman.”

Keenan turned around and walked out of the cave.

“Good night to you too,” Serena called into the darkness. “Hmmph.” She closed her eyes for only a moment when a bright light glowed red against the inside of her eyelids.

“You need to kiss that man,” a woman’s voice said in the stillness. Serena gasped and struggled into a sitting position. The woman from the meadow, Drakkina, sat cross-legged on the floor beside her. Her body glowed, filling the small cave with warm light. Several dragonflies flitted around the low ceiling.

“What?” Serena said.

“I said that you have to kiss him again, that’s what you have to do child. He wants to kiss you, but his stubborn honor won’t let him. It’s up to you to,” the woman fluttered her fingers outward, “encourage him some.”

“He wants me to kiss him?”

“Certainly, all men want a beautiful woman to kiss them.”

“No, I mean, you can read his thoughts, and you know that he wants me to kiss him?”

“Not exactly,” the woman said as if frustrated. “But I’ve studied him, and I’m certain he wants you to kiss him.”

“Who are you exactly? How did you get here?” Serena asked and wondered briefly if the Maclean warriors would come running inside any moment.

“They won’t bother us,” the woman said reading her concern. “And you know who I am, I’m Drakkina.”

“You just read my thoughts?”

“Yes, yes, I can read yours somewhat. What powers I have left are linked to you and your sisters through the mark of your parents.”

“My sisters? My mark?”

“Your birthmark, child. The dragonfly,” she said and opened her palm up to the ceiling where dragonflies circled.

Serena glanced back from the luminescent insects to the woman. Her lined face held a sheen of youthful vibrancy. She sat with her legs akimbo as if a child. “Yes, I remember that your name is Drakkina, but who are you exactly?”

“I trained your mother and father in the Wiccan ways. They were masters by the end, but not strong enough to conquer the demons that hunted them.”

Serena swallowed past a sudden tightness in her throat.

“I was once a master Wiccan priestess until my mortal body finally withered to dust. What you see is a shadow of my energy held together by what remains of my power.”

“A shadow?”

“Yes, yes,” Drakkina said briskly. “Try to touch me.”

Serena reached her hand out toward the woman. Serena’s hand moved through her as if she were mist. The only indication that she had touched Drakkina was a hot tingling.

“I can’t read your mind either,” Serena said and moved closer to the apparition.

Drakkina smiled. “That’s because I can block you. Perhaps it would be quicker if I didn’t.” Drakkina closed her silvery blue eyes.

The end of the ordered world. Tomorrow and yesterday bleeding into today. Times crushing in upon one another. Demons, misshapen winged creatures with fangs and talons. Enslaving millions to perform their evil whims under their reconstruction of a timeless existence. Children slaughtered in their innocence for amusement.

Serena paled visibly. “What hell do you show me?”

Drakkina smiled sadly. “The great oracle in my realm warns me of this outcome. The demons you saw were the same ones who killed your true parents. To create that hell, they need the powers of both of your parents. They were only able to take Druce’s. He sacrificed his life so that Gilla could save you and your sisters. And give each of you one of her powers. “

“Are the demons coming for me then?”

Several dragonflies alighted on Drakkina’s silvery spun hair. “If they knew you were here, but they don’t and probably wouldn’t waste too much time looking for you anyway.”

Serena didn’t understand.

“You see,” Drakkina continued as if instructing a child, “they know you and your sisters will eventually come to them.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. For now it is crucial that you find your soul mate.”

“And you believe that Keenan Maclean is my soul mate.”

“What a bright girl. You have Gilla’s intelligence, I think. If only Druce had been so wise,
he wouldn’t have attempted to subdue the demons alone.”

“My father confronted the demons?”

Drakkina nodded, a frown securely set on her lips. “Thought he could lead them away from your family and defeat them on his own.”

“You warned him that his magic was not strong enough?”

“No, he never asked me. Probably thought I was dead.”

Serena stared. “Aren’t you?”

Drakkina snorted and rolled her eyes. “My body might be dead, but my spirit is not. And for some crazy reason,” she said sarcastically, “I’m determined to save this chaotic world. Which is why I’m telling you,” she said pointing at Serena with a long crooked finger, “to convince that Highlander that you are his soul mate.”

“But he doesn’t want me. He thinks I should marry his brother.” How much did the priestess know? “There is a prophecy.”

Drakkina waved her ringed hand in the air causing several of the dragonflies to buzz up into the ceiling of the cave. “Prophecies are often misinterpreted.”

“But he believes it is true. He was raised to protect and die for his brother and clan. He knows only that, and I don’t think I can persuade him otherwise.”

Drakkina floated to her feet, her diaphanous body shortening proportionally. “Giving up so soon? Very unlike your parents,” the woman criticized.

“I’m just,” Serena started, “well, I don’t know much about convincing a man to kiss me.”

“I could give you some instruction.”

“No! I will try on my own. I just need to get him to kiss me?”

“That should do it,” Drakkina said. “Then he’ll realize he loves you and this part of my mission will be done.”

Drakkina held up her hands. Serena opened her mouth.

“No time girl. Do what you must do.”

Serena looked around at the glowing cave filled with dragonflies. “What if I’m just dreaming you?”

“I am real, Serena, and you can feel it. I’m as real as your siblings out there. As real as Merewin, giving you that crystal to heal William.”

“Merewin,” Serena said. The name was familiar, like the taste of a sweet treat that she craved.

“Yes, she is the eldest after you.” Drakkina studied her as if contemplating her next move. The woman sighed. “Touch my mind, child, and remember her.”

Heart pounding, Serena opened carefully to Drakkina’s thoughts. She saw herself as a child running hand in hand with a girl with brown hair. The two laughed as they wove between huge stone megaliths around a beautiful thatch-roofed cottage.

Serena’s eyes blurred. “I remember,” she said softly. “My home.” She looked at Drakkina. “I need to find her, find them all.”

Drakkina closed the door. “Not now. In time I will help you find them. Right now,” Drakkina said, “you have to kiss that man.”

Serena worried at her bottom lip.
“The guards won’t let him alone, and I will not throw myself at him with four other men watching.” Serena caught Drakkina’s narrowed gaze. “I’m not giving up, and I’m not being difficult, I’m being realistic.”

Drakkina tapped her long finger against her lip. “Hmm, I will come up with something. I’ll keep those men busy tonight. I’ll have a storm brewing. With a little prompting, those men will find shelter in caves some way from here.”

“And I kiss Keenan and the rest falls into place,” Serena said with a hint of mockery.

Drakkina ignored her sarcasm. “Very good then, child. Why don’t you freshen up a bit.”

Serena ran fingers through her tangled mass. She pulled it to one side and tied a green ribbon in it.

“Better,” Drakkina said. “Now get some rest before the storm starts.”
Drakkina peered at Serena. “And pinch your cheeks.”

“If you are trying to build up my confidence to seduce a kiss out of this man,” Serena said caustically, “you are failing.”

“He’s your soul mate, Serena. You could have a rat living in that fiery mass and dung on your face, and he’d still fall in love with you.”

“Better I suppose, but not much,” Serena grumbled and leaned back up against the wall suddenly exhausted.

“Child, rest,” Drakkina’s words floated.

Was the woman able to dull her mind into sleep? Serena yawned.

Rest. She would rest for a bit. Serena snuggled deeper into the warm blankets. Perhaps when she woke, it would be morning and she would know it was all a dream.

“I’m not a dream,” Serena heard the voice in her mind. “Kiss him, child, for the greater good.”

“Kiss him,” Serena mumbled.

Keenan balled the rough horse blanket under his head. The cool, firm ground felt good against his back and the stars watched overhead. It was a perfect night to sleep outside. Why then did the musty confines of the obnoxiously small cave pull at him?

Never before had Keenan felt so tempted by a woman. It must be because she was untouchable, unattainable. Serena Faw was the witch of the prophecy; he had no doubt about that. And therefore, she would belong to Lachlan. Never before had Keenan envied his brother in his duty to wed a witch. Though death followed Keenan through his life, he had been happy to concede the bonding to a witch to his older brother. But that was before her hair had skimmed his hands, before she had slept nuzzled against his chest and then stood awestruck by the sight of his Highlands. That was before she had returned his kiss on the moor and risked her life to protect his. Before she had asked him to sleep next to her in the cave. Aye, Keenan had actually pitied Lachlan before, but now his purpose filled life was changing.

Crack! A bolt of lightning cleaved through the storm-lit clouds above. Keenan jumped up and took two long purposeful steps toward Serena’s cave. Her still, slumbering form rested on its side within the folds of the blankets. Her face, lit up by the storm, frowned while she mumbled and turned away from the wind that shrieked around the edges of the rocky hillside. He almost smiled. The lass could sleep through a battle.

Tingles ran along his arms and legs, all the hairs standing up. Boom! A bolt of white light shot down from the sky, splintering a white birch across the clearing. The ground rocked with the force of the explosion and threw Keenan back against the rock wall. His men scattered, yelling, but the ringing in Keenan’s ears blocked their words. Crack, crack, creek!

“Watch out,” Gavin mouthed the warning as the birch’s weight launched its flaming body down toward the cave. It seemed to fall in slow motion as if giving him time to react, but suddenly the branches clawed toward him.

Keenan hurled himself into the cave just as the top of the massive tree crashed in front of him, its flaming branches scratching against the stone on either side of the cave entrance. Greedy fire licked into the opening. Behind him, he heard Serena yell out. He grabbed one of her blankets to smother the flames threatening to invade the cramped space.

With a howl, the clouds opened, and sheaths of rain slanted down outside the cave. The flames flickered as the water battled it from outside and Keenan battled it from inside. Small balls of ice danced inside on the rock floor, sizzling as they rolled into the char. As the last snake of flame flickered out, Keenan backed up into darkness knocking his head on the low ceiling.

“Bloody hell.”

“Watch your head.”

“Too late, where are ye?” The brightness of lightning had made it impossible to see in the darkness.