Highland Defiance (The MacLomain Series- Early Years) (12 page)

“They can’t hear us,” Adlin said. Yet he didn’t pursue the kiss, almost as if he were afraid.

Bereft, absent almost, Mildred felt cool air rush between them.

“I don’t believe you,” she whispered.

Then she felt it, a slight electrical charge in the wall at her back. Pushing away, she fell conveniently against Adlin. His arms came around her, his chin rested on her head. Mildred’s eyes widened as she watched the stall illuminate in pale blue then fade.

“Bonnie lass,” another man responded. “I’d take her for a ride, I would.”

Mildred stilled in fear. Adlin held her face against his chest and stroked her hair. The gesture was comforting and she relaxed against him. She knew what was happening around them didn’t feel right… still.

This was Adlin.

He was safe.

As if to test her resolve the air started to crackle around her.

“Time for you to go,” Adlin said abruptly.

Before she knew it, Mildred was standing in the hay-lined stall between doors. The men who walked by them turned and smiled then continued on their way as if they didn’t remember walking through the barn. She shook her head and turned back only to find it empty.

Panicked, she stuck her head into the stall and looked around, “Adlin, they’re gone. Please, where are you?” Mildred paused, waited, and then began to shake. “You didn’t leave. That much magic is too much for me.”

No response.

Mildred entered, heart thumping.

But there was nothing.

Nobody.

As if Adlin had never been there.

She leaned against the stall wall and licked her lips, still tasted him. Mildred closed her eyes and hung her head. Was he still here somewhere or would it be several years before they saw one another again? What sort of bitter time warp had she been thrust into?
Because it was terribly cruel.

Now her heart was invested.

Because of a mere kiss.

Chapter Five

Adlin stalked through the forest, frustrated and aroused. How had he lived this long and not felt this way for a woman?

So many years had passed since he’d last seen her and though he knew her being here was inevitable, it still caught him off guard…that he could still want her so very much. With a low growl, he spun and walked in the opposite direction. Before he gave it too much thought, his eyes reached through the night and saw her walking toward the castle.

He should let her go. Whatever this was between them couldn’t be. He
should
let her go. Even as he turned away, Adlin slowed. Unfamiliar pressure squeezed his chest. How much time might pass before he saw her again?
Years?
Decades?

Not this time.

Stopping in the shadows he turned back and whispered into the wind, called her to him. He watched her stop and turn. Though she couldn’t see him, Mildred walked in his direction.

It was dangerous using magic like this around the MacLeods. Bruce knew magic and if Adlin wasn’t careful, he’d ruin everything he and Iosbail had worked so hard to achieve. Everything Iosbail had sacrificed so much for.

Nobody would follow Mildred into the dark woods, nobody without magi that is. And those without magi would never see her walking into the woods to begin with. Adlin was very good at what he did, with or without the help of the gods.

Mildred slowed within feet of him and confusion passed over her delicate features. Adlin released the magic and took her hand.

“Come,” he whispered.

Though he sensed a brief flicker of hesitation, she followed his lead. “Where did you go? One minute you were in the stall then you were gone.
What’s happening here, Adlin?”

Instead of responding, he pulled her after him. What was happening here?
Simple.
He’d turned coward. Run from something he knew would change his life then decided against it. The truth of the matter was sometimes a man grew tired of playing it safe, even if he risked everything.

“This way,” he said softly and led her down a path that cut between two walls of mountain, twin cliffs. The way became rocky and uneven but he led her with sure foot. After all, he’d walked this path a thousand times in his dreams. Eventually, the walls narrowed then widened and a small, secluded nook of beach unraveled through the moonlit night.

“Ohhh,” Mildred
murmured,
her eyes wide.

 Adlin couldn’t help but stare. Not at the glorious and angry Scottish sea but at the way the wind blew thick hair around her slim shoulders and down her narrow back. The full moon swelled overhead, dusting flecks of silver over the fine slopes of her all-too-familiar features.

She was absolutely breathtaking.

With a quick movement of his wrist, he summoned a fur cloak and wrapped it over her shoulders.

Her eyes flickered from the water to his face. “Why did you bring me here?”

What a loaded question. And one he intended to answer in full.
“Because I owe you many answers, Mildred.”
He brought a fur cloak over his own shoulders. “And I owe you memories.”

Startled by his honesty, she pulled her cloak tighter around her neck. “That sounds rather ominous.”

Adlin dragged his eyes from hers and looked out over the darkened North Sea. “Ours has been an unscheduled and much welcome interlude to what has been a very long life for me.”

“Obviously I don’t understand.” Mildred’s voice softened, “But as incredible as it seems, I now know that Iosbail is…” She cleared her voice, and continued.
“A very distant relative of mine, frighteningly distant in fact.”

Adlin nodded but didn’t meet her eyes. Not quite yet. “Aye, she is. Iosbail has seen much in her life.”

“And you are her brother,” Mildred whispered. “What does that mean exactly?”

Instead of answering he asked, “How old were you when you first started dreaming about me, Mildred?”

“Young.
Too young.”

“Tell me about your dream… nightmare.”

“You really don’t already know?”

Adlin turned to her but didn’t touch. “I know that you were on a cliff and being led by very bad men. I know that you eventually felt no fear.”

“What do you mean eventually? I never felt fear.”

“But you did, Mildred. You just don’t remember. That’s what it is when a child’s dreams become a woman’s. They change. Become something else.”

Her lower lip curled in and she shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“So young,” Adlin whispered and touched her cheek. “But have lived so many more memories than your age should allow.”

When her brows lowered in confusion he continued. “We’ve shared many dreams together, Mildred. However, your mind will only focus on the cliff. It’s plagued you for far too long, made you unable to see all the rest.”

She turned her cheek from his touch. “That sounds incredibly scary.”

Adlin sighed and pulled her to a nearby rock. “Sit with me.” When she hesitated he said, “Please.”

Mildred slowly sat. “I’m so overwhelmed.”

“I know. While my words will not likely help that, lass, I intend to give you answers. Help you cope a little. Let me begin by telling you that though this is the second time we’ve met in reality you traveled further back in time. The year is no longer 1050 but 1006.”

She blinked rapidly.
“Oh my goodness!”

“Aye,” Adlin said. “I know ‘tis confusing. Time-travel is very much that way. And while the date is earlier I still remember you from the first time you traveled, my future, rather than now.
‘Tis the way of all things magi.”

She frowned. “So when you meet me for the first time in 1050 you won’t remember having seen me now?”

Adlin liked her quick wit. “Oddly enough, now that you’ve traveled to this time I most likely will. It’s somewhat a one-time-experience, if that makes sense.”

“Barely,” she murmured.

“I wish I could explain it better but things in my world dinnae often make sense to mortals.”

“Mortals,” Mildred mouthed silently, as if she was trying to taste the word on her tongue. Yet, the lass had a certain admirable resilience and acceptance about her that made her able to see things clearer than most. “That’d be me I suppose. But I must be some amazing sort of mortal to be caught up in this.”

Though she appeared unable to carry on with her train of thought at first, she speedily regrouped and quite logically said, “So I really did end up traveling back to the wrong time, that’s what you and Iosbail had meant.”

He nodded.
“Aye.
But that is the very least of it. I need you to listen and ken. I need you to know who I
really
am.”

She nodded but said nothing.

So he continued. “As you might have guessed, I’m much older than I look. Though born in Ireland to a king and a Druidess over five hundred years ago I never saw the land but was immediately sent to Scotland to be the first of the MacLomain Clan. My blood is that of the Vikings, my soul that of the Scots. With my ability to harness powerful magic came also the unexplainable inability to age beyond my mid-twenties.”

Mildred’s eyes were round as saucers. Her mouth hung open.

Adlin continued. “I have spent my life building my clan. By doing that I have fathered a few but ensured my clan intermarried with many. It has been my life’s goal to make Clan MacLomain into what is fast becoming the most powerful clan in Scotland. I’ve done this for several reasons, the most important being for their very safety in such a tumultuous time and land.”

Sliding his hand into hers, Adlin offered her comfort via both physical touch and magic. His touch would only sooth her nerves. He let silence rule while she gathered her thoughts.

Eventually she spoke and said the very last thing he expected. “I possess very little magic compared to the rest of my family.”

Adlin looked to the sea specifically because he quickly realized how much courage it’d taken her to say those words. He’d always known exactly how much power she possessed. And it had nothing to do with his feelings toward her. No, his feelings had nothing at all to do with what he’d always thought made up the very core of his being.

Magic.

What existed between he and Mildred was far more potent and impressive than mere magic.

It was love.

But how could he ever tell her that?

She’d never believe it.

Nor would he have before that first dream so many years ago.

Interesting how hard it was to know he had to tell her the truth… to
show
her the truth and risk it all. In a perfect world, she’d remember it all and come into his arms in relief. However, the world wasn’t perfect and twenty years were very few. In the end he knew it was all about fear on his part. Something he hadn’t felt in so very long.

And this type of fear made a man do selfish things.

Adlin turned to Mildred after she declared she had little magic and said, “If you have so little magic then why are you here?”