Silent Vows (31 page)

****

By the time the sisters tapped into Grainna’s mind, it was over. The girl, sprawled on the bed, lay dead. Steel bent over Grainna, his hand on her back.

He spoke to her, but Myra couldn’t hear his words.

Steel kept looking around the room, obviously spooked by something.

“The curse is broken.” Amber’s shaky voice said what they all knew.

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They watched as Grainna sat up from her crouched position and walked to the only mirror in the room. Slowly her head rose, her gaze swept over her reflection.

A startled gasp came from the women. Grainna stood strong and tall, her hair jet black, her skin a creamy white, her body perfectly shaped. Her eyes pierced her own reflection with lashes that swept the flawless features of her face.

She was stunning. Any woman would find fault in her own appearance if they compared themselves to her.

“There is nothing we can do.” Myra opened her eyes.
Her curse is broken. Oh, Todd.

“Cian, Simon, catch Tara when we let go.”

Amber’s shaky voice rang out. “We close our circle for this night, thank you for the Ancients’

sight.”

Once on the ground floor, they planned their next move.

“I knew this was going to happen,” Lizzy declared.

“Did you have a vision?”

She grunted. “No, just a gut instinct.”

“Yeah, I knew it, too.” Tara rubbed her backside.

The continual jolt to the floor, even with the men catching her couldn’t be helping her discomfort.

“What do we do now?”

“The Ancients said we are chosen to fight the war against evil.”

“She said the war was just beginning,” Simon reminded them.

“I didn’t like the sound of that myself.” Lizzy sat next to her son. “Is Grainna really so powerful? I mean, there are what...eleven of us, and only one of her. Our odds are better.”

“Two, she has that man with her.”

“Still, our numbers are greater.”

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“But Todd is not Druid,” Myra pleaded. “He has no powers to wield.”

“Todd was a cop and a good one from what I could tell.” Lizzy shot her a reassuring grin.

“Grainna has regained her powers. The powers of every Druid she has killed over her many years. It is us who are outnumbered.” Lora’s empty stare tossed what hope they had gained out the window.

“We should call the men back.”

“I agree.”

“Nay!” Lora broke her blank look, demanded the attention of everyone in the room. “Our fight begins tomorrow. Whether we go to her or she comes to us, it begins. Running is not the answer.”

“Lora’s right.” Tara stood, started to pace. Her pregnant belly led the way. “We don’t want her here.

I say we turn in early so we’re fresh and focused in the morning. Lora? Let’s contact the men. Let them know what’s happened.”

Lora paused, creased her eyes and asked, “Are you okay?”

Tara rubbed her stomach. “I’m tired. Junior here hasn’t given me much rest this last week.”

“Let’s wrap this up then and get you to bed.”

Lizzy moved away from her son.

Lora took Tara’s hand, within minutes Tara was led to her room.

“Stay with her tonight,” Myra heard Lora tell Amber. “Her time is coming.”

Amber nodded, smiled at her mother, and then left the room.

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Chapter Twenty-Three

Morning arrived and the fog lifted over the land, a hint of a Scotland spring slipping into summer was in the air. The horses breathed massive amounts of air as their lungs struggled against the pace their masters drove them to.

None of them had slept after the news that Grainna had regained her youth, her powers.

The world passed Todd by at an alarming speed.

Not the speed of his Mustang at eighty miles per hour, but a single horse galloping over the lush hills of a land he only knew existed on a map until months ago.

His thoughts, as he plunged toward God only knew what, were of Myra. She waited for his return from this feeble attempt at ridding the world of an evil he didn’t know about until Myra fell out of the sky. Now, beside his recent father-in-law and two brothers-in-law, he rode to a destiny he couldn’t help but think would be his end.

Never before in all his years on the force did he feel dread and uncertainty cover his soul, his heart.

Was that because with Myra he suddenly had something to live for? Or was it a premonition of what his fate was going to be? Were they destined to be a fleeting pass of souls amounting to nothing more then a few nights of passion?

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He glanced at Duncan. His wife waited at home with a baby only days away from being born, his face set in a determined look of a man destined to fight.

Fin, always jovial and full of life, sat poised and stern on his horse. Occasionally he would glance to one side or the other and pass a grin. Cocky.

Careless.

Todd recognized the look. He sported one before he cared if he survived the battle. Then he would catch Fin when he didn’t think anyone noticed. That expression was altogether different.

Ian perhaps had the most weight on his back, the most to lose of all of them. A father, a husband, a Laird of an entire land, he might not have been the King of Scotland but the outcome of this battle weighed on him as if he were fighting for an entire country.

Todd was the low man on the totem pole and he knew it. He knew these men had him hand over fist when it came to fighting medieval style, but he rode alongside them, hoping, praying he would come out of this alive.

Ian held up his gloved hand. They halted their horses at his command.

Ian hopped off his mount, reached to the ground and picked up a handful of soil. Todd watched him toss the rock-encrusted dirt. Instead of landing several feet away, the dirt stopped midair, scattered in a vertical sheet, and dropped in a line on the ground at their feet.

A barrier, invisible and completely undetectable, separated them from where Grainna had built her fortress.

“What the hell?” Fin exclaimed.

Ian glanced at the sky where his falcon soared, beyond the obstacle Grainna had set. He called to the bird and brought him back.

“Now what?”

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****

“What do they see?” Simon asked from outside the circle.

“There is an invisible wall keeping them from going further.”

Lora sat in the circle with the women, hands clutched. Ian spoke to her.

They attempted to get into the mind and eyes of Grainna earlier in the morning, but her renewed power proved too great. Even Steel held more power than they expected. Their attempts with him proved futile.

“How the hell is this going to work?” Liz released her breath in disgust.

Cian signaled to Simon. “You need to attempt a connection. The Ancients told us we need to use all our powers to win.”

Simon shook his head. “They are so far away.

How can I?”

“You have to try!”

Lizzy opened her eyes. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing!” Simon sent a shy glance at Cian. “I mean, I don’t...”

“How will you know if you don’t try?” Cian pleaded.

Simon’s eyes passed between his mother and his friend. “I need to come into the circle.”

“What?”

“The circle. Open it and let me in.”

“Simon.” Lizzy sighed. “This is not the time.”

“Elizabeth.” Myra jolted at her younger brother’s tone. Cian spoke like Fin. “Simon can help. He has the ability to see through the eyes of animals. If the falcon is crossing her barrier, then we can use Simon’s gift. Let him in and close the circle.”

It wasn’t a request. His voice of conviction didn’t go unnoticed by any of them. He didn’t expect his 276

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words to be ignored.

They all witnessed the moment Cian became a man, or at the very least, the kind of man he would become. An overwhelming sense of pride swelled in Myra’s chest.

Once inside, Simon held hands with the others, his face serious. His hands trembled. “Think of the falcon,” Simon instructed them.

They closed their eyes.

****

They all watched the falcon. Todd waited for Ian to report back from the women.

His father-in-law gasped in disbelief.

“What is it?”

“Simon is trying to call to the bird.”

“Simon?” Fin asked.

“Aye.”

The falcon circled, obviously distressed. Its eyes darted between Ian and Fin. Then, without warning, it dived, landed purposely on Finlay’s shoulder.

Fin flinched, immediately turning his head away, the razor sharp beak only inches from his eyes, its talons clenching to hold its balance.

As quickly as it perched it left, taking to the sky, and circled the men before disappearing behind the invisible wall.

“What the hell?”

“Sonofabitch.”

****

“Do you sense the animal?” Cian asked Simon, but the women answered yes.

Simon saw through the eyes of the bird. The ground was terribly far down. He stretched his fingers in the palms’ of his mother and Amber, and felt the pinch of talons touching his skin. His sight grew sharper than it had ever been before. He could see the smallest of animals scurrying below.

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desire to hunt, instead he followed Simon’s will.

He found a perch in a tree overlooking the yard where men gathered and horses were readied.

Grainna stood in the center of the yard, her sphere of glass stood on a podium, unobstructed, with the sun catching its beauty and casting a shower of iridescent light in a perfect circle.

One of the horses, troubled by the rider who was attempting to mount him, skipped close to the podium. Grainna threw up her hand, knocking the rider off the horse. “Get that beast back!”

She studied the glass. Simon swooped down but stayed out of sight. Inside the sphere, he saw Fin and the others. Ian’s hand lay against the barrier, his back pushed into it, attempting to move the unmovable.

“She is watching the men, through her crystal ball,” Simon told the others in the room.

“Can you see how she is holding them back?”

“No, but I think it has something to do with the sun on the crystal ball. She keeps yelling at the men to stay back.”

“You can hear her?”

“Yeah, hey, Myra, didn’t you say that your dad could shoot lightning out of his fingers or thoughts?”

Simon moved the falcon to a higher perch, and stifled the cry of the animal.

“He can.”

“If her crystal ball is gone, than maybe Grainna won’t be able to see them. That’s gotta help, right?”

“It couldn’t hurt.”

“Lora, tell Ian to aim the lightning about…”

Simon studied the ground beneath the falcon, “about twenty feet beyond the wall and toward the sun.” He hoped his calculation was right.

Simon pivoted the falcon’s neck. The falcon’s perch made it easy for Simon to see both Fin and the others as well as Grainna. He glanced at Ian who 278

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nodded when Lora repeated his instructions.

Ian opened his arms. “We’re going to get a little wet.”

A smile crested Simon’s face despite the butterflies circling his stomach.

Thunder rumbled above him. The falcon and the horses started to spook. Simon wanted to reach out to the animals and settle them, but when he tried, he felt his grip on the falcon loosen. He stayed firmly planted inside the winged weapon and watched.

Todd, who leaned against the invisible force field, slipped and fell.

Simon heard a scream inside Grainna’s court.

He swiveled and witnessed Grainna wave her hands franticly, and those inside the courtyard flee to the edges. “Grainna’s hold is breaking, tell Ian to increase the clouds.”

The lightning rent the air with a loud crack.

Simon jumped and the falcon cried.

Simon saw the powerful light miss its mark.

“More toward the sun, three feet.”

“Three feet to the sun,” Lora said aloud.

The bolt was closer but still missed. The courtyard was in a panic. Grainna swirled around, searching.

Large droplets of water started falling from the sky. “Half a foot more,” Simon yelled above the noise of the storm surrounding the falcon.

The thunder roared; the crack of lightning stretched over the sky. Sensing what was happening a fraction too late, Grainna turned to her sphere in an attempt to move it out of harm’s way. Instead, she witnessed it shatter into a thousand pieces.

“Yeah! Woo-hoo!” Simon screamed, bringing his hands in the air, clutched to the others.

The falcon screeched, with Simon’s cry.

Grainna turned instantly in his direction.

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“Oh, crap!”

“Simon!” His mother scolded.

“I need cover.” Simon ignored his mom, told the beast to move. He felt his own pulse pumping with the adrenalin of the bird. Another bolt of lightning distracted those on the ground, but Grainna’s eyes followed Simon inside the falcon. She bellowed for Steel.

Once the falcon safely landed back on Ian’s outstretched arm, Simon opened his eyes.

Liz focused on her son and gasped in alarm. His eyes had changed shape like those of a falcon, piercing and keen. The grey color swirled with a mix of blue. The effect was startling. Inhuman.

It took several blinks before they returned to normal.

“How?” Liz asked in awe.

“Well...”

“We don’t have time for explanations. Simon, what did you see?” Lora redirected them.

****

Steel watched through the eyes of a hawk, Grainna at his side, twisting her hands and pacing.

“The brothers come from the west.”

“The others?”

“I don’t see them.”

“Find them!” She stormed out of the room. The first soldiers she came across she ordered to intercept Fin and Duncan. They scrambled out of her way to do as she commanded. Seconds later, they rode out of the yard in the direction she pointed.

She opened her arms to the sky, a roar of thunder was so loud it shook the bricks of the walls.