by Donna Grant
It seemed to take forever before Charon and Laura started toward them. He wanted to reassure Aisley that she could trust Charon, but there was something in the way his friend looked at him that gave Phelan pause.
Unease snaked down his spine. There was recognition in Laura’s eyes as she looked at Aisley.
“Phelan,” Charon said.
Phelan nodded to his friend, then to Laura.
Laura, however, was looking at Aisley. “Hello, Aisley.”
Aisley swallowed twice before she managed a weak, “Hello.”
“You two know each other?” Phelan asked.
Aisley’s fawn-colored eyes were large and filled with tears. “I tried to tell you so many times. It’s why I asked you to take me away from the cabin. I didn’t want to tell you there.”
“Tell me what?” He didn’t like the fear he saw in her eyes or the way her lips trembled as she spoke. Nor did he like the way her magic quaked around him. He also didn’t like the way Charon was looking at her as if she were his next kill.
Aisley jumped when lightning flashed above them followed quickly by thunder. “I thought you knew at first. I thought you’d come to kill me.”
“What?” He was getting more confused as the minutes ticked by. “I thought we’d already been through this. I doona want to kill you.”
“Ask her what her surname is,” Charon said.
Phelan cut him a glare before he turned back to Aisley. He recalled when she had told him she thought he would kill her. At the time he’d thought she was fearful of Warriors. Now he was beginning to suspect something else entirely. “Who are you?”
Tears streamed freely down her face now. “Please understand that I planned to tell you tonight. I had valid reasons.”
“Tell me what, dammit!” he bellowed, uncaring of the looks the passersby gave him.
“I’m drough.”
He gave a snort. “That’s ballocks. I’d know.”
“It’s true,” Charon said. “I can feel her drough magic.”
Phelan looked from Charon to Aisley’s tear-streaked face. Her eyes were filled with regret and sorrow so deep he wanted to pull her into his arms. It was the knowledge that he hadn’t known she was drough that made him step away from her.
“I’m sorry,” she said and tried to cling to him. “I thought when you found me in Glasgow you were going to kill me. You didn’t. You kissed me.” She shook her head as the rain began to fall. “Then you took me to your cabin. I knew then there was a chance I could stop Jason myself, and I knew he was after me. I wanted to see if I could stop Jason before I told you. But not at the cabin. That place is too beautiful to be sullied with my blood.”
“You’re damned right,” he said between clenched teeth. He took another step back and jerked his arms away from her. “I took you to my house. My house! No one has ever seen that. No one even knew of it. You let me make love to you. I told you my secrets! And you betrayed me.”
She jerked with every word that left his mouth. His anger was so great he didn’t care what it caused her. He could barely stand the thought that he had shared his body with a drough.
“I … I know it was wrong. But I went with you because I knew you could keep Jason away until I could fight him. Then, I knew you’d kill me.”
He blinked and recoiled from her. Everyone knew he sought out droughs to kill, but the thought of ending Aisley’s life was too sickening to even consider.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
Phelan shook his head, thankful the rain had sent most people indoors. There were few on the sidewalk to overhear what they were saying. “Just leave.”
“I’m Jason’s cousin.”
Phelan’s eyes closed at her words. Would the hits ever stop coming? When he opened his eyes he looked anywhere but at her. He had made love to a drough. “Get out of my sight. I can no’ even look at you.”
“I can stop Jason. Please,” she begged as she grabbed his arm.
Phelan tugged away from her, which sent her off balance and crashing to her knees on the concrete. He fisted his hand to keep from reaching for her when he smelled the blood from her skinned knees.
Despite all she’d told him, he couldn’t stop his feelings for her. But he must. The idea that he had willingly bedded a drough—and Wallace’s cousin—several times made his stomach roil.
To think he’d considered taking her back to his cabin so they could spend weeks, months together. He was crushed, utterly shattered.
Would there ever come a time someone didn’t betray him?
“Was everything you told me a lie?” he demanded.
She shook her head, her black mane of hair hiding her face. When she looked up at him after settling back on her heels, she said, “No. None of it.”
“You just conveniently left out the part about being Wallace’s cousin and a drough. Even when I asked about the scars on your wrists! Did you get the information you wanted from me?”
“No! I stayed because you asked me to, and because for the first time in my life I’d been given something good.”
“Fuck that. You know how I hate droughs. How could you even look at me?”
“Because I knew in the end you would end my suffering.”
Phelan was so taken aback he couldn’t respond for several seconds. “You want me to believe that your suffering will end with your death? Are you too stupid to realize your torture will only begin once you’re in Hell?”
She got to her feet instead of answering. Blood coated her knees and palms, but she didn’t seem to notice. “It’s your loathing of droughs that I’ve been counting on.”
“Where is Wallace?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit. Where is Wallace?” he shouted.
“I don’t know! I don’t care!”
Aisley watched Phelan’s lips that had kissed her so tenderly and brought her unimaginable pleasure peel back in a sneer. Her heart tore in two at the betrayal she saw in his blue-gray eyes.
She’d known it would be this bad, but she’d hoped she would be the one to tell him on her terms, not have his friends interrupt things.
Regardless, it was done. And it was past time. The weight she thought would be lifted with her secret only grew heavier. She knew that was because of Phelan. It was because of her love for him.
The way he pulled away from her, as if he couldn’t stand to have her near made her heart splinter into a million pieces. She’d just thought she was broken before. Now she truly knew what that statement meant.
He turned and walked away from her without another word. Charon and Laura followed close on his heels. Aisley was left all alone in the rain.
She turned in the opposite direction Phelan had gone and began to wander the streets. There would be no returning to the hotel for her clothes or money. Nothing mattered anymore.
The sound of drums echoed dimly in her mind, but she quickly shut them out. She wanted no part of magic anymore. She wanted no part of anything anymore.
She couldn’t even think of Jason or fighting him, because she didn’t have the strength for it now. Phelan had been her strength. She was as weak as Jason had always claimed.
When she came to the suspension bridge over the River Ness, she stood on the side and looked over the long drop to the water below. If Phelan wouldn’t kill her, she’d have to do it herself.
Aisley let go of the metal and jumped.
A punishing grip on her wrist jerked her to a halt. She looked up into the familiar blue eyes of Jason.
“Hello, cousin,” he said with a terrifying smile.
* * *
Phelan sat on the corner of the bed in the hotel room staring at Aisley’s bag with her clothes hanging out of it and spilling onto the floor.
“What all did you tell her?” Charon asked from his position leaning against a wall.
Phelan shrugged. “Nothing of importance. I told her the story of how Warriors came to be. She’d never heard it. I told her of Deirdre and De
clan.”
“You told her how you were taken, didn’t you?” Laura asked softly.
Phelan nodded and dropped his head into his hands as he leaned forward. How had he not known what Aisley was? “I doona know why I couldna feel her magic was that of a drough.”
When Charon and Laura didn’t respond, Phelan lifted his head to spear Charon with a look. “You know, I bet.”
Charon cleared his throat and glanced at Laura. “I do, but I doona think you want to hear it.”
“Just tell me.”
“You’ve heard all of us speak of how we feel the magic of our mates differently than others.”
Phelan could well imagine the horrified expression on his face. “You think Aisley is my mate?”
“It would explain why you didn’t know she was drough,” Laura answered.
Phelan snorted angrily. “It could be magic she used on me.”
“I don’t think so.” Laura sat beside Phelan. “You were too angry, and rightly so, while Aisley spoke to notice the pain she was going through. She could’ve walked away. She could’ve let me or Charon tell you what she was. Instead, she did. I believe her when she said she was going to tell you.”
Phelan couldn’t wrap his mind around all of it. “It makes sense now why she didna want to leave Skye. She knew I’d find out.”
“Nay,” Charon said. “She knew she was going to tell you. She expected to die.”
“You believe her, too?” Phelan asked as he got to his feet to pace the room.
Charon nodded. “I do. Whatever her motivations for getting close to you, she wasna going to keep her secret. I could see it in her eyes.”
Phelan stopped and dropped his head back to look at the ceiling. “I didna give her a choice. She was in an accident when I felt Wallace’s magic that first time. I was following her. I put her on my bike and drove her to my cabin.”
“Your instinct was to protect her, and I don’t think you were wrong there,” Laura said.
Phelan looked at her and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It’s as I was telling Charon yesterday. Wallace doubted Aisley’s loyalty. He threatened her with something.”
“He cut her,” Phelan said. “Left a nasty scar on her left side. I’ll bet my immortality it was Wallace. She never said, but it makes sense.”
“So maybe she’s innocent.”
Charon walked to sit beside his wife. “Or maybe she isna. Wallace is devious. Who knows what his plan is for any of us?”
“You think it includes Aisley?” Laura asked.
“Without a doubt.”
Phelan wanted to argue in defense of Aisley, but he couldn’t find the words. It didn’t matter what Laura told him that Wallace had done to Aisley.
The simple matter that she and Wallace were linked by blood sealed her fate. She’d been right in thinking he would kill her. He should have.
He would.
Whenever he saw her again.
Phelan squeezed his eyes closed when he felt a spike of fear in her magic. His first instinct was to run to her. It was only by sheer will alone that he remained rooted to his spot.
He was only able to breathe again when her magic faded completely. It had diminished steadily but quickly. Had she stolen a car and left Inverness?
The idea that she might be dead was one he couldn’t even contemplate. Phelan focused on where she might have gone. Anything to stop the awful emptiness that filled his chest like the deepest winter.
He didn’t want to think about Aisley or her treachery. Zelfor bellowed for vengeance deep in Phelan’s mind. Battle was what he needed. Blood and death coating his hands and the ground. That would stop the desolation he felt.
“Wallace attacked her on Skye,” he said to fill the silence. “I thought he was after me at the time.”
“Was he after her?” Charon asked.
Phelan shook his head. “Nay. I think it was a ploy to get me to feel deeper for her.”
“Wait,” Laura said. “Aisley mentioned fighting Jason herself.”
Phelan snorted. “Doona believe it. Wallace is around. I think it’s time we found him.”
CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE
“We need to call Fallon,” Charon said.
Phelan knew he would eventually have to go to the castle, but he wasn’t ready. Looking at Isla would only make him think of Aisley.
For all of them, it was better if he stayed away for the time being.
“I need to do something other than sit around a damned hall talking. I need to find Wallace.”
Laura began to pick up Aisley’s clothes and neatly fold them before putting them in her duffle. “You don’t even know where to find Wallace. You’ve been looking for months.”
“Have I?” he asked sarcastically. “I’m no’ so sure I was. I was more concerned with Aisley. She led me on a merry chase while Wallace did whatever he did.”
Charon leaned his hands back on the bed. “Broc has been trying to locate Wallace since the battle. Wallace hasna been anywhere to be found. You and Malcolm searched for months. Even Fallon, Lucan, and Quinn snuck out of the castle at night to search. No one has found anything. I doona believe Wallace was here.”
“Where has he been then?”
“That I doona know. You and I left Cairn Toul and never looked back. I snapped Deirdre’s neck with my own hands. She was dead. Her body was destroyed, but no’ her essence. She was able to come back. I think Wallace has done the same thing.”
Laura walked out of the bathroom with Aisley’s toiletry bag. “I really don’t like hearing that. Will Jason be the same or different if he comes back?”
“That’s a big if,” Phelan said. “We doona know if Wallace died.”
“On Skye, tell me what happened when Aisley was attacked,” Charon urged.
Phelan hated the way his friend was watching him as if he were looking for any cracks in his armor. “It was similar to what happened when I was following her. I felt a wave of drough magic. It was unmistakably Wallace’s.”
“Wait,” Laura said. “Back up and tell us about the first time you felt Wallace.”
“I did.” Phelan raked a hand through his hair and briefly squeezed his eyes shut. “I’d been following Aisley for weeks. It’s true what she said. I kissed her at a club. I knew she was a Druid, but I didna sense black magic about her. I kissed her, she asked me what I was doing, and then ran off. I trailed her after that hoping to get close to her.”
He paused, hating himself for being duped. Again. And by another drough. “She was on her way out of Scotland when I felt Wallace. I was several cars behind her. Her car swerved and she was hit by the car behind her.”
“She swerved?” Laura asked.
Phelan struggled to find any measure of patience. “Aye.”
“Why did she swerve? Was there a car in front of her?”
“Nay.”
Charon sat up and turned his head to his wife. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Jason may have been trying to get to Aisley. She maybe felt him and it surprised her enough that she jerked the wheel of her car.”
Phelan bit back a smirk. He wasn’t sure why Laura was trying to find the good in Aisley. There was no good. A drough was evil to the core of its black soul. They could wield magic with barely a thought and make people do anything they wanted.
Charon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “What happened after the wreck?”
“I knew it was Wallace, and I feared he might come for her because of me,” Phelan explained. “So I put her on my motorbike and got the hell out of there.”
“Did anything like that happen again?” Laura asked, some emotion Charon couldn’t name shining in her eyes.
He leaned back against the wall. “On Skye. We were hiking to look for the Druids when Wallace’s magic slammed into me. It was stronger than before. I expected an attack. Instead, I heard Aisley scream.”
“What happened?” Charon asked.
Phelan
closed his eyes and remembered seeing the blood run down her arm, the panic that had gripped him. “She was cut deeply on her left arm, and then it was as if something knocked her over the side of the cliff. I caught her and pulled her up, and she had more injuries than I realized.”
“You healed her,” Laura stated into the silence that followed.
He opened his eyes and nodded. “Aye. I healed her.”
“Was she frightened?” Charon shrugged at Phelan’s look. “It’s a valid question.”
“She was. I thought it was because Wallace was trying to get to me through her. Now I think it was because she went over the side of the cliff.”
Laura crossed her arms over her chest. “No. Aisley wanted to die. It wasn’t her near death that frightened her.”
“And you would know how?” Phelan demanded. “Do you know something about her I doona?”
Charon got to his feet and stood between them. “Laura thinks when Wallace captured her that Aisley looked … well, lost.”
“Dale protected her,” Laura added.
Phelan frowned. “The Warrior Wallace had? He protected Aisley?”
“Yes. I think he cared for her.”
He didn’t like hearing that someone else had watched over her. Despite his hatred, he couldn’t stop what he felt for her, convincing liar or not. “It doesna matter now. None of it does. She knows who we need to stop the selmyr. Or more importantly, she knows how to stop us from wiping out the selmyr.”
Charon blew out a deep breath. “Shite. It’s time to call Fallon.”
In two strides Phelan stood in front of his friend, his hand covering Charon’s mobile. “Nay.”
“Why? It’s going to take all of us. You know that, my friend.”
“I need to know what Aisley has done before anyone else gets involved. Wallace already tried to get Laura. I’ll not be responsible for other Druids hurt or dead because my cock led me to Aisley.”
Several tense minutes ticked by before Charon gave a nod and pocketed his mobile. “All right. Where do we begin?”
“The Internet café we were at earlier. I thought we were both searching for the same thing. I doona think so now.”