by Donna Grant
Aisley grew dizzy when she put pressure on her injured hands to steady her. Slowly she moved her legs so that her knees were underneath her.
She blinked and focused on her fingers. That’s when she saw the dark trail of blood that ran down her arm and over her hand to pool on the ground.
“Mummy!”
Aisley tried to send magic to Gillian to bring her, but Jason was too powerful. Even with his concentration on the Warriors, Aisley couldn’t get to him.
* * *
Phelan saw the blood running down Aisley’s arm. But what sent a shock through him was the child screaming for her. It couldn’t be possible though. Aisley’s daughter had died when she was just hours old.
“That’s the other magic I feel,” Phelan said as it all began to make sense.
He expected Aisley to run to her daughter, but it was taking her an obscene amount of time just to climb to her feet. Had Malcolm’s hit hurt her more than he realized?
Phelan started to go to her when he remembered who she was—what she was. Instead, he turned his attention to helping Aiden get free of the drough holding him.
It was almost too easy. Aiden had already caught her off guard, and it took little effort on Phelan’s part by altering the drough’s perception of the world for Aiden to get away.
Instead of disappearing into the forest as Phelan expected him to do, Aiden went to Aisley.
Phelan turned away from the scene and focused once more on Wallace. His fellow Warriors weren’t putting the full force of their powers into the attack because Wallace held the toddler.
If they were going to get anywhere, Phelan would have to remove the child from Wallace. Maybe then he could get off a clear shot at Wallace, ending it all.
Or would it end it?
There would still be Aisley.
CHAPTER
FIFTY-ONE
Aisley yelped in pain when a large hand gripped her upper arm painfully and yanked her to her feet. The blood ran quicker down her arm. She lifted her head to find Aiden’s angry green gaze directed at her. “If you’re going to kill me, do it.”
His forehead creased in a frown. “Kill you?”
“I begged Phelan to do it. Did he send you?”
“I want to know why you lied to Wallace.”
She weakly tried to pull away. Now that she was standing she could get to Gillian. “I didn’t know anything. He wouldn’t have believed that, however. I had to tell him something.”
“You knew what we were working on. You were part of the attack on Britt in Edinburgh.”
Aisley’s shallow breathing still didn’t combat the pain of her ribs. “Jason knew she was helping you. That’s all the incentive he needed to want her dead. Now, if you aren’t going to kill me, then let me get to my daughter.”
“She’s no’ real.”
Aisley shook her head, not caring how it pulled the torn muscles in her back. “She is. He brought her back.”
“I can see her, but she’s no’ real. He’s using it to get to you. Help us, Aisley.”
“You don’t understand.”
He gave her arm a squeeze. “Tell me you doona love Phelan.”
“I … I can’t.”
“Then help us. Get your daughter so we can fight Wallace.”
Aisley pulled her arm out of his grasp. “Get to your family before Wallace sees you.”
“If he finds out you let me go, he’ll kill you.”
“I’m dead anyway. I’ve known it for months now.”
A muscle twitched in Aiden’s jaw. “Does the surname Murray mean anything to you in regards to the selmyr?”
Aisley blinked, not able to hide her surprise. It was only thanks to her mother’s obsessive hobby of learning their family tree that Aisley knew her great-great grandmother’s maiden name had been Murray.
“You do,” Aiden said.
Aisley gave him a push. “Get away while you can.”
“The selmyr have been spotted close. They’ll be coming,” he said before he faded into the dark of the forest.
She turned back to Jason when Gillian screamed. Part of her daughter’s hair was burned from a fireball. As long as he kept Gillian with him, the Warriors wouldn’t attack as they should.
Damn Jason for putting her child at risk.
Aisley closed her eyes and called to every last bit of magic she had within her. It pulsed and grew until she could feel it swirl around her.
Then she opened her eyes and held out her arms to Gillian. “Come,” she said at the same instant she directed magic at Jason’s back.
It propelled him to the side, giving Gillian enough time to get free and run to her. Aisley smiled as her daughter’s little legs ran as fast as they could toward her.
“Nay!” Jason bellowed.
Aisley once more found herself on her back from Jason’s magic. She turned her head to look for Gillian, but she was gone. Only the pink ribbon that fluttered slowly to the ground remained.
All around her magic, fire, water, and lightning flew. The ground shook and cracked at Jason’s feet. Somehow his magic was being thrown back at him. Mixed in was the magic of the Druids who hurled their own volleys at him.
But Aisley felt none of it. The grief that tore through her was just as raw, just as visceral as it had been the day Gillian died in her arms.
She’d held it all in then. She wouldn’t now.
The scream welled in her chest until she had no choice but to let it out.
* * *
Phelan used his power to constantly shift Wallace’s perception of the trees so he wouldn’t know where the attacks were coming from.
The scream that tore from Aisley reached all the way to Phelan’s soul. He felt her grief and anger. He heard the anguish and heartrending sorrow.
Her hand was still outstretched where the toddler had been running to her. Jason had killed the lass.
Phelan shut his mind and heart off to Aisley’s pain and concentrated on helping his friends. Wallace was so confident no one would attack at his back that when the opportunity came, Phelan jumped from his spot to land in the clearing.
Off to his right was Aisley. She was struggling to get to her feet again. To his left was Wallace, a smile of victory on his face.
“No’ for long,” Phelan murmured.
Without turning around, Wallace broadsided him with a burst of magic that pinned him against a tree. Phelan bellowed and struggled against the hold, but he couldn’t shake loose.
Then a knife near Wallace’s feet rose in the air. Its blood-coated blade was pointed right at his heart. Phelan barely had time to prepare himself before the blade flew at him.
Aisley’s magic swarmed around him. The blade swerved. Instead of hitting his heart, it sank into his arm.
“No.”
The word was spoken calmly, quietly by Aisley in the chaos of battle. She was on her feet but swaying. Blood dripped from both hands, and it looked as if her black shirt was wet on the back.
Jason glanced over his shoulder at her. “I’ll get to you in a moment, you treacherous bitch.”
“No.”
Phelan sucked in a breath as Aisley’s magic, beautiful and erotic, brushed against him again. He couldn’t believe she was going to attack Jason.
With one hand held out toward his attackers, Wallace used some kind of defense to ricochet anything directed at him as he faced Aisley. Phelan understood then that Wallace had been playing with them. He could take them out at any time.
“Were the past couple of days no’ enough for you?” Wallace demanded of Aisley. “Shall I do more?”
“You’ve done all you can.” Aisley visibly swallowed and blinked as if to clear her vision. “You took her away.”
Jason smirked. “As if I’d have let your darling daughter remain. I used her to have you fight for me.”
A lone tear stole down Aisley’s face. Phelan could see the tracks of earlier tears in the smudges of dirt, but that one tear touched him as nothing else could.
>
“I had a visitor yesterday. Satan,” Aisley said.
Wallace laughed. “I doona believe you.”
Phelan felt the drough blood rushing through his body, but it wasn’t as debilitating as before. Britt’s serum seemed to be working.
“He wants you dead, Jason. It seems you came back from the dead, along with more magic, without any aid from him. He’s not happy. He wanted me to take your place. He offered to give me the magic to kill you.”
Phelan was proud of the way Aisley stood so bravely and composed in front of Wallace. But a niggle of worry wouldn’t let go while he listened to her speak of Satan as if she always traded conversations with him.
Had Wallace pushed Aisley past the breaking point by killing her daughter?
“You lie,” Wallace said, though his voice lacked the conviction of his words.
Aisley shook her head. “I’m not. Satan said all I had to do was pray to him.”
“I didna come back from that awful void for this! It was only because of my need for retribution against you that I’m here at all. You were family, Aisley. I was never supposed to doubt you.”
She shrugged, the lines bracketing her mouth telling Phelan how much that small movement pained her. “In the words of Justin Timberlake, cry me a river.”
* * *
Joy spread through Aisley as she watched Jason’s cool façade crumble. His angry bellow only made her smile. She welcomed the magic he directed at her. It would end her life and her suffering.
The smile died when Jason didn’t direct the blast at her, but instead lobed it at Phelan.
Aisley watched as Phelan’s face contorted in pain. He was already pinned to the tree by Jason’s magic.
“I’ve already taken away your daughter,” Jason said with a malicious grin. “Shall I kill Phelan as well?”
She saw him lift his hand, saw the magic swirling in an orb that grew by the second. Aisley didn’t think, just reacted. The pain of her injuries was forgotten as she raced toward Phelan.
Jason reared back his hand and let loose the magic. Aisley dove in front of Phelan and took the impact of the blast. Her breath was knocked from her as she slammed into the ground.
“Selmyr!” someone shouted.
She could feel the life draining from her. Aisley wanted to look at Phelan, but she couldn’t turn her head. She suspected her back was broken along with all the bones barely mended.
Jason forgot about the MacLeods and turned all his magic onto the approaching gray mist that moved so quickly across the sky that Aisley could barely keep up with it.
Aiden had been right. All the magic they used had done nothing but call out to the selmyr.
“Murray,” she whispered.
Corann had told them only the Druids of the bloodline would know the spell. She wasn’t sure she could because she was drough, but she was their only chance.
It wasn’t her life she was trying to save, but Phelan’s and the people he considered family. If she wasn’t from the bloodline nothing would be lost. If she was, she could end the selmyr.
Aisley concentrated on her magic. It took her three tries because of the agony of her body before she thought she imagined the sound of drums. She needed them now, needed someone to help her.
The mist filled the clearing before it faded away, leaving the frightening, lanky, white-skinned monsters she knew she would never forget.
Jason didn’t use a bubble of magic like last time. He ran away like the coward he was.
Aisley would’ve laughed had she been able to. Thankfully, Warriors poured out of the forest and began attacking the selmyr, ripping their spines from their bodies.
But they weren’t coming away unscathed. The selmyr were quick and there were too many of them. For every one a Warrior killed, ten more were biting him.
She had to somehow find the spell in her subconscious. Unless Corann lied and there was nothing that could stop the selmyr.
But that couldn’t be. He had given them a surname. Phelan found where it had changed, and then Aiden discovered her great-great grandmother’s maiden name. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
Aisley saw a flash of gold and caught sight of Phelan as he delved into the fray. There was so much she wanted to say to him. He wouldn’t listen, and she didn’t expect him to. Not after keeping who she was a secret.
She took a few seconds and watched him move with speed and efficiency, his beautiful gold skin shining in the sunlight. His bellow would make any Highlander proud, as would the way he rushed into the battle with his gold claws swinging and his fangs bared.
He glanced at her, and she stared into the gold eyes of his god. The metallic color went from corner to corner, but she knew he was looking at her. Then he turned away.
All she could do for him now was protect him and his family. Aisley pushed aside the pain wracking her body and listened for the drums.
* * *
When Wallace ran away, Phelan was free of his magic. He pulled out the knife and let it drop to the ground as he stood beside Aisley, looking down at her broken body, unsure of what to do.
It was the selmyr coming toward her that propelled him into action. He leaped over her and rushed by the creature, reaching around to grab its spine as he did.
The feel of his claws sinking into the selmyr’s skin and the feel of its spine ripping out of its body made Phelan smile. Until six more selmyr started toward Aisley.
He stood between her and them. There was no way he was going to allow them to touch a single hair on her head.
Phelan bellowed as a selmyr sank its fangs into his shoulder. He elbowed the creature off while he kicked another in the head. Phelan spun and thrust his hands into the backs of two selmyr before he jerked his arms back, their spines in his hands.
He looked down to see Aisley’s eyes closed, but her magic was still there. That’s the only thing that kept him going.
CHAPTER
FIFTY-TWO
There was a huge explosion of magic that made Aisley’s eyes fly open. The selmyr hovered over the clearing in their gray mist, as if waiting to begin their smorgasbord.
“Aisley.”
Her skin tingled at the sound of Phelan’s voice so close. She bit back a cry as agony swallowed her when he rolled her onto her back, supporting her in his arms as he sat on the ground.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, noting he tamped down his god and all that glorious gold skin was gone. “For everything.”
His blue-gray eyes held no emotion. “You saved me.”
“I couldn’t watch you die.”
“The child?”
She glanced away. “My daughter.”
“Created with Wallace’s magic,” Aiden said as he knelt near Aisley’s feet. “I heard everything.”
“I need to speak to your Druids.”
Phelan shook his head. “In a moment. You’re injured. Tell me where so I can heal you.”
He didn’t let her answer before a gold claw cut open his wrist and his blood dripped into what she suspected was a rather nasty wound in her gut. The pain was ebbing away. It cleared her mind, but she knew it had nothing to do with Phelan’s blood and everything to do with the fact she was dying.
“We don’t have long,” said a female from out of Aisley’s line of sight, her voice clipped with anxiety.
Aisley swallowed. “I need to talk to them, Phelan.”
He gave a nod and several more faces came into view. She knew who they were from the red book Declan had created and Jason had used. Yet, she’d never met any of them except for Laura.
“It will take the magic of every Druid here. Do you have anything to contain the selmyr?” she asked.
Phelan’s gaze jerked to her face. “You know who can perform the spell?”
“Yes.”
A moment later Fallon stood behind Phelan holding a wooden box. “This is what they were in originally.”
“Perfect,” she said. It still held magic from the first time, so it would do wonderf
ully to trap the selmyr.
Phelan’s grip on her tightened. “Why is your wound no’ healing?” he asked angrily.
Aisley placed her hand over his arm and the cut that had already healed. “I wanted to tell you who I was from the beginning. But being with you made me happier than I’ve ever been. I was selfish to take that time and lie to you.”
“Nay,” he said with a shake of his head, his dark hair falling on either side of his face. He jerked his head around. “Sonya! I need Sonya!”
Aisley knew her time was short. Unimaginable torture awaited her in Hell but being in Phelan’s arms made it easier to bear.
“Who can contain the selmyr?” Charon asked.
Aisley swallowed as tears gathered. She couldn’t look away from Phelan. He was all that was handsome and good and brave. She hated to leave him, but by doing so she would save him and the others.
It was Aiden who answered for her. “She’s the one.”
Phelan brushed her hair away from her face. “That can no’ be. Corann said the spell would likely claim the Druid’s life.”
“I’m already dead,” she told him.
“I can save you.”
“No. It’s what I tried to tell you. Jason made sure of that. No amount of magic, or even your amazing blood, can help me.”
Phelan felt as if the weight of the world rested on his chest. He couldn’t draw breath, couldn’t wrap his head around what Aisley was telling him.
“What did he do?”
Her smile was sad. “A spell to prevent anyone but him from healing me.”
“It’s just one wound,” Sonya said as she hurried up. “We should be able to combine our magic and get past Jason’s.”
Phelan knew by the way Aisley wouldn’t meet his gaze that it was more than one wound. “What did he do to you?”
“Tortured her,” Aiden said. “Bringing her to the brink of death. Repeatedly. He said he’d do the same to me once he won this battle.”
Phelan couldn’t wait to get his hands on Wallace. He was going to flay the skin from his body an inch at a time.
“I’m running out of time,” Aisley said.
He looked around helplessly. “There has to be a way.”