“Do ye want to marry him?” Lachlan asked. “Do ye really want to marry him, or is that all part of ye coming here from above?”
She stared up at him. A million emotions warred in her face. Then she dropped her gaze to the floor. “No, I guess I don’t really want to marry him. I love him, but I never really questioned marrying him.”
“Then come back with me,” Lachlan breathed. “This could be your only chance to get away.”
For an instant, they stood there breathless. They held hands and gazed into each other’s eyes. Something snapped inside Lachlan’s mind. Everything that had happened, since the moment those vampires first showed up at the Tower House, led up to this moment. He darted forward and kissed her.
Ivy broke away from his lips and gasped. She searched his eyes harder than ever, but the deed was done. Without saying a word, they both turned to the mirror. The ground shook outside the castle. The light dwindled, and something monstrous cast the castle in shadow.
Lachlan didn’t know what to do to activate the mirror, but Ivy did. She jumped and plunged into the mirror’s shimmering depths. It caught her, and she hauled Lachlan in behind her. The next thing he knew, he hurtled back through the portal and opened his eyes on the cool grass under a leafy arbor of trees.
Lachlan looked around him. Ivy lay on the ground at his side, staring up through the flickering leaves at the blue sky overhead. Her cheeks shone as bright and colorful as ever, but she didn’t breathe.
Lachlan laid a hand on her shoulder. “Ivy? Are ye all right, lassie?”
Her eyes shone with moisture, but she didn’t respond. All of a sudden, she flew off the ground. She sucked in a huge lungful of air and collapsed coughing and spluttering and gagging on her side. She rolled onto her knees and retched.
Lachlan touched her back. “Lassie!”
She wheezed and panted for air. She got the words out in between gasps. “I’m… I’m all right… Can’t breathe. Can’t… get any air.”
He waited until the spasm died down. “Ye havnae breathed so long ye must have forgotten how.”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t answer for a moment. When she finished gagging and coughing, she lay still and threw her arm over her eyes. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“Ye have been a long time under the water,” Lachlan replied. “You’ll likely take a time to get used to it.”
She kept shaking her head, but she couldn’t speak for a while.
“Come along with me, lassie,” he told her. “I’ll take ye somewhere safe and warm.”
She cast an eye around the spot. “Do you know where we are? We could be a hundred miles from anywhere.”
“I ken where we are.” He took her hand and helped her to her feet.
She stumbled after him. “Where?”
“We’re no’ far from Tiroran village. We can find a warm meal and a bed there.”
“Where is that?” she asked. “Where exactly are we?”
“We’re on the Isle of Mull,” he replied. “We’re with my Clan. We’ll be safe here.”
That pacified her. Lachlan followed the contour of the land. He knew every molehill of this country, and he found his way to the bare upland moor with no trouble. From there, it was only a few miles trek down to Tiroran.
When the first house came in sight, Ivy drew up. “Maybe…maybe I shouldn’t go down there.”
“And why no’?” he asked. “You’re my guest, and I’m Laird of these lands. They’ll welcome ye as they’ll welcome me. Come.”
She didn’t move. She stared at the thatched cottages and sheds, the stables and pastures beyond. She opened her mouth and closed it without saying anything.
Lachlan studied her. She wore a full-length white gown decorated with a thousand gems of the sea. Shells and coral decorated her hair, but that was all deception. She was one of those strange creatures like Sadie and Elle and Hazel. She belonged to another world. She didn’t understand Mull, and she wouldn’t understand anything about this world.
He flashed back to Sadie when she first arrived at Moy Castle. She looked around her at everything with that same mix of confusion and fear. She didn’t understand, either—not at first.
Lachlan squeezed Ivy’s hand. “Stay here. I’ll find us a place to stay and come back for ye. All right?”
She nodded. He gave her hand one more squeeze, but he might as well have been squeezing a block of ice. She scanned her surroundings, but she didn’t see anything.
He walked away to the cottage and knocked on the door. An old woman answered it, and her eyes flew open when she recognized Lachlan. “My Laird! We didnae expect ye! Come inside, come inside. What’ll ye take? To what do we owe the honor? Wait here by the fire while I fetch Dougie.”
Lachlan resisted the woman’s efforts to draw him into the house. “I’ll no’ trouble ye, Mother. I only came by to tell ye I mean to pass the night in the auld crofter’s lodge down the brae. Tell Dougie, will ye?”
“Of course, me Laird, of course,” she exclaimed. “Only let me come with ye to make up the fire and freshen the linens as the place han’t been used these five years.”
“I’ll manage it, Mother,” he replied. “Ye tell Dougie. That’s all I need. Thank ye for your kind wishes.”
He got away as best he could, but she kept shouting suggestions and admonishments after him when he hurried away. He went back to Ivy and found her fixed to the same spot. He didn’t try to explain anything to her. He guided her to the crofter’s lodge some miles away from Tiroran.
He left the door open and sat Ivy down on the bed where the light shone in from outside. He found a bucket of peat by the fireplace and got a fire going before he shut the door.
He poked the fire with a stick while he waited for the lodge to heat up. The whole thing consisted of a tiny room barely big enough to hold the one bed. The place contained no table, no food, nothing. He couldn’t keep Ivy here, and he had to get her back to the Tower House. Christie and his cousin Clyde would start to worry when Lachlan didn’t return.
Ivy’s voice shattered his reverie. “He won’t stop. He’ll keep coming. You don’t have much time before he attacks you.”
Lachlan didn’t look up. “I ken it.”
“He’ll find a way to attack you even on land,” she went on. “He won’t stay in the ocean. It could get real bad. He’ll be deadlier than ever, now that I’m gone. He’ll blame you for stealing me. He’ll seek revenge for you stopping our wedding. People will die, and it’ll be all my fault.”
Lachlan got to his feet and crossed the room to where she sat. “Hush, lass. Ye dinnae ken that…”
“You don’t know what he’s like.” Her voice rose to a screech. “He’s ruthless with anybody who crosses him or disobeys him. He broods and holds grudges for centuries. He won’t forget this. He’ll send everything he’s got at you.” She jumped to her feet. “I have to go back. I can’t have this on my conscience. I don’t care what I have to do. I made a mistake leaving. I should have just sucked it up and married him. How bad could it really be? I mean, he’s always been nice to me. I could have a good life with him.”
Lachlan put out his hand. “Quiet down now, lassie. Ye left him, and for good reason. Ye didnae wish to marry him. Ye said so yourself.”
“I made a mistake,” she cried. “I can’t be responsible for however many deaths on my head. I’ll go back now. I’ll just walk down that hill to the beach and…”
“You’re no’ going anywhere,” Lachlan interrupted. “Ye left him, and as far as people dying to your account, ye already saved me and Grace, so that’s two ye can put down to the other account as long as we’re keeping track.”
She stared up at him in wonder. Lachlan let out a sigh and put his arms around her. He steered her back down on the bed. “He’ll be angry. I’ll no’ argue with ye about that, but ye left him. Ye wanted to leave, and ye did it. Ye have no reason to go back if ye dinnae want to, and if he attacks us, we’ll fight him. That’s all there
is to it.”
“You can’t fight him,” Ivy replied. “He’s the ocean, for Chrissake.”
Lachlan bit back a smile. “Aye.”
Chapter 7
Ivy woke up in the middle of the night. For an instant, she wasn’t sure where she was. She shivered with cold, even though a fire burned bright and warm only a few feet away. When she looked toward the flames, she saw Lachlan curled up on the stone floor in front of the hearth. All the events from yesterday flooded into her mind.
What was she thinking when she gave her consent to marry Aegir? She didn’t even have to ask. She went into a daze when she traveled to the underwater realm. She stopped thinking. The water put her to sleep. She would have gone along with any suggestion anybody made, including marrying the God of the Sea.
She started to wake up at Grace’s trial. After Ivy sent Grace back to be with Jamie Cameron, Ivy fell under Lachlan’s spell. Now she was here, in the world above once again.
She couldn’t get used to the air touching her skin all over. She couldn’t get warm to save her life. She longed for the comforting embrace of the water where she didn’t have to breathe and she didn’t have to think.
Not even the two times she came above before now prepared her for this. When she visited Lucy and when she warned Lachlan, she never felt the air. The ocean still protected her then. Now she was here. She made an irrevocable choice, and the water would never embrace her like that once more. She would never call the ocean home again.
She rolled onto her side and studied Lachlan. She saw all the same details in him she saw when she watched him through her mirror. His hair, his shoulders and chest expanding with breath, his feet crossed over each other in sleep—he was the same man. Only now did she fully comprehend the consequences of her actions.
She made her choice, not only of one world above another, but of one man above another. Aegir was God of the Sea. He possessed more power and more wealth than any being on the planet. Lachlan was a single man, Chief of a Highland Clan, but what could he do compared to Aegir?
No one could fight Aegir. He would destroy the whole world to get Ivy back, and Lachlan knew it. His remarks last night about fighting Aegir meant he cared. That’s why he said it. He took her away from Aegir, even knowing the consequences.
While she lay there admiring his fine features, his eyes fluttered open. He looked right up at her. Recognition spread over his face, and he launched himself upright. “Aye. You’re awake, then. Good. We can go.”
“Go where?” she asked.
“Back to Lochbuie,” he replied. “We must get ye back to the Tower House afore he realizes where ye are.”
Ivy sat up. “He probably already knows. He’ll come after me. You know that, don’t you?”
“All the more reason to get ye behind thick stout walls with a few sturdy men to defend ye.”
“You can’t defend me. You’ll destroy yourselves trying.”
He pulled the door open, and bright sunshine streamed in from outside. “Stay here. I’ll be back in an instant.”
“Lachlan!” she cried, but he was already gone.
She sank back on the bed. Now what was she going to do? She had no choice but to sit there and wait for him. She glanced down at the dress she wore when he brought her up from the bottom of the ocean. Mud and grime smudged what used to be her pristine gown.
Her heart sank. Aegir always made sure she looked like the Queen he wanted her to be. Who would ensure that, now that she turned her back on him? She would have liked to be a Queen. Now that would never happen.
Lachlan came back. He parked a saddled horse by the door and stepped across the threshold. “Here ye go. Put these on. You’ll be more comfortable in them.”
He handed her a bundle. She unrolled it to find a pair of plain brown pants and a simple linen shirt. “What’s this?”
“I borrowed them from Dougie. I thought you’d be more comfortable wearing these. I have seen how the women of your world dress, and we’ll be riding most of the day. No reason ye should stop in that dress. It’ll only cause ye bother in the end.”
She stared down at the pants. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“I didnae have to, but I did it, so get dressed. As soon as you’re ready to ride, we can go.”
She raised her eyes to his face. She wanted to cry for happiness. How fitting that he of all people should realize. Aegir never once asked what clothes would make her more comfortable. He didn’t care if she was more comfortable in her old clothes. He gave her the clothes he wanted her to wear, and he never asked questions.
She accepted that life of submission to another man’s wishes. That fact shocked her more than anything. She never put herself down as the meek or obedient type. She never questioned Aegir’s authority. She considered herself fortunate to please him.
Now she came face to face with Lachlan. He was a Highlander. He might have been the same sort of man who expected women to do what they were told, but he’d changed. He’d seen too many strong women come from her world. He set his heart on Sadie first. Then he met Hazel and Elle and Grace.
Now he was dealing with Ivy, and he knew what to expect. He stepped outside and shut the door behind him. The light cut off, and she stared down at the pants one more moment by the fire’s glow.
Once she put them on, she would change. She would become something different, something Aegir wouldn’t want to marry anymore. She didn’t know what that would be, but she would change. She felt that in her deepest being.
Did she really want to do that? Did she really want to change into something Aegir would want to destroy? Those pants and that shirt sent their tendrils up her arm. They anchored their distinctive nature in her being. They called her back to the person she was before she got sent to Aegir’s kingdom.
She didn’t hesitate. She ripped the dress off. She broke her corset laces getting them untied and loosened, but she didn’t care. What difference did it make in the end? She would never put the dress back on.
She slipped into the pants and tied the waistband. She tucked the shirt in. Then she used one of the broken corset laces to tie her hair behind her neck.
Now that she changed her clothes, she understood. She didn’t belong to the underwater world. She never had. She belonged above. This world of air and sunshine called on her to be the best Ivy she could be. She could never be that under the ocean.
She stepped outside into the light. Lachlan chuckled when he saw her. “That’s better, isn’t it? I thought so. Now come along. We have a long ride afore us, and no’ many hours of daylight to do it in.” He bent down. “Here. Give us your foot.”
She stepped into his hand, and he swung her up on the horse’s back. Then he mounted up behind her. Once she sat firmly on the horse’s back, the change spread to the rest of her. She always thought of herself as capable of anything she set her mind to. Now she was back there. She was riding this horse across the Scottish Highlands on her way…somewhere.
Lachlan took the reins, and they set off. Ivy settled into the easy rhythm of the horse’s gait. Lachlan’s arms surrounded her, and she relaxed for the first time in weeks. She could appreciate this wild and rugged land. She could enjoy the bracing wind in her face. It tugged her hair free and blew it across her eyes.
Lachlan stopped on a high moor. They slid down to rest the horse, and Lachlan handed her a piece of dried meat. “It’s no much, but it’ll curb your hunger ’til we get to Moy. Of course, the food there isnae what you’re used to, I’m sure, but it’ll keep body and soul together. Sometimes that’s the best ye can do in situations like this.”
“I’m sure it will be wonderful. I forgot how much I loved this world.”
“Ye have been gone a long time,” he remarked. “Ye must be missing your family back home.”
“I visited there not long ago,” she told him. “I had to see someone, so I went back.”
“How did ye do that?” he asked. “Here I thought ye were….”
“I
went through the mirror,” she told him, “the same way I went to see you. I wanted to ask somebody something about…the world below, and the curse and all that. Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
“If ye could go back whenever ye wished,” he asked, “why did ye stay down there?”
“I thought I wanted to marry Aegir. I did want to marry him, right up until…” She broke off.
“Right up until when?” he asked.
Ivy waved her hands. “Never mind. You wouldn’t understand.”
A shadow crossed his face. “Oh. I see.”
“I didn’t mean it like that!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t capable of understanding. I just mean I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. I thought I wanted to marry him right up until I saw you. Grace pointed you out to me in my mirror. That’s when things started to fall apart for me.”
“Ye…saw me? What do you mean?”
She turned away so he wouldn’t see her cheeks burning. “Never mind.”
He let her walk away. He didn’t come after her. He could never feel the same way about her that she felt about him. How could he? He hadn’t been obsessively watching her every move for weeks.
He strode up the hill to where he observed the island all around him. The coastline twisted and contorted through bays and inlets to tiny rocks surrounded on all sides by water.
Ivy followed his gaze. “It really is beautiful here. Is this all really yours?”
“It’s my Clan’s,” he replied. “I’m no’ really in charge. I’m naught but a puppet for every other man’s impulses and demands. That’s all a Laird really is.”
“Still,” she remarked. “It’s a beautiful place. Did you grow up around here?”
“I grew up at Duart,” he replied, “but I spent my younger days all over the Isle. I covered it all with my brothers and my cousins and the men of our Clan. That’s the way it is when ye grow up out here with no one about.”
“It sounds amazing,” she breathed.
“I’m sure ye have a story of your own to tell,” he replied. “Everyone does.”
Sea Queen (Phoenix Throne Book 6): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 5