Throwing down his sword, Conall leapt off his horse and ran to Innes. Her body lay against the panting, bloodied wolf. Her head rested against his heart.
“Conall,” she said softly. “The leader. He has the stones.”
“Never mind that, my love. Let me look at you.”
Blood was flowing freely from the gaping hole beneath her breast, and his soul withered within him. He’d seen such wounds before. He knew that she . . . he knew . . .
She turned weakly to clutch at the wolf’s fur. “Thunder. He saved me.” She looked back at him. “You saved me.”
Bryce was shouting as he ran up to them. “Alexander has gone after Evers. He has two boats on the beach, but . . .” He stopped and then murmured. “Oh, God.”
Conall didn’t look up at his brother. His eyes were fixed on his beloved. Her face was growing more ashen with each passing moment, her breathing growing shallower.
A figure suddenly appeared and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Let me help,” Kenna said gently, kneeling down beside him.
Innes looked up at the face of the brown-haired woman silhouetted against the sky. She didn’t know her, but she was offering her help.
Innes had known severe pain in the past, touching others. But this was different. With this stab wound, the metal drove through her, taking her breath away, making her vision grow suddenly sharp. This time there was no possibility of taking her hand away and finding relief. This was death.
She continued to caress Thunder. His blood and hers were soaking the sandy ground beneath them. She wanted to talk. She wanted to pretend that she was fine, for Conall’s sake, but she couldn’t. Her lifeblood had once filled a jar, but this wound cracked the vessel, and her time on earth was draining away. Others moved around her, but she couldn’t see them. She didn’t have enough strength to turn around. She was losing her ability to focus. The end was here. Death was upon her.
“I’m Kenna MacKay,” the woman whispered, crouching down next to her.
Innes heard Conall’s voice. “Tell me what to do.”
“Hold her. Comfort her.”
He sat himself behind her, pulling her gently against his chest. She saw Thunder try to lift his head. The wolf looked briefly at his master before laying his head back down.
“Do I know you?” Innes asked the woman.
“Nay, but we’re sisters, of sorts.” Kenna took her hand, and their skin immediately warmed. The sensation ran between their fingers, and she saw into Kenna’s mind.
“You,” she said. “The healing stone. But you’ve lost it, too.”
“We’ll talk about that later. First, let me see to you.”
“Thunder. The wolf.” She caressed the animal lying by her. “You cannot let him die.”
“I’ll help him if I can. But for now, close your eyes.”
Conall’s lips brushed against her hair, her temple. He whispered words of love and encouragement in her ear. Innes pressed her face against his heart, listening to the strong beat.
“I love you,” she whispered. “The few days we’ve had together have been the happiest of my life.”
“And we have the rest of our lives, my love.”
Kenna’s fingers skimmed over Innes’s wound. With feathery touches, she moved her hand around the bloody gash and over it. Innes closed her eyes, giving herself over to the heat that emanated from the other woman’s hand, and losing herself in Conall’s whispers of affection.
She’d lost the stone. The man possessing it now had three of the four pieces. She wanted to mourn the tragedy of failing her mother in losing the relic. And she kept thinking of Lachlan. The steward’s words repeated themselves in her mind. He’d stolen for years. And he had been willing to kill—or have someone kill for him—to avoid discovery. This was the truth about the knowledge of secrets. Everyone had them; many would destroy her to keep them hidden.
She wanted to focus on the dangers still around them, but her mind continued to pull toward the other woman and her touch. Kenna, she said her name was. Her power ran through Innes, making her mind release all the tension, all the fears. Her body followed.
The heat spread through her limbs, centering on the wound. The pulsing blood slowly decreased. Innes opened her eyes. Kenna appeared to be almost in a trance. Her fingers continued to move over the wound.
Innes reached up, her fingers brushing against Kenna’s. There was no change in the woman’s awareness, no interruption of the ritual. But as she touched Kenna’s hand, Innes realized Kenna was hovering, suspended within something Innes had never before experienced. It was an intangible, spiritual otherworld. Kenna existed at this moment within the infinite soul of healing. Innes heard the echoes of voices speaking in different tongues. She saw ancient faces appear, then flicker and fade and become someone else. And she knew this all had to do with the relic. The stone had been stolen from Kenna, but she still embodied the power.
The pain’s departure came quickly. It faded suddenly, like the memory of a dream. Innes realized she’d stopped bleeding. She looked at her clothes; the tear in the fabric and the bloody stain made the wound appear worse than it actually was. Shapes became people, and faces came into focus.
A huge, blond-haired man was crouched protectively behind the young woman. Some moments passed before Kenna opened her eyes. Their gazes locked.
“Your gift is a blessing. Thank you,” Innes whispered. Her fingers were still resting on Thunder. “Can you heal him, too?”
Kenna smiled, moving over to the animal. “A first time for me, mending a wolf.”
Chapter 29
Innes was confined to her bedroom, not because of any pain or need for rest, but to give the appearance of recovery. Kenna and her power needed protection as well.
The Sinclair warriors following Conall and Bryce had seen all the blood she’d lost on the cliffs. Kenna shared Innes’s fear of other people knowing about her power. The difference was that Innes had known about it early on; Kenna had only discovered her gift this year.
Kenna and Alexander Macpherson would stay for the wedding, and Innes was glad. There was so much the two women needed to talk about.
“The stone sat for many years among some other gifts left to me by my mother after her death,” Kenna explained on one of her visits to Innes’s room. “I only found it when I was about to marry. Even then, I didn’t know what it meant or what I could do with it until months had passed. I had no one to teach me. My father told me later that my mother didn’t think it would be fair to place that much responsibility on a child.”
Innes laughed and touched the band of white in her hair. “This is what happens when you’re told at age seven. A quick end to childhood.”
Kenna smiled. “Both of our mothers thought what they were doing was right.”
“Aye. There’s not much point in second-guessing them,” Innes said. “Conall told me you finished reading the chronicle and returned it to him.”
Kenna nodded with a frown. “A fascinating account, but terrifying to know that Evers now has three fragments of the Wheel. I still have so many questions.”
“That makes the two of us.”
“Alexander is still furious the Englishman escaped.”
“It doesn’t make our situation, or our families’ situation, any easier. And thank you for confiding in Ailein about your gift. She’s known the other stones were out there for a long time.”
Kenna’s response was cut off by a knock on the door, followed by Jinny’s appearance.
The older serving woman looked worriedly at Innes. “Your sister says that if you promise to take it easy, you can leave the room and walk in the Inner Ward with his lordship.”
Innes tried to hide her delight at finally going out. “Does Conall know this?”
“Aye. That he does. He and your husband are waiting downstairs now, m’lady.” Jinny nodded to Kenna. “And they have that wolf with them. Before the day you went missing, I didn’t see much use in keeping such a dang
erous beast. But you should have seen it. The way he tore up that coast road after you, he looked like he’d run through the gates of Hell and take on Satan’s legions to rescue you.”
“He practically did.” Innes would never forget Thunder’s attack on her captors . . . nor Conall’s, either. Her heroes.
Conall had Thunder on a short leather lead and was standing with Alexander Macpherson when the two women stepped out. Innes’s eyes drank in the sight of Conall in his white shirt, kilt, and boots. She couldn’t stop the tremors of excitement that raced through her every time she saw him. Because of the arrival of her family, along with the influx of other guests, they’d had no time alone together, not even after everyone retired for the night. The floor above her was now used for guests—and that’s where her father and Margaret and the boys were staying. After the wedding nothing, she swore, would stop them from sharing the same bed.
The wolf jumped up on seeing her, lunging to get to her.
“I’ll be getting one of these for you,” Alexander told his wife, “as soon as we get back to Benmore Castle.”
“But I already have a courageous beast of my own,” Kenna said, looping an arm through her husband’s. “Mine is a lion.”
The two of them made a striking pair. Innes had heard bits and pieces from Kenna about their rocky courtship. The young woman ran away right after her wedding. Then, six months later, her own husband kidnapped her. And that coincided with the appearance of Evers and his butchering minions, who chased them through the Highlands. Looking at them now, Innes found it nearly impossible to believe they’d ever been at odds.
Conall pulled Innes into his arms and kissed her—not caring in the slightest that they had an audience.
Still enjoying the embrace, she noticed the additional armed Sinclair warriors. They were everywhere, on top of the walls, in the courtyard, by the passageway to the Outer Ward.
“Are you expecting an attack?” she asked Conall.
“Nay, but we want to be prepared.”
“This is also the way at Benmore Castle now,” Alexander Macpherson told her. “Since Evers took the stone from Kenna just over a month ago, we’ve had four attempts on her life. And that doesn’t include those who decided to take our gold instead of his and not go through with their plans.”
“They really are trying to kill you.” Innes voiced what she already knew, but it suddenly became very real, seeing the warriors. “Evers has the stones. It’s the only way he can get the power.”
Kenna nodded. “And he’ll do the same thing to you now.”
“And now we’ve learned our lesson that he doesn’t need an army. He simply offers gold.” Conall was still holding Innes in his arms while Thunder sat attentively at their feet. “Lachlan was a trusted kinsman. See how easily he was persuaded.”
“Aye, all it takes is an archer with good aim,” Alexander told them. “Someone working in the kitchen who knows which trencher of food is yours. With a price on your heads, Evers need never approach you himself.”
“It is not death that worries me, but I have no desire to live in fear for those I love,” Innes said. “We cannot allow him to govern our lives.”
“Alexander and Kenna are going to stay the sennight following the wedding. I believe we have more decisions to make before they leave,” Conall told her. “But right now Bryce and Ailein are waiting for us in his receiving room. If you’ll excuse us.”
As they walked away from the couple, Innes turned to him. “Did you tell Bryce about the stone, as I asked? Is this why he wants to talk to us?”
Innes already knew how damaging rumors could be. It was essential that her brother-in-law, as laird, know the trouble she’d brought to his door and to his clan. Knowing the truth would also help him understand Lachlan’s betrayal.
“Aye. I told him,” Conall said. “He didn’t say straight out that he already knew, but I have a feeling he and your sister will not be ones for hiding things from each other.”
She was relieved. And she absolutely understood her sister’s decision to tell Bryce. While Innes still had possession of the relic, Ailein was the one who would have inherited it. It was important for Bryce to know.
“Do you know then why he wants to see us?”
“It’s Wynda who asked to see us,” he told her. “You, me, Bryce, and Ailein. She said it’s urgent that she talk to all of us today.”
When the four of them and the wolf joined her in the receiving room, Wynda closed the door, shutting out the din coming from the Great Hall. She’d been searching for words, but memories kept intruding on her thoughts, distracting her from her purpose.
Even now, seeing their faces brought a surge of emotion in her. Thinking back to that day when she returned, she recalled the exact moment when Conall and Bryce changed her life. Sadness that had become a part of the fabric of her existence had suddenly been replaced by unexpected joy. Wynda looked at her boys, now strapping and powerful men. She looked as well at the two Munro sisters, so clearly in love with them.
For the past sennight, Castle Girnigoe had been brimming with anticipation of the upcoming wedding and the festivities surrounding it, but another feeling lay like a shadow around them. Shame lay just beneath every smile. Shame that the dead steward had brought to their door.
The castle folk did not know all of it—they only knew he had betrayed his trust as steward—but Wynda knew the depth of his betrayal. In the oratory that night, Lachlan and Fingal both saw what Wynda already knew: the stunning power that Innes wielded.
For all her years working with Lachlan and Fingal, Wynda didn’t know their secrets. And she had no idea to what extent the steward would go to avoid exposure. No one could, but it hurt her nonetheless.
Secrets. Wynda had secrets. And they were festering inside of her.
How strange then, Wynda thought, that she saw Innes not as a threat to her, but as her salvation. She would tell the truth, and live with the judgment brought on by exposure . . . or die with it. But she would do it of her own free will; she would not live in fear of Innes’s power. She welcomed it and blessed the lass for it. She met the young woman’s gray eyes. What did she see in them? Kindness. Concern.
She turned to Conall and Bryce. This was their story, too, as much as her own. Hearing it from her lips would bring . . . what? Pain? Anger? Perhaps. But also a sense of salvation, she hoped, from a past that had to be haunting the edges of their lives.
“I was there, that day, in Shona’s room when she died,” she began.
All eyes locked on her.
“Wynda,” Conall said, trying to stop her. “We don’t need to speak of this. The past is behind us.”
“Nay, it isn’t. Not yet.” She shook her head. “Let me have my say. I need to get this out into the sunlight.”
She waited until both men nodded.
Wynda addressed Bryce directly. “When you left Girnigoe to go bring your brother home, Shona became wild. I know you saw that even before you left. Her world was coming apart. Conall was alive. When she thought he was dead, she married you. Destined to be Countess Caithness and wife of the clan chief. But now, you were going to free him and bring him home. She was afraid you would relinquish your position to Conall, as you said you would do. She knew she was about to lose it all.”
“That’s true. We argued about it before I left.”
“But she didn’t stop,” Wynda told them. “You were barely out the castle gates and she started again. She badgered whoever would listen. She complained to clan elders and stable lads. To scullery lasses and cotters’ wives. She thought she could divide the clan. She pretended that she spoke for you, insisting that you wanted a show of power when the two of you returned, supporting you over Conall.”
“That was a lie,” Bryce said with clenched teeth.
“Aye, and she knew it. But that didn’t stop her. So, I confronted her with her lies that day in the Great Hall. And we fought.”
Wynda paused and led Innes to a bench, where they sat
down side by side. She took the surprised young woman’s gloved hands in her own and looked into her eyes. “Will you remove these? I want you to hold my hand as I speak. I want no doubt about the truth of what I am about to say.”
“Wynda, we will believe you, whatever you tell us,” Conall asserted. “You’ve been like a mother to us.”
She shook her head and asked Innes again. “Please, my dear. Help me unburden my heart.”
The young woman looked up at Conall first and waited for his nod, then pulled off her gloves.
Innes’s hand was warm. Wynda took strength from that.
“That afternoon,” she continued, “I went to her chambers in the East Tower. We were far from finished with our argument, to my thinking. She blamed me. She blamed the world. And we fought. The words were ugly, the accusations fierce. Then she even brought up my past. She accused me of bringing shame to the Sinclairs. She spoke openly, mockingly, of secrets that I kept hidden for years. Secrets about the child I bore out of wedlock, about the child that was taken from me and given away. I fought back with my own hurtful words, telling her that everyone knew she cared nothing for either of you. She wanted only power and position for herself. I told her she didn’t deserve to be carrying the bairn in her womb.”
Wynda paused as a tear dripped from her cheek onto her lap.
“She grabbed for my apron. She intended to fling me about, as she did her servants. Perhaps she intended to cast me out through that open window. But I tore her hands away, and she fell back. Heavy with that child, she stumbled at the window. And then she was gone.”
No one moved and silence gripped the room for a long moment until she spoke again.
“It was an accident, but I said no word of it to anyone. I ran from the room. I was afraid. I thought everyone would simply assume I killed her. Truth would mean nothing. It was my word against that of a dead woman. So I fled and said nothing. Fingal, having gone up later to Shona’s room, discovered what had happened. The uproar in the castle that followed hid my involvement.”
She paused and looked at Innes. The young woman squeezed her hand, giving her encouragement she needed.
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