by Tamara Gill
Well, okay, yes. Maybe she had expected that, but apparently that was a once in a lifetime happenstance.
Her lifetime.
Not his.
Her heart constricted. It was painful to breathe.
“Put me down,” she said suddenly, squirming to get loose.
His hold tightened. “Cease. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“What do you care?” Okay, that came out testy, but whatever.
She flopped out of his grasp forcefully enough that he let her slip away, though he did not fully let go until she was steady on her feet.
He frowned down at her and once again Charity was reminded of just how tall he was. His expression seemed almost, well, hurt. Edeen and Col came up behind him, watching.
“I do care,” Toren’s sultry voice whispered across her senses.
Charity went very still, uncertain.
He lifted his hand as though to reach out to her, but then dropped it.
She didn’t know what to think, what to feel. Her pulse raced through her veins. She wanted to grab Toren’s hand and just hang onto him, but wasn’t certain what he was feeling toward her and couldn’t take another accusation of working with Aldreth right now. Not now. Not while he was looking at her like he did when they were dream trailing. Like she was special to him. Like she meant something. She sent a questioning look to Edeen.
It was Col who came to her rescue. Taking her arm, he steered her away. “Are ye well enough, Charity?”
“I’m fine. Now. You’re the one who fainted.”
Col stopped mid-step, a scowl stamped across his lean features. “I did not faint.”
“Flat on your face. Swooned like a maiden,” Edeen informed as she passed them.
“Did not. Warriors do not swoon.” Col’s long legs carried him to his sister.
Charity glanced back at Toren. His gaze remained steady on her, disconcerting. Not ready to talk with him, she walked on, feeling his eyes on her back.
***
A few hours later they came to a small river and Col announced happily, “We’ll be on Limont land as soon as we cross the burn.”
Charity nodded and plopped wearily to the damp edge of the river, startling only a little when Toren crouched beside her. It was a long riverbank, surely he could have found another place to plant himself. He dipped low and began scooping water into his cupped palms and drinking lustfully. Charity couldn’t help watching the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in his strong throat column, satin skin moving over hard planes.
Damn it. It wasn’t fair to be so attracted to him. She looked away, eyeing the water, her own throat muscles working from thirst until Toren brought his hands to her, cupped together and brimming with tantalizing water. She quirked a brow at him. “Is it safe?”
His own brows pulled together in puzzlement. “Ye believe Aldreth has tainted it?”
No. Actually she was thinking more of the lack of purification tablets and parasites. It was a fairly strong current though and running water was safer than a still pond, right? At least she thought she’d heard that somewhere. How long would it take to boil it? The mercenaries wouldn’t mind waiting. She was so thirsty. She looked Toren over again. He’d been drinking unpurified water his entire life and he was fit enough. Fit? He was beyond fit. Not in a body-builder type of way, but the long lean muscles built over a life actually engaging in activities that packed on muscle naturally. A working man, well, warrior. Crap. She was salivating.
For water. She was thirsty. Foregoing the water Toren held for her in his hands, she bent low and drank from her own hands. Goddess, she didn’t know water could taste so good. She gulped more and more.
Hands on her shoulders pulled her up. “Easy, lass, not so fast. You’ll make yourself sick.”
Uh, right. She grimaced at him, wiping her mouth, and shrugging his hands off until he got the message and let his hands fall. They sat in uncomfortable silence, taking small sips now and then. Col and Edeen’s hushed chatter a little ways off filtered around them.
“Er.” Toren cleared his throat. “Charity.” She looked at him sidewise, suspicious at his uncharacteristic hesitancy. He wouldn’t look at her, but stared into the tumbling river. “I...” he continued. “Ye have my gratitude.”
Huh? She turned to fully face his profile. “Oh. So you’ve decided I’m not an evil villain soul-bent on your destruction.”
His lips quirked. “I never considered you a villain.”
“A pawn of a villain then, which is all the more insulting. If I was an evil-doer, I’d be the boss, not a pawn. If I wanted to, I’d make a great villain.”
He faced her then, a full smile lifting his features and everything holding her spine together turned to goop. She actually swayed, but caught herself, freezing to the spot, as Toren’s calloused hand brushed along her cheek and slipped into her hair. His face dipped close, inches from hers. “You could never be the villain,” he crooned huskily before easing back.
Her spine tightened back up. Hard. Everything tightened. And tingled. Low. In parts she hadn’t felt in a while. Her mouth went dry. Dang was she thirsty, but couldn’t seem to turn toward the water lapping mere inches from her.
“I...” Damn, this wasn’t fair. What he was doing to her. She was in to him. Way into him. No doubt. Hell, she’d traveled centuries back through time just to help him and her body was reacting like a hormone-raging teenager just from a smile and husky voice. She had to clear the air, be up front, in order to keep her wits—and her hormones—in check enough to get through this ordeal. He had apologized for thinking she was working with Aldreth. Well, kind of. He hadn’t said he was sorry, but he told her thank you. That was a start.
“Listen. Um, it’s fine. Okay. I get it.” She leaned back from him. Far back. He was still looking at her intensely and it was, well, intense. She swallowed. “You were hurt, feverish. How could you know who I was or what my intentions were. It’s fine. It really is. Don’t worry about it.” There. Done. She really didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“I should have known,” he said quietly and Charity’s heart took a little stumble, because that’s right. He should have known. Or...well, how could he have. Best to clear the air between them and then drop it.
She went on quickly before her voice broke. “Look, I kind of messed-up your time-line a bit in order to get here. The first time, we um...” She dropped her gaze to her lap. “I healed you, back in my time, and something happened, something...”
“Intimate?” he supplied for her and his voice caressed along her skin.
Heat poured into her cheeks as she nodded. “Y-yeah. We, um, shared...” She twirled her hands in the air between them as though she could erase the connection drawing her to him. He reached over and stopped her hands, taking them between his own and they both froze, a jolt going between them.
Charity blinked, swallowed, and pulled her hands loose, looking away from him so she could just get through the humiliation of what she had to say. “Bottom line, I feel things for you, all right.” That was putting it mildly. “I wish I didn’t. And I can’t help it. You don’t feel the same, which is fine. Really it is. I get it. You don’t have to worry. I’m not some schoolgirl who is going to follow you around like an unwanted puppy. I’ll get over it. Believe me I’ve done it before. So let’s just get you to your clan, get these spelled bands off of you, and then you can open a rift and get me back home. You can get me back home, right?” She squinted up at him and damn if he didn’t look a little disappointed.
His lips tightened and he dipped his head in a curt nod, long hair lowering in a jerk. “Once I have uninhibited use of my magic again, aye Lady, I can deliver ye to your own time.” That said, he rose and stalked off, hands clenched at his sides.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Charity trudged up the forested hill, growing more despondent with each step. They had been walking for hours since crossing the river. She kept an eye on both men, gauging their exhaustion. Both had been through
an ordeal and even with her healing, neither was at a hundred percent. Not that either would admit it. Then again, she didn’t feel at top peak either.
Toren only slowed the pace when Col staggered though Charity had caught Toren listing a few times as well. He always caught himself and somehow rallied his strength. The dude was a machine.
She rolled her eyes, faulting the stubbornness of men regardless of what century they came from.
Speaking of...Charity wondered if Toren would really be able to send her back to her own time. He’d been through so much. What if he simply couldn’t summon the ability anymore? Or it took him weeks to regain his strength. She could be stuck here for months.
Would that really be so bad? She wondered, staring at his...oh what the hell, she’d been watching his ass for hours. Admit it. He had a very nice ass. Great thighs, good calves. A bit bow-legged. Wonder what he’d look like in a snug pair of jeans?
So if she was stuck here for a while at least she’d have a nice view. And who knows, maybe the big lug could actually grow to like her somewhat given time.
They just had to get away from Aldreth. Which, if the witch could sense Toren’s magic through the bands like he thought and could yank him right back. At any time. Why hadn’t she done it already? Or shown up to get him? If she found Toren now, with the spelled bands on, he still wouldn’t be a match for her. Not without being able to use his magic against her. And Edeen and Col, as an empath and shapeshifter, wouldn’t be able to fight against the magic of a witch of Aldreth’s strength either.
What was she waiting for?
Thinking it through, she pushed between two trees that grew in a sort of upward lean as their roots grasped the side of the slope. Something didn’t quite fit. It had been too easy so far. Their escape. Outrunning the guardsmen. The mercenaries would have to be bumbling idiots not to have seen their trail or catch up to them. Even she could track them and she had zero outdoor skills. There was nothing stopping Aldreth from just plucking Toren from them now. So why hadn’t she?
“Charity?”
Friggincrapola. Bluidy, bluidy hell. Everything clicked into place.
“Charity.” Edeen shook her shoulder.
Her head snapped up. “The mercenaries aren’t trying to capture us. They’re merely shadowing us. Maybe even herding us. Aldreth intends to take you and Col prisoner as well. We have to get those bands off Toren. Now.”
Edeen’s eyes narrowed as she studied her. “Ye and Toren, your essences really are in accord.” A dreamy look flitted across her features momentarily before tightening into determination. “He’s come to the same conclusion whilst ye slept, which is why we need to go.” Grabbing her wrist, Edeen pulled her over the crest of the hill where the trees opened up onto an idyllic village below. Crops and pastures lay before them with long lines of short stone walls following pathways between them, leading around thatch-roofed cottages and joining to head up to a larger building that looked more like pictures of Viking longhouses than a Scottish keep.
As picturesque as the village appeared, something was off. Charity shaded her gaze with a steepled hand. Below, there was no movement. No sentries coming to greet or oppose them. There should be people in the fields, goats and sheep roaming about. The gates to the manor should not be sitting wide open. Well, at least she didn’t think they should be.
“I thought we were going to the Shadowrood.”
“Aye. We are.” Toren's mouth settled into a hard line.
“The standing stones are not much farther,” Col said. “We stopped here to make certain Shaw stood by his duty and took our people to the gateway, aye?”
“He's taken the clan to Reolin Skene without us then.” Col's shoulders slumped. “When he found out Aldreth had spelled ye to the bands...” He looked at Charity in apology. “I wish he would have given us more time.”
Frown lines creased Toren's forehead. “He did what needed to be done. 'Tis the course I would have plotted.”
Charity backed away, horror squeezing her gut, Lenore’s voice echoing in her head.
“It was a romantic story. An entire clan, every individual gifted with some form of magic as long as they remained the protectors of man... And then all of them vanished. Poof. The village must have fallen to ruin because no one knows where it once was.”
“Magic never has been the same in the world”.
“We must hurry. Reolin Skene is just on the other side of our village.” Edeen started down the slope the way they had come. “Mayhap we are not too late.”
Sharing a glance, Col and Toren followed after her.
Charity stood stock still.
She knew the outcome.
An entire clan, every individual gifted with some form of magic as long as they remained the protectors of man... And then all of them vanished...no one knows...
Either Shaw and the clan had already passed through, leaving the three remaining siblings on their own in the world. Or they would catch up and go into the Shadowrood with their clan.
All of them vanished.
The magic of the world is greatly lessened.
With the bands on or not, Aldreth would no longer be able to get to Toren in the Shadowrood.
But where would that leave her? Charity would be stuck in this time. Alone. With a whacked-out witch, seething that her own magic was no longer as strong without the clan of Limont in the world supporting it. Aldreth’s magic, everyone’s magic would be diminished to the point of barely there. Just like in her time where all magic wielders scraped by with what they could gather from the earth. On the up side, Aldreth would no longer have the magical means to wreak havoc upon mankind. That was a plus.
Before he entered the gateway, would there be time for Toren to send her back? Would he even be able to? In this time period, she had enough power on her own to lend him if he needed it, yet she was a healer. Only sorcerers had the necessary magic in them to open up a rift in time. Even Aldreth’s witchy powers couldn’t do that. Only Toren had the ability to get her home.
And then she'd never see him again.
She would never know if that connection they'd shared for even such a short time could be re-established.
He would never again look at her with wonder shining through his eyes. She wouldn't be around to see it.
Her heart thundered in her chest. Her breathing grew labored. Her breasts heaved against the material of her gown.
Toren had already started down. He turned back from lower on the hillside. He looked up at her, his expression different from any she'd yet seen him wear.
He stretched out his hand a little hesitant as though he was afraid she might not take it. His frown was uncertain. “Come?”
Charity didn't know what to do. She would soon be on her own here.
She stared at Toren.
He didn't know her.
He didn’t care for her, didn’t feel any connection.
But she knew him.
She knew him.
She'd traversed his inner core, knew what was important to him, felt the depth of his love and loyalty, how he was willing to sacrifice all for his clan and family.
This was the same man she'd recklessly traveled through time for. The need to save him had overshadowed even common sense and she knew she would do it all over again.
Save him.
How could she not?
She loved him.
A shiver rolled down her arms.
Her vision blurred behind tears.
She was in love with him. And he didn't even know her.
But if she gave him a chance, maybe he would. In time.
Charity reached out her hand...
...and a blast of contained lightning knocked them both off their feet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Thunder boomed and another jagged jolt of light sliced across the air.
A woman materialized at the crest of the hill. Sudden gusts snagged at her pitch-black hair and the white gown pressing against slender legs.
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“Did ye believe I would not come for you?”
Aldreth glided down the slope, the ends of her gown trailing like smoke.
From the slanted ground, Charity pushed up to her arms. Her legs slid sideways on the incline. Across from her, Toren, too, pushed up, his head lifting as Aldreth stood above him. Charity's blood ran cold.
Dark storm clouds, purple like bruises, rolled overhead, gathering impossibly fast, violent and spitting lightning across the sky. Sparks lit the clouds from within while thunder rumbled through the charged atmosphere, heavy and thick and coated with ozone.
Struggling to his knees, Toren raised his arms. Purple tendrils of light lifted from his fingertips, cracking and hissing.
Aldreth threw back her head and laughed, hair streaming behind her. With a flick of her hand, the streamers of Toren's magic disappeared as though they’d never been. He could not use his magic against her.
Another flick of her wrist and he rolled through the air, landing with a jarring crunch where he slid down the slope.
Charity made it to her feet. Shrieking wind slammed her back down like she was a bird caught in a gale force. Her hair flew in front of her face and then streamed back again, pulling at her scalp. She lunged up like a sprinter. Flapping skirts tangled around her legs. She had to get to Toren. Soil slid under her precarious steps.
Planting her feet, she leaned into the slope, hanging onto rocks and thin slanted trees to make her way down.
Another bolt of magic hit Toren. His back arched off the ground, body spasming. Aldreth’s hands danced and he sailed across the slope. The witch manipulated him like a puppet master. Toren tried to lunge up and his feet swept out from under him.
The winds howled, tossing dirt and debris at Charity. She tumbled the last few feet to the bottom of the ravine. Footfalls ran past her, flinging dirt in her hair. Charity rolled to her side to see what was happening. Edeen launched herself at the witch, arm stretched out. Her hand hit the spot above Aldreth's heart.
Both women screamed. Their bodies stiffened, convulsing like they'd been caught in an electrical stream. Whatever Edeen was doing as an empath, it was hurting the witch. It was hurting Edeen too.