My Cursed Highlander

by Kimberly Killion

  “With your lover?”

  “Sì.” Shame surrounded that single word.

  Viviana calculated the years in her head. She and Fioretta moved to Cafaggiolo nine years prior. Lily was only six. Either Marea was lying or Viviana did not yet understand the whole of it. “You went to great efforts to protect a daughter that had not yet been conceived.”

  “I loved Lily before conception. The amulet showed me my daughter before she formed in the womb. Because Gillian is perverse, she prefers a woman’s body over a child’s which is why she didn’t proceed with the transfer straightaway. But a little more than a year past, I became ill with the sweating sickness. Gillian attempted to transfer into Lily’s young body, and it was then she discovered the amulet was naught more than a cut piece of stained glass. By then, the real talisman was being safe-guarded by the Medici.”

  Viviana didn’t doubt the amulet’s power, nor did she question Marea’s desire to protect her daughter from Gillian, but the complexity of Marea’s plans seemed outlandish. “Why did you come to Scotland? If your goal was to protect Lily, why did you not just toss the amulet into the sea?”

  “Similar thoughts occurred to me on more than one occasion.” Marea yelped and panted until she’d recovered from Gillian’s infliction. “I fear living in limbo almost as much as Gillian fears the fires of Hell. I came to Scotland to see to the safety of my soul.” Marea paused for what seemed like an eternity before she confessed, “I have committed the vilest of sins, but I am devoted to my love for God. While protecting Lily is my greatest goal here on earth, I do not wish to spend my afterlife here. I came to break the curse and set those who have passed before us free so I might be given the opportunity to stand before God on my day of judgment and beg for His mercy.”

  The chain rattled with an intensity that unnerved Viviana.

  Marea’s whimpers turned into a disturbing chuckle. “Do it, Gillian. Kill me. Rip my insides to shreds if you so desire. Lily is safe and happy.”

  “You are not going to die,” Viviana offered Marea false words, knowing full well her time here on earth was drawing to a close.

  “Death is inevitable. Albeit, I admit I’m fearful of my day of reckoning.”

  “I’m certain God will judge you based on the person you tried to be and not the person Gillian made you.” Viviana couldn’t begin to imagine how Gillian might have punished Marea. She didn’t want to imagine it, nor did she want to believe Gillian might have had the power to reap her anger on all of Firenze. “Gillian,” she spoke directly to the witch, “were you responsible for the assassination of Giuliano Medici? I lost my sight as well as my sister because of the events that occurred that day.”

  A long pause prefaced Marea’s weak laugh. “You would find compliment in the question.” Marea’s bearing altered when she spoke to the witch. Her tone turned bitter, sardonic. “Gillian is flattered that you think her capable of such devastation, but Messer Medici’s assassination had naught to do with the talisman’s power.”

  “And what power is that?”

  “The gift of sight, of course.”

  Marea’s words held an altogether different meaning for Viviana. She’d known the amulet’s power, even felt an addiction to the gift it had provided her. “If Fioretta had discovered a way to use the talisman’s power, what kind of effect would it have had on the curse?”

  “A temporary suspension.” Marea paused in thought. “Mayhap it was during the years Fioretta was in possession of the amulet that Makayla was conceived. Any other female babe would have died in the womb.”

  Viviana cringed. Taveon had been right to fear for Makayla’s life. Had Fioretta not been harboring the amulet, Makayla may never have been born.

  “Viviana, did Fioretta ever tell you anything about your future?”

  Instant worry made Viviana question Marea’s odd inquiry. “No.”

  Marea’s silence was unnerving. If Fioretta knew anything about Viviana’s future it was doubtful she would have shared the grim details. “What are you implying?”

  “It is naught.” Sister De Rosa was lying to protect her.

  “It is something. If Fioretta used the amulet to foresee the future, what would it have cost her?”

  “Her soul would remain in limbo,” Marea stated with a tone of regret.

  Fioretta was trapped inside the walls of Santa Reparata the same as the women were trapped in the burial ground. Of this, Viviana was now certain. A heavy sense of obligation came with this revelation. Somehow Viviana needed to set them all free. She thought of the babe inside her, of Cora-Rose and Makayla and Lily. Then she recalled the first time she’d seen her husband’s eyes in the looking glass at Chillion Castle. The colors had only intensified since that day. She once thought the colors represented her growing love for Taveon. Or mayhap his love for her? But mayhap it had been Kael’s love for Elise that had become a force far greater than Gillian could have ever foreseen.

  For reasons unbeknownst to Viviana, Elise had not inhabited Taveon’s body, but she had inhabited Viviana’s. In that moment, Viviana came to an all-encompassing decision that might very well cost her her life. She rose from the cuttie stool on wobbly knees.

  “What are your intentions?” Marea asked.

  Viviana splayed her shaking hands over her belly. “I intend to free Elise from the burial ground.”

  Chapter 34

  Taveon sat in silence on a roughened pew at the back of the kirk and wished he was brave enough to go to Viviana. She’d entered the ruined sanctuary more than an hour earlier and whisked passed him. Her familiar citrus scent extinguished the musty smell clinging to the wet stone walls and made him nigh ache with the need to hold her.

  Afraid the wooden bench beneath him might creak and reveal his presence, he sat unmoving and stared at his wife. Light spilled over her kneeling form from a hole that used to be a stained glass window. Blue-black hair fell to her waist like a cloak of spun silk.

  What he would give to touch its softness again. To touch her.

  For the past two nights he’d watched her sleep through the curtains of their bed, fantasizing about a life with her, imagining what it would be like to fill Ravenhurst with love and laughter. ‘Twas a victorious dream reserved for warriors who reaped the rewards of their successes, but not him.

  He’d failed to set Elise free. The woman was there. He’d felt her, smelled her. She’d penetrated his psyche more than once, flooding his mind with memories of her life with Kael, memories of their happiness, their love, and their sorrow. There was a hot energy that wrapped itself around him while he waited for any sign that Elise might have inhabited his body, but naught occurred.

  Or mayhap the signs of possession had been present, but he was too craven to acknowledge them. S’truth, he wanted to live. He wanted to sing to his wife, to dance with her, to hear her laughter. He wanted to hold her and watch her grow wide with his son. But most of all, he wanted to love her without fear of losing her.

  He was too selfish to die.

  His fingers curled around the amulet. He was a fool to think he could have Viviana without repercussions. Regret consumed him and ate at his insides like feasting grubs.

  He rubbed his burning eyes and listened to Viviana beg God for His assistance. She prayed for Marea, for Makayla and Lily. She pleaded with the Virgin Mary to save Cora-Rose and then her whispered words turned to sobs.

  “Forgive me for loving my husband.” Her entreaty pierced his heart and filled his eyes with unwanted tears. The pressure in his chest built and squeezed his lungs like a suffocating vise. Unable to bear witness to her pain, he swallowed, gripped the amulet tight into the palm of his hand, and stepped into the aisle. “I would do anything to free ye of your pain.”

  Viviana jumped to her feet and whirled. Her hand flew to her breast, and the light pouring in through the broken stained glass window wrapped her in rainbows. Her violet eyes, wet with sadness, burrowed a path straight to his soul.

  Taveon pulled his gaze fro
m her and stared at the stone in his hand. “I want for nothing more than to be your champion, but I have failed ye.” He sucked in a ragged breath.

  Feeling her way passed each pew, Viviana stumbled through the aisle with her hand poised in front of her. “Taveon?”

  “I’m right in front of ye.” His throat dried waiting for her to reach him, waiting for her to close the gap and touch him. He should have held his tongue. He should have savored the sight of her and said naught, but he wanted her forgiveness. Yet another selfish desire.

  Her fingertips fell upon his chest and the last of his guard fled him. He pulled her into his arms and buried his face into the curve of her neck. She returned his embrace without hesitation and consoled him like a bruised child. If they only lived this single day, he wanted to spend it loving her.

  She pulled back, cupped his cheek, and brushed her thumb over his lips. “Let me help you.”

  Emotions attacked his gut and burned his face. His throat constricted, desperate to fight her… desperate to kiss her. “I will not let ye die.”

  She pulled his mouth to hers and dampened his dry lips with a kiss that ripped fire through his insides. He felt her love in the way she held him and tasted her sorrow in the salty tears that slipped between their lips.

  She eased away far too soon. “I only wish to talk to Elise.” Viviana uncurled his rigid fingers, retrieved the amulet, and draped it over her head. “Take me to the burial ground.”

  No. He shook his head. “I fear for your life should ye go there.” He held tight to her hand and kissed her palm, astounded by her constant bravery.

  “Elise is not our enemy.” A gentle tug encouraged his footing out of the kirk.

  Leery, Taveon walked beside her through a weed-ridden path toward the burial ground. The air was cool and by no means cause for the sweat beading at his temples. His instincts told him not to proceed, but Viviana continued forward undaunted. An eerie sensation spread gooseflesh over his scalp. “I dinnae like this.” His footing stuck.

  “Elise did not inhabit your body because she knew you would take your life. Mayhap she knows more than Marea or Gillian is telling us.”

  “Think ye I have not tried to speak to the woman? We cannae even be certain she will appear.” A fierce wind blew through the tall grasses. Taveon’s pulse vibrated in his neck like a frightened rabbit.

  “She is there.” Viviana pointed toward the rock and urged him forward. “Come, she awaits us.” Viviana’s words held a hint of excitement he did not share.

  His gaze narrowed and took in the perimeter of the burial ground. The grave markers formed a semi-circle on the northern side of the rock. Dark gray clouds sat on the horizon even with the edge of the cliff, but no dead spirits were visible to his naked eyes. “How in the name of Zeus is it possible for ye to see her, but I cannae?”

  Now leading him, Viviana peeked over her shoulder and offered him a small smile. “I know not, but she is there as are the others.”

  Viviana practically dragged him the remaining steps, then stopped just short of the rock. Standing at her back, eyes wide and dry, he watched her extend her hand into nothingness.

  His breath caught, waiting, anticipating.

  Viviana gasped, her spine snapped ram-rod straight.

  Gripping her shoulders, he spun her around to face him and wasn’t nearly prepared for the change he witnessed in her eyes. The pupils contracted to small black dots surrounded by a familiar purple, but the outer ring was green.

  A knot stuck in his throat while a rush of panic clutched his heart and squeezed. “Viviana!”

  * * *

  Viviana held tight to Taveon’s arms and stared into deep blue eyes filled with fear. No overlapping ghostlike images of herself distorted her perception. She simply saw him.

  A thick warm energy filled her insides and made her fingertips tingle against Taveon’s skin. Viviana felt Elise’s presence. She was inside her.

  The heady fragrance of saffron filled Viviana’s senses, then a burst of unexplained emotions flooded her eyes with tears. Viviana swiped the wetness from her cheeks and focused on her husband’s handsome face. So strong and sharply cut. “So beautiful,” she whispered and touched his bristled jaw.

  “As braw as Zeus himself,” Elise’s comment made Viviana smile. A giggle slipped passed her lips and caused Taveon’s forehead to ripple with deep set lines.

  Viviana caressed his furrowed brow. “He forever worries.”

  “And rightly so.” Taveon pushed hair away from Viviana’s face. His piercing gaze bore directly into her own and nigh stole her breath. “Your eyes. They are… different. Can ye see me?”

  Viviana nodded and blinked away the tears blurring her vision. She became immersed in the enchantment of being sighted, overwhelmed by the colors God had chosen to paint His creation. Bright pink and gold swelled behind fat gray clouds at the cliff’s edge where the other women stood, waiting. An opaque half-moon hung low above sparkling tips of breaking waves, but the color that held Viviana rapt was the deep jeweled blue in her husband’s eyes.

  “Viviana?” Taveon’s grip tightened. The lines around his eyes deepened.

  “Do not be afraid, but Elise is here. With me. I can hear her.”

  Taveon bent close and brushed the side of his roughened cheek against Viviana’s. “Please dinnae take her from me. I am begging you to help us.”

  “He loves you.”

  Warmth surrounded Viviana’s heart, as if Taveon had spoken the words himself. She knew he loved her, but she also knew he was afraid to admit it.

  “Love is a powerful thing. It aligns the stars in the sky and controls the turn of the tide. Love is stronger that any words of black magic.”

  The amulet hummed against Viviana’s skin. She wrapped her hand around the talisman’s heat and felt the steady rhythm. The beating. A pulse.

  “Kael loved me much the same as Taveon loves ye,” Elise said as a memory manifested inside Viviana’s head—Kael bent on one knee over Elise’s lifeless body lying in a freshly dug grave. He kissed her blue lips and wrapped the amulet around her clasped hands. “Guard my heart, my love. Until we are together again.”

  My heart? Viviana searched for the truth in his words. The amulet didn’t hold Elise’s heart, it held Kael’s heart. Viviana felt as if she’d solved an ancient riddle. In some ways she had, but what did it mean?

  “Can she help us?” Taveon’s fingers dug into Viviana’s back, his hopeless eyes filled with anguish. “Do ye know what she wants?”

  “I want to be with my husband.”

  Viviana felt Elise’s pain as vividly as if it were her own. She experienced her loss, her sadness. Clinging to Taveon’s shoulders, Viviana watched the images unfold behind her closed eyes. A man—Kael—made love to Elise in the same bedchamber Viviana now called her own. He caressed Elise’s swollen abdomen and kissed the tears from her cheeks.

  Viviana felt their love. It was a love that transcended time, a love that survived a hundred years of yearning, and she didn’t dare deny its power.

  “Elise wants to be with Kael,” Viviana answered Taveon’s question, but feared the sacrifice she would have to make to see Elise’s entreaty to fruition.

  “How?”

  “Set me free,” Elise begged as a rustle of icy wind circled them.

  Thunder made a crescendo overhead. She pushed herself out of Taveon’s arms and studied her surroundings.

  Gillian is coming. The women repeated the warning in whispered chaos and gathered round them in a protective circle.

  “What is it?” Taveon asked just as a woman’s scream sliced through the air.

  Viviana turned toward Ravenhurst to witness Keegan dragging Marea down the hillock with one hand, the other brandishing a sword. Marea’s strides were not nearly as long as his causing her to stumble, but Keegan yanked her back to her feet and hastened toward them. His movements were sharp, fierce, unyielding.

  “Shite!” Taveon pushed Viviana behind the wall of his b
ody.

  She searched her mind for a means to aid Marea, but her wits became deluded with feelings of hatred. Elise’s desire for revenge was overwhelming. “Marea is innocent of the evil inside her,” Viviana defended. “You must help her.”

  “Nay. I saved Gillian once. I willnae make the same mistake twice.” Elise’s words were laced with regret and accompanied by another memory—the twist of a key opened a heavy wooden door. Elise eyed her twin sister inside a cell. Pale hair, green eyes, a rounded belly not nearly as swollen as her own. Elise hugged her unborn child and watched Gillian flee.

  “Why would you set her free?” Viviana rubbed her temples trying to quickly decipher the chain of events.

  “To protect her babe. Kael intended to have Gillian executed if I died during childbearing. I should have abided by his decision to have her burned before we discovered she was with child.”

  “What happened to the amulet?”

  “Gillian stole it from my grave and boarded a slave ship bound for Dania.”

  Now understanding the whole of it, Viviana knew she wouldn’t gain Elise’s sympathy. To Elise, Marea was the enemy.

  Viviana thought of Lily and sought Taveon’s help to save Marea. Viviana dug her fingertips into his muscular arm. “You must do something to save Marea. Stop him.”

  “What is amiss, brother?” Taveon inched Viviana backward toward the outer perimeter of the burial ground. He glanced over his shoulder. Over the cliff’s edge.

  She felt him tremble.

  “Cora-Rose began her labors. She is going to die.” Features wrought with determination, Keegan jerked Marea by the wrist and flung her to the ground at Taveon’s feet forcing them another step backward.

  A pebble fell away from the edge and bounced soundlessly into the whirling air.

  Viviana scrambled to Taveon’s side.