“That’s right,” Destiny confirmed. “Most, all, would have naturally been averted by your unicorn’s magic and kept going, but your whimpers called to him. Then most, all, would have felt extremely unsettled if not downright terrified as they drew closer. Fear because they’d entered your magic’s ‘force-field’ for lack of a better word.” She shook her head. “Not Marek, though. Despite his fear, he pushed on until he was with you. Until he was able to communicate with you.”
So that must have been why he’d initially felt how he did when approaching her in a dream at seven. The trepidation and fear. Somehow one life influenced the other.
“Communication between a human and unicorn is unusual, isn’t it?” Chara said, seeming to sense something in that.
“Impossible as far as I knew,” Destiny corrected. “But then nobody ever got as close as Marek did.”
“Seek the sad, despite the fear to be had,” Marek murmured, repeating the latest message in his tattoos. “’Twas that moment in time being referenced, aye?”
“Yes.” Destiny looked between them again. “Once you began communicating, it slowly but surely allowed other creatures of the forest to communicate with Chara. For her kind had been set apart from even them. Not once she began her road to humanity, though. One that allowed her to spread much love and help many.”
“Including the Brotherhood.” Marek frowned. “Why didnae they find her right away?”
“Because unicorns aren’t easy to find,” Destiny replied. “Even when their humanity is slowly revealing them.”
“Based on what Marek shared with us telepathically, the sun had just hit the horizon when he and Chara first connected,” Julie said, clearly trying to dispel Marek's frustration by refocusing the topic. “Which meant it was likely passing through Bull Rock and the portal.”
“Yes.” Destiny looked at Julie, almost as if she wanted her to keep figuring it out rather than be told.
“That moment in time was somehow used at a later date, wasn’t it?” Julie said softly. Her Guardian Witch magic flared. “Used not just by the Brotherhood but by my ancestors too.”
“By folding time in on itself,” Tiernan murmured, following her thoughts.
“When did the Brotherhood ultimately find Chara?” Leviathan asked. As usual, his unwavering gaze remained on Destiny. Clearly sensing something, he narrowed his eyes. “More importantly, who found her?”
Though Destiny didn’t answer, the heartbreak in her eyes was telling.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Chara whispered, obviously remembering something from her past life. Almost as if Leviathan’s question had prompted it. “You found me long before you ever approached me. You were the one who let the Brotherhood know.” She blinked and frowned, as though whatever she’d been recalling was getting away from her. Her brows pulled together. “For a moment there, I swore you had found what you’d been looking for.” Her voice trailed to a whisper. “My unicorn was just what you needed.”
“I did find you long before I approached you,” Destiny confirmed sadly. “As to the rest of it, I cannot say.” She looked from Marek to Chara. “You must discover it on your own.”
“You’re still going to be evasive?” Chara exclaimed. “When I just sensed you might’ve been at the heart of betraying me? Us?” She clenched her jaw, hurt, before she got off Marek’s lap. “I need some space from you, Destiny. I’m going for a walk.”
When the goddess thought to follow, Marek cut her off, frowning. “Nay, you heard what she said. I’ll go, so she’s not alone.”
Before she had a chance to counter, he headed after Chara, calling over his shoulder, “If I were you, Leviathan, I’d keep a closer eye on Destiny than usual.”
He caught up with his lass in no time in the woodland. She didn’t say anything at first, just inwardly fumed at Destiny. Eventually, however, she couldn’t keep it in any longer.
“All this time trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy,” she bit out, “and now it seems the enemy might’ve been among us all along, leading the way.”
“Aye, it does seem that way,” he replied, not entirely sure why he defended the goddess when he thought along the same lines as Chara. “Yet for all she appears more guilty by the moment, it doesnae align with the way she looks at you. How much she clearly cares about you.”
“Who says it’s not all an act?” She stopped and planted her fists on her hips. “I mean, she’s half god, so technically, she’s capable of anything. Even tricking me, a mere mortal, into believing she’s my friend.” Anger flashed in her eyes. “Not just any friend either but one of my closest!”
“I know.” He might not be sure of much when it came to Destiny, but he was sure of one thing. “Whatever her motives, I truly believe you’re her friend too.” He narrowed his eyes. “In fact, I’d say you’re her only friend.”
“Aye, I would agree,” came Grant’s voice before he appeared. His ethereal form was caught in the swaying branches above, his frustration with the position clear. “Another stone on Tiernan’s tattoo has filled with color.” He looked at Marek. “Have more of your tattoos ignited?”
“I dinnae know.” He lifted the back of his tunic and turned to Chara. “Have they?”
“Yes.” She read them aloud. “See the love to rise above. Follow the path and accept the wrath.”
“I dinnae think I like that one much.” Marek lowered his tunic and frowned. “It sounds darker than the others.”
“Aye, but then ‘tis clear your journey grows darker before it gets lighter,” Grant pointed out. “Darkness, I dinnae doubt you will break everyone free from in the end.”
He went to say more but zigzagged into nothing when the branches swayed too heavily in the wind. Hopefully, Grant was right, and they would free everyone from all this. Not just that but rectify his kin’s stability in the afterlife.
“Whatever this means, we’re definitely getting closer to our truth,” Chara said as he took her hand, and they continued walking parallel to the pond rather than away from it. “If I didn’t already feel it, the last stone in Tiernan’s tattoo filling with color definitely confirms it.” She glanced at him. “That just leaves our stone.”
“Aye.” He stopped, reeled her close, and tilted her chin until her eyes stayed with his. “How do you feel about that, lass? Truly?”
“Scared,” she confessed. “And eager if I were to be honest.”
“Aye,” he agreed, as always, needing to comfort her. “’Twill be all right though. I dinnae doubt it.”
Still caught up in the angst he’d felt at her distance from him in a trance, he brushed his lips across hers once, twice, then kissed her more deeply, grateful she was safe. In his arms. Her mind here not far away.
While he meant to pull away before things got too heated, he just couldn’t. Not yet. She tasted too sweet. Felt too receptive. Yet he knew if he continued, he wouldn’t be able to stop. So he ended it only for her to grab the front of his tunic and shake her head.
“No.” She walked backward, pulling him with her until her back hit a tree. “I don’t want to go back yet.”
When her dragon eyes flared with lust, his vision grew blissfully red.
“’Tis risky doing such here, lass,” he managed, his voice hoarse with arousal he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep under control. Not when it came to her.
“I don’t care.” She yanked him even closer, stood on her tip-toes, and pulled his lips down to hers, murmuring all the while what she wanted. How they could make each other feel. “Not to mention, our dragons seem to like it.”
“They do,” he growled in agreement, weak when it came to her. Powerless. More than willing to see good reason in her words despite how vulnerable taking her here would make them. If that weren't bad enough, he was so blind with lust, he chanted his weapons off him. “And we will need our dragons to surface in the end, so if this is what it takes...”
“I thought you’d see reason,” was all she got out before any self-restrain
t he might have had snapped.
A lack of good judgment, as it happened, that almost spelled their demise.
Chapter Twenty-Two
LOVING MAREK’S AGGRESSIVENESS, Chara groaned with approval when he picked her up and came between her thighs. Rather than push her skirts around her waist, he let them hang enough to offer discretion if someone happened upon them.
Which, in all honesty, was half the thrill.
Fire seemed to roar through her as he wasted no time on foreplay but gave her what she needed right away. When he freed himself and let her sink onto him, satiating the fierce ache deep within, she nearly cried with relief. It seemed every time they got together, it just got better and better.
He held her up with one hand, braced the other against the tree, and thrust hard, again and again, rolling his hips just right. The fire beneath her skin became a raging inferno, twisting and curling through her veins. Heat gathered between them, and she dug her nails into his broad shoulders, needing all he could give her. Every last inch of delicious sensation.
Following her thoughts, he released a ragged groan. His features twisted in pleasure, and he moved faster, harder, driving her up the tree, taking her with a ferociousness that had her clawing at him. Desperate. Crazed for the heights he could bring her to.
Blazing passion, as it turned out, that came fast, furious, and without mercy moments later.
In fact, they hit their pinnacle so hard she was completely unaware of anything except her release. Of soaring over the edge with him in an orgasm for the ages. One so hard, her whole body shook, and colors flashed in her vision. For that matter, one so hard she was hardly aware of a thump hitting the ground beyond the fog that hadn’t been there minutes before.
“Bloody hell!” Marek chanted their clothes back to normal and grabbed his sword, only for the fog to disperse along with a few miscreants who’d snuck up on them.
He nodded thanks to his brother, who stood nearby with Madison.
“That was a damn good shot,” Madison complimented Cray as the others showed up, wondering what all the commotion was about. She smirked at Marek and Chara. “Considering all the steam and fog those two put off. Makes for bad visibility.”
Cray visibly preened at her compliment. “Thank you, lass.”
Madison grinned at Ciara, clearly referring to something they’d talked about before. “See, it doesn’t matter what’s going on. Sex can relieve stress anywhere.”
Cray echoed her sentiment and winked at his brother.
“Dragons,” Ciara muttered, rolling her eyes. Her concerned gaze went to Chara and Marek. “Are you two okay?”
“Aye,” Marek grumbled, clearly upset he’d been caught unaware. More so, based on his thoughts, that he'd given into sex so easily when it might have cost Chara her life.
In the meantime, she continued leaning against the tree. Honestly, she might hit the ground otherwise. Her legs were way too shaky, not from fear but from what he had done to her. How he’d just made her feel.
“I don’t know,” Madison commented, eyeing Chara with amusement. “Your mate might need a little help, Marek.”
Where before Chara might have been embarrassed by Madison’s comment, she wasn’t in the least now. Rather, she felt pleasantly claimed, for lack of a better word. As if her dragon liked other women knowing what Marek had done to her. That she belonged to him.
Marek must have heard her thoughts because he rumbled with appreciation, his dragon eyes flaring with approval when he looked at her.
Meanwhile, Leviathan was a growling beast. Though he appeared to study the fallen man, he mostly cast frustrated glances at Destiny out of the corner of his eye.
“Wow, he’s pent up, huh?” Chara said into Marek’s mind, wondering what was going on. “Do you think something happened while we were gone?”
“Nay.” He sheathed his remaining blades. “If I’m sensing his inner dragon correctly, he caught us in the act. Now he’s aroused and wants the one lass he shouldnae want.”
“Ah,” she replied, not embarrassed that the Viking had seen them, which really did surprise her.
“’Tis your inner beast.” Marek wrapped the fur that had fallen during their lovemaking around her shoulders and met her eyes. “The new self-confidence igniting inside you because of your dragon applies to all things but most especially those of a carnal nature.” Based on the way his pupils flared, she knew he’d take her again if they were alone. “Dragons are, above all, verra dominant and lustful. ‘Tis just how we’re made.”
“I’m starting to get that.” Honestly, in light of the rampant lust that came with being dragon, she was more appreciative than ever that he’d had the inner strength to remain faithful. It had to have been torture for his inner beast to wait all those years.
Just as turned on as him but determined to get it under control, she looked at the fallen man and spoke aloud. “Does anyone know him?”
“Nay.” Cray crouched beside the man, looked him over, and frowned at Marek. “You should know, though, that he had a dark aura.” His eyes grew troubled. “More than that, I swore I saw darkness within the fog.”
Marek took his meaning straight away. “The fog surrounding me.”
“Aye.”
Destiny frowned at the dead man. “It’s best we continue on and discuss this elsewhere.”
Leviathan narrowed his eyes at her, sensing something but not saying it, almost as if again, he was prompting her to confess. “And why would that be, goddess?”
Just like last time, though Destiny gave no answer, Chara seemed to remember something without recalling how or where she’d learned it. “Because the dead can sometimes hear us.” She continued eyeing the fallen man. “Especially if they were sent by the Brotherhood.”
“The dead?” Chloe frowned at the goddess, confused. “Why would they want to listen to us?”
“Now,” Destiny reiterated, rather than answer the question. “We should go now.”
Despite not fully trusting the goddess, they did as she requested, not speaking again until they were far from the area. Unfortunately, like they should have seen coming and true to form, Destiny didn’t end up elaborating on why the dead could hear them. Only that they should heed her warning. Suffice it to say, however frustrating her vagueness, it couldn't hurt to be conscientious of it.
“If Cray saw darkness around me,” Marek said, clearly more concerned about his possible possession rather than what the dead could or couldn’t do, “’tis probably best that I split off with Leviathan again soon lest I hurt someone.”
“No, your path is with Chara now,” Destiny replied. “While there might still be times darkness seeks you, Marek, the only way to eventually defeat it is for you and Chara to discover your truth. And that can only happen if you’re together.”
“What if I harm her?” He scowled, his thoughts turbulent. Above all, he worried about being influenced by darkness while making love to her.
“You won’t hurt her,” Destiny assured. “Darkness is having more and more trouble infiltrating you, Marek. What happened back there was almost certainly a response to who was sneaking up on you. The darkness you once embraced recognized the Brotherhood from which it came, so to speak.”
“’Tis bloody unsettling,” he grumbled but seemed calmed by it. “Speaking of Chara and I getting closer to our truth, what do you make of the newest words on my back, Destiny?” He filled her in on what they were. “They seem sinister.”
“See the love to rise above,” Destiny murmured, almost as if she were relieved to say them. “Follow the path and accept the wrath.”
As though Destiny saying the words aloud triggered it, everything changed, and just like that, Chara was in ancient Ireland. She was alone and in unicorn form again, only this time she was older.
Drawn to something, touched by whatever she felt, she made her way through the woodland, slowing when she saw her Fianna friend just ahead. Not her true love but his brother. Ethyn in that life.
>
He stood unseen by the lass swimming in the water.
She smiled to herself, recognizing Ciara in that life. More than that, she saw the undeniable attraction Ethyn’s Fianna had to her. Not just on his face but in his very aura. Colors that only meant one thing because she’d seen them around her mate when he looked at her.
Seconds later, that scene swirled away, and her unicorn stood a ways off from the Irish Stonehenge. From the looks of it, she'd traveled a few months into the future and witnessed another memory.
She watched the couple she’d brought together, seeing clearly the untouchable love between Ethyn’s Fianna and Ciara’s druidess as they held each other. Her heart warmed, and her horn shimmered at the sight of it. The goodness and eternity in it.
Tears welled. She understood what she saw. What she was supposed to see. How deep and true their love. Every bit as much as what she shared with her mate. Every bit as important.
So she had to rise above.
As soon as it occurred to her what those words meant, Ireland snapped away, and she was with Marek again on his horse in Scotland.
“My own needs and wants,” she whispered, seeing it with heartbreaking clarity. Or at least what she knew of it. She glanced at Destiny. “The Brotherhood had focused on Ciara and her druidess virgin blood, and I knew it, didn’t I? Most woodland creatures did.”
“Yes,” the goddess confirmed.
“Did Marek’s Fianna?”
“No, don’t tell me,” she kept on when she saw the hesitation on Destiny’s face. “You can’t say. I have to experience it on my own.”
Destiny sighed. “I’m—”
“I know,” she grumbled. “You’re sorry.”
Chara glanced at Marek. “Did you experience what I just saw in Ireland?”
“Nay, it seems that was just for you, lass.” He followed her thoughts about it. “Though ‘tis safe to say I experienced much of it from another vantage point on Ciara and Ethyn’s journey. I know you brought them together, and I felt a sense of urgency...but everything else remains hazy so far.”
A Scot's Retribution (The MacLomain Series: End of an Era Book 5) Page 14