by Donna Grant
Francesca had been mesmerized watching him fight. Every step, every movement had lethal purpose. It was no wonder Nigel had wanted Cade as his own so desperately. Somehow, Nigel had gotten Cade, but at what cost? When had Cade stopped working for Nigel?
Some speculated Cade still had ties to Nigel, but Francesca doubted it. None of the dreams that gave her a glimpse into the future had shown her much about Cade. He was still a mystery, but a mystery she wanted to solve.
* * * * *
Cade hurried to the tree where he had nearly kissed Francesca. It was here he had heard the horse. Darkness pushed against his own, and he cursed low and long.
Nigel never sent just one.
The wolf was dead, but what awaited Cade now?
He unsheathed his knives and jerked his head to get the wet hair out of his eyes. Francesca’s magic was gone, and he hated how he missed it, despised himself for needing it when he had distanced himself from everyone for so long. Just being close to her was enough for her magic to tamp down the darkness. It was selfish of him to stay near her. The saints only knew what his darkness was doing to her.
Cade moved from the tree, his feet silent as he stalked through the forest. The rain and thunder muffled any sound he might make, but it would do the same for his enemy.
His gaze constantly roamed around him, since he didn’t want to be taken by surprise. At least with the storm everyone was inside, and Francesca was safe in the cave. Drogan would be taking care of his people and weathering the storm.
Cade heard the jingle of reins and knew the rider was near. He squinted through the rain to try and make out the horse but saw nothing. That didn’t deter him, though. He halted beneath a low‐hanging branch that blocked most of the rain. It was enough to give him the advantage over the hooded rider ahead of him to the left.
The rider nudged the horse forward until it was even with Cade. Cade shifted until he stood in front of the horse, his knives at the ready.
“I knew you would find me.”
“Return to your master,” Cade shouted over the rain.
The rider laughed. “Not before I finish what I’ve come to do.”
“The wolf is dead, and you will be too if you don’t leave now. Tell Nigel to come himself if he wants a battle.”
“Oh, Nigel is on his way, Cade. Never fear.”
Cade hated not knowing who the rider was, but with the hood of his cloak pulled forward, he couldn’t see a face.
“You hate that you don’t know who I am, don’t you?” the rider asked, his voice low. “It doesn’t really matter. We’re all going to Hell eventually anyway.”
“What did Nigel send you here to do?”
The rider’s shifted in the saddle. “I’ve come to give a message to Drogan.”
“And what message is that?”
“He’ll understand once he finds his witch dead.”
Anger ripped through Cade as the darkness begged him to give into the hate and rage. “Leave now. Or die.”
“I could be a ploy, Cade. While you battle me, Nigel could slip into Wolfglynn and kill everyone.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
The rider shrugged. “You got away from Nigel. I want to know how you did it.”
Cade narrowed his gaze. “I walked away.”
“Liar.”
There was something familiar about the rider, something that kept nagging at Cade. “Why do you want to know?”
“Nigel...recruited...me in the same fashion as you. Let’s just say, I could have gotten into the castle while you battled the wolf if I had really wanted to.”
And it was the truth—Cade knew that. He wasn’t sure if he could trust the rider, but with the battle approaching, Cade needed as many allies as he could find. Trusting the rider might be a mistake, but it was a chance Cade had to take.
“The leverage Nigel had over me didn’t last. Once it was gone, so was I,” Cade answered.
For several moments, the rider sat motionless. “Did Nigel kill your leverage?”
Cade lowered his weapons and mentally cringed when memories long buried surfaced. “Nay, Nigel didn’t kill them.”
“And he let you walk away.”
“He didn’t let me do anything. You’re going to have to fight for your freedom, and be prepared to be hunted the rest of your life. Nigel doesn’t let anything go. Does he have your soul?”
The rider gave a small jerk of his head. “He doesn’t need permission anymore, Cade. He’s grown much, much stronger. He can take any soul he wants.”
“I don’t believe that. He can’t be that strong, not since last year when he was nearly defeated.”
“He won’t be coming alone this year. He wants you and Drogan dead. As well as the witches.”
Plural. Which meant Nigel knew of Francesca. “How many witches does he think Drogan has?”
“He knows there are two here. He plans to make sure they die first.”
Cade’s heart clenched in fear. “Who are you?”
“A friend.”
“I don’t have any friends.”
The rider cocked his head to the side. “And what are Drogan and Gerard? Enemies?”
“They were my friends. What I am—what we are—I cannot allow anyone to become familiar with me, because it would give Nigel more power. I refuse to ever be under his rule again.”
The rain lessened, but the thunder and lightning continued behind him. He watched the rider for a moment before he asked once again, “Who are you?”
“Consider me a friend,” he said and pulled back his cloak to reveal light brown hair and black eyes.
The breath left Cade in a whoosh. “Liam.”
“Hello, Cade.”
“Nigel told me you were dead.”
Liam lifted one shoulder in a shrug, his face expressionless and his eyes emotionless. “I’ve been dead since I joined him.”
“Does he have leverage against you?”
Liam nodded. “I thought I was the only one.”
“I’m beginning to think that is how he recruits all his best fighters.”
Liam shifted the reins in his hands. “I wasn’t jesting about his power. Be prepared. Nigel will come at you sideways.”
“Where are you going?” Now that Cade had found a friend, he didn’t want Liam to leave.
“Away.”
“And your...leverage?”
Liam dropped his gaze. “It was my wife. She hung herself when she saw what I had become.”
Cade clenched his knives, his gut tightening for Liam. “I’m sorry.”
“As am I. Nigel sent me to kill Drogan’s witch, but I’ll no longer do his bidding. Farewell,” he said and turned his horse around.
“Be careful.”
Liam raised his hand in response as he rode away.
Cade watched him, the rain taking Liam from sight sooner than Cade would have liked. Liam’s visit had brought more questions than answers, and Cade found he wanted to talk further with Liam. Yet he knew Liam would provide no more information.
“Damn,” Cade muttered.
He shifted and winced at the injury on his leg. He had forgotten it when the lust had taken hold of him; then he had needed to get away from Francesca, and then the talk with Liam. Now his leg and back throbbed. He wasn’t ready to return to the cave, but he had to see to his wounds. He couldn’t allow them to become infected. Not now, not when Nigel would arrive any day.
Cade blinked the water from his eyelashes and made his way back to the cave. He paused outside the entrance, unsure of being so near Francesca again. Already he could feel his skin tingle with her magic. He liked it. Maybe too much.
Droplets of rain ran down his back and trickled across the claw marks. He clenched his jaw at the pain and stepped into the cave.
His gaze found Francesca wrapped tightly in a blanket by the fire. Her chin rested on her knees as she stared into the flames. For long moments he watched her. Sometime while he had been gone, she had loosened her
hear, and now the fiery strands dried in the firelight.
Suddenly, she lifted her head and looked at him. Their gazes collided, held. Cade wished he knew what she thought as she watched him. Did she see the evil that lurked beneath his skin? Did she sense the deeds he sought absolution for?
Did she see the man he had once been?
She rose to her feet in one fluid motion, the blanket held tight in her grip. “You left before I could look at your wounds.”
Cade swallowed the flame of hope he felt whenever she was near and took a step towards her. He winced when his tunic brushed against the cuts on his back.
“You’re in pain.” Her voice held concern, which caused his gut to clench.
“The wounds are mild.”
She snorted. “I wouldn’t call the one on your leg mild. The wolf’s teeth sunk deep.”
Cade glanced at his leg. His breeches were torn where the wolf had grabbed hold of him and tugged, but it was the blood flowing down his leg and into his boot that made him sigh.
“Let me tend to your wounds.”
He hesitated. Unsure why he had returned to her again, knowing that being near her caused him to feel...almost normal. He put her in danger every time he spoke to her.
“Please, Cade,” she beseeched.
Chapter Five
Francesca held her breath as she waited for Cade to decide to let her help. She’d thought he wouldn’t return. Her mind wondered at all sorts of things that could happen to him out in the storm, and then she had felt his gaze.
When she had turned to see him standing at the cave’s entrance, his front blanketed in shadow, she’d had to fight the desire to rush to him.
Cade was like a wild animal. She would have to earn his trust slowly. If she earned it at all. It would be better for her if she walked away, forgot his arresting blue eyes and the way he made her heart accelerate and her blood heat.
She knew, but she couldn’t do it.
For whatever reason, she was attracted to Cade. It was a hazardous path she had set them on, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Never in her life had she been so lacking in self‐control. Now, all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and hold her against him. The agony in his eyes frightened her much more than the darkness she saw mirrored in his soul.
She fisted her hands beneath the blanket and prayed he allowed her to help him in the only way she knew how.
“Did you find the food?” He moved to the fire, setting aside his twin knives and removing his jerkin.
Francesca tried not to eye the tears in the jerkin giving her a glimpse of his smooth chest as she shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”
“The storm doesn’t look to be letting up anytime soon.”
She opened her mouth to answer when he pulled off his tunic, and she forgot to breath. His body rippled with muscles. His wide shoulders tapered to a narrow waist, where a trail of golden hair disappeared into the waist of his breeches. Several scars crisscrossed his chest, and one thick, jagged scar ran from his side around to his back.
He lowered himself to a rock and pulled off his boots before he withdrew the dagger and cut his breeches above the bite marks on his thigh.
Francesca licked her lips when he tore off the leg of his breeches and tossed them away. She knotted the blanket above her breasts and moved to her wet gown to tear off a piece of her skirt. Then she walked to the opening of the cave and rewet the material. She returned to Cade and knelt beside him, trying to ignore the way her stomach fluttered at being so near to him. She wiped away the blood on his leg.
“I wish we had dry bandages,” she murmured.
“I’ll be fine if you can stop the bleeding.”
“I need my herbs to speed the healing.” She made the mistake of looking up at him then. Though all bana‐bhuidseach had some magic to heal, there were many, like her, who needed the aid of herbs to heal adequately.
His blue gaze burned her while the darkness surrounded both of them. Cade was dangerous. But then again, so was she.
She forced her gaze away from his and returned to his leg. His skin was warm, his leg dusted with golden hair and corded with muscles.
“The bite goes deep,” she said as she leaned closer to the wound.
“He had long fangs.”
She would’ve smiled had the situation not been so dire. “I’ve never seen that wolf before.”
“It was sent by Nigel.”
She paused in wiping the blood and glanced at Cade. “We need to tell Drogan.”
“Drogan will know. He knows every wolf on his land.”
“You went back to investigate the sound you heard before the storm, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
She waited for him to tell her what happened. Long moments passed in silence until she got the leg wound to stop bleeding. When she moved to his back, he ripped his tunic in half and wrapped it around his leg.
The wounds on his back didn’t go as deep as the bite marks, but they were long, marking almost all the way down his right side. She accepted a piece of his torn tunic and wet it in the rain before wiping away what little blood was left.
“These wounds have nearly stopped bleeding.”
“Good.”
She let out a breath. “Tell me what you found. Please.”
His shoulders dropped. “Nigel never sends just one threat. They always come in pairs.”
“So there was something out there?”
“Aye.”
“What?”
“Not a what, but a who. His name is Liam.”
“You know him?”
Cade nodded and jerked when she hit a sensitive spot on his back. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. He’s trying to break from Nigel.”
“You believe him?” She tried to watch his profile while cleaning the wounds.
“I do.”
She lowered her hands to her lap. “He came here to kill you.”
“Nay,” he said and turned to look at her over his shoulder. “He came here to kill Serena and you.”
“Me? I don’t understand.”
Cade rose and walked toward the other blankets. He shifted through them and returned with more clothes. He pulled on a tunic of dark blue and stared down at her.
“You’re a witch. For some reason Nigel views you and Serena as threats. He wants both of you dead.”
Francesca rose on shaky legs and turned her back to Cade so he wouldn’t see the doubt on her eyes. Had Nigel seen the same dream that played in her mind every night? Did he know what awaited him if she lived?
The damp, bloody material fell from her hand as her mind raced with possibilities. Serena and her child needed to get to safety, but she knew Serena would never leave Drogan.
“I won’t let him harm you.”
She turned at Cade’s words to find he had changed into clean breeches.
“I promise,” he said. “Nigel won’t get near you.”
Francesca smiled at his words, because she knew he meant them. “Thank you.”
“As soon as the storm clears, you and Serena need to get to Phineas’ and stay on the isle until the threat from Nigel is over.”
If only she were able to do as he asked. “If Liam is trying to break from Nigel, will he join us?”
“Nay,” Cade said and bent to stroke the fire. “He took a great chance talking to me at all. Nigel doesn’t let anyone leave. He’ll be after Liam soon.”
She returned to her seat across the fire. Drogan had never known if Cade left or if Nigel had let him go. “Did you leave Nigel?”
He refused to look up from the fire, as if he were trying to determine how he would answer.
“You think I’m still in league with him,” Cade said after a moment.
It wasn’t a question. She knew that no matter how she answered, he wouldn’t believe her. “You’ve never told anyone. Not even Drogan. What would you have people believe?”
“I don’t know.” He blew out a breath and sat on the rock
.
The darkness that was always near him seemed to wrap around him like a comfortable cloak. He had drawn it into himself without even knowing it.
“Why do you talk to me but not Drogan?” she asked.
His eyes closed for the barest moment. “I wish I knew.”
A thrill raced through her. Could he be as affected by her as she was by him? He had nearly kissed her, but did that mean anything? She had no experience with men other than what she had observed through the years. And all that did was confuse her even more.
“Have you seen Drogan’s son?”
Something flashed in Cade’s eyes. “Nay.”
“You should. For Drogan.”
“It’s because of Drogan that I’m staying away.”
“Is it? Or is it because you fear what you’ll see in his eyes?”
Cade jerked to his feet, and she instantly regretted her words.
“Tell me you don’t feel it,” Cade demanded, his voice harsh.
She wanted to think he spoke about the desire, but she knew he referred to the darkness. “I feel it.”
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before he pinned her with his gaze. “If anyone spends too much time with me, they’ll begin to feel despair and heartache. The darkness will latch onto them, causing them nothing but pain until they either turn to the evil or take their own life. Is that what you want me to give Drogan?”
“I had no idea.”
“I feel your magic.”
Her heart skipped a beat at his murmured words. “What does it feel like?”
“Hope. Pleasure. Happiness. Stay near me long enough, and I’ll leave you empty.”
Before she could respond, he stalked to the opening of the cave. She wanted to go to him, to tell him he was wrong. The rigid way he held his body kept her in place. She had only wanted to get to know him better, but had succeeded in pushing him farther away.
Francesca tucked her hair behind her ear and lay on her side. She used her arm as her pillow. Over and over she replayed her conversation with Cade about Nigel, Liam and Drogan. Still, she wasn’t able to come up with an answer that would save everyone’s life. Liam was someone she had never seen in her dreams, and he could be nothing more than a messenger sent to give Cade news.