“When do you expect her to be back?” Carmen checked the clock. It was the middle of a work shift on a week day. Sadie should be here.
“We have no idea when she’ll be back,” the receptionist told her. “She’s been gone for a week with no notice and no communication. She doesn’t answer phone calls or pages. No one has any idea where she is. We even notified the police, and they can’t find her, either.”
Carmen’s head shot up. She stared at the woman across the desk. “What?”
“She disappeared. The police searched her house. They even found a thawed TV dinner in her microwave. It looks like she just vaporized off the face of the Earth, but she always seemed so happy and committed to her work. It doesn’t make any sense. The police are investigating, but they say it doesn’t look good. She didn’t take any money out of her account. Her credit cards haven’t been used, and her car is still parked out in front of the hospital. No one can explain it.”
Carmen swallowed hard. “That’s impossible. I knew her. She was more committed to the medical system than everybody.”
The receptionist frowned. “If you know her, you should have heard before now. Where have you been the last week?”
Carmen pushed herself away from the desk. She motored out of the Public Health Department as fast as she could without giving the receptionist any answer. She got back to her room in a ferment of competing thoughts.
Sadie was gone—steady, reliable, conscientious Sadie. Sadie never missed a day of work in the ten years she worked for the Department. Where could she have gone all of a sudden?
Carmen dared not put the puzzle pieces together. She had to get out of here. She had to find out if Hazel and Grace and Elle disappeared at the same time.
She eased herself onto her hospital bed. The pain in her chest cut her worse than ever, but she pushed it out of her mind. This couldn’t be happening. The other women from Hazel’s circle couldn’t have disappeared. They couldn’t still be over the rainbow in that other world.
None of it made any sense. Just when Carmen started to convince herself she never went to Scotland in the first place, this had to come along and throw a wrench into her whole reality frame.
She sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed the hospital phone. She dialed Hazel’s number and listened to it ring. Hazel never spent an evening out of the house, and she worked online during the day. She was always home, and she always answered the phone by the fourth ring.
The phone twinkled again and again. No one picked up. Carmen’s pulse throbbed in her temples. She craved morphine, but not for the pain. She wanted to slip into that dreamland where she could believe Angus and the Phoenix Throne and Robbie and Gahkra and everything else came out of her suppressed imagination. She would give anything to push it all away, but she couldn’t.
She pressed the receiver button and dialed a different number. It rang twice before Grace’s husband picked up. His gruff voice buzzed in Carmen’s ear. “Hello?”
She paused for what seemed like eternity. She opened her mouth, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask. She already knew the answer. Grace wasn’t there, either.
Elle didn’t have a phone—not a landline, anyway. She transacted all her business by cell phone, and she never gave Carmen or anybody else the number. Carmen didn’t have to call Elle, though. She already had her answer. Grace and Hazel and Sadie disappeared a week ago, at the same time Carmen herself disappeared. Elle would be gone, too.
Chapter 24
Angus strode down the long corridor. Dripping black moss covered the stone walls all around him, and his heels splashed in puddles of muck underfoot. Callum hurried at his side and lit the way with a lantern. “Where is she?”
“O’er ‘ere.” Callum pointed out a solid wooden door with a barred window in the top.
Angus took the lantern from his brother and held it up to the window, but the meager light didn’t penetrate the gloom. “Are ye sure she’s there?”
“She couldnae get out o’ there if she tried.” Callum waved his hand. “Look at this place.”
Angus moved back. “Open ‘er up.”
Callum brought out a heavy iron key and turned it in the lock. The two men stepped inside, and Callum locked the door behind them. He held his saber in front of him and pointed it into the dark.
Angus held the lantern high, and the beams struck that skinny woman. He glared down into her staring eyes. “Where’s Carmen?”
Hazel wrung her hands. She paced back and forth in the damp, dark cell, and her big round eyes stared at nothing. “How should I know? I saw the same thing as you. You shot her, and she disappeared.”
“Ye enchanted her awa’,” Angus growled. “Ye cast ‘er intae the realm o’ the ghosts, alang wi’ e’erybody else in this castle.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Hazel whined. “I swear I would never do anything to Carmen. She was brining me to meet you. She said we could work the whole thing out. She was certain she could get us both sent back to lift the curse.”
“No one’s sent back,” Angus barked. “Ye’re still ‘ere, an’ she’s gone. Now where did ye send her?”
Hazel’s chin fell onto her chest. “You have to believe me. I didn’t do anything.”
“Ye cursed me family,” Angus thundered. “Ye destroyed e’eryone who e’er stood by me, and now ye sent Carmen awa’. Ye killed her, didn’t ye? Ye killed her the same as Rob. I ken ye did.”
She clasped her hands over her heart. Her voice broke with suppressed sobs. “I didn’t. I swear it. You have to believe me. I never cursed you or anybody else. Carmen said it was an accident, that the spell that brought us here caused the curse retroactively—or something like that. I couldn’t understand half of what she said, but I never cursed you and I never hurt her. You have to believe me.”
He took a menacing step toward her. “If you didn’t kill her, then bring her back.”
“Ye can’t bring ‘er back,” Callum interrupted. “Ye’ll bring back the curse.”
Angus rounded on him in a rage. “Do ye see the curse lifted? Do ye see ought people runnin’ around this castle, or any cows in the fields, or any flies buzzin’ around the kitchen? We’re alane. Carmen’s gone, and the curse is still here. If we’re cursed, then by Heaven, we’re getting’ Carmen back. The only way I’m living in this hell hole is wi’ Carmen. Now bring her back. I dinnae care ought that ye ha’e tae do. Just bring ‘er back.”
Hazel’s lip quivered. “I can’t. I don’t know how.”
Angus pointed in her face. His whole countenance trembled with rage. “Ye’ll bring ‘er back, or ye’ll die. Understand? I’ll gi’e ye one chance. If ye dinnae bring her back, ye’ll pay the price.”
He wheeled and stormed out of the cell. Callum raced to lock the door and hurry after him. They pounded up the stairs into the guard room where Jamie and Fergus waited for them. Angus cast a quick look around. “Where’s Ross?”
The two younger Camerons exchanged glances. Angus smacked his lips. “Gang again, is he? That’s just perfect.”
He whirled back the other way. How could this all go so terribly wrong? He found that ruby, but just when he got ready to destroy the witch, Carmen had to jump in front of her. Now Carmen was gone, and he was stuck with that sniveling scarecrow down in the dungeon.
At least they had the witch under lock and key. She couldn’t harm them now, but the curse was still in place. Angus and his brothers had the whole castle to themselves.
He stormed out of the guard room into a small cloakroom to one side. Polished halberds, swords of all sizes, and suits of armor hung on hooks down both walls. Ewan lay on a bench under the window.
Angus came to his friend’s side and laid a hand on Ewan’s shoulder. “Eh, mon. Yer awricht?”
Ewan gasped for breath. The broken-off ends of the spear that punched through his chest stood out straight through his shirt. Cold sweat stuck the fabric to his skin so Angus could see every hair and straining muscle underneath.
&nbs
p; Ewan shuddered all over, and he choked on every breath between words. He seized Angus’s wrist and gasped up into his friend’s face. “Didnae tell ye ye’re the King? Didnae tell ye?”
Angus squeezed Ewan’s shoulder. “Aye, ye told me.” He didn’t want to stand here and watch his oldest friend die, but he couldn’t leave Ewan alone at a time like this. His breathing got shorter and shorter the longer he laid there.
Ewan already suffered more than an hour since the fateful battle. Angus would do anything to put Ewan out of his misery. Maybe he would put himself out of his misery, too. He started to look forward to Ewan dying so they wouldn’t have to dread that terrible moment any longer.
Callum, Jamie, and Fergus wouldn’t enter the room where Ewan lay. They couldn’t bear to see the big Highlander laid low and on his last dying breath. Angus had to do this alone. He had to bear witness to the witch’s latest victim.
Angus gritted his teeth. He would make her pay for this, too. He didn’t buy her confused act for an instant. She picked the Camerons off one by one, and she knew exactly what she was doing. He would force her to bring Carmen back, and then he would kill her.
A trickle of sweat ran into Ewan’s eyes. He blinked it away, and he tried to bite another droplet off his lip. He couldn’t move his arms. His eyes beseeched Angus for any way to end this torture, but Angus couldn’t help him. “Ye’re King, mon. Ye allus were.”
“Aye, mon,” Angus murmured. “Ye served me weel. Rest ye now. Dinnae think ought more about it. Ye leave it tae me now and rest. That’s me order.”
Ewan tried to smile, but he winced instead. Every shudder stabbed him in the guts and twisted his face into a mask of agony. Angus raised his hand, but he dared not touch the spear shaft sticking out of his friend’s chest.
Ewan gave a great spasm, and the breath stuck in his chest. He growled between gritted teeth and writhed sideways on the bench. Angus did his best to hold the big body down, but the horrible truth wouldn’t leave him alone. Ewan was dying. In a few minutes, Ewan would leave Angus with his younger three brothers and no one else.
Ewan opened his mouth to speak. A gurgle rattled deep in his chest, and blood bubbled into his mouth. He thrashed one way and then the other. He looked up at Angus, and their eyes locked. That look haunted Angus for years afterwards, and he stared down into a mask of death.
Ewan’s legs kicked so hard he bounced off the bench. He fought Angus’s hands away. He roared and snarled in torment until his great body gave up its spirit and lay still.
Angus held him down a moment longer. Ewan’s chest still moved, but not much. The Highlander’s whole hulking frame collapsed in on itself. In a matter of seconds, nothing would be left but a lump of clay to bury in the park.
Angus stood back. The movement caused his sporran to bump against his hips, and he remembered the ruby. Maybe its power would work for life and not just for death. Angus took it out and gazed into its crimson depths. A tiny voice inside him said Yes.
He gathered all his resolve. He had nothing to lose. He wrapped his fingers around the spear shaft, braced his other hand against Ewan’s shoulder, and heaved with all his might. The shaft came away crusted with blood, and black blood gushed from the wound. Angus didn’t hesitate. He laid the ruby over the hole and pressed it down.
He closed his eyes and prayed this would work. He would give anything to get his friend back, to undo this one evil of the witch’s design, even if he couldn’t undo anything else. The stone burned into his palm, but he didn’t move. He willed Ewan to get better, to stop the blood and heal the wound.
How long he stood there, he didn’t know. When he opened his eyes, he stared down at Ewan’s still form. It didn’t work. The ruby lay embedded in that wound. The bleeding stopped, simply because Ewan no longer had any more blood to shed. He was finished. He was dead and gone.
Angus stared down at the big body. It would take all four of the surviving men to carry Ewan into the park to bury him, and Angus couldn’t spare them now. He plucked the ruby off Ewan’s chest and dropped it into his sporran. It didn’t work for life. Oh well, at least he tried, and Ewan was just as dead as if he hadn’t.
He started to turn away. He never wanted to see Ewan’s body again, not even to bury his friend. He wanted to put all this terrible day behind him and be back in that bedroom last night with Carmen.
The despair of the long trek getting here, the terror of facing the wraiths every night and losing his men one by one, the instant when his own efforts caused Carmen to disappear out of his life forever—all those conflicting emotions culminated in something breaking inside him. They all congealed in icy cold rage and murderous hatred for everyone and everything around him.
He no longer cared who lived or who died. He no longer cared if he attained the Phoenix Throne or if he wandered the rest of his days fighting wraiths until he, too, dropped in battle. Nothing mattered anymore. Everything he tried to do turned to death, so why should he struggle to make it good?
He would kill the witch and dedicate the rest of his days to killing. He would become a mercenary like Connal Baird. He would wander this hollow world, and he wouldn’t give a rip who he hurt or who got caught in the crossfire.
He couldn’t even bring himself to care that Ewan was dead. His father, Robbie, Carmen, and now Ewan passed out of his life. Sooner or later, everybody dies. One of these days, Angus would die, too, and no one would care. He couldn’t expect them to care, and he no longer cared about anybody or anything enough to grieve over them.
He braced himself to leave the cloakroom and face his brothers with the news. They would shake in their shoes to face this cursed castle without Ewan at their side, but it had to be done. Angus couldn’t offer them any comfort for that.
He walked down the cloakroom. He got halfway to the door when Ewan’s body exploded off the bench. The big Highlander rolled on his side and retched blood onto the floor. He coughed and spluttered and groaned in agony. He curled in a ball and hugged his arms across his stomach.
Angus stared at him, but not even this surprised him. This world lost all interest for him now. He waited until Ewan propped himself up on his elbow and finished panting and spitting the last red-tinged mucus onto the cloakroom floor. So the ruby worked after all.
Ewan stared back at Angus through his haggard brown eyes. He rubbed his wrist across his mouth and smeared blood on his cheek. “Eh, mon?”
Angus jerked his chin at his friend. “Are ye awricht?”
Ewan spluttered and coughed one more time. He groaned when he tried to move. “I hurt all o’er.”
Angus bit back a smile. “Ye’re awricht, I’ll wager. Come on, mon. Get up. I’ve a job tae do, and I’m needin’ ye wi’ me.”
Ewan swung his legs over the bench and planted his hands on his knees. “I’m yer mon, then.”
Angus hooked his thumb over his shoulder toward the door. “The lads’re waitin’ fer ye out there.”
Ewan heaved to his feet. “Where’s me….?”
“All yer weapons’re out there, too. All we need is ye on yer feet and walkin’.”
Ewan’s knees sagged once when he tried to take a step. “I’m walkin’, mon. I’m walkin’.”
Angus snorted. “I ken see that.”
He turned on his heel and strode out of the cloakroom. His brothers turned their ashen faces to him when he entered. They all expected the news that Ewan was dead. Their jaws dropped when the big Highlander staggered into the guard room and swept the little band with his bleary eyes.
“Ewan!” Fergus exclaimed.
“Aye, lad?” Ewan asked. “The news of me death ha’e been greatly exaggerated. Now where’s this ‘ere witch?”
The brothers fell over their own feet stumbling after Angus and Ewan on the way back down to the dungeon. The instant Callum unlocked the cell, Angus laid hold of Hazel and hauled her out. He marched her down the corridor, up the stairs, and out into the clear light of day.
She tried to struggle, but she
could do nothing against his strength. “What are you doing to me? Let me go. I told you, I didn’t do anything to you.”
No one spoke to her. Angus clenched his jaws and tightened his grip on her arm. He turned a deaf ear to her pleading and shoved her up the stairs to the highest tower. He nodded to Ewan, who flung the door back, and Angus pushed Hazel out onto the upper battlements roof.
She looked out over the landscape with frightened eyes. Not even Jamie and Fergus knew what to think. None of them dared question Angus.
Ewan stood by with his sword drawn at the ready. He would cleave Hazel’s head in if Angus gave him the world. This was the witch. None of them needed to know anything else.
She would say anything to get free. She would lie. She probably took the form of this ridiculous woman to incite their pity so they wouldn’t remember all the evil things she did to them.
Angus climbed up on the battlements. Nothing separated him from a vertical drop of several hundred feet to a paved stone courtyard below. He seized Hazel under the arms and hauled her up to stand next to him. She teetered, and he caught her in time to stop her dashing her brains out falling to her death.
Angus brought his face close to Hazel’s. His face twitched in rage. “Now, then, lassie. Ye’re gang tae bring Carmen back. Use yer power and cast a spell lik’ the one ye cast before and bring her back from the other side. It’s that simple.”
Hazel’s voice quavered on the wind. She shook from head to foot, and her teeth chattered in terror. “I already told you. I don’t know how. I would do it if I could. I swear it. You have to believe me.”
He thrust his hand into his sporran and pulled out the ruby. He pointed it at her chest. “I’ll no say it again. You cast a spell before tae bring her and yerself here. Ye can do it again no bother. Do whate’er ye ha’e tae do. Just bring her back and do it richt now, or I’ll blast ye tae kingdom come and be damned wi’ ye.”
Chapter 25
Carmen tripped over a crack in the pavement and stumbled on the sidewalk. She clutched her arm over her broken ribs. They still hurt like you wouldn’t believe, but she couldn’t stay cooped up in that hospital.
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