by Donna Grant
“Of course.”
“I’ll return tomorrow, but if you need me before then, call.”
Quinn rolled his eyes and shoved his brother. “Get out of here.”
Once Fallon had jumped back to the castle, Quinn turned to the others. “Hayden, I think you’re right. I think Ramsey knows we’re here.”
“Or at least that something happened,” Logan said.
Ian nodded. “Just moments after we arrive he stops, and then Charon and Arran are looking behind him to the exact place we are.”
“Ramsey didna believe whatever it was he felt was dangerous or all three would have investigated,” Hayden added.
Quinn glanced at the sky and the rate of the falling snow. “It looks as if we’re in for a cold one, mates. Let’s split into two groups. Ian, come with me. We’re going to have a look around here as well as the road. Ramsey said he thought Declan was close.”
“Let’s find the bastard,” Ian said with an excited gleam in his eyes.
“Logan and I will get closer to the castle,” Hayden said.
Logan smiled and said, “We willna get too close. We promise.”
Quinn grinned as they all clasped forearms. They had been in enough battles together to know anything could happen at any time. They were always prepared, and not once did they head into battle without saying farewell to those they cared about.
Which included everyone at the castle. They had become one huge family, and like all families they had their disagreements, but the evil they had been fighting for centuries bonded them deeply.
Though Fallon and Lucan were Quinn’s brothers by blood, he considered every Warrior at the castle his brother and every Druid his sister.
“Hayden. Logan,” he called before they could move away. “There is a reason Ramsey wanted to take this mission alone. If he discovers we’re here after sending Charon and Arran, he’ll likely try to take Declan out by himself at a later date.”
“I ken,” Hayden said, his black eyes somber. “At least here we can keep an eye on him and help if needed.”
Quinn nodded. “Exactly.”
“We’re all worried about Ramsey,” Logan said. “He willna know we’re here.”
Quinn watched them move away, a nagging feeling of doubt in his mind.
“What is it?” Ian asked.
“I doona know. Ramsey shouldna have been able to sense our arrival.”
“Maybe there’s more to his mix of magic and powers than we know.”
“I suspect that’s the case. Let’s just hope Ramsey doesna do anything stupid.”
Ian’s face scrunched up. “Ramsey? Nay. He’s the last one to do something reckless.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ramsey was going to do something stupid, of that Tara was certain. It was probably the talk Charon had given her, or maybe it was the way Ramsey’s silver eyes had held hers, but she knew it as certainly as she knew the world of magic existed.
Though she was afraid and distrustful of the Warriors, there was no doubt Charon hadn’t been lying to her. Neither had Ramsey if she were honest with herself.
She hadn’t wanted to see that at the time he’d been trying to tell her, but she’d reflected on it since then.
Still, could she trust a Warrior? Did she dare?
“How can I not when I know Declan is coming?” she muttered.
Tara rose from the bed and reached for the coat she’d discarded earlier. A glance out the window showed the snow was once more falling rapidly. She tied her scarf snugly around her neck and tugged on her gloves before she walked out of her room and then left the castle.
With each step that brought her closer to the cottage all she could think about was the kiss Ramsey had given her. It wasn’t as if it had been her first kiss. She’d been kissed before. Not often, or even in the past year, but there was no reason for it to hold her attention the way it did.
Especially after learning about Ramsey. It shouldn’t matter that someone wanted to help her against Declan, though it was wonderful not to feel as if she were alone in the world.
But that didn’t erase the lies and omissions of the truth. Trust was how she survived. Without trust, there was nothing.
There was the kiss.
Tara kicked at the snow, hating herself for coming back to the kiss time and again. And it wasn’t as if the kiss knocked her off her feet.
It had been soft, sensual. But she had sensed his hunger and his passion in his firm lips. Just thinking about it made her stomach flip.
If Ramsey could make her feel like this with just a brief meeting of their lips and tongue, what would it be like if he really kissed her? If their tongues mated and she tasted him as she longed to do?
And God help her, she desperately wanted to find out.
“I’m so pathetic,” she said to herself. “Pathetic and lonely.”
She neared the cottage and heard the sound of all three male voices within. Tara paused outside the door for a moment as she tried to distinguish what they were saying. She had to press her ear closer to the door to hear.
“Stop being so dramatic, Ramsey,” Arran said. “I’m fine.”
“You are no’ fine. I almost killed you.”
“You know it takes a lot more than that to kill a Warrior. Decapitation works best, as you know.”
“Stop kidding around, Arran,” Charon said gruffly. “I happen to agree with Ramsey. I didna understand what he was saying until I saw it with my own eyes.”
“And I was the one who urged him to use his magic,” Arran said, his voice rising. “I’m the one who sat there and had that jolt of magic and power go through me.”
“Maybe so, but I saw it,” Charon argued. “I saw Ramsey standing there, his magic blasting into me even from that distance. I saw you yelling at him and the pain on your face from his magic. I saw that he didna hear you.”
“Enough!” Ramsey bellowed. “It’s over and done with. Arran suggested it, and I did it knowing the consequences. It was the only way to ensure that Declan stay away so we could have a few more hours with Tara to try and earn some of her trust back. I apologize to both of you for what happened today.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Arran said, his voice deep with emotion.
Tara’s heart ached for the pain she heard in Ramsey’s voice.
“There is,” Ramsey said. “Fortunately, it willna happen again. I’ve a favor to ask of both of you.”
“Name it,” Charon said.
“I need one of you to stay at the road, and the other to return to MacLeod Castle.”
The sound of a chair scraping over the floor filled Tara’s ears. She could just imagine one of them jerking to his feet at Ramsey’s statement.
“I’m no’ leaving you here alone,” Arran said.
Another chair scraped back and then Charon’s voice said, “Me either.”
“I willna be alone for long.”
Tara frowned, not understanding Ramsey’s words. Of course he wasn’t alone. Though the guests had departed the castle, there were still the owners and staff.
“Why do you want one of us to return to MacLeod Castle?” Arran asked.
Ramsey sighed. “To take Tara away from here, away from Declan.”
“So you can fight Declan yourself,” Charon said at the same instant Tara grasped it.
She opened the door and stepped inside the cottage without any of them realizing she was there.
* * *
Ramsey stared at his two friends, wondering how he could make them understand how important it was that he fight Declan alone.
“No one is dying for me.”
Ramsey’s body jerked as if he’d been struck. He slowly turned to see Tara’s form filling the doorway, her blue-green eyes filled with fury.
“Tara,” he said, and took a step toward her.
She held up a hand and said, “No.” She turned to glare at Arran and Charon as she softly closed the door behind her, belying the fury he saw coursing through her.
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br /> “No,” she repeated. “No one is dying for me. I want you all to leave.”
“I can no’ do that,” Ramsey said.
She leaned back against the door and shrugged. “I always knew Declan would catch me one day. I’m tired of running and looking over my shoulder. I’m tired of distrusting everyone. And I’m tired of the lies.”
“You can give all that up but no’ give yourself to Declan.” Ramsey swallowed and took a small step toward her. He had to convince her, and he knew he had just one shot. “You’ll be safe at MacLeod Castle. Declan can no’ reach you there.”
“Oh, but he can, Ramsey.” Her smile was sad. “He can reach me anywhere.”
“There will be Druids there to help you,” Charon said.
Arran nodded. “And other Warriors who would die before they allowed harm to come to any Druid.”
Ramsey watched Tara carefully, hoping for some sign that they were getting through to her. Her eyes moved back to him, where she held his gaze.
“If I go, will you?”
Ramsey wanted nothing more than to go back with her and the others, but he couldn’t. If he did, it would mean a battle with Declan at a later date that would involve the others. At Dunnoth Tower, he could take care of Declan once and for all.
“I’ll come,” Ramsey said. “When I’m finished with Declan.”
Tara pushed off the door and strode across the floor until she stood before him. “You don’t go, I don’t go.”
“You are no’ safe here.”
“I can hold my own against Declan.”
Ramsey saw Charon and Arran exchange a look out of the corner of his eye. He swallowed and said, “You are no’ safe here with me.”
His admission cost him more than he had realized. It felt as if he’d plunged a dagger into his own stomach and turned the handle. But the truth of what he was, what he was capable of, had been proven earlier with Arran.
Ramsey wouldn’t endanger innocents again. Ever.
And Tara was most certainly an innocent. He hadn’t even felt her magic when she’d walked to the cottage. She was a Druid. He should have known the instant she left the castle, but then again her magic had always come and gone.
He knew she was a Druid, but what kind exactly was what confounded him. He wanted to know. For himself and for her.
“I’m not safe with you?” she repeated.
Ramsey shook his head, hoping this would end the disagreement.
Instead, she walked to Arran and placed her hand atop his on the back of the chair. When she lifted her hand, she looked from it to Ramsey. Then she moved to Charon where she placed her hand on his neck and repeated the same process.
Ramsey dragged in a ragged breath when she stood in front of him once more and placed her hand on his face. He didn’t need a mirror to know the white tendrils of magic were moving from her to him.
He felt them, heard her magic’s call to his own. But it wasn’t just his magic that answered her. It was his god and his passion. He wanted to drag her against him, to lock his arms around her so that her curves were pressed against him and he could kiss her.
“What are you trying to prove?” he asked.
She raised a brow and cocked her head. “What am I trying to…? I feel it, Ramsey. I feel the magic inside you. How is that possible?”
“I doona know.”
She lowered her arm, and for a few moments the tendrils of magic could be seen around her hand before they faded. But Ramsey’s wouldn’t fade for a while.
Ramsey searched for something to tell her, something that would ease her mind and allow her to go with Arran back to MacLeod Castle.
“I may not trust you. I may not agree with how you went about telling me who and what you all are, but something happened over these past few days. I…” She paused and swallowed. “I am who I am, and I’m not hiding anymore. I will face my family, Declan, and whatever else comes for me.”
Ramsey was shaking his head before she was finished. “Be smart about this, Tara. Declan has searched for you for nearly ten years. You’ve stayed ahead of him somehow, but he’s found you.”
“I know.”
“Nay, you doona,” Arran said. “I doona think you know what kind of man Declan is.”
Her blue-green eyes never left Ramsey’s when she answered Arran. “I may not. Declan never hurt me. He never treated me unkindly.”
“Then why did you run from him?” Ramsey asked.
“Because he wanted what my family wanted. He wanted to force me to become drough. The night I left him, I overheard him tell Robbie about his elaborate plan to seduce me and trick me into the drough ceremony. He said it would be done before I knew what had happened. And as scary as that was, it was nothing to what he had planned next.”
Charon asked, “Which was what?”
“He said the magic within me would be his to control. That I would help him in his quest to—”
“Take over the world,” Ramsey finished for her.
He ran a hand down his face and sighed. He’d thought Declan might want her for something like that, and Tara’s words confirmed it.
“Every time he had me use my magic I could feel myself grow stronger. It wasn’t until that night I heard his plans that I realized I wasn’t growing strong. The magic he was having me perform was black magic. He was dragging me farther and farther into evil. I left before it took me completely, but I’m too afraid of my magic now.”
“Shite.” This was far worse than what Ramsey could have imagined.
“If your magic is so great, how come we didna feel you walk up?” Arran asked.
She shrugged. “My magic has always been so volatile. No matter what I’ve done I’ve never been able to control it properly.”
“That’s all the more reason you should go with Arran to MacLeod Castle,” Ramsey said.
Tara smiled softly. “I know about Deirdre and all that she did. The stories my grandmother told me mentioned Warriors who stood against her, but I never believed that part until today. You stood against her, even when the possibility meant death or falling under her control once more. You didn’t run.”
“There was more than just one of us,” Ramsey hastened to tell her. “There was a group of us, and we did it in part to kill Deirdre, but also to protect Druids. You only had yourself, and you did the one thing that ensured your survival.”
“I was a coward.”
“You were smart.”
The doubt in her eyes made him want to comfort her. He wouldn’t allow himself to hold her, but he could offer a little comfort.
Ramsey softly tucked a strand of her golden-brown hair behind her ear. Her head leaned against his hand slightly, but it was enough.
As he lowered his arm, more wisps of magic wound around his hand while his gaze was caught by Tara’s. Trapped. Ensnared.
And well and truly held.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“I’m really beginning to grow angry,” Declan said from the front passenger seat of his Jaguar.
Robbie leaned forward and looked at the sky through the windshield. “I doona understand, cousin. Your magic should have halted the snow.”
“Should have, but didna. I suspect this is more than just Warriors’ work.”
“Druids?”
Declan nodded.
“But surely no’ Tara. Her magic was much too volatile.”
“Was. It’s been a decade since I last worked with her. She was progressing nicely too. In a matter of months she would have been drough.”
“You’ll have her back under your roof soon enough. I’d like to know why she ran from you though.”
“I as well. I still doona think it’s Tara’s magic involved in this. This would take verra potent magic. My kind of magic.”
Robbie’s brows shot up in his forehead. “Another drough then?”
“That’s the only explanation.”
“A drough working with the Warriors?”
Declan shrugged. “Anything is possibl
e. Call for my helicopter. I’m tired of playing around.”
As he listened to Robbie put in the call for the chopper, Declan’s gaze was on the horizon to the north where he knew Tara was.
It wouldn’t be long now. She would have nowhere to run, and with his added magic, Tara wouldn’t be able to refuse him when he demanded she turn drough.
“Verra soon now, sweet Tara,” Declan said with a smile.
* * *
Tara sat on the couch in the cottage and tried not to show how anxious she was. It hadn’t mattered why she had come to the Warriors to begin with, especially once she learned Ramsey’s plan.
She hadn’t lied when she said she didn’t want anyone dying for her. Especially not someone like Ramsey. She wasn’t worth that.
From what she’d gathered by the looks they’d exchanged and their unspoken comments, Ramsey was unique among his brethren by being part Druid. What that meant exactly, Tara didn’t know.
Ramsey walked into the cottage from outside and gave a small smile. “The castle is empty. No one stayed behind, just as we asked.”
“You’re still sticking with your plan?” Charon asked.
Ramsey’s gaze shifted to Tara for a moment. “I am.”
“It’s not going to work then,” Tara said. “Because I’m not leaving. Or weren’t you listening to me?”
“I heard you,” Ramsey replied. “I just hoped you’d changed your mind.”
“I’m stubborn like that.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
Arran cleared his throat. “I have an alternative plan.”
The way Ramsey didn’t immediately dismiss Arran proved how close the men were. “Does it involve me staying?” she asked.
“It does, but only because I doona want to force you to leave,” Arran said.
Charon leaned against the wall, a bored expression on his handsome face. “Unless things get too dangerous, lass. There are too few Druids for us to allow even one to be harmed or killed if we can do something about it.”
“Well said,” Ramsey replied softly.
Tara rubbed her hands on her thighs. “It’s not in me to just hand you my life and allow you to do with it what you will.”
“Taking you to the MacLeods isna handing us your life,” Ramsey said as he walked toward her. He stopped when he reached the overstuffed chair and placed his hands on its back. “The Warriors and Druids would protect you there. You can come and go as you wish. Think of it as a sanctuary.”