“MacDruce,” William supplied. “And I ask ye to stay near him while he is at Kylkern. He is a stubborn man. Ye alone can influence him.” His hard gaze said much more.
“I doubt that,” Anna said.
“Is he handsome, Anna?” Patricia asked, spinning toward her.
William tucked Patricia’s hand in his arm and moved closer to Anna. “The man is dangerous. Only ye can mute his powers.”
“Dangerous?” Patricia whispered even though the three of them were alone in the room. “Anna, you said he didn’t harm you.”
“He didn’t,” Anna said and swallowed hard.
“But he could harm everyone if he wished it,” William said. “What did you see last night?”
Anna’s stomach tightened. “I…I thought it a dream, had convinced myself…”
“Dangerous and yet he is in Kylkern now?” Patricia asked.
Anna practically heard William’s teeth grinding. “Only yer sister seems to mute his powers.”
“Like your sister’s husband mutes her mind-reading powers?” Patricia asked on a gasp, her gaze volleying between William and Anna.
Neither of them answered. “And how your eerily accurate intuition doesn’t work with me at all?” Patricia continued. “Anna, do you know what this means?”
“That you’re the only person who can throw William a surprise party?” Anna said despite the chill radiating up to her nape.
Patricia frowned at her and rolled her eyes. “No, it means this Drustan fellow is your soul mate.”
****
Anna stepped down the dark stairs and stopped short. William stood there in the shadows. He’d left her to wash and dress with Patricia just after her overzealous announcement that Anna didn’t believe in the least. Her sister had a tendency toward romanticizing every aspect of life, including the frowning Highlander who helped her pick up her packages on a London street. Amazingly, that particular romantic notion came to fruition.
William watched her descend the final step.
“Do you make it a habit of skulking around in the dark corners of your own castle?” she asked him.
“Stay close to Drustan MacDruce. Only yer touch can stop him from killing everyone within his sight.”
Anna’s heart thumped hard in her chest as images of whipping wind and demons jumped forefront in her mind. “You think he is a killer,” she whispered. “Is that what your famed intuition tells you?” she asked. “Will Drustan MacDruce bring ruin to all of us?”
William’s lips thinned as he looked out into the great hall. “He has the potential to be the most dangerous man ever to walk the earth. I think he hasn’t decided yet what he will be.” He looked at Anna. “And I think ye can sway him one way or another.”
Anna swallowed. “You’re making me sound very important when I’m far from it.”
“Ye are the only person who can make him vulnerable, the only person who can stop him.” William turned and strode into the great hall.
Anna watched him go, her jaw sore from clenching her teeth. She rested her palm against the cool stone that made up the castle walls. With a steadying breath, she rounded the corner and stopped, her gaze directly on the large man by the hearth. He stood, staring at the steps. The great breadth of his shoulders seemed to relax as if seeing her had somehow calmed him. She bobbed a quick nod and walked to the long, polished table that dominated the center of the hall. Several of William’s warriors sat and stood near it, their glances and whispers directed toward the hearth.
She thanked Helen for a bowl of flavorful stew and a chunk of fresh bread. Helen placed a second beside her at the table.
“A promising aroma,” Drustan said as he slid back his wooden chair to sit. “You must have a thyme and rosemary garden.”
Helen paused, her aging eyes wary. “A full plot of nothing but herbs inside the back wall.” Pride lifted her words like her straight spine.
“I would like to see it. I grow my own.”
“Ye grow herbs?” she asked, her gaze traveling from the top of his head down. Anna agreed with the woman’s obvious assessment that Drustan looked closer to a warrior than a gardener.
Drustan nodded and filled his spoon with stew. “When one lives alone, one becomes self-sufficient. And I prefer not to exist on boiled potatoes and onions, at least not without some sage and thyme.”
Conversation? The man was speaking about cooking while being gutted by glares all around him. Even Anna could feel the heated looks. She stared forward into her bowl, but watched his tanned hand lift his spoon. Silence stuffed the room like a bloated dead fish. Her nose wrinkled as if she could actually smell the strain. Perhaps it was the heightened proximity of sweaty Maclean clansmen.
The anxious pressure was going to give her indigestion. Anna set her spoon down and shifted her gaze to William’s men. “Don’t you all have tasks to accomplish? The wedding is happening tomorrow morning. Your soon-to-be lady will be down from her room in minutes and yet you are idle. We need more tables, chairs and somewhere Helen has the lengths of dried garland.”
Heads swiveled toward William where he observed from a corner. He nodded to Hamish who scraped his stool along the stone as he rose. “Rory, Charles, the tables are in the bailey.” He split up the tasks easily and the men slid, stood, and sauntered out. If they could have left their suspicious glares pinned to Drustan, he would be skewered to the table.
“What did you tell them?” Anna whispered to Drustan and lifted her spoon to her lips. The flavorful soup slid down her throat, making her realize how hungry she was after their trek back to Kylkern.
“That I am not their enemy.”
“They don’t believe you.”
“Highlanders are a cautious lot. Perhaps it is your English accent that has them on edge.”
She saw a grin raise the corner of his lips as he lifted another spoonful to his mouth. Such a full mouth. A memory of it pressed to hers slipped into her mind unbidden. Anna snapped her gaze back down.
“Hardly. You did something, didn’t you?”
William walked over. “They know he can paralyze them, kill them with a touch.”
Drustan stared back. “It does not mean I intend to.”
Anna wondered if she set her hand between their gazes, would blood spurt from her palm. They were like two boars ready to charge one another.
William broke the stare and took up his tankard. “They know as well as I that intentions are very different from actions. They could never trust one with such power. Ye may leave at any time, MacDruce, if we make ye uncomfortable.”
“I don’t require their trust,” Drustan said. “And I don’t require comfort. I will stay.”
Stiff silence again. Anna sighed. “Lovely, now that the guest list is decided, let’s be a bit less murderous-looking when—”
“Here I am,” Patricia called and tapped across the stone floor, her slippers turning to light thuds as she traversed the scattered rugs.
William turned immediately, quickly followed by Drustan rising. So he knew to stand when a lady entered. The man was complex.
“And you must be our savior,” Patricia said, her smile a little too wide. She curtsied low before him even though she looked more like she wanted to take several steps backward. “Thank you, kindest of men, for bringing my sister back unharmed.”
Drustan looked bewildered and watchful. Had he never been complimented before? Or perhaps it was the curtsey. That could throw anyone off if they weren’t used to proper etiquette. Curtseys threw Anna off so she refrained from doing them.
William practically jumped in front of Patricia. “Even a mere touch?” he asked Drustan, a growl rumbling through him.
Drustan took a step back to stand alongside Anna. The man towered over her, yet somehow Anna felt like he was almost hiding. “I have created an invisible partition around myself in case someone accidentally bumps into me,” Drustan said. “They may feel sick from the touch but not die. If you have one who can heal with magic, it can be righted easil
y.”
William’s face turned a bright red. “Don’t touch him, Patricia, regardless. Helen?” William called.
The housekeeper stepped into the hall. “Aye?”
“Have Matilda come downstairs.”
“And yet,” Patricia said, her delicate eyebrows raised, “you can touch my sister and bring her no harm.”
“An aberration,” Drustan said.
Anna looked up at his stony features. Confusion lay heavy along the lowering of his brows.
William snorted. “Unfortunately, she is much worse off than an aberration,” he said.
Drustan’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. Anna wondered if he even noticed as he stared across at William. “You know something of this? Why I can touch her? Why I’ve dreamt of her all my life?”
Patricia’s face softened. “You’ve dreamt of Anna your whole life?” She clasped her hands in front of her and smiled. Anna nearly stomped her foot at her sister’s romantic sigh. This wasn’t romantic. This was horrific.
William looked between Anna and Drustan. “Ye do not know?” His gaze rested on Drustan. “Has no one told ye what it means if a person mutes yer powers?”
“I’ve never met another who was immune,” Drustan said. “Tell me.” The words came like an order. Apparently the man wasn’t used to asking for things. But would “please” really be in the vocabulary of someone who could destroy the world? Probably not.
Anna thumped her hands on her skirts. “They have some notion that we are linked somehow since my touch mutes your powers.”
“It’s not a notion,” Patricia said. “Drakkina came to me to explain it.”
“Drakkina?” Drustan blurted out the name. “The Silver Witch resides here?”
“Not resides,” William said. “Visits.”
Two days ago, Anna had raised her eyes heavenward in this very hall at the mention of magical powers and a dragonfly-enshrouded ghost woman who visited the Maclean family. Anna took in all of Patricia’s information and then spent the day recalling what she’d learned during her mental illness rotation at the London hospital.
Good Lord! Twenty-four hours could change everything. It was a wonder she wasn’t catatonic with shock.
“What is this notion?” Drustan asked.
Patricia smiled at him. “It happens within the Maclean family. If someone in the family has the gift of magic in whatever form, the magic doesn’t work on just one other person. William’s sister, Margaret, reads minds, but when her husband touches her the magic fails. William has amazing intuition, but he can’t even guess where I might be in the castle.”
“One person?” Drustan said and glanced at Anna. “Anna is my one person. What does that mean?”
Patricia spoke slowly as if impressing a very important lesson on a child. “William’s intuition fails with me because I am his soul mate.”
“We are…” Drustan began.
“Soul mates,” Patricia finished with a little laugh and looked at Anna. “You might as well give in and marry him tomorrow. We can have a double wedding.”
Shock froze Drustan’s face. His look, so similar to those of the male doctors in the hospital upon meeting her, was the match to the dry kindling that was currently Anna’s composure. Instant inferno.
“Ridiculous!” Anna shouted, causing a squeak to come from the steps. William’s nieces stood there, both of them with wide eyes. Alicia, the youngest at sixteen years of age, held her older sister, Matilda’s hand. Anna ignored them. “You can’t possibly mean that God or fate has already picked who you or I or anyone is to connect with in this life. That a man, a violent man—”
“Violent?” Drustan and William both growled at the same time.
“Could possibly be my soul mate, if something like that even exists!”
Drustan crossed his arms over his chest and took on a warrior’s stance as he stared at William. “You believe the Silver Witch.”
Anna plopped down in her seat. Luckily it still sat behind her or she’d be sprawled on the floor and liable to stay there until her world stopped shuddering.
“Every love match in the family works this way,” Patricia said and lowered herself next to Anna. Anna barely felt her sister squeeze her hand. “Drakkina told me to stop being silly and say yes to William. I was going to anyway.” Patricia giggled. Giggled, her sister actually giggled despite the insanity infecting everyone in the room. “Don’t look at me like that, Anna,” Patricia said. “I’m not crazy.”
“Can you read my mind?” Anna asked.
Patricia smiled, her eyes twinkling. “No, but I’ve grown up with your expressions. The one you’re wearing now shows you’re about to commit me to that hospital you work in.”
“The Silver Witch is not to be trusted,” Drustan said.
“I don’t trust anyone,” William said.
“Except me,” Patricia said
“Yet, you’re marrying a woman based on the witch’s words.”
William began to unsheathe his sword and froze, the blade half out. “Anna, touch his hand—now.”
Anna didn’t touch him, but her eyes blazed. “Let him go, Mr. MacDruce.” Drustan released William and she swallowed a breath of relief. “If you go about”—she waved her free hand—“freezing people, they will never trust you.”
“I don’t require William Maclean’s trust,” Drustan replied, watching William and his sword.
“If you want him to answer your questions about his family, you do,” Anna said.
Drustan continued the stare with William and shrugged. “Not necessarily.”
“William, put that away,” Patricia said.
“Hamish,” William called to where several guards stood at the ready near the steps down into the entry. “Find us a pair of handcuffs in the dungeon.”
“Why in heaven’s name would you need handcuffs?” Patricia asked, her hand flattened to the modest rise of lace at her neckline.
“It would be safer for all of us here if Mr. MacDruce stayed in constant contact with Miss Pemberlin.”
Patricia gasped and Alicia giggled where she stood with her frowning sister. Drustan shrugged like he wouldn’t mind a bit.
Anna stood slowly. Had this whole family lost their minds? Or perhaps she was the one going insane. “Patricia, I appreciate that you wish to have a life away from London, far out in the middle of rocks, mud, and ice, but I believe my visit has been shortened. Please come help me pack. I will stay for your wedding and leave by afternoon tomorrow.” She turned to William. “Thank you for your…” What do you call it when someone says they will shackle you to a darkly handsome devil? “…your efforts to…for trying to find me and for housing me these weeks. Please see that my transport—”
“You are not going anywhere,” Drustan cut in.
Anna pivoted on the heel of her boot to glare at him. “You cannot stop me.”
“I think last night proves your statement invalid,” he said.
“What happened last night?” Patricia asked.
“Hamish, get the handcuffs,” William called and the man dodged down a back corridor.
Patricia jumped up. “You are not handcuffing my sister to this…” She gestured toward Drustan. “What are you exactly?”
Everyone froze, their gazes riveted to Drustan’s firm stare. For a moment, Anna wondered if Drustan had paralyzed them all, but then Patricia blinked and tucked hair behind her ear and William shifted as if itching to slice Drustan in two.
Drustan opened his mouth, his strong jawline dropping just enough to speak. He looked thoughtful as if he, too, wondered what he was. A small pinch of pain squeezed the space between his brows. “I…am a man.”
“A dangerous man,” William added.
Drustan looked to William. “As are you.”
The two men stared at one another like two warriors on a battlefield, deciding if they fought on opposite sides or supported the same bloody monarch. Where William was round across his chest, Drustan stood taller and br
oader, his muscles obvious under his casual shirt of blue lawn. Dark hair fell about the cut planes of his face, sliding across his forehead. Drustan’s blue eyes held such intensity it made Anna hold her breath. Would they battle in the hall? There would be no fairness in the contest, not when one touch from Drustan could kill her sister’s true love.
Anna stepped between them, her mouth open to protest. But before she could utter a word Drustan’s gaze jerked toward the entryway. “Damn,” he whispered and shut his eyes, his forehead wrinkling. He turned and jogged toward the doors, the long length of muscular leg showing through his trousers. “Call off your men, Maclean. The wolf is mine.”
****
Drustan leapt down the stone steps, past the guards on either side of the wooden doors and out into the deepening twilight. Macleans moved about the bailey, but he paid them no mind. His concern centered on the perimeter of the village where Maclean lookouts would soon see Tenebris slinking across the moor.
Drustan heard William yelling to his men behind him, the man’s footfalls crunching on the gravel in time with his own.
Stay beyond the town, Drustan sent toward his beast.
Boy. Wet. Shivers.
Drustan slid to a stop where the path fanned out to the edge of the moor. Several men stood there, bows cocked. “Stop,” he yelled. “The beast is mine.”
“It’s the biggest bloody wolf I’ve ever seen,” one called.
“Stad!” William yelled out from behind, but an arrow was already loosed.
With a flick of power, Drustan lit the arrow with fire and drove it into the ground. Tenebris paused a foot behind it, his golden eyes reflecting the flame. On his long back lay the child, clinging to the black fur.
“Josiah!” one of the men called. “Get Miriam.” Several warriors moved forward toward Tenebris. Drustan could feel his friend’s fear. The torches, arrows, the smell of men and their violence.
“The wolf is my companion. He’s found your lost boy,” Drustan called out. He could easily freeze the milling people but Anna was right. It certainly wasn’t the way to gain their trust. If any of them thought to kill his friend, he would stop him.
The wolf lowered his bulk to the frosty, damp ground, and the guards surrounded him.
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