A wind ruffled Drakkina’s essence, bringing the sweet smell of flowers. Drakkina inhaled, unaccustomed to smelling in spirit form.
You have done well, my daughter. The Earth Mother’s voice filled Drakkina, encircling her like an embrace. Warmth accompanied the sweet smell. It felt as if the sun’s rays touched her even though she had no body. And what have you learned?
Drakkina looked down on all of Gilla’s children. Merewin and Kat were bent over her pale body, but Merewin would know instantly that she was gone. Kailin and Serena stood over her, too, worry across their faces. Drakkina turned her focus to Drustan, waiting, watching. She was the first to see his chest fill with a rapid breath. Tenebris stood up and nosed the side of his face. Anna yelled, and they all turned back to him. Drustan’s long lashes blinked, and Anna hugged him.
I’ve learned so much, Earth Mother. Drakkina lowered through the layers of air, invisible, and laughed at the delight welling through her essence, the joy at seeing her family so happy. No one looked toward her. Could she no longer impact the living with sound or sight? Perhaps it didn’t matter. She felt the warmth of the Earth Mother around her.
Earth Mother, I’ve learned that great love sometimes requires great sacrifice, but with love it’s never too much to pay.
“Oh Drustan!” Anna kissed his face. “I love you. I thought you were dead.”
Drustan glanced above him, his hand to the amulet. “I believe I was.” Did he see her hovering there? His gaze connected with Drakkina’s. A smile touched his lips, and he bowed his head.
Live and love, son of Gilla, Drakkina said.
Serena closed her eyes. “Drakkina’s spirit is close, but no longer tied to this world.” She opened her eyes. “She gave up her life for Drustan.”
Anna wiped her face, gratitude radiating out with her smile. Drustan pulled her in to him and leaned back against the center table. He caught Anna’s cheeks in his hands. “When I felt your words and felt that little grasp…” He looked up, and Toren lowered the wrapped baby girl into his arms. Merewin had cut the baby’s umbilical cord.
Drustan hesitated. “My touch?”
Merewin smiled and shook her head. “Won’t harm her.”
Hauk reached forward and grasped Drustan’s forearm, braced his legs and helped Drustan stand. Kailin and Jackson helped Anna sit up onto the table. Hauk shrugged. “The darkness has left your touch.”
“Truly?” Drustan asked, his whole face opening up with exuberance. He grasped Keenan’s arm and then Jackson’s.
Kailin came forward. “Come here, brother.” She wrapped her arms around him, and Drustan hugged her back. “Something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” she said.
Drustan sat next to Anna, with the baby in his arm.
“Was it the killing of the demons and Semiazaz, do ye think?” Toren asked.
“Or Drakkina’s amulet and the orb?” Kailin said.
Merewin smiled at Drustan. “Or the fact that you were reborn. Cleansed by the Earth Mother.”
Drakkina, we must go. The Earth Mother’s tug was gentle.
You were right, Drakkina said. It wasn’t in the bonds I forged centuries ago. It wasn’t increasing my power or forcing a particular strategy. The only thing that conquers ultimate evil is something much stronger.
What then, daughter?
Drakkina realized that the Earth Mother already knew the answer, but had been teaching it to her all this time.
Love, Drakkina answered. Simple, authentic, pure love. That is the only magic that can conquer the darkness.
You are very wise, daughter. The breeze blew stronger, pulling Drakkina’s essence. She shifted away from the stones, rising higher.
Someone is waiting for you, the Earth Mother whispered on the breeze. Drakkina caught a familiar masculine scent.
Kina. The tiny particles in the air moved together giving substance to the voice. A blue tunic edged with dragonflies, his sword strapped as she remembered to his hip.
Eògan, she breathed. He was young, his dark hair just past his shoulders. He smiled at her and held out a hand. As she reached for him, Drakkina realized that her hand was also smooth. She glanced down to see her youthful body in silver robes, dragonflies zipping around her, resonating with her joy. She clasped his hand. It felt warm and heavy, real.
Drakkina choked out a joy-filled sob as he pulled her in to him. His lips descended as he caught her face in the palm of one hand. Warm pressure, giving and taking in perfect harmony. The kiss was full of memories and promises. Centuries melted away as Drakkina surrendered to the fullness of their love.
My love, he said as he pulled away. Come, we have much to do here.
Together? she asked.
Yes. The Earth Mother’s reward. We will be together, Kina, for eternity.
****
Drustan touched his baby daughter’s cheek. “You are beautiful, just like your mother.” He wrapped his arm around Anna, turning her.
Anna touched his face. “We should go home.”
Merewin had healed Anna and checked Drustan, removing his ruined shirt and jacket. After examining the baby once more, his sisters and their mates took Drakkina’s body to bury on the inside edge of the large circle where wildflowers would always surround her.
Drustan kissed Anna’s salty forehead. “First,” he said, dipping his face down so that she must look into his eyes. “I can’t let another second go by without telling you—”
He stopped when he felt the baby move in his arms and realized Serena had come over to take her. “Thought you might need a moment alone,” she said and whisked away.
“She reads minds,” Anna reminded him.
Drustan touched Anna’s hair. The moisture and wind had made it go wild with auburn curls. “You are gorgeous,” he said. She opened her lips to protest, but he continued.
“Inside and out, even with dirt covering your freckles.” He wiped the tip of her nose, and his smile faded to seriousness. “Anna, I was nothing before you, a curse trying not to infect anyone. I thought I was a monster.”
“You were never a monster,” she said, anger flashing through the green of her narrowing eyes. “That was a lie, a lie told to you a thousand times over your life.”
“You, Anna Pemberlin, showed me that. You saved me from the monster I was becoming. Anna, I love you,” he said, holding her face in both of his hands. He kissed her softly.
“I knew you did,” she said against his lips. “You just had to figure it out.”
He dropped his hands to reach for hers in her lap. “It was my own self-loathing that wouldn’t permit me to feel it, but somehow you and our little baby broke through the darkness in my soul.”
Tears had begun to leak from Anna’s eyes. “She is pure,” he said. “And good. She came from you.”
“Came from us,” she said.
A smile tugged at his mouth as his heart filled with pride. “And she’s powerful.”
“And she will be beautiful and impertinent and very stubborn,” Anna said, laughing softly.
“Perfect.” He slipped his arms around her back, enjoying the feel of her softness close to him. She tilted up and met his kiss with one full of acceptance, promise and the most powerful magic of all, love.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
“Kailin even put in a necessary for you,” Drustan said as Anna whisked through the cottage with baby Kina on her hip. Happiness twisted his stomach every time Anna looked at him, her face lit with a huge smile. She ran her free hand along the carved molding edging the arch between the sitting room and the kitchen. The rooms were small but open and smelled of fresh oak. The intricately patterned tin ceiling set above the wooden walls added interest and clean beauty, nothing like the thatching in the original cottage.
“How on earth did Kailin acquire the land encompassing the stone circle?” Anna asked as she eagerly climbed the cut log steps to the second level.
Drustan enjoyed the smooth curve of the railin
g as he followed. He’d made this staircase even better than the one in his tree house. “The land belonged to her, passed down from the Macleans when she was born.”
Anna peered around the door to the large washroom upstairs to stare wide-eyed at him. “You changed history?”
“Not me,” he said. “I don’t play with time.” He smiled, one eyebrow rising. “But each of my sisters, upon returning to their timeline, worked to acquire this land. Well, not Merewin as it was overrun with Picts in the tenth century. But Toren figured out a way to contact his brother in the sixteenth century. Kat said he asked Eadan and his wife, Margaret, to create a number of documents showing that the land was originally owned by the Macleans of Kylkern. So when Lachlan Maclean gave up the chief’s role to Keenan, he and Serena uncovered the documents.”
Drustan kissed Anna’s head and led her with Kina to the little girl’s bedroom. William’s nieces had helped decorate it with depictions of dragonflies all over the walls, as if they protected Kina, like her namesake.
Kina gurgled happily when she saw the room, and pointed to a doll in her cradle that Alicia made for her. The doll lifted into the air, floating to Kina’s outstretched hands. Anna looked to Drustan, and he knew she agreed with his view. They couldn’t venture to London, not with Kina still too young to hide her powers. Just as Winston had decided to stay up in Scotland with Matilda, Anna had turned in her resignation at the London hospital.
A bark outside Kina’s window brought them over to see Tenebris greeting Patricia and William as they rode up on horses laden with baskets. Anna set Kina down in her cradle, and the baby yawned. “I’ve lost track of time,” Anna said turning briskly, but Drustan caught her, reeling her in for a kiss.
“Your sister’s early.” He released her but caught her hand. “Come see our room.”
Anna trailed behind him as he took her down the hallway that had several other small rooms off it, for their future brood. He opened the room at the end of the hallway and led her inside. Anna stood still, her hand to her mouth as she turned in a tight circle. Drustan held his breath behind a smile as he waited for her to take in his handiwork.
The ceiling was made up of carved arches depicting flowers. Amongst them were dragonflies, butterflies, a sparrow, mink, and an owl. Watching and protecting. The bed was huge and sat opposite the stone hearth. The four posts were carved with vines, one of them showed Tenebris looking outward. White sheer fabric ran about the bed as curtains, creating a private space where he planned to make love to Anna for hours.
“Oh Drustan, it’s beautiful,” she whispered and walked toward the hearth, her gaze raised to the portrait he’d painted. Where he’d used his magic to carve the wood, he’d used only his hand and his heart to paint the scene of their wedding. In the soft shades of color, they stood looking at one another, hands clasped, under bows of evergreen before the hearth at Kylkern.
“You captured it perfectly,” she said, her eyes sparkling with a teary sheen. Her whole face bespoke happiness. “All of it, this whole house.”
He walked up to her, resting his hands on her shoulders. “And it’s completely warded within these stones.”
“You’ve made all this from nothing.” She shook her head. “It’s amazing.”
Drustan marveled at the softness of her cheek as he stroked the back of his finger down it. “And you’ve made me from nothing.”
She curled her fingers into his tunic. “You were always something wonderful inside. Remember, I know these things.”
Drustan leaned forward, and Anna met his kiss. She walked her fingers up and around to the back of his neck, molding her soft curves to his hard form. Quicksilver shot through Drustan’s veins as his heart pumped ferociously with love, and he wrapped Anna up. He would never let go of her. They would always move forward, together, as it was meant to be.
“Anna, do we put all the food on the table…slab…altar?” Patricia called from below. “Good Lord, I don’t know what it is,” she said.
Anna pulled back and laughed softly. “I better help her. The rest will be here soon.”
“I haven’t yet shown you how soft the bed is,” Drustan said and watched with satisfaction how her breath hitched. “Tonight,” he promised and kissed her just below her ear where her neck began. He had to tug her gently to get her moving, her gaze lingering on the massive bed.
“Yes,” he said to Patricia for Anna as they came down the steps. “It’s a table as well as an altar.”
Patricia shook her head and threw a tablecloth over the stone. “Is Kina napping?”
“Thankfully,” Anna said and helped Patricia by uncovering several plates of tarts and puddings that Helen had sent along.
William shook Drustan’s hand. “Ye have a solid grip, MacDruce. And a handsome house.”
Drustan nodded, a lightness in his chest. “I better set the stones.” They walked outside the arched door together. “My sisters become impatient and start meddling with the threads if I don’t meet them on time.”
William shook his head. “Ye have the most bizarre clan gatherings.”
Drustan touched each of the ten soaring stones, funneling his magic into their centers. His lips moved softly. “On the currents of my blood, on the currents of my love, on the currents of my power fed to me by the Earth Mother, open this portal to bring my family home.”
As Drustan’s power infiltrated the circle, the forest outside shifted, fading into mist until only the contents of the circle remained. He opened his eyes when he felt Anna’s hand slide into his, cutting off his magic. Luckily the stones held onto it. She smiled up at him, and he bent for a quick kiss. “I love you, Anna MacDruce,” he said.
“And I love you,” she answered back. He would never grow tired of hearing her voice, hearing her words. They filled him with life, a life he never knew he could have.
Tenebris romped by with a child clinging to his back as Merewin and Hauk walked into the circle from the mist. His sister carried another babe. “I brought honey mead,” Hauk called, carrying a medium-sized barrel over one shoulder. Three more Viking children chased after Tenebris, trying to catch his swaying tail while their eldest daughter, Dalla, waved as she balanced a basket of fresh fish on her hip.
Kailin and Jackson, Kat and Toren, and Serena and Keenan all came into the circle through the mist. Children of all ages followed. All of them family. How could Drustan ever have felt alone and abandoned?
Two dragonflies flitted through the circle and everyone stilled, following them with their eyes. Even the children stopped in mid-squeal and tumble to watch. The hush was so deep that the buzz of the dragonfly wings could be heard as they circled and hovered. One possessed ethereal wings edged with silver and blue and the other had broad wings with darker stripes across. They seemed to dance about, almost in joy.
They came to hover before Drustan, and he bowed his head. “Thank you for your sacrifice, Drakkina,” he said. “Your family will always remember you.”
“And celebrate you,” Kat said, coming closer.
“And honor you,” Serena said.
“We will tell our children’s children of your wisdom and sacrifice,” Merewin added.
“We, your children, love you,” Kailin said.
As they all bowed their heads, the dragonflies lifted on a slight breeze and rode its thread out into the mist.
The children broke the stillness as they lunged for Tenebris, who rolled over, making them shriek as he licked their faces.
“A three-day festival doesn’t begin just standing around,” Hauk announced and headed toward the arched cottage door with his barrel of mead.
Anna laughed beside Drustan and looped her arm completely through his. She looked up into his gaze, her face radiantly happy. “Time to celebrate.”
Drustan leaned down and kissed her slowly, leisurely, as they stood amongst the wildflowers. As he pulled back, he met her contented smile. “We have all the time in the world.”
Author’s Note
&nbs
p; Dear Reader,
Thank you for following Drakkina and the daughters and son of Gilla and Druce through time and adventure. They have taught me so much! And they will exist forever in time, as long as The Dragonfly Chronicles are read. If you liked them, please share them with a friend.
And remember, through everything, love shines the brightest, bringing light and magic to the darkest of times. May love and dragonfly magic always be with you!
—Heather
A word about the author…
Heather McCollum is an award-winning historical and YA paranormal romance writer. She earned her B.A. in Biology from the University of Maine, much to her English professor’s dismay. She was a 2009 Golden Heart Finalist and a 2015 Readers’ Crown Winner. Ms. McCollum has ten full-length romances released in electronic and digital formats.
When she is not busy writing and answering calls of “Mom,” she can be found educating women about ovarian cancer. She is a teal warrior herself and just finished slaying the ovarian cancer beast.
She currently resides with her very own Highland hero and three spirited children in the wilds of suburbia on the mid-Atlantic coast.
More information about Ms. McCollum and her books can be found at www.HeatherMcCollum.com.
http://www.HeatherMcCollum.com
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