Dark Sword 05: Shadow Highlander

by Donna Grant

  Carefully, he put his hand under Reaghan’s shoulders and brought her against his chest. He buried his face in her hair, unable to believe she was gone, that he hadn’t known she needed him.

  “Galen?”

  He opened his eyes to see Duncan behind Reaghan, his hand on the spear. Galen nodded. A scant heartbeat later Duncan yanked the spear from Reagan’s back.

  She cried out, her hands clutching him. Galen stroked her hair and her back. “You’ll be all right.”

  “I’m going to get Sonya,” Duncan said.

  Galen barely heard him as he lowered Reaghan so he could look into her eyes. Her skin was deathly pale, her breathing weak.

  “Galen,” she whispered with a slight smile on her lips. “I had to save Braden.”

  “It’s all right. Doona talk. Sonya is going to help you.”

  Reaghan swallowed and slowly licked her lips. “I cannot feel my legs. I know … now I know how to break the spell.”

  “Shh. You’re going to be all right,” Galen whispered. Blood poured from her wound, soaking his hand. He pushed against the wound to try and stanch the flow, but it continued to seep between his fingers to coat the grass.

  She touched his cheek as she smiled, her eyes drifting closed.

  “Please,” Galen said, choking. He felt the tears roll down his face, felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. “Reaghan, please doona leave me.”

  Her eyes closed and her hand dropped. Galen cried out and pulled her to him, rocking her. He willed her to stay alive until Sonya could reach them, silently praying that God not take Reaghan away from him, not when he needed her.

  Loved her.

  Galen could feel the life draining from Reaghan’s body. He called to her, saying her name over and over again.

  “Sonya’s here,” he dimly heard Logan say.

  Galen lifted his face and found himself surrounded by Warriors and Druids. “Help her,” he begged Sonya.

  Sonya closed her eyes and tears began to fall from them. The healer knelt beside Reaghan and lifted her hands. Galen waited for the blood flow to slow, for the wound to begin to heal.

  But nothing happened.

  Sonya’s tears increased. “I’m trying.”

  “Please, Sonya. I need her. She’s dying, and you’re the only one who can save her.”

  “Bring Isla!” Fallon bellowed.

  But Galen knew it was too late. A shudder ran through Reaghan as her last breath passed her lips.

  Grief. Agony. Rage.

  They all ripped through Galen like lightning. He could do nothing but hold Reaghan. He had possessed the most important thing in his life, and he’d let her die.

  “I’m so sorry,” Sonya whispered, and stumbled to her feet.

  For a few short days Galen had held Reaghan, loved her … been loved by her. He’d been able to enjoy the simple pleasure of touching her, and being touched by her. Something he would never experience again.

  How could he continue without her?

  How would he even try?

  Suddenly, Reaghan’s skin began to glow. She grew brighter and brighter, the light so brilliant Galen had to shield his eyes.

  A white light burst from Reaghan’s eyes and mouth and shot from her fingertips. Galen never loosened his hold. He buried his face in her neck while he heard Fallon shout his name.

  Galen paid no attention. Wherever Reaghan was going, he wanted to be with her.

  Wind rushed around Galen, pushing him against Reaghan, against the ground. It grew stronger and stronger until it paused of a sudden. A heartbeat later there was a loud boom and the wind picked up again, swirling up from the ground as if it came from Reaghan.

  The magic Galen had come to recognize and crave as Reaghan’s grew more solid. It filled the air and his very body, touching every fiber of his being.

  Galen took a breath, the magic filling his lungs and burning him with its intensity at the same instant it soothed him with its purity.

  He raised his head to find the white light was gone. As he gazed at Reaghan, he thought he saw her chest move. And then she took a gasping breath. Her body went rigid as she reached for him.

  “I’m here,” he said. His heart was bursting with joy, his world once more complete. As long as he had Reaghan, he could do anything.

  Reaghan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The pain that had devastated her body had vanished. She could still feel the remnants of it, but it was fading as if it had never been.

  What was stranger was the beautiful, awesome magic which now filled her. It was many times stronger than what she had felt in the dungeons.

  And with the return of her magic came all of her memories. They raced through her mind, images of people and places and events she had experienced from the day she was born until that moment.

  She grew dizzy and gripped Galen tighter. The words her father had given her were now as clear as water. He had given her the means to break the spell when she had tried to find her magic to heal Odara.

  “Reaghan?”

  She lifted her eyes to Galen’s and smiled. “It’s me.”

  He frowned, confusion filling his cobalt eyes. “I felt you die.”

  “Aye, you did, but I am back. Along with all of my memories. The spell is broken.”

  Odara stepped forward, supported by Marcail and Cara. “You mean you had to die?”

  “Nay,” Reaghan said, and slowly sat up so she could see everyone. “Thankfully, the magic used to break the spell was strong enough to pull me back.”

  Galen stroked her face with his fingers. The tears on his cheeks made her heart catch. He kissed her gently, reverently, as if he feared she might break. “You’re back. That’s all that matters.”

  “I am.”

  “I didna know how I was going to live without you.”

  Reaghan placed her hand on his heart. “You would have. You’re a Warrior.”

  “Without you, I am nothing.”

  His declaration made her throat close up with tears. “I’ve been under my own spell for almost five hundred years. There were people who were kind, some who weren’t. There were those who needed me, and those who didn’t. Of all the people I’ve met and known, you, Galen Shaw, have been the only one who stirred my soul.”

  “I love you,” he said. “I never thought I would know such joy.”

  She placed her hand on his cheek, her heart bursting with happiness. “I think I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you.”

  Galen smiled brightly and gave a shout of delight. His dark blue eyes twinkled as he lowered his head to hers. “I’m never letting you get away from me.”

  “I don’t ever want to,” Reaghan answered.

  His sensuous smile caused her stomach to flutter with desire. His languid kiss sealed their love and their future.

  EPILOGUE

  Sonya walked away from Reaghan and Galen and their joy. Reaghan had returned to life, but only because of her own spell. Had Reaghan not lived, Sonya wasn’t sure what Galen would have done to her.

  Just as Sonya had feared for months, when she had needed her magic most, it had deserted her. Sonya stared at her hands. Her magic was part of her. Without it, who was she?

  With Reaghan and Galen headed back to the castle, the others searched for anyone left alive. Sonya was sick to her stomach to see the number of Druids from her home who had been killed. If only she had known sooner, Broc and Fallon could have brought them safely to the castle as they had done with Reaghan and her village.

  She wondered what could have prompted them to leave their home. The Druids Broc had saved were in the castle, and Sonya couldn’t wait to look for Anice. Her sister would have the answers to the questions that plagued her.

  But it would have to wait. Sonya needed to gather her magic, and push aside her fear. There were those who would need to be healed, and everyone would expect her to use her magic.

  Sonya had to make sure she was able to heal them. She wouldn’t be able to look anyone in
the eye if she couldn’t. A tremor of foreboding raced down her spine, but she refused to listen to it.

  She stepped over decapitated wyrran and dead MacClures as she checked a Druid for life. “Another gone,” she murmured.

  As she stood, Sonya caught sight of Broc slowly falling to his knees beside a Druid. He raised his haunted gaze to Sonya. The hurt, the grief she saw reflected in his depths propelled her forward.

  Sonya lifted her skirts and hurried toward him. When she neared him, she paused at the torment etched on his face. The way he held the Druid, as if she were the most precious thing in the world, caused a flare of envy.

  “Sonya, she needs you,” Broc pleaded, his voice breaking with emotion.

  Sonya pushed aside her jealousy. And then she saw the face of her sister. All the hope, all the joy she had been holding inside to share with Anice shattered in an instant.

  It was all Sonya could do to suck in a breath to her starved lungs. Sonya covered her mouth with her hand, unable to believe it was her sister.

  “Sonya!” Broc bellowed. “Use your healing.”

  Sonya knelt beside her sister and put her hand on Anice’s chest. No breath moved in Anice’s body. “I cannot help her, Broc. My magic does not work on those already gone.”

  “She’s no’,” Broc stated. “Heal her.”

  Sonya rose, her knees threatening to buckle for a second time that day, and took a step back. Anice had spoken of a Broc, but Sonya had believed her sister had invented him. How wrong she had been?

  “How do you know my sister?” Sonya asked.

  “Heal her,” Broc said, his voice low and menacing. “You cannot allow Anice to die when you have the magic to help her.”

  “She’s beyond my magic. She’s gone.”

  Broc hugged Anice to him. “You failed her, Sonya!”

  His words were like flails on a whip, striking at the most tender places inside Sonya. What was worse was that Broc was right. She had failed. She could have saved her sister if she had not been hiding in the dungeon.

  Sonya looked up at the imposing structure of MacLeod Castle. She didn’t belong there anymore.

  She backed away step by step from Broc, but he paid her no heed. His attention was on Anice. The gentle way he smoothed away her sister’s hair from her face was like a dagger to Sonya’s heart. Broc had known her sister.

  And he had kept it a secret from Sonya.

  What a fool she had been, to have any feelings for the Warrior. She had thought him brave to spy on Deirdre and risk his own life. She had been deceived. In the most heinous of ways.

  At the village Sonya turned her back on the castle, on the life she had hoped to build there, and dashed into the forest.

  * * *

  Galen rubbed his temples as he sat beside Reaghan in the great hall. It was difficult for him to see her up and moving about as if she hadn’t had a spear in her spine just a few hours earlier.

  While he and the other Warriors had cleaned their land of dead wyrran and MacClures, Reaghan and the Druids had seen to the wounded.

  Now, they all gathered in the hall to hear what Reaghan had to say.

  “You remember everything? Through all the years?” Galen asked, still unable to believe it.

  “Aye,” Reaghan said. “Each ten years when the spell would work, it was like a wall went up in my mind, blocking everything. With my spell shattered, those walls are gone.”

  Marcail shook her head in wonder. “How did you survive dying?”

  “When we were in the dungeon using our magic to heal Odara I heard chanting.”

  “Ah,” Marcail said with a smile. “It’s beautiful, is it not?”

  Reaghan inhaled deeply as she thought of the soothing cadence of the chant. “While I heard the chant, I also heard my father. He poured words into my mind, words I couldn’t understand. It took so long to unlock a few, but I knew he was trying to tell me how to break the spell. Then I found Braden gone.”

  “And you left the castle,” Galen said.

  “I did,” Reaghan admitted. “I think the spell began to break as soon as we left Loch Awe. It broke a little more when I used magic against Mairi, and then again when I used the magic for Odara. It was while I lay dying, my mind drifting to a realm I otherwise probably couldn’t reach, that I realized how to end the spell.”

  Camdyn asked, “Death?”

  “Nay. It was magic. I called forth my magic, all of it. I must have done it right before my last breath left me.”

  Isla smiled and folded her hands atop the table. “Very potent magic for sure.”

  “And the spell?” Cara asked. “It had to have been a very powerful spell.”

  Reaghan sighed and leaned against Galen. She was so glad he was near. She was glad the spell was broken, but it brought back memories that would pain her for a lifetime.

  Fallon shifted in his chair. “Maybe you should start from the beginning, Reaghan.”

  Reaghan looked to Galen and then around the table at the Druids and Warriors who waited to hear what she had to say. “Long ago Druids were as common to Scotland as heather. There were large groups as well as smaller groups. The larger the gathering of Druids, the more magic.”

  “Aye,” Isla agreed.

  “My village consisted of over four hundred Druids,” Reaghan explained. “We were the largest. And the ones most hidden. Our home was in the valley of Foinaven Mountain and shielded many times over by magic. If you didn’t know the way or the magic needed to gain entrance, you could never find it.”

  Duncan whistled. “Are there still Druids there?”

  Reaghan reached below the table and locked hands with Galen. “For centuries we lived in quiet seclusion. Every so often a Druid would come to us for protection.”

  “Protection from what?” Quinn asked.

  “Deirdre. Her power was growing faster than any of us could have guessed. We thought we had time to combat her.”

  Ramsey crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. “You had something to use against her.”

  It wasn’t a question. “We did. Every one of our Druids knew. It was a secret shared because everyone had used their magic. Somehow Deirdre was able to sway one of the Druids to her side. Deirdre learned we had a secret, but what, she didn’t know. Though the spy had been swayed, at the last moment, he must have realized what he had done. He took his own life before he could give Deirdre more information.”

  “But the worst had already been done,” Arran said.

  Reaghan licked her lips. “Deirdre had learned of our location. She came with her wyrran. So many were killed. Deirdre didn’t realize that any one of the Druids could have told her what she wanted. She and her wyrran murdered so many. Others, afraid of what Deirdre would do to them, took their own lives.”

  Galen’s hand squeezed hers, giving her comfort with such a small gesture.

  “What happened next?” Fallon urged.

  “There were only a handful of us left. My father and I along with two very young girls and their parents. The girls were too young to know of our secret, but it didn’t stop Deirdre from taking them. The parents…” She paused to clear her throat. “The father died fighting the wyrran, and the mother threw herself from the mountain.”

  “Which left you and your father,” Galen said.

  Reaghan nodded. “We ran as fast as we could. We kept away from other Druids. I fought against the plan my father had, but it soon became clear it was the only way.”

  Cara’s brow furrowed as she asked, “What was the plan?”

  “My father convinced me to use a spell that would erase my memories and continue doing so every ten years so that I could fit in with the Druids of Loch Awe. They agreed to take us in, and lent their magic to my father’s plan.”

  She paused, unsure if she could go on. The pain and loss threatened to swallow her whole.

  “It can wait,” Lucan said.

  “Nay, I need to finish.” Reaghan glanced at Galen before she continued. “I didn’t k
now the spell was so powerful there would be a price for using it. My father knew if he had told me I would refuse. He used all of his considerable magic to push the spell, but in granting me immortality it took his life.”

  Galen pulled her against him and kissed the top of her head.

  “What was so important that your father would give his own life, as well as put such a spell on you?” Odara asked.

  Reaghan straightened and looked around the table again. “There are a few reasons. One, because of the strength of my magic. If Deirdre got a hold of it, it would increase hers tenfold.”

  “Which we doona need,” Ian murmured.

  Lucan ran a hand across his jaw. “And the other?”

  “I alone know the location of Deirdre’s sister, Laria.”

  The silence was deafening.

  “Her sister?” Quinn repeated, disbelief in every syllable.

  Reaghan nodded. “Her twin, to be exact. Deirdre thought she was the one who received all the magic. They were raised in a small community of droughs made up mostly of family members. When Deirdre killed her aunt then caused the rest of the members to turn on each other, Laria walked away.”

  “I cannot imagine Deirdre allowing anyone to go free,” Isla said.

  “It was thought Laria had no magic, so she never underwent the ceremony to become drough,” Reaghan explained. “Laria sought my village when she saw how quickly Deirdre was coming into the black magic. The Druids granted her request to join them, and she lived there for almost five years before Deirdre began to look for her. We had a seer who told Laria she was the one who could stop Deirdre.”

  Camdyn shook his head in confusion. “How? Deirdre has used black magic to become immortal. Did Laria do the same?”

  “Nay. The mies of my village had exceptionally strong magic. Together they devised a plan. They would put Laria under a spell. She is essentially frozen in time, hidden in the mountains. Members of my family are the only ones who can unlock a portion of the tomb and since I’m the last, I’m the artifact.”

  “A portion?” Ian asked.

  “Aye. From what my father told me, Laria is entombed in a maze.”