by LAURA HARNER
“Now what?” Randi asked.
“I suggest you rest, we may be in for a long discussion after dinner. ‘Twas oft his favorite time to train me. The man is a veritable night owl.” With that, Alex followed Earnan out of the study.
****
Everything was packed, the vehicles loaded. As a precaution, Red had been ferrying boxes and supplies to the boat all week. Even now, he’d moved one of their vehicles to the far north end of the property. There was no sense telegraphing their intention to leave. Faolan, Lilly, and Red, would take turns running the farm in their wolf forms through the night, although none of them expected trouble. Gabhran and Elena sat on either side of Lissa, taking turns feeling the baby kick, all three of them beaming with pride.
Without warning, Gabhran jumped to his feet. Elena stiffened, her eyes seeking Faolan.
“What is it, Elena?” Faolan asked urgently.
Gabhran turned out the lights with a single spell he forgot he knew.
“Someone is out there. Someone is thinking of killing us all. It was very strong, and I only got it for a second, but he’s out there,” Gabhran answered Faolan’s question.
“Elena?” Faolan asked, again.
“He’s right, I sensed it too. Although he is keeping his feelings shielded, they dropped for just a second. It was…” Gagging, Elena ran through the darkened house for the bathroom.
Red and Lilly were on their feet, quivering with the need to shift, to go chase down whoever was out there. “Red, Lilly, you go together, go south, I will go north. Whoever it is has not yet crossed the wards. Keep moving. You will hear me when the wards are breeched. Gav, take care of Elena and Lissa. Get to the SUV and drive like hell. Don’t stop until you get to the boat. We will meet you there when we can.”
Faolan put his hands on Gav’s shoulders, speaking quietly so as not to be overheard by the others. “If we do not arrive on the morrow, doona wait. Get them to the island, Elena knows the way. Doona wait,” he repeated urgently.
Gabhran nodded curtly. He scooped up Shadow and tossed the protesting cat into the travel cage, while Lissa grabbed Rascal, and shoved him unceremoniously in behind his brother. “Let’s go.” He urged Lissa toward the kitchen and the back door. “Elena, come on, we’ve got to go,” Gav called softly.
“Shit,” murmured Faolan, as he strode toward the bathroom. He returned carrying Elena a few minutes later. Gav quickly examined her.
“She just fainted, probably from the strength of the emotion we picked up. It was overwhelming, pure hatred, and evil intention.” He put the lights out in the yard and steading using the same spell from earlier. “Let’s put her in the car, and we’ll go. Put her in the back seat, Lissa, you sit next to her.”
Elena shook her head. “Like hell! I’m okay, I just got light-headed for a minute. Faolan, it’s Worthington, I know it is.”
“Aye, lass, it is Worthington, and that matters not. We must go now,” he insisted, “We’ll meet at the boat in a few hours. We can talk about it then. Let’s go!”
The room around them was nearly pitch black, the filtered starlight from the quiet Highland night providing the only light. Everyone stood in the kitchen, taking long loving looks at each other before heading out the door. Red, Lilly, and Faolan left first, heading straight across to the steading, where they would shift, before splitting up and heading into the night, to search for Worthington. There was no question what would happen once they found him. Martin Worthington would die this night.
With one hand on the door, Gav looked at Elena and Lissa. “Everyone okay? We need to move qui—”
The night exploded around them, fire rained from the sky, everything in sight was burning.
****
Elena reach for the doorknob, screaming Faolan’s name as the space between the steading and the farmhouse was filled with fire. Gav grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back from the door.
“Nay, there is naught we can do for him now, we must get into the bathroom, get into the tub and cover ourselves with as much water as possible. Grab towels we need them wet against our faces. Now. Go. Run.” He pushed the two women down the hall.
Gabhran ran, checking every window, looking for an escape route. He quickly ascertained the fire was falling from the sky all around them and in the far distance, he could see a ring of fire surrounding the property. Christ, we would be dead now, if we’d gotten into the vehicles. Faolan, Red, and Lilly were likely dead. Even if they’d reached the shelter of the steading, the building was an inferno. The only hope for them would have been the chamber. If they reached the chamber, they could be alive, but they’d been nowhere near the north end when the first fire fell.
Gabhran closed the doors as he left each room, uselessly hoping to slow down any fire once it started in the farmhouse. Just before he closed the door on the library, the window shattered and fire raced up the curtain, consuming it, and it was only moments before the entire wall was engulfed in flames. He closed the door firmly and moved on to the back of the house desperate to protect Elena and Lissa.
Screaming their names to be heard over the roar of the flames, he heard them yelling for him from Elena’s room, from the master bathroom. He prayed it was lined with tile—knew even if it was, their situation was hopeless. Dear God, I will die without ever seeing Miranda again. He knew he could not save Lissa, could not save Elena this time.
The house had taken on a life of its own. The fire sucked the life from the ancient structure, passing over stones but consuming the wood and plaster that had been added by occupants over the centuries. Joints in the ceiling and attic began to groan with human-like moans, before splintering. A hot wind blew through the house and windows in every room shattered under its force. This was hell!
Crashing through Elena’s door, he shut it against the heat racing at him from behind. The room was one he’d not been in before. At least not in this lifetime. Gabhran froze, time all around him stood still. He was facing a stone fireplace, his gaze locked on the hearth; he was unable to turn away, despite the heat at his back. He saw the stones of the fireplace through a long tunnel that continued to stretch further and further away as he stared uncomprehendingly. There was only the sound of his own breathing, his own heartbeat filling his head. He was paralyzed, helpless to move, despite the desperation he had felt only moments before.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Randi had prayed while she dressed for dinner that this would be her last night in the fourteenth century. The three of them had sat formally in the dining hall through umpteen courses of what she was sure would have been a very fine dinner. If only she could have tasted anything besides her own desperation to get to Gabhran.
When she’d tried to lie down and rest this afternoon, vague dreams had disturbed her slumber, and her anxiety had been building ever since. Dinner was interminable, and now, Earnan wanted to sit in the study and drink a glass of port or whisky or some such, and all she wanted was answers. Now they talked, as though they had all the time in the world. She let her head sink back against the cushion.
All she could see was fire. Everywhere she looked a terrible fire consumed everything. Walls, ceiling, the whole house was on fire. Cars exploded, as the fire fell from the sky. Fire overwhelmed her, wouldn’t let her go, it was pulling her down with the debris from the burning house. She screamed, although the flames weren’t burning her.
Alexander was shaking her roughly, and her throat was raw, as if she really had been screaming. She must have drifted off, and those disturbing dreams had started up again.
“Tell me, lass, what did you see?” Earnan asked urgently, while Alexander poured her a glass of water.
Randi was so confused. It had been a dream. “Sorry, I must have dozed off,” she said, her voice rising to a question at the end.
“Tell me,” Earnan insisted again.
“Just fire, a house was burning. I couldn’t get out. Gav and Lissa were trapped—it was raining fire. It must have been something I
ate, or maybe the pregnancy. I dream a lot now.”
Earnan exchanged a long look with Alexander, before Alexander finally agreed with some silent request. Randi instantly realized the men must have spoken together earlier without her, and felt her temper rise at being excluded.
“Come, Miranda, ‘tis time to right as much as we can,” Earnan said, before hurrying outside, leaving Randi and Alexander to follow in his wake.
Randi was clutching her stomach by the time they finally caught up with Earnan at the stones. Her breath was coming rapidly, and she bent over, feeling lightheaded. Alexander steadied her, obviously concerned for her and the baby. After a few moments, when she was able to stand reasonably straight, Alexander helped her into the center of the circle of stones, lowering her gently to the ground. She watched the two men marking symbols on the stones, feeling a strange fluttering in her stomach.
There was barely suppressed power within the stones, Randi could feel it surging through her, the ground upon which she sat vibrated with energy. Each time the men moved to a new stone and began marking it, the air in the circle pulsed with electricity. It was like being surrounded by a wall of static electricity, she was afraid to touch anything or even move too fast, lest she create a spark and shock herself. She sat watching, praying this would take her to Gabhran.
It began as heat lightning crackled, flashes that lit the entire circle of stones, before sparking into streaks of light suddenly cracking between two stones. She could no longer see Alexander or Earnan. Why hadn’t they told her what they were doing? Her stomach fluttered again, and she felt sick, thought she might throw up or pass out. Maybe both. Voices whispered in her head, “Hold on, don’t let go, tell her, tell her…”
She felt dizzy, even more lightheaded than before, her body swaying as waves of vibrant colors began to wash over her. She saw a rainbow, then she was the rainbow. Colors melted and she melted with them. Just as she was sure she would liquefy into a puddle of color on the grass, someone grabbed her by the arms, strong hands gripping her, keeping her from dissolving. She cradled her belly and closed her eyes. Alexander would keep her safe, was her last coherent thought.
****
All of them shifted to their wolf forms as soon as they entered the steading, then Faolan immediately headed to the north while Lilly and Red turned to the south. They raced through the barn, hackles raised, growls low in their throats. Without warning, three closely spaced explosions rocked the space between the house and the barn.
Running swiftly to the door, Faolan saw his entire world was on fire. The SUV had burst into flames, the house had burning embers on the roof, and more fire was falling from the sky. In the distance, he could see a fire burning at the perimeter of the estate.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Where is Elena? Gav and Lissa? They couldna be in the car, please, doona be in the car, he beseeched any listening gods. He was mostly sure they hadn’t been that close behind him coming out the kitchen door. He needed to see for himself and shifted back to his human form. Dodging the inexplicable balls of fire falling from the sky, he ran toward the burning SUV, until the heat and flames forced him back inside the steading.
Just as he stepped back inside, the center part of the barn burst into flames, dried hay and wooden stalls serving as tinder for the raging fire. Faolan bellowed at the top of his lungs for Red and Lilly. Christ, where have they gone? The fire roared around him, hot wind whipped sparks and smoke. He knew they wouldn’t hear him above the firestorm.
The steading was a raging inferno, burning faster than any fire he’d e’er seen, there was nowhere for him to go. Faolan pressed farther and farther back into the darkest corner, trapped by the all-consuming fire. Smoke stung his eyes and stole the oxygen from his lungs. Heat pressed against his skin, pushing him, trapping him. There was no way out! He peered through the smoke and darkness, desperately looking around him at the corner that now glowed eerily in the reflected light of the burning building.
Some small movement caught his eye; a flicker of light of a piece of steel in the rock. ‘Twas the steel panel to the underground chamber! He pressed his hands to the door, and it spread it doors in wide welcome.
“Lilly! Red!” His agonized yell was lost in the sounds of a dying building. Och, where are they?
Even as he watched, the roof collapsed in the center section of the steading, and Faolan saw that the south end of the building was completely engulfed. The fire spread quickly to the north end. Deep in his heart, Faolan knew…there was no point in waiting any longer. Red and Lilly were gone.
****
Gabhran was frozen in place, feet unable to move, despite the desperate situation. As he stared at the fireplace he suffered the optical illusion that it was being pulled back or he was being pulled back, they were stretching farther apart than the dimensions of the room naturally allowed.
Vertigo overtook him and he swayed on his feet before he started to fall forward. Then Lissa and Elena were on either side of him, shouting, pulling, and pushing. Even though he couldn’t hear them over the roar of the fire, he knew they were trying to drag him into the bathroom. They wanted to block the doors with their wet towels, to try to protect themselves from smoke and fire that had overtaken their world. They all knew it was hopeless, they would die. If not from the flames, then surely from smoke inhalation.
****
From a cave far above the ocean a deep Scots baritone roared, “Christ, put your power with mine, help me, help me. ‘Twill all be for naught! They are all going to be lost, pull the vision forward, Rhyannan. We must pull together.”
“Aye, I will help you, Druid-mine. Then a melodic contralto joined in the ancient Druid chant, a harmonious primordial melody, calling forth long dormant spirits and magick. It was not her magick, but Rhyannan knew ‘twas the best they could do for now.
****
“Gabhran,” Elena screamed over the roar that was the house burning down around them. The only thing that had saved them thus far were the stone walls of her bedroom, part of the older castle keep perhaps.
Slowly, Gabhran shook his head of the vision, now able to see their way clearly.
“’Tis a doorway, help me find the latch, we can escape through here.” He ran to the fireplace, and began to search frantically for the release mechanism. “I know ‘tis a release. We must find it. Lissa, go get another damp towel, you must cover your face. Elena help me!”
He groped in the thickening smoke, desperately pushing against every stone, trying to loosen the mantle, reaching inside the flue. Elena pushed alongside him, her hands slapping against the stones, both of them working without being able to see.
He heard Elena make a choked sound that might have been a cough or a celebratory whoop. Then a stone at the back gave way, and the bottom of the hearth opened, revealing a stairway.
“I found it!” Elena shouted.
“Go, go, I’ll get Lissa.” Gabhran tried to yell back, but it was lost in a fit of coughing. He was light-headed from the smoke, but he pushed himself harder. He had to do this.
Working completely in the blind from all the smoke, Gabhran made his way to the bathroom, and practically fell over Lissa, slumped against the cat’s travel cage. She had draped a damp towel over them and tied one around her face, but been unable to go further. He draped her arm around his shoulder, grabbed the cat kennel with his other hand. Step by step, one foot in front of the other, scraping the cage against the wall as he went, so as not to lose his way in the smoky black room, he found the opening. Elena was waiting and grabbed the kennel, sobbing with obvious relief that he’d returned safely with Lissa and the cats.
He gently lowered Lissa to the ground inside the tunnel, he knew they needed to get the doorway closed, but he needed to see if he could get them light. There had been candles on the mantel, if he could find one and get to the fire, they would be able to see where they were, to find a way out of this nightmare.
Holding a towel over his mouth and squinting in the smoke, he felt on th
e floor around the fireplace until he located two softening wax candles. Shoving one in his pocket, he shuffled across the floor to the bedroom door. Just as he reached the door, it exploded, splintering burning wood throughout the room, piercing him with white-hot fragments of wooden shrapnel. Gabhran screamed in agony, but he couldn’t stop or he would die. Using his wet towel, he grabbed a large, club-sized piece of the door and ran for the stairs, using the burning wood as a torch.
Together, he and Elena pushed hard against the stones, and much to their surprise, the hearth closed easily above them, shutting out completely the roar and chaos of the fire above. Gabhran lit one of the candles and, using his makeshift torch, looked around the space they’d entered.
They were in a long tunnel that led away from the house, toward the steading. The walls were thick stone, cool and damp, they could stay down here until the fire burned itself down. Except for one thing. They needed water.
The tunnel was lined with unlit torches. He walked ahead and lit the next three, before returning to Elena and Lissa. Lissa was his first concern; as a doctor, he was extremely worried about her pregnancy. Christ, she canna lose this baby. He took all the damp towels they’d brought in with them and tried to wring out every bit of water into Lissa’s mouth.
Elena, seeing what he was doing, rushed to the cat crate, removed the towel, then tossed it to Gav. The cats were huddled together and growled at her as she opened the little door. Before Gav could ask what she was doing, Elena pulled out two bottles of water she had put in there to fill the cats water bowl while they traveled.
Gav flashed her a grateful smile. “Drink a small amount from the bottle, then try and ring some from the towel into your mouth. Suck on it. We need to get as much moisture in us as we can, but I want to try to conserve the water for Lissa and the baby.” His voice was a raspy whisper, and he had to take several breaths just to complete one sentence. Elena took a good look at him in the flickering torchlight and gasped.
“Oh God, Gav, you’re hurt! Let me see.” She took the candle from him and held it near his face, then down his body. As she started to reach for one of the splinters he knew pierced his face, he shook her off.