Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set

by Multiple Authors

  Dagger at the ready, Cassie positioned herself next to Machara and prepared to fight.

  “Nay, ye bloody fool,” Machara said to her as she whipped a dagger at one of the men, catching him in the thigh while she kept fighting another. Though blood poured from her wound, her jaw was set and a severe glint shone in her eyes. She made a come-hither motion at the other men while shooting a few direct words at Cassie. “Ye know what ye need to do, lass. Take the path. Now.”

  Machara wanted her to go after Robert.

  Or she knew she would die if she stayed here.

  “Absolutely not,” Cassie said. “There are too many of them.”

  Machara swung her blade on Cassie, ducking as a warrior’s sword swooped over her head. Eyes narrowed to slits, she ground out, “I’ll run ye through now if ye dinnae go.” Then she sneered, as ferocious as her MacLomain male counterparts. “And dinnae think I willnae, lass.”

  Cassie stumbled back a few steps when Machara simultaneously drove the sword at her while side-kicking a man in the groin. Holy warrior woman!

  Well aware that there was nothing but destruction in the Scotswoman’s eyes, she listened. Half sliding, half scrambling, she ignored the scrape of pebbles on her hands and shins and made it down quickly. When she glanced up, she wasn’t able to see anything but she still heard the clash of blades and Machara’s endless cursing.

  Time to focus on what Machara had seemingly sacrificed herself for and it was not Cassie. It was Robert. She rubbed slick palms over her dress and grasped her blade tighter as she crouched and kept moving along a line of thick brush. Heavy fighting could be heard everywhere but by pure luck she managed to stay on an empty path.

  An odd haze of calm settled over her even though she should be scared to death. She was surprised she wasn’t frozen with fear. Instead, she managed to put one foot in front of the other until she was running in the general direction Robert had gone.

  Cassie kept repeating the same words in her mind, hoping that he might somehow hear them. “I’m coming, Robert. I’m right behind you.”

  “Cassie,” whispered through her mind. “Where are ye, my lass.”

  Was that Logan? Was he talking to her within the mind like Athdara did? No sooner did she think it her horse appeared. When her voice entered Cassie’s mind, she knew for certain Athdara had not spoken to her before.

  “Get on,” Athdara said.

  Cassie swung up. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Aye, where else would I be?” Athdara launched forward, swerving around random warriors as they entered the heart of the fighting. “Stay low and hold on tight.”

  Unlike the last time they had done this ‘mad race through the woods thing’ together, Cassie felt no fear. Her entire focus was on catching up with Robert. Nothing else mattered. She concentrated not on the death and destruction around her but kept her eyes locked on the path ahead. Thin, spindly branches rushed by her, but she ignored their sting as she relaxed into the flow of the horse.

  Within minutes, they broke from the forest and raced across a sprawling hill. Part of a band of about fifteen men, Robert was nearly on the other side. Maybe it was her imagination but though the sound of battle was fading into the distance, Cassie thought she heard several horses in pursuit.

  Long grass blew in the wind but did not slow Athdara down as she flew after Robert. “They flee toward great magic, lass. Either they will continue or turn and confront ye soon. Either way, stay brave and know that I am here as is Logan. Ye are not alone.”

  Strange how Athdara’s words seemed to echo Logan’s, how they gave her the same sense of comfort and security. Because truly, how much could a horse really do when it came to fighting men? They had just topped the hill when the enemy did as Athdara suspected they might. They stopped and swung back. She could not help but notice that they were back-dropped by two towering oaks with a wide river running behind them.

  An oak tree ford.

  As it turned out, it had not been her imagination when she thought she heard hooves behind her. Logan, his cousins, Brae and Grant stopped beside her as Athdara came to a sudden halt. Though she thought at first it was because the enemy was heading back in their direction she could not have been more wrong.

  No, a woman had just staggered onto the field between them and the enemy.

  Baffled, terrified, her disbelieving eyes met Nicole’s.

  Chapter Fourteen

  EYES NARROWED, LOGAN tried to make sense of what he was seeing. He knew based on her clothing and Cassie’s reaction that the woman staggering onto the field had to be her friend from the future.

  “Something is wrong here,” Grant said softly. “And I dinnae refer to the lass.”

  Short, dark red hair blowing in her face, the woman cried out, “Cassie?”

  “Nicole?” When Cassie swung down, Logan did the same, grabbing her arm before she got too far.

  His cousins remained on their horses, but he knew they were as torn between curiosity and distrust as he was. For all intents and purposes, the battle they’d just fought had been well orchestrated by the enemy. Planned. It had been a war that intended to slow down the MacLomain’s or anyone who dared to get in their way. Just like the siege of the MacLauchlin castle. Everything was a detour meant to get them to this moment.

  Brae and Grant swung off their horses and joined them.

  “Tread carefully with yer friend, lass,” Brae murmured. “There is something unnatural at work here.”

  Logan kept a firm hand on Cassie’s wrist and focused on the approaching enemy then further on to the oak tree ford.

  “My friend is out there.” Cassie’s worried eyes shot to his. “You need to go get her before the other guys do!”

  Grant looked at him and shook his head.

  The air felt different. Not gusty and warm as it had been moments before but with a bite of chill and thickness. Great magic was at work here. A darkness he did not recognize.

  True evil.

  Regrettably, Nicole never looked around but strode a little off center in their general direction. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was intoxicated.

  Bloody hell. Bradon and his whisky.

  “Does the lass have no sense about her then?” Rònan grumbled, his horse restless as he shifted, clearly undecided whether or not he should head her way.

  “It doesnae seem it,” Niall responded, a touch of incredulousness in his tone.

  Cassie shook her head. It seemed she finally understood the gravity of the situation because she yelled, “Stop, Nics.”

  Strangely enough, this made the lass stop short, a disgruntled expression on her face as she mouthed, “Nics?”

  Cassie pointed at the enemy. Though she wobbled and hiccupped, Nicole’s slightly glazed eyes turned and she froze as much as one could when in their cups.

  “You can’t just leave her out there like that,” Cassie whispered. “Especially not in her current state.”

  No, he could not. But what the hell was he supposed to do when he sensed the enemy had a trick up their sleeve? Though the man with Robert on his horse held back, the others fanned out in front of them. Weapons drawn, they drew closer and closer. Logan knew without a doubt that these men were the best the enemy had to offer. They had to be to have survived the hellfire he and his cousins brought down on them. That made the mission even more dangerous if their Laird was willing to sacrifice some of his best men to get what he wanted. Trained, hardened warriors, their eyes were filled with death and emptiness. They had nothing to lose.

  “They’ve the power of the gods behind them,” Brae warned, voice low. “A darkness in the divine ye never could have imagined existed.”

  “And yer just telling us this now?” Logan ground out, pulling Cassie closer.

  “I wasnae sure until just now,” Brae whispered. Her eyes were trained not on the warriors but on the oak tree ford Robert’s captor was slowly backing toward.

  “Something needs to happen,” Cassie said. “You can’t let Nicole
get hurt or the guy with Robert get away.”

  “Nay,” Athdara’s words whispered through his mind. “Ye cannae, lad.”

  Logan had half a second to understand what the horse intended before she reared up, released a mighty neigh and took off toward the enemy. After that, everything happened fast. When Athdara went plowing ahead, the enemy assumed they were on the move.

  Eyes wide with terror, Nicole started running toward Cassie.

  “After Robert,” Logan roared.

  Grant grabbed his arm and shook his head sharply. “Let yer cousins go. Ye stay here with yer lass where I can best protect ye.”

  Logan was about to argue but stopped when the Hamilton’s eyes glowed blue and his expression grew fierce. Even if he wanted to, he could not get around the arch-wizard’s magic right now. Meanwhile, Darach, Rònan, and Brae were already rushing ahead and slamming their blades against the enemy’s.

  Niall, muttering the whole way about foolish, drunken lasses, raced in Nicole’s direction. Eyes round as saucers, she stumbled back as his horse thundered toward her. He had nearly reached her when a man cut him off and they started crossing blades. The enemy was skilled, but regrettably he was meeting Niall not when his cousin felt battle lust but was plain old grumpy. And when Niall grew especially moody—a trait he had inherited from his Da, Malcolm—men went down very quickly beneath his sword.

  As Logan knew would be the case, Niall’s blade made a clean stab through the center of the man’s neck in under thirty seconds. Nicole wasn’t just stumbling back anymore but had plunked down on her arse as Niall swung down and strode in her direction.

  “Shoot, I hope she realizes he’s the good guy,” Cassie muttered, upset.

  “I dinnae think there’s much good about him right now,” Logan said.

  True to form, Niall growled as he caught Nicole by her ankle before she could squirm away. Grabbing her around the waist, he swung her up into his arms. Cassie winced when he then proceeded to fling her squealing friend over his shoulder and strode for his horse.

  “Who the fuuuuckkkk do you think you are? Put me down you jackass," Nicole slurred, trying to pound on his back and hold on at the same time.

  Logan shook his head, eyes torn between their fiasco and the battle his remaining cousins were warring. Meantime, Nicole must have done something to Niall because he grunted with pain and stumbled. At the same moment, an enemy warrior came swinging at him. In his attempt to hold onto a flailing Nicole and swing back at the man, Niall dropped to his knee and Nicole went flying. Cassie and Logan flinched as she thumped down on her back in front of him.

  Under different circumstances, the scene would have been almost comical.

  “Bloody hell, I’m not the enemy, lass. On my honor, I will protect ye,” Niall roared, fighting the man from the ground as he partially covered Nicole.

  “I’ll bet you anything she can’t hear a word he’s saying,” Cassie murmured.

  “Why is that?”

  “Because on occasion she runs hard of hearing.”

  Crash. Crash. Niall’s blade was criss-crossing back and forth as he simultaneously tried to keep Nicole from squirming away while fighting the enemy. The twenty-first century woman seemed to have sobered up fast as she half screamed, half sputtered.

  “This is insane,” Cassie cried at Grant. “Let us go help them!”

  Grant shook his head. The wizard wasn’t going to budge an inch.

  “But we need to save Robert,” she argued. “Isn’t his life more important than ours?”

  “‘Tis far too dangerous right now.” Caught within his magic, Grant’s response sounded far away. “I dinnae ken the magic being used. Ye, Logan and the ring willnae be put at risk.”

  Nicole appeared both furious and horrified as she clawed the ground then leapt to her feet. It was then that Logan saw it. “She wears a ring as well.”

  “Oh my God,” Cassie whispered.

  Grant’s eyes narrowed on Nicole’s finger. “Bloody hell.”

  Niall had just downed his man, cursing about foolish lasses that don’t know when they’re being protected, when Nicole was scooped up by another warrior. Rònan flung out his hand and a wide swath of fire lit a long line of grass, blocking the man from retreating.

  Or so they had hoped.

  The enemy chanted something and jumped the flames. When Niall started chanting, clouds formed quickly and rain gushed down, dousing the flames so that they could pursue. Darach was summoning wind in hopes to slow the enemy, but it didn’t seem to be working.

  The man with Nicole had nearly caught up with the man who had Robert. They were only a few feet away from the oak tree ford.

  Grant narrowed his eyes on Logan and Cassie. “If either of ye move it’ll be the death of ye by my hand. Do ye ken?”

  Though frustrated, Logan nodded his consent. He had never seen this particular look in Grant’s eyes and was not about to test it. Arm wrapped tightly around Cassie, he pulled her back a few steps as the Hamilton strode across the field, flung his arms in the air and started chanting.

  The enemy had been defeated save the two who had just made it to the ford. Robert was struggling and Nicole was being just as defiant with the man who held her now as she had been with Niall.

  Something strange was happening between the two trees that had nothing to do with Grant’s magic. And it was not in their favor. The air seemed to be compressing, blurring everything beyond it. Almost like a hot summer mirage but a hundred times more intense.

  “Athdara, get back,” Logan said into the horse’s mind when she got far too close.

  She did not respond.

  “What’s Athdara doing?” Cassie said, voice trembling.

  “It seems she’s trying to help,” he murmured, rubbing Cassie's arms in an attempt to soothe her.

  The horse was in the thick of the turbulent magic as she tried to spook the enemy’s horses to run in the opposite direction. However, it didn’t seem to be working. Then several things started to happen at once. Just as the enemy’s magic grew more intense, Nicole managed to fling herself from the horse. Athdara tried to protect her but the other horse reared up and she had no choice but to back away.

  Cassie started talking, eyes glazed. “I hear you, Robert. It’s okay. We’re going to save you.”

  Logan didn’t like her telepathically communicating with the bairn with so much foreign magic around him but had no way of severing the bond.

  “The woman you hear is Nicole,” Cassie explained. “She’s a friend.”

  The magic surrounding Robert and Nicole had ripped them from sight.

  “You got the sack off your head? That’s really good,” Cassie said to Robert. “What do you see?”

  She went silent as she listened to his response.

  Grant seemed to be losing the battle against whoever was taking them as heavy wind not of Darach’s making started to whip harshly. The oaks swayed, their branches vanishing then reappearing as they bent in and out of the maelstrom between them.

  Then, as quickly as it began, it ended and Cassie slumped.

  Logan swept her into his arms and narrowed his eyes on the oak ford. It was as it had been before, trees swaying gently in the breeze. Head hung, Athdara stood alone. Everyone else and their horses had vanished.

  Grant’s words entered Logan’s mind. “Is Cassie all right?”

  Cassie’s eyes remained glazed over. “‘Tis too soon to tell.”

  Grant nodded then cursed as they headed for the ford. Whatever magic had been here was completely gone. Vanished. Still, the Hamilton halted everyone before they got there and double checked. When satisfied that it was safe, he waved them over. Crouching in front of Athdara, Grant placed his hand against her forehead.

  Logan was surprised when Cassie stirred, eyes a little less unfocused as she murmured, “I can hear you, Athdara.”

  “As far as I can tell, Athdara sleeps.” Grant’s eyes went to Cassie then Logan. “I cannae hear her. Can ye?”

&
nbsp; “Nay.” Logan shook his head. “It seems only my lass can.”

  Almost as if she was responding to his words, Cassie blinked a few times. Her eyes cleared then she peered around almost frantically until her gaze locked on the horse. “Something’s wrong with Athdara.”

  “Aye.” Logan carefully set her down and made sure she was steady before letting her go. She crouched next to Grant. “She’s stuck sleeping.” Cassie stroked her muzzle. “She doesn’t want us to worry about her. And she’s fairly certain Nicole made it back to the twenty-first century.”

  “Well, at least that part of my magic worked,” Grant grumbled. “Did she say anything else?”

  “Just to keep an eye on my lad.”

  Logan frowned. Odd thing for the horse to say.

  Grant stood and pulled Cassie up. “We will stay here for the night in hopes that she awakens soon.”

  Cassie nodded, concern in her eyes as they lingered on Athdara before she looked around with alarm. “So Robert’s not here.” She shook her head, more and more worried. “I was hoping somehow he would be.”

  Logan took her hand. “You spoke with him. He’d managed to get the sack off his head. What did he say?”

  Her eyes met his. “That he was at another oak inside a cave.”

  Brae made an indiscernible sound and Grant’s eyes shot to her. “What know ye, lass? What is this evil of the gods that ye spoke of before? Because I only know of one oak that grows inside a cave.”

  The mother oak.

  Brae leaned back against a tree, eyes sadder than before as they flickered over him and his cousins before landing on Grant. “I know the evil is somehow harnessed from the gods because ‘tis Cullen at the heart of it. ‘Tis my brother.”

  “Nay.” Grant shook his head. “That cannae be. He would never…” His words trailed off at the defeated look in Brae’s eyes. “I dinnae ken. He was such a good lad.”