by Joanne Rock
“But Magnus, you deserve—”
He silenced her with a kiss, too perfect, too brief, his finger then replacing his lips upon hers. “I have already had more than any man deserves here tonight with you. And you deserve a full life, not one burdened with a man worn down by the guilt I would carry.” His silken brogue turned to steel. “Make no mistake. For your sake as well as his, I will not abandon my brother.”
Chapter Six
“And you will make that choice alone?” Elizabeth knew he’d made up his mind. She could see it in the shifting color of his eyes. He had retreated from her somehow, wrapping himself in curse and doom with no hope of reprieve. “Without asking your brother if he wishes to take the chance that his life might be saved too? That the sidhe could end this madness with just one more declaration of…true affection?”
“Alexander is more than my brother.” Magnus did not look at her. He stared off into the distance with her, as if he saw the same loneliness ahead that she did. “He is my twin. The other half of my soul. I know him better than I know myself and he would never let me sacrifice my happiness for him. He will curse me twice over for forsaking a future with you. Yet I swear to you, if he sat in my place now, he would make the same choice to spare me.”
The deep resolve in his voice chilled her with reality. There would be no changing his mind. Elizabeth had no sister. Certainly she had no twin. But in some small way she thought she understood. She loved Lily like a sibling. That’s why she had feared for her friend’s safety and rushed toward Invergale to see her for herself. Knowing as much did not ease the wrenching ache in her heart or the certainty she would never find this kind of happiness or fulfillment again. Magnus was more than her love. He was her destiny. And her destiny now meant keeping her love for him forever trapped inside her.
Having that hope for a future together ripped away just as she’d glimpsed the wonder of the happiness they might have shared…
She cleared her throat and willed away more tears. “I see that you’ve made up your mind. And it will be hard for me to forgive you for denying us both a future that would have been—” The tears came now despite her efforts. She swallowed hard and could not finish her thought. “Still, I understand. Even now, it is easier for me to forgive you for how this hurts me than how—I fear—it will hurt you too. You deserve happiness after the life you’ve led. I wish I could have released you from your past.”
“Elizabeth.” Magnus’s voice was as shredded and broken as hers. She heard it in just that one word.
And it brought her no peace.
“I would return to Invergale now.” She rose to her feet, grateful she was steady on them. “I must make my goodbyes to Lily.”
They did not speak of the future. There was no need now that they were spending it apart. She followed Magnus onto the mare’s back, but the familiarity of his body did not bring her the pleasure it once had. The scent and feel of him was a bittersweet pain that increased with every hoofbeat and she held herself as straight as she could, gripping the mare’s mane instead of Magnus’s shoulders.
Silently, they returned to Invergale. Silently, they parted. Her to a room in the keep. Him to…she knew not where. He did not rest his head at Invergale among mortals, apparently. If she could have found a way to say goodbye, she would have tried. But she hurt too much to speak.
Wandering restlessly in her chamber, Elizabeth had retired early because she was not fit company for Lily. Yet it was not yet dark and she was too restless for sleep. Something bothered her about Magnus’s stubborn refusal to consider leaving his wandering existence and become mortal again. Something beyond the fact that he’d robbed them both of happiness together.
He’d said that his twin would curse him twice over for forsaking a chance at love. So Magnus had not given his brother a chance to reason with him. What if Alexander knew his brother well enough to overcome that stubbornness?
Alexander would return from wandering tonight, even as Magnus was called to his preternatural journey. That meant, if Elizabeth could find Alexander, she could at least ask him for help. Filled with new purpose, Elizabeth reached for her cloak in a drafty old Highlands keep, her senses tingling with just the smallest spark of new hope.
* * *
Magnus rode until dusk.
Never before had he gone to his night of wandering through time with such haste or eagerness. But he needed to put time and space and realms between him and Elizabeth or else he feared he would race back to her and declare his love in spite of everything. If for no other reason than that she deserved to hear it. She’d been hurt by others in the past. She deserved so much better than this—what he could give her. And yet, what he couldn’t give her seemed even crueler still.
Was Elizabeth right that his enemy merely wanted his family to experience the hurt of being denied a loved one? If so, he’d been denied two. First his sister. Now Elizabeth.
There’d been his first love as a teen, of course. The girl who’d fled from him in horror after seeing what the curse had done to him—making him disappear from her arms every third night when he had to take his turn roaming the realms for Shannon. But while he’d resented that loss for years, he now understood he hadn’t loved her. Not in the way that he loved Elizabeth. It seemed impossible to feel for her as he did after they’d known each other such a small space of time.
Then again, maybe when people were truly meant to be together they recognized it right away.
“Brother.” Alexander’s voice was in his ears before Magnus saw him. Sometimes they crossed realms without quite seeing one another, but as twins they shared a connection that transcended physical space.
Magnus wouldn’t mind blaming that bit of eeriness on the sidhe curse as well, but it had been like that even when they were children. They weren’t alike,he and Alexander,but they understood each other perfectly. Anticipated each other’s thoughts. Actions.
“I am here,” Magnus assured him. “Go find your rest.”
“Enjoy your last night on the job,” came the puzzling reply.
Magnus halted his horse, not crossing the brook that would lead him into sidhe realms to begin his journey through time. There was a brief period at dusk when the brothers could inhabit the same space, before one was pulled away.
“Where are you?” He turned the mare around. “What do you mean?”
“I spent the day helping Iain safeguard Invergale and I heard an interesting tale from Lily.”
Magnus’s teeth ground together. “What do you mean my last night on the job?”
Darkness fell thicker. Deeper. His time in this realm would not last much longer.
“I met Elizabeth.”
The words felt damning, somehow, even as her name tore at Magnus’s heart.
“How did you find her?” Fear made his blood pump faster. “What have you done?”
“She found me. She shed tears in the enchanted wood while I lingered nearby. After Lily’s tales, I recognized Elizabeth immediately.”
What did it mean? And why did Alex sound so sure of himself? Magnus envisioned Elizabeth wandering the forest alone and his fists clenched with the need to return to Invergale. Safeguard her.
“Speak plainly, brother,” Magnus warned.
“I saw her safely back to Invergale, of course,” Alexander assured him with the same false innocence he’d used when they were twelve and he blamed the lack of chocolate pudding on his twin. Alex had warned him about two seconds before the cook cuffed Magnus across the head.
“You know what I mean. Why do you say this is my last night?” Magnus pressed
“You cannot deny yourself happiness for my sake. I would never allow that.”
He did not question how Alexander knew so much. Or so well. That bond they shared, no doubt.
“You have no choice. It is done.” Magnus’s mare started across the brook, her feet as tied to the curse as his own and it was that time of day for his watch.
For an instant, Magnus could se
e Alex approaching Invergale, covered in a cape.
“Is it? Do you really think Elizabeth needs to confess her love solely to you for the sidhe to hear her? What if I can convince her to speak those sweet words aloud even though you are not present?”
All at once, he understood and cursed himself for not grasping his twin’s intent sooner. Thoughts of Elizabeth, of the incredible bliss of being with her, had his wits addled. But in this instant he knew his mistake. He should have told her to be careful. To guard her words even when she was alone. Even with his family.
But if he knew Alex, Magnus guessed he would take no chances. If having Elizabeth confess her feelings at Invergale wasn’t enough, Alex would bring her into the enchanted lands at the boundary of the sidhe world and have her speak the words there.
“Nooooo,” he shouted into the evening wind. “You bastard. You will not do this!” His words reverberated through the forest and through time and the realms even as he hurtled far and fast from Invergale…too far to warn Elizabeth of Alexander’s plan.
The possibility that the curse might yet be broken taunted him, his love for Elizabeth so strong he was tempted to give up his honor just to be with her. The fact that his twin loved him enough to make such a sacrifice—to wander alone eternally—humbled Magnus. Yet it infuriated him too. The curse could end up killing Alex, wearing him to exhaustion or worse. And what of Shannon? Would he find her alone?
He needed to stop his brother before it was too late.
Magnus fought the pull of the curse. Fought the flow of his feet and the mare’s hooves, struggling with her until he realized how unfair that was. He slid from her back, letting the animal go where she was doomed to wander while he attempted to turn back. A blur of silver light barred his way back to the mortal realm. Still, he pushed toward it, using his sword and all his strength to clear a path back to the brook and the border lands. Back to Invergale.
Desperation made the minutes stretch until they felt like hours and he still scarcely moved. Then, all at once, the light disappeared.
He almost fell into the brook behind the garden bower where he and Elizabeth had made love. Where they’d fallen in love. Scuttling back, he realized the path ahead was clear. The pull on his chest had vanished.
He could see the mortal realm again. Clearly. Why would that be unless the curse had been broken? Or was about to break? Fear and hope clouded his vision as surely as the silvery light had a moment ago. He could barely hold a thought in his head other than the need to get to Elizabeth. To Alexander. Was it too late to stop this madness? He ran until his mare caught up to him. She must have a reprieve from the curse’s pull too. Vaulting onto her back, Magnus urged her home.
Reaching Invergale, he pounded on the doors until he thought they would break. At last, he heard them unbarred and a sleepy, half-naked Iain grunted a greeting.
“Where is she?” Magnus pushed past him, not waiting for an answer.
He knew she would not sleep in the tower. Only the master’s chamber lay at the top of the stairs. He raced to the back of the keep and the skidded to a stop at the guest quarters.
He did not need to pound on the bedchamber door. It was open. His brother stood in the antechamber, Elizabeth beside him. A candle flickered nearby on a stand, illuminating tears on Elizabeth’s face. Her hands covered her lips as if she’d just spoken words she wished she could take back. Magnus watched in disbelief as Alexander’s form started to fade right before his eyes. And hers.
“Alexander?” she called out, her voice confused. Nervous.
She spotted Magnus then and her gray eyes grew even wider. Her jaw dropped to see one twin fading as the other stepped over the threshold to take his place. She was so beautiful with her tangled blond waves and her delicate curves.
“What is happening? What have I done?” she whispered, shaking her head slowly. “Magnus? I didn’t mean to—”
“You did nothing wrong.” He stepped closer, needing to reassure her. “What did my brother say? Why did he wish to see you?”
He kept his voice steady, not wanting to alarm her any more. Her skin had paled. Her hands trembled as he picked them up and folded them in his own.
“He said he was worried about you. That you took great risks tonight and that he—” She shook her head. “He said he would never be able to find his own destiny if you did not find yours.”
“He has a gift for clever speech that I do not.” Magnus did not wish to rush her in the retelling. He needed every last detail to understand what had happened tonight. To him. To Alexander. And what consequences it would have for all the Darroch clan. “Did he ask anything…about me?”
Elizabeth bit her lip as she nodded. “He asked if I had developed an attachment for you.”
An attachment. What a weak word to describe the bond Elizabeth and he shared.
“And?” he prodded, sensing that Iain paced nearby in the corridor. Probably Lillian as well.
They would have all sensed something amiss in the air tonight when Magnus had been released from his wandering.
“I told him the truth.” She said it softly, her eyes meeting his. “I spoke the words when he encouraged me to. I did not think—”
“Elizabeth. I must know.” His heart slowed. His body tensed. Waiting. “What did you say?”
Her lips parted though no words came out.
Magnus squeezed her hands. “Please.”
“I love you, Magnus Darroch.” She confided words that changed everything. Words that meant everything. “I did not understand there was a risk if I said it even—here. To him!”
She was all his. For all time.
He could hardly comprehend what that meant. He tipped his head to hers. So grateful for her fearless strength and tender heart. He laid a kiss on her forehead.
“You did nothing wrong. My brother was determined to make you speak it.” He lifted his head to shout into the ceiling and call to Alexander wherever he might be. “You had no right to do this, Alexander, damn you,” Magnus called out to him, feeling Alexander’s essence still close enough to hear him.
They had been cursed together for one hundred years and twins even longer. He did not need sidhe magic to know his brother’s heart and mind.
“Just as you had no right to choose for me,” Alexander answered in a voice loud enough—real enough—that even Elizabeth could hear. “I will find my own way. I will break my own curse and I will be true to our vow to free our sister. You know that if my love had come to these woods before yours, you would have done the same for me. Our bond is that true, brother.”
With a last whisper of farewell from Alexander, Magnus felt his twin fade with a laugh they’d shared so many times as children. He understood Alexander was right. There was no choice once Elizabeth stepped into these woods. This was their destiny. The battle might be more difficult alone, but no Darroch brother would surrender. Ever. Alexander would prevail long enough to find love and break the last bond of the curse for their sister.
Magnus had not cried today. Not once. Not ever. Even though he had lost the woman who was his destiny. Even though he’d had to break her heart.
Now though, when everything he craved most was handed to him by his brother, he did not try to hide the tears in his eyes.
“I am so sorry.” Elizabeth stepped closer to him, her voice a strangled whisper. “I only meant to ask his advice. I did not think that…” She dropped onto a small bench beside an ancient tapestry.
Magnus swiped a hand over his face before he reached to touch her. She was so real. So solid and strong and blessedly mortal. He felt it in her as much as he could now feel it in himself. His curse had been broken.
He cupped her face and savored the feel of her. She was his again.
“You declared your love for me, even if I do not deserve it. I am blessed.” His thumb traced her cheek. “I love you, Elizabeth Harrison. With all my heart and all my soul, for as long as I can lead a mortal life.” He took her hands in his and kissed the b
acks of them. Then flipped them over and kissed the palms. “My brother knew what I’d done—denying our love so that I could share the burden of the curse. And he would not allow it. He told me what he’d planned before he came to Invergale.”
He shook his head and folded her in his arms. Kissed the top of her head and continued, “One day, I will tell you every facet of what happened. In fact, I will spend my whole life filling your ears with stories too strange for you to believe. But for now, I want you to know how much I will love and cherish you every day.”
Elizabeth’s lips worked soundlessly for a moment. The corners of her eyes crinkled with confusion. Happiness. Disbelief. All the same things he had felt this night.
“I will find the perfect woman for Alexander,” she vowed. “And I will see that happen, if it is the last thing I do on this earth with your help as you tell me all about him.”
Her voice rang with a confidence and strength he loved. One day, if he had any business in London, he still might skewer the idiots who made her doubt herself for so much as an instant. His sword had not faded into sidhe lands, after all. It still rested in the sheath on his back. For now, it was enough that he got to touch her and hold her and make her happy for the rest of his days.
“I believe that you will.” The knowledge of her love resided inside him as surely as the curse once had. He rubbed his hand over his chest now, holding that gift she’d given him right where it belonged.
“I mean it. Alexander has given me my heart’s desire.” She kissed Magnus’s cheek. His lips. “He has brought me you and a happiness I would never have dreamed back when you rescued me from that hellish carriage ride.”