He groaned and reached to pull me down toward him, snugly settling me into the space between his arm and chest.
“Laurel, why in God’s name are ye already dressed? And what are ye talking about sleeping the day away? The sun is barely up. I must not have done a proper job of tupping ye last night. If I had, ye would wish to sleep until noon, at least.”
I laughed as he nuzzled his lips on my ear, his breath tickling me until I started to writhe against him.
“Trust me, you did an excellent job. I’m just wound up. I’m not sure why.”
He growled and turned to roll on top of me.
“Well then, lass, allow me to help ye unwind once more. Get out of that bloody dress. Ye look far better out of it. Why is it even on?”
He asked the question as he lifted my bum so that he could untie the laces and loosen them with his fingers. I didn’t wish to think about how he must’ve gotten so deft at it. As my breasts sprang free from the top of the gown, he quickly pulled the dress to my feet.
“I…” I could barely talk as he bent and latched his teeth down on one of my nipples. “I went to speak to Freya.”
He quickly glanced up at me before moving his lips downward, kissing the side of my waist between words.
“Freya…why…did…ye…wish…to…speak…with…her?”
I was squirming now. My hips rising of their own volition as my body began to ache for him. I wanted him inside me, wanted to move with him as we’d done only hours before.
“Holy crap, Raudrich. I can’t think when your tongue is…” I cried out as he kissed me between my legs. Reaching for his hair, I pulled him up to me and quickly rolled him over so I could straddle him. I needed him. Now.
“Can we talk about Freya later?”
“Fine by me, lass.”
I came down on him hard and heavy, and the cry that escaped his lips as I began to move on top of him quickly escalated my own climax. There was nothing slow in our exploration of each other this time. It was rough and needy, and when we finally came apart, I was trembling with exhaustion.
“Do ye wish to sleep now, lass? Please say aye, for I doona think I have the strength to tup ye again just now.”
I laughed as my eyelids grew heavy.
“I actually feel like I could sleep. Well done.”
He laughed as I turned onto my side and snuggled my bare bum and feet against him.
Just as my eyes began to close, Sydney’s annoyingly chipper voice called to us through the door.
“Wake up you two. I’m sure you’re tired from all the boom-boom I hope you guys did last night, but I made breakfast, and it’s getting cold fast.”
*
Sydney’s meal was by far the best I’d had since arriving in this time, and I found myself feeling quite jealous of the residents of Cagair Castle who had their very own professional chef to cook their meals.
I sat next to her throughout breakfast. While Raudrich visited with Griffith and Silva, we had a chance to talk about some things only those acquainted with Morna could truly relate to.
“So, how’d she send you back? Did she at least ask your permission first?”
I asked the question as I shoveled yet another bite of frittata into my mouth.
“Oh, that’s quite a long story. She actually didn’t want me to know about the magic. She wasn’t sure I could be trusted. So she spelled my coffee with some sort of truth serum and then once she was convinced I wasn’t under the command of some evil witch she had history with, she allowed Callum, my husband, to take me through the stairwell.”
“Stairwell?” That sounded much more pleasant than being tossed into a pile of hay in a smelly stable.
“Yes. Cagair’s time-travel contraption wasn’t actually created by Morna, and it’s much easier on the body than the way she always goes about it. You can just walk back and forth between this century and our own.”
“What?”
I couldn’t hide the astonishment and excitement in my voice. It was like hearing that I’d won the lottery and would stay young for the rest of my life at the same time. If Sydney was telling me the truth, it meant I could see Kate again. Whether I wished to go forward, or she back, I didn’t have to say goodbye to my sister forever. It also gave Marcus more options for the rest of his life, once the curse was broken.
Sydney’s expression as she looked at me was one of concern.
“Did you think you were trapped here, Laurel? Is that what Morna told you?”
In truth, I guess Morna hadn’t said those exact words, but her glib farewell through her letter had sure made it seem that way.
“Yes, I did think that. She didn’t say that outright, but she did tell me that she was finished communicating with me. I didn’t think there was a way to return home without her.”
Sydney shook her head and I got the feeling that even if things tended to turn out well for the women Morna sent back, each of them had their own feelings of frustration toward the meddling witch who had so intrusively upended their lives.
“Morna means well. She truly, always does, but sometimes, I don’t agree with the way she goes about things. I’m much fonder of her husband, Jerry. I don’t care what Morna made you think. The rest of us go forward and back all of the time, and I’ll be damned if you don’t have the same option that we do. Listen.” She paused and reached to grab my hand. I felt like I might cry at the relief that was slowly flooding my entire system. “If you need to go forward or if someone you love needs to come back, just come to Cagair. It’s quite a long journey, but you are welcome anytime. I’ll walk you through myself. That passageway isn’t Morna’s. She has no claim on it and no say on how it is used.”
I threw my arms around her with no regard for how odd we must look to the rest of the table.
“Are you sure? It…it doesn’t put you guys in danger in any way?”
She pulled back just far enough to look at me.
“We keep it well hidden, but any girl that gets pulled into Morna’s shenanigans needs some say in her own life. The stairwell is yours—Cagair is yours—anytime you need it.”
“Thank you.” I pulled her in for another short hug before quickly pushing myself away from the table to stand. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry to be rude, but there’s something I have to take care of right away.”
I couldn’t sit at the table a moment longer. I had a phone call to make—one that I no longer dreaded.
Chapter 38
Kate picked up on the second ring. I’d never been so thrilled to hear her voice.
“Hello?”
“Kate, it’s me. Step into a room that Mom isn’t in, okay?”
I could hear the quick shuffle of her feet followed by the sound of a door closing before she squealed into the phone.
“Oh, my God, Laurel! You’re okay? You’re safe? Are you really…are you really in the past? How the hell are you calling me?”
Smiling, I slid down to the floor on the other side of Raudrich’s bedroom door and leaned against it as I answered her.
“Yes, yes, and yes, to your first three questions. I’m okay. I’m safe. And I’m speaking to you from the year sixteen hundred and fifty-one. As for how I’m calling you…you can thank the same magical witch that sent me to this time for that.”
“Oh, I will. Laurel, I have so much to tell you. You know as well as I do that I’ve got way too much time on my hands.” She paused and snickered. “Or, I guess I should really say hand. Anyway, way too much time with nothing to do. From the second you and Marcus left for the airport, all I could think about was where you were going and what you would be seeing, so I decided to do some research. Where are you exactly? Are you at Conall Castle or are you on the Isle of Eight Lairds?”
I smiled into the phone. She sounded more like her old self. It was really good that she was able to make a joke about her injury without crying.
“Wow, Kate. You must either be really bored, or Mom must be driving you up the wall for you to have done
research. Which is it?”
I was the bookworm. Kate definitely was not. Kate had read my first novel out of obligation only. Besides that, I wasn’t sure she’d picked up a book since college. Not that I would ever complain about her doing research on this time. It was bound to come in handy. Perhaps Kate would be able to provide me with some of the answers Morna had been so unwilling to give.
“Honestly, it’s neither. It was just that when you left, I couldn’t shake the feeling—even as crazy as it seemed at the time—that this whole thing was actually real. If it was, I knew this had to be something pretty momentous, ya know? So I just started looking up what I could find about both places. So, tell me, where are you?”
“The Isle of Eight Lairds.”
Her voice was giddy with excitement. “Oh, good! I learned way more about that place anyway. Laurel, I haven’t slept in days. It’s going to take me weeks to come down from the amount of caffeine and chocolate I’ve consumed since you left. I’ve been working my way through everything I could find on that place like a maniac. Are you sitting down? I have some seriously serious shit to tell you.”
“I am.” I’d called believing that I would be the one doing most of the talking. I was quickly getting the feeling that I was wrong.
“Okay, good. Let me think about where I should begin. I wasn’t really expecting to hear from you, so I’m not prepared. I was actually just planning on telling you in person.”
I quickly interrupted her. “In person?”
“Yeah, in person. Do you really think for a second that after all I’ve learned that I was going to leave you there alone? No way, girlfriend. I already have flights booked for me, Mr. Crinkles, Mom, and Marcus’ dad to Edinburgh in three weeks. I would’ve booked them sooner but David couldn’t get off work before then.”
My brain couldn’t possibly keep up with the totally unexpected news she was dumping on me. “Hang on. You need to slow down. Mom and David know where Marcus and I are? What did you tell them to make them believe you? I can’t imagine either of them took that news well. And more than that, how were you going to get back here when you got to Edinburgh?”
Kate took a deep breath. I suspected that she realized she’d started to let herself run away with things in her excitement. When she spoke again, her tone was calm and collected.
“I’m not an idiot, Laurel. I did tell Mom and David where I thought you were, but I obviously didn’t tell either one of them that you were chilling hundreds of years in the past. And I figured we’d get back the same way you did. We’d go looking for Morna.”
“How did you get them to agree to go with you?”
“That was trickier, but I told them that you guys had decided to stay in Scotland for the rest of the summer and you wanted everyone together to celebrate Marcus’ birthday at the end of the month. When I told them that I would foot the bill, they happily agreed.”
I nodded, my thoughts suddenly drifting to what a pain in the butt my mother would be while adjusting to this time. I dreaded the thought of her being here, but I also knew that if Kate was planning to join me here, we could hardly just disappear off the face of the earth without telling her. We were her world, and despite her helicopter nature, we both loved her dearly.
“How can you afford that?”
Kate laughed into the phone. “I can’t, but what does it matter? I’ll not be coming back here, and I doubt they’re going to be able to find me to haul me off to debtor’s prison in the seventeenth century.”
“Kate.” Now, I was worried. I wanted to see Kate, but this was too big of a decision for her to make on a whim. “You can’t possibly know that you’ll want to be here forever. You don’t need to do anything that will ruin your life back home.”
“Oh, I do know that I’ll be there forever. You will, too.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Laurel, you really should’ve read that book you found. Marcus wasn’t the only one inside it. I’m pretty sure you were, too. And unless there’s another one-handed burn victim with a black cat there at the castle with you now, I’m in the book, too.”
Chapter 39
It took me a good thirty seconds to respond to her. You would think after so many unbelievable things occurring over the past week, I would’ve been past the point of being surprised. I wasn’t.
“Okay, Kate. You’re going to need to explain everything you’ve read from the beginning. I’m just going to sit back and listen. I’m feeling slightly lightheaded.”
My sister laughed and as I settled into my spot on the floor, I could hear Mr. Crinkles purr in the background.
“Okay, I can’t blame you for that. It’s a lot, and some of it’s not so great.”
“I’m ready.” I was anything but.
“So, I read the book first, start to end. You know how history gets twisted throughout time and then you throw in a few ancient legends and things get even worse, so I have no idea how much of what I read is true, but I’ll try to explain the gist of it to you.”
I nodded as if she could see me. “Okay, shoot.”
“The documentary told us about the legend, right—about The Eight and how they were bound to protect the Isle from the darkness that would threaten it if The Eight were ever broken? The book was much more specific. According to this text, the evil the documentary mentioned is a faerie. While she may gain strength, she poses no real threat with just seven men.”
I interrupted to give her some context.
“The book is right. It is a faerie.”
“All right, then. That makes me even more confident about everything else. Anyway, as I was saying, if The Eight become seven, that’s not necessarily good, but nothing too bad will happen. Six is the magic number. Six is what she’s aiming for. If The Eight lose two men without replacing another, she can break free from her prison.”
I thought of Calder’s disappearance. It was a good thing Marcus’ powers had revealed themselves when they did. It was possible that Calder could find a way to break his bind to the men at any time. If he’d managed to do that before Marcus had joined them, Machara would’ve been free.
Kate paused for a moment, and I assumed she was waiting for me to react.
“That coincides with some things that have already happened here. Continue.”
“Okay. What’s the name of this faerie? Do you know?”
“Yes, I do. I met her. Her name is Machara.”
I could hear Kate’s smile in her voice.
“This is all just too flipping cool. The book got that right, too. So, the book alludes to a prophecy given to Machara by her father as punishment for something she’d done to anger him. It doesn’t say what. He claimed that a time would come in Machara’s life when she would be chained by the magic of men, but her life would end at the hands of mortal women.”
Freya’s prediction came to my mind. “How many women and when?”
Kate sighed. “Nine women, and there is no date listed in the story.”
Of course it didn’t.
“Okay, does it say anything about these women. Who are they?”
“That’s where you come in, Laurel. You’re one of them, and I’m pretty sure, so am I.”
The hairs on my arms rose, and I was suddenly very cold.
“Explain.”
“Your name isn’t mentioned specifically. It only refers to a Laird Allen’s wife, which is beyond annoying, I know. Women shouldn’t be defined by their husbands, but I’m pretty sure this book was written in the sixties, so we’ll just have to forgive it and move on.”
My heart beat quickly in my chest.
“I’m not Laird Allen’s wife.”
“Maybe not yet, but if the rest of this book is to be believed, you’re going to be. The woman’s description matches you exactly.”
It was a real struggle to keep from giggling like an idiot. It was too soon for me to dream of such things with Raudrich, but there was some part of me that knew it was inevitable.
“That you’re the first of the nine women who will ultimately destroy Machara, but that each woman will be tested in her own time and in her own way.”
Awesome. I’d never been a very good test taker.
“Does it say how I will be tested?”
“This doesn’t, but I found something else that I think does.”
“Okay, let’s finish with the book first. What does it say of the other women? How do you know that you’re one of them?”
“It wasn’t even in the main text of the book. It doesn’t go into detail about the nine women, but there was an author footnote at the bottom of one of the pages. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it said something along the lines of little is known of the women who lifted the castle’s curse, though two of the nine were believed to be sisters, both blonde of hair and blue of eyes, though one had suffered much at the hands of a fire.”
I sat silently for a few seconds.
“That’s an oddly specific footnote.”
“I know, right?”
And then, at the exact same time, we both said,
“Morna.”
Laughing, I continued.
“Exactly. How much do you want to bet that she added that little piece of information just for you?”
“I’d say the chances are pretty good.”
“Is that all you learned from the book?”
There was a brief pause as Kate took a deep breath.
“Pretty much, but the article is what you really need to strap in for, sis. I think it involves you. It was an article about the fall of one of The Eight—the only one who is ever believed to have died of something other than natural causes.”
A lump rose in my throat. I didn’t even want to ask the question, but I knew that I had to. Silently, praying that she wouldn’t say Raudrich’s name, I spoke. “Does it have the man’s name?”
“A Laird Bracht.”
I only knew each of them by their first names. At least I knew it wasn’t Raudrich.
Love Beyond Words Page 16