He raised a mocking eyebrow then looked at his mother when she returned her attention back to Anna. When his mother nodded her belief in the girl’s words, both eyebrows rose.
Centering herself at the swollen belly and preparing for what she had to do, Skye instructed Collin on what his responsibilities were as he climbed on the bed and cradled his wife’s head in his lap.
“I’m not strong enough to keep her calm and take care of the baby so I need you to hold her, comfort her, tell her you love her,” She looked up as she gathered her powers, feeling the warmth building along her trembling arms and centering it into her hands. “and don’t stop.”
Ignoring his questioning gaze, she locked her knees against the wobbling and placed her hands on the belly in front of her.
Skye concentrated, her eyes loosing focus as she followed her energy into the girl’s body and directly to the womb. Her powers swirled in a kaleidoscope of colors, settling into place and shifting into the hues that would tell her where to look.
Knowing this took precious time, she drifted to the baby and directed some of her energy there when she noticed his feeble heartbeat.
Hoping to get him to respond, Skye surrounded him in colors, relieved when she saw him twitch.
Swirling muted colors around the baby too keep him from becoming frightened, she continued to fill his frail body with strength.
Seeing life enter the little form, she smiled and shifted her attention to the shades around the womb.
Searching as rapidly as possible, knowing she wasn’t as strong as she should be to do what she needed, but also knowing failing wasn’t an option.
Finally, at the base of the womb, she noticed a thinning of the membrane. In the center of it was a tear, either caused by the accident or perhaps grown worse during the pregnancy.
“Found it.”
“Found what?” Aiden and Collin asked simultaneously.
They looked at each other in confusion having seen no movement from Skye since the moment she had closed her eyes some time ago.
“She be savin me bairn.” Anna spoke weakly, her face still drained of color, the wound on her forehead prominent and awful looking against the pale skin.
Aiden looked across at his mother who stood on the other side of the bed but her eyes were on what Skye was doing, her face full of wonder.
His mother had encouraged him to have Skye brought up even after he informed her of what had transpired with the counsel, something he had disbelievingly listened to as they rushed his sister to her.
Aiden had not wanted to hear his mother’s anger over being unable to attend the interrogation. If it had not been for the fact Anna would not calm down, the bleeding wouldn’t stop, and he was as desperate as Collin was for his sister’s safety, he would never have agreed to release Skye from a prison he knew she abhorred.
A fool.
That’s what Skye had made him.
He had allowed her to go without answers to basic questions and his reward was a woman willing to hand over her virginity so she could destroy his people.
That was not going to happen now. The only thing keeping his hands from wringing her neck was the fact that Anna was finally calm.
Aiden took in her appearance and hated the way his stomach heaved at the sight, forcing his mind not to think of the areas of her body he could not see, knowing her clothing hid more than it reveled. She had spent more than two days in the dungeon and the scratches on her neck, torn sleeves showing clawed skin, and the grime on her fingers, which could not hide the jagged wounds from the rats or the pinpricks of bites caused by bugs, showing every hour of her torment.
She deserved it for having conspired to attack his keep knowing innocent people would be raped and killed. Her words of innocence had been lies and he was livid at himself for believing them. He refused to acknowledge the ache in his heart as anything other than betrayal.
As time passed, he became more and more perplexed.
She was not moving.
Except for the slight trembling of her body that she’d had from the beginning, which he had equated as fear of him, she wasn’t moving.
He looked at Collin crooning softly in Anna’s ear as he touched her face and neck, his eyes fixated on Skye’s hands looking as baffled as Aiden felt.
When he glanced up and saw his mother’s brows crease, he looked back at Skye and saw beads of sweat breaking out and dripping down her face, sweat formed under her arms and back, and her body was shaking harder than when she’d started. He stepped closer but his mother’s hand reaching across the bed to touch him stopped his movement.
“She was serious when she said not to touch her. I could feel that to do so would be a death sentence.”
“An what is that supposed to mean?” He asked in exasperation. “She hasna moved in over an hour an yet she be grownin paler, she be drippin sweat, and looks like she be about to fall over.”
“She is a healer, Aiden. She has a gift like nothing I have ever seen.” She squeezed his arm. “Anna is right; she is saving the baby.”
Skye repaired the split in the womb, a very meticulous and slow process.
Somehow, maybe in her first pregnancy, damage had occurred along the lining of her womb and it had never repaired enough to hold the weight of a growing baby. She could not be sure since she had only begun to take classes for midwifery after Sarah’s announcement that she was pregnant and had not learned a whole hell of a lot but she knew the accident had placed a tear in the already worn womb since she had not seen it the first time she had healed the girl.
Just because she had repaired the womb didn’t mean the horse hadn’t caused some other damage and she wanted to ensure the baby was going to go full term but she was deteriorating fast.
Ignoring the way her heart rate became sluggish, Skye dreaded when the colors faded, feeling the pounding in her head as if from a distance.
She gave a quick search all over and saw the bruising under the tale tell colors just as the energy gave out.
Her hands slipped and her knees gave way.
“No, no yet.”
They watched as Skye’s hands, slick with sweat, slipped and her body wavered before going limp.
Aiden caught her, damning the consequences.
“Lemme go.” She mumbled sluggishly, too weak to resist or push him away.
Feeling her strength returning, albeit slowly, Skye became terrified for Aiden whom she knew was the one holding her.
“Lemme go. You have ta lemme go.” She gathered her strength and tried to push away.
Still too weak, she fell to the floor, her head spinning even as it pounded.
Tears of frustration fell. “Damn, damn, damn, damn.”
Elizabeth sank beside her. “What is it, luv?”
Pushing herself up on unsteady arms, she hung her head in shame, crying softly.
“I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough.” She looked up, eyes still unfocused. “I’m so sorry.”
“Tis fine, Skye.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Ye did everything ye could.” Elizabeth touched her shoulder.
“Stop!” She jerked away, the movement almost costing her her position. “You can’t touch me.”
Elizabeth looked at her hand in surprise. “I felt that.”
“What did ye feel, Mother?”
Elizabeth looked up. “When I touched her, I felt myself going weak.” She said in wonder.
“I’m sorry. I tried to warn you but there wasn’t time to explain.”
“Explain what?” Aiden demanded.
When Skye could only shake her head weakly, Elizabeth explained.
“If I have this right, Skye’s weakness causes her body to draw strength from whoever touches her.” She leaned down to look at Skye. “Is that what it is, luv?”
Skye felt a tear course down her cheek and nodded.
When Elizabeth motioned for Aiden to help her up, she looked at her son. “Did ye not feel the drain when y
e touched her?”
“Nay, I felt nothin.”
Elizabeth frowned in thought, looking down at the girl lying weakly at their feet. “Hold her hand, Aiden.”
Aiden crouched to his haunches, ignoring Skye’s plea to stop he took her hand, not allowing her to pull away before glancing at his mother.
“Ye feel nothing, son?”
“Nay.” He shrugged.
“Skye? How do ye feel?”
Skye shook her head, feeling strength slowly seep into her limbs, knowing she was sucking it from Aiden.
Again, she tried to pull away.
“You don’t understand what will happen.” She looked up at him, her eyes clearing even as they pleaded with him. “Please. I can’t control it when it gets this bad.”
Bewildered, Aiden stared at her. “I doona ken. Control what?”
Skye desperately tried to pull away. “I wasn’t strong enough. I’m not strong enough now to stop it. You have to let me go!”
“Or what, lass?”
“Or I will take all you have and leave you nothing, dammit! Don’t you see? You will die! Now let me go.” She fought harder.
“I doona feel weaker for the holdin of ye.”
“No.”
He took her by her shoulder and forced her to look at him. “Do ye ken, lass? I doona feel anythin but the chill of yer flesh.”
She stared at him then. “Nothing? You really don’t feel weak?”
When he shook his head, she searched his face, cautiously placing her hands on his forearms.
“But how can that be? I am feeling stronger every moment. I can’t heal myself at this speed on my own.”
“Ye have magic?”
He watched as her face reddened then drained of color before nodding, her eyes slipping away from his at her confession.
“I told ye.”
Aiden looked beyond her shoulder at his sister.
“The baby. I need to finish.” Skye insisted.
Aiden assisted her to her feet when she tried to do it on her own and then helped her to the bed.
Skye touched Anna on the shoulder.
“You had a tear in your womb but it’s gone now.” She assured the worried parents. “We can get into the details later.”
“The bairn be fine, though?” Anna asked worriedly.
Skye patted her shoulder. “There are some bruised organs which could hinder the proper development your son needs, so I am going to take care of that, okay?”
They both nodded in astonishment. “Son?”
Smiling past her headache, Skye nodded then wiggled away from Aiden’s grasp.
“I can do this on my own now, thank you.”
Placing her hand above Anna’s forehead and back over her belly, she clenched her teeth when Aiden put his hand on the small of her back.
“I said—”
Aiden replied quietly. “I ken what ye said.”
Taking a deep breath, she forced the warmth from his hands out of her mind and concentrated on the warmth of her powers, flowing far easier than before.
She wanted to be fast about this. No matter that Aiden said he hadn’t felt any drain, at some point it had to affect him but she placed the fact that this baby’s life would save Doug and her sister’s unborn child to the front of her thoughts.
Centering herself, she closed her eyes and followed the colors back into the womb while projecting more towards Anna’s head wound.
Collin held his wife’s hand, continuing to murmur encouraging words, unsure if he was doing it for himself or for her as he marveled that he was having a son.
Not hearing his own words, Collin’s eyes grew round as he watched the gash on her forehead. Tilting his head so he could see under Skye’s hovering hand, he watched as it gradually began to close. It was so lengthy a time that if he had not been a seasoned warrior, trained to notice things out of the ordinary, he would never have caught the progression. He watched in amazement as the flesh under came together and then the skin closed fully while the bruising slowly vanished, leaving only the blood behind.
Aiden’s body froze as his hearing faded, then he felt as if he was being propelled down a narrow tunnel.
Disorientated, he shook his head until he quickly discovered it only made it worse. His eyes lost focus and caught the strangest images. Colors swirled, brightened and dimmed at will, making his vision even more muted. He tried to focus and caught hazy shades of bones and organs, things he had seen on the battlefield but not the same. Then he saw a form floating in midair, so tiny he could hold it in the palm of his hand, curled up as if sleeping. White sparkles shimmered around the form moving as it kicked or jerked.
It hit him that this was Anna’s baby, and he watched in wonder.
All too soon, he found himself pulled away from the site back through the tunnel and staggered as his vision faded to black.
Locking his knees, he waited for it to clear.
“I told you it was not good to touch me.”
Aiden looked up at Skye’s pale face, the green of her eyes intense from the bruises forming under them. His eyes adjusted and reached for her again.
Skye stepped back, straightened her spine and ignored the shaking.
“I did what I had to do.” She looked at the other three in the room before returning her attention to Anna. “You must stay in bed one full day.”
“But—”
Raising her unsteady hand to stop Anna’s protest, Skye continued.
“You lost a lot of blood, something I cannot replace. One full day of bed rest and then I promise you, you can get up and dance if you wish.”
Collin and Elizabeth nodded firmly, stilling any further protest from Anna.
Knowing she had accomplished the impossible, Skye headed for the door.
“Where be ye goin?”
Holding on to the handle to keep her steady, she refused to look at Aiden.
“I know I am still a prisoner.” She pulled on the door, scared she was going to pass out right there as her skin went clammy.
Hands went around her and she shook her head feebly.
“What be it? Why be ye so frail? I gave ye me strength.”
Unable to break away, her head feeling heavy and her empty stomach about to rebel, she whispered; “I can’t tell you when I ate l-last, or slept. No amount of h-healing can help that.”
He lifted her face and watched as color completely drained from her lips and his heart lurched.
“I am not a spy.” She whispered just before she passed out.
Chapter Eight
“Nothin makes sense.” Aiden said furiously as he paced his study. “There be a man, badly beaten, statin Skye be a spy an yet she risked her own life to ensure the bairn’s life. I doona ken how this makes sense.”
He wished he could speak to Skye, but she’d been given laudanum to help her sleep and keep the nightmares at bay. He thought of how he held her throughout the night, how he had laid there with the fire casting a glow over them and he watched while the damaged skin from the rats and bugs had disappeared as her body repaired itself.
Collin sat with his hands clasped on his knees nodding in agreement. “Ye need to talk to the lass.”
“I have tried, man. Think ye I have no?”
“Tis different this time.” Collin assured him.
“How? I have the counsel elders pesterin me to make an example of the lass an questionin me authority every minute I doona!”
“She has had nothin but fear. Take her fear away an mayhap she will open up.”
Aiden paused, hand to chin in thought. “Take her fear away.”
“Show her she be no alone.”
A smile grew, lighting his eyes for the first time in many days.
Standing tall, he chuckled. “An I have just the plan on how to do that.”
* * *
Skye was sitting in Aiden’s huge bed eyeing the fire roaring in the hearth, dying to get a hold of Sarah, trying not to wonder who had given her a bath.
>
She remembered waking up before and being hand fed, believing it was Aiden.
Then she’d been given something to drink—something nasty tasting—before drifting back to sleep. Waking up to the smell of food, her mouth feeling and tasting terrible, she was in the process of devouring her plate when a maid entered, paused as she noticed Skye sitting up and quickly left, returning minutes later to clear the empty dishes.
She knew she would have company soon, probably why the maid had immediately left when she saw that she was awake and then returned.
It was not long before her thoughts were proven correct. Her eyes swung to the door as Aiden opened it and walked through.
“Tis good to see ye lookin so well, lass.”
A blush stole over her face as his eyes seemed to drink her in.
“For how long?” She asked as she put her plate away, no longer hungry.
His head tilted. “For how long what?”
Refusing to acknowledge her body’s response to his nearness, she cleared her throat, making a show of gathering the skins around her, uncomfortable in just a nightgown.
“For how long will I be well? As in . . . when am I going to be hung?” She shrugged. “Or b-burned.”
“Why would I be doin either?”
“I have been accused of being a spy so I supposed you hung spies. And now you know I’m a witch and I assume that it’s quite normal to b-burn witches.”
She hated how she stuttered.
Aiden was saddened that she would not look him in the eyes but he understood and planned to change that post haste.
“Aye, Skye, ye have been accused of bein a spy an we need to talk about that. As for the other—”
Just then, the door opened and in came Elizabeth, Anna, and Collin.
Anna rushed to her bedside, set something down on the table next to her plate of food before promptly crawling over to hug her as tightly as she could with a very large belly in the way.
Skye sat there stunned, fighting back a tear as Anna cried and thanked her for saving her son. She babbled on, amazed about how Skye knew it was a boy and how active he was now.
Elizabeth chided Anna into silence as she approached the bed from the other side.
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