Highland Dawn

by Donna Grant

  “Your mother,” Taranis said, “asked me to stay away. I obeyed her wishes for a time until I realized she was the one meant for me. When I finally found her, she was in a convent.”

  “A convent?” Moira asked.

  Taranis nodded. “She was from a very wealthy family. She refused to marry anyone if she couldn’t have me. So, she became a nun.”

  “She didn’t tell you about Dartayous?”

  “Nay. She did tell me that she had left a package with the Druids. I never pieced it together. I suppose she thought I would seek out the package, but I was too grief

  stricken to think much about it.” Dartayous smiled. Finally after so many years alone he had his people, a wife and now...a father. “It doesn’t matter. We know the truth now. Father.” Taranis’ eyes watered. “Son.”

  * * * *

  “What do you think they want?” Dartayous asked Moira as they walked through the palace. “It must be important to take us from the wedding feast.” She had an inkling of what it was, but didn’t want to say anything just yet. They reached the double doors and opened them. Bright sunlight poured over

  them. Moira looked around and found Rufina and Theron standing beside a tree.

  “There,” she said and pointed to the king and queen.

  “Do you think-”

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “Let’s find out.”

  She had to stop herself from running to the tree. She noticed that Dartayous had also quickened his pace. They smiled to the royal pair and waited.

  Rufina spoke first. “I think this belongs to you,” she said and held out her hand to Moira.

  Moira reached out and took her silver cross from the queen. “I thought I had lost it.”

  “We found it in the chamber you used,” Theron said.

  “Thank you,” Moira said as she put the necklace on.

  The queen waited until she was finished before speaking. “What the two of you have done to save our world and yours is more than we could have ever asked for. You risked your lives and souls. A simple thank you isn’t enough.”

  Moira watched as Theron reached up and pulled a piece of the white fruit from the tree.

  “Maybe this will help,” he said and handed the small round fruit to her.

  Moira glanced at Dartayous. He smiled and nodded. She looked back at the small fruit and licked her lips before she brought it to her mouth. The sweet, slightly tangy juices of the fruit ran down her throat as she bit into it. It was soft, smooth.

  She plopped the rest of it in her mouth and chewed. When she had swallowed Rufina embraced her. “You are now immortal, Moira. You and Dartayous can be together for eternity. Do you feel any different?”

  “Nay,” she answered then became worried that maybe it hadn’t worked on her. “Am I supposed to?”

  Rufina and Theron laughed. “I don’t know,” Rufina answered. “I’ve never given it to a human.”

  Moira turned and smiled up at her husband. “Forever.”

  “For all eternity,” he whispered and kissed her lips.

  Moira turned back to thank Rufina and Theron, but they had departed already.

  “Looks like we’re alone,” Dartayous said.

  “It looks that way. Guess we should get back to the reception.”

  “It can wait awhile,” he said and nuzzled her neck.

  Moira had to agree with him.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Lugus had to laugh at the irony of it all. He had thought he would die when he gave Moira his essence, but he had ended up back in the Realm of Shadows. He had hoped to never experience the mind numbing existence again.

  He shut his eyes and went down on his haunches. There was nothing to look at anyway. He wondered if Dartayous had gotten Moira out of Shadowhaven, then prayed that he had succeeded. He couldn’t stand to know that Moira was walking between worlds all because of what he had done to her.

  As soon as he had given her his life essence, he had seen her soul choose Shadowhaven instead of her world. He had tried to call out to her, but she hadn’t heard him. It wasn’t long before he saw Dartayous follow her.

  They were mates. He didn’t bury the pain that realization caused. He wanted, nay needed, to feel the pain to know that he was still alive because it wouldn’t be long before that faded as well.

  “Open your eyes,” a voice commanded him.

  His entire body jerked. He knew that voice. Slowly he opened his eyes and found himself staring at the silver rug on the stairs in the throne room. He stood and came face to face with his brother.

  He waited. His punishment would soon come, and he deserved whatever they gave him after all that he had done. Anything would be better than the darkness, even a slow painful death.

  “Do you not have anything to say?” Theron asked.

  “Is Moira all right? Did Dartayous reach her in time?”

  Theron raised a blonde brow. “Aye. She and Dartayous are married.”

  “Good.” And Lugus was happy for her. He should have known he couldn’t keep mates apart.

  “Anything else?”

  He looked away from the penetrating gaze of his brother. “Nay. I’m ready for my punishment.”

  “I should punish you,” Theron said and walked around him. “After everything you have done you deserve no less. However, my wife thinks differently.”

  Lugus’ gaze snapped to the throne and spotted Rufina. He bowed his head.

  “As I was saying,” Theron stated irritably, “Rufina says you showed yourself a true hero by giving your life essence to Moira.”

  “Exactly. I should be dead. Not here,” he said. “That’s what I wanted.”

  Theron signed and stopped in front of him. “That’s what we all thought, but it seems that you just lost your immortality. You are now mortal.”

  Lugus waited for the killing blow, the form of punishment that would end his life easily and quickly. He had never wanted anything more, except for Moira.

  “So,” Theron continued, “Rufina thinks you have earned a second chance.”

  “What?” he repeated not sure his ears had heard correctly.

  Rufina rose from her seat and walked to him. “If you were the monster you proclaimed to be, you wouldn’t have turned away when the Death Dragons began to destroy the other dragons or this city. Nor would you have given your life for Moira’s. You should have died, but I held onto your soul.”

  He hid his annoyance. “What is to become of me?” he asked her.

  “You will start your life again.”

  He went to his knees and kissed her hand. “You are truly a great queen. I wish you would allow me to die.”

  Rufina shook her head. “You may wish that now, but time will change that. You, of all people, deserve a second chance. Take it, Lugus. Promise me that you will embrace your new life and not wish for death.”

  “I give you my word,” he said after a moment. Vows weren’t taken likely for a Fae.

  He rose and turned to his brother. “I wish I could turn back time and get back the years we missed. I’ll think of you often. Father was right, you are the better king.”

  To his surprise, Theron smiled at him. “Nay, brother. You would have made an excellent king. I can never say I’m sorry enough to have wrongly accused you. Have a good life.”

  Lugus closed his eyes and waited. He was getting what few men ever got. A second chance. * * * * Moira hid behind the tree with Dartayous. She had wanted just a glimpse of

  Jaime, to know that he would indeed be fine.

  “There he is,” Dartayous whispered.

  She smiled when she saw Rebecca carry him outside. Rebecca’s other children played around her talking to Jamie all the while.

  “We picked the right family for him,” Dartayous said.

  “Nay, you did.”

  He kissed her neck. “Ready?”

  “Not just yet.” She waited until Rebecca and the kids were away from the cottage before she walked from her tree. She
went inside the cottage and left the bag of coins on the table. She would be back often with more coin, it was the least she could do.

  She walked back to Dartayous. “Now I’m ready.”

  With the quickness of the Fae they were on the Isle of Skye in a blink. “Are you sure about this?” Dartayous asked.

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She looked out over the loch with the stone gateway in her view. “This is where we belong.”

  “I also suppose it helps to know my father is one of the guardians of the gateways?”

  She laughed and linked her arm with his. “It did make returning here easier. Your father wanted you to guard this gateway as much as you wanted to.”

  “Aye, he did. All this time I had a father who is cousin to the king. That makes us kin to royalty.”

  Her laughter floated in the wind. “It just makes you more appealing.”

  He tickled her. “I supposed I had better get busy building us a home then.”

  Moira watched him walk away to look at the spot he had picked out. She turned back to the loch and sighed. Her life was good. She had her mate, her sisters and was guarding a gateway to the Fae.

  What else could she ask for?

  A babe.

  The thought flickered through her mind faster than lightening. Aye, a babe, she smiled and touched her stomach.

  Epilogue

  Frang sighed and looked over the Druid’s Glen. His time at the glen had ended. But he couldn’t leave just yet. He needed to look into the future for his peace of mind.

  He looked fist to Glenna. A bright future awaited her and Conall. They would continue to keep the Druid’s hidden and pass on the Druid knowledge to their only child, a son. There would be many meetings with the Fae, and Glenna and Conall would see things most people would cast off as fables. Their love would be legendary through the Highlands, and with their combined powers, their clan would have many years of peace and prosperity.

  Frang felt one weight lift off his shoulders. He closed his eyes and thought of Fiona.

  Many Druids would find their way to the MacLachlan land where Fiona and Gregor would shelter them just as the MacInnes’ had done for centuries. Under Gregor’s rule, he would rebuild what MacNeil had destroyed and become a clan that others feared as an enemy but found refuge in as a friend. Their lives would be doubly blessed with both a son and a daughter. Through war and peace, their love for the other would keep them strong and united. Theirs was a force to be reckoned with as many would discover first hand.

  Another weight lifted, Frang opened his eyes and smiled. What would come to pass for Fiona and Glenna was more than he could have possibly hoped for. But the one sister he worried for the most, the one who had been like a daughter to him, worried him the most. With a deep sigh, he hesitantly shut his eyes and thought of Moira.

  She and Dartayous would now watch the gateway on the Isle of Skye. The isle would provide them with the peace and contentment they both longed for, and give their sons ample opportunity to explore the Fae realm to their hearts content. Moira and Dartayous’ heart, body and soul had mated. They would be together for all time.

  Frang blew out a breath and smiled as he opened his eyes. Finally the sisters had the lives they deserved. Each had had a journey to make, but all three of them had proven themselves. At last the huge weight he had carried disappeared.

  He knew Glenna and Conall had wanted to question him when he told them it was time for him to leave, but they had held their tongues. He was grateful for he didn’t wish to tell them the truth. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  With one last look over his beloved glen, Frang turned and faced a future he had long hidden from.

  THE END