She never knew she could tap that unknown well of power residing in her soul until it really counted. She kicked so furiously that she got his legs tangled in her skirts. From there, she wrenched him off her hips. She got onto her back before he unwound himself from the fabric and pounced on her, but this time, she was ready for him. She swatted his arms out of the way and managed to knee him in the groin.
He bellowed in fury and seethed off the bed to tackle her anew, but she wasn’t playing that game. She swung her legs up and kicked him in the chest with all her might. He sailed off the bed and landed on his feet in the middle of the room.
Ellen’s berserk rage lifted her on puppet strings. She put no effort into moving. She hurtled at him to follow up her attack, but he darted out of her path. She rocketed past him, and her own momentum carried her across the room. She couldn’t stop herself in time, and she plunged head-first through the open window. She crashed into the sill and buckled in half. She scrambled to catch hold of the ledge, but before she could correct, her legs flipped up off the ground. She somersaulted over the edge and would have plummeted to the yard below if the big man hadn’t caught her by the wrist.
She spun in midair, her skirts twirling in every direction. Kilted men scurried all over the ground, but they couldn’t reach her. She couldn’t decide whether she wanted the big man to let her go or not. Part of her clung to him for dear life. The other part wanted to get as far away from him as she could.
A voice pierced the din. “Ellen! Ellen!”
“Louis!” she shrieked. “Louis, help me!”
She didn’t hear any more. When she dared to look up, the Falisa bared his teeth down at her. Sweat stood out on his forehead from holding her up, and her hand slipped against his damp skin. Oh Christ, he was going to drop her!
She flapped her other arm at the windowsill in a desperate bid to catch hold of something, but she only succeeded in loosening her attacker’s grip. She had to do something, but what?
Then she remembered the time portal spell. If she could only remember it correctly, she could zap herself to somewhere, anywhere but here. She beheld the Falisa mouthing the same charm he said up in the room, and the sight gave her the impetus she needed to act.
She delved back in her memory for the right words. “Eshmun Hamilcar hanno ashtzaph byblos rae; Zephon anana akilokipok silatuyok anik…”
She got as far as anik when something shiny jabbed into her view. She gazed up at the man above her before she recognized what it was. A long, thin swoop of blood-soaked metal protruded from his chest. He stared down at it in the same wide-eyed wonder as she did and then raised his eyes to her face.
Ellen’s worst nightmare came true as his fingers uncurled from her wrist. The pain of his strong grip faded, and stark terror took its place. She hung suspended between Heaven and Earth for what seemed like years before gravity caught her and yanked her down. She relaxed into the inevitable and prepared herself for a hard landing among more of these Gunns when another face poked through the window. Long black hair surrounded the face, and a powerful arm shot out to grab her. She caught and stuck, still twirling in the air.
“Louis!” she screeched.
Veins bulged from his forehead, and his cheeks turned purple from the strain. “Hang on, lass,” he whispered. “Hang on until I can haul ye up.”
He shoved the fallen Highlander out of the way. The next thing she knew, he dove through the window and floundered for her other hand. Once he got hold of her, he leaned back to drag her through the window.
She kicked her feet against the wall to climb to safety. Louis dumped her on the floor next to her foe. The man leaned lifeless against the wall, his unblinking eyes fixed on that saber blade protruding from his chest.
Louis sank to the floor next to Ellen and laid his hand on her shoulder. He gasped between wheezing breaths, “Are ye all right, lass?”
She nodded, but she couldn’t reply. Her heart pounded in her neck, and her throat ached from screaming and panting so much. Her head hung down, and every limb trembled from taxing herself to her limit.
Louis lifted his arm to pull her in when an almighty kick smashed against her ribs and sent her sprawling away into a corner.
The man they both thought dead attacked Louis in all his limitless ferocity.
Louis spun around to check his assault, but the guy got the jump on both of them. He body slammed Louis to the floor and drove both meaty hands around his throat. Louis’s shoulders shivered the boards from the impact, and the snarling Falisa crouched over him to choke him to death.
Ellen pulled her shattered body to her feet and plunged across the room to tackle the guy, but the Highlander let go of Louis’s neck long enough to plant his palm against her sternum. He gave her a dizzying shove and sent her catapulting backward.
Louis clawed at the man’s fingers for any purchase. His face swelled and puffed bright red, and he didn’t breathe. The attacker bared his teeth, and his muscular arms and shoulders quivered all over from the sheer monstrous strength with which he strangled Louis.
Louis kicked his feet and slapped the man’s arms, doing his best to get hold of his assailant’s neck, but none of it did any good. Ellen took in the whole scene in the blink of an eye, and chilling calm took over her wild insanity. She knew exactly what she had to do, and she did it.
She walked up behind the man with slow, deliberate care. Nothing stood in her way anymore. She grasped the handle of Louis’s saber still sticking out of the man’s back. With one quick jerk, she yanked it free. It slithered out on a film of syrupy black blood.
The Highlander froze, and his eyes popped wide open. He stared down at Louis’s stricken face, but Ellen didn’t hesitate. She seized the sword hilt in both hands and brought it across the man’s neck with all her remaining strength.
Chapter 32
Louis checked the window to see the coast was clear. He moved Ellen over to the bed where they both sat on its edge. Louis rested one hand on Ellen’s knee. She looked down at her hands the same way she had before, but they didn’t shake. Calm settled over her features, and he read clear understanding in her eyes. One more death didn’t bother her now.
“Are they gone?” she asked.
He nodded. “They’ll likely come back later, I expect. They’ll no’ leave this alone after what ye’ve done.”
She flexed her fingers and watched them move. “We’ll be long gone by then.”
He let his chin fall on his chest. “Aye.” She didn’t say anything, and he dared look up at her one more time. “Ye must go back, lass. Ye must go home. I cannae have ye in danger like this. I cannae lose ye when I only just found ye.” His voice cracked getting it out.
She only nodded. “I know. I guess I have to. It was stupid of me to think I could stay here. The Falisa will never leave us alone. And if we develop the Cipher’s Kiss, your numbers can swell to defeat them once and for all someday.”
“Did something happen between us over there?” he asked. “Is that why ye dinnae want to go back? Is it bad over there between us?”
“Bad?” she exclaimed. “How could it be bad after everything we’ve shared and been through? If I didn’t know I could be with you over there, I wouldn’t go at all. You’re the one thing I’m going back for.”
“What is it, then?” he asked. “Why are ye so reluctant to go back?”
“It’s…” She choked down the words. “I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anybody. I don’t want to see the others. Why can’t we just drop the information and take off by ourselves?”
He searched her face for any clue to the hidden mystery buried inside her. “I dinnae understand ye, lass. Do ye no’ have good friends back there? What about Ree? Do ye no’ want to see her again?”
She jerked upright at the mention of Ree. Tension shot up her spine, and she stiffened to fight all over again.
Louis’s jaw dropped at the sight of her. What in the world could turn her against her own friends—the friends who’d
saved her and helped her and supported her all these years? Wasn’t Ree Ellen’s best friend in the whole world?
Ellen burst to life. She jumped off the bed and strode to the window. She stood with her back to him, but that terrible tension still racked her all over.
Louis dared not go anywhere near her or break the silence.
When she spoke, emotion rasped in her voice. “I don’t want to see Ree. I never want to see her again.”
Louis gasped, “Why? What on earth has happened to ye, lass?”
“You happened, okay?” She spun around and shrieked out the words. “You happened to me. Don’t you understand? How am I supposed to look her in the eye? She’ll know! She’ll know what happened between us. She’ll know!”
Louis sank back against the headboard. He didn’t recognize the woman standing in front of him. She’d saved his life countless times. She rose in her power to become the most invincible witch he’d ever met, and here she was, broken and incoherent at the thought of reuniting with the one person she loved most in the world.
“I dinnae understand, lass,” he whispered. “I cannae understand.”
Ellen stormed across the room, stepping over the Highlander she’d killed. She flung herself down on the bed and went back to looking at her hands. “Don’t ask. You said you’re not the only person in this room with secrets, so just don’t even ask. I can’t tell you.”
A razor-hot jolt of pain stabbed him in the guts. Secrets. They both had secrets. Was he going to send her back to 2018 with this hanging over his head?
The intolerable burden of carrying his secret crushed him to the floor. His arms hung limp in his lap, and his head drooped. A voice drifted out of him from somewhere beyond the reaches of time. “Dinnae tell them about the spell. Dinnae tell them how to activate the Cipher’s Kiss. They’ll fail, and the Angui will die out.”
Ellen’s eyes floated to his face, but he refused to look up. He couldn’t bear to see her right now. She sat silent so long he wondered if she heard him.
At last, her gentle voice soothed his broken soul. “You don’t want them to succeed?”
“I dinnae care if they succeed. That’s no’ what I meant. Just dinnae take the potion yerself, lass, whatever ye do. I can live the next three hundred years if I ken ye’ll be there at the end with me. I can wait that long to see ye again, but dinnae take the potion. If ye go back to yer friends, if ye give them the spell, they’ll draw ye back in. Ye’ll work to help them. Ye ken ye will. Ye’ll no’ be able to resist them, and when the time comes, ye’ll take it.”
“Okay.” She let out a long sigh. “If it’ll make you feel better, I won’t take it. I won’t work for Primary Industries anymore. I’ll give Ned the spell, and you and I can go off alone. That should satisfy both of us.”
All at once, his head shot up. His eyes snapped to her face, and he confronted those mystical dark eyes reading his every thought and sensation. In those eyes, he read the truth. They wouldn’t run away. They would make the Cipher’s Kiss, and Ellen would take it to become immortal. It might as well have already happened, and now he couldn’t stop it.
Mindless grief and terror cinched their icy fingers around his heart. He looked to his right and then to his left, but he saw no way out. “I cannae do this, lass. I cannae do this. I cannae see ye take that formula. I’ll die if ye do.”
Her mouth formed a silent shape, but no sound came out at first, then, “Why?”
“Ye’ll get pregnant,” he croaked. “Do ye see? Ye’ll get pregnant, and ye’ll…ye’ll…”
Her eyebrows flew up. For a moment, confusion and understanding struggled back and forth in her face. “You don’t want me to get pregnant? Is that why you don’t want me to take the Cipher’s Kiss?”
“Ye’ll die, lass.” His guts contracted saying it, but he had to do this. He had to unmask the secret before he laid another finger on her. He couldn’t live with her not knowing. “Ye’ll die.”
“I’ll die if I get pregnant?” she asked. “Is the Cipher’s Kiss poison or something?”
“No, I am.” He hurled himself to his feet. He spun away so he wouldn’t see the shock and fear in those eyes he loved so much.
God, he loved her! He loved her more than he could stand, and now she knew. She knew he was poison, that coming near him would eventually cost her her life.
She sat still while he leaned his hands against the windowsill. He closed his eyes and let the cool evening breeze soothe his brow. If only he could throw himself out of this window, he would die and close the book on his whole wretched existence.
“He was Ree’s brother.”
At first, he thought he imagined it. Did those words really come into the world to fill his mind with their stark horror?
“We all grew up together, though we didn’t notice each other until I started high school a year after he did. We dated all through high school, and after my parents were killed, he helped me take care of my brothers and sisters. He used to read to them and help them with their homework while I made dinner. We spent every day together, and we basically raised the kids together. I was their mother, and he was their father.”
Louis turned around. She sat in the same place on the bed with her angelic face raised to his. Haunted images played out before her eyes. Her voice hurt entering his ears, but he had no choice but to listen.
“He shared all my secrets—him and Ree. We fell in love. We decided to get married, but before we got a chance to tell anybody, he…” She swiped at tears forming in her eyes.
Louis finished the sentence for her. “He died.”
“He didn’t just die,” she blurted out. “He died in a car accident, and Ree was driving. She blamed herself for his death. She knew I loved him more than anything, but I couldn’t even cry about it in front of her. She already felt bad enough. I couldn’t make it worse, or she would think I blamed her for it too. I did blame her for it.” She punched one fist into her palm. “I blamed her more than anything. I wished like hell it was her that had died in that wreck.” Her voice broke with suppressed sobs, but her eyes flashed fire as she glared at nothing.
Louis staggered across the room and sank to his knees in front of her. “Why dinnae you want her to ken what happened between us?”
“How can I look her in the eye?” she wailed. “How can I explain that I…that I love you? She’ll think I’m betraying him, and she’ll be right. I can’t do this. I can’t be with you around her. If I’m gonna be with you, we have to go somewhere far away where she’ll never find out.”
His fingers crept up her knee to her lap. He clasped her hands in his own. “All right, lass. All right. It’ll be all right. You’ll see. We’ll no’ go back to them. We’ll leave as soon as ye hand over the spell.”
“Where will you go after I leave you here?” she asked. “How will you get out of here with the Falisa and the army and everybody searching for you?”
“Ye forget, lass. Our people have been masters of disguise for thousands of years, and I’m an officer of the British Army. I’ll change me clothes and shave me beard, and I’ll turn into an English toff just like that one we met out of Aberdeen. I’ll use a different name and a different accent, and no one will ever recognize me.”
She nodded, but she didn’t smile. She barely looked at him. She sat wooden and dead. She didn’t squeeze his hand. “Okay.”
He studied her. Telling him her secret did nothing to break the curse holding them apart. She’d done her share. Now it was his turn, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak it out loud. He opened his mouth more than once but couldn’t get his throat to work. How could he make that ancient nightmare real again by giving it a voice? How could he call those ghosts long buried back to life? What if they didn’t go back into their graves again? What if they tormented him for the next seven thousand years? He couldn’t risk it.
She surprised him by breaking out of her stupor. “I never wanted children of my own anyway. I already raised two of them. I don’t nee
d any more.”
Those simple words shot through him. She probably meant to ease his conscience for not wanting her to get pregnant. She would never know the real reason.
All at once, he couldn’t hold back the agony any longer. He toppled over and buried his face in her lap. “Oh, lass. Dinnae say that!”
She touched his shoulder. Even that cost him more pain than one man could survive. What was he going to do with this woman he wanted more than life itself?
He heaved back onto his heels and searched her face for any light of redemption. Tears streamed down his cheeks when he thought about her living childless and without hope, all because of him.
“The Cipher’s Kiss…” he began. “What if something happens to ye when ye take it?”
She frowned. “What makes you think anything would happen to me? What makes you think I would die if I got pregnant?”
“I cannae stand to think on it!” he cried. “Ye could end up dead like all the others, and I cannae live with that.”
Her eyes popped wide open. “Dead…like who? Like her?”
He nodded fast. “My wife, Annella…she was pregnant when the plague hit. I held her in my arms when it happened. Ye cannae imagine how awful it was, and the baby…”
“Don’t tell me,” she told him. “If it’s that bad, I don’t need to know. I already said I wouldn’t do it.”
“Ye must!” he shrieked. “Do ye no’ see that? Ye all must. It’s the only way. Ree’ll do it, and ye, and all yer friends. It’s the only way that makes sense.”
She didn’t argue. Somewhere deep down, she already knew the same way he did.
He hung his head in his hands. Now that he’d started, he had to go all the way, even if he scared her away. “The plague…it tore the women’s bodies apart. It tore their flesh off their bones until there was nothing left. It tore the baby out of her stomach, and he died on the floor right in front of me. I couldnae do aught to help her. I had to watch.”
Spellbound by the Angui - Cipher's Kiss Book 2 Page 22