Donna Grant: Wicked Highlander

How long had she been lost in the past? How long had the stones pulled her under this time?

Deirdre petted the wyrran’s smooth head. The wyrran was of her own making. She had used her black magic and created the creatures that served only her. They were her pets, though she heard some of the Warriors call them her children.

She glanced at William. His gaze was always on her, the desire in his eyes hard to miss. The royal-blue-skinned Warrior had shared her bed for a short time. Until he’d captured Quinn MacLeod.

Quinn. Finally, I have you for my own.

Once Quinn had healed from his injuries sustained in his capture, Deirdre had expected him to be grateful. She should have known he would be insolent, but that’s why she wanted him so desperately.

The MacLeods had been the first Warriors she created. After centuries of the gods being bound, she had released them into Fallon, Lucan, and Quinn. Unfortunately, the MacLeod brothers had escaped before she could carry out her plans. A mistake she had made sure not to make again.

For three hundred years she had sought to have all three brothers back under her control. She had Quinn to start, and for now that was enough.

She regretted her hasty decision to have him thrown into the Pit, but he had to learn she was in control. She was his mistress, and he would obey her in all things.

For the last few weeks she had made herself stay away from him. She wanted him desperately in her bed, to give her the child that it had been foretold would rise — an evil unlike none other from Hell.

In order to have Quinn she had to break him. He held out hope of his brothers coming for him, but before they did, Deirdre had to force the god inside Quinn to take over completely. Only then could he be hers.

And once he was hers, his brothers would soon fall.

Deirdre thought of Fallon and Lucan MacLeod and the women they had claimed. Lucan had found a Druid, a Druid with drough blood in her veins thanks to her parents. The Druid would have given Deirdre much power, but the brothers had fought and won that skirmish.

Who would have thought there could be a female Warrior? Yet that’s exactly what Larena Monroe was. And Fallon had claimed her as his woman.

Deirdre rubbed her hands along the stones. When the brothers fell, their women would too. Everything Deirdre wanted was slowly coming to fruition. She just needed patience. It wasn’t a virtue she had ever practiced before, but for her plans, she would do whatever she needed to see everything come together.

There was scuffling and a woman’s angry hiss behind her. Deirdre turned and looked at the dark-haired, petite Druid being held between two Warriors. The Druid had sent her men on a wild chase through Scotland, but they had eventually caught her.

Deirdre studied her long nails a moment before she said, “It’s a good thing it’s buried deep in your mind, Marcail.”

“It” was the spell to bind the gods in the Warriors. After all Deirdre had been through, after everything she had done, there was no way she would allow one little Druid to ruin everything.

The spell was supposed to have been destroyed when the gods were bound in the original Warriors who battled Rome for control of Britain. Just as with the enchantment to release the gods, the spell had been kept hidden. Until now.

It was by pure chance alone that Deirdre had come across the information about Marcail and her family history.

“How I wish it wasn’t,” the Druid said, her voice laced with repugnance. “I would bind all the gods in an instant if I could.”

Deirdre grinned and looked over Marcail with new eyes. She liked a show of spirit. Most Druids cowered in fear or begged her to spare them. But not this particular mie . Nay, Marcail had fought from the moment she was taken.

Maybe it had something to do with her family. Marcail was descended from some of the strongest Druids that hadn’t survived centuries for nothing. Even if Deirdre didn’t know Marcail’s family, the fact the Druid wore the braids of a Holder told Deirdre everything.

“Ah, but if the spell wasn’t hidden, I would kill everyone you had ever spoken with. Instead of just you. But…I might do it anyway just to be sure no one knows the spell. I cannot have you destroying my perfectly laid plans, now can I?”

Marcail’s turquoise eyes blazed with hatred. She shook with anger, causing the gold bands that bound the tiny braids atop her head to bang together. “You will pay for your sins, Deirdre.”

Deirdre stared at the Druid. Marcail had a classic beauty with her oval face and high cheekbones. Her curves obviously caught the attention of men by the looks of the Warriors watching Marcail.

But it was Marcail’s magic that truly made her shine. It was one of the reasons Deirdre hated mie so. All that goodness just made her ill.

“You poor little mie with your thoughts of a reckoning. What you don’t realize is that I’ll be a goddess soon. There is no one who can defeat me now, and once I take over the world, no one will think of going against me.”

Instead of whimpering, Marcail chuckled. “Such grand delusions you have. I may not be here to see you brought low, drough , but you will be destroyed.”

For an instant, Deirdre knew real fear. Druids possessed powerful magic, and some could see into the future with alarming accuracy. She pushed the apprehension aside and raised a brow. Deirdre hadn’t gained her power by giving into threads of panic. “Is that so, mie ? And who might this savior of yours be?”

“The MacLeods, of course.”

“The MacLeods?” Deirdre repeated. “Are you sure of that, little Marcail?”

Marcail nodded her head of wavy sable locks, rows upon rows of small braids falling around her face and over her shoulders and mixing with her hair. “It’s spreading like wildfire across the Highlands. It’s only a matter of time.”

Deirdre looked at the Warriors holding Marcail and smiled. The Warriors began to laugh, their large muscular bodies shaking with mirth.

Deirdre turned to the crowd below her and raised her hand to gain their attention. “My prisoner says her saviors are the MacLeods.”

Laughter erupted and filled the great cavern. She waited until it had quieted before she turned back to the Druid who had the potential to ruin everything.

“Do you not think the MacLeods have the power to best you?” Marcail asked, her unusual eyes narrowed on Deirdre.

Deirdre shrugged. “I have no idea. Why don’t you ask one yourself?”

Marcail’s eyes grew large as the Warriors hauled her down the stairs to the entrance of the Pit. Deirdre smiled and rubbed her hands together. She loved shocking people. Marcail had been too easy, though.

Deirdre leaned her hands on the rocks that lined the railing of her balcony and looked at the creatures below. “Behold,” she said and swept her arm toward Marcail and the Warriors leading her to the Pit.

The wyrran and the other Warriors parted to let them through. Marcail continued to struggle, even kicking the Warriors when she was able. She was a fighter to be sure. If Deirdre thought for a moment she could turn the mie to her side she would do it.

But what Marcail held in the darkest recess of her mind could undo everything Deirdre had put into place and then some. Deirdre couldn’t even take the chance of killing the Druid herself, much as she wanted to.

Marcail came from a powerful line of Druids and there were enchantments and curses placed all around Marcail as well as in her blood. Whoever killed her was in for quite a surprise.

“We’ve captured another Druid,” Deirdre continued. “A mie who would dare to defy me.”