Donna Grant: Forbidden Highlander

“How are your wounds?” he asked.

She shrugged. “They’ve healed.”

“We got away this time, but we might not the next.”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes. You did well tonight, Fallon. Never doubt that. It was quick thinking getting us away from the attack and somewhere they couldn’t find us.”

He grunted, unsure her praise was warranted. “I thought my heart would leap from my chest when I saw you fighting. You were magnificent.”

“So were you.”

He opened his mouth to tell her he was sorry for earlier, but she moved away from him, retreating to a corner by herself.

Maybe it was for the best, Fallon told himself. There were too many ears listening, and the things he had wanted to say — the things he had to say — were for Larena only.

Fallon rose and walked to Sonya, who hadn’t left Malcolm’s side. He knelt by the Druid and nodded at Malcolm. “How is he?”

“He was doing better before he had to be moved.” Her hand hovering over his broken arm, she sighed. “I had to make him sleep he was in such pain, Fallon. He wanted to help fight, and I fear he would have if I had not done something.”

“You did the right thing. Larena would have both our heads if something happened to her cousin.”

Sonya shrugged and tugged a strand of fiery hair behind her ear. “I fear what the damage this night has done to his arm. It has begun to swell again. My magic can only do so much.”

“Do what you can. That’s all we can ask of you.”

She licked her lips and turned her amber eyes to him. “Is it enough? My healing abilities have always been great and exceeded what most Druids are able to do, but I fear that the one day I will really need my magic, it will fail me.”

A stab of fear jabbed in Fallon’s heart. “Did you have a vision of this?”

“Nay, just a … sense of what is to come.”

Which meant a vision, but Fallon wasn’t going to argue with a Druid. “Have you joined Cara’s magic with yours for Malcolm?”

“We were just about to do that again when you returned. I will see it done now.”

Fallon moved away as Sonya motioned for Cara to join her. He stood to the side and watched the Druids work. Though he couldn’t see the magic move from their hands to Malcolm’s body, he could feel it.

There was a distinct change in the air, a crackle almost, that alerted a Warrior that magic was near. In a powerful Druid like Sonya, a Warrior could sense what she was before she spoke.

Cara had been different because she hadn’t known she was a Druid and hadn’t developed her magic. Now that Sonya had begun training her, Fallon could sense the magic growing in his sister-in-law by the day.

They were fortunate to have two Druids with them, and every Warrior there would do everything they could to protect them from Deirdre.

Fallon sighed and made himself as comfortable as possible. It would be a few hours yet before the wyrran and Warriors gave up looking for them. Meanwhile, he would plan his attack on Deirdre.

Deirdre wanted to kill something, to rip her army limb from limb and display their heads on pikes atop her mountain. How could her Warriors, her wyrran, not have captured at least one from MacLeod Castle?

“You should have seen what Fallon can do,” William said. “One moment he’s standing in front of you, the next he’s half a league away.”

Deirdre tapped one long nail against her leg. “So, he’s finally learned of his power. I wondered when he would figure it out.”

She couldn’t help but speculate on what Lucan’s and Quinn’s power would be. Had their god given them the same power, or did each of them have something different? She would have to keep her eye on Quinn so he didn’t just poof out of her mountain.

“Broc,” she said as she turned to her only winged Warrior. “What do you have to say in all of this?”

He shrugged a dark blue shoulder, his wings brushing the two Warriors on either side of him. “You’ve underestimated them, mistress. Another has been added to their ranks. Camdyn MacKenna.”

Deirdre blew out a breath. “I’d had such hopes for Camdyn. It’s too bad he’s aligned against me. The only saving grace in this awful day is the group of Warriors seized on their way to MacLeod Castle.”

“How many?” Broc asked.

There was something in Broc’s tone. He had been the one to spot the small group, and had told her, but she couldn’t stop the niggle of doubt in her mind. “Only four. One died when he was given too much drough blood in his wounds.”

She walked to Broc, the other Warriors moving away from him. Her long nail trailed down his bare sculpted chest to his flat stomach then to the waist of his breeches.

“Your idea to use a small amount of drough blood to incapacitate them was brilliant, Broc.”

He looked at her with his midnight-blue eyes and shrugged. “I am here to serve you.”

“So you are.” She hadn’t taken Broc to her bed, and if Quinn wasn’t lying in that bed now, she would be tempted to taste the winged Warrior for herself. As it was, it would have to wait.

“Continue to keep watch on the MacLeods,” she ordered Broc, and stepped away before she ran her hand over his cock to see how fast she could arouse him. “Return tomorrow to bring me news.”

“As you wish, mistress.”

Maybe the doubt she felt wasn’t about Broc but another Warrior. She would have to keep a closer watch on her men. After all, if Broc had broken away from her, he wouldn’t have given her the location of the Warriors on their way to the MacLeods.

Nay, Broc was hers. All hers.

Minutes ticked into hours. The rain had come and gone in a quick burst. The waves drowned out any sounds that might be coming from the castle, but Fallon had waited as long as he could. Dawn would be upon them soon, and he wanted everyone back in the castle.

He nodded his head toward the mouth of the cave, indicating that Lucan should follow him. Fallon started for the entrance only to find Larena standing there, her arms wrapped around herself.

His tunic hung to the middle of her thighs, and the breeze lifted the hem and molded the fabric to her curves. The sight of her bare legs made all the blood rush to his cock so fast the world started spinning.

She had loosened her hair from its braid so that it fell around her in golden waves. He itched to sink his hands in the silken depths and bury his face in the thick strands so he could inhale her natural fragrance of lilies.

Fallon walked to her, unable to stay away. She didn’t take her eyes from the water. She stared at the churning depths as if mesmerized.

“What is it?” Lucan asked.

Fallon jerked his attention from Larena and turned to his other side where Lucan had come to stand. “I’m going to go take a look and see how many are still in the castle.”

“Let me come with you.”

“Nay. I willna be long. I just want a quick look. Everyone is tired, and I want them back in their chambers as soon as we can get them there.”

Lucan sighed. “Just be careful.”

Fallon waited until his brother walked away before he glanced at Larena. “Are you all right?”

“It’s beautiful up here,” she murmured. “All I can hear is the sea and the wind. I had no idea we were so far up the cliff.”

“I used to see this opening when I swam in the sea. I always wondered what was in the cave. When we came back here from Deirdre’s, it’s the first place I went. I spent a lot of time here trying to calm my mind and prepare myself to be the man my brothers needed me to be. It didn’t work.”

She turned her head to him then. The moon’s reflection off the water showed in her smoky-blue eyes. “I can see why you came here. Just imagine how you would have been without this cave.”