Highland Fires (2 page)

Lugus then turned his attention to the last
remaining soldier. “Get off my island.”

“I can’t,” he said. “I must return with the
woman or he will kill me.”

Lugus waved away his words. “I don’t care
about the woman. This isle is mine, and no one is allowed on it. If
you don’t want to die, I would suggest you take your men and leave.
Now.”

The soldier looked from his men to Lugus.

“I won’t repeat my offer,” Lugus said.

It took only a moment before the soldier
jerked into action and began hauling his fallen men into the boat.
Lugus didn’t move until the boat had rowed out to the sea. He
sighed and winced as the pain from the beating began to push it’s
way into his mind now that there wasn’t a threat.

A ray of sun slanted across his arm. He
silently cursed not seeing the sun rise over the horizon. And
that’s when he remembered the Fae. He turned and raised his gaze to
the cliff that hovered over his cottage to see her staring down at
him.

It had been so long since he had seen a Fae
that she held him spellbound. He had forgotten just how stunning
all Fae were. And how had he forgotten the mystical and sensual
essence that flowed from them and around them? He had taken it for
granted when he was a Fae.

He waited as she slowly made her way down
from the cliff. She moved with the grace of a feline and the
sensuality of a woman who could bring a man the most exquisite
pleasure imaginable. With great effort he refused to allow his body
to respond to the call of a Fae, though he knew it wasn’t the
woman, but the essence that called to him. It was difficult
considering the last woman he had kissed had been Moira.

Pleasure wasn’t something he permitted
himself to feel. Not after what he had done.

“Get it over with,” he said when the Fae
reached him.

Her head cocked to the side as she regarded
him, her mystical blue eyes never wavering. “What exactly am I
supposed to do?”

“Did you not come here to kill me?”

She shook her head. “I told
you. I’m here so you can help me.”



Lugus looked at the sea. The boat was now on
the shore of Scotland. “I don’t want anyone on my island.” He
returned his gaze to her. “You need to leave now.”

“I cannot.”

He ran a hand down his face. “You are Fae.
You can, and will, leave. Unless you’re here to kill me, I have no
use for you.”

Now that his morning has been ruined, he
pivoted and entered his cottage to try and gather his thoughts
before he started work on the sword and sheath.

~ ~ ~

Ahryn stared after Lugus. She hadn’t known
what to expect from him, but once she had seen him fight the
soldiers, she knew he was the only man who could truly help her.
The memory of his flashing blue eyes when he saw her brought a
smile to her face.

Mortal he may be, but the royalty that flowed
in his veins was still there. But would it be enough to convince
him of her cause?

She took a deep breath and entered the small
cottage. It was larger inside than she would have guessed. It was
clean and everything put away except for a table where he sat
staring at a piece of leather before him. She had seen his work.
The craftsmanship of the weapons and sheaths amazed even her.

His eyes were closed, and she took that time
to really study him. He had features of the Fae--an angular face,
strong jaw, tall, lean but muscular and the flaxen hair.

Lugus’s hair was a shade darker than most
Fae’s, but that was a sign of the royal house. His thick hair hung
down the middle of his back with tiny braids near his
temple--another sign of the Fae.

He sat bare-chested before his table. Even
now she could see the dark bruises where the soldiers had struck
him. There was a cut over his right eye, and the knuckles on his
right hand were bleeding. That’s when she noticed the markings on
his hands and forearms, ancient tattoos with hidden meanings.

Ahryn longed to tend to him, but Lugus was a
proud man and wouldn’t take kindly to her intrusion, although, with
her situation she really didn’t have much choice.

“Shall I tend to your cuts?” she asked
softly.

His entire body jerked before he swung his
head around to her. “Do you always go where you aren’t
welcome?”

Her ire prickled at his comment, but she bit
her tongue and refused to take the bait. “I do not, but desperate
times call for desperate measures.”

He threw back his head and laughed, the sound
not at all friendly. “I find that humorous when a Fae can venture
any where they want. You no more need my help than the sun does in
climbing the sky.”

Ahryn knew it was time she showed him her
secret. She withdrew her right hand from the folds of her skirts
and held it in front of her.

His eyes lowered to her hand. “It’s an
ancient Celtic slave bracelet.”

“Very good.” She tried, but failed, to keep
the sarcasm from her voice. “However, it is not just any Celtic
slave bracelet. It was made specifically to capture a Fae.”

Lugus’ blue eyes narrowed as he swung around
on his stool to face her. “I’ve never heard of such.”

“I, myself, had never heard of it. It was
only after it was on and I tried to leave that I discovered just
how different this bracelet was.”

“How long have you been here?”

Ahryn glanced out the open
window. “Two months.”



“Have all your abilities disappeared?”

She swallowed and licked her lips. “Do you
mean to ask if I still hear other Fae? Nay, I do not. Everything
ceased when the bracelet was clasped to my wrist,” she said and
lowered her hand. Every time she saw her hand, anger at herself
nearly drowned her, so she kept it out of sight.

“And how am I to help?”

She had known this question would come, but
now that it was here, she found it hard to answer. “I know who you
are. Although you may be mortal now, you’re the only one that can
help me return to the Realm of the Fae.”

He crossed his arms over his muscular chest,
and she noticed a tattoo of a horse surrounded by ancient knotwork
on his right forearm. “If you know who I am and why I’m mortal, you
would also know that I cannot venture into the Realm of the
Fae.”

Ahryn didn’t try to hide her disappointment.
In truth, she didn’t know why he was now mortal but had hoped to
bluff him into thinking she did. “I didn’t know that. I assumed you
were still able to travel to different realms.”

Her last hope was now gone, and her curiosity
would keep her trapped on Earth for eternity. She took a deep
breath and turned to the door. There was no use staying now. She
would return to Marcus and face whatever wrath he had.

Lugus hated that he was affected by the
devastation on the female’s face. She wasn’t his concern. He
couldn’t help her.

Or did he just not want to?

“What is your name?” he asked as her hand
reached for the door.

Startled Fae eyes jerked to his face.
“Ahryn.”

It was a beautiful name, he thought to
himself. “How did you get to my isle?”

“How does anyone get to this isle? I stole a
boat and rowed all night.” She looked down at her feet. “I didn’t
expect him to find me so soon.”

Lugus had to admit that his curiosity was now
piqued. “Who?”

Slowly, her mystical blue eyes rose to his.
“Who is the most powerful man around? Lord Marcus MacGregor is the
one that searches for me. The soldiers have seen me, so he will
return to claim me.”

He thought over her words for a moment.
Regardless if he sent her away that instant, his island would be
invaded by the baron and his soldiers. There were very few places
he could hide either himself or Ahryn for any length of time. Yet,
before he could make any kind of decision, he needed to know more
of the facts.

Lugus moved his hand and clenched his jaw as
his swollen, bloodied knuckles cried out in protest. He rose from
the stool and went to the fire where he had water boiling to wash
his cuts. It was one of the many things he had had to learn to do
once he became mortal.

He reached for a strip of cloth and quickly
dunked it in the boiling water. It scalded his hand as he tried to
wring out the water.

“Here,” Ahryn said as she took the cloth and
gently pushed him to his bed. “You sit and I will tend to your cuts
as I tell you my story.”

“How did you know I wanted to know your
story?”

She raised her Fae eyes to him and smiled as
she knelt before him. “It doesn’t take Fae magic to read the
emotions that cross your face.”

Lugus looked at her, really looked at her.
Aye, she was Fae and had all the characteristics of the Fae, but
there was sadness in her eyes, a sadness that Lugus himself lived
with every day.

Her eyes were large, expressive with gently
arching flaxen brows. She had high cheekbones, a stubborn chin and
a long, graceful neck. Her lips, wide and full, drew his attention
like a bee to a flower.

He hadn’t been this close to a woman since
Moira. Nearly five years of his self-imposed prison on the isle. He
blamed it on the fact that he had been without a woman for so many
years that his body yearned for Ahryn. His body needed relief and
would take any female that came near it.

When her long, tapered fingers touched his
injured knuckles he nearly came off the bed. No one had touched him
in what seemed like ages. He had forgotten what it was like to have
comfort, even in such a small does as someone tending to a wound,
and he was startled to find he craved it.

Her touch was gentle as she removed the dried
blood and dirt that had become imbedded in the skin, her finger
stopped to examine each of his tattoos. Lugus fisted his other hand
at his side as he tried to keep his breathing normal and his mind
focused on Ahryn’s story instead of the hunger that had been
awakened in him.

“Your story,” he bit out between clenched
teeth.

“Aye, my story,” she said softly. She glanced
at him and gave him a small smile. “I’m sorry this pains you. I am
being as gentle as I can.”

He gave her a nod and allowed her to think
his actions were due to his discomfort of her cleaning his
wounds.

“I am curious by nature. Something that has
oft times gotten me into a spot of trouble,” Ahryn said as she
wrung out the cloth and turned back to his hand. “My friends and I
used to come to this realm during Beltaine and Samhain. It was a
world like none other. So like ours, yet so different.”

Lugus knew exactly how she felt. The realm of
Earth had often called to him as a young boy. The people were so
innocent of the magic and evil that hovered around them.

“Yet, the more times I came,” Ahryn
continued, “the longer I wanted to stay. The people I met were very
friendly. It became so that I would sneak away and venture to this
realm even if it wasn’t one of the sacred days. My father
discovered this and sought to put an end to it.”

Lugus suspected that she had been kept out of
this realm for a long period of time. “How long did he keep you
away?”

She raised her gaze to him. “Centuries. It
was only after someone tried to take over both realms that he
loosened his hold over me. He assumed that after all those years I
would not wish to visit here again.” She raised her hand with the
cloth and began to dab at the cut over his brow.

“He was wrong,” Lugus said.

She smiled slightly. “Aye. For awhile he
thought I was coming to meet a man, so he tried to force a marriage
on me. I refused. After a particularly painful fight with my
father, I came here. To Scotland.”

Lugus waited for her to finish. She didn’t
speak again until the wound over his eye was cleaned.

Her eyes met his as she sat back on her feet.
“I only meant to stay for a few hours. I wandered the market place
as I usually do. That is where Marcus first saw me. I knew as soon
as I felt his gaze that he knew what I was. I wasn’t afraid though.
As a Fae I knew I could get away at any time.”

Lugus sat forward with his elbows on his
knees. “What happened?”

“I stopped by a small shop that sold jewelry
among other things. I found a pair of earrings that I knew my
sister would enjoy. I purchased those and went to leave when the
owner asked if I liked older pieces. Since I try to find pieces of
jewelry we made while still on this realm, I said aye.”

“And they brought out the slave
bracelet.”

She nodded and looked down at her hand. She
ran a finger over the chains that connected her middle finger to
the bracelet. “I thought it an unusual and beautiful piece. I knew
the Celts had made such bracelets, but they were usually plain in
appearance unless the slave was someone of importance. So, when the
shopkeeper bade me try it on, I thought nothing of it. As soon as I
clasped it together I felt the magic.”

Lugus looked down at the
bracelet. Along the ancient carvings of knots and scrollwork, so
much like what he tooled into the leather, he saw what looked like
an ancient language. “Have you tried to decipher the
symbols?”



She nodded. “My first day. No sooner had I
attached the bracelet than Marcus and his men brought me to his
castle. I spent the remainder of that day locked in a chamber as I
tried in vain to call for help.”

Lugus sighed and leaned back in his chair and
studied her. Either she had no idea that he had been the one that
nearly destroyed their realm or she didn’t wish to mention it. He
decided to assume she didn’t know exactly what he had done.

“Even if I tried to call to the Fae, it would
fall on deaf ears because I’m no longer Fae. I’m a mortal man.”

“Have you tried?”

He shook his head. “Nay. And I won’t.”

“If you don’t help me, Marcus will force me
to marry him and I will never return home.”