Highland Sorcerer (15 page)

All of them
vanished.

The magic of the world is greatly
lessened.

With the bands on or not, Aldreth would
no longer be able to get to Toren in the Shadowrood.

But where would that leave her? Charity
would be stuck in this time. Alone. With a whacked-out witch,
seething that her own magic was no longer as strong without the
clan of Limont in the world supporting it. Aldreth’s magic,
everyone’s magic would be diminished to the point of barely there.
Just like in her time where all magic wielders scraped by with what
they could gather from the earth. On the up side, Aldreth would no
longer have the magical means to wreak havoc upon
mankind.

Before he entered the gateway, would
there be time for Toren to send her back? Would he even be able to?
In this time period, she had enough power on her own to do it, yet
she was a healer. Only sorcerers had the necessary magic in them to
open up a rift in time. She would still need to access Toren’s
magic to get home.

And then she'd never see him
again.

She would never know if that connection
they'd shared for even such a short time could be
re-established.

He would never again look at her with
wonder shining through his eyes. When he finally realized she had
never meant him any harm, she wouldn't be around to see
it.

Her heart thundered in her chest. Her
breathing grew labored. Her breasts heaved against the material of
her gown.

Toren turned back from lower on the
hillside. He looked up at her, his expression different from any
she'd yet seen him wear.

He stretched out his hand a little
hesitant as though he was afraid she might not take it. He frowned,
uncertain. "Come?"

Charity didn't know what to do. She
would soon be on her own here.

She stared at Toren.

He didn't know her.

But she knew him.

She'd traversed his inner core, knew
what was important to him, felt the depth of his love and loyalty,
how he was willing to sacrifice all for his clan and
family.

This was the same man she'd recklessly
traveled through time for. The need to save him had overshadowed
even common sense and she knew she would do it all over
again.

Save him.

How could she not?

She loved him.

A shiver rolled down her
arms.

Her vision blurred behind
tears.

She loved him. And he didn't even know
her.

Charity reached out her
hand…

…
and a blast of lightning
knocked them both off their feet.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Thunder boomed and another jolt of
light sliced across the air.

A woman materialized at the crest of
the hill. Sudden gusts snagged at her pitch-black hair and the
white gown against slender legs.

"Did ye believe I would not come for
you?"

Aldreth glided down the slope, the ends
of her gown trailing like smoke.

Charity pushed up to her arms. Her legs
slid sideways on the incline. Across from her, Toren, too, pushed
up, his head lifting as Aldreth stood above him. Charity's blood
ran cold.

Dark storm clouds, purple like bruises,
rolled overhead, gathering impossibly fast, violent and spitting
lightning across the sky. Sparks lit the clouds from within while
thunder rumbled through the charged atmosphere.

Struggling to his knees, Toren raised
his arms. Purple tendrils of light lifted from his fingertips,
cracking and hissing.

Aldreth threw back her head and
laughed, hair streaming behind her. With a flick of her hand, the
streamers of Toren's magic disappeared as though they’d never been.
He could not use his magic against her.

Another flick and he rolled through the
air, landing with a jarring crunch where he slid down the
slope.

Charity made it to her feet. Shrieking
wind slammed her back down like she was a bird caught in a gale
force. Her hair flew in front of her face and then streamed back
again, pulling at her scalp. She lunged up like a sprinter.
Flapping skirts tangled around her legs. She had to get to Toren.
Soil slid under her.

Planting her feet, she leaned into the
slope, hanging onto rocks and thin slanted trees to make her way
down.

Toren’s back arched off the ground.
Aldreth’s hands danced and he sailed across the slope. The witch
manipulated him like a puppet master. Toren tried to lunge up and
his feet swept out from under him.

The winds howled, tossing dirt and
debris at Charity. She tumbled the last few feet to the bottom of
the ravine. Footfalls ran past her, flinging dirt over her. Charity
rolled to her side to see what was happening. Edeen launched
herself at the witch, arm stretched out. Her hand hit the spot
above Aldreth's heart.

Both women screamed. Their bodies
stiffened, convulsing like they'd been caught in an electrical
stream. Whatever Edeen was doing as an empath, it was hurting the
witch. It was hurting Edeen too.

Aldreth's features twisted
horribly.

Edeen's eyes rolled up in her head
until only the whites showed.

"Nooooo!" Col raced forward. There was
an explosion of light. Col vanished. In his place, a dark panther
leaped out of the brilliance, snarling teeth and claws that rammed
between the women, throwing them apart. They both dropped boneless
to the ground.

Charity lunged up.

The panther spun back, soil flying up
beneath his paws. Aldreth threw out an arm. A lash of lightning hit
Col, tossing him with such force his side plowed up the hill,
gouging a thick furrow in the ground.

Aldreth dragged herself to her feet,
her eyes wild. What had Edeen done to her? The witch threw out her
arms. The air crackled, the force of tremendous magic building like
a volcano about to erupt.

A lightning bolt plowed across the
ground, hitting Toren square in the chest. He flew
backward.

This had to stop.

Charity ran toward Aldreth.

"You bitch." She cold-cocked her right
in the kisser.

Aldreth went down. Her legs flew up.
She blinked up at her, wide-eyed, from the ground. Slowly, she
wiped blood from her split lip.

Charity winced. Her hand
throbbed.

Aldreth rose. "So ye're the Healer
Enchantress who has kept Toren's spirits from failing him." Her
gaze roamed down the length of Charity with as much interest as if
she was inspecting an ant. "Hmmm." She shot out an arm and Charity
flew back as though she'd been punched by a log.

Toren screamed out her name.

Head ringing, flat on her back, Charity
blinked up at the angry spitting skies. Shallow breaths pulled in
and out of her lungs.

"Nay, Aldreth, do not." Toren cried.
For her.

Darkness moved over her. Aldreth's slim
form blotted out the sky as she stood over her. The hem of her
dress flapped across Charity's stomach.

Aldreth's head cocked to the side. Her
swollen broken mouth twitched in a hard smile. "'Tis an omen, ye're
being brought here, that all I've attempted is just and
right."

Aldreth leaned closer over her. Her
long hair tickled Charity's face as the wind whipped it back and
forth. The witch's eyes blazed, dilated with magic and madness. "At
long last I have the means to break Toren." She pulled Charity up
by her hair. Pain radiated through her. She twisted to escape it,
hands clutched on Aldreth’s wrists to take some of the pressure off
her tearing hair.

"Stop it!" Suddenly Toren was there,
arms around the witch, pulling her away.

Charity dropped. The pressure on her
scalp was immediately gone.

The air exploded, a vicious concussion
of tearing sound.

Crying out, Toren dropped to the ground
where Aldreth turned on him, punching out crimson light that
slapped into the sorcerer. His hands clawed into the soil, every
muscle rigid with strain.

A panther shrieked. Col sprang through
the air. Aldreth spun. A gash of light knocked Col
sideways.

Another ripped into Toren.

Unable to use his magic against her,
Toren was vulnerable, helpless, just a man, beneath the enormity of
her power.

Aldreth blasted Toren again.
Again.

In her fury, she was going to kill
him.

Still in panther form, Col leapt at
them again. A bolt of charged fire slashed him in the face. It
caught him up in a stream of light, kept him frozen in the air, his
sleek form bending and writhing, fur standing on end.

Behind him, Toren staggered to get to
his feet.

"No!" A shout growled across the
air.

An incredible wave of power pulsed
through everything, pierced into Charity like water through a net,
warm and hard with the promise of creating a hundred worlds or
destroying a million others flooded in its strength. A whisper of
darkness sifted through it. Mountains fell to dust. Oceans
swallowed mountains. Entire cities crumbled. She'd never felt
anything like it.

The storm abruptly stilled. Col dropped
to the ground, steam lifting off his fur.

Toren lay unmoving.

Shaw stood at the bottom of the hill,
his expression a mixture of devastation and horror at what he had
just unleashed. His eyes glowed golden white, reflecting the shine
of a trillion moons.

Charity sensed even Shaw had no idea of
the full extent of his power, yet there wasn't a magic wielder
within miles who wouldn't have felt the depth of what he'd just
revealed. The ferocious potency breathed upon the very
air.

Toren's head lifted. Shock and horror
deepened the lines of his forehead.

Aldreth turned toward Shaw, undisguised
wonder stark upon her features. "You. It should have been you all
along." Her chest heaved in and out and her eyes rolled up in what
Charity could only describe as arousal. "I can feel the darkness
within you." She held out a palm. "Come to me. Ye and I are
alike."

Shaw's eyes narrowed. He started down
the slope. "Leave this place, Aldreth. Be gone and never
return."

Aldreth let her arm drop. She smiled.
"Ye're strong, but ye're also young. I've had centuries to hone my
craft." She walked over to Col, crouched down and petted his
fur.

Shaw froze.

A low growl emitted from the panther's
throat. He swiped out a weak claw, ripping through Aldreth's gown.
Lines of blood sprouted at her hip.

Enraged, Aldreth slammed her fist into
Col's side and the panther screamed. Light sparked and the large
cat dispersed. A naked battered Col took his place, curling into
himself. Veins stood stark white in his rigid hands and
arms.

Shaw's blast rolled into Aldreth. His
eyes blazed golden light. Releasing Col, she flung her arms out
toward Shaw and their magic collided.

Though she could not see Shaw's force
with her eyes, Charity felt it with every fiber of her being. It
was like being near a roaring waterfall, feeling the strength and
energy of it rumbling through the ground and air as it spilled over
the edge.

The clouds swirled above them,
buffeting in roaring force. The ground growled beneath them. Dirt
and pebbles shook, bounding off the ground, rolling into small
landsides.

Holes ripped open in the air, time
rifts jarred apart, seething and sputtering charged matter into the
atmosphere. That should not be able to happen. A witch should not
be able to open a rift. And a… Charity stared at Shaw. She hadn’t a
clue what Shaw really was or what his magic was capable of. Could
he open rifts or was it a combination of the magic he and Aldreth
were generating in the atmosphere?

In her rage, Aldreth had gone mad,
shooting out her magic in every direction.

And her magic was immense.

Trees uprooted.

Boulders rolled down the
hill.

Edeen's unconscious form slid farther
down the slope toward the maelstrom Shaw and Aldreth unleashed upon
each other.

Col lifted his head,
rousing.

Toren staggered to his feet.

Aldreth moved down the hill, thrusting
everything she had at Shaw, shots executed with the precision of a
surgeon.

Shaw stumbled back.

Aldreth screamed at him. "Yer brother,
the most powerful sorcerer in the land couldn't fight me. D'ye
really believe an unskilled child as yerself has a
chance?"

One of Shaw's legs buckled and he fell
back on a knee. Sweat poured down his face. Huge tremors rolled
through him. His dark hair lifted off his shoulders. If this was
the first time he'd tapped into his potential, the effort would be
overpowering. Even if his magic was stronger, no way could he keep
pulling from it. The physical toll on him had to be enormous, yet
Aldreth appeared to be having no such issues.