Highland Sorcerer (16 page)

A time rift tore open behind
him.

"I'll have what is in you, Shaw Limont,
and then I'll wield the balance of yer entire pitiful
clan."

Shaw's head snapped up. He smiled, a
triumphant slash of white in the darkness. "Ye may have me, but my
clan has crossed into the Shadowrood."

Somewhere close, Toren
groaned.

Shaw's gaze sought his brother’s and
his smile turned apologetic. "They're safe. The clan is beyond
reach and their magic with them. The Fae have bound the
gateway."

"No!" Aldreth shouted. "What have ye
done? Ye've ruined everything! What have ye done?"

Twisting her body, she pulled her arms
back to the side and swung back like an orchestra conductor. Giant
crackling light pooled around her hands and then flew out toward
Shaw.

A blur dove at them. Col took the hit
and the angry light flung him across the air. He sailed backwards
into the time rift and disappeared.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Shaw, Toren, and Charity cried out as
one.

Roaring, Shaw threw everything he had
at Aldreth. Momentarily stunned, she reeled back, but quickly
recovered and pummeled Shaw beneath successive streaks of
magic.

The young man was taking a beating,
thrown to the ground, head and shoulders snapping to and fro as
though hit by an unseen fist. He doubled over, hands and knees hit
the ground just before he was flipped onto his back.

Aldreth was killing him and no one had
the strength to stop her. Charity pulled up to her knees. Wobbled.
Every muscle in her body felt like she had just finished a major
workout.

Through the corner of her eye, she saw
Toren run forward and was shoved back by the waves of back draft
magic coming off of Shaw.

Toren was a powerful and skilled enough
sorcerer to fight Aldreth. Charity had felt the strength of his
core. She believed in him, but he could not use his magic against
Aldreth.

He could not use
his
magic because of the
damn spelled bands.

Charity gasped and shoved to her feet
again.

He can't use his magic upon Aldreth,
but maybe he could use hers.

Before, when they'd used their magic
together, Charity had drawn from Toren's reservoirs. First, when
she had healed him and then the second time when she'd tapped into
his magic to have enough to send her back to his time
period.

Here. Now. In this century, she had ten
times as much magic of her own to rely on. Why couldn't Toren draw
from her reservoir that was untouched by Aldreth's
spell?

Fueled by a new surge of adrenaline,
Charity raced to Toren's side. He was on his feet, once more,
fighting past the backlash of streaming magic to get to his
remaining brother.

Charity grabbed his arm and without an
explanation, focused everything she had to pour into him. She had
no idea if this would work.

His face swung to hers and then dipped
to her hand at the rosy light pooling around her fingertips. His
eyes widened, brows rose.

"Take it," she gritted out. "Use it
against her."

Message received.

Toren's hand slipped over hers. Magic
roared out of her in a heady rush. She swayed, felt herself lowered
to her knees, Toren's hand still gripped over hers, his arm at her
waist.

Everything she was melted into him.
Events replayed across her sight like a reel-to-reel projector
running backwards.

The flight through the forest, Col's
light energy form stretched across the doorway, finding Toren in
the dungeon, being carried over Shaw's shoulder, kneeling in her
kitchen above a wounded Toren, slipping into his dream, back in the
kitchen—the first time—using her magic to heal him, their magic
weaving together, connecting them as one, the bonding…

And wham! It was back.

That connection, all that feeling,
knowing another person inside and out, almost better than she knew
herself…

"Charity." He spoke her name like a
fragile spell so weak the smallest breath might make it
unravel.

She looked up into his face and saw an
expression of wonder.

Her frozen heart stormed back to
life.

Toren smiled and nodded. Hands clasped,
together they stood to face Aldreth, and Charity felt Toren stir
her magic, shaping it into something new, something beyond the
ability to heal, something lethal and focused.

His arms flung out, bringing Charity's
with his and a blinding spear of tourmaline light flew from between
their clasped palms and…nothing.

The magic shot out, she saw the purple
streak, but then it was as though it poured into water and
dissolved like sugar.

Aldreth looked over her shoulder at
them, smiled, and resumed her assault on Shaw. Dammit.

Not knowing what else to do, Charity
grabbed onto Toren’s wrist to try and undo the spell just as Edeen
had tried before. She had no idea what the spell was, but she had
to try something.

Toren shifted up. He was going to
tackle Aldreth physically again. He’d never make it. The witch
would kill him with one blast. Charity pulled back on his wrist at
the same time pushing all her senses into the band, searching for
the puzzle to undo the spell.

She felt the powerful spell used to
lock it to Toren. It was a combination of blackness and evil, power
imbued from demonic essences, riddled with death. It hurt to touch
it. No wonder Toren couldn’t escape its magic.

Who was she kidding? It would take her
months to figure this out. Her talent did not lend itself to
picking apart a crazy witch’s dark spell. Her gift was
healing.

Healing
.

Time seemed to slow. Charity pulled
forth her gift, her magic to heal and let it flow into the band.
Without looking, she grabbed onto Toren’s other wrist, sensing
exactly where his hand was. Toren was still pulling away from her,
but his movements were slow. No, time was slowing, everything
distilled down to this one moment, this one happening. Healing
magic spread into the bands, into the dark spell, flowing over the
blackness like spilled wine. Her magic did not unravel the spell.
Her magic healed it. It drew out the darkness the same as she would
squeeze pus from an infected wound, drawing it out, out, away, and
let it dissipate into the roiling angry air. Like seeks like. And
when she was done, her magic withdrew, leaving the spell still a
spell, but unrecognizable—a benign useless thing.

The bands shriveled and fell from
Toren’s wrists.

Time resumed its natural
speed.

And Charity met Toren’s awed
gaze.

He took her hand and spewed out an
enormous blast of blue-violet light that roared into Aldreth's
shoulder blades.

The witch's hand flew up. The
punishment she'd been pounding into Shaw sputtered and zoomed up
into the sky.

The young warrior listed sideways and
fell to the ground.

Aldreth fell forward to her hands and
knees. She twisted around. A dark eyebrow arched. She glanced at
their joined hands with disdain and shook her head.

She stood up slowly and somewhat
shakily and smoothed her hair back down. "I weary of these games.
Come with me, Toren. Give me yer magic and I'll let what's left of
yer family live." Her gaze slanted to Charity. "I'll also allow ye
to keep yer pretty plaything as a pet." She shook out her gown.
"After all, yer clan is gone. 'Twill just be you and I. We can
salvage what's left of our magic together. With yer clan taken from
the world, all magic will fade. Can ye feel it lessening already?
Surely ye do not want to live a life without magic? Come with me.
Together we'll retain what we can."

Geez. Charity scowled. The chick didn't
know when to give up. Lady, you’ve been rejected. Get over it. "I
don't think so."

Aldreth's face hardened. Her hands
lifted.

And Toren zapped her off her feet.
"Ye've brought enough ruin to this world."

His magic spilled through Charity,
undiluted and heady. Apparently they were still joined somehow.
Together, she and Toren were formidable.

He zapped Aldreth again. With the bands
gone, Toren's magic was no longer restrained, yet he had not gone
in for the kill.

Aldreth's face crumpled, finally
catching on to the danger.

Toren moved forward, bringing Charity
with him, arms outstretched.

Aldreth scrambled to the other side of
Shaw and pulled him up to shield her. Shaw groaned. His head
lolling, arms dangling limply.

"Aldreth…" Toren warned.

Aldreth ran a hand through Shaw's dark
hair and smiled. "Worry not. I will not hurt him." She pressed her
lips to Shaw's temple and in a brilliant flash, they were
gone.

Toren ran to the empty spot they'd just
occupied and slashed a fist through the air. "Shaw!"

Epilogue

Toren carried Edeen into their deserted
village, past the thatched longhouse and into a small cottage that
Charity assumed belonged to Edeen. He placed her gently on the bed
and stood back, scrubbing a palm down his face. Charity's heart
wept for him. He'd endured Aldreth's tortures for months, not
giving in solely to keep his clan and family safe.

Now it seemed his brothers and sister
were lost to him regardless.

Toren stepped away from the quilted bed
like a boy afraid his clumsiness might break something important.
He turned glossy eyes to Charity. "Can ye…?"

"Of course." She crossed the room to
him and squeezed his arm. She felt like she'd run a marathon, legs
were rubber, back unbendable, but she wanted Edeen well and whole
as much as Toren did. "I'll do what I can."

She sat on the side of the bed, taking
in the girl's still features, the slow rise and fall of her chest
and pushed her fear over what happened to Shaw and Col to the back
of her heart so that she could concentrate solely on helping
Edeen.

Placing a palm over Edeen's sternum,
Charity pulled from her own essence and allowed the energy to heal
flow outward.

The familiar light sparkled at her
fingertips, comforting and warm and sank into the girl, seeking
injury, something out of the ordinary.

She searched long and hard, exhaustion
trying to pull her back, which only made her press harder to find
something, any trace of magic that was neither Edeen's or her own,
any hint to why she remained unconscious.

As an empath, there should be myriad
traces of magic to sift through…yet, there was none.

What had happened when Edeen had
latched onto Aldreth's magic in full swing? It was as though the
witch's force had backlashed into Edeen and shorted her
out.

Charity felt herself drifting out of
the girl’s essence. She fell into strong arms.

A handsome anxious face blurred into
her vision. "Are ye all right? Charity, look at me."

Pressing a hand to her rioting head,
she nodded. "I'm okay."

Toren held her up off the rush-covered
floor where she must have sloshed over. Edeen remained unmoving on
the bed.

Charity met Toren's pain-filled gaze.
She could tell he was afraid to ask what she'd learned. She brought
her hands up to cup his face. "She merely sleeps, Toren." She
wanted so badly to comfort him. "She has not been harmed. She's
okay…just asleep."

"Then why will she not
awaken?"

"I don't know." Charity shook her head.
"She's deep." She wasn't sure exactly how to explain what she'd
felt. "Edeen's personality, her essence, who she is, has sunk way
down deep where—"

"Where ye cannot reach her." The Adam's
apple in Toren's throat column bounced.

"No. I can't," she whispered. "But I
will. I'll figure out a way. I won't stop trying. We'll get her
back, Toren."

Toren stared at her for a long while
until something indefinable about his expression changed. She
couldn't quite place what, for his features were still etched with
worry, yet hope had somehow seeped into his being. She felt it
radiating off of him.

The pads of his fingers traced along
her cheek. "Ye said ye would save me. And ye did. I believe you,
Charity Healer Enchantress beyond Time. I believe you. Ye say we
will save my sister, I believe you."

Several emotions spread through
Charity's breast, too many to sort through. She stared into Toren's
eyes, held captive by the full strength of his trust and hope and
belief. Belief in her.

His trust made her believe it herself.
After all, they had already conquered time together. Together they
could do anything.

Charity nodded, hope blossoming warmth
throughout her system. "We'll get her back, Toren. We'll get them
all back."

Toren nodded, a tear spilled
down his cheek. "We will discover where time has swept Col.
We
will
find him
and bring him back to us." He kissed Charity's forehead. "Charity,
I…" His face filled with wonder. "I remember. I do not how ‘tis
possible, but I remember two events one upon the other."