Midnight's Warrior (26 page)

Ramsey nodded. “I willna make the same mistake again.”

“I don’t want to be treated like some porcelain doll. I’m hardier than that.”

“Aye, you are.”

Their gazes locked, and Tara couldn’t help but think there was more Ramsey wanted to say. She was about to ask him when Dani returned with the coffee.

“I’ll see you later,” he said before he stood and walked away.

It took everything Tara had not to follow him with her eyes. Instead, she accepted the mug from Dani and stared into the flames.

“I haven’t been here long, but it’s obvious even to me that Ramsey likes you.”

Tara jerked her gaze to Dani. “I don’t know about that.”

Dani took the chair beside her and grinned slyly. “I’ve never seen him pay another woman the attention he pays you.”

“He feels responsible for me.”

“And you? Is it responsibility that kept you at his side those two days he lay unconscious?”

Tara looked into her mug and shook her head. “No.”

“Ramsey is a good man. All the Warriors have suffered so. I don’t know all of their stories or how they became Warriors, but I know Ian’s. I think they all deserve happiness.”

“When I think about what they went through, I’m not surprised so many fell to Deirdre’s evil,” Tara said and looked up at Dani.

Dani’s eyes widened slightly. “So Ramsey told you his story?”

“Yes.” She was hesitant to answer because of the way Dani asked the question, as if she knew some secret Tara didn’t.

“That’s good.” Dani smiled and looked over Tara’s shoulder, her smile growing wider. “Even now he watches you.”

Tara turned to look before she could stop herself. Her gaze clashed with gray ones, and they shared a secret smile.

She was the first to look away. “Have you ever had your heart broken, Dani?”

“Of course. Have you?” the Druid answered.

Tara shook her head. “No. I kept whatever sort of relationships I had very brief, and I was always the one to leave.”

“You’re afraid you’re going to get your heart broken.”

She nodded and looked into Dani’s emerald green eyes. “I’ve never met anyone like Ramsey. He’s larger than life.”

“Yes,” Dani said with a chuckle, and crossed one jean-clad leg over the other. “I thought the same thing of Ian when I met him. I didn’t think a man like him could exist, at least not in my world. Since he came from the past, I was right.”

Tara shared a laugh with her. “That might have something to do with it.”

“My advice, though you aren’t asking for it, is to just go with whatever is happening between you and Ramsey. If you get your heart broken, then you do. But I don’t think that will happen. There is obviously a strong connection between the two of you. Just don’t hold back from him.”

“So give him everything I have and hope for the best?”

Dani smiled and nodded. “Precisely. It’s what each of us women did with our Warriors. I’m not saying it’s easy, and it’s scary as hell, but you never know what will come of it.”

“Thank you. For the coffee and the advice.”

Tara wasn’t sure she’d ever stop being afraid of giving herself to someone, but Dani was right. If there was ever a time she was going to take that chance, it was with Ramsey.

*   *   *

Ramsey tried to be discreet as he watched Tara from the table where he sat, but Arran’s sly grin told him he’d been caught.

“I worry she might become ill,” Ramsey said.

Arran laughed heartily and shook his head. “Do you forget we have Sonya? Do you forget Phelan is still here? And Isla has made everyone within her shield immortal.”

“Phelan is here for the moment,” Ramsey corrected. “And we cannot always count on him. He’s the one who chose to leave after Deirdre’s death instead of staying with us as Charon did.”

Arran shrugged. “I doona think Phelan wants to stay, but Charon has talked him into it for the moment.”

“In other words, he’ll leave the first chance he gets.”

“Still,” Arran said with a shrug. “We have Sonya if anyone does become ill or gets hurt.”

Ramsey knew Arran was right, but he’d been so caught up in Tara and her body that he’d forgotten she felt the cold much more than he did. Her skin had been ice-cold, and she’d been shivering, though she’d tried to hide it from him.

His gaze went to her again. She was deep in conversation with Dani. It wasn’t long after that Gwynn, Saffron, and Reaghan joined them.

A glass was set forcefully on the table, causing Ramsey to turn his head. He silently watched while Phelan took the spot beside Arran.

“The next time the two of you want to spar, let me know,” Phelan said.

Ramsey didn’t bother to answer.

“You plan on staying that long?” Arran asked.

Phelan lifted one shoulder casually. “I doona know what my plans are. I go where the wind takes me. For now, I’m here.”

“Why?” Ramsey asked. “Doona think I’m no’ grateful that you were able to help Charon and the others, but you were so quick to leave last time. Why stay now?”

Phelan glanced away, but not before Ramsey saw a flash of pain in his blue-gray eyes. “Charon thinks if I spend more time with Druids that I’ll trust them.”

“Ah,” Arran said. “You think all Druids are like Deirdre.”

“It was Isla that took me when I was but a lad,” Phelan pointed out.

Ramsey braced his forearms on the table. “Aye, but she did it for her family. And she is the one who freed you.”

“I know,” Phelan answered softly.

Arran frowned, his lips twisted in confusion. “So you really equate all Druids with Deirdre?”

“I do. I did.”

“Which is it?” Arran asked.

Phelan looked at Ramsey and shrugged. “Hard to say.”

Ramsey linked his fingers together. “I would think after witnessing our Druids fighting against Deirdre you would know the difference.”

“How do I know they didna do it just to gain her power?”

Ramsey understood Phelan’s point. Phelan had never come in contact with any Druids other than Deirdre and Isla the century he’d been in Cairn Toul.

It was going to take a lot more than just being around the
mies
to change his opinion. He was going to have to work closely with one, to see how their magic differed from a
drough
’s.

“We can try to convince you, but you’ll have to learn it on your own,” Ramsey said. “The
mies
are different. Their magic is good.”

Phelan’s gaze narrowed. “You mean your magic is good.”

“You heard what I told everyone else about my people. We were
mies,
if that’s what you’re asking.”

Phelan was quiet for a few minutes before he asked, “How different does it feel to be a Warrior and a Druid?”

There was such sincerity in Phelan’s gaze that Ramsey decided to answer him. There was none of the sarcasm, none of the bitter hatred he was used to seeing on Phelan’s face.

“You’d have to understand what it was to be a Torrachilty Druid first,” Ramsey said. “Our skill with weapons came as easily as breathing. But then again, so did our negotiation skills. If we had to fight, we would. Yet it wasna always the first thing we did.”

“How is it that more didna know of your people?”

Ramsey licked his lips, an image of his village flashing in his mind. “We kept to ourselves in the forest. We were well hidden so that no’ just anyone could come upon us. Our skills made us valuable to others, but we didna want to constantly be sought out for such things.”

“I see,” Phelan said softly.

“Do you trust me as a Warrior?”

Phelan’s gaze sharpened on Ramsey. “I do.”

“Do you trust me as a Druid?”

There was a moment’s hesitation before Phelan said, “I do.”

“Then trust me when I tell you the Druids here are good people.”

Phelan suddenly smiled. “I see what you mean about your negotiation skills.”

Charon slapped a hand on Phelan’s shoulder as he sat at the table. “I’ve been telling Phelan the same thing you have, Ramsey, but finally he listens. I’m just glad he heard one of us.”

“Who said I ever listened to you?” Phelan joked with Charon.

Ramsey watched the two interact with a grin. Though he hadn’t been in Cairn Toul when Quinn, Ian, Duncan, and Arran had, Ramsey knew the stories of how Charon had been blackmailed by Deirdre.

Charon had his own pain that he hid well, but it was good that he and Phelan seemed to have bonded. No one needed to be alone, least of all a Warrior who tended to bury his bad memories. And those memories didn’t always stay buried.

“No one ever listens to Charon,” Arran said.

Ramsey looked at Arran to see him smiling. At one time, Arran and Charon wouldn’t even have sat at the same table together.

The killing of Deirdre as well as Charon telling Ian what Deirdre had done to him had gone a long way toward mending old wounds.

Charon rolled his eyes. “They listen to me more than you. You are the baby of the Warriors, no?”

“I’ll have you know Larena is younger than me. And Malcolm, he’s the newest Warrior.”

At the mention of Malcolm, they fell silent.

“He should have stayed,” Ramsey said.

Phelan’s lips flattened with his sigh. “Where did he go?”

“He didna say.”

“Sometimes the time alone is the only thing that will make life bearable,” Phelan said, his blue-gray eyes meeting Ramsey’s and saying much more than his words ever could.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Abernathy Forest

Malcolm squatted beside Loch Garten and looked across the still water to the mountains beyond. Though there were people who lived in the forest, it was a quiet place. A place where he could be alone, a place where only the animals watched him.

He’d had no destination in mind when he’d left MacLeod Castle. His only thought had been to get away from the laughter and peace that filled the stones.

It reminded him too much of a life before he’d been scarred, a life before he’d become a Warrior.

But with every day that passed that life was fading from his memories.

His anger at what Deirdre had done to him hadn’t faded with her death. Instead, Malcolm had transferred that rage to Declan since it had been Declan who had pulled Deirdre, and Malcolm along with her, to the future.

That fury was the only emotion Malcolm felt. There was no happiness, no sadness, no contentment. Nothing.

His mind and body were empty.

Malcolm dipped his fingers into the freezing water of the loch before he stood straight. He wanted to stay in the forest, to fade into the nature around him.

He turned and looked at the snow and his footprints that led to the water.

“Yet I can no’,” he muttered.

He hadn’t been able to stand against Deirdre because he’d wanted Larena kept safe. She was the only true family he had left, and he’d have done anything to protect her.

He
had
done anything and everything.

Even now the memories of the atrocities he’d committed left him emptier than before.

But nothing held him back from going after Declan. Everyone had a weakness, and Malcolm knew Declan better than any of the other Warriors.

If there was some way to get to Declan, Malcolm was going to find it.

Maybe after he killed the
drough,
then he might be able to look at his own reflection.

*   *   *

Before Tara knew it, it was noon and everyone was getting worried because Isla, Hayden, Larena, and Fallon hadn’t returned yet.

Though Tara had gone to her room for a second shower, once she’d come back down to the great hall, she hadn’t been alone.

The Druids kept her surrounded and talking. She laughed with them, joked with them, and found herself bonding with them. Even when they argued, and they did argue, though never heatedly, it was fun to watch.

“It’s black,” Dani said while cutting up potatoes for later that evening.

Gwynn rolled her eyes from the opposite side of the large worktable in the middle of the kitchen. “No. It’s like a bluish bronze.”

“That’s not even a color,” Cara said with a laugh.

Saffron walked from the counter to the table and set a stainless steel bowl full of olive oil and rosemary in between Dani and Gwynn. “Actually, you’re both right. It is a shade of black, mixed with bronze.”

“What is it again we’re talking about?” Sonya asked.

Tara couldn’t hold back the laugh. “It’s a Coach purse Dani wants.”

“It’s pretty,” Saffron said. “But I’d rather have the Kate Spade shoes.”

Cara sighed wistfully. “Those were gorgeous shoes. I’ve been dying for Lucan and me to go back to Paris to see a ballet. Those heels would look gorgeous with the gold dress I have.”

Tara took her time cutting up the fresh rosemary she’d been tasked with. She enjoyed cooking, though she didn’t do much of it. But it was the conversation that kept her attention.

“We need another shopping trip,” Saffron said.

Sonya nodded vigorously. “Especially since I missed the last one.”

“I want to return to the salon you took us to, Saffron. The stylist worked wonders with my hair. I felt like a new woman,” Gwynn said.

Marcail lifted her booted foot out to the side. “I want another pedicure.”

“You fell asleep during the first one,” Reaghan said.

Marcail put her hand to her chest, a mock look of surprise on her face. “If you had someone massaging your feet so diligently, you would have to. Plus, the color I picked was fabulous!”

“What about you, Tara?” Dani asked. “Do you have any favorites?”

The smile slipped from Tara’s face. “I love to shop, but I’ve never really had time for it.”

“That’s it then,” Saffron said as she leaned her hands on the table. “We’re all going shopping as soon as we can. A full day at the salon with manicures and pedicures, and then shopping until we can’t stand any more.”

Gwynn bit her lip as she smiled. “I can last a long time.”

“So can I,” Saffron challenged.

Tara couldn’t wait to go with them. Even while they ate sandwiches all Tara could think about was shopping with the girls.

She’d never had that. Ever.

She’d been so lost in her thoughts that she’d finished her sandwich without even knowing it. Then she looked around the table and found Ramsey watching her.