Midnight's Warrior (33 page)

“I agree,” Fallon said.

Isla caught Ramsey’s gaze. “Wait. Not that I’m advocating the use of black magic, but not all the spells are evil. You know as well as I, Ramsey, that it depends on the Druid using it whether the spell is good or evil.”

“If somehow Declan survives this, I doona want him to have anything to turn to,” Ramsey said.

Hayden growled deep within his throat. “He willna survive this, my friend.”

“Hayden’s right,” Broc said. “I know your plans, Ramsey. He willna survive.”

Ramsey rubbed his jaw, his thoughts turning to Tara for a moment. “We need to wait until it’s fully dark. I want each Warrior with a Druid wife to set up a circle around the mansion. No one gets out.”

“I’m liking this,” Gwynn said as she rubbed her gloved hands together.

He saw the anger in the Druids’ eyes. All of them had been ready to battle Deirdre, but Gwynn, Dani, and Saffron hadn’t really known who Deirdre was. But they knew Declan all too well.

They had also seen what he’d done to Tara.

“What then?” Logan asked.

“You stay there,” Ramsey said. “No matter what you see, you stay there and fight, because once I’m inside, it willna take long for the others to try to leave.”

Charon asked, “What about us who doona have women?”

Ramsey looked at Fallon. “Fallon, Larena will be inside, but I need you to stay with the others. As soon as Larena gets out with the books, I want both of you to remain outside the mansion.”

“Done,” Fallon said.

Ramsey then looked to the three who weren’t mated. “Phelan, Charon, and Arran, when you feel the magic drop from around the mansion I need the three of you to get inside and make sure he’s no’ holding any more Druids. If he is, then free them.”

“And if we happen to run into any of his mercenaries?” Phelan asked.

Ramsey smiled. “Do what you will.”

“Is that all?” Arran’s eyes were hard, his jaw locked as he prepared for the upcoming battle.

“Nay.” Ramsey fisted his hands beside him and looked around at the group of people he called family. “Declan is mine. When we begin our battle I need all of you to keep a safe distance away from the mansion. I doona know how far my magic will reach when I unleash it all, but I’m no’ going to stop until Declan is dead.”

Hayden’s lips flattened as he let out a long sigh. “I doona like that part of the plan, Ramsey. You said you’ve kept your magic at bay since you can no’ control it because of your god.”

“That’s true. And being a Warrior only adds more to my magic. I can kill Declan, but I need to know that none of you will be harmed.”

Galen swallowed hard and replied, “You have our word.”

It was enough for Ramsey. He gave a nod and looked away.

“You heard Ramsey,” Fallon said. “Everyone take their positions. I know it’s cold, lasses, but your Warriors will keep you warm. Everyone, stay vigilant. This bastard has done enough to us already.”

The others crept off among the shadows to take their positions around the mansion. Ramsey remained with Fallon, Larena, Phelan, Charon, and Arran.

“I’m finding it rather difficult to tarry when I know the arsehole is waiting to die,” Arran said.

Charon looked at him and smiled. “You feel the need for another battle so soon, Arran?”

“Who doesna like killing evil?” Phelan asked.

Ramsey looked at the moon, tracking its ascent into the sky. It wouldn’t be long now.

*   *   *

Tara thought she’d known real fear, but she hadn’t truly experienced it until she’d woken to find herself locked in a dungeon.

A freaking medieval dungeon!

She tried to stay calm, but her heart was racing and the blood pounding in her ears was so loud it drowned out everything else.

Tara had to find a way out of the dungeon. She still couldn’t believe she’d been fooled so completely by Ramsey and the others.

What hurt the worst was that she had fallen for him. Hook, line, and sinker. She should have known he was too good to be true.

“Oh,” she gasped, and clutched her head as another headache slammed into her.

It felt as if a battering ram were being jabbed into the base of her neck and up into her skull. The pain made her see spots before her eyes, but she refused to black out. She had to stay awake, to stay focused and alive.

Tears gathered in her eyes as she realized who Ramsey and the other Warriors really were. How they and the Druids she had thought were her friends had worked alongside Deirdre to bring evil into the world.

It sickened Tara to know she had lived among such evil, that she had considered making MacLeod Castle her home.

It also proved how strong the magic of the Druids at the castle really was. Not only could they hide the castle and prevent people from aging, but they could also make someone believe a lie as if they’d known it their entire life.

Tara wiped at a tear that escaped and sniffed. She wasn’t going to cry. She’d been in tight situations before. No matter what, she’d get out of this one.

She thought again of Ramsey standing on the other side of the bars, pretending to be upset at her words. But there was no more pretending with her. She knew the real him, the real monster that he was.

There had to be some way to get out of the dungeon. There was an overwhelming urge for her to get out of the castle as fast as she could. The castle had gone eerily quiet, but she knew they wouldn’t have left her all alone. There was someone at the castle. But who?

She wasn’t left to wonder for long as the door to the dungeon creaked open and the sound of light footsteps could be heard descending the stairs from the great hall.

Tara watched Fiona as she came into view carrying a tray of food. She had once thought Fiona one of the kindest people she’d ever met. But that was before Tara knew the truth, before she knew how evil they all truly were.

“Are you hungry?” Fiona asked.

Tara just glared at her. “Why are you doing this? I’ve never harmed you.”

“We’re doing this for your own good.”

Tara snorted in response. “My own good? Is that so? So is it for my own good that I’m locked in this medieval dungeon? Is it for my own good that you all tricked me?”

“We didn’t trick you.”

For a split second Fiona’s face switched from gleeful cruelty to one of confusion and worry, her kind eyes full of concern.

Tara shook her head and squeezed her eyes closed. The movement caused the pain to slice through her mind again, but she refused to show Fiona any emotion save anger.

“Enough!” Tara shouted. “I’m tired of the lies.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.”

Tara’s eyes snapped open. “I know exactly what I’m saying. I’m going to get out of here, Fiona, and God help you if you try to stand in my way.”

Fiona slowly set the tray down next to the iron bars. She straightened and dusted her hands off on her khaki pants. “You can try, but I’m afraid you won’t leave this cell until the others return.”

If there was one thing Tara had never been able to ignore, it was a challenge of any sort. And she’d heard exactly that in Fiona’s voice.

Tara rose from the narrow cot and walked to the door so that she stood directly across from Fiona, only the iron bars separating them. “I have to leave. And I will.”

Just saying the words sent a zing of magic shooting through her center outward to each arm and leg, down to her fingers and toes. The magic vibrated with potency inside her, urging her to use it, to feel its power.

“Get out of my way, Fiona,” Tara warned.

Fiona shook her head and sighed. “There’s no use in even trying. You’ll only hurt yourself.”

But Tara wasn’t listening. No more would she hear the lies spoken from the lips of people she thought were her friends, people she thought were protecting her. Instead, they wanted to use her, to hurt her.

To kill her.

“No,” Tara said more to the idea of anyone laying a hand on her rather than Fiona’s comment. “I’m leaving this damned castle and never returning.”

Fiona took a step back. “Tara, please. We’re only trying to help.”

A thrill went through Tara at the fear she saw in Fiona’s eyes. That added with her magic was all she needed. She reached for the bars and wrapped her hands around the iron.

The magic sizzled through her skin and into the metal. When she spotted a tendril of white smoke move from her to the bars, her breath caught in her throat as a memory flashed in her mind of seeing magic like that before.

But who had it wound around? It was a man, Tara was sure. But who?

She was jerked back to the present when the loud click of the door unlocking sounded in the silence. Tara swung the door open and cocked her head at Fiona.

“I told you I was leaving.”

Fiona’s mouth was hanging open, her eyes huge. “You … there’s no way you should have been able to open the door. There was magic preventing it.”

“Ineffective magic,” she replied. But she recalled the single ribbon of magic and wondered.

Tara turned and started for the stairs. The quicker she was out of the castle, the easier she could breathe. But she had only taken two steps when Fiona grabbed her from behind.

They fell forward, Tara taking the impact of the fall. All the fear she’d been keeping inside erupted in that moment. She lashed out with her hands—and her magic—as she struggled to get away.

Her magic flew from her hands with a force that caused her heart to skip a beat, but she didn’t think about it. Not even when she heard a strangled cry or when Fiona’s body went limp did Tara stop to question it.

She shoved Fiona off her and ran up the stairs to the great hall. Tara stumbled as she pushed open the door and looked around the huge expanse of the hall.

Then she saw her coat hanging near the door and she rushed to it. She jerked it on and ran outside. Only to slide to a halt as she looked at the cars before her.

She smiled and rushed to the Land Rover. The Warriors never locked the vehicles, and always left the keys inside. Because who would dare to steal what they all shared?

Tara didn’t care why they did what they did, only that she now had transportation to get away from MacLeod Castle. She slid into the seat and shut the door. The keys were in the ignition, and she wasted no time in starting the SUV.

She put the vehicle in reverse and pressed the gas as she buckled her seat belt. The SUV took a moment to move through the snow, and then she had it in gear and gunned it with both hands on the wheel.

The huge wooden gate was closed, and Tara thought she might have to ram through it, then she glanced up and saw a little remote hooked to the visor. She pushed the button. And to her delight, the gate began to open.

It wasn’t until Tara was through Isla’s barrier hiding the castle and on the main road that she felt relatively safe. She had no idea where she was going, only that she was putting more and more distance between her and the evil that had taken her.

A tear slid down her cheek, and then another and another.

She sniffed and wiped at the hated moisture. How could she have been so foolish as to believe they were the ones who would help her? How could she have been so naïve as to tell them all that she knew?

How could she have been so stupid as to fall in love with a monster?

That’s what hurt the worst. Not that they had tricked her, but that she had believed Ramsey’s words and his sweet caresses. She had thought he was someone special. The one.

The man she had been hoping to find for years.

Tara shook her head. “No. No more will I think of him. His memory and everything that happened between us was a lie. He’s wiped from my mind.”

If only that were the truth. But Tara knew better than anyone that if you told yourself something enough times, you’d eventually believe it.

She turned up the radio, blaring Godsmack as she drove. It wasn’t until she pulled over to grab something to eat that she realized where she was headed.

“Declan,” she whispered.

*   *   *

Malcolm tossed the remainder of his food in the trash. How he missed the taste of the food at MacLeod Castle. He was sure most of the food he ate in this modern world wasn’t real. Processed. Everything was processed.

He rolled his eyes and stepped out into the clear night sky. After weeks of snow, the sky had finally cleared.

Malcolm glared at the café behind him, wishing he’d eaten at the restaurant he’d seen up the block, but he hadn’t wanted to sit in a restaurant and have everyone stare at him because of his scars.

Now he wished he had, because at least then his stomach would be full.

Malcolm stepped off the curb and began to walk when Druid magic slammed into him, the force of it making him take a step back.

He looked around and spotted a black Land Rover drive past him. As soon as his gaze connected with the woman driving, he knew she was a Druid.

With just a second’s hesitation, Malcolm turned around and watched the SUV pull into the same café he’d just left. He hid behind a car and watched the woman get out and walk into the café.

There was no doubt she was a Druid, but her magic was a curious mix of
mie
and
drough,
as if she didn’t know what she was.

By the time the woman returned, Malcolm had climbed atop the Land Rover.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Declan poured another glass of single-malt whisky into his glass. It didn’t seem to matter how much he drank, nothing helped to dull the agony inside him.

The magic had slowed considerably, but still the black marks worked their way up and over his face, as well as his body.

His entire left arm and shoulder were covered with long, jagged black marks that reminded him of lightning that forked across a sky.

Declan held the glass up to his forehead and closed his eyes. He sighed wearily. The pain was manageable, and even if his looks were never restored properly, he could fix it with his magic.

Everything would be righted once he had Tara.

He opened his eyes with a smile as he caressed the small leather-bound book that had given him the spell he needed to access Tara’s mind. Of all his spell books, this was the one he would treasure most.