The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (21 page)

“It’s good to see ye too,
Uncle Alisdair.”  He ducked his head to step through the opening into the larger space inside.  “I’ve been travelling for more than a week to get here, is all.  And it’s no’ an easy journey.”  Of course it was made all the harder by the grief burning in his heart that just wouldn’t let him rest.  He thought of Allia constantly, and his body ached for her so much that he didn’t think he had slept for more than a couple of hours each night.  The thought that he would never see her again… Bloody hell, he couldn’t wait for the spell to be broken so that he could find some semblance of peace again.

“Mmm
pphh.  Whiskey?”  Alisdair motioned to a chair near the stone wall, worn smooth centuries ago when this had been a sea cave.  Now, one could sit here and look out at the sea loch and the ocean beyond, the shimmering blue water peaceful and calm today.  Eian could see why Alisdair chose this place, but he could not truly enjoy its beauty when he was so broken.

***

Allia had been looking for Eian all afternoon, but he was nowhere to be found.  Strange, since he had been practically glued to her side since the rescue. 
And since their wedding night… her heart fluttered in her chest at the memory.  How could she have gotten so lucky?  Eian Mac Coinnach had turned out to be everything she never even knew she wanted, and more.  She tried not to worry as she ducked into the stable door, because he had been training with the other men that morning, so he couldn’t have gone far.  She had stopped to watch the incredible show of masculine brawn, along with nearly every other woman who could spare a moment.  But where would he have gone after that?  Maybe he was grooming Dair.  She looked through all of the stalls, but the big stallion was gone.  Had Eian gone out for a ride?  Wouldn’t he have told her if he was leaving the castle for any length of time?  Then she spotted the stallion out in the paddock with some of the other horses.  No, Eian wouldn’t have gone anywhere without Dair.  Her brow furrowed in thought, she headed back to the keep.  Maybe Leon knew where he had gone.  She paused mid-step in the door when she saw her uncle was standing near the fireplace, talking to a couple of the guards.

“Damn it!  He wasn’t supposed to find out!  That wasn’t part of the plan.  No
w what the hell do we do?  Where did the fool go?  Did anyone follow him?”

Allia’s
heart sped up and a cold shiver raced down her spine.  Somehow she knew right away that they were talking about Eian.  God, what had happened?  Was it bad news about one of his brothers?  If so, why hadn’t he told her?  She entered the room and headed straight for her uncle with brisk determination.  When he saw her, Leon’s face fell and he slapped a frustrated palm to his forehead with a groan.  The guards slinked away as if they wanted no part of what was to come.      

“Lass
…”             

“Where is he?  Where’s Eian?”

He held his hands out in front of him, whether to calm her or keep her from attacking him, she didn’t know.  “I dinna ken where he went…”

“But you know why? 
What happened?  Why would he leave?  Why would he leave without at least saying goodbye?”  Her bottom lip began to tremble, but she refused to let the tears come. 
“What happened?”
  She could only imagine the worst.  Had someone died?  Had Creagmor been attacked?

Leon gave a resigned sigh.  “Hell, I should have kenned ye would find out sooner or later, and Mac Coinnach too… but I didna think he would just
leave
his mate.  I misjudged his character, lass, and for that I’m sorry.  I wanted ye to have a man ye could care for… one that would honor and protect ye, as yer mam would have wanted.”

“Just tell me!”  Allia felt her pulse racing
and she wondered if she was going to be sick.  If it wasn’t death or war that had made him leave, then it was something much, much worse. 
This was it, then.
  She had taken a risk, and now was the part she had known all along was coming.  She was about to have her heart completely and utterly broken.

Leon put a gentle hand on her arm, and she
was so on edge that she flinched at the contact.  “It’s about yer father…”

Oh god, no
… “My father?” she asked weakly.  But all of the pieces that she had thought didn’t even belong suddenly seemed to fit together. In one flash of understanding, she knew now why Eian had left.

“When I was being held prisoner”, she began carefully, “the man who captured me said th
at my father was an evil man, by the name of… Mored.  But I didn’t believe him.”  She took a slightly desperate breath.  “I thought he was trying to trick me into giving away information or something… it’s… not true… is it?”  But she already knew it was.

The
pained look on her uncle’s face told her everything.  “Oh my god…”  She slowly lowered herself onto the bench near the fireplace.  “And Eian?”

Leon sat down beside her, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. 
Kindness and sympathy were not his strength by any means, but he was trying.  “Yer father is the Clan Mac Coinnach’s mortal enemy.”

Her heart broke a little more. 
The tears welled up behind her eyes, but refused to fall.  “And he knows?”

“Aye.”

“Well…” she breathed.  “No wonder he left.” 

“Lass, he was wrong to leave ye… he claimed ye, swore to care for and protect ye… those vows dinna come with conditions.”

She shook her head.  “We barely know each other, Uncle.  Not really.  He must have thought I kept it from him, lied to him even.  I… I suppose I would have thought the same thing; in fact I know I would have.  He must think that I was going to betray him…”  Her heart clenched tight in her chest.
I would never…
“I need to go after him.  I need to find him and explain…”

“No!”  Leon was adamant.
  “Ye’ll be staying right here, even if I have to assign twenty guards to ye day and night.  If ye leave this castle alone, ye’ll be captured again as soon as ye pass from Lochain lands.  Perhaps even before.”  He crossed his arms and clenched his jaw.  “No way in hell will I risk that again, and trust me, ye dinna want to end up in yer father’s hands, lass.  And that’s exactly why we sent ye away all those years ago… we were trying to find a way to kill him.”

She sniffed, and he handed her a cloth from his sporran.  “And did you?
”

Leon pressed his lips together and let out a breath through his nose.  “Aye, we did discover how he could be killed, but… no one here could do it.”

“How do you…”

“Och lass, that’s no’ for ye to worry about.
  Ye’ll wait here, and Mac Coinnach will come back after he’s had time to think things through.  He’s bonded to ye; he will have to come back.”  But despite the confidence of his words, he didn’t look all that certain to Allia. 

The tears began to fall, she just couldn’t hold them back any longer.  She looked up at her uncle accusingly.  “You knew!  You knew all along and you didn’t tell me!  Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Lass, ye were better off to no’ ken about any of it.  Ye were so young…”

“But I have a right to know that my father is an evil…monster!  All of these years, I thought he was dead.”

“He was dead to you, lass, as he should remain.”

Dead to me…
yes
.  “I need to be alone”, she choked out.  Allia turned and headed for the stairs to her chamber.  She did not look back, but she could feel her uncle’s heavy stare as he watched her go.

A moment later, she was closing the door to her room and collapsing onto the bed. 
Only this morning, she had woken up in Eian’s arms, turning her head to look into his deep brown eyes and see his lazy smile, his tousled hair falling over his face.  She had felt safe, cared for… whole.  He had pulled her closer and made love to her as if she were the most precious thing on earth, and she had wondered how she could have ever doubted him.  Now… everything was broken.  She turned and sobbed into her pillow, heart wrenching gasps that seemed to go on forever.  She knew that eventually she would take action… some sort of action, when she felt stronger… but for now all she could do was fall apart. 

***

Eian sank down into the plain wooden chair and accepted the cup of whiskey, turning it in his hand and mentally readying himself for what was to come.  His feelings for Allia, real or not, were so strong, already so much a part of him, he wondered if it would physically hurt to have them torn away.  He shook himself and looked up at Alisdair, who pulled another chair over to sit near him with his own cup of whiskey in hand.

“I canna imagine ye’d come all this way for naught, lad”, he said almost casually, and in a way that made Eian quite certain the wizard already knew exactly why he had come.  And yet he was still going to make him say it. 

Eian took a deep breath that tasted of the salt breeze, stared into the golden liquid in his cup, and cleared his throat.  “I seem to have gotten into a bit of trouble, and I need yer help.”  Och, but those words stung his pride!  He had barely forced them past his lips, but then, he was dying inside, so what did it matter?

The expression on Alisdair’s lined but still
ruggedly handsome face didn’t change.  Aye, he knew, the bastard.  His uncle lifted his cup and took a casual sip.

“And Bren couldna help ye?”

“I… I was already on the western coast, at Lochain.  It was just as easy to come here.”  True, more or less.  If you didn’t mind crossing the most rugged and forbidding wilderness in Scotland.  In truth, it had more than suited his mood.

Alisdair smirked
, obviously seeing straight through Eian’s carefully chosen words.  “So what is this trouble that is so great it brings ye all the way to the northern reaches of Scotia?

Eian took a
nother deep breath, and boldly met the other man’s eyes, striving to hold on to his last few shreds of dignity, but failing miserably.  He let the breath go.  “Someone has placed a spell on me, and I need help to remove it.”  He would have done it himself, for God’s sake, if it weren’t nearly impossible to remove a spell from your own body or mind.  Och, this asking for help because of his own foolishness was akin to torture.  He waited while Alisdair narrowed his eyes and seemed to look him over.  Eian squeezed his shut, preparing for the worst.  He only hoped whatever kind of spell it was, it could be removed easily enough.

When he opened his eyes a moment later,
his great uncle’s lips were quirked up in what looked like amusement.  Eian frowned at him.  This was not funny, damn it!  He was suffering…

“Eian lad, what sort of spell do ye think has been placed on ye?”

Oh, here we go… the ultimate humiliation, because he wasn’t in enough agony already.  He looked back down into his cup, then threw back the rest of the whiskey, swallowing the burning liquid in one gulp before he answered with a sigh of defeat.  “A love spell”, he muttered.

When nothing but silence answered him, Eian looked up.  H
e could have sworn Alisdair was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.  If he didn’t need the wizard’s help so badly, and if Alisdair’s potent magic couldn’t take him out with a twitch of his little finger, Eian might have been tempted to punch him just then.  He leaned forward menacingly in his chair, anger twisting his face into a scowl.

Alisdair held up his hands.  “Och
lad, calm yerself, there are no spells on ye.”

Eia
n sat up straighter.  “There is”, he insisted. “It made me fall for the daughter of Mored MacReeve. I couldn’t bloody stay away from her!   By the time I figured out it was all part of a plot against our family it was too late… damn it Alisdair, this is serious, ye need to help me!”

“There are no spells
”, the wizard insisted gently.  “And a dark spell like the kind you speak of, I would have sensed the instant I saw ye.  The feelings ye have are entirely yer own, Eian.”

“No!  There has to be a spell.  I could never fall in love with Mored’s daughter, I would never betray my family like that!”

“Ye have betrayed no one.  The lass is innocent, untainted by the darkness.  That is why she was hidden all those years ago.  She kens nothing about who her father is, only that her mother was wed against her will to a cruel man, and died for it in the end.  If they have even told her that much.  She has been waiting for ye, all this time.  Just as ye have been waiting for her.”

Eian felt his hands begin to shake, and he gripped the cup tighter.  Alisdair picked up the jug on the floor
, held the cup steady with one hand, and poured out some more whiskey.  “Drink.”

“She truly kens nothing?  She is innocent?  Are ye certain?”  Eian felt his heart squeeze painfully in his chest.
  If what Alisdair was saying was true… did it change anything?  Did it change
everything
?

“Aye.  It is the ancient prophecy
of our family finally come to pass, Eian.  And ye are a part of it.  Three brothers, three soul mates, three sons.  And then the darkness will be pushed aside forever.  In the future, no one will even believe there was once such a thing as dark sorcerers who wielded the power of nature for evil.  For them, it will be no more than a fable.  The stuff of bedtime stories and myth.  And the Good shall continue to work unseen, as it always has.”