The Highlander’s Witch (20 page)

Kicking her feet to keep them from attacking again, Skye pressed her hand against her mouth to stop herself from bawling like a baby, or crying out and having any one hear her and laugh at her weakness.

Damn
them
all
to
hell.

Then she snorted.

She was already there.

Something nibbled on her shoe and she whimpered as she kicked, losing her slipper.

Skye had no idea how long she had been in the cell, if it was day or night, or if anyone cared that she was dying in here.

Her stomach had stopped growling from hunger ages ago and her feet were going numb with the effort to stand.

When her head started spinning, Skye she knew it wouldn’t be long before nothing mattered.

Her hands were too heavy to lift, not that they could do anything with how hard they were shaking. Even her knees gave up their support and she barely made a sound as she slid down the wall, her last thought was how terrible it was that she wasn’t going to be with her sister when she lost her baby and her husband.

*     *     *

Shaken roughly awake, Skye squinted, unable to lift a hand to shield her eyes from the light.

“Keir?” She croaked.

“The Laird sent me fer ye.”

He hauled her up and she stumbled, bumping into the wall behind her. She would have slipped down if he hadn’t picked her up and carried her.

It wasn’t until she felt her powers overriding the ‘wall’ she had in place to keep from drawing on another’s strength that she started fighting his hold.

“Let me down. You have to let me down.”

She could feel herself getting stronger and when Keir stumbled the second time, she was able to disengage herself from him and they both stood still, Keir shaking his head, wondering at his sudden weakness and her shaking at what her powers had begun to do.

“I can walk. J-just tell me where you want me to go.”

Keir straightened and stared at her, his blank eyes telling her he knew of the accusations and believed them.

“Tis Anna. She ran out to greet us on our arrival. Her excitement caused me horse to rear—”

“The baby!” Skye whirled around, cursing herself when she stumbled to her knees as her equilibrium went off kilter.

Picking herself up before Keir could reach her, Skye raced down the hall and up the stairs as fast as her unsteady feet would allow, grateful for the bit of strength she had gotten from Keir who was following close behind, grudgingly wishing it had been more.

As they neared Anna’s bedroom, she could hear the girl crying out her name.

She was about to rush to her side when her arm was grabbed forcefully and she was wrenched around, falling against a hard chest before looking into Aiden’s cold eyes.

“For some reason, Anna thinks ye can save her an the bairn.” Ignoring the way his gut twisted at her appearance Aiden glared down at her. “If she dies so do ye.”

Skye tried to swallow past the lump in her throat and nodded, afraid he wouldn’t let go soon enough as more strength flowed slowly into her.

Eyes narrowed, he searched her face making sure she understood before releasing her.

She went to Anna and tried to calm her down. “I’m here, Anna, I’m here.”

The girl reached for her, blood on her forehead and skirt. “Please, Skye. The bairn—”

“I know, baby. It’s going to be all right. I promise.”

Thankful for what little strength she had gotten from Kier and Aiden, Skye knew it helped in keeping her from depleting Anna, but she still needed for the girl to let go.

Looking at Collin’s dead stare and bloody clothes did nothing to alleviate the way her heart pounded.

“You must get on the bed. Cradle her head in your lap.” She instructed as she tried to disengage the death hold Anna had on her arm, glaring at the midwife who was howling uncontrollably, barely smiling when Elizabeth shoved the woman into the hands of someone else.

“Get everyone out of here.”

She turned her full attention to Anna, no longer caring about anything else.

She was going to save her family and Anna’s baby.

“Listen to me, Anna. I need my hands free.”

When the girl didn’t respond, Skye leaned closer and reached over with her free hand to touch her cheek, sending calming thoughts, trying desperately to not take Anna’s strength as the girl held tight.

“I need my hands free, Anna.” She said calmly in Gaelic. “So I can do what I did last time, remember?”

“She needs her hands to help the babe,
leanabh.
Let go.” Collin gently removed her hands from Skye’s arms.

When released, Skye took a step further down only to have her arm clutched frantically.

“Doona leave me!” Anna cried.

“I’m not going to leave you, Anna, I am going to save the baby, remember? I made a promise.” She assured her as Collin stepped between, talking smoothly to his wife his eyes bearing down on Skye silently.

She glared back defiantly. “And I plan on keeping that promise.”

“I will keep me promise as well.” Aiden’s threat came from behind her, just before he stepped up to her side.

Pausing to take a calming breath before returning Aiden’s hard stare, she spoke calmly.

“Unless you need to make good on your threat, heed this warning: Do not touch me. If you believe nothing else from me, believe that it will do you more harm than good to touch me.”

He raised a mocking eyebrow then looked at his mother when she returned her attention back to Anna. When his mother nodded her belief in the girl’s words, both eyebrows rose.

Centering herself at the swollen belly and preparing for what she had to do, Skye instructed Collin on what his responsibilities were as he climbed on the bed and cradled his wife’s head in his lap.

“I’m not strong enough to keep her calm and take care of the baby so I need you to hold her, comfort her, tell her you love her,” She looked up as she gathered her powers, feeling the warmth building along her trembling arms and centering it into her hands. “and don’t stop.”

Ignoring his questioning gaze, she locked her knees against the wobbling and placed her hands on the belly in front of her.

Skye concentrated, her eyes loosing focus as she followed her energy into the girl’s body and directly to the womb. Her powers swirled in a kaleidoscope of colors, settling into place and shifting into the hues that would tell her where to look.

Knowing this took precious time, she drifted to the baby and directed some of her energy there when she noticed his feeble heartbeat.

Hoping to get him to respond, Skye surrounded him in colors, relieved when she saw him twitch.

Swirling muted colors around the baby too keep him from becoming frightened, she continued to fill his frail body with strength.

Seeing life enter the little form, she smiled and shifted her attention to the shades around the womb.

Searching as rapidly as possible, knowing she wasn’t as strong as she should be to do what she needed, but also knowing failing wasn’t an option.

Finally, at the base of the womb, she noticed a thinning of the membrane. In the center of it was a tear, either caused by the accident or perhaps grown worse during the pregnancy.

“Found it.”

“Found what?” Aiden and Collin asked simultaneously.

They looked at each other in confusion having seen no movement from Skye since the moment she had closed her eyes some time ago.

“She be savin me bairn.” Anna spoke weakly, her face still drained of color, the wound on her forehead prominent and awful looking against the pale skin.

Aiden looked across at his mother who stood on the other side of the bed but her eyes were on what Skye was doing, her face full of wonder.

His mother had encouraged him to have Skye brought up even after he informed her of what had transpired with the counsel, something he had disbelievingly listened to as they rushed his sister to her.

Aiden had not wanted to hear his mother’s anger over being unable to attend the interrogation. If it had not been for the fact Anna would not calm down, the bleeding wouldn’t stop, and he was as desperate as Collin was for his sister’s safety, he would never have agreed to release Skye from a prison he knew she abhorred.

A fool.

That’s what Skye had made him.

He had allowed her to go without answers to basic questions and his reward was a woman willing to hand over her virginity so she could destroy his people.

That was not going to happen now. The only thing keeping his hands from wringing her neck was the fact that Anna was finally calm.

Aiden took in her appearance and hated the way his stomach heaved at the sight, forcing his mind not to think of the areas of her body he could not see, knowing her clothing hid more than it reveled. She had spent more than two days in the dungeon and the scratches on her neck, torn sleeves showing clawed skin, and the grime on her fingers, which could not hide the jagged wounds from the rats or the pinpricks of bites caused by bugs, showing every hour of her torment.

She deserved it for having conspired to attack his keep knowing innocent people would be raped and killed. Her words of innocence had been lies and he was livid at himself for believing them. He refused to acknowledge the ache in his heart as anything other than betrayal.

As time passed, he became more and more perplexed.

She was not moving.

Except for the slight trembling of her body that she’d had from the beginning, which he had equated as fear of him, she wasn’t moving.

He looked at Collin crooning softly in Anna’s ear as he touched her face and neck, his eyes fixated on Skye’s hands looking as baffled as Aiden felt.

When he glanced up and saw his mother’s brows crease, he looked back at Skye and saw beads of sweat breaking out and dripping down her face, sweat formed under her arms and back, and her body was shaking harder than when she’d started. He stepped closer but his mother’s hand reaching across the bed to touch him stopped his movement.

“She was serious when she said not to touch her. I could feel that to do so would be a death sentence.”

“An what is that supposed to mean?” He asked in exasperation. “She hasna moved in over an hour an yet she be grownin paler, she be drippin sweat, and looks like she be about to fall over.”

“She is a healer, Aiden. She has a gift like nothing I have ever seen.” She squeezed his arm. “Anna is right; she is saving the baby.”

Skye repaired the split in the womb, a very meticulous and slow process.

Somehow, maybe in her first pregnancy, damage had occurred along the lining of her womb and it had never repaired enough to hold the weight of a growing baby. She could not be sure since she had only begun to take classes for midwifery after Sarah’s announcement that she was pregnant and had not learned a whole hell of a lot but she knew the accident had placed a tear in the already worn womb since she had not seen it the first time she had healed the girl.

Just because she had repaired the womb didn’t mean the horse hadn’t caused some other damage and she wanted to ensure the baby was going to go full term but she was deteriorating fast.

Ignoring the way her heart rate became sluggish, Skye dreaded when the colors faded, feeling the pounding in her head as if from a distance.

She gave a quick search all over and saw the bruising under the tale tell colors just as the energy gave out.

Her hands slipped and her knees gave way.

“No, no yet.”

They watched as Skye’s hands, slick with sweat, slipped and her body wavered before going limp.

Aiden caught her, damning the consequences.

“Lemme go.” She mumbled sluggishly, too weak to resist or push him away.

Feeling her strength returning, albeit slowly, Skye became terrified for Aiden whom she knew was the one holding her.

“Lemme go. You have ta lemme go.” She gathered her strength and tried to push away.

Still too weak, she fell to the floor, her head spinning even as it pounded.

Tears of frustration fell. “Damn, damn, damn, damn.”

Elizabeth sank beside her. “What is it, luv?”

Pushing herself up on unsteady arms, she hung her head in shame, crying softly.

“I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough.” She looked up, eyes still unfocused. “I’m so sorry.”

“Tis fine, Skye.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Ye did everything ye could.” Elizabeth touched her shoulder.

“Stop!” She jerked away, the movement almost costing her her position. “You can’t touch me.”

Elizabeth looked at her hand in surprise. “I felt that.”

“What did ye feel, Mother?”

Elizabeth looked up. “When I touched her, I felt myself going weak.” She said in wonder.