The Highlander's Dark Seduction (Secrets of the Darroch Clan) (6 page)

“What did you say?” She nuzzled his cheek and wished he would not send her away.

“I said you are the heart of my heart. And you have it always.” He cleared his throat and edged away from her. He held her gaze with his. “But you cannot stay here, Elizabeth, no matter how I feel. I will not curse you to this life I lead. Even now, the seconds tick down until dusk when I will be pulled away from this place to roam through time and the Highlands, ever searching for the sister I don’t believe we’ll find.”

She sat up, drawing her tattered gown into her lap and sliding it over her head. She left her corset on the forest floor.

“But who says I will be cursed too? Maybe our love can break it the way Iain’s and Lily’s—”

Magnus placed a hand over her lips and held it there.

“Dinna even speak it.” His warning was gentle, but she could see he was utterly serious. “I will not leave my brother Alexander to wander every night alone. I cannot curse him to a fate worse than he already lives, a solitary existence bearing this burden alone. I told you that the sacrifices the Darroch make for the clan are different than the one you made for me, and even though I am more humbled than I can say by what you did, I cannot turn my back on my brother for…what we share.”

Everything inside her deflated.

“I am not enough for you.” Why would she think differently? She had never been enough for any man.

With Magnus, she had allowed herself to hope. And that made this crash into reality all the more heart-wrenching.

“That is not true. Dinna believe such for even a moment.” Magnus wrapped his plaid around himself with hands that had done so for a hundred years, his odd gift of speed making the movements hard to follow.

Not that it mattered. Her brain was just latching on to anything to distract her. Anything besides the fact that he would never choose her.

“You do not have to explain.” She fastened the cuffs on her sleeves as tears stung both eyes. She watched the buttons go in and out of focus with the accumulation of tears. “My one enticement in the past has been the social connections of my family. And I understand that, in your world, they are too superficial to mean anything to you.”

“That is not fair.” He gripped both her hands in his. “Elizabeth, after what we just shared, you know how much I wish I could be with you again.”

“Then why won’t you take a chance? What if this—” she dared not speak of love “—what we share—could save all of you? What if your clan is saved when you all know the feeling of losing what you hold dear? You said your father stole away a woman beloved by her people. Maybe the
sidhe
wish to make you all experience the same?”

“Even so.” He edged farther from her on the moss-covered bench seat, his shoulder pinning back some of the ivy so she could see the rest of the glade outside the bower. The lands that had seemed so pretty a moment ago now stretched like an endless, lonely void without him. “How can I leave my brother to wander and wait on the hope that he will come across a woman who will feel about him as you care for me? Once he has to wander endlessly every night of his life, he will be too weary to move in the daylight hours. Even if you could possibly love me, I would not be a man worthy of such love if I selfishly doomed my brother to such a fate just to grasp happiness for myself.”

“But Magnus, you deserve—”

He silenced her with a kiss, too perfect, too brief, his finger then replacing his lips upon hers. “I have already had more than any man deserves here tonight with you. And you deserve a full life, not one burdened with a man worn down by the guilt I would carry.” His silken brogue turned to steel. “Make no mistake. For your sake as well as his, I will not abandon my brother.”

Chapter Six

“And you will make that choice alone?” Elizabeth knew he’d made up his mind. She could see it in the shifting color of his eyes. He had retreated from her somehow, wrapping himself in curse and doom with no hope of reprieve. “Without asking your brother if he wishes to take the chance that his life might be saved too? That the
sidhe
could end this madness with just one more declaration of…true affection?”

“Alexander is more than my brother.” Magnus did not look at her. He stared off into the distance with her, as if he saw the same loneliness ahead that she did. “He is my twin. The other half of my soul. I know him better than I know myself and he would never let me sacrifice my happiness for him. He will curse me twice over for forsaking a future with you. Yet I swear to you, if he sat in my place now, he would make the same choice to spare me.”

The deep resolve in his voice chilled her with reality. There would be no changing his mind. Elizabeth had no sister. Certainly she had no twin. But in some small way she thought she understood. She loved Lily like a sibling. That’s why she had feared for her friend’s safety and rushed toward Invergale to see her for herself. Knowing as much did not ease the wrenching ache in her heart or the certainty she would never find this kind of happiness or fulfillment again. Magnus was more than her love. He was her destiny. And her destiny now meant keeping her love for him forever trapped inside her.

Having that hope for a future together ripped away just as she’d glimpsed the wonder of the happiness they might have shared…

She cleared her throat and willed away more tears. “I see that you’ve made up your mind. And it will be hard for me to forgive you for denying us both a future that would have been—” The tears came now despite her efforts. She swallowed hard and could not finish her thought. “Still, I understand. Even now, it is easier for me to forgive you for how this hurts me than how—I fear—it will hurt you too. You deserve happiness after the life you’ve led. I wish I could have released you from your past.”

“Elizabeth.” Magnus’s voice was as shredded and broken as hers. She heard it in just that one word.

And it brought her no peace.

“I would return to Invergale now.” She rose to her feet, grateful she was steady on them. “I must make my goodbyes to Lily.”

They did not speak of the future. There was no need now that they were spending it apart. She followed Magnus onto the mare’s back, but the familiarity of his body did not bring her the pleasure it once had. The scent and feel of him was a bittersweet pain that increased with every hoofbeat and she held herself as straight as she could, gripping the mare’s mane instead of Magnus’s shoulders.

Silently, they returned to Invergale. Silently, they parted. Her to a room in the keep. Him to…she knew not where. He did not rest his head at Invergale among mortals, apparently. If she could have found a way to say goodbye, she would have tried. But she hurt too much to speak.

Wandering restlessly in her chamber, Elizabeth had retired early because she was not fit company for Lily. Yet it was not yet dark and she was too restless for sleep. Something bothered her about Magnus’s stubborn refusal to consider leaving his wandering existence and become mortal again. Something beyond the fact that he’d robbed them both of happiness together.

He’d said that his twin would curse him twice over for forsaking a chance at love. So Magnus had not given his brother a chance to reason with him. What if Alexander knew his brother well enough to overcome that stubbornness?

Alexander would return from wandering tonight, even as Magnus was called to his preternatural journey. That meant, if Elizabeth could find Alexander, she could at least ask him for help. Filled with new purpose, Elizabeth reached for her cloak in a drafty old Highlands keep, her senses tingling with just the smallest spark of new hope.

* * *

Magnus rode until dusk.

Never before had he gone to his night of wandering through time with such haste or eagerness. But he needed to put time and space and realms between him and Elizabeth or else he feared he would race back to her and declare his love in spite of everything. If for no other reason than that she deserved to hear it. She’d been hurt by others in the past. She deserved so much better than this—what he could give her. And yet, what he couldn’t give her seemed even crueler still.

Was Elizabeth right that his enemy merely wanted his family to experience the hurt of being denied a loved one? If so, he’d been denied two. First his sister. Now Elizabeth.

There’d been his first love as a teen, of course. The girl who’d fled from him in horror after seeing what the curse had done to him—making him disappear from her arms every third night when he had to take his turn roaming the realms for Shannon. But while he’d resented that loss for years, he now understood he hadn’t loved her. Not in the way that he loved Elizabeth. It seemed impossible to feel for her as he did after they’d known each other such a small space of time.

Then again, maybe when people were truly meant to be together they recognized it right away.

“Brother.” Alexander’s voice was in his ears before Magnus saw him. Sometimes they crossed realms without quite seeing one another, but as twins they shared a connection that transcended physical space.

Magnus wouldn’t mind blaming that bit of eeriness on the
sidhe
curse as well, but it had been like that even when they were children. They weren’t alike,he and Alexander,but they understood each other perfectly. Anticipated each other’s thoughts. Actions.

“I am here,” Magnus assured him. “Go find your rest.”

“Enjoy your last night on the job,” came the puzzling reply.

Magnus halted his horse, not crossing the brook that would lead him into
sidhe
realms to begin his journey through time. There was a brief period at dusk when the brothers could inhabit the same space, before one was pulled away.

“Where are you?” He turned the mare around. “What do you mean?”

“I spent the day helping Iain safeguard Invergale and I heard an interesting tale from Lily.”

Magnus’s teeth ground together. “What do you mean my last night on the job?”

Darkness fell thicker. Deeper. His time in this realm would not last much longer.

“I met Elizabeth.”

The words felt damning, somehow, even as her name tore at Magnus’s heart.

“How did you find her?” Fear made his blood pump faster. “What have you done?”

“She found me. She shed tears in the enchanted wood while I lingered nearby. After Lily’s tales, I recognized Elizabeth immediately.”

What did it mean? And why did Alex sound so sure of himself? Magnus envisioned Elizabeth wandering the forest alone and his fists clenched with the need to return to Invergale. Safeguard her.

“Speak plainly, brother,” Magnus warned.

“I saw her safely back to Invergale, of course,” Alexander assured him with the same false innocence he’d used when they were twelve and he blamed the lack of chocolate pudding on his twin. Alex had warned him about two seconds before the cook cuffed Magnus across the head.

“You know what I mean. Why do you say this is my last night?” Magnus pressed

“You cannot deny yourself happiness for my sake. I would never allow that.”

He did not question how Alexander knew so much. Or so well. That bond they shared, no doubt.

“You have no choice. It is done.” Magnus’s mare started across the brook, her feet as tied to the curse as his own and it was that time of day for his watch.

For an instant, Magnus could see Alex approaching Invergale, covered in a cape.

“Is it? Do you really think Elizabeth needs to confess her love solely to you for the
sidhe
to hear her? What if I can convince her to speak those sweet words aloud even though you are not present?”

All at once, he understood and cursed himself for not grasping his twin’s intent sooner. Thoughts of Elizabeth, of the incredible bliss of being with her, had his wits addled. But in this instant he knew his mistake. He should have told her to be careful. To guard her words even when she was alone. Even with his family.

But if he knew Alex, Magnus guessed he would take no chances. If having Elizabeth confess her feelings at Invergale wasn’t enough, Alex would bring her into the enchanted lands at the boundary of the
sidhe
world and have her speak the words there.

“Nooooo,” he shouted into the evening wind. “You bastard. You will not do this!” His words reverberated through the forest and through time and the realms even as he hurtled far and fast from Invergale…too far to warn Elizabeth of Alexander’s plan.

The possibility that the curse might yet be broken taunted him, his love for Elizabeth so strong he was tempted to give up his honor just to be with her. The fact that his twin loved him enough to make such a sacrifice—to wander alone eternally—humbled Magnus. Yet it infuriated him too. The curse could end up killing Alex, wearing him to exhaustion or worse. And what of Shannon? Would he find her alone?

He needed to stop his brother before it was too late.

Magnus fought the pull of the curse. Fought the flow of his feet and the mare’s hooves, struggling with her until he realized how unfair that was. He slid from her back, letting the animal go where she was doomed to wander while he attempted to turn back. A blur of silver light barred his way back to the mortal realm. Still, he pushed toward it, using his sword and all his strength to clear a path back to the brook and the border lands. Back to Invergale.

Desperation made the minutes stretch until they felt like hours and he still scarcely moved. Then, all at once, the light disappeared.

He almost fell into the brook behind the garden bower where he and Elizabeth had made love. Where they’d fallen in love. Scuttling back, he realized the path ahead was clear. The pull on his chest had vanished.

He could see the mortal realm again. Clearly. Why would that be unless the curse had been broken? Or was about to break? Fear and hope clouded his vision as surely as the silvery light had a moment ago. He could barely hold a thought in his head other than the need to get to Elizabeth. To Alexander. Was it too late to stop this madness? He ran until his mare caught up to him. She must have a reprieve from the curse’s pull too. Vaulting onto her back, Magnus urged her home.

Reaching Invergale, he pounded on the doors until he thought they would break. At last, he heard them unbarred and a sleepy, half-naked Iain grunted a greeting.