Highland Sorcerer (14 page)

Toren looked at Col, his gut twisting
in fear, yet Col was solid and alive, his chest softly rising and
falling.

Tamping down the panic filling in his
chest, Toren stroked the healer’s arm before he realized what he
was doing. He didn’t stop. "What part has she played in
this?"

He regretted the harsh tone at the
widening of Edeen's eyes and the way her features conveyed
precisely how much his distrust of the healer annoyed her. His
resolve nearly faltered.

"Charity." Edeen's chin set in a
stubborn tilt. “She has a name so ye best use it. 'Twas she who
brought us the descriptions of the symbols at your wrists and
allowed me to unravel Aldreth's spell." She faltered when he
glanced at one of the bands. "Partially unraveled. Enough to get ye
away from the castle."

He knew the healer's name for rood’s
sake. He just couldn't think of her in so familiar a term if he
were to keep from falling prey to her bewitchment. Enchantress was
an apt description of the healers. If Aldreth would have thrown
this lass to him, he would have succumbed long ago.

He hesitated, looking from the still
woman who felt so right in his arms to his sister and then to Col,
the instinct to protect his siblings from anything—anything at
all—ingrained into his very existence. Col's utter stillness
unnerved him.

"She healed you." Edeen's palm curled
over his arm, her gaze penetrating. "I trust her."

And Toren's hard-waged
battle was lost.
Empath
. He'd been under Aldreth's ministrations so long that he dare
not trust his own feelings, but he could trust Edeen's.

A peace he had not felt for sennights
settled around him and he nodded.

They needed to go. He did not have the
full details of his rescue, but he could not imagine that Aldreth
would not soon be upon him. “How many have followed us?” Whether
the witch had sent men after them or not was not in
question.

“’
Tis difficult to tell
within the forest. Nine by my reckoning.”

Only nine? “Aldreth is holding them
back. I’m certain they know exactly where we are.”

Edeen’s face paled. “For what
purpose?”

“
Purpose?” Toren barked out
a harsh laugh. “She plays with us. She has no need of mercenaries
to track us through the forest.” He lifted his wrist. The symbols
glowed slightly beneath the tangled branches. “She can pull me back
at will.”

Col stirred. His eyes moved beneath his
eyelids.

“
Then why?” Edeen stared
down at Col, the lines of her forehead smoothed as she made the
connection. “For us. Col and I. Aldreth means to follow her
connection to you and find us all together.”

As thought hearing his name spoken,
Col's lashes lifted, revealing mossy green eyes. His lips twitched
into a smile. "Did it work?"

"Aye, it worked, ye mutton head." Edeen
ruffled the lad's hair. "D'ye not recall walking through the
forest?"

Col's brow wrinkled and he grimaced.
"Unnn. I do not recall much after carrying Toren through the
passages."

"I would think not." Edeen pushed Col's
hair from his cheek. "Can you walk?"

"Of course. What of Toren?"

"Of my own volition,
brother."

Col's eyes swept to him and the young
warrior's entire countenance lifted in what Toren could only
describe as unreserved joy. "Toren." He pulled up, his gaze
immediately falling upon the healer. “What’s happened to
Charity?”

Protectiveness swelled
inside Toren’s chest.
She ran to him,
across the moor, mist curling at her hips, teasing cloudy swirls
around her breech-covered legs until she stood before him, slender
hands upon his crisp white shirt.

"Toren," she
breathed.

He smiled at the unusual
inflection she gave to his name and since she was but a dream, he
indulgently dragged his fingers into her hair, sighing at the
silkiness.

"Toren, I need you to tell
me where you are. I'm going to help you."

He stared down at her, could not tear
his gaze away.

"Gods, Toren," Col muttered into his
shoulder. "How could ye let the witch get the advantage over
you?"

How indeed. His abduction was all a bit
fuzzy. There'd been a lovely wench, nay, not a wench after all. He
had glimpsed her true form—a demon—and before he knew it the
damnable wrist bands were on him and Aldreth appeared. None of his
magic could be called against her where hers worked magnificently
well against him.

"'Tis a tale for another time." Though
humiliating, he would not have any others of his clan fall to the
same fate. "Let's get ye up."

Col pulled back, his demeanor turned
serious. "Do not do so again."

Toren grinned at the warning.
"Nay."

"Is the way clear?" Col asked and Edeen
and frowned up at Toren.

"The guardsmen still prowl the woods,
but they are not what we need to fear."

Chapter
Twenty

The world swayed. A steady heartbeat
thumped against her ear. Charity blinked open her eyes and squinted
through the pounding in her head. No, she was swaying. Or was it
the forest’s dark canopy above her?

She was in Toren’s arms, her head
resting on his shoulder, being carried through the woods. She
nuzzled in closer, pushing her head beneath his chin, content to be
in his arms. The residual stink of the dungeon didn’t even bother
her.

Except…? Why was he carrying her? He
believed her to be one of Aldreth’s lackeys.

Charity tried not to be mad at that.
She really did. And she got it. Toren had been tortured by a woman
for months. It wasn't his fault that he'd have trust issues, but
really?

And just because she'd gone through
this instant emotional bond with him that was one of the most
profound things that had ever happened to her, she couldn't expect
him to remember what had passed between them because for him it had
never happened.

She'd taken that away herself when
she'd traveled back through time and forever changed that moment by
not healing him.

What did she expect?

That he would remember something that
for him never happened? That when she healed him beneath the
tangled branches, that deep connection they'd experienced before
would miraculously occur again and he'd instantly feel something
for her?

Well, okay, yes. Maybe she had expected
that, but apparently that was a once in a lifetime
happenstance.

Her lifetime.

Not his.

“
Put me down,” she said
suddenly, squirming to get loose.

His hold tightened. “Cease. Ye’ll hurt
yourself.”

“
What do you
care?”

She flopped out of his grasp forcefully
enough that he let her slip away, though he did not fully let go
until she was steady on her feet.

He frowned down at her and once again
Charity was reminded of just how tall he was. His expression seemed
almost, well, hurt. Edeen and Col came up behind him,
watching.

“
I do care,” Toren’s sultry
voice whispered across her senses.

Charity went very still, uncertain as
to what had changed after she passed out.

He lifted his hand as though to reach
out to her, but then dropped it.

She didn’t know what to think, what to
feel. Her pulse raced through her veins. She wanted to grab Toren’s
hand and just hang onto him, but wasn’t certain what he was feeling
toward her and couldn’t take another accusation of working with
Aldreth right now. Not now. Not while he was looking at her like he
did when they were dream trailing. Like she was special to him. She
sent a questioning look to Edeen.

It was Col who came to her
rescue.

He took her arm and steered her away.
“Are ye well enough, Charity?”

“
I’m fine. Now. You’re the
one who fainted.”

Col stopped mid-step, a scowl stamped
across his lean features. “I did not faint.”

“
Flat on yer face,” Edeen
informed as she passed them.

“
Did not.” Col sped up to
catch up to his sister.

Charity glanced back at Toren, bringing
in the rear. Not ready to talk with him, she walked on, feeling his
eyes on her back.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Charity trudged up the forested hill,
growing more despondent with each step. They had been walking for
hours. She kept an eye on both men, gauging their exhaustion. Both
had been through an ordeal and even with her healing, neither was
at a hundred percent. Not that either would admit it. Then again,
she didn’t feel at top peak either.

Toren only slowed the pace when Col
staggered though Charity had caught Toren listing a few times as
well. He always caught himself and somehow rallied his strength.
The dude was a machine.

She rolled her eyes, faulting the
stubbornness of men regardless of what century they came
from.

Speaking of…Charity wondered if Toren
would be able to send her back to her own time as long as he wore
the wrist bands.

He'd traveled through time before with
them on, but the end result had been Aldreth pulling him back to
the dungeon.

She stopped.

Which, she still could. Aldreth could
sense his magic through the bands and could yank him right back. At
any time. Why hadn’t she done it already? Or shown up to get him?
If she found Toren now, with the spelled bands on, he still
wouldn’t be a match for her. And Edeen and Col, as an empath and
shape-shifter, wouldn’t be able to fight against the magic of a
witch of Aldreth’s strength.

She pressed her fists to her temples,
thinking it through. Something didn’t quite fit. It had been too
easy so far. Their escape. Outrunning the guardsmen. The
mercenaries would have to be bumbling idiots not to have seen their
trail. Even she could track them and she had zero outdoor skills.
There was nothing stopping Aldreth from just plucking Toren from
them now? So why hadn’t she?

"Charity?"

Friggincrapola
. Everything clicked
into place.

"Charity." Edeen shook her
shoulder.

Her head snapped up. "The guardsmen
aren’t trying to capture us. They’re merely shadowing us. Aldreth
intends to take you and Col prisoner as well. We have to get those
bands off Toren."

Edeen’s eyes narrowed as she studied
her. “Ye and Toren, yer essences really are in accord. He’s come to
the same conclusion, which is why we need to go." Grabbing her
wrist, Edeen pulled her over the crest of the hill where the trees
opened up onto an idyllic village below. Crops and pastures lay
before them with long lines of short stone walls following pathways
between them, leading around thatch-roofed cottages and joining to
head up to a larger building that looked more like pictures of
Viking longhouses than a Scottish keep.

As picturesque as the village appeared,
something was off. Charity shaded her gaze. Below, there was no
movement. No sentries coming to greet or oppose them. There should
be people in the fields, goats and sheep roaming about. The gates
to the manor should not be sitting wide open. Well, at least she
didn’t think they should be.

“
I thought we were going to
the Shadowrood.”

"Aye. We are." Toren's mouth settled
into a hard line.

"The standing stones are not much
farther,” Col said. “We stopped here to make certain Shaw stood by
his duty and took our people to the gateway.”

"He's taken the clan
to
Reolin Skene
."
Col's shoulders slumped. "When he found out Aldreth had spelled ye
to the bands…" He looked at Charity in apology. “I wish he would
have given us more time.”

Frown lines creased Toren's forehead.
"He did what needed to be done. 'Tis the course I would have
plotted."

Charity backed away, horror squeezing
her gut.

"It was a romantic story.
An entire clan, every individual gifted with some form of magic as
long as they remained the protectors of man… And then all of them
vanished. Poof. The village must have fallen to ruin because no one
knows where it once was."

Magic never has been the
same in the world.

"Let's hurry.
Reolin Skene
is just on
the other side of our village." Edeen started down the slope the
way they had come. "Mayhap we're not too late."

Sharing a glance, Col and Toren
followed after her.

Charity stood stock still.

She knew the outcome.

An entire clan, every
individual gifted with some form of magic as long as they remained
the protectors of man… And then all of them vanished…no one
knows…

Either Shaw and the clan had already
passed through, leaving the three remaining siblings on their own
in the world. Or they would catch up and go into the Shadowrood
with their clan.