Highlander's Faerie (Highlander Heat #5)

She needed answers, and it was time. She grasped her burgundy skirts, strode out of her room and down the winding stairs. Hurrying, she bypassed the great hall, walked across the stony inner courtyard and under the arched entrance.

After taking a deep, fortifying breath, she stepped into the circle and stopped before the center stone. Slowly, reverently, she picked up the amulet and whispered, “Guardians of Dunyvaig, why have you brought me here?”

A breeze lifted her hair and made it tickle her face.

“My child,” a voice breathed. “I’ve been waiting for you, to give you the guidance you seek.”

“Am I real? Nightmares assail me and I see my death here in this circle, a death I don’t remember.”

“Katherine, you no longer belong to the future, but here in the past. Wear the amulet. ’Tis yours to hold and will provide safe passage as you return to your MacLean kin.”

“I’m to travel to the Isle of Mull?” Her sister was here and now wed to a MacDonald, her MacLean clan’s greatest enemy. “Marie is away on her honeymoon. I can’t leave her.”

“You and your twin are two halves of one whole, the beginning and the end. You must complete what your sister has set in motion. Keep your warrior protector close. To bring peace, you must unite.”

“My warrior protector?”

“Aye, the man who is ever watchful, the one who caught you as you fell into this time.”

She slowly turned. High on the castle’s battlements, John MacDonald stood with one hand resting on his sword hilt and the sea breeze plastering his blue tunic to his broad chest. “He’s one of Angus MacDonald’s captains. He can’t travel with me to Mull and enter the enemy’s territory.”

“Aye, he can, if he does so for you. If that is what it will take for you to see the truth, then that is what must be.” The fae’s voice drifted on the wind, moving farther away. “You, my child, are of both clans, but there is more you arena aware of. There is magic all around you. Simply open your eyes if you wish to see it, then draw on the touch of fae blood you hold deep within you. You must accept your place in this time if you wish to survive.”

“Hold on. I have fae blood?”

All was eerily still and no answer came. The fae had gone, and just as quickly as she’d come. And drat it. She was still without answers. Were her nightmares real?

Hands shaking, she lifted the talisman’s silver chain over her head and pressed the amulet against her heart. She had a mission, and the fae’s words reverberated through her mind. Keep your warrior protector close. To bring peace, you must unite. Bringing some peace between the clans was what she longed for. A strange sense of rightness stole over her. As Marie had completed her mission and saved their paternal ancestor, so too, she’d complete hers. She wouldn’t let the fae down.

She trod out of the circle and climbed the stairs to the battlements, toward the one man who never veered far from her side.

Ahead, John pushed away from the thick stone crenellation and arms crossed, observed her. “What were you doing in the circle?”

“Seeking advice.” Only John, Archie and Mary knew the truth of how she and Marie had come to travel from the future here to the past. “I spoke to one of the fae.”

“You must take care. Even as the little folk guard Dunyvaig, they also tinker and play.”

She palmed the amulet at her neck. It’s silver surface glimmered in the moonlight.

“Tell me why you hold Mary’s talisman. ’Twas left in the circle for a reason.” With one finger under her chin, John lifted her gaze to his. “You can always speak to me.”

“I know.” Warmth from his gentle touch rolled through her. “The fae told me this amulet is now mine to hold and will provide safe passage as I return to my MacLean kin.”

“You were asked to travel to Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull?”

“Yes. I’ve been given a mission.”

“Nay, I’ll never allow you to step one foot on MacLean territory, mission or no’.” He pressed her against the stone wall at her back, enclosing her fully in his heat. “The danger is too great. Tell me exactly what the fae said.”

“That Marie and I are two halves of one whole, the beginning and the end. I’m to complete what my sister has set in motion. She also said to keep my warrior protector close. To bring peace, we must unite.” She pushed against him but he budged not an inch. “John, don’t go getting all muscly-man on me.”

“Shh, take care with your strange words. Voices can travel along the battlements and the other guards are close.” He eased one hand under her shoulders and the other behind her head, protecting her from the rough stone. “While Archie is away, you’re my responsibility. Traveling to Mull willnae happen on my watch. They’re the enemy.”