Highlander's Magic (Highlander Heat #2)

“You say that all the time.” She knocked her shoulder against Katherine’s, rose and wandered inside the circle. “I wonder how the faeries got these stones here. They’re massive.” Nine six-foot high stones stood six feet apart around the perimeter. A tenth stone, short enough to sit on but still as wide, sat plumb in the center. “What else does the brochure say about this circle, other than it’s sacred?”


“Just to watch for changes within. It can go from still to wildly windy, but most of all, if a haze surrounds it, the faeries are at play.”

“A haze? You mean like—”

Thunder rumbled out at sea, and birds nesting along the rocky shoreline cackled and took flight. Their wings brushed the water as they flew across the inlet to the rushes hugging the other side’s marshy edge.

“Bad weather is getting closer, Marie. Maybe we should come back and explore tomorrow.” Her sister stood.

“We can give it more time. If need be, we’ll make a mad dash to the car. This is a magical circle. Perhaps we could simply wish for fine weather.”

“Wishes shouldn’t be squandered on weather.” A gleam lit Katherine’s eyes. “If we’re going to make one, it has to be interesting.”

Katherine had always loved to make wishes, by the first star she saw at night, to blowing out her birthday candles, to when she lost an eyelash. She’d never been able to stop her sister from making them.

“Come on.” Katherine gripped her hands. “I’ll make a wish for something both of us have always wanted.”

“I’d like an endless supply of chocolate.” That would be fabulous.

Katherine chuckled. “Yeah, we can buy chocolate anytime. How about an endless supply of adventure? You can’t always buy that.”

“Sure. It’s why we’re here.”

“Great.” Katherine winked. “Then here’s my wish. To the faerie folk of Dunyvaig Castle, I wish for a moment of magic, for Marie and me to live, for us to have untold adventure on your stunning isle. Bring on the fun. Bring on the—”

Thunder boomed and lightning slashed the rippling waves of the bay with a sizzling crackle.

“Okay, I think a mad dash is now in order.” She lugged Katherine toward the edge of the circle, hit a hazy barrier and bounced to the ground. “Ouch.” She rubbed her nose. “Where’d that come from?”

“Whoa.” Gaping, Katherine hauled her to her feet. “It’s like a veil’s come down.”

“You mean you weren’t joking when you mentioned the haze?” Beyond the fog, the darkening waves rolled in with a pounding crash.

“This can’t be right.” Katherine inched forward and patted the sides. “Except there’s really something here. How do we get out?”

“Try the other side.” This place already spoke of mystery and intrigue, and now it had ramped right up.

“I thought the brochure was simply playing up the whole mystical fae thing.” Katherine tapped around the perimeter, knocking on something solid, yet nothing but foggy air swirled. She shot her a wide-eyed look. “Obviously not, and I just made a wish.”

“There’s got to be a way out. Even if we have to dig, we’ll find it.” Marie grabbed her sister’s hand. Low cloud lit with lightning coasted across the sea. Within the mist a vessel materialized, one reminiscent of a sixteenth century Highland birlinn. “Do you see that, sis? Or is my imagination really going wild?”

Katherine gasped. “A-are those warriors onboard that thing?”

Thirty or so armed men wearing green and blue plaids plunged their oars into the sea and powered their vessel in. At the helm, a commanding man pumped his fist into the air and bellowed orders for his men to lower the sail.

“I…um…I’d say so.”

“They’re heading right toward us.” Katherine pressed her palms against the barrier. “I think my wish just got a whole lot more adventurous than I expected.”

“Y-yeah, you’re banned now from making—look at the ruins.” The manned birlinn now appeared to be the least of her and Katherine’s problems. “You see the castle, right?”

Her sister gawked past the clingy mist. “Holy moly. Birlinns. Warriors. Do you think we just fell back through time?”

“Either that or the locals play out reenactments, of an incredibly spectacular sort.” She scrubbed her eyes with her knuckles, but the castle remained, standing three stories high on the hill. Battlements topped fortified walls, and candles lit tower windows. In the descending dark, the castle guarded the bay like a sentinel.

“’Tis our captain, Archie MacDonald,” a guardsmen called as he rushed along the top of the barbican. This was too real to be a reenactment. No one could rebuild a castle in seconds.

A portcullis rose from within the stone-arched entrance gate, its clunky chains reverberating across the moors. Boots clipped loudly on the stones as a warrior strode out in leather pants and a thick fur vest over a dark linen shirt. He halted at the edge of their circle. “Prepare the great hall for our men’s arrival.” He palmed the hilt of the sword at his side. “My brother returns.”

Marie waved her hand in front of the warrior. “Okay, he can’t see us but we can see him. We must be between times, protected somehow by the veil.”