Forged in Dreams and Magick (Highland Legends #1)(55)

Fear of the worst-case scenario gripped me as disappointment settled into my chest. I’d gained nothing; I didn’t have any answers to unlock the secrets of my artifact, and I wouldn’t have Velloc.

Like a dowsing rod, every cell in my body vibrated to a frequency from the box as fate conspired to play cruel tricks with my life again. Dread seeped into every pore. My legs grew leaden, and an elephant sat on my chest, every breath an insurmountable struggle.

Velloc urged me forward, crutching my paralyzed body. The closer I came to the master of my destiny, the more its power took hold of me. Ironically, a soothing feeling washed over me.

“Isobel, my fierce warrior. You can do this. You can do anything.”

I looked up into Velloc’s dark brown eyes, kindness and wisdom shining in their depths, realizing the supportive energy had come from him. He radiated strength and calmness, and it briefly overrode the object’s irrefutable command over me.

I exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized I’d held, glancing at the deceptively innocuous metal box. “Do you feel the energy it emanates?”

He followed my gaze. “I do. I did the night you came to me. Open yourself to it, Isobel. Make a connection with the vibrations.”

I turned in his hold, facing forward. Velloc kept his arms loosely wrapped around me from behind. I did as he asked and closed my eyes, relaxing as I accepted the pulsing frequency.

A warm tremor danced goose bumps across my skin before the heat spread deeper. The earlier calmness I’d felt settled further. Tiny vibrations hummed through my body, accelerating in intensity the more I opened the conduit. Chain reactions fired on a cellular level, energizing me from the inside out. Every positive emotion ignited, triggering a sense of euphoria. Like a highly faceted diamond held in a beam of light, the connection refracted optimistic possibilities into an explosion of vivid rainbows.

My eyes flashed open. For a split second, I glimpsed misty tendrils of iridescence reaching through the air toward me. But they vanished the instant I focused on them.

I gaped. “Velloc, did you—” Feel that? See that?

He dropped his lips to my ear, brushing the shell before kissing it. “Yes, love. I did.”

Wow. Too many unprocessed thoughts were usurped by the tremendous energy flowing around us, rendering me a mere observer to the events: I’d joined with an inanimate object, and yet, nothing about the relic was inert; Velloc had called me love—the endearment a first for us.

I turned back around in his embrace, gazing into eyes filled with myriad emotions. “Velloc, will you do this with me?”

He smiled, leaning down, nipping my lips softly before answering. “Isobel, I have been. Every step of the way, I’m with you. Always.”

I took a fortifying breath, lacing my fingers with his. We stepped forward, and I guided our hands down to the top of the box.

Our clasped hands trembled. From him or from me? A little of both, I decided.

Together, our fingertips touched the cool metal top, the surface warming at our touch.

Nothing happened.

I furrowed my brow. While the outcome had remained a complete mystery to me, I’d expected more than . . . nothing.

I pulled my hand up to my mouth, drumming my fingertips lightly over my lips as I tried to think my way through the enigma. Each event with the box had been different. Iain and I had both touched it in the twenty-first century, while he’d made contact in the thirteenth century. Then I alone had placed my hand on the surface as Velloc did on his end.

Energy practically sparked the air around us. Power from the relic held me in its grip like a tractor beam locked onto an incoming spacecraft. The artifact hadn’t shut down like the first time, when I insisted that Iain send me back. If anything, it appeared to be powering up.

The accelerating rhythm radiating from the object flowed into me, commanding my runaway heartbeat. I tensed as a strong pulse burst through my body.

Velloc squeezed me in reassurance. “Now, Isobel!” He shot his hand back up and clasped mine, dropping our hands onto the metal top.

The slightest touch charged electricity through my body as if I’d plugged my finger into an overloading transformer. I squeezed my eyelids shut and dropped my head, gasping as excruciating pain seared through every ligament. A scream ripped from my throat, echoing off the cave’s rock walls as incredible pressure threatened to detonate my body into shrapnel.

Velloc released my hand, shaking my shoulders. I opened tear-blurred eyes, flames of pain still shooting everywhere.

Iain stood on the other side of the box with his hands around it . . . only he wasn’t solid—I saw the jagged cave wall through his body. I reached up to touch his image, removing my hand from the box.

The pain ceased the moment I severed the connection. And . . . the portal sealed.

Iain solidified, becoming corporeal as my fingers landed on his forearm.

“Isa.” Iain whispered my name with a shocked expression, as if he saw a ghost.

Velloc yanked me, shoving me behind him as he growled. I stumbled back, my blank mind failing to process the unbelievable.

Two masterful warriors from worlds that existed centuries apart squared off for deadly battle.

Both owned the heart of one woman.

Me.

I watched in horror as the men launched at each other, colliding in midair.





CHAPTER Nineteen