Forged in Dreams and Magick (Highland Legends #1)(98)

A snort parted the loose hair on my nape. “Go on. I’m listening.”

I turned and leaned forward, glaring straight up at the creature as his darkness towered over me. With a rod of a finger forged straight from the steel of my spine, I poked hard into the center of his sternum. “You . . . are going to help me.”

Another snort fanned hot air across my cheeks. His sparkling, faceted eyes narrowed, taking true measure of my worth. With a click, he set his jaw as he seemed to swallow my attitude.

I felt like the cockiest slayer before the legendary fire-breathing dragon. Not one ounce of me cared. I notched my chin higher, setting my shoulders back, daring him to defy me.

A slow smile spread across his face, turning his menacing demeanor deadly. “Well, today is your lucky day, Runt.”

I didn’t move. Not a muscle in my body would twitch until I had everything I needed.

The overpowering nature of the male arching over me intensified as his voice filled my head again. “Ahhh, but you do have everything you need, Ms. MacInnes. Remember? Your wish? My command.”

My urgency tamped down a tremendous urge to break into a grin at the power he suggested. Sunshine’s barbs kept me sober to the mission at hand.

“Again with the ‘Ms. MacInnes’ shit?” I grumbled and turned, expecting him to follow.

“Does it irritate you?” he asked. The sound of his voice boomed ahead of me, coming from the darkness of the portal, even though I couldn’t see his form.

“Yes.”

“Then, yes, Ms. MacInnes.”

I grunted in appreciation of his thoughtfulness and stepped through the portal.

Both feet landed solidly on the cold stone floor as I stared at the toes of my leather Pict boots. With a unique heightened sense of awareness, I distinguished the power of the wall behind me, the energy snapping through my veins, and the undeniable presence of Skorpius that I felt but couldn’t see.

I stormed from the room in my deerskin pants and halter top without giving a damn who saw me. Iain could get good and pissed at me again, and I would love every damn minute of it.

The dark corridor led to a silent great hall of an abandoned castle. The only sounds that penetrated the creepy quiet were the breaths from my charged lungs. Shafts of light from the clerestory windows illuminated suspended dust motes seconds before I strode through them.

Adrenaline fired superhero strength into my arm as I pulled open the heavy front door like it had been bladed on ice. A bright, blue-sky day belied the graveness that had descended onto the clan. No one trained in the courtyard. Children were absent from play. Besides the occasional person walking from one cottage to another, everyone had gone into homebound lockdown.

I leveled a glare beyond the castle grounds, where our clan’s attackers had lain in wait, and pulled my gaze closer in, surveying all that fell under my protection. No one and nothing would stand in my way of fighting for them.

An enemy who dared take our leader—brazen fools that had put every soul here in jeopardy—had become my target.

Fire blazed in my heart.

Fight whipped through my veins.

With one love lost in the heat of battle, I refused to lose another. Flames scorched into my nostrils as a raging beast I’d never known existed awakened, ready to obliterate everything in its path.

I strode down the hill toward the stables with single-minded purpose.

In my tightened fist, I gripped the hilt of the short sword strapped to my hip. Velloc had trained me well. We both had no idea the skills he’d helped me hone into sharp reflexes would be used to save his rival—the other man in my life.

Now . . . the only man in my life.

I burst through the closed doors of the stable, heading down the fenced stalls in search of a suitable mount. The stable boy with the bright red hair watched in shocked silence as I chose a brilliant white mare I’d never seen before. She pawed the ground while her ears trained forward, as if she was excited to see me, as if she knew my presence meant her freedom.

“She ready for battle?” I asked, stroking a flat palm down her velvet neck while I unlatched the stall door. The horse buried her muzzle into my hair, learning my scent.

“Aye, M’Lady. No one would take her. Laird had been trainin’ her . . . as a gift . . . for you.”

My breath hitched, my heart melting. Damn, that man never failed to surprise me.

I opened the gate. She walked forward, but not beyond me. The beautiful beast led me out into the courtyard.

“No need for a saddle or bridle?” I glanced at the wide-eyed youth.

“Nay. Laird trained her like his stallion,” the boy replied.

“Perfect,” I murmured, the word meant for Iain.

I turned my head, not quite glancing over my shoulder. “Her name?”

A secret gift to me.

Bright white to black midnight.

His shadow to my light.

Dubhar . . .

“Solus,” I whispered the perfect counterpart as the stable boy shouted the name.

With a hand pressed to the base of her neck and a spring from my thighs, I leapt to her back a split second before she charged off. I launched both hands into her mane and gripped her with my thighs, gaining balance as she raced through the courtyard.

An observant eye up in the watchtower caught our fast approach and lowered the drawbridge just in time for us to gallop over the wooden beams without breaking stride. In seconds, we devoured the distance between the curtain wall and the forest’s edge.