Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33
The choice had never been between Logan’s people and the woman he was in love with. The choice had always been, from the very beginning, between Adeline’s safety in her world, and Adeline risking her life by staying in his.
Far below the tower, Logan heard the sound of doors flying open, and the drumming of footfalls on the flagstones. They were pouring in for one purpose and one purpose only: to find Adeline and burn her at the stake. And there were too many for him and his men to fight off, unless he wanted to have a deserted island.
“The staircase is narrow,” he said thickly. “They’ll struggle to get up here in a swarm, but we cannae go anywhere either. Once they find the right staircase, they’ll fill this tower in nay time at all.”
Adeline rushed up to him, putting her arms around him. “We can go up to the viewpoint. They might be able to get up the staircase, but they won’t get up the ladder. Not if we knock it down after ourselves.”
“Aye, the ladder,” he said softly, his mind already planning ahead. “I’ll take Adeline up. The rest of ye, hold yer ground between these two chambers. They’re nae here to harm ye. As far as they ken, ye’re nae ‘bewitched’ as I am. If they threaten ye, I’ll come back down to try and reason with ‘em once more.”
Theo bowed his head. “I’ll defend ‘em with me life.”
“As will I,” Oliver said, offering a knowing, sad smile to his brother. “Ye’d best hurry, else they’ll be here before ye can get the ladder down.”
Logan ushered Adeline out of the room, toward the wooden ladder. Guilt twinged in his belly, that he could not give his mother and sister the chance to say a proper goodbye, but if he wanted Adeline to live, it had to be now. And she had to be none-the-wiser until they were up on the top of the tower.
Her grip on him told him that she was not ready to leave, but there was no choice. There had never been a choice. Now, he was making it for her.
She climbed up first, pulling herself into the snowy world above. He followed, reaching down to pull the ladder through behind him.
“A lot of them are still outside the gates,” she said, peering over the wall. “Maybe they’ve changed their minds.”
Logan closed the trap door. “Maybe.”
The sun had not yet fully risen, the winter skies preferring to keep the world in darkness. Meanwhile, thick snow clouds shrouded whatever dusky light might have pierced through, relieving themselves of their feathery, icy burden. A few flakes kissed Logan’s skin, and as he looked over at Adeline, he watched her catch one on her tongue.
How am I supposed to let ye go?
His heart broke, knowing what had to be done. It would hurt like nothing he had ever felt before—but no matter.
“Do ye have what the seer gave ye?”
He already knew the answer, but delaying the inevitable for a few more minutes could do no harm now. If the villagers breached the top of the keep, they still would not be able to get through the trap door.
Adeline froze. “Why are you asking that?”
“Ye ken why I’m askin’, lass,” he replied, moving toward her. “Ye need to use it. Now. They’re comin’, and they willnae cease until ye’re gone. I’d rather ye went this way than the other.”
To punctuate his point, shouts echoed from the room just below them. The villagers were quicker than he had anticipated. They were already at the top of the keep.
“Logan!” Oliver’s voice yelled urgently. “Now! Do it now!”
A thud struck the trap door.
“Logan!” It was Theo’s voice, this time. “They have a ladder!”
Panic thrummed in Logan’s veins as he pushed Adeline toward the farthest corner of the tower. He stood in front of her, determined to use himself as a human shield if he had to. After all, he had no idea how long her vanishing trick would take, but he would stand right there, blocking anything that came until she was safe.
“Ye have to go, love,” he urged.
Adeline shook her head wildly, her eyes brimming with tears. “I can’t leave, Logan. I don’t want to leave. I said we had at least five days. I want those five days, Logan. I want more than five days.” She grasped fistfuls of his shirt. “I’m not ready. Logan, I don’t want to leave you, because I—”
“Please,” he interrupted, his heart cracking in his chest. “I can walk in a world where ye get a future, even if I’m nae where ye are, but I cannae live in a world where ye die because of me. I willnae bury ye in this soil, nae unless ye’re gray and old, and we’ve had forever together. Daenae ask me to do that. Daenae ask yer sister to mourn ye, nae kennin’ where ye went either.”
A strangled sound escaped her throat, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Leave,” he pressed, the banging on the trap door getting louder with every passing second. “Now, love. It has to be now.”
She shook her head. “Not before I do this.”
Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him to her. His arms slipped around her waist, hugging her close as their lips met in a desperate kiss. It was like they were trying to say everything they did not have time to say with their kiss, embracing until they could not breathe, for though Logan had known this day would come, he still was not ready for this to be the last goodbye.
But one of them had to break the kiss first, and it did not seem fair to make Adeline do it.
Slowly, he pulled back. “We daenae have any more time, love.”
“I know,” she whispered as fresh tears fell, her face crumpling. “I know.”
With shaky hands, she reached into the pocket of her apron. She pulled out what looked like a little parcel wrapped in hessian and set it on the wide surface of the wall.
Her face contorted with sorrow as she unpeeled the material. A shiny egg sat in the center, glittering as the snow came down around them. Somehow, it seemed to have a light of its own, glowing in the gloom.
“I don’t even know if this will work,” she said quietly, flinching as a deafening blast hit the trap door. A dull clink followed.
They had managed to get the trap door’s hinges off or were starting to.
She cupped her hands around the little egg and closed her eyes. With tears melting the snowflakes that fell on her skin, her mouth began to move. He could not hear everything she was saying, but two words jumped out at him: I wish…
I wish ye would return to yer time . I wish ye would be safe from this, even though I’ll miss ye with all me heart.
Thunder grumbled from the belly of the snow clouds overhead, making the stones beneath Logan’s feet shudder. In the distance, lightning forked—the second time in his life that he had seen snow and lightning at the same time. On the day she arrived and the day she departed.
But as Adeline gazed at him, the egg clutched in her hands, her eyes widened. “Logan!” she screamed. “Behind you!”
A second later, she was gone… and something hard struck him in the back of the head.
He stumbled forward, dazed by the throbbing pain.
“M’laird!” a startled voice cried. “Och, I dinnae mean to hit ye! I was aimin’ for… I thought I saw… Are ye alone up here, m'laird? I could’ve sworn ye had that witch with ye.”
Logan whirled around, unleashing a blood-curdling cry, right in the face of the man who had struck him. “I am alone up here,” he growled. “And if I were a less kind laird, I’d have ye beaten for what ye just did to me.”
“It must be me eyes playin’ tricks,” the man apologized, bowing his head. “I thought I saw somethin’ when that lightnin’ hit.”
Logan stormed past the man to the trap door and jumped right down without bothering to pause for the ladder. As his feet hit the floor below, the throng of villagers came to an abrupt halt. What they had been trying to do, he was not sure, but they appeared to be making some kind of human pyramid to reach the very top of the tower.
He ignored them all, shoving his way through the crowd until he reached the top of the staircase. But he did not stop there, forcing his way downward. He had expected some sort of attempt to fight back, some of the villagers maybe trying to seize him so they could throw him in the dungeons, but it seemed that no one dared to touch him as he descended.
And like some kind of charmer, the villagers slowly began to follow him, more and more of them joining the exodus out of the keep until he doubted there could be any of them left inside.
He kept walking, right out of the gates, and made his way to the stake they had erected for Adeline. It would not be used to burn anyone, but it would be the perfect stage for what he had to say to these people.
As he stood on the wooden platform and waited for the masses to gather, his gaze turned upward to the square tower. Four figures stood at the wall where Adeline had just been. His family, safe and sound. It was a small comfort, but it did not even begin to ease the ache in his chest, where his heart had splintered into a thousand pieces.
“Have I been ungenerous?” he began, his voice echoing across the island wilderness.
The crowd seemed surprised by the question.
“In the ten years that I have been yer Laird, have I ever given ye reason to doubt me?” he continued.
A rumble drifted through his rapt audience, many of them shaking their heads.
“Have I brought peace and prosperity to our wee island, after years of me faither’s tyranny? Have I done everythin’ within me power to gain yer trust and give ye me trust in return? Have I worked tirelessly to undo everythin’ that me faither did, so we could be a content and honorable island once more, never wantin’ for anythin’ without havin’ to steal or pillage?”
The crowd nodded, mumbling their assent.
“So, tell me, why could ye nae put yer faith in someone that I invited here as an honored guest?” he barked, his eyes stinging with tears that he could not spill.
At least half of the gathered villagers dropped their chins to their chests, suddenly shamefaced despite their former furor.
“I ken ye’re wary of newcomers. I was, too!” he shouted, his lungs on fire. “And ye were right, in a way—Adeline was special, but she wasnae a witch. She was a healer with a heart of solid gold. A healer who refused to take a single coin in payment for the work she did in healin’ the sick.”
“Aye, but she dinnae!” someone dared to shout. “They’re dyin’ in the east. I came from there meself!”
Logan found the man who had raised his voice, leveling a deadly glare at him. “That wasnae any misdeed of Adeline’s. That was the cruel scheme of me uncle, Dallas.”
Drawing in a breath, determined for them all to hear the truth, he began to tell the tale that had ended in Dallas’s death. A story of a bitter uncle with second-son inferiority complex, who had sought to take the Lairdship for himself by pitting two brothers against each other, using Adeline’s arrival as the perfect vessel to add to his evil plan.
“She left the island of her own accord because she couldnae bear the thought that all those she’d helped were now sufferin’ again,” he bellowed, a tear escaping his eye. “The man who did all of this ought to be standin’ here, burnin’ for his crimes. But in protectin’ me brother, I had to give him his sentence quicker. Adeline had hopes of stayin’ to help more of ye, nae with the curse that wasnae a curse, but with yer ailments.
“She could’ve helped laborin’ maithers, she could’ve prevented bairns from dyin’ young, she could’ve eased yer aches and pains, she could’ve done a thousand things here on this island without askin’ for anythin’ in return, but ye believed me wicked uncle—a man ye all despised ten years ago.” His voice wavered for just a second. “Now, she’s gone. Ye got what ye wanted, but I’d ask ye all to wonder at what cost. We’ve just lost the most valuable thing our island ever had.”
And I’ve just lost the woman I love .
That part was just for him, and for the lonely nights to come.
“Away with ye!” he barked. “All of ye. Leave!”
With that, he jumped down from the wooden platform and stomped his way back to the keep, ignoring the mumbled apologies as he passed.
He did not want to hear them. Indeed, he was not ready to forgive, and he sure as heck would never be able to forget.