Chapter Twenty-One
The declaration they were under siege made her face pale as she clutched him closer. She was a modern woman. She would not be prepared for what was to come. He had to send her away to safety.
He turned to her, gripping her by the arms. He saw the fear behind those wintery eyes.
“Yer piece of the stone…do ye have it?” he asked.
She nodded. “I have it in my pocket, but Jamie—”
“Good. There is only one clan who dares attack our keep and he comes for one thing.”
“MacDonald.” Her voice was ice.
“Aye. Ye need to get to safety, lass.” He took her by the hand and started for the keep.
“I don’t want to leave you.” There was a note of desperation in her words.
While he didn’t want to be parted from her, either, he knew the safest place for her was inside the keep. He granted her a reassuring smile, hoping it would give her a sense of calm.
“I’ll be fine. Ye need to be with yer sisters.”
Jamie tried to hurry, but his limp seemed worse this morning. The pain shot up his leg, making his knee throb. When he reached the great hall door, he shoved it open.
“I leave ye here, lass.”
He started to turn away but she grasped him by the arm.
“Jamie, I—” She sucked in a breath. He saw the rapid beat of her pulse in the long column of her neck. Her mind worked as she tried to find the words she wanted to say.
He brushed the back of his hand over her cheek. “Stay safe.”
Worry creased her lovely features. “But—”
“Dinnae fash yerself, lass. Ye’ll be safe here with yer sisters.”
He brushed her lips with a quick kiss before dashing off, leaving her standing in the doorway. He had to leave her now. His place was at the side of his brothers, fighting with them to protect the women they loved.
Jamie’s first stop was at the armory where he found Malcolm handing out armor and weapons to the men. He stepped around his brother and reached for his favorite claymore.
“Where do ye think yer going?” Malcolm asked before he could slip out of the room.
“To fight.” Jamie met his brother’s gaze in a look of defiance.
He was aware the injury to his leg hadn’t healed well. He was also aware it would make him a liability in battle. But he could not, in good conscience, let his brothers fight without him. He had to make a stand, too. He had a woman to protect as well as the two of them.
Malcolm looked as though he wanted to object. After a moment’s pause, he finally nodded.
“Are the women safe?”
“I sent Brianna into the keep to find them,” Jamie said.
“Good.” When he handed out the last of the armor, he reached for his own claymore. “Let’s go fight this blackhearted bane!”
*
The door to the great hall banged closed behind Brianna, sealing her inside silence. Moments later, Chloe led Evie as they stepped off the curved staircase. Relief flooded Evie’s face when she saw her standing there.
“There you are!” she exclaimed.
“We have to go.” With her free hand, Chloe motioned for Brianna to follow her.
“Do you have your piece of the stone?” her other sister asked.
“Yes.”
Everyone was so concerned with her piece of the stone. Perhaps they were right to be since she tended to leave it lying about. But today, she’d remembered to place it in her pocket.
Roslyn hurried into the great hall, her face white. “My lady, the castle—”
“Barricade yourself in the chapel with the other ladies, Roslyn. Don’t let them see you.”
Brianna was impressed with the authoritative tone of her younger sister. Roslyn wrung her hands together in front of her.
“What about you, my lady?”
The lady of the castle took a moment to grasp the woman by the arms. “We’re going to the tapestry room. I need you safe in case something happens. I need you to be prepared.”
She swallowed hard, her throat working. Though Evie didn’t say what she needed to be prepared for, the woman seemed to understand. She nodded.
“Stay safe,” she whispered.
“And you, too.”
They bid each other farewell. Roslyn exited the great hall, disappearing into the kitchen while the three of them made their way to the tapestry room. Once inside, Evie closed and bolted the door. Chloe clutched her elbows as she stood in the center of the room staring at the tapestries.
“Are you sure this is the best place for us?” Brianna asked. “Maybe we should be in the chapel with the rest of the women.”
“Chlo, what is it?”
She followed her sister’s gaze and focused on the woven wall hangings.
She understood then what Chloe stared at.
The final tapestry revealed a new moving image showing Dundale under siege by the MacDonald army, led by Rory MacDonald brandishing his glowing great axe.
Brianna moved to stand next to her as they both peered at it.
“It’s happening,” her sister whispered.
“We’ll be safe here for a while,” Evie said, unaware they were both entranced by the tapestry. “I’ll build the fire and…” Her words trailed off. “What are you two staring at?”
“Eve…look.” Chloe pointed at the wall hanging.
Evie moved to stand on the other side of Brianna. She sucked in a sharp breath when she saw it. The three of them were shrouded in silence as they peered at the horrific scene.
Callum, Malcolm, and Jamie stood on one of the curtain walls, each holding their sword. All the while a battering ram pounded the outer gate as a trebuchet flung massive boulders at the walls. One after another.
“Oh, God,” Evie whispered.
“You never saw this in one of your present visions?” Chloe asked.
She shook her head. “No.” She pressed her shaking fingers to her lips. “What are we going to do?”
“First of all, we’re going to remain calm,” Brianna said, trying to quell her own fear. “Panicking will get us nowhere. Have all the images in the tapestries come true?”
“Yes,” Evie said with a nod. “All of them.”
“Then we need a plan.” She paced the small area of the room.
“Maybe it’s time we figure out how to get this stone put back together once and for all,” Chloe suggested. She pulled her piece out of the pocket of her gown.
Evie was still focused on the tapestry. “All this shows is the castle under attack. It shows nothing else. No outcome. We don’t know that putting the stone back together will help.”
“Isn’t it worth a try?” Brianna held her own piece in the palm of her still bandaged hand.
Evie retrieved her piece of the stone from the pocket of her gown. “Maybe. But it would require the blood magic again.”
At the mention of that, Brianna’s palm itched, as though her blood stirred beneath her palm, ready to perform. Chloe clutched her stone in her bandaged fist, indecision on her face.
“It drains all of us,” she said, still peering at the tapestry. “And I’d need Malcolm here with me to make it work.”
She was right. Having him close to her was the only way to activate her part of the stone. They were connected somehow. Her power was different from the two of theirs, which made Brianna wonder if she was able to harness the power of the future to put the stone back together once and for all.
She thought of the vision she’d had with her standing on the craggy hill in the white dress, her sisters flanking her. In that vision, she’d held the keystone, which was whole again. Had she somehow mended the stone with her power and then used it?
Athea told her she had to shift the timeline if she didn’t want to see the portal opened to the Realm of Chaos. She still did not know how.
“We need a knife,” Evie said, glancing around the room. There wasn’t anything suitable to use. “I can go back to our chamber and get one of Callum’s daggers.”
Her words were punctuated with a thunderous boom and the shuddering of the castle walls. It was the first large boulder crashing against the outer defenses. That would, likely, be followed by the battering ram.
“You can’t go alone,” Brianna said. “Not with the castle under attack.”
“We’ll all go,” Chloe said.
Evie glanced between the two of them. “Maybe we should stay here and wait it out.”
Another crashing boom as a boulder smashed into the walls. Brianna stared down at the small piece of stone smudged with her blood.
Something strange happened then. It was as though the world tilted on its axis—and not in the way it did when she was with Jamie.
The sounds around her were as though she stood in a tunnel and her sisters were far, far away.
She turned her head to see Chloe tilting sideways and, beyond, the strange enchanted tapestries.
Athea, the Goddess of the Future, appeared to turn her head and meet her gaze. And then something even stranger happened—the goddess stepped out of the tapestry. Her body was translucent—as though she were a ghost—and was outlined in shimmering light.
“You know what you have to do, Brianna of Clan Sinclair,” she said, her voice soft and soothing. Her eyes flickered down to the stone she held in the palm of her hand.
“Do I?” Brianna asked.
“You do. Use the power within you.”
“I don’t know how.” Her voice warbled on sudden unshed tears as frustration flickered through her.
This woman, this goddess, was telling her things she should know but didn’t. She hadn’t a clue how to use the power inside her. She had no idea what to do next.
“I told you once before you had the power within you to prevent or bring about certain destinies,” she said.
“You still have that power. Not only to shift the timeline, to save us from the Realm of Chaos, but to save the MacLeod men from certain death. For if you do not use this power within you, then they will all surely die in this battle.”
The heavy burden of the goddess’s words pounded through her.
“Tell me what to do!” she begged, hating how she sounded.
Brianna was never good at decision making, especially the hard decisions. It was why she’d returned to the Caribbean after she’d settled her parents’ estate. She wanted to hide from the world and making the hard decisions. She wanted an easy life.
What she faced now was not easy. She didn’t want the men to die.
She certainly didn’t want to see Jamie dead.
He had become dear to her over the last few days.
They had formed a sort of bond of understanding because they both had strife with their siblings.
He understood her. She understood him. And it would destroy her if anything happened to him.
“Mend the stone. Use the power.”
It was the last thing the goddess said to her before she disappeared in a poof of light and then the world righted itself. One of her sisters was shouting her name. Something cold and hard pressed into her back and she realized then she was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling.
“Bri!” Evie shook her.
“She’s coming around.” Chloe’s voice hitched with worry.
Another mammoth boulder smashed into the walls. This time, it was close. Too close. The keep shuddered under the force.
“What happened?” She pushed herself to a sitting position, her head throbbing with sudden pain. She put a hand to her forehead as she winced.
“You fainted,” Evie said.
“I know what we have to do,” Brianna said. “We have to mend the stone.”
“We assumed you’d had a vision,” Chloe said.
She nodded, even though it hurt her head. “The Goddess of the Future came to me. She told me…”
She paused, her gaze alighting on both their youthful, hopeful faces. She knew they had to do this. She couldn’t bear the thought of telling her sisters the men they loved would die if they didn’t.
“Mend the stone.”
As she struggled to stand, Chloe reached a hand down to help her. She was grateful for her sister’s strength as she swayed a little on her feet.
“Let’s go get that knife,” Evie said.