Chapter Twelve
–Tavish–
SINCE THE MOMENT I removed my bandage in Elowyn’s old cottage and saw Ellie’s poultice had completely healed my wound in a matter of minutes, I knew just how much our dragons meant to each other.
More specifically, I knew we were fated mates.
I’m not sure how I knew it with such vivid clarity, only that it was true, and I would never hand her over to Dugal Sutherland, no matter what.
My dragon wouldn't allow it, even if in the end it led to its death. While my human half still grappled with the possibility she was Elowyn, I knew when she joined us in the MacLeod’s private dining chamber, it didn’t matter whether she truly was or not.
I wanted her.
And this time, there was no sense of guilt or betrayal attached to the sensation.
Rather, my breath caught at her almost otherworldly beauty.
Her shimmering blonde locks poured over her shoulders, her flawless skin was luminescent, and her thickly lashed dark golden eyes were magnificent when they locked with mine, punctuating our poignant, ever-intensifying connection.
A connection that seemed to reel us closer without us ever taking a step.
And it only grew stronger and more palpable as we were seated beside each other for dinner, and I became more aware of her than ever.
Even though we chatted with kin and ate delicious food prepared by Hazel, I was always, every second of every minute, drawing Ellie in, from her sweet scent to her every movement.
Where she had silently urged me to look for Elowyn in her actions earlier, now there was none of that. While yes, there was some familiarity in the way she moved her hands when she spoke or the kind, encompassing way she made people feel when they talked to her, there was also much more.
Things that made her uniquely the woman who sat beside me now.
Things I was familiar with and already adored when I should not, because she was not Elowyn, but someone else, caught in my scattered memories. Flickers in time that had begun coming back to me after I removed Ellie’s bandage and found myself completely healed.
Things I suspected I’d dreamt about but had forgotten.
“It’s incredibly delicious, isn’t it?” Ellie said, drawing me back into the conversation when she smiled at me and gestured at the sweet on my plate. She turned her smile Hazel's way. “Hazel excels at cooking, but somehow her desserts are always the best.”
“Aye,” Evan Sutherland agreed, just now joining us for dinner.
Disowned by his clan for his friendships with Lucas and, as it turned out, Hazel, despite the centuries between them, Evan had always loved Lilias Sutherland, Dugal Sutherland’s wife and another one of Ellie’s sisters, though none of them knew she existed until the pact ignited.
“Hazel is an amazing baker,” Lucas echoed, gazing at his bride with adoration. “Which I found out on our journey back to each other.” He smiled from Evan to her. “’Twas a magical flavor in her cauldron that eve.”
“‘Twas indeed,” Evan said, grinning.
“’Tis delicious,” I agreed, yet again managing a rare smile when I looked at Hazel. “Thank you, lass. For all the food you so graciously helped our cooks with, if not cooked yourself. Yours is a rare talent.”
“Thank you, Tavish.” Hazel smiled from Ellie to me. “I’m so glad you’re enjoying it. Plenty more to come if the MacLeods continue to let me haunt their kitchens.”
“I’m sure to your heart’s content,” I assured, to many nods of agreement.
Yet as we finished our dessert and everyone continued talking, I knew the moment Hazel implied she would cook for the MacLeods for years to come was a turning point for Ellie, because her demeanor shifted after that.
While she still smiled and chatted, I felt the change inside her and how she subtly pulled away from me, even though she still sat beside me.
Even though our bodies were so close and very much our inner beasts, she pushed me away as though loosening a tether that had reeled us together.
Something which became more apparent when everyone finished dining, and she said the last thing I wanted to hear, but knew I had no choice. None of us did.
“You promised me a normal evening, and you delivered, because it was lovely,” Ellie said, smiling warmly at everyone before her smile faded. “And I promised to tell you everything I know, so it’s probably best if we head to the War Chamber, where there’s no risk of being overheard.”
And so we did, despite my wishing this dinner could go on for hours and I could avoid whatever truths she was about to share. All I knew was it would lead to the same outcome.
She was determined to go to Dugal Sutherland.
I could feel it deep inside her like a festering wound of inevitability I couldn’t fight, nor should I want to, given she was doing it for the good of our clan. For the good of Scotland and its people.
Yet I had no idea how much more specific it would become. Not until everyone settled in the War Chamber with its crackling fire, and she shared how much more intricate her life had been.
It was safe to say it shocked everyone, including her sisters.
“It’s difficult to know where to begin,” she said, looking at her sisters, “other than to say, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, it began with our father, Malcolm Sutherland, who had five daughters.
One in this century and four in the twenty-first century, Lilias being the firstborn and me, the secondborn, then onward.
” She hesitated as if trying to gather herself before continuing.
“What you don’t know is all five of us have the same mother. ”
Not surprisingly, her sisters made audible sounds of disbelief before Ellie went on, remorseful she hadn’t been able to tell them sooner, but strong as she met each of them in the eyes.
“DNA testing wasn’t able to get around our parents' magic, so no one knew we were full siblings.” She shook her head, and her voice softened.
“Even us. And that was what they wanted, for us to stay hidden in the twenty-first century. To remain our parents’ best-kept secret from the likes of Elspet Sutherland and her son. ”
“Because they knew the time of the pact was coming,” my mother said softly, her eyes flaring gold with her inner magic as Ellie’s secrets started to unravel to us all via her inner beast. “’Tis why they were determined to banish Malcolm so he couldnae possibly harness the power of the pact not only as laird but as one of the most powerful dragons ever born to them. ”
“Yet they didn’t realize the strongest of them, the one who would ignite the pact, was already living among them,” Broderick exclaimed, from where he sat behind his desk with Aspen on his lap, seeing it as clearly as the rest of us.
“She was just a mere lass without much to her name, born in their village.”
“Och, ‘twas nothing mere about her,” came a disembodied voice before Grant Hamilton appeared by the hearth in all his ethereal glory. He wore a whimsical expression, not phased in the least by almost everyone’s surprise at his sudden, otherworldly appearance.
“Despite her quiet, subtle beauty and unassuming, bashful ways, Marjorie Sutherland, whom her granddaughter was eventually named for, was the diamond the evil and sinister clan members were seeking, because she descended from the sorcerer.” He shook his head. “But nobody knew it, not even her.”
“Yet Malcolm must have,” Adlin theorized, from where he stood beside Grant, despite no doubt already knowing the answer. “Given all that has happened since.”
“He did not,” Grant returned, issuing a soft smile that bespoke a romantic nature, but then, once upon a time, and undoubtedly in the Hereafter, he was still desperately in love with his twenty-first-century time traveler, Sheila.
“Rather, they fell in love over time like any two people might. With passing looks and growing attraction despite her lowly standing within the clan. Yet we all know when it comes to true love, societal standing verra seldom plays a role.”
“And they married and had a child together,” Aspen murmured, seeming to see what Grant saw. “Lilias.”
“They did.” Grant’s smile warmed all the more. “And they loved wee Lilias for she was as kind and good as her simple-born mother.”
“That’s when it began,” Willow realized, her eyes widening from where she sat tucked against Sloan's side on the settee, peering at the antique ring she wore. “That’s when the simple iron ring she had worn that had been handed down over the generations by her modest, farming family, transformed into what it is today, masked by the immense magic lying dormant inside her.”
“Aye,” Grant confirmed. “When that happened, her beloved husband, who should have become laird and ruler of his kingdom, realized the pact of old betwixt the MacLeods and Sutherlands was finally upon them. So it would only be a matter of time before Elspet and her kin imprisoned Marjorie and did whatever it took to remain in control of how the pact unfolded. It would ensure they captured the lass with a gem over her dragon’s heart, using the powers they harnessed from her and one of their own, not for good but to do harm.
” Grant shook his head. “And mark my words, the harm they intended goes far beyond Scotland’s shores and into the future. ”
“But not if our father got out ahead of it,” Hazel deduced, as astounded as the rest of us by the lengths Malcolm and Marjorie Sutherland had gone to protect so many. Yet there was sadness in her voice, and with good reason. “But it came at a tremendous cost.”
“It did,” Ellie said softly, looking at her sisters with her heart in her eyes. “Their firstborn daughter, our sister, Lilias.”
“They had no choice but to leave her behind to protect her the only way they knew how, from the unraveling spell and because she wasn't destined for a MacLeod nor would she ever be found among them,” Hazel said on a sad sigh, giving Evan’s hand a supportive squeeze.
“I remember her being sad when we were teenagers because she was an orphan, but I never knew the details.”
“Nor I,” Evan said, his eyes pained for what the woman he loved had suffered. “One day her parents were there and the next they were just gone, her father banished and her mother killed, or so I thought, given she has a grave Lilias has long mourned over.”
“Graves can be deceiving,” Adlin said, staring out the window at Aspen, Hazel, and Willow’s trees in the distance.
“As can witches like Marjorie and dragons such as Malcolm, for they were verra powerful indeed.” His gaze returned to Ellie and her sisters.
“Just look at all they accomplished for you four, from your trees to the Morrow, even influencing the Hereafter, I suspect.”
“And all for the sake of keeping their lineage out of Dugal and Elspet’s power-hungry evil hands,” Lucas said.
“Better still, right under their nose,” Ellie said softly, sharing another piece of the puzzle, speaking to the extraordinary lengths they had actually gone to.