Chapter 6
M alcolm gripped Vían’s delicate shoulders and turned her to face him, his eyes searching hers for a truth he was almost afraid to find.
“Before I face them… answer me this. Why didna ye do the spell last night in the woods when we made love over and over again?” His guard had been down. He was embarrassed to admit to himself that she would have been successful.
Vían’s eyes dropped to his chest and her chin wobbled in such a way that it tore at his heart. “Because I’m a fool,” she gave a harsh, humorless laugh. “I’d planned to. But you touched me and everything…changed.” She blinked up at him as though trying to understand it, herself. “And I’ve given up my soul for a man , a second time.”
Malcolm seized upon that bit of information. “What do ye mean?”
She hesitated, but he shook her as though doing so would rattle the answers from her. “Tell me what happened,” he demanded. “Help me make sense of this before I go to face my fate.”
After a long moment, she nodded, so he released her and she turned from him, only able to speak her truth to the stones.
Malcolm used the moment to dress as she gathered her thoughts, watching the way the firelight threw gold and blue hues into her raven-black hair.
“More than a century ago, I fell in love with a War Chief named Kenneth McManus,” she began.
Malcolm instantly hated the man, though he realized the bastard had been dead a few decades, the jealousy that swirled within him was unreasonably violent.
“The McManus and the Gregor were at war,” she continued. “And at the time, the Wyrd Sisters were summoned by the Chieftain of the Gregor and paid for their dark Magick to help win the skirmish. The price, was the soul of an enemy.”
She paused then for such a long time, Malcolm wondered if she was going to finish, but he remained quiet while she gathered her words.
“I thought Kenneth was so brave. That he was a man who could unite a warring people. I was proud that he chose to love me, when all the lasses chased him. But when he fell into the Wyrd Sister’s clutches, he told them to contact me. Do you know why he did that?”
Of course Malcolm knew, but he wasn’t about to say it.
Vían turned to him, her eyes filled with such bitterness and self-loathing it surprised even him. “He knew somehow, that I was weak and gullible enough to make such a stupid offer. That I would give my soul in his stead. That I loved him almost as much as he loved himself. And when it was done, he promised to find a way to liberate me…”
Unable to stand the sadness and pain radiating from her, Malcolm went to her, enfolding her in his arms and tucking her against his body. “He couldna find a way?” he asked.
She shook her head against him, a tear falling from her cheek to his bare chest. “He never even tried,” she whispered. “He married another lass, and forgot about me.”
Malcolm held her even tighter, cursing the man’s name. “If it makes ye feel better, the Gregors decimated the McManus, and took their lands.”
She gave a short laugh, and then a sniff. “It does help a bit,” she said fondly pressing herself closer to him. “Since I’ve been in the void, Malcolm, I’ve suffered every form of madness imaginable. I’ve prayed to every God and Goddess known, and they’ve all abandoned me to the darkness, just like Kenneth did. And so, you see, I made a vow that if I ever had the chance to escape the void, I would take it, no matter who became a casualty of the circumstance.”
In that moment, Malcolm not only understood her choices, he sympathized with them. His anger drained away, and he was left with a helpless sympathy that unsettled his very soul.
“But ye didna, lass,” he murmured. “Here I still am, in command of my people and my powers.”
She made a bitter sound, but didn’t pull away. “Like I said, I’m a fool. I promised myself that I would never again sacrifice my interest for a man or his cause.”
“I doona blame ye.” Malcolm stroked her hair, thinking that he ought to take the shackles from around her wrists. She didn’t deserve them. She’d been imprisoned enough.
Lifting her chin, she rose on her toes to press a kiss to his jaw, her lips seeking his own. Malcolm tilted his head down to cover her mouth with his. The kiss was soft and achingly sweet. Malcolm drew his lips over hers again and again, the tenderness passing between him blooming to life against his soul.
She pulled back, her lovely eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I lied,” she whispered. “I lied to myself.”
“How do you mean?” Malcolm brushed her hair away from the pale perfection of her cheek. She was such a beauty.
“Your cause is to save humanity from the Apocalypse. That is a cause worth giving my soul for.”
“Vían, no .” Malcolm panicked, clutching her to him with all his strength. “Doona do anything foolish.”
A tear slid down her cheek, but her features were serene. “And you, Malcolm de Moray, are a man worth the sacrifice, because it’s one you’d never ask me to make.”
He gasped her name, but in the next instant he was only clutching her thin, empty garment as the manacles that had once shackled her wrists clattered to the stones.
The inhuman sound that ripped from him shook the entire castle and brought his family storming into the dungeon.
“Malcolm!” Kenna gasped, her amber eyes wide with astonishment. “What’s happening?”
Malcolm turned to them slowly, shaking with the force of his rage and loss, trying to summon the cold wrath of which he knew himself capable.
“Arm yourselves,” he ordered his Druid family, and their Berserker mates in a dark voice he’d never heard before. “We’re going to war.”
Even Bael and Niall stepped out of Malcolm’s way as he stalked toward the stairs, aiming to make preparations for the battle to come. First, he was going to defeat the Wyrd Sisters and stave off the Apocalypse. Then, he was going to fetch his woman, even if he had to claw his way through the depths of hell to do so.