CHAPTER 26
“What do you mean by that?” Chloe clutched her elbows and shivered.
She’d thought it already, but now she wasn’t so sure. How would they even invoke the blood magic? Was there a ritual? Was it simply slice the palm, squeeze the stone, and hope for the best?
Judging by what had happened to her when she had a vision, she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that here in this dank place.
She wasn’t even sure what happened to Evie when she had a vision.
Did she have the same reaction? Did she faint from the sheer exhaustion of seeing the different scenarios of the present?
Evie told her about helping Callum during the fight with Rory, but she never elaborated on how she felt in the aftermath.
And then, when Evie sliced open her palm, nothing happened right away. She shuddered to think what would happen should they try again with two pieces put together. What power would that give them both? And what would that power do to each of them and Evie’s unborn child?
“We put the stones together and then slice our—”
“No,” Chloe said sharply. She clenched her jaw until it ached.
Torchlight flickered over her sister’s face as she looked at her, the orange and reddish light playing across her confused features.
“But—”
“No, Eve.”
“Why not?”
“You don’t know what that power will do to you. To me.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said with a wave of her hand as if to dismiss the thought.
“You don’t know that. You can’t know that.”
Evie's eyes sparkled with purpose as she gazed at her in the torchlight. “I have to believe I will. We will. I have to believe the Triple Goddess would not give us this power if it harmed us.”
Chloe huffed out a breath, exasperated. “How are we going to slice open our hands anyway?”
She looked around their baren cell. There was a chamber pot in one corner and a three-legged stool in another.
“I’ll find a jagged stone or something.” She ran her hands over the stone walls, looking for a loose stone with a sharp edge.
At the thought of slicing open her hand with a random jagged rock, a wave of disgust went through her followed by a surge of stubbornness. “I don’t want to do that.”
She paused her search and turned to face her. “It may be our only way out of here.”
“We will wait for the guys,” Chloe said, her voice determined and hard.
“But what if they don’t come?”
“Seriously? Do you believe they won’t?” Chloe looked at her as though she may have lost her mind.
“Well, no, but what if—”
“Stop with the what ifs, Eve. If they don’t come, then we decide our next steps.” Clutching her elbows, she paced the short length of the cell. “Besides, I have faith in Malcolm and Callum. They’ll come for us.”
Evie was silent as she watched her pace back and forth. She chewed on her lower lip. “Fine. We’ll do it your way and wait. But I’m still going to look for something to use.”
Her sister went back to her desperate, intense search for some tool to enact the blood magic residing within them in conjunction with the keystone.
A hard flash of resolve glinted in her eyes.
Her hands shook, but there was a fierce determination burning within her.
Chloe understood then—it was Evie’s deep-rooted desire to protect them both at any cost, driven by their unbreakable bond forged through their hardened years of sacrifices and struggles.
She admired that about her sister. She had always been the one to take care of things while Chloe was busy studying into the long hours of the night, paving the way toward her future. A future, she realized, that didn’t include Evie.
Guilt swamped her.
“Eve?” Chloe said, her voice timid in the shadowy darkness, echoing through the cavernous room.
She halted her search and turned to look at her. “Yeah?”
“We’re going to be okay, you know. We’re going to get out of this. You should rest before you wear yourself out.” Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Think of the baby.”
Air whooshed out of her lungs as her shoulders slumped in defeat. Her chin quivered as though she were about to break. Chloe rushed to her, wrapping her arms around her, hugging her tightly.
“You know I’m a sympathy crier, sis,” she said against her hair.
Evie giggled, which was nothing more than a cover for the emotion shuddering through her slender frame. Chloe hugged her harder, squeezed her, then pulled back.
“You’ve always been the strong one,” Chloe said. “You’ve always been the one to take care of us, even after Brianna left. And here you are, pregnant and looking for a way out.”
She gave her a weak smile, tears pooling in her deep brown eyes. “It’s what I do, you know. Take care of you. It’s what I’ve always done.”
“Well, now you have to take care of yourself. Have faith. They’ll come for us. And they’ll make him pay.”
Evie wrapped her arm around her waist and clung to her.
They walked to one side of the cell—the side farthest away from the chamber pot and the three-legged stool.
Together, they lowered down to the ground, resting against the cold stone wall, clinging to each other. They were each other’s salvation.
Chloe forced herself to tamp down the rising tide of worry, but her mind kept slipping into a shadowed spiral. She remained silent, swallowing the words before they surfaced. Bruce would return. She knew this as sure as the silence grew thick. She didn’t need Evie sharing in her dread.
Resolve settled over her. It was her turn to take charge and find a way out of this for the both of them. She turned her hand over with the scarred palm facing upward. The imprint of the stone was still there. The scar from the slice had turned from pink to a muted silver.
Maybe her sister was onto something with this blood magic thing. But, then again, maybe there was another way out of this.
As they clung to each other, Chloe shoved aside the worry, the overwhelming trepidation, and focused. She was a historian, after all. She needed to use that knowledge to work for her, not against her.
As they huddled in the shadowy darkness, Chloe vowed to find a way to beat Bruce at his own game. And she was going to do it alone.
***
“He’ll have them locked in the dungeon,” Callum said.
He leaned on the great hall table staring down at the crudely drawn map of the MacDonald keep. It would take days to ride there to rescue them and both he and Malcolm knew that. Impatience vibrated off his eldest brother.
“I dinnae ken the layout of the MacDonald keep.”
And that frustrated him, too. Malcolm stood next to him, peering down at the drawing, wondering how they would be able to get the women back without assistance. They were a small band of warriors.
“We need help,” Malcolm said.
Jamie sat in a chair opposite them, his arm stitched and freshly bandaged. Roslyn ushered Dougal out of the great hall to tend to his wounds elsewhere. But Jamie remained to help plan their next move.
“Och, and what will ye have us do, then, brother?” Jamie asked. “Who will help us?”
“The Sinclairs,” he suggested.
“They’ve helped us enough,” Callum said. “We cannae ask them again or they’ll think us weak.”
“Then what?” Malcolm asked. “What can we do? Storm the castle ourselves?”
Jamie snickered. He knew Malcolm’s suggestion was flippant. But Callum straightened, folding his thick forearms over his chest and eyeing his brother.
“Aye, laddie. That’s what we’ll do.”
“Are ye out of yer mind?” Malcolm snapped. “It was nothing but a jest.”
“But ’tis something MacDonald willna expect, aye?” Callum said.
“Ye might be onto something there, brother,” Jamie added, sounding intrigued.
“Ye both are mad.” Malcolm said and huffed. “How can the three of us invade the MacDonald keep?”
“We will go to their stronghold. Jamie, take our fastest horse and ride out to observe their guard rotation. Look for unguarded exits, a breech in the wall, sewer grates, anything that can aid us in getting inside the keep undetected,” Callum said.
A wide grin spread on his face. “Aye, brother, I can do that.”
“Good. Then, the two of us will ride out to meet ye. Our meeting point will be in the nearby village at the inn.”
“And what are the two of us going to be doing while Jamie is gathering this information? I dinnae like the idea of the lassies in the hands of MacDonald for so long.”
“I dinnae either, but we dinnae have much of a choice. We will sharpen our swords and gather provisions. Enough for us and the lassies for our return trip. They’ll need horses, too.”
“Chloe cannae ride,” Malcolm interjected, thinking of his past experience with her.
“Och, then one horse for Evie. Chloe can ride with ye. Once we meet up with ye, Jamie, ye’ll give us whatever ye found. Ye have the gift of stealth, so I will be counting on ye to gather as much information as ye can,” Callum said.
Jamie nodded.
“Once we ken what we’re up against,” Callum continued, “I will create a diversion to draw the guards away. Malcolm, I want ye to be the one to take out any who spot us right away.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “And while ye are distracting the guards and I’m killing them, what is Jamie doing?”
“I’ll be finding the dungeon and rescuing the bonnie lassies,” he said with a grin.
Malcolm glanced from his younger brother to his older one. “Did ye tell him this before?”
Callum shook his head. “No, but sending in wee Jamie is the last thing MacDonald will expect. So, aye, he’ll go in after them.”
“And what if something goes wrong?” Malcolm wanted to know.
He wasn’t sure he liked this plan but it was the only one they had. If it worked, Evie and Chloe would be safe in Jamie’s hands.
“Did ye forget the lassies still have control of their pieces of the keystone?” Callum asked.
“I did no forget such a thing,” Malcolm replied.
“If anything goes wrong…” Callum paused, took a deep breath, and pinpointed Jamie with his glittering blue eyes. “I want ye to tell them to use the power of the stones.”
Malcolm stared at him for a long moment.
Jamie seemed unconcerned about the power of the stones, but he had seen what it did to Chloe with his own eyes.
It drained her to the point of unconsciousness more than once.
What would happen, then, if she and Evie were to use the power of the stones together? It could bloody well kill her.
“Och, brother, ye are mad. Ye dinnae ken what yer asking.”
“I do.” Callum turned his gaze to him and locked eyes. “I saw what it did to Chloe. I ken what it does to my own wife when she uses the power of the stone.”
“What does it do?” Jamie asked, genuinely interested.
He hadn’t been around any of the times Chloe had used the power of the past. When Evie had saved them at the previous battle with MacDonald, they were at a distance and unable to see what had happened to her. All Malcolm knew was what Callum had told him.
“It drains their energy,” Malcolm said. “Are ye sure that’s safe for—”
“It might be the only way,” Callum said, cutting him off.
His gaze bored into him and in that one look Malcolm saw the fear and the worry gnawing at him. It was a risk, he knew, as did Callum. A risk he was willing to take if it meant life or death. But the question was, would Evie comply with his request?
“It would be better if we had Angus Sinclair with us,” Malcolm said, trying one last time to get his brother to agree.
But Callum shook his head. “No. We cannae ask him. The three of us do this alone.” He looked at Jamie and asked, “Do ye agree?”
“Aye, I do,” Jamie said, sounding strong and sure.
Callum glanced his way, then. Malcolm clenched his jaw so tight his back teeth ached. Finally, he nodded, though it was against his better judgment.
“Aye, I agree.”
“We havena any time to spare. Can ye ride out tonight, Jamie?”
Jamie was already on his feet striding to the great hall door, as if he hadn’t survived a battle of his own with Welsh mercenaries. That was Jamie. He was resilient and strong.
“I will ready my horse and be gone within the hour.”
As Malcolm watched him walk away, a sense of dread washed over him. He hoped this was the right plan just as he hoped, for Rory MacDonald’s sake, the lassies were alive and unharmed when they found them.