Chapter 38
In my opinion, the men overreacted to the entire situation. Brachan had lunged, but I’d never felt frightened. I believe he would’ve been able to stop himself. And it only took a moment after they pulled him away for him to gain composure of himself once again.
Compared to Brachan, I was frantic. As they dragged him up the stairs, I ran after them, pulling on the arms of any of the men I could reach, trying to get their attention as I begged them not to hurt him.
It was Nicol who’d finally been able to calm me by reaching out to grip my shoulder with his hand.
“I canna kill him, lass. I willna let them harm him. I doona know what we shall do, but I canna end his life.”
Assured that Brachan was at least free from physical harm, I decided that the most useful thing I could do was to spend the day in the library and look through books to see if I could stumble across some way to help him.
But I found nothing, and at some point in the day, I fell asleep with my head in a book.
“Lass, ye had me scared to death. I looked all over the castle for ye.” Maddock lifted me from my hunched position and gathered me in his arms like a child. He looked weary and sad.
“I’m sorry.” I yawned as my eyes opened. “I fell asleep. I was looking for something that might help.”
“Did ye find anything?”
“No.” I lay my head into his chest as I struggled to remember my dream. It felt important that I not let it slip away.
“Where are ye, lass? Ye appear verra far away.”
“I’m trying to remember something. I was dreaming about the book I read back home. About…I think it was about Calder.” I could see bits of the text flash before my eyes as Maddock carried me up the stairs. I tried to recall what it said. “Oh my God!”
I tapped his shoulder so he would set me down.
“Maddock, I know what it was.”
He lowered me, his expression curious. “What was it, lass?’
“Calder fell in love with a fae, yes? And that fae was turned into a human. Perhaps we can find a way to make Brachan fully human—to remove the fae from him.”
“Ye do remember what happened to the lass Calder fell in love with, aye? She couldna bear her humanness once she had it. She threw herself from a cliff.”
“Yes, but Brachan isn’t fully fae. Even Machara admitted that he has more of Nicol than her within him. He would be able to survive it because he already thinks of himself as human.”
He stepped away and crossed his arms skeptically. “He may be more human than fae, but he still has magic, lass. If ’twas stripped from him, ’twould be a terrible loss.”
“I think it’s a price he would be willing to pay to be free of Machara.”
Maddock shrugged. “Mayhap so, but even if ’twas possible, Machara would never do it.”
I had an idea. One I knew Maddock would hate. “Maybe we don’t need Machara.”
“I know of no other fae, lass.”
I smiled and Maddock’s expression immediately grew concerned. “I do. Machara’s father. He hates Machara. Perhaps we could get him to remove the fae from Brachan.”
“Lass, how do ye expect us to find him?”
“Machara will tell us. You already told me yourself. She thinks she’s unbeatable. She won’t mind telling me because she doesn’t think it will matter.”
Maddock took my hand and began to walk in the direction of Nicol’s bedchamber. “I suppose there will be no talking ye out of this, aye lass?”
I shook my head and smiled. “None.”
“Then we shall do it together.”