CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HE WILL ONLY HANG IF HE CHOOSES TO DIE.
Having dressed, Brie stepped outside of the tent.
It was snowing heavily now and the day was thick and gray.
Why would Aidan choose to die? He had fought his way back to her as the Wolf.
Clearly, he had been determined to live.
McNeil’s words were not helpful and they felt distinctly ominous, as if some new event would make him lose his will to live.
Brie had a terrible inkling and she prayed she was wrong.
But MacNeil had confirmed what she already believed.
She was there to save Aidan, whether he wanted her there or not.
She saw that the remaining Highlanders had departed from the camp, along with all their equipment and pack animals.
Only one other tent was left on the plain other than Aidan’s.
A fire roared before it in spite of the snow, and Brie saw Will tending it, red-faced and looking miserable.
She hurried over to him, wishing for gloves and a hat.
“Our master’s gone,” Will told her. “But I’m to attend yer every need.”
Brie nodded, worried to death about Aidan now. Allie stepped out of the adjacent tent, followed by Tabby and Claire, who hung back as Brie’s cousin and best friend rushed to her. Allie hugged Brie, and then Tabby took her hand. “Are you all right?” Tabby asked in a low voice.
Obviously they knew what she’d been doing last night. “I’m fine,” she said, but it felt like an utter lie and she blushed. Unlike Allie, she was pretty modest when it came to the subject of sex. Tabby was almost as reticent.
Allie slid her arm around her. Her eyes sparked with excitement. “Brie, you spent the night with Aidan and he didn’t take power from you! Do you know what this means?”
Brie shook her head to stop Allie’s enthusiasm.
She knew what Allie was thinking. “Allie, don’t.
He’s not at all happy today. And I’m hurt, because foolishly, in spite of how smart I am, I really thought he cared about me.
But we’re not friends, and last night will never happen again.
He made that really clear.” Brie hoped they wouldn’t guess how brutally she was hurt.
“He has to care,” Allie cried. “Why else bother with you at all? He saved you, protected you, healed you and made love to you.” She grinned. “Did I tell you…or what?”
Brie did not want to think about how stunning sex with a superpowered Highlander was.
“It just happened and it was meaningless, at least for him. I’m afraid I was the only one who was making love.
But it’s okay. I can handle it. I still love him and I have to try to save him.
” She simply had to refocus. “I mean, I am here to redeem him, not to be his soul mate forever.”
“You don’t know that,” Allie said, impossibly upbeat as always.
“I haven’t been optimistic about Aidan, and I can’t forgive him for the children at Elgin, but I am almost inclined to agree with Allie.” Tabby squeezed her hand. “Last night certainly seems like a monumental turning point. Maybe Aidan can be saved, after all, by you, Brie.”
“That’s the plan,” Brie said, hoping to sound flip.
Tabby didn’t release her hand. “I hate seeing you so hurt! I’ll tell you a secret. With Guy, there was so much heartache and pain before there was true love.”
Brie shook her head. “Don’t, Tabby. Don’t give me hope. Not now, not today.”
“These medieval machos can be total jerks,” Allie said. “Royce can still be a royal pain! Aidan is on your hook, Brie, and he’s squirming, that’s all. He is fighting you tooth and nail, but we all know no one can fight Fate.”
The one thing Brie was sure of was that she was not Aidan’s Fate. “Speaking of Fate, Aidan has gone to hunt Moray. I am sick with worry for him. I have to ask you both for a huge favor. Please, send Royce and Guy after him to help him. He can’t face Moray alone again.”
“No problem,” Allie said cheerfully. “However, Aidan has gone to Awe. I know, because Royce lurked. He hunts from the tower there.”
“We have to go to Awe,” Brie said instantly.
Allie took her hand. “Honey, we’ve been waiting for you.”
“Tabby has to come with us, though.” Brie looked at her.
“What is it?” her cousin asked softly.
“I was hoping,” Brie said, “that you’d help us find Ian and speak with him.”
Tabby began to smile. “Yes, Brie, we can have a séance.”
“WHERE ARE WE?” SAM ASKED in a hushed whisper.
She was in awe as she stared through the swiftly falling snow at the sparkling lake, which was surrounded by the forested Highland mountains.
In the distance, a castle seemed to emerge from its gleaming waters.
Sam lifted binoculars and saw that she was right.
Clad in camouflage, a skullcap and army boots, she was too overcome by where she was to even notice the cold.
Nick was staring at the small LCD screen of the Geographic Locater Device he carried in his palm.
The size of a Blackberry, it would tell them exactly where they were.
He was dressed exactly as she was, right up to the skullcap and camouflage vest, and they both carried backpacks filled with survival gear and weapons.
The rifle he had slung over his arm was loaded with tranquilizing darts, not bullets.
His nose red, he grinned, looking up. “That, kiddo, is Castle Awe.”
Sam glanced again through the binoculars. The red castle that seemed to float upon the shimmering silver lake and the falling snow made her feel as though she was looking into a picturesque glass ball. But that castle was real, and they were in the Highlands.
HCU had a huge case file on the Wolf of Awe.
She’d had no idea that the Historical Crimes Unit of CDA was as advanced and efficient as it was.
It had been gathering data on good and evil for over two centuries, thank God.
No, thank Nick Forrester, who had been running HCU for as long as anyone could remember.
The Wolf had abducted Brie, and without that file, rescuing her would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
“What year did we land in?” she asked cautiously.
“That I don’t know. It ain’t 2008,” Nick said, sounding damned pleased.
But on the bridge that spanned the lake, from castle to shore, Sam saw a band of horses and riders.
She and Nick had been walking toward the loch for about an hour, and there hadn’t been a single road or telephone pole, nor the sound of a car or an overhead airplane.
Sam handed Nick the binoculars. “Riders,” she said.
“It’s hard to tell even with the bi’s, but I think they’re carrying frigging swords. ”
Nick grinned and lifted the glasses. Sam knew her boss was enjoying himself.
He wasn’t as bad as she’d first thought.
He was certainly fearless, if bossy. She was a control freak herself, so as long as he understood that when push came to shove, she’d make her own decisions, they’d get along just fine.
Three days had passed since Brie’s abduction.
In spite of her having been recruited, hired and trained almost overnight, Nick hadn’t explained how he time-traveled. He really didn’t have to.
Nick Forrester wasn’t what he appeared to be. He was just as different from everybody else as the Rose women were.
Sam didn’t mind. The more the merrier. She’d take anything she could get to help destroy the evil that preyed on them all.
He clasped her shoulder, his blue gaze brilliant. “Let’s go. There’s only one way to find out if we nailed the trip.”
Sam nodded. The case file on the Wolf of Awe ended in the fall of 1502. All the sightings of him after the millennium had been traced to years prior to that date. According to the file, he’d been hanged for treason. History confirmed it.
But that made no sense, because he could vanish into the past or the future anytime he chose to. Unless, of course, someone or something had managed to destroy his powers, which seemed to be the case.
Nick had wanted to leap back to 1502, but he hadn’t explained why.
Logic dictated that the Wolf of Awe could have come from any year after 1436—the year he’d first destroyed Innocence.
Her boss was keeping secrets. It was annoying, but she was beginning to trust him.
For some reason, he had a clue—or a sixth sense—that told him Aidan had taken Brie to that year.
They began trekking along the shore. In a few hours, as long as the snow didn’t get worse, they would be at Castle Awe.
IT ALMOST FELT LIKE COMING HOME, Brie thought, as she followed everyone inside Awe’s great hall.
Both huge hearths contained blazing fires, and Brie started removing her wet plaid, thrilled to be back at Awe.
The great room hadn’t changed. It was huge and sparsely furnished, but it felt welcoming, anyway.
Servants were covering the trestle table with platters of hot food.
She couldn’t recall the last time she’d really eaten.
But two men who were dressed like Englishmen were at the table, speaking with Malcolm, Guy and Royce. Everyone was so serious that Brie knew the men had brought trouble.
Malcolm looked across the great room at Claire.
Brie turned. “What do they want?”
Claire hesitated. “They have a summons for Aidan, but Aidan has left orders that he is not to be disturbed.”
Brie saw the Englishmen arguing with Malcolm, and then the two men crossed the hall, passing her as they left. Uneasily, she said, “What kind of summons, Claire?” But she already knew.
“He’s been summoned to Urquhart.”
Urquhart was where Aidan had been hanged. “By Frasier?” Brie asked, her stomach churning.
“It’s a royal summons,” Claire said, grimacing. “But the king is at Stirling, and someone like Frasier will be there to receive Aidan.”
Brie trembled. “He’s not going,” she said firmly. She would not let him go.