Chapter Sixteen #2
Frustrated beyond belief, Evie growled and threw up her hands again. “How do you keep up with all these stupid rules that favor them and punish us?”
“I have had several hundred years of trying to dodge them and survive.”
Teeth clenched so tightly her jaws ached, Evie stopped her pacing and eyed Drummond.
“Then help me get him to the future. To a hospital. At least they can keep him from getting dehydrated.” Before Morganna could argue, she threw up her hands to silence her.
“Once he’s well, we’ll bring him back, and he and I’ll settle down and get on with our lives.
I know I forfeited my timeline when I accepted the fated mate bond, but I’m not trying to go back to stay.
I’m just going back to give him a fighting chance. ”
“Ye canna return to the twenty-first century as long as ye are bound to Drummond. The curse will not allow it, and nothing I can say or do will change that. The only way ye could travel back is with the severing oath, and severing yer bond—the bond that’s currently holding him to this life—could verra well end him. ”
Evie returned to Drummond, lowered herself into the chair beside him, then leaned forward and buried her head in her arms, propping them on the edge of the bed.
There had to be a way to save him. He could not die because she’d been so stupid, so wishy-washy, so freaking cowardly. “He has to live, Morganna. He has to.”
“Pray that the Seven will have an attack of conscience.”
With her head still buried in her arms, Evie blew out a derisive huff. She’d heard enough platitudes to last a lifetime. Empty words didn’t bring Drummond back to her. “Why don’t you go find Jadrack? He’s worried about Epsily, since the attacks here have been so vicious.”
“I understand.” The bedroom door creaked, but Evie could somehow still feel Morganna’s presence. “Call out if ye need me, lass,” Morganna said softly. “I will always hear ye because I’ve come to think of ye as a sister.”
Evie closed her eyes tighter and swallowed the desperate sob trying to escape. That wasn’t a platitude. She lifted her head and managed a quivering smile. “Thank you, Morganna. I consider you a sister too.”
Morganna nodded, then quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.
Evie turned back to Drummond and gently removed the damp cloth she’d placed on his forehead. Settling down on the edge of the bed beside him, she combed her fingers through his hair and traced the powerfully chiseled angles of his handsome face.
“Your beard’s coming in, and I think I like it,” she whispered, then rested her head on his chest, just beneath his chin, and hugged him tightly. “I’m so sorry, Drummond. So very sorry.”
Tired of fighting the tears, she let them fall as she lifted her head and tenderly ran a fingertip across the fullness of his bottom lip.
“I think I have loved you since the first moment I saw you, but I was too afraid and too cynical to admit it. I’ll never forgive myself for what I’ve done to you. ”
He didn’t respond, just lay there strong and silent—a living, breathing effigy.
She framed his face with her hands and gave him a lingering kiss, pouring every ounce of love and yearning into it.
Then, with her tears still streaming, she barely lifted her head but kept her lips touching his.
“I love you, Drummond MacMuirrow,” she whispered.
“My husband. My heart. My soul. I love you more than you will ever comprehend.” She kissed him again, willing him to feel how much she loved him.
He shuddered beneath her, making her hold him tighter against what surely had to be a seizure. Then he jerked harder, sucking in great, deep breaths.
Please don’t let this be the end. She clutched him in desperation, closing her eyes and willing him to live. “No. You cannot leave me.”
“Evie?” he said in a raw, husky croak.
She eased upright, afraid she’d only imagined hearing him speak. “You’re awake,” she whispered, locked in place out of fear that she was hallucinating. “Are you really awake, or am I dreaming?”
“Evie.” His smile was faint, and a happy weariness crinkled the corners of his dark eyes. “My love. Ye stayed.”
“Of course I stayed.” She leaned closer until they were nearly nose to nose. “I love you with everything in me, and I can’t imagine life without you. I don’t care what century I’m in. As long as I’m with you, I’m home.”
With trembling fingers, he barely touched her cheek, gently swiping his fingertips through the trail of tears. “Dinna cry, my own. I love ye with a fury and always will.”
“The bond is true and fast now,” said a voice that rang out like the tolling of a thousand celestial bells.
A fearsome power glowing with the blinding brightness of the sun—a gleaming, coppery orb of swirling fire—hovered just inside the window.
“I was thinking ye would never discover that all ye needed was the magic of true love’s kiss.
Never forget yer fairytales, my children.
They tell ye everything ye need to know. ”
Evie dove across the room, grabbed the iron fire poker, then charged back to Drummond and stood between him and whatever or whoever this was. She brandished the metal rod like a mighty sword, determined to beat them back or die trying. “Get away from him. You’re not going to hurt him again.”
The orb laughed, releasing a cloud of bright red and orange butterflies into the room. “Silly child. That wee stick might shoo the Fae, but I am the mighty Danu.”
Danu? Evie kept the iron raised just in case, while racking her brain for everything Morganna had told her. “Danu. Mother goddess. Right?”
The orb glowed brighter. “Aye, my child.”
“Well, let me tell you,” Evie said, fed up with gods, goddesses, and fairies.
“For a mother goddess, you’re not very motherly.
You curse people who are only guilty of loving each other.
You nearly killed my husband when all he’s done is try to protect me.
You pop in here, smirking, probably disappointed that he finally woke up.
You’re not a mother. You’re a tyrant. An abusive force—not a mother goddess who is supposed to be benevolent. ”
“Evie,” Drummond rasped, catching hold of her skirts and weakly tugging her back. “Ye must not—”
Still keeping her attention locked on the swirling ball of fire, she shook a finger at him, then gently swatted at his hand.
“Shh! I’m mad as hell about what they did to you and the way they’re playing this curse game with the odds stacked in their favor.
If they want to call themselves gods and goddesses, then they need to act like it and play fair. ”
A cloud of blue and silvery-white butterflies fluttered into the room, and the orb once again swelled in size.
“Ye have fire, daughter,” Danu said, “and I understand yer rage. When we fear losing those we love, we are not always rational.” Then a chilling breeze blew into the room.
“But ye must try to understand there are reasons for what the gods and I do. The curse was necessary, and those of Craig Durness have yet to learn the humility we require of them.” The butterflies disappeared, evaporating like smoke.
“But I agree that the Fae went too far this time. Sadly, that is what that race does. If they wish to attack, they should limit those attacks to Craig Durness—not focus their anger on the mortals manipulated by the cursed ones. I assure ye, I will make my displeasure known to them.”
Evie started to argue that Morganna and Callum hadn’t manipulated her, but that wasn’t exactly true.
They had manipulated her in every sense of the word.
But if they hadn’t, she never would’ve met Drummond.
“What is wrong with those of Craig Durness being brave enough to love who they love? That curse is unjust. Why would you want to stop love? Isn’t a world full of love better than a world filled with hate? ”
The orb swelled, then reduced in size as though inhaling and exhaling with a heavy sigh.
“It is a complicated matter, my child, and I am but one part of that complication. But live in peace and love now, and know the attacks and tests are over. The two of ye have proven yer bond is strong and sure. Ye have won the right to be left alone.”