Shades of Doon (35 page)
“Hmm . . . the heir or the spare? An age-old question, really. Does one gravitate toward the mercurial, brooding brother, or the cheery, loyal one? Both so incredibly appealing.” She reached out and stroked each of their cheeks. Jamie blinked and stared past Addie’s shoulder, his eyes never leaving mine. I swallowed, hard.
“You seem to be quite fond of your friend’s boy toy,” Addie’s voice slithered through the silence. “But I’ve always believed in startin’ from a position o’ strength.”
She turned back to me and clasped her hands in front of her chest, her face lighting like a rich kid on Christmas morning. “The crown prince it is!”
“No,” I whispered, tears pooling in my eyes. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t sacrifice Jamie.
“You can stop it, ye know.” Addie tipped her head to the side, her face transforming in an imitation of compassion. “Just hand me the throne, swear your fealty to me, and everyone in this room lives.”
“I won’t.” I shook my head, unsure if I was denying her or my traitorous heart.
“All right, then. To prove my great benevolence, I’ll grant you the same reprieve as the rest o’ Doon. Ye shall have a
nice overnight stay in the dungeon to think it over. And, if ye promise to behave, I will give ye a moment to say your good-byes.”
I bobbed my head in agreement, and then Addie turned back to Jamie. “I trust you will convince her to do the right thing.” She swept her palm through the air, releasing him from her spell.
Jamie strained against the guards as they escorted him to the middle of the stage. Addie nodded. “Ye may release him. They aren’t goin’ anywhere.”
Sean let me go and I ran to meet Jamie, but when I tried to throw my arms around him, he held my shoulders, keeping me at arm’s length. His velvet gaze caressed my face, his words soft, but strong. “Ye have to let me go. Your Calling is greater — ”
“No.” I hated the desperation in my voice, but I couldn’t stop it. “I can’t. I won’t!” Forgetting my earlier resolve, I lowered my voice, my next words only for him. “Together, nothing can stop us. If I give her what she wants, we live to fight another day.”
Jamie pulled me closer. Our faces inches apart, I met his eyes and the tears there almost broke me. “Verranica, one of us
will
live to fight another day, and that must be you.” He pressed his lips against my forehead. “The Protector will be with you.”
Grief and fear welled, choking off my protests. He’d already given up.
“Wrong answer, James.” Addie stepped between us and got in Jamie’s face. “Let’s see your mighty Protector stop me from hanging you until your beautiful eyes bulge out of your skull.”
Jamie moved back, drawing her away from me as he spoke. “Adelaide, I have no need to defend myself, or our Protector. If he
who I serve is willin’ to deliver me from your hand, let him do so. But if not, know this.” Jamie crossed his arms and spread his feet, his eyes blazing. “I will
never
serve you, or bow down to you.”
“Seize him!” Jamie didn’t fight when guards swarmed and yanked him to his knees. Addie’s face flamed as red as her dress. “You dare to mock me, when you are in chains at my feet?” She flicked her wrist, her words becoming reality as heavy shackles appeared on Jamie’s wrists and ankles. “We shall see how brash you are swinging at the end of a rope!”
Jamie lifted his head, his tone edged with steel. “’Tis no’ arrogance. ’Tis faith. If ye knew the difference, your need for vengeance would no’ consume you.”
“Be silent!” Magic flew from Addie’s palm.
I stared in amazement at Jamie’s frozen form, defiant even in repose. I’d been wrong; he hadn’t given up. He just knew where to place his trust, and it was time I did the same.
Addie whipped around. “What will it be, queenie? Your prince’s head or the throne?”
The witch thought she’d forced me into a corner. Given me an impossible choice. But I would not choose between Jamie and Doon.
Balling my fists at my sides, I stared her down. “I was Called here by the Protector to serve this kingdom. The throne is not mine to give.”
Addie’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “What rubbish! You stole the crown from your
soulmate
in order to save his miserable life. Which, given the circumstances, I find hilariously ironic.”
“You would, since you have no concept of love,” I spat.
Her gaze focused behind me, and Sean yanked my arms behind my back. “Perhaps a night o’ solitary confinement will dampen some of that nauseating self-righteousness.”
Addie flung up her arm. “Guards! Take them to the dungeons.”
There was a scuffle as Kenna fought. “I am not going back to that disgusting place!”
“On second thought, take them to the lower dungeon.” A slow smile slid across Addie’s lips. “And throw the wee queen in the hole.”
T
he regular dungeon, the one I’d become intimately acquainted with — twice — was homey compared with the dank cell in the lower dungeon. The tiny rectangular cubicle had no lights and no furniture, unless you counted the mound of moldy hay in one corner . . . which I definitely didn’t. Below ground level, the walls oozed liquid that putrefied along much of the floor. The claustrophobic space made it impossible to pace, perhaps all the better since the ground was mostly slick and nasty. And the stomach-revolting smell . . . I couldn’t even go there.
Fiona and I huddled together, peering through the bars at the single flickering torch next to the heavy door at the close end of the corridor. The only way in or out of the lower dungeon was through that door. The other direction was a dead end leading into sheer blackness and what Addie had called “the hole.” If I thought my accommodations were icky, I couldn’t even fathom what Vee was facing in that pit in the ground.
“How long do you think we’ve been in here?”
Blood had dried in a long welt on the side of Fiona’s face. “Impossible to reckon. Hours.”
“Do you think it’s close to morning?”
“I canna tell. Askin’ me will no’ change that.” She shoved a limp strawberry-blonde curl behind her ear. “Sorry. I dinna mean to snap. I’m afearin’ for my husband, and the others.”
“I’m sure they’re okay.” For now.
Commotion reverberated down the hall from the lighted end of the corridor. A moment later, a mass of shadows filled the dungeon entrance. My mind started to go down a bleak path — one where we were about to be herded into the courtyard to witness the execution of the crown prince of Doon. Fiona squeezed my hand as the shadows began to move in our direction.
“Fiona!”
The projected whisper caused my companion to visibly perk. “’Tis Fergus. He’s here.” She pressed her face into the rectangle of bars. “Here, Fergus!”
The big man, followed by torch-wielding shadows, raced down the passageway to his bride. “We’ll get you out. Stand back.” As he spoke, he inserted a key into the lock and popped the mechanism. A moment later the door swung inward.
Fergus stood in the entrance as Fiona launched herself into his arms. “Fergus, I was so scared for ye.”
“Shhhh, wife. I’m sound and I’m here now.”
Behind Fergus’s hulking form, I recognized the other shadows as Analisa, Giancarlo, and the Rosetti twins. All of them had blossoming bruises and cuts decorating their faces. “What happened to you guys?”
Ana lifted her chin. “Emily’s cronies got the jump on us. Locked us up on the floor above.”
Giancarlo draped an arm over Ana’s shoulder. “Lucky for us, Ana doesna go anyplace without her tools.”
Patting the end of a leather folio tucked into the bodice of her gown, Ana grinned. “What kind of thief would I be if I didn’t come prepared?” She handed a key to one of the Rosetti twins. “Get the rest of our lads out.”
As the twins scampered off, I stared at the girl I’d been ready to burn at the stake just hours before. “I’m sorry, Ana. I thought you were — ”
“I know what you thought, Mackenna. I may personally not cotton to the idea of pledging my life to the monarchy, but I am the crown’s friend and ally. Especially when our kingdom is under siege. So let’s skip the awkward apologies and get about taking our home back. Now, where’s Veronica?”
“She’s in the hole at the far end of the hall.”
I turned toward the darkened end of the corridor just as Duncan stepped into view. Before my brain could command my feet to move, I was sprinting into his arms. He crushed me against him with my face buried in his neck. His unique, familiar scent of leather and sunshine banished away the darkness. I opened my mouth to speak, and the words I’d intended came out as a strangled sob.
Duncan smoothed his hand down my matted hair. “It’s all right, woman. I’ve got ye.”
Over his shoulder I heard Giancarlo swear. “None of the keys fit this door,
amore
.”
“I can pick it,” Analisa replied without a hint of self-doubt. “Step back, you lot, and let me work.”
Still wrapped around my prince, I let Duncan move us slightly off to the side. Gently, he pulled away until we were face-to-face. His grave eyes drank me in as if he were about to go off to war. With a trembling hand he caressed my check with his rough knuckles.
“Did I ever tell ye about the time that Jamie convinced me
I could fly?” I shook my head and he continued in a somber voice. “When I was a wee lad, my brother and I used ta climb trees. Jamie always climbed faster and higher. So one time, I got it inta my wee head that I would out-climb him.
“Like a monkey, I shimmied my way to the top of a bonnie tree and called for Jamie to join me. When my brother was about halfway up, he stopped. Suddenly, he ordered me to come down. But I wasna in a mood to follow so I refused. A moment later I felt a pinch like the prick of a needle on my leg, followed by another one. You see, Jamie had noticed that I was crouched over a wasp’s nest. Well, I started to panic until Jamie called out to me. ‘Duncan,’ said he, ‘I wasna going to tell ye this until you were older, but you’re special. You can fly. If you let go of the branch ye willna fall but float like a cloud.’ ”
I couldn’t help but wonder about his point. Was he trying to occupy my mind while Ana worked on picking the lock? Impatient to get to my best friend, I bounced on the balls of my feet and prompted, “What happened?”
“Well, it never occurred to me that Jamie wouldna tell me the truth. So when the next wasp stung my hand, I let go of the branch and stepped off.”
“And did you float to safety?”
“Heavens no. I dropped like a stone.” Despite the tone of his story, Duncan had a strange smile on his face. “Jamie, who’d anticipated this, lunged from his perch in an attempt ta catch me on my way down. But I was fallin’ too fast. I knocked m’ brother from the branch and we both crashed ta the ground. Jamie broke his arm, and I suffered a cracked collarbone.”
Duncan caressed my face again. “But if he hadn’t acted, I would’ve died. Those wasps would’ve swarmed and I wouldna have lived to tell the tale.”
Something in my chest deflated as his story solidified in my brain. “You’re going after Jamie, aren’t you?”
“Aye.” His dark eyes pleaded with me to understand. “My brother would walk through the fires o’ hell for me.”
Duncan’s sweet demeanor turned fierce and uncompromising, like the ruthless warrior I knew lurked deep in his soul. “As would I for him. I will save him. But if I should pay the ultimate price, I need ta know that ye will be all right.”
What was he asking me? To escape to Chicago and go about my life like none of this ever happened? Peering into his unwavering eyes confirmed that was exactly what he was asking of me. “No. Just, no!”
“Be reasonable, Mackenna — ”
Whatever else he’d been about to say was cut off by Analisa. “Got it.”
The door swung open, but Duncan didn’t move. He continued to silently plead with me to bless his suicide mission. Well, Hawaii would freeze over before I’d do that. Pulling out of his grasp, I forced my way past him. “Let’s go rescue Vee.”
N
o . . . get away!”
Icy needles sunk into my skin, jerking me out of one nightmare and into another. I kicked out blindly and my foot connected with something squirmy as rocks and mud shifted beneath me. Freezing liquid pooled around my feet, and I scrambled back, trying to regain my tenuous purchase on the steep slope.
When they’d thrown me in, I’d landed in a waist-high pool of reeking muck, which I’d fallen back into more times than I could count. During one unfortunate foray into the slimy mire, I’d grabbed onto something that felt suspiciously like a human skull. But I couldn’t be sure in the impenetrable darkness.
Digging my heels in, I found a relatively dry spot and hugged my knees, trying to calm the shaking. I’d lost all sense of time, unable to gauge if minutes or hours had passed, but despite the bone-numbing cold, I wasn’t in a hurry to get out — because that would mean they were taking me to watch Jamie die.
I laid my forehead against my knees, but the damp, muddy
fabric against my skin was no comfort. I clenched my teeth against a wave of hopelessness and lifted my face. “Please, if you’re out there, save us. Don’t make me choose.” I prayed the words over and over until my fervent pleas dwindled into repetitive chants, vacillating between begging for Jamie’s life and asking for the strength to deny the witch. Rationally, I knew one thing precipitated the other, but my heart wouldn’t hear logic.
An indeterminate time later, a screech sounded from above. I raised a hand against the harsh light piercing my eyes. This was it.
“Vee, are you down there?”
My heart lurched at the familiar voice and I blinked into the blinding glow. “Kenna?”
“We’re lowering a ladder.”
Afraid to trust my deprived senses, my voice broke as I asked, “Is that really you?”
There was a scraping sound and then a splash.
“Who do you think it is, silly? Idina Menzel?”
Tears sprung to my eyes. It was really her. As my vision adjusted, I noticed the light wasn’t just coming from above. White rays glowed from my hand, the power of our rings connecting.