The Highlander's Haunted Kiss (7 page)

“Lily, get away from him.” Iain yanked her back, away from the old man in case he'd been cursed, too. In case the old man could take her away with him to the lands where Iain could not follow, the lands where the
Sidhe
had taken his sister.

Even now, the heat inside Iain grew stronger until he could almost feel the ball of light in his chest that the
Sidhe
had put there the day he'd been cursed.

Until all at once, a wailing cry shattered the remaining magic of the clearing into slivers of glass slicing the air.

“Hellfire,” Iain muttered as he shoved Lily back into the bower for whatever protection it offered. “Get down.”

“What's happening?” she shouted, eyes filled with fear as she looked around wildly for the source of the Otherworldly scream on the air.

“The
Sidhe
call to battle. They used Edward to break through to our world in mass numbers.” It had never happened before.

“Iain!” His brother's shout filled the clearing a second before Alexander burst into the fading patch of moonlight still hovering over the bower. “The
Sidhe
broke through the door—”

Even as he said it, the whistling hiss of an arrow passed his ear and narrowed all of his thoughts to one fierce goal. Protect Lily. She was all that mattered.

“Stay down!” he shouted, reaching for his sword.

Lily screamed as the footman fell, an arrow protruding from his back. Edward had been cruelly used and now lay dying.

Hell broke loose. Fae warriors appeared on every side, suddenly silent as death after all the wailing that came before. Tall and imposing, they were like human men, only faster, fleeter and deadlier. Fae warriors were rumored to be attractive, but Iain saw only his hated enemy.

A war cry rattled from his lungs as he rushed at them. Alexander engaged two at once. Iain hit at least two more as they moved toward him.

Yet he was not fast enough to keep them away from Lily. A
Sidhe
bastard hauled her to her feet, a blade at her neck.

“No!” Iain howled.

Regret crushed him like the weight of Invergale falling on him and burying him alive. He dropped his sword instantly, only too happy to die if it would keep her alive. Except that he couldn't die, curse those
Sidhe
bastards to hell and back.

“I love you, Iain!” Lily screamed at the top of her lungs.

The words rang in Iain's ears like a bell. They echoed again and again, a continuous peal. He heard them and felt them deep inside, like an arrow piercing his heart.

Horrified at what she'd done, declaring her love in front of everyone and surely cursing herself forever, Iain clutched at the pain in his chest. Only to realize the ache was more than just his love for Lily.

There truly was an arrow piercing his heart.

Time slowed to a crawl and the clearing shifted. The magic faded. The
Sidhe
faded. Had they called off the attack? Had Lily's words summoned some kind of power to halt them? Nothing made sense. Lily stumbled toward him, her beautiful face covered in tears. For him.

“Lily.” He wasn't sure if he spoke the word aloud or just thought it. His senses weren't working, everything becoming dull and dark.

Vaguely he was aware of his brother nearby. Lurking, pacing and barking out curses that swirled through his fogged head, making little sense in his fading consciousness.

Above Iain, Lily knelt, her tears hitting his cheek as she crouched over him. Her golden-brown hair spilled over her shoulders, skimming against him in phantom brushes of silk.

“I love you,” she said again. “Doesn't that help? Doesn't that change anything?” Her voice lifted in fear. Anger. “I swear it is the truth.”

She looked to Alexander, as if his brother might have answers.

But in Iain's heart, he already knew all that mattered.

Iain lifted a leaden hand and stroked her cheek. “The curse the
Sidhe
put upon me is broken. You are my one true love, and in speaking it aloud, you have saved me from the endless wandering.” He swallowed hard. “To have known your love, if only for a short time, is the best of blessings. Other men would envy me.”

His own brothers would envy him. Iain knew a moment's regret for Alexander and Magnus who would continue on, searching for their sister. Never experiencing the blessing of selfless love like Lily's.

“It cannot be true!” She laid her head upon his chest, her hair close enough that he could smell the fragrant cinnamon and exotic spices that seemed to cling to her. “I cannot have found you only to lose you this way.”

Above her, fireflies blinked in the darkness.

“Alexander.” Iain called his brother while he stroked Lily's silken hair. When his brother's face appeared above him, he licked his dry lips. “She has not taken my place in the curse, has she? She is not cursed now?”

Alexander would be able to tell. He had that kind of gift that Iain and Magnus did not.

“Nay. She does not have that light within her that we all do.”

Relief coursed through him and his grip tightened on Lily's shoulder just beneath her soft hair.

“And mine is gone, too?” Iain didn't have to ask. He could feel the stab of the arrow that would have only slowed him down in the past.

Alexander's eyes went to Iain's chest. Then, his brother frowned.

“What is it?” Iain asked.

Lily lifted her head, her tear-stained cheeks hurting Iain more than any wound.

“Holy hell.” Alexander yanked the arrow out with both hands, igniting a white-hot pain that radiated through Iain's whole body.

“Oh, praise God,” Lily whispered. “Is his wound… What is happening?”

Iain couldn't hear anymore. The pain rattled him to his teeth and a white light took him so fast he wanted to pound his fist and curse the Fates. This was not how it was supposed to happen.

Chapter Six

Lily's eyes were gritty after six hours straight of staring at Iain's near-lifeless body. Every second weighed upon her heart and soul as she watched his chest rise and fall, as she feared each breath could be his last on earth, her last moment to be with the one true love of her life.

How could she have found such joy, with a man she wanted to claim for all time, only to lose him in an instant? Although every ounce of her being howled in pain, she refused to cry again. She would not allow even one more tear to blur whatever time she had left with him.

It was almost dawn back in her bedchamber at Invergale. Alexander had carried Iain to the chamber through the passage that led to her room.

When Iain shifted ever so slightly upon the bed linens, Lily's heart halted. She'd lived in fear for hours. What if this was the end?

“Iain?” She tried not to allow a tremor into her voice.

He moved again. Slightly. Just a shift of his leg on the tick. Still, that small movement stirred hope inside her.

“I'm here,” she assured him, squeezing his hand.

He opened his green eyes and focused on her, his gaze surprisingly clear.

“I'm alive,” Iain croaked through dry lips.

Lily nearly fainted from relief. She sank to his bedside and ran her hands over his bare shoulders where they emerged from the bed linens. Hope made her weak and strong all at once.

“I barely dare believe it.” She hugged him so carefully. Actually, she just hugged half of him, wanting to avoid the wound in his chest. “Alexander said you might live when he pulled the arrow out. That the curse broke but in a different way than he thought. Instead of me turning immortal when I said I loved you, it ended up turning you mortal. So you could have died of your wounds except that—and this is the crazy part—he thinks the
Sidhe
might have let you live so that you could know what true love is.”

“That makes no sense.” Iain shifted to try sitting, but he could not move easily.

“Alexander thinks your sister's kidnapper loves her, and that the fae who hold her believe your clan will forgive them if you understand the powerful nature of those feelings.” She'd only half understood what Iain's brother had been telling her while she'd sat vigil, she'd been so consumed with fears for Iain's life. She'd prayed Alexander could be right, but there had been no guarantee. Now, as she saw the life in his eyes that matched the miraculously speedy recovery of his wound that even now looked two days into healing rather than fresh, she allowed herself to embrace the truth.

He would live. They could love.

And still, she worried. Had Iain confessed his love for her yet? What if Alexander was wrong about the curse being broken and Iain was still in danger of dying if he did not return her feelings?

“I'll never understand what they did,” Iain argued, wincing as his hand ran over the raw mark on his chest.

“Be careful,” Lily chided. “You are not invincible any longer.” Although she sensed there would always be something magical about this man, at least to her.

“Yet the wound is healing?” Iain asked.

“I don't understand any of it, but yes, you do appear to be healing and at a blessedly remarkable rate,” she admitted. “Alexander said Magnus would be back at nightfall to check on you, and that they must increase their watch now that you were mortal and could not help them.”

Her warrior love covered his face with his hands. Did he regret what she'd done to save him? Would he miss the brotherhood he'd known for a century?

“We will still see them, I think,” Lily told him what she remembered of her conversation with his sibling. “They said you can still guard the door from within the keep. And maybe we could have a normal life. Or even babies now that you are no longer cursed. That is…” She shook her head. “This is so awkward, and I do not even have the excuse of being in an enchanted forest for blurting out my every thought.”

“Lily.” Iain's hands fell away from his face and he shook his head in disbelief. The wonder and happiness in his eyes was unmistakable. “I love you and I am free to love you. Free to make you my wife and father children with you. Free to tell your father to go to hell and back for ever making you sad. It is such a blessing, I can't take it all in.”

Lily took one look at the vulnerable emotions in his green eyes and she fell in love with him—the mortal man—even more than the immortal warrior.

“Is that a proposal, Iain Darroch?” She almost could not comprehend it. “I don't know why I find it difficult to believe that I could have a suitor after all the other things I've seen since I arrived at Invergale, but there you have it. Can you say it again, please?”

His grin stole her breath as the color returned to his face, almost as if he grew healthier and stronger before her very eyes.

“Will you marry me, Lillian Rothmore? And that's who you are to me, because I don't begin to acknowledge that last husband who was not worthy of a strong, beautiful, bold lass like you.” He smoothed her hair from her face and kissed her lips. Gently. Sweetly. “Marry me and make me the happiest mortal man in this world or any of the others that lurk just outside our door.”

Her answer came as swiftly as her love for him, but sure and steady. For real life was far more magical than anything on the other side of that fae doorway. “I will marry you, Iain. And for as long as either of us live, I will love you with every fiber of my soul.”

This time when he kissed her, it was less gentle and less sweet. But with more of that oh-so-delicious real-world passion that shimmered through her with a powerful magic all of its own. With an enchantment sure to last the entire span of their lifetime. Together.

While working on her master's degree in English literature,
Joanne Rock
took a break to write a romance novel and quickly realized a good book requires as much time as a master's program itself. She became obsessed with writing the best romance possible, and sixty-some novels later, she hopes readers have enjoyed all the “almost there” attempts. Today, Joanne is a frequent workshop speaker and writing instructor at regional and national writer conferences. She credits much of her success to the generosity of her fellow writers, who are always willing to share insights on the process. More important, she credits her readers with their kind notes and warm encouragement over the years for her joy in the writing journey.

ISBN-13: 9781460332337

THE HIGHLANDER'S HAUNTED KISS

Copyright © 2014 by Joanne Rock

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