Page 11 of Farlan (Immortal Highlander Clan McKeran #3)
Chapter Four
R ory McKeran didn’t sleep anymore. He’d never had much need of rest throughout his long life, and could remain awake for weeks or even months with little effort.
It had been one of the rare benefits of the bloodline he’d always assumed had died out with his tribe.
Yet since Ava Travars had come from the outside world into the spell trap to hunt a killer of men, and he’d realized what she was, he’d been unable to rest. His lady màthair had always assured him that she had been the only one to escape her terrible kin, and that Rory had been her only child.
Once she and every other member of her tribe had died, he should have been the last of their kind.
Only Ava carried the same taint in her blood; one that drew them to each other.
What other lies had Chomha told him ?
Heavy, running footsteps thudded in the passage outside the forge, and Rory removed his leather apron before he went out to see what had gone amiss. Two clansmen dodged around him, and as he turned he stepped into the path of a third, stopping him.
“Brother.” Thanks to his mortal weakness, which made his voice a lethally destructive weapon, he kept his voice to a bare whisper. “What’s the matter?”
“Seneschal went down to check the entry to the spell trap,” the guard told him. “’Tis said ’twas a quake, and the walls collapsed, likely atop him.”
Stepping aside, Rory went back into the forge to retrieve some pry bars and shovels before heading down to the spot. By then Alec, the clan’s war master, was issuing orders for two men to fetch more, and eyed Rory with visible relief.
“You’re a welcome sight, Armorer.” Alec was one of the few McKeran who had inherited his màthair’s tall, slender form instead of the huge brawler’s body Keran had gifted to the rest of them.
Thanks to their sire he also possessed the strongest resemblance to Rory.
“Farlan’s caught under all that. Can you tell how he fares? ”
Rory knew what he was asking. No one ever objected to him using his magic to aid the clan, but it caused his brothers to give each other uneasy glances.
Because the McKeran were all half-mortal they could not wield Fae spells or objects of power, and he had never bothered to correct them about the type of magic he used.
Although he trusted the men he called brothers, his loyalty remained with a far older allegiance.
Never tell anyone about us, Chomha had instructed him. For they shall slay you the moment they learn that you’re of my bloodline.
Inspecting the pile of stone rubble, which stretched from floor to ceiling, Rory sensed a weak spot. He then reached out one hand toward the debris while closing the other over a spell stone in his pocket.
Images filled his mind, that of two bodies entwined. Hands moved over damp flesh slowly, stroking and caressing. Lips met and glided over a cheek, a neck, a shoulder.
“Seneschal’s alive,” Rory said in a rasping whisper, for his throat had gone dry.
Farlan’s life force had become very particularly entwined with a feminine counterpart, one he’d never before sensed.
They were pleasuring each other even now, after hours of the same.
The woman confounded Rory, for she was beautiful on the outside, but within seemed to be engulfed by pain and trapped within an endless fortress of her own making.
Then there was another force, a third that seemed to be watching them from the very stones of the castle—one he had already privately acknowledged.
“’Tis a female mortal with him,” he told the war master. “A newcomer from the outside world.”
Alec gave him a narrow look. “Did she cause the damage to the passage?”
“No, she couldnae,” Rory told him, keeping to himself the fact that she’d been too busy doing other things to the clan’s seneschal.
“Did the collapse injure her, then?” Alec asked him.
“No, she’s fine. They’re both well.” If he told the war master any more details the story would end up on everyone’s lips by the morning meal.
The lady would also be harshly judged, for over the centuries the clan’s mortal vassals had grown into a society governed by very strict rules, especially in regard to coupling.
“If we attempt to dig them out, the ceiling above them may collapse and begin a chain of the same. ’Tis best wait until dawn, when the enchantment restores the wall that fell. ”
That should also give Farlan and the woman more time alone, Rory thought, which they obviously needed.
“Two of you stand at the entrance to the passage,” Alec told a pair of guards. “No one shall pass until after the restoration.” He regarded Rory. “My thanks for coming so quickly, Armorer.”
He ducked his head before heading back to the forge with his tools.
Once there he barricaded himself inside and went to stand on a grate to dump a bucket of cold water over his head.
He then stripped out of his wet, filthy clothes and scrubbed the soot off his hide before using a second bucket to rinse away the soap.
Rarely did he bathe these days, but after encountering Farlan and the female in the throes of pleasure, he couldn’t bear the grime he wore as a disguise a moment longer.
Seeing through the pile of rubble to what the seneschal and the mortal woman had been doing made Rory’s entire body knot up.
Chomha had called the needy, aching torment desire, and warned him that someday like all men he would be brought to his knees by it.
That was why he had never taken a lover, nor planned to.
Unless Inga stops pining for the laird, and comes to me.
Like a starry-eyed lad, Rory had been mesmerized by the clan’s chatelaine since the first day she’d wandered into the spell trap.
Tall and slender, with hair like sunlight and eyes so blue they seemed carved from the purest crystal, Inga Holm commanded attention wherever she walked.
Her voice, soft and sweet, seemed more like a purr against his ears.
She moved with effortless poise, leaving in her wake the scent of new lilies.
For Rory, it had been love at first sight—a love he could never deny or claim, for his tainted blood made him entirely unsuitable for the lady.
He could love Inga, but only from a safe distance.
As soon as he dried off, Rory dressed in clean garments, and then tied the long leather gauntlet he wore over his forearm to cover the mark that warned all of the taint of his blood.
His brothers would never understand it, but once they saw his skinwork they’d want to learn what it meant.
How could he tell them that it named him as the darkest of his kind, and that he had fought against that legacy since his boyhood?
His stomach shriveled at the thought of food, but he had missed too many meals of late. He headed downstairs.
Rory knew the hour was still too early for cook and the kitchen staff to be at work, but he was well able to make his own meals.
He went first to the cold pantry, where he piled fruit and cheese in a basket before he entered the kitchen to take a leftover loaf of oatbread from the shelf where Doon kept them.
Finally he filled a jug with the herb brew the Cook left on the counter each night for him.
“Tell me what you truly saw when you looked through the rubble of the collapsed wall,” Alec said from behind him.
Rory had long ago vowed to himself that he would never use his magic on his half-brothers, but sometimes, like now, he wished he hadn’t. The clan’s war master would not be pleased by the truth.
“’Twas naught that should cause you worry,” he assured him as he turned around, and then winced as he took in Alec’s expression. “You read too much from my silence. Farlan and the female mortal like each other very much.”
“In what manner were they liking each other?” the war master demanded.
“The same as you and Olivia did before you both came down for the meal this morn.” He regretted joking about that when he saw fury blaze in Alec’s beautiful eyes. “I didnae spy on you and your lady wife, Brother. You simply smell of each other when you love.”
The war master sighed. “Aye, well. Tell me, why should the newcomer female bed down with Farlan so quickly?”
“I cannae tell you,” Rory said, although he had his own suspicions. “Leave them to it. In the morning, Seneschal may explain all to you.”
“Oh, he shall, that eejit.” Alec frowned. “Did you sense any enchantment at work? The female could have been sent into the trap to spy on us.”
“No, she’s simply a mortal who took the wrong turn.” Rory knew that when everyone else got a good look at the newcomer, chaos would likely break out among their vassals, but that was the laird’s problem, not his. “Do you ken what caused the collapse?”
“At present, everyone wants to believe a quake struck the stronghold,” the war master said. “Do you recall the ground ever once shaking since the curse was cast on us?”
“Never,” Rory said truthfully.
S omething woke up Grace, who opened her eyes to see the pile of rubble glittering with countless tiny white lights, as if a swarm of fireflies had settled on it.
The glow intensified as the collapsed debris fell upward, reassembling itself into a stone-walled passage.
It made no sound while it did, as if time had gone in reverse.
She wondered why she wasn’t screaming or panicking.
Perhaps it was due to the strong arm draped across her waist, and the warm scent of the man it belonged to.
He gave her a sense of being shielded and protected, even from the bizarre things happening right in front of her .
I’m safe with him.