Page 21

–Broderick–

“SIT DOWN, SON,”

my father finally snapped after I nearly wore a path in the carpet in the war chamber.

“Ruining a good bear skin rug willnae bring Apsen back anytime soon.”

“Then what will bring her back?”

I ground out, so restless I couldn’t sit still if I wanted to.

“Because as far as I can tell, nothing and no one can except our king, and he seems disinclined to at the moment for the sake of peace betwixt us and the Sutherlands.”

“Time will tell what will bring her back,”

my mother said, her tone gentle as she set a pitcher of ale and some mugs on a small table for those present, including my parents and Lucas, the only ones I trusted to see me in this state.

“Sit, son,”

she coaxed.

“The more ye stress, the less open to yer mate ye’ll be if she tries to reach out to ye. Of that, I have no doubt.”

“Will she be reaching out to me, then?”

I frowned and shook my head.

“How, when I lost contact with her when she set foot on Sutherland land?”

“’Tis hard to know, but stranger things have happened when it comes to that Viking sword, have they not?”

She shot me a knowing look and gestured at the seat behind my desk as she poured me an ale.

“And something tells me if ye’ve any hope of connecting with her, yer inner beast might like that spot best.”

I sighed, trying to push thoughts of Aspen in that very spot from my mind, lest it drive me to distraction, but my mother was right. My inner beast simmered down as if it felt closer to her when I sat.

“Has there been any word from Kenneth yet?”

I wondered, curious why he hadn’t at least communicated telepathically when he had caught up with everyone and had Aspen in sight.

Unless, of course, he had run into trouble.

“There has been no word that I’m aware of,”

Lucas said, just as troubled as he gazed out at the countryside.

“It seems strange, does it not?”

“Not necessarily.”

My father shook his head.

“Not if...”

He said more, but I could not hear him when the low-hanging sun cut through the window at such an angle it appeared the shape of the Viking sword sliced across my desk before, a blink later, I felt Aspen’s inner beast.

“I feel her,”

I whispered, never so grateful for anything. “She’s...”

I shook my head and swallowed hard, trying to understand what I felt.

“She’s grateful to be out of the chamber she was just in and stunned by something...or someone.”

“Who?”

my mother coaxed, moving in such a way the blade made of sunlight on my desk elongated until it seemed to spear me, and just like that, I was in two places at once.

I saw through Aspen’s eyes yet sat with my kin simultaneously.

This time, I could hear those speaking from both locations.

“Who is that?”

Aspen gasped, refraining from saying what she was thinking because she didn’t know how much she could trust Dugal’s wife, Lilias, though she sensed she could a great deal.

“Och.”

I shook my head at her thoughts.

“Aspen believes she’s looking at a younger version of her father.”

A chill raced up my spine, and I frowned at my parents.

“How could that be?”

Having never been inside Sutherland Castle, I couldn’t speak to their tapestries or what, better yet, who hung on their walls.

My parents had no chance to answer before I was pulled back to the conversation between Aspen and Lilias.

“’Tis the only portrait left of my father,”

Lilias said softly, emotion in her voice.

“I am often shocked that my mother-by-marriage didnae burn it with the rest of his belongings when he left, for she loathed him greatly.”

She hesitated before continuing.

“Why do ye ask, Aspen? Do ye know of him, for yer skin has gone quite pale?”

“No,”

Aspen said, yet when she glanced Lilias’s way, I sensed a mutual look between the women that it was best not to say anything here where the walls more likely than not have ears.

I shared with the others what was happening as the women resumed their journey downstairs without saying another word.

“It seems the Viking blade is giving me access to Aspen. Access, she doesnae seem to sense yet.”

I frowned at my mother.

“’Tis odd, aye, my dragon can sense hers, but her inner beast cannae sense mine?”

“’Tis great magic at work that ye must trust,”

she counseled.

“The Viking blade has connected ye for a reason.”

I gave her a thankful look for the foresight of giving Aspen her satchel to carry it in.

“A blade she’s managed to keep on her all this time thanks to ye,”

“Mayhap I provided the satchel.”

She shook her head.

“But the blade, such as it was when it found her, was of its own design.”

I had no chance to inquire about that further before I was back alongside Aspen’s inner beast again, seeing through her eyes as she exited the castle, and I was astounded by the path before her.

“I have been here,”

I exclaimed, seeing her ahead of me now in a flowing white gown that appeared red when cast in the dying sun alongside thick red autumn foliage.

“’Tis her as she was then...”

“What is she doing?”

Lucas prompted when I struggled to speak.

“Running away from him and coming back to me,”

I managed, battling with my emotions as the vision I’d had moments before Aspen arrived at my castle flashed in my mind, and I saw myself flying after her on horseback and then scooping her up.

“We were racing toward each other no matter what it cost us.”

I no sooner said it before the memory snapped shut, and I saw through her eyes again as she traveled down the path toward a towering aspen that appeared aglow in the setting sun.

“The verra tree she was named for,”

I murmured, sure of it.

“And ‘tis still there,”

my mother said softly.

“As if it waited all this time for her.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant until Flame shot out ahead and sniffed around the base of the tree before abruptly sitting beside it rather than continuing after what he’d been looking for. Instead, a single harmless flame rolled over him, sizzled over the ground beside him, then wisped away at a particular spot on the trunk, hinting that whatever he had found wasn't meant for him but someone else.

“How intriguing,”

Lilias murmured, not sounding all that shocked as Aspen headed that way, making me wonder just how much Dugal's wife knew. If that portrait had been Aspen’s father, and he somehow traveled to the future, that meant they were half-sisters. Just because he was dragon didn’t mean all his daughters would have been.

“Oh my God,”

Aspen whispered, crouching at the location Flame had pointed out.

“That’s it!”

“Och,”

I exclaimed when I saw what she was looking at.

“’Tis her spiral carved in the wood at the base of the tree.”

Shaking my head, I looked from Lucas to my parents, dumbfounded.

“The verra same one I carved into my bed years ago, and that brought her to my doorstep now.”

I narrowed my eyes as Aspen peered closer, spying something before brushing away the leaves. A wave of intense emotion rolled over me when I read the simple words carved beneath it.

For our Yesteryear.

“My love,”

she whispered, her vision blurring with tears. She pulled out the Viking Sword Turned Rustic Knife that undoubtedly mimicked a blade stolen from the Sutherland kitchens and held its tip to the words. There could be no question it was the same blade she had carved those words with in another life.

“She carved this whenever she found a few moments alone because she missed me so much,”

I said, knowing everyone followed me now, thanks to the blade and our connection.

“When we were but wee bairns, she began calling our time together our yesteryear. A whimsical place made up first of our friendship and then our eventual love. A nickname of sorts that only we understood.”

“And the symbol?”

my mother wondered.

“She drew it in my palm before she went to the Sutherlands in that life, having decided it was best for our clan if it meant lending strength to our people and keeping the peace,”

I said softly, fighting another wave of emotion because I could almost feel her tracing the pattern on my skin as her luminous eyes met mine. Could almost hear her voice as she said.

“Whatever happens, this symbol will always keep me strong and lead me back to ye and our Yesteryear. To the memories we made together.”

I felt a tear roll down Aspen’s cheek as she remembered that moment as vividly as I did. As she felt the immense love we had shared and tried our hardest to give up, but in the end, there was no hope for it. Fate had brought us back together, and she felt it as profoundly as I did, the tear rolling over her chin until it landed on the blade and connected us once more despite the distance and enemy territory.

“Broderick?”

she said tentatively into my mind, her dragon brushing against mine.

“Aye,”

I replied, never so happy and relieved to feel our connection again. One I knew was protected by the Viking blade this time.

“I’m here and love ye as fiercely now as I did then. No matter what happens, I’m right here, lass, by yer side, whether there in person or not.”

“Thank you,”

she whispered telepathically, her relief overwhelming. She was about to say more, but Lilias spoke first, letting her know they should return to the castle and prepare for dinner.

Like Aspen, I sensed Dugal’s wife knew far more than she let on but kept quiet for fear of being overheard, either aloud or telepathically. One thing seemed apparent, though.

She was on our side.

“Yet I would tread carefully,”

my father warned, shaking his head when I caught a good look at the portrait of Aspen's father as she and Lilias headed back to her chamber. Better still, my father saw it and narrowed his eyes.

“I’m surprised that still hangs in Sutherland Castle because ‘tis none other than Malcolm Sutherland. He should have been laird instead of Dugal’s father.”

He shook his head.

“’Twas said he was driven out by his wee daughter’s magic, which is saying something, given he was a truly powerful dragon.”

“Driven out by Lilias?”

I exclaimed, trying to make sense of that. If anything, she was known as a timid lass who cowered to her husband and Elspet, her mother-by-marriage.

“And where did such a mighty dragon go?”

“Nobody knows,”

my mother said, referring to Aspen and her sisters in the twenty-first century, all supposedly sired by the same man.

“But it seems mayhap we’re beginning to get a better idea.”

As it happened, the plot only thickened from there when my attention was drawn back to Aspen and what she learned as the night wore on.

Astounding things that would truly test all my noble intentions.