Page 20 of Taken By the Vicious Highlander

“Can I please have a second to meself, Finley? I appreciate what ye are doin’, but I really need some space.”

“Protectin’ ye is me only task, Me Lady,” Finley replied with a shrug, his tone infuriatingly calm. “But I’ll stay a few more paces back if that’s all right?”

“Aye, wonderful. Thank ye,” Lilith muttered under her breath, her mind searching for any kind of respite.

Suddenly, the corridor walls felt like a cage, closing in on her, smothering her. The edges of her vision blurred as her fingers twisted in the folds of the gown she’d been forced to wear. It was far too fine, its silken bodice stiff and embroidered with delicate patterns. A proper lady’s gown—something she’d never felt comfortable in.

“Lass?” she heard his dark, all too familiar voice puncture the heated tension in the corridor.

She wanted to face him, but moving felt like such a painful task. The walls shook and started moving inward. Lilith frantically tried to catalog objects around her ground herself, but her vision was too blurry.

Then, a heady, delicious scent tickled her senses, and she knew he was right behind her.

“I’m here.” Damon’s voice was soft and hard all at once. A velvet-wrapped pistol aimed right at her. The heat from his body draped over her back like a heavy blanket.

I ken he’s here, that’s real. Focus, breathe,she repeated to herself as Damon’s presence plucked the anxiety from every bone in her body.

Her breathing slowed as she focused on his calm, even breaths, just inches from her ear.

“Are ye well, lass?” His warm, whiskey-soaked breath caressed her spine.

“Aye,” Lilith said calmly.

“Me Lady?”

But it wasn’t Damon’s voice that pierced through the thick tension, this voice was both foreign and familiar belonging to someone she knew but did not necessarily want.

Stunned by the suddenness of Damon’s absence, Lilith’s eyes shot open, all too aware of the strange seclusion she found herself in.

Was he here at all?

“I’m well, Finley. Just… thinking,” she said, an unanticipated frustration coating her lips before turning to face Finley.

He stood a few paces back, as promised, but confusion was written all over his face. “I try nae to do too much to that. Never ends well.”

“Aye,” she said, the man’s light-hearted comment not quite hitting it’s mark. “I’m goin’ riding,” Lilith added firmly.

Finley didn’t even blink. “In that?”

Lilith scowled. “I willnae let a bit of silk stop me, Finley.”

She threw her skirts behind her as she turned away from him. “Locked stables be damned,” she gritted out as she stormed out of the castle.

To his credit, Finley silently followed her as she made her way to the stables.

The stable hands looked at her in wary surprise as she strode past them, but no one dared question her. She saddled her horse herself, relishing the feel of the leather reins in her hands and the smell of hay and earth.

The moment she mounted her horse, she felt some of the tightness in her chest ease.

She clicked her tongue, urging her horse into a brisk canter, and Finley followed on his mount, silent as ever. She rode past the training yard, past the outer walls of the keep, into the wild stretch of land that had always called to her. The wind whipped at her hair, pulled loose strands free from their pins, and she welcomed it.

She didn’t stop until she reached the garden—her mother’s garden.

It lay tucked behind a thicket of trees, its entrance nearly swallowed by ivy and wild brambles. Most of those who passed would never know it was there, but Lilith did.

She dismounted her horse and stepped inside. “Maither,” she sighed as a warm relief blanketed her.

It had been left untouched by Magnus’s destruction because try as he might, he had never found it, and it was one thing that all of the clansmen had agreed not to divulge.