Page 36 of The Highlander’s Enchanted Healer (Spellbound Hearts #2)

I was numb from the icy water. I welcomed it, though.

Some time ago, the coldness had begun to slow my thoughts, like attempting to tromp through thick muck, and that had lessened the jagged edge of the fear that had twisted through me like a thorny vine when the water had begun to creep higher and higher on my body.

Then, when night descended, the war horns joined the sloshing sound of the waves.

I kenned a battle was raging. I’d felt the vibrations in the air as war horses rode hard toward my home, and I kenned there wasn’t a white flag to stop the onslaught.

And even in the cave, the scent of smoke filled the air.

The water crested my chin, and devil take it, my fear returned.

I clenched my teeth and tried to slow the sudden racing of my heart.

I did not want to die afraid, nor imagine my clansmen and women dying afraid, but I would die, as many of them likely would.

My prayer now was that Ramsey, Leon, and Francine would die, too.

The water rose to just under my nose. I sucked in the largest breath I could, knowing it would be my last. I turned my thoughts to Ross and the moments he’d shown his true character.

In the great hall helping with the heavily laden trencher, showing he didn’t think himself above anyone.

In the healing room when he stayed with me to nurse Tomas, showing his care for all his people.

With his sister, where his love shone so bright.

The water edged over my nose, and my fear stole the memories, so I clung to the one I could see in my mind’s eye.

His face over me when we joined as one—full of love, full of tenderness, full of happiness.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the water covered my head, and a strange peace overpowered the fear.

Aye, I would die, but I had known love, if only for the briefest moment.

It had burned bright and true, and was so fulfilling for the time I’d experienced it that I would rather have had those brief moments with him than a lifetime with someone else.

My heart slowed. My lungs screamed. The image of Ross faded, and then Morgana was there in my mind, smiling, nodding, silvery long hair flowing around her face. “’Tis nae yer day to die,” she said.

“Nay?” I asked, fascinated that though I was underwater, I could suddenly speak and breathe.

Mayhap I was already dead. Someone tugged at my hands and my wrists, but I couldn’t see them.

Everything was black, save for the witch who had cursed me, though she’d had every right.

“I wish I’d nae ever wanted to read minds,” I said.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry we stole from ye.”

“That’s all ye needed to say, Elena,” Morgana whispered as she touched her fingertips to my eyelids, and then she was gone.

Breaking the surface was a shock. I gulped in air as I coughed. Someone gripped me from behind, and when I tilted my head back to see, the darkness of the cave was all-consuming, but then lips came near my ear, touching the lobe. “I have ye, Elena. I love ye. I love ye.”

Ross’s deep voice spread warmth through the icy coldness of my body.

“Ross.” His name was a sigh of relief from my lips before I was being lifted onto higher rocky ground.

As I scooted backward, Ross came up to the ledge, water sloshing as he did.

He gathered me in his arms, and I turned toward him, guided by instinct in the blackness.

His lips came to mine, hard and desperate and full of his love for me.

I returned his kiss, my hands clinging to his strong arms as our lips clashed in a desperate need to ensure the other was alive.

My heart hammered as he drew back, and when his hand came to my face, I pressed my cheek into his large palm. “Gordon is dead,” he said. “Yer stepmama is dead, too.”

I nodded. “There’s another man. His name is Leon. It turns out he is Ramsey’s father and one of the conspirators.”

“We will see to it when the tide goes down and we exit the cave.”

His fingers traced my collarbone now, making me shiver from desire and not the cold. “How did ye ken where I was?” I asked, desire unfurling in my belly.

Ross kissed my forehead, the tip of my nose, and my lips once more. “Gordon told me as he lay dying.”

I did not want to feel sadness for Ramsey, but it was there, filling my eyes with tears and tightening my throat. Ross cupped my chin. “’Tis all right, mo chridhe. Ye thought him good and true. Ye believed in him. I should nae have been so harsh. Feel what ye need to feel.”

“Yer heart.” I smiled into his warmth, reveling in the hard beat of his heart against my ear. “Ye called me yer heart. A Gordon.”

“I hope,” he said, pressing a kiss to my neck and lower to the top of each of my breasts, “that ye will soon be a Campbell. Be my wife and rule beside me.”

“Truly?” I gasped. “Ye will trust me? After everything?”

“Aye, lass. With my life. Ye were true to yer word and nearly gave yer life for mine and Allan’s. If ye do nae believe me, read my thoughts.”

He took my hands and placed them on either side of his face. “I do nae want to read yer thoughts,” I replied, tugging my hands away, but he held them there.

“Just this once,” he insisted. “I want ye to hear the truth of how I feel.”

I stilled and smiled when all I heard was silence. I knew it was not because he had his walls up; he didn’t. It was Morgana.

“My powers are gone,” I said softly. “Morgana, the witch we stole the goblet from, came to me in a vision right before you rescued me.”

“By the gods,” he said. “That had to be the glowing light that led me to ye. I would nae have found ye on time, except there was a strange glowing light in the water that illuminated ye.”

I looked to the dark water and sensed he did the same, and when I gave a little shiver, he wrapped me tighter in his arms. “We will be here until daybreak when the tide recedes,” I said.

“’Tis fine by me. I trust Allan, Thor, and Roger to keep control until we can return.”

“So we have the night stuck in this cave?”

“Aye,” he replied, and then there was a flash of white in the dark that showed me he was smiling. “What would ye like to do?”

“I’d like to love ye,” I said, kissing his lips and then his chest and then lower between his hard thighs.

He chuckled as the stroked my back with his fingertips. “Ye are going to make a wicked wife.”

“Most certainly, mo chridhe ,” I whispered back, pressing myself against him as the cave held us in its shadowed embrace.