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Chapter Twenty-Four – Freya

Colin’s eyes bore into mine as he lifted the heavy breastplate to adjust the position and insisted, “Ye will stand far enough from yer da that his sword can nae reach ye.” With a determined hand, he tugged on the straps of the armor he had specially fashioned for me. I met his gaze, sensing the weight of my own doubt mirrored back.

“’Tis heavy,” I protested, feeling my shoulders slump beneath the cumbersome shield that bore down like the weight of our fate itself.

“Thor says it will stop an arrow,” Colin assured, conviction firm in his voice as he adjusted the fit yet again. “And if ye are shot at in the chest or back, this will save yer life,” he added, tapping a nail on the surface of the plate with an urgency that heightened my fear and my resolve. I let my gaze drift toward the window in our bedchamber, where the thick, ghostly mist was rising outside, lending an eerie veil to the land, precisely as I had foreseen it would appear after ten days. Just as I had predicted, the king’s advisor had arrived this morning, and it was only a matter of time before my da, always relentless in his pursuits, would come as well.

Beyond the bridge, deep in the shrouded woods, Connor had been attending to the positions of nearly a hundred men all morning long, readying them with both attack and defense. I had never in my life felt more cherished, never felt more loved. Colin had devised an entire plan around ensuring my survival. I did not wish for death, but if I were to meet it on this day, I knew I would do so having received the love I had longed for.

Though I had been betrayed and discarded without thought, used for gain and abused by wicked men, I had persevered. I had been made stronger through all my trials. I knew choices bore consequences, and I had endured more than I had thought possible, living through the ones my choices had brought upon me. I had to believe I would somehow endure this one too.

Colin fastened the last strap and lifted my chin with his hand, bringing my eyes to meet his again. “Ye’re ready for what comes,” he said, and his words carried a weight beyond the battle itself. His steady gaze was both love and plea, an unspoken insistence that I believe in him, believe in us, and believe in the strength we had found in each other.

I took a breath deep enough to carry all of my hopes. “Ye dinnae have to worry. I’ll stay out of reach,” I vowed, with a resolve that was as much for my reassurance as it was for his.

He hugged me fiercely, a brief embrace that held a lifetime of promises. “Let us go then,” he said, releasing me and holding up my cloak that I was to wear to hide the breastplate.

For a moment, I stood still, wanting to etch every detail of him into memory. The intensity of his gaze, the stark resolution in his every movement, the way his presence seemed to fill even the spaces where fear dared to creep in.

“I love ye,” I said, each word a piece of my heart left with him, unwilling to face the uncertainty of what was to come without first making that truth known.

Colin nodded. “And I, ye. Now we have to go.” His command was gentle but firm, and I knew it was his strength he was lending me as he spoke it.

I nodded, my mind awash with every moment that had led me to this one, each memory a thread in the tapestry of our lives, each thread binding me to the belief that I would live through this to build a long, beautiful life with him.

“The mist is almost fully risen,” Colin said, bringing my attention back to him and the cloak.

I presented my back to him, he settled my cloak on my shoulders, then turned me to face him. He gave me a long, desperate kiss, before breaking contact and silently taking my hand to lead me out of our bedchamber and into the darkening sky. The servants and many of the wives of the warriors stationed in the woods were gathered in the courtyard. They each held a burning torch. “What are the torches for?” I asked Katherine as we paused at the gate to the outer courtyard where she stood with one as well.

“To light yer way back to us, Freya. Ye are part of our family.”

My chest felt as though it would burst, filling me with a strange and wondrous sensation that at once surprised and consumed me. We had met as sworn foes, each of us intent on the other’s ruin, but now we stood entwined in something far more enduring and rare. Against all odds, an unbreakable connection had blossomed and flourished between us, nourished by kindness, by time, by the courage to see beyond our differences. It was a bond of our own making, crafted through the moments we had shared, the trust we had built, all of it more resilient than the ones formed by kinship alone. Family was not only a matter of lineage; it was a deliberate act, a choice, a thread woven through shared experiences and tended with care.

I marveled at how we had transformed into part of each other, and how the space between us, once filled with animosity, now overflowed with warmth. As I stood there, contemplating what we had so astonishingly become, the silence of the morning shattered in an instant, split by the ceaseless barrage of pounding hooves. The earth beneath me trembled with growing insistence, sending vibrations through the thin soles of my slippers and into the marrow of my bones.

I gave Katherine a hug, and then Colin led me through the outer courtyard and down the bridge. When we got to the end, the squeak of it being raised cut through the tense silence that had grown. Colin turned to me and cupped my face. “I will be just there to the right with a bow aimed at yer da. I willnae let ye die,” he vowed.

I knew he would try. I had made choices that set my fate in motion, and Colin’s too. Now, I would make a new fate for us, I hoped. Morgana had said I would not have visions that could change my future, but she had either been wrong or had been lying to me, so that I would come to see the truth on my own. Each choice I had made, each vision I had, had changed my life.

I felt certain the point had been that I had been the decider of my fate all along. If I had understood this, I would not have made the reckless decision to steal the goblet, and would have instead, refused to wed, or run away. But I had made the choice I had, because I had wanted to change the course of my life while still getting exactly what I’d envisioned for my life. I rose on my tiptoes and kissed him. When I lowered myself, I patted his chest and said, “Go now.” Those were the only words I could get out. My breath seemed to have solidified in my throat, and it felt as if a hand had closed around my heart to squeeze it.

Colin slipped into the cover of the woods. And as I stood there watching my da approach, I thought about how Colin’s choices had also affected our fate. He had chosen to take me, but then he’d chosen to treat me with care, not as his enemy. He’d offered kindness when all other men I’d known had offered cruelty. He’d offered freedom when all my other husbands had offered control. He’d given desire when the others had gifted me fear.

Da rode with scores of men behind him. Enough, I knew, to take Eilean Donnan but not enough to oppose the king. As he brought his destrier to a halt in front of me and dismounted, I prayed Da would make a choice that would bring him a peaceful fate. I could not choose for him. His consequences would not be my fault. He had his men halt a dozen steps behind him, and then he closed the distance between us. “Freya? What’s this?”

He did not reach to hug me, or exclaim how glad he was to see me, or even inquire if I was alright. I cast my mind back trying to remember the last time my da had shown me true care. It had been ages ago around the time Mama had died. At first, I had been too young and mourning the loss of my mama, but as I had grown older, I had chosen not to see the change, his withdrawing, his allowing his obsession with having power to consume him. I understood now, it had been too painful to face. But turning a blind eye to painful things was no way to live. I would be much more aware in my life from this day forward for myself, for my sister, for Colin, and the children we would have. “Why are ye out here?”

“I slipped out when I heard ye approaching. Nae anyone noticed because they are preparing to war with ye. I want to come home with ye after ye kill Colin.” Saying the words made my stomach turn.

Da nodded. “Of course, lass. I already have an alliance set in motion for ye.”

I didn’t even feel disappointment that he intended to use me again. I had expected it. He had never intended to offer me protection. I knew this now. I shook my head. “Nay. I will nae wed again unless ye speak the truth to me. When Bran was captured, he tried to gain mercy by admitting he broke the alliance.” It was a partial lie, but I felt no guilt. “Bran confessed to me that it was he who attacked Dunscaith, and that ye kenned it and covered it up.”

A tiny flinch was the only reaction Da had to what I said. “Who else heard this?” Da asked.

“Only me,” I quickly supplied. “I am yer loyal daughter. I have wed as ye asked. Give me the truth, so I can truly aid ye in gaining all the power ye desire. So I can aid ye in how to take this castle, keep it, and control the channel.”

“Yer visions are that clear?”

“Aye,” I replied. “How do ye think I knew it was ye that approached?”

“Bran attacked without my consent,” Da said, his tone low, but not so low that Colin and the king’s advisor would not hear. “I dinnae have a choice but to claim otherwise. I cannae lose Eilean Donnan and have to bow and simper to MacDonald the rest of my life.”

I inhaled a long slow breath. “Colin wanted peace. He entered the alliance in good faith. If ye will confess to the king what ye just did to me, Colin will nae try to rule the channel and cut ye off. But if ye dunnae,” I said, stepping to him and setting my hand on his heart, “I see this fate for ye.”

The vision came in a flash of bright light, and I knew it was but a breath before it became reality. “Ye will die.”

At that moment, Da’s gaze flicked past me to the woods. I didn’t have to turn to know who approached. I’d seen it. The king’s advisor walked toward us, his cloak, with the king’s emblem, blowing in the breeze and clear for my da to see. He reached down toward his dagger, but before his fingers could curl around the hilt, an arrow whistled past me and lodged in his heart.

I screamed as he fell, Colin’s warriors poured out, and Colin crouched by me and I kneeled over my da. My stomach clenched, as I pressed my hand to the blood pouring out of his wound, but I knew it was useless. As shouts swirled around me, and the king’s advisor ordered the MacLeod warriors to stand down in the name of the king, I leaned over my da, tears filling my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. “I forgive ye,” I whispered, as he coughed up blood. He stared past me, but when I took his hand, he squeezed mine ever so gently, as he used to do when I was a child and my mama was alive. Then his eyelashes closed on his life.

The grief came hard and fast, knocking the air out of me with the force of it.

I could not stand to walk, my legs just would not properly work. Men moved around me silently, and Colin gathered me in his arms. My blood roared in my ears, but I heard the king’s man ordering my da’s men to gather my da’s body and return to the MacLeod stronghold to await the king’s command.

Colin carried me to our bedchamber and did not demand words from me. I crawled onto the bed and lay down, letting the tears roll down my cheeks for the loss of the love I had once known from my da, and the new love I had gained from Colin. He lay down behind me, circling his arm around my waist and pulling me against the solid length of his body. As I cried, he ran his fingers through my hair, whispering words of comfort and love .

And as my tears eventually lessened and stopped, bright light filled my sight, and a vision hit me.

It was different than all others. I was in the exact place I had been before the vision hit. I could see Colin behind me, and Morgana knelt in front of me by the bed. She smiled down at me and pressed her fingertips to my eyelids.

“The debt is paid,” she said, her voice loud and clear. “A life for a life. I take yer curse, and I leave ye with a gift.”

She snapped her fingers, my eyes flew open, and there I sat on the loch beach with Colin beside me. I held a new bairn and so did he—a girl and a boy.

Morgana smiled down at us. “Teach them that they control their fate.”

The vision disappeared, and I gasped to be fully back in the bedchamber on the bed Colin’s arms tightened around me. “What is it?” he asked, his lips close to my ear.

I grasped his hand and placed it over my belly. “A boy and a girl,” I said, turning to him to find his eyes wide. I smiled through my sadness. “They will be here in the spring.”

“Bairns? We’ve bairns coming?”

I nodded as he hugged me tight then kissed me. When he pulled away, he leaned down and kissed my belly before rising back up to kiss me once more. “Ye saw it in a vision?”

“Aye. The last one. Morgana was there and told me.”

“I’m glad,” he said. “Now we can live in peace.”

I laughed at that. “With two bairns coming? Oh, my dear husband, this is the beginning of the chaos, of the love, of the family and fate we have chosen.”