Page 44 of When a Highlander Vows (Enemies to Lovers #1)

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I t rained heavily that night while Isla tried to force herself to sleep. Nothing could take the strange woman’s words out of her head or the chill that raced up her spine while she spoke to them.

The man ye meet shall be yer everything, and yer demise from the world.

As she tossed in her bed, she forced her eyes to close again and willed her mind to shut down. A rumble of thunder from outside jarred her awake again, and this time, Isla sat up in her bed with a loud groan.

She pushed the sheets covering her body away and combed her fingers through her thick mass of black hair.

What did she mean? Who was that woman anyway?

Her eyes wandered around the room. It landed on the medallion on her nightstand. The green stone in the middle of a gold casing stared back at her until she felt a bit light headed.

I have seen this medallion before. Isla had explored history so much that it was hard for her to remember where exactly she had read of it.

The same creeping sensation she had felt earlier while at the fair returned, and this one brought a tremble to Isla’s nerves and muscles. Knots formed in the pit of her stomach, the hairs on her skin stood, and strangely it felt again like she had seen the stone before.

She closed her eyes and searched her mind. Isla consumed a lot of history books, and she was certain she had read about a precious medallion in the Birlet Shallows’ history somewhere. She just couldn’t place it.

When she opened her eyes again and stared at the stone, it finally dawned on her.

Clan Kirkpatrick. An ancient Scottish clan whose entire family was wiped out in a disastrous storm that plagued the Highlands in the 1400’s. Isla remembered the story as soon as the Clan’s name came to mind.

She had read about them while studying the history of the United Kingdom. She remembered the wife of Laird Kirkpatrick was an English woman, Maleah Calloway; and it was rumored to be a spelled medallion she brought to the Highlands with her.

The Clan’s people never truly accepted her as one of them and it was even rumored that the disaster that led to their death was caused by one of her children.

After the disastrous storm that raged their land and took lives, the Clan had lost a lot, but some men had survived. Those who survived remained on the land while others migrated from their homes toward the sea and dedicated their lives to fishing and watching the borders.

The Calloways ended up being a major sea merchants in the Scottish Highlands.

Isla shivered as she slowly picked the medallion up and looked at it deeply. Could it be the same medallion I’ve seen in the books?

A deep laugh rumbled past her lips then. Isla felt her chest tighten further as she thought of the woman’s words again. Did that mean that the old woman claiming to be a gypsy was a descendant of the Kirkpatrick Clan? How else did she get this medallion?

How insane. She decided to toss the woman’s words out of her mind and get a goodnight’s rest. Her travel through Scotland had only lasted a few weeks, and Isla was not yet ready to part with the lovely Highlands.

Isla kept staring at the medallion, thinking, until she finally decided.

So be it, I’ll find out if it’s real for myself, she thought and got out of bed to head for the famous dried-up Loch Leven only a mile away from her bed and breakfast.

By the time Isla made it to the loch the rain had subsided into a drizzle. She got out of her car and walked the rest of the distance. The sky was still dark, and she could hear the chirps of birds in the sky they came out of their hiding place.

She shivered from the cold air and tried to stop her stomach from quivering in anticipation of what she was to find. Even though she did not believe in fortunes and magic, she still loved to explore.

Isla held the hem of her dress high and counted her steps until she got to the massive cave just beside the non-existent loch.

She couldn’t imagine how beautiful the now flaky grounds would have looked when the blue-green waters existed on it.

Must have been magical.

She sucked in a deep breath and looked at the veil of darkness extending into the passage under the huge rock. She swallowed hard and held her breath steady. Once she stepped in there, she doubted she would be able to see anything as the rising sun would not reflect in there because of the thick layering rock covering it.

She had lived her years craving adventure. Whenever she visited a new land, she liked to experience what life was like for them there.

What’s in a cave I can’t explore?

Isla wanted to solve that mystery, so she put one foot in front of her, and started walking into the cave with slow strides.

Isla held the medallion tight and raised the flashlight up she carried from her car, hoping she could find her path. The hand holding the medallion quivered. Isla inhaled sharply and took in the unique earthy smell associated with rain and damp dust.

She wondered how long it had been since anyone came under the cave here. As she continued walking, her mind drifted off to her friends.

Once I find nothing here, I’ll tell them they’ve been defrauded. Isla couldn’t wait to get back to the main village and tell them how she had found nothing in the cave that woman had told them about.

She suddenly stopped when she met a solid wall. It blocked the path further and left her with nothing else to do than walk back out. Isla scoffed and raised the medallion up again. “What did she say about finding a key?”

A second after she spoke, her gaze caught onto something shiny by her left and she turned toward it. Isla gasped and her jaw dropped.

On the wall to her left, she saw something moving and nearly screamed before she realized it was a mouse. Isla looked closer and noticed a carved-out space on the wall too. It had the same shape as the medallion she held.

This is impossible, she thought as she slowly lifted the medallion and placed it on the spot. The instant she did that, the ground beneath her feet shifted, and her head swooned. She staggered back, her hand dropped from the wall and next thing she heard was long whispers deep inside her.

Thig an t-uisge agus tillidh sibh gu am far a bheil so dhanachd gad thoirt gu agus bidh sibh beo na laithean and sin a stri ri bhith beo gus an ionnsiach sibh gradh agus maitheanas.

Isla heard the same words the old woman had whispered to her back at the fair. She put her hands on the sides of her head and tried to fight off the dizziness that overpowered every other emotion she was feeling.

It was stronger than her however, Isla could no longer control her breathing or the rising pulse in her temples. Her limbs suddenly felt weak, she heard a loud rumble of thunder outside just before her lids dropped closed and she fell limply to the ground with a loud thud.