Highland Destiny (40 page)

Connor watched Mackenzie hurry after the two sorcerers.

It tore his heart out of his chest to see her leave. She was walking out of his life forever, and she was taking his child.

The whole room had bowed to her, Connor had been chasing her all over the castle, and she was able to walk away. His brother had even bowed to her! What in blazes was Liam thinking? He despised Mackenzie! Connor made his way over to his brother, and choked out the words he had never wanted to believe.

"You were right Liam, she lied to me and betrayed us all.

She couldn't even stay to face me. She ran like a coward."

"No, she didn't. I was wrong, Connor. She loves you more than you ken, more than I believed. I didna want to understand, but now I do. She saved us all. She saved our clan, and we have our lands back. The Stewart curse is broken, Lord Campbell is dead, and all has been righted.

Surely you must see that? Now go, get your wife back."

"Liam, I canna fathom what you are thinking. She gave him the location of our men! They were slaughtered like animals."

His eyes hardened, but he calmly said, "No, Connor, that was due to a traitor among our men." They shared a knowing look.

"Hamish?"

"Aye. The girl told him nothing. Hurry, brother, find your woman before she goes back to her time."

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"Aye, brother, I do. I'm sorry I didna believe you from the start. I am surprised that you canna see how she saved your thick neck by killing that sorry excuse for a man."

"She's saved me in more ways than one, Liam," Connor said quietly putting his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Then you must go to her."

Connor stared at his brother for only a fraction of a second more before turning and running out the wide double doors.

His horse was still waiting for him and Connor leaped onto his back and dug in his heels. As he rode, he thought.

When he had seen the Campbell forcing himself on Mackenzie, the red haze of bloodlust clouded his sight and his thought. All he had been able to clearly think was
Mine. She's
mine.
The primal claim he felt over her resonated throughout his body. Without thought, Connor had raced in and ripped the Campbell off of his wife, throwing him across the room.

He had immediately thrown a couple of punches into his face, yet it served only to hurt his hands. It was as if the Campbell had skin of iron. An armor or shield of some sort that allowed no blows to touch him. He had even laughed at Connor, and insulted him further as Connor tried unsuccessfully to breach his shield.

Before he could kill the swine, Mackenzie had placed herself in between them and ordered him to stop. Connor couldn't believe her! She would defend that vile snake? Her betrayal went deeper than he'd originally thought. At that moment, flames shot from the Campbell's fingertips, directly 399

After he had thrown Mackenzie to the ground, Connor saw the opportunity and took it. He brought down his mighty sword and sliced through the Campbell's forearm. In a blow that should have severed his forearm, the Campbell didn't even flinch. The dark forces healed him unnaturally, and at that moment, opposite his fight and across the room, Mackenzie had rushed behind the Campbell and picked something up off of the ground. Connor couldn't tell what it was, since he was presently engaged with the Campbell. But Mackenzie drove her dagger directly into his shoulder. Her small dirk found purchase! How had his sword done nothing, but she had made him bleed? The Campbell seemed even more shocked than he. The Campbell turned around and fled like the coward he was. Mackenzie met Connor's eyes briefly, but she too ran out of the room.

He followed her, but stopped short. For there, in the hallway, Mackenzie seemed to be blindly running, and yet she never went anywhere. It was the strangest thing, and suddenly, as if she had been shaken from a spell, she ran up the tower stairs. Connor followed behind at a slower pace, unsure of how to handle the situation. He wasn't certain of anything anymore. When he reached the balustrade, he arrived in time to see Mackenzie kill the Campbell. It had been incredible; she had walked slowly to him and 400

She had a lot to answer for.

And yet she turned tear-filled eyes on him and told him to let her go. She turned and fled. But Connor was damned if he'd let her walk out on him again. He chased after her, only to have the wizards intercede on her behalf. Once more Connor was left alone. He ran down to the Hall, intent on meeting with his men to find her, when the scene that greeted his eyes stopped him cold.

Watching Mackenzie walk out of the doors, walk out of his life, had been the hardest thing he'd ever been through. It tore him in two to see her leave. And for his clan, his kin, his own brother to bow to her as if she were royalty.
What the
hell had just happened?
For Liam to have a change of heart was unlike his brother, especially for it to happen so quickly.

But it seemed he'd been wrong about Mackenzie, and her motives. From the start, she had proclaimed her innocence, and the desire to help. He had wanted to believe her,
had
believed her, mayhap he should have believed
in
her? He had never known anyone like her. But of course he hadn't; she hadn't been born yet. There would be a good 200 years before she would exist.

Connor almost halted his mount when he realized that she would be going back to her own time. Her own life, as she 401

He would get her back. He had to. His life was meaningless without her in it, and it might be too late to tell her that.

Connor rode his mount harder, faster, until he could see the borders of his own lands.

By now, Connor was on his own lands, and had ridden through the night, chasing after the woman he loved. His keep was close. He was certain that this was the way she had gone.

As he approached the gate, he saw the two wizards.

Perfect!

"Hullo! You there. Where is she?"

"Mistress Stewart? Why she has returned home. Charming lass, it's a shame to see her leave. Amazing how she has saved us all, is it not?" The elder of the two men spoke to Connor as if he knew something more than he was saying.

"Bring her back," Connor commanded. He softened his tone. "Please."

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"You must, please. I need her. She carries my child."

"And you want the child?"

"Aye. I want her." He paused, "I love her."

"Well then, let us see what we can do."

The next couple of months were hell. Connor did nothing, he went nowhere. Nothing brought him any kind of joy. It was as if when Mackenzie left, she had taken his heart with her. Liam had been understanding at first, but Connor's foul mood had eventually gotten to him, and soon, even he left Connor alone.

The sorcerers no longer came to see him with details of their progress.

He was utterly and completely without hope.

At first, the idea of trying to go through the gate to retrieve her was appealing, but as the sorcerers worked, they could make no progress in how to control the time of the opening, or the ability to bring him back.

His love for Mackenzie was a pressing weight on his chest, constricting until he felt as if he couldn't breathe. This was wrong. Love was supposed to be light, not this dismal darkness in his soul. It was almost Yule, but he had little interest in the celebration; Connor had little interest in anything. Even as the concept of bringing Mackenzie back faded farther and farther into oblivion, Connor could not rouse himself from his self-imposed isolation.

While the Yuletide festivities resounded throughout his keep, Connor drank himself into a stupor. It was unlike him, but lately he didn't know who he was anymore. His whole life had been for the good of the clan, he'd been reared to be chief. But what good was he, what good were his instincts, if 404

For the first time since Mackenzie had run from him, he dreamed.

In his dream, he was a ghost, a wraith, moving in and out of time without the sense or feel for it. He saw decades come and go, and centuries pass, but he felt nothing, he was nothing. And then a light in his darkness. A beautiful girl with honey colored curls and emerald green eyes was sitting before the fireplace, his plaid wrapped about her shoulders as a shawl. But this was wrong; she was sad. The girl with fey-like beauty should not be sad. And she was crying. For the first time in a long time, Connor felt something more than the soul-blackening depression he'd wallowed in. Connor felt alive.

Walking slowly toward the girl, he moved around in front of her. Still she gazed deeply into the fire. When he knelt down before her, she sighed. The sound struck him in his heart—-a heart that had not beaten for centuries now jump started at the simple sound of her breath. She spoke!

"Oh, Connor. I am so sorry." Her voice broke and her lower lip trembled with the tears. "If only you knew..."

Knew what?
She never finished. Connor was yanked back into his own time, but this wasn't real either. The same girl who had haunted him for too long now sat in front of the fireplace in his chambers. Only this time, she smiled as she held two young children with blue eyes and blonde curls on her lap. They were reading a story, and when she looked up 405

"Mind his head," she indicated the warm bundle in his arms.

Another babe! And this one had her emerald green eyes!

Could it be? Was it truly his child? Nay, his children? And the look she gave him was so tender and loving...how could this be?

Once more Connor was ripped from the scene, from the beautiful woman who held his heart. When he regained consciousness, it was in his own chambers. Alone.

Connor threw the whisky bottle across the room and slammed out of his chambers. Storming through his own castle, he made it to the stables before his brother came running out to see what he was about.

"What are you doing? Connor it is well past midnight!"

"I am going to retrieve my woman."

Liam sucked in a quick breath. "The wizards?"

"Nay, they have yet to figure anything out that can be of use."

Liam eyed him carefully before suggesting, "Connor come on back in, we'll have some coffee, and you can relax."

"I'm not drunk, Liam, for the first time I am thinking clearly." The ferocity of his statement brooked no argument.

He gave his brother a knowing look, "I'm not daft either."

"Never said ye were."

Connor rode until he found the dwelling he sought. He threw the door open, scaring the room's only two inhabitants.

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"Any progress?"

Not needing to ask to what he referred, Morvern answered,

"Regrettably not, my Laird. Is there anything else with which we can offer our assistance?"

"Aye. You can follow me. We will try this now."

Gregor gasped. "Now?!"

Connor grimly stared him down, "Aye. Now."

They rode back to his castle, and upon arrival, Connor stopped them, demanding the location of the gate. Morvern showed them to the stone door that no one save Connor and his family knew of, and marched through until they stood in a tunnel that led into the Gallery. It was only then that Gregor announced his displeasure.

"But my Laird," protested Gregor, "It'll not open for another week. We also cannot guarantee your location." He stopped at the fierce look in Connor's eyes.

"Open it."

"But we cannot..."

"Open it."

Morvern and his son exchanged a look and began the incantation to open the gate. To Connor, it seemed that neither one believed it would open, since both had said it would only work as the last day of the year changed into the next. The shock and surprise on both of their faces might have been humorous to Connor in a former life, yet right now, no trace of amusement could be found.

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