Stone Guardian (31 page)

Without warning, a steaming cup of coffee appeared just inches from her nose, blocking the view of the orange-red glow undulating through the grating. “Here. Drink this. It’ll warm you up. I added a little something to it for medicinal purposes.”

Nostril-stinging vapors of alcohol wafted up from the black liquid. Emma curled her nose and pushed the cup away. “You know I don’t like whiskey. Take it away.” The last thing she needed was alcohol making her confusion even worse.

Laynie pushed the cup back between Emma’s hands and folded her swollen fingers around the hot ceramic. “You’re going to drink it. You need to get warm and put some color back in your cheeks.”

Tightening her hands around the smoothness of the heated mug, Emma stared at her reflection in the inky brew. How in the world had she come to this? How in the world was she going to go on?

“There’s something I think you need to know, Emma.” Laynie eased down beside her on the over-stuffed couch, hugging a bright red throw pillow to her chest. “Torin told me everything. And I was going to help him convince you to go with him.”

Emma slid the untouched coffee onto the table beside the couch and wilted back into the cushions. “I guess it really doesn’t matter now, does it? It doesn’t look like I’ll have to make that choice.”

“You can’t just sit there and tell me you’re going to give up.” Laynie repositioned herself on the couch, curling one leg underneath her body. “Torin wouldn’t give up on you. Why are you giving up on him? There’s got to be away to find him. What about all that hocus-pocus crap he showed you? Surely, there’s something there you can use.”

“Torin is gone and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Emma closed her eyes as she rested her head on the back of the couch. She didn’t know how to make Laynie understand. The sight of Torin clenched between Arach’s jaws seared across the darkness of her mind and scarred her memories forever. How could she tell Laynie about the horror reflected in his face? The finality. The sorrow shining in his eyes as he’d disappeared into the exploding debris. Torin had known she’d never see him again. She’d seen the truth of it in his eyes. She couldn’t remember hurting like this since she’d spotted her parents’ lifeless bodies dangling from the snag in the stream.

“Snap out of it, Emma!” Laynie bounced her hand off the back of the couch. “You’re going to figure out a way to find him and then you’re going to go get him.”

Emma forced her eyes open. Poor Laynie. Such a dreamer. When had she grown up into such a stubborn young woman? Emma hitched in a jerking breath. Baby sister had no idea about the forces at work. Emma closed her eyes as she released a shuddering sigh, sinking even deeper into the blanket-covered cushions. It was useless but apparently, the only way she was going to get any peace was if she humored Laynie. “I’ll make you a deal, Laynie. You tell me how to find Torin and when I do, I’ll never leave his side again.”

“Swear?”

Emma forced a trembling smile to her lips, raised her hand, and extended her little finger toward her sister. “I’ll even pinky swear. Help me find Torin and I’ll build a life with him in any reality he chooses.” What could it hurt to say the words aloud? She’d never have to pay up because Torin was gone forever.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

He stared at the rubble piled about the threshold, ignoring the bite of the bitter cold sleet stinging against his wounded flesh. Adjusting the strips of bloody cloth wrapped around his torso, Torin winced as he knotted the ragged plaid a bit tighter. As his fingers brushed against the empty scabbard hanging at his side, Torin kicked loose stones from his path.
Damnaigh.
He hated that he’d lost his sword. It was like losing one of his arms. He patted the blood-soaked leather laced tight against the inside of his bruised calf. Good. At least he still had his dagger.

A high-pitched howl ripped through the darkness, rising above the sound of the wind rattling through the leafless trees. Torin ignored the warning cry of the hidden beast, lifted his head and sniffed the icy air. The freezing rain burned in his nostrils. His senses told him he needed to head north into the mountains, directly into the heart of the storm. Perhaps there he’d find shelter from the aching cold and be able to build a fire to chase the dampness from his bones.

He cast one last glance back at the annihilated portal and Arach’s ash-covered corpse. His heart wrenched as his gaze settled on the glistening black pile of ice-covered ruins. She’d done well, destroyed the portal and permanently closed the passage to Arach’s world. Torin ground his teeth as the wind whipped icy strands of soaked hair into his eyes. He wished he’d had more time with her. Time to teach her all her strengths. Torin swallowed hard, choking back his pain. He wished he’d told her how to find him.

Closing his eyes, he threw back his head and bellowed her name with the fury of his pain. “Emma!” The sound echoed through the dimensions, only increasing the hopeless loneliness already burning in his chest.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Emma fumbled for the key in the bottom of her purse. Why had Laynie locked the door? It wasn’t as if anyone could even find the small croft isolated on the beach. “Laynie! It’s me. Open up.”
Dammit.
Where the hell was she? Better yet, where the hell were those damn keys?

Freezing rain pelted against her body, ran down the back of her neck and soaked through the wool of her coat. Clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering, Emma kicked the bottom of the door. She hated this place and its god-forsaken weather. She wished she’d never come here. “Laynie! Open the damn door. I can’t find my key and I’m freezing to death out here.”

Emma drew back to jab another good kick in the center of the solid oak door just as the rain-soaked portal opened inward. “It’s about time you opened the freaking door. Why in the hell did you have it locked?”

“Your sister didna wish for us to be disturbed and she thought to spare your feelings.” Alex stood with one hand resting on the brass door latch and the other gripping an over-sized bath towel wrapped around his waist.

Alex’s nothing-on-but-a-towel body standing in the middle of her cottage wasn’t a sight she’d expected to see. Emma stared at a droplet making its way down the center of his chest into the dark nest of water-slicked hair surrounding his belly button. How ironic. Alex’s wet hair seemed to point downward toward the bulge hidden beneath the towel. Her irritation fanned into disbelief. This could not be happening. Not Laynie and Alex. “Please tell me the shower’s broken at your place and you decided to borrow mine.”

“Emma.” Laynie padded into the room, her wet hair slicked back, tucking the end of the towel wrapped around her body into the
V
just above her breasts. “Emma, I was going to talk to you about Alex but I wanted to wait for the right time. I didn’t want to spring it on you while you were still in such bad shape.”

Ignoring Laynie, Emma locked on Alex’s watchful gaze as she dropped her bags to the floor. “You know I’m going to kill you for touching my sister. This is pretty low. Even for you, Alex.”

“I love her, Emma. It’s no’ as wicked as ye’d like to believe. We didna want to tell ye until ye’d recovered a bit from your loss. Or at least figured out what you’re meant to do. Your sister cares for ye verra much and I intend to do my best to make her happy.” Alex crossed the room and pulled Laynie against his side, planting a kiss against the top of her wet head.

Make Laynie happy? Emma didn’t miss Alex’s unspoken finish to the sentence. He intended to make Laynie happy even if it meant putting up with Emma. “You two just met! Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? You haven’t had time to fall in love. You’ve just fallen into lust.” Emma wanted to shove her way between them but she clamped her hands to her sides instead. How could they do this? Have some kind of forbidden sex fling and right under her nose.

“Emma, please.” Laynie unwound from Alex’s embrace and padded across the room with her arms outspread. “You know damn good and well there’s no time clock on falling in love. Either it’s meant to be or it’s not. Alex and I felt it the first time we met. We clicked, Emma. Alex and I belong together.”

“I can’t believe you’d do this to me, Laynie. At least, not right now.” Tears stung the backs of her eyelids, burning just below the surface. Emma wanted to scream against the betrayal pounding through her veins. “Why, Laynie? Why would you do this? Especially now.”

“I love him, Emma. Just like you love Torin.” Laynie’s mouth tightened into a determined line. “And when you find the way back to Torin, at least I’ll have Alex and I won’t be left alone.”

A dull weight grew heavier in Emma’s chest, right where her heart should’ve been. Laynie was such a dreamer. She actually thought Emma was going to see Torin again. “I
loved
Torin. Past tense, Laynie. That chapter closed when I sealed the portal.” Emma dropped her gaze to the floor. A hopeless sense of weariness wrapped around her body, sapping her strength until it took everything she had just to find the energy to speak. “I’m never going to leave you, Laynie. You’re stuck with me. You know Torin’s lost.”

“Bullshit!” Laynie jabbed a finger into Emma’s shoulder. “You pinky swore that if we found him you’d never leave his side again and I’m going to hold you to it.” Yanking the towel higher around her breasts, Laynie nodded in Alex’s direction. “We’re searching the island for folks right now who know all about the legends. We’re going to find him, Emma. You just wait and see.”

“I can’t handle any more of this nonsense. I’m getting out of here.” Emma scooped up her purse and headed for the door, struggling to see through a stinging blur of tears. How could Laynie be so heartless? How could she be so blind?

“Emma.” Alex stepped in front of her, blocking her path to the door. “Ye will find Torin and rejoin him someday. I swear to ye, I’ll do everything in my power to help ye.”

“Get out of my way, Alex, or I swear I’ll set fire to that towel.” Emma hitched her purse higher on her shoulder, digging her nails into the leather handle.

“Let her go, Alex. When she gets like this you can’t reason with her.”

Emma pushed past him, slamming the door behind her so hard that the windows rattled in their casings. She didn’t know where she was headed but anywhere was better than here.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

The freezing rain coated the wipers with every pass across the windshield. The ice-covered strips made feeble attempts to swipe the slush from the automobile’s glass. Emma slowed the vehicle to a crawl, cranked up the heat and adjusted the high beam on the headlights to try and cut a path through the murky storm. She must be nuts to be out in weather like this but she wasn’t about to back track and head home.

A gust of wind slammed against the side of the car nearly shoving it from the slippery road.
This is stupid
. Emma edged the machine over to the wide patch of gravel along the side of the road and threw the gearshift into park. Pressing her forehead against the steering wheel, Emma closed her eyes and listened to the rhythmic slosh and click of the frozen windshield wipers swiping across the glass.

“Why, Torin?” Emma whispered into the darkness. Why had he been so cruel as to make her love him and then leave her all alone?

“Ye told him ye would never go with him. What did ye expect him to do?”
A taunting voice echoed through the dark interior of the car. Murky shadows flickered and danced by the light of the glowing instrument panel.

Jerking straighter in the seat, Emma strained to see through the darkness. “Who’s there?”

Only the scraping swish of the wiper blades against the frozen windshield answered. With trembling hands, Emma swiped the tears from her face.
Great.
Now she could add hallucinations to her growing list of problems.

A troubled feeling stirred in the center of her chest, unfurling to squat like a poisonous toad on her already churning stomach. As much as she hated to admit it, the disembodied voice spoke the truth. How many times had she sworn to Torin that she’d never leave this reality?

“Why do ye waste your time grieving for a man ye swore ye never loved?”

“I never said I didn’t love him,” Emma shouted at the flickering instrument panel. “Who are you? If you’re going to try to pick a fight, at least have the guts to show your face.”

“I didna come here to battle with ye, my silly child. My visit is to aid ye in finding the truth that lies within your heart.”

The truth. Emma closed her eyes and curled her hands atop the smooth coldness of the steering wheel. With a hissing sob, she gave way to the pain that had tormented her soul ever since Torin had disappeared. “I didn’t need your visit to show me the truth. I already know what it is.”

“Then find the lad and tell him this truth. ’Twill do ye both an eternity of good.”

“‘Find the lad.’ Yeah right. You make it sound so easy.” Emma sniffed back another deluge of tears as she glared at the slush-covered windshield. “Since you appear to be so all-knowing, why don’t you make this easier on both of us and just tell me where he is?”

An amused chuckle rippled through the interior of the car as a gust of wind shook against it.
“Ah now. That would be cheating and making what ye yearn for much too easy to attain. Ye wouldna appreciate your prize near as much if there was no struggle to achieve it.”
Sleet pelted in a frozen sheet across the front of the car as the disembodied voice continued its lecture. “
Where would be the pleasure in having your love merely handed to ye with little or no effort? Ye still have much growing to do before yer ready to cross and meet yer love. Ye’ve always worked hard for whate’er ye’ve attained and this path will be no different.”

“I don’t know who or what you are but I do know one thing.”

“And what would that be, my miserable little child?”

“I hate you more than I’ve ever hated anything in my life.”

A warm chuckle rumbled through the damp air.
“Good. Hatred is a strong emotion filled with energy. Tap into that strength to find what ye seek.”

Chapter Sixty