The Highlander’s Witch (21 page)

“I’m sorry. I tried to warn you but there wasn’t time to explain.”

“Explain what?” Aiden demanded.

When Skye could only shake her head weakly, Elizabeth explained.

“If I have this right, Skye’s weakness causes her body to draw strength from whoever touches her.” She leaned down to look at Skye. “Is that what it is, luv?”

Skye felt a tear course down her cheek and nodded.

When Elizabeth motioned for Aiden to help her up, she looked at her son. “Did ye not feel the drain when ye touched her?”

“Nay, I felt nothin.”

Elizabeth frowned in thought, looking down at the girl lying weakly at their feet. “Hold her hand, Aiden.”

Aiden crouched to his haunches, ignoring Skye’s plea to stop he took her hand, not allowing her to pull away before glancing at his mother.

“Ye feel nothing, son?”

“Nay.” He shrugged.

“Skye? How do ye feel?”

Skye shook her head, feeling strength slowly seep into her limbs, knowing she was sucking it from Aiden.

Again, she tried to pull away.

“You don’t understand what will happen.” She looked up at him, her eyes clearing even as they pleaded with him. “Please. I can’t control it when it gets this bad.”

Bewildered, Aiden stared at her. “I doona ken. Control what?”

Skye desperately tried to pull away. “I wasn’t strong enough. I’m not strong enough now to stop it. You have to let me go!”

“Or what, lass?”

“Or I will take all you have and leave you nothing, dammit! Don’t you see? You will die! Now let me go.” She fought harder.

“I doona feel weaker for the holdin of ye.”

“No.”

He took her by her shoulder and forced her to look at him. “Do ye ken, lass? I doona feel anythin but the chill of yer flesh.”

She stared at him then. “Nothing? You really don’t feel weak?”

When he shook his head, she searched his face, cautiously placing her hands on his forearms.

“But how can that be? I am feeling stronger every moment. I can’t heal myself at this speed on my own.”

“Ye have magic?”

He watched as her face reddened then drained of color before nodding, her eyes slipping away from his at her confession.

“I told ye.”

Aiden looked beyond her shoulder at his sister.

“The baby. I need to finish.” Skye insisted.

Aiden assisted her to her feet when she tried to do it on her own and then helped her to the bed.

Skye touched Anna on the shoulder.

“You had a tear in your womb but it’s gone now.” She assured the worried parents. “We can get into the details later.”

“The bairn be fine, though?” Anna asked worriedly.

Skye patted her shoulder. “There are some bruised organs which could hinder the proper development your son needs, so I am going to take care of that, okay?”

They both nodded in astonishment. “Son?”

Smiling past her headache, Skye nodded then wiggled away from Aiden’s grasp.

“I can do this on my own now, thank you.”

Placing her hand above Anna’s forehead and back over her belly, she clenched her teeth when Aiden put his hand on the small of her back.

“I said—”

Aiden replied quietly. “I ken what ye said.”

Taking a deep breath, she forced the warmth from his hands out of her mind and concentrated on the warmth of her powers, flowing far easier than before.

She wanted to be fast about this. No matter that Aiden said he hadn’t felt any drain, at some point it had to affect him but she placed the fact that this baby’s life would save Doug and her sister’s unborn child to the front of her thoughts.

Centering herself, she closed her eyes and followed the colors back into the womb while projecting more towards Anna’s head wound.

Collin held his wife’s hand, continuing to murmur encouraging words, unsure if he was doing it for himself or for her as he marveled that he was having a son.

Not hearing his own words, Collin’s eyes grew round as he watched the gash on her forehead. Tilting his head so he could see under Skye’s hovering hand, he watched as it gradually began to close. It was so lengthy a time that if he had not been a seasoned warrior, trained to notice things out of the ordinary, he would never have caught the progression. He watched in amazement as the flesh under came together and then the skin closed fully while the bruising slowly vanished, leaving only the blood behind.

Aiden’s body froze as his hearing faded, then he felt as if he was being propelled down a narrow tunnel.

Disorientated, he shook his head until he quickly discovered it only made it worse. His eyes lost focus and caught the strangest images. Colors swirled, brightened and dimmed at will, making his vision even more muted. He tried to focus and caught hazy shades of bones and organs, things he had seen on the battlefield but not the same. Then he saw a form floating in midair, so tiny he could hold it in the palm of his hand, curled up as if sleeping. White sparkles shimmered around the form moving as it kicked or jerked.

It hit him that this was Anna’s baby, and he watched in wonder.

All too soon, he found himself pulled away from the site back through the tunnel and staggered as his vision faded to black.

Locking his knees, he waited for it to clear.

“I told you it was not good to touch me.”

Aiden looked up at Skye’s pale face, the green of her eyes intense from the bruises forming under them. His eyes adjusted and reached for her again.

Skye stepped back, straightened her spine and ignored the shaking.

“I did what I had to do.” She looked at the other three in the room before returning her attention to Anna. “You must stay in bed one full day.”

“But—”

Raising her unsteady hand to stop Anna’s protest, Skye continued.

“You lost a lot of blood, something I cannot replace. One full day of bed rest and then I promise you, you can get up and dance if you wish.”

Collin and Elizabeth nodded firmly, stilling any further protest from Anna.

Knowing she had accomplished the impossible, Skye headed for the door.

“Where be ye goin?”

Holding on to the handle to keep her steady, she refused to look at Aiden.

“I know I am still a prisoner.” She pulled on the door, scared she was going to pass out right there as her skin went clammy.

Hands went around her and she shook her head feebly.

“What be it? Why be ye so frail? I gave ye me strength.”

Unable to break away, her head feeling heavy and her empty stomach about to rebel, she whispered; “I can’t tell you when I ate l-last, or slept. No amount of h-healing can help that.”

He lifted her face and watched as color completely drained from her lips and his heart lurched.

“I am not a spy.” She whispered just before she passed out.

Chapter Eight
 

“N
othin makes sense.” Aiden said furiously as he paced his study. “There be a man, badly beaten, statin Skye be a spy an yet she risked her own life to ensure the bairn’s life. I doona ken how this makes sense.”

He wished he could speak to Skye, but she’d been given laudanum to help her sleep and keep the nightmares at bay. He thought of how he held her throughout the night, how he had laid there with the fire casting a glow over them and he watched while the damaged skin from the rats and bugs had disappeared as her body repaired itself.

Collin sat with his hands clasped on his knees nodding in agreement. “Ye need to talk to the lass.”

“I have tried, man. Think ye I have no?”

“Tis different this time.” Collin assured him.

“How? I have the counsel elders pesterin me to make an example of the lass an questionin me authority every minute I doona!”

“She has had nothin but fear. Take her fear away an mayhap she will open up.”

Aiden paused, hand to chin in thought. “Take her fear away.”

“Show her she be no alone.”

A smile grew, lighting his eyes for the first time in many days.

Standing tall, he chuckled. “An I have just the plan on how to do that.”

*     *     *

Skye was sitting in Aiden’s huge bed eyeing the fire roaring in the hearth, dying to get a hold of Sarah, trying not to wonder who had given her a bath.

She remembered waking up before and being hand fed, believing it was Aiden.

Then she’d been given something to drink—something nasty tasting—before drifting back to sleep. Waking up to the smell of food, her mouth feeling and tasting terrible, she was in the process of devouring her plate when a maid entered, paused as she noticed Skye sitting up and quickly left, returning minutes later to clear the empty dishes.

She knew she would have company soon, probably why the maid had immediately left when she saw that she was awake and then returned.

It was not long before her thoughts were proven correct. Her eyes swung to the door as Aiden opened it and walked through.

“Tis good to see ye lookin so well, lass.”

A blush stole over her face as his eyes seemed to drink her in.

“For how long?” She asked as she put her plate away, no longer hungry.

His head tilted. “For how long what?”

Refusing to acknowledge her body’s response to his nearness, she cleared her throat, making a show of gathering the skins around her, uncomfortable in just a nightgown.

“For how long will I be well? As in . . . when am I going to be hung?” She shrugged. “Or b-burned.”

“Why would I be doin either?”

“I have been accused of being a spy so I supposed you hung spies. And now you know I’m a witch and I assume that it’s quite normal to b-burn witches.”

She hated how she stuttered.

Aiden was saddened that she would not look him in the eyes but he understood and planned to change that post haste.

“Aye, Skye, ye have been accused of bein a spy an we need to talk about that. As for the other—”

Just then, the door opened and in came Elizabeth, Anna, and Collin.

Anna rushed to her bedside, set something down on the table next to her plate of food before promptly crawling over to hug her as tightly as she could with a very large belly in the way.

Skye sat there stunned, fighting back a tear as Anna cried and thanked her for saving her son. She babbled on, amazed about how Skye knew it was a boy and how active he was now.

Elizabeth chided Anna into silence as she approached the bed from the other side.

Taking the seat Aiden provided, she smiled.

“Och, lass, ye have given me something I thought never to experience again; hope. Hope that my daughter would never have to suffer the loss of another bairn. Hope that I will have a grandchild to place on my knee one day soon, and hope that there will be many more before my days end.” Elizabeth didn’t bother to brush the tear away that fell down her cheek. “Ye have given me the greatest gift and I wish to return the favor.”

Taking Skye’s hand in her own, she patted it. “Ye are not alone, child.”

Skye nibbled at her lower lip, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from falling. She shook her head not understanding.

“Ye see, luv, through simple touch, I have the ability to tell truth from lies. If I concentrate hard enough I can also do so if standing near enough.”

Silence filled the room as Skye stared at Elizabeth, her mouth opening in shock as her words registered.

Snapping her mouth shut, she swallowed before asking, “You are not telling me that you are a witch, are you?”

Elizabeth laughed and patted her hand again. “I suppose ye can say that.”

“I make flowers grow!” Anna said excitedly.

Reaching for the item she had put down before hugging Skye, Anna held it up for her to see the simple pot filled with soil. The girl squinted and her mouth scrunched up into a cute bow and Skye gasped as a stem broke free, growing slowly, leaves popping out and forming, petals unfurling.