The Magic of Highland Dragons (32 page)

Bren nodded, a solemn smile touching his lips. “I would like that, verra much.” His smile grew wider as he looked at her, echoing his joy of just moments ago. “I canna believe I am to be a father so soon, that I will hold a child of mine in my arms.” He lay back down on the bed, pulling her with him, then leaning over her and tenderly pushing the hair back from her face. “When ye were gone from me, and I was waiting, hoping ye’d come back somehow, the nights were so verra long… sometimes when I lay awake I’d let myself think of what it would have been, for ye to bear my child. What our son or daughter would look like, how ye’d be so verra beautiful with my babe at yer breast. How much love we would have to give…” He paused, his words beginning to tremble with so much powerful emotion, his eyes growing dark with desire.

Faith reached up to hold his face in her hands, and he turned his head slightly to place a kiss in the center of her palm.

“I love you, Bren Mac Coinnach.”

She pulled him down into a kiss that told him everything else that words could not.

Epilogue
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Drust Mac Coinnach was growing desperate. He had been without food or water for days, and the wound in his side that he couldn’t even see in the inky darkness throbbed and burned so much that he feared he would eventually pass out. But not now… not yet. For now, he was still alive, and so he would keep walking. The underground tunnels that he felt his way through seemed to go on forever, and he knew that it would be by a miracle alone that he eventually found his way out. Especially since he suspected he might be slowly bleeding to death. Though he kept a wadded piece of cloth pressed to his wound, the rag was soaked through, his fingers wet and sticky, the smell of blood strong in his nostrils. But still he kept moving, his instinct for survival strong, and his warrior’s body strong as well.

Still, there was only so much life-blood a body could lose before even a warrior’s strength was not enough. His hand scraping against the damp stone, he felt the tunnel begin to curve to the left, and he followed, stumbling, his breath shallow. He recalled that a man bleeding to death will begin to gasp for air, as his veins grow empty. He was close, then.

It seemed the floor was rising, as if he were moving uphill, and he struggled to stay upright just a little longer. Aye, he was definitely climbing now, and up ahead there was a light, dim at first, then growing brighter as he came closer. It was so bright, after days in the darkness, that it hurt his eyes. A light. Either he had finally found a way out, or he was dying. At the moment, he had no idea which, but either was fine with him. With the last of his strength, he went towards the light, and then collapsed.

When next he opened his eyes, he knew that he had died, because there was a beautiful angel hovering above him, watching him with big blue eyes, her hair a halo of curls around her face. He wanted to touch her, and he lifted his hand. It felt as heavy as lead, and pain shot through him, stealing his breath. He dropped it back down to his side, defeated. It wasn’t right, he thought dimly, that he should be dead and still suffer so from his wound.

“Rest now, dinna try to move”, the angel said.

She smoothed her hand over his forehead and her touch was soft and gentle. He wouldn’t mind so much, being dead, if she would stay here with him… but now he was fading away again into the blackness.

Willa picked up his hand and held it tight. “Nay, warrior, dinna go, I have yet to even learn yer name. Stay here with me now.”

From somewhere in the shadows, Drust felt her touch and heard her plea, and he wanted to stay with the angel. After all, he hadn’t learned her name yet, either, and he found that he desperately wanted to know it.

Watch for Book Two in the Mac Coinnach Brothers Trilogy, coming in August 2012