Duncan (Immortal Highlander Clan MacMar #5)

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

T he morning after the shifters’ attack, Meg sat down by the tidal pool, reaching to idly trail her fingertips through the salt water collected by the rocks. For the first time since being castaway on Caladh, she didn’t loathe the smell of salt in the air, or the mist dampening her gown from the waves crashing against the rock walls. The wetness on her skin was simply that: wet.

Facing death at the hands of the wicked dark Fae enchantress and all her half-mortal daughters had made the sea seem rather tame by comparison—or perhaps it was how she had been changed when the sky had burst with stars.

“You drowned my wee sisters.” If the girls had been that, she thought sadly. Since learning she was likely Derdrui’s halfling daughter, she grew bilious whenever she thought of her origins. “Only ’twasnae your doing that slavers chained them in that ship, or that I couldnae free them.”

She stared for a long time at the horizon. Whatever the enchantment had done to her last night, it reversed the changes to her body and wiped clean all the dark resentment from her heart. The boon of being half-Fae, immortality, might still be hers. That meant she would spend eternity alone now, loving another immortal and yet unable to love him.

Two webbed-fingered hands encircled her ankles as a wet golden head surfaced.

Meg allowed herself to look into the heavenly beauty of Merrick’s eyes for three heartbeats, and then averted her gaze.

“You’ve a hundred new immortal females you may plague, Fish King, and choose from them one to transform as your new queen,” she said flatly. “Go now and leave me in peace.”

“Jamaran now sits upon the throne,” he said, hoisting himself out of the water to perch beside her. “The choice of queen, ’tis his, although I reckon he shall persuade the elders permit him name Caroline and Nyall as his consorts.”

He’d given the commander his throne? she thought, at first confused and then horrified. That meant –

“You gave Jamaran rule? Did you take leave of your wits?”

“I never desired the crown.” His expression calm, he looked out at the horizon. “My dream, ’twas exploring the world beyond these waters. When the traitors murdered my sire I begged the elders choose another, but they wouldnae heed me.”

She saw he was removing the circlet of violet-gold metal that he always wore. “Why didnae you give Jamaran that?”

“I asked that I might use the thing one last time. ’Twill become his after ’tis done.” He turned it over in his hands. “Changing a life, ’tis a great and terrible power. We forced such on mortal females for centuries. Duxor used his to create the monstrous sea-shifters. Now I shall change one last life, only this time, for love.”

Meg almost jumped to her feet to run away, but what would her life be without Merrick? An eternity of emptiness.

“Ever I’ll hate your world,” she reminded him as she closed her eyes. “So expect me in a wretched mood until my last day.”

“Aye, ’twas my thought as well.” He chuckled. “Mayhap ’twill work out better if we do thus differently.”

She didn’t understand what he meant until a blade nicked her wrist, and then looked down to see him squeeze a drop of her blood onto a spiral symbol on the crown. Dark violet shadow and golden light enveloped Merrick, who stood up as the magic began to change him. The webbing between his fingers and toes vanished, and the gill slits on his throat shrank until they, too, disappeared. By the time the power dissipated, Merrick’s appearance had altered from that of an unearthly handsome aquatic to that of a lean, muscular warrior—and his golden hair had acquired a scattering of fiery red streaks as well.

He drew in a deep breath, and released it slowly before he held up his hands. “I reckoned the change should pain me greatly. ’Twas rather like swimming through the waters of a hot spring. Rather pleasant, except around my baws.”

Meg grabbed his arms. “What did you? Go you mad? You cannae become a mortal.”

“I’m but half-mortal, like you.” He kissed her brow. “Half-Fae and half-Selseus, if Duncan’s advice holds true. I expect ’twill; my body yet seems powerful and enduring, only I’ve no particular desire go swimming or breathe sea water.”

No one had ever done such a thing for her sake. Her gruesome mother had abandoned her; the mortal who had pretended to be her sire had sold her to slavers. Lady Joana, who had been like the mother she had ever dreamed of, had left her behind when she’d ended herself. Even Lady Valerie, who did care for her, had agreed to send her away to serve the MacKays. They likely wouldn’t notice she had not returned to their farm.

No one had ever truly loved and wanted her, save Merrick. The mighty king of the Finfolk had changed for her, an érieann serving wench with no name, no kin and no dowry. She could not let him do this, not for any love he believed he possessed for her.

“Change yourself back,” Meg demanded.

“We’re no’ like you, lass. A Selseus thus transformed cannae again change,” Merrick told her. “So we may live together on the land. Only I must regularly visit the sea, for I plan serve as advisor for Laird MacMar and King Jamaran, if they’ll have me. I must also parlay with the whale-killer pods and convince them return to our waters, for no creature’s better at helping us defend Caladh. If no’, then I may take up chambermaiding.” He grinned and put his arms around her. “If ’tis the case, shall you serve as my tutor, my lady?”

“No, Merrick.” All of her sorrow disappeared as she touched his face. “I’ll wed you, and love you forever.”

Julianne insisted Nicole join her and the other women as they walked out to the Stone Forest.

“I know you and Duncan need to plan your wedding—so do Shaw and me, so we should do a double,” the lifeguard said. “Only I promised my aunt I’d bring you four with me.”

Valerie stopped her. “Jules, your aunt doesn’t exist in this time. I’m not even sure she exists in any time.”

“In my dream she said time isn’t a consequence, or something like that.” The lifeguard shrugged, and then her expression brightened as she looked ahead. “Oh, wow, that light show did more than clean up the mess out here, huh?”

Nicole saw the Stone Forest had been transformed entirely from a petrified wood to one that appeared bursting with new life. At least a hundred new saplings had sprung up from the ground, and every grown tree had heavy canopies of new leaves. Squirrels gracefully bounced through the grasses before they made leaps onto the trunks; a large brown rabbit eyed them from its burrow between the roots of a huge willow.

Only one tree still remained petrified, she noticed. The one that had pierced the enchantress with its limbs had turned black last night. It looked almost ashen now, as if it might soon collapse and blow away. As for Derdrui, what little that had remained of her after the Cait Sith had converged on her had vanished completely. Since the shifters had also been transformed like the Stone Forest, none of them seemed to recall any of the events after crossing the mist barrier.

Nicole sensed they would never remember who was their Fae parent, or what they had done to her.

“Fair morning, my ladies.” Speal came out from behind one of the broad-trunked alders, a basket of acorns in her hands. “Do you come so you may speak with the elder?” She gestured toward one of the oldest-looking ash trees.

“Yes, that’s why we’re here,” Julianne told her, and waved Nicole and the others over to the tree. She put her hands on the trunk, which split vertically to form a narrow doorway.

“Can all of us even fit through that?” Caroline asked, looking skeptical.

“If I can, you can.” The lifeguard stepped into the tree and disappeared from sight.

Nicole exchanged a look with the other women before she followed. Inside she found Julianne standing with an older woman in a large room with a brown floor, pale green walls and a light yellow ceiling. Against one wall stood a duplicate of the blackened stone tree where Derdrui had met her gruesome end .

“Okay, I brought everyone, Aunt Klee. So where’s the fire?” Julianne demanded. “By the way, we can’t stay in the forest world with you like I did before, kay? We’ve got husbands and a clan and a magical island to look after now.”

“Take a moment and look into the future, my dear child.” The woodland goddess smiled a little as she went to stand beside the ash tree. With her long green fingers she touched the scorched section on the trunk, which turned to transparent glass.

The image of a young, pretty woman in a dingy-looking bathroom appeared. She hovered over the mold-stained sink, shaking pills out of a bottle onto her palm.

Valerie took in a quick breath, and looked as if she’d been punched in the stomach. “That’s my first husband’s lover, Candace Wilcox.”

“After she knocked your car off the lake bridge, she drove to this motel,” Klee said, nodding. “I expect she’s planning her escape.”

“That’s not what she’s planning to do now.” Valerie recognized the medication in the young woman’s hand, which she swallowed along with gulps from a bottle of bourbon. “Those are Dale’s sleeping pills.”

The image shifted to that of Candace passed out in an over-filled bath tub. Slowly her body slid down until her head disappeared beneath the water.

Valerie rushed toward the tree window, and pressed her hands against the surface. “No, she’s just a young woman. My husband never should have gotten involved with her.”

“That’s awful,” Lark whispered, and then went still as the image on the window shifted to that of a tall, dark man in an orange prisoner’s jumpsuit, talking on a phone to a fearful-looking brunette. “Wait, that’s Lawrence and Kate. Why is he in prison?”

“You were not the first to be swindled by your fiancé and your best friend,” the woodland goddess said sadly. “The IRS will learn that Lawrence hasn’t paid taxes on the money he stole with Katie’s help from his clients, his firm and you. Once they finish long prison sentences for embezzlement, fraud, and tax evasion, they’ll be drowning in debt for the rest of their lives.”

Lark approached the window, and watched her best friend sob as her ex-fiancé shook his head. “Well, at least they’ll have each other.”

“They will be filing for divorce while they’re incarcerated,” Klee told her.

The seamstress uttered a strangled sound as she turned away .

“Go ahead and have a good laugh, Lark. It’s pretty funny.” Caroline marched up to the tree and eyed the woodland goddess. “What happened to that bastard who left me to die?”

The window shifted to a view of a charter boat in the middle of the ocean, and a group of men boarding it from another, older vessel.

“Richard tried to hire another diver, but after your disappearance no one was willing to work for him. These men you see here steal boats to use for transporting their drugs,” Klee said. “Since they will find him alone on his boat, which is the perfect size for their endeavors, they should have no difficulty taking it from him.”

Caroline’s eyes widened as she watched the men toss Rich over the side before taking both boats and sailing off. “How far off shore is he?”

“Thirty miles off the coast of St. Augustine,” Klee said. “Almost exactly in the same spot he abandoned you. He’ll try to swim back to shore, but he’ll have an asthma attack after just five miles.”

“I don’t need to see that.” The diver turned her back on the tree.

Julianne pressed a hand against her forehead as she regarded her Aunt. “I don’t want to watch someone kill Mitch for the money he gets selling my parents’ farm. ”

“He’ll never have the chance to put it on the market, my sweet girl.” The woodland goddess made a sweeping gesture, and an image of Julianne’s husband walking with a smartly-dressed woman through an orchard appeared. “Your conniving spouse will only meet with one realtor, I’m afraid.”

Julianne’s eyes narrowed as she followed the pair’s progress through the trees and into a burned area of bare ground that had been recently covered with a thick layer of mulch. “Why would he go there? My dad never sealed off the old well–”

“You mean, the old well right where Mr. Fumagalli will be walking,” Klee said as Julianne’s husband suddenly dropped into a large, dark hole that appeared in the mulch.

The lifeguard peered at the window, which showed the woman waving over the hole before sauntering off and shifting into the woodland goddess. “You’re not going to leave him in there, are you, Auntie?”

“That man needs to suffer for murdering your parents,” Klee chided. “If he hadn’t posted all those no-trespassing signs, perhaps someone would hear him calling for help.”

Nicole went to Julianne, who had started crying, and glared at the immortal. “I think that’s enough, thank you. ”

“You haven’t seen what happened to your brother after he threw you into the sea,” the woodland goddess said.

Nicole saw Hudson popping the corks of a half-dozen champagne bottles, which he chugged down like water. After guzzling the last one he collapsed on the floor, rolled onto his back, and laughed until he fell asleep.

“First that young man will convince your father to give up the search for you, and then he’ll torment him by claiming he drove you to commit suicide. Stomach cancer will kill your father shortly after he writes a new will naming Hudson as his heir.” Klee made a tsking sound. “As you see here, your brother will have quite the celebration party after the funeral.”

A tired sadness swamped her. “I’m sure someone else will take my father’s fortune away from him. Probably my cousin Cameron after she divorces him.”

“She’ll never marry him,” the older woman said. “As my sweet girl would say, wait for it.”

Hudson suddenly puked, but he seemed unable to roll onto his side. He began choking and then convulsing, eventually turning purple and going limp.

Repulsed, Nicole took a step back. “No, that can’t be.”

“Drowned in his own vomit,” Caroline murmured. “That’s almost as nasty as Rich’s death. ”

“All of this is too awful,” Lark said, looking as if she wanted to throw up now. “I never wanted any revenge. I just thought I got left at the altar because of my bad luck.”

“Maybe that’s why your two bad people are still alive in the future,” Julianne said, and then regarded the woodland goddess. “I know you want to murder Mitchell because he killed my parents, Auntie, but that doesn’t make it right. You can’t do that to him.”

“She’s right,” Valerie said, her eyes brimming with tears. “None of us want this kind of revenge.”

“You’re wrong,” Caroline said, looking pale now. “This was exactly what I prayed would happen to Rich.” She stalked over to Klee. “Is what I wished going to sentence that son of a bitch to a horrible death?”

The woodland goddess took hold of her fists. “It had nothing to do with any wish of yours, my child. Eternity may take its time, but it always seeks balance, especially when a timeline is disrupted by greed and hatred.”

“This isn’t balance. It’s how I almost died.” The diver’s gray eyes filled with tears. “No one should have to go through that.”

Nicole wanted to believe what Klee had told them, ghastly as it was, but her experience with Merrivane told her that the woodland goddess wasn’t being entirely honest. “You said we were looking into the future. None of what you’ve shown us has happened yet, has it?”

Klee gave her an exasperated look. “Not yet, my dear, but this is how they all should be rewarded for what they did. They simply need a little push in the direction of the appropriate, which I will be quite happy to give them.”

“Then you haven’t done anything yet.” She turned to Caroline. “This isn’t fate. It’s an offer. She’ll make this happen to them, if we want her kind of balance.”

“Absolutely not,” the diver told the woodland goddess. “Whatever happens to Rich naturally in our time is fine with me. Do not interfere with his fate.”

Valerie nodded. “Let Candace face the consequences of what she did in the same manner. Please do not make her kill herself.”

“And no pushing Mitchell down the well,” Julianne chimed in. “That’s totes gross, Auntie. He needs to go to jail, and once Eva finds out I’m gone, I think he will.”

“The IRS will catch Lawrence and Katie eventually, because they always do,” Lark said. “So that’s a no for me as well.”

“What about you, Princess?” Klee walked up to Nicole. “Your brother will inherit everything after your father dies, in agony, believing he drove you to kill yourself.”

“Maybe he will. Or maybe my cousin Brittany will tell my dad that’s a load of crap. She knows I’d never do that, and I think Dad will believe her,” she said. “She’ll take my place and make sure he gets treatment for his cancer, too, and she won’t let my brother abuse him. I bet she’ll even have my disappearance investigated to see if there’s proof I was murdered.”

“Your brother would likely try to kill her next,” the old woman said, looking upset now.

“You’re forgetting about my Aunt Merrivane,” Nicole said. “She protected me all these years. She’ll make sure nothing happens to Ritzie.”

The woodland goddess looked faintly disgruntled, but then a beautiful smile lit up her face. “So be it. All that the five of you have wished shall be done.”

Klee went over to Julianne and tugged her down for a kiss, and then the room spun around them and suddenly they were back standing in the newly-bloomed, no longer stone forest.

No one said much as they walked back to the castle, but just before they reached the gates Nicole stopped and turned around to stare back from where they had come.

“What’s the matter, Nick?” Julianne asked. “If you’re weirded out by Aunt Klee, she’s always like that. You know, weird. She’ll keep her word, though, and make sure stuff happens in the future naturally, like we want. Like when I told her I wanted a family, and she let me leave the forest world.”

“Does that mean it was always up to us?” Caroline asked.

“I think it was more like a test than a choice.” A terrible shakiness came over Nicole. “All Derdrui ever wanted was revenge. Maybe she even deserved it for what the prince did to her in Elphyne. But in the end, what she did trying to get it came back on her, and ate her up alive.”

Lark grimaced and coughed into her hand. “Please don’t mention that part.”

“So you think Klee offered us revenge to see what we’d do?” Caroline looked skeptical. “Not a great test. What if we had let her do all that gruesome stuff to the people who hurt us?”

“I don’t know.” Nicole looked up at the stronghold, and saw Duncan watching her from atop the second curtain wall. “Maybe nothing. Or maybe we wouldn’t be allowed to stay here with our guys. She’s not human or Fae, so we’ll never know what really happens.”

“Speak for yourself,” Caroline said. “I plan to live until the twenty-first century just so I can call myself and tell me not to get on that damned boat with Rich.” As Valerie laughed, she glared at her. “What’s so funny about that? It’s perfect.”

The laird’s wife put her arm around the diver. “If you really would do that when you reach the twenty-first century, my dear, you would never have come back in the first place.”

Julianne let out a frustrated sound. “I just didn’t want Mitchell to die like that. I mean, he should die for killing my parents, but only when he’s an old, old, old dude after fifty or sixty years of not having anything he likes in prison. Okay, so we’re done? I want some of that really good bread with the apple jam. And the spicy tea. Not the flower tea that tastes like perfume.” She sauntered off into the stronghold.

After the morning meal, Nyall came to fetch Nicole, and accompanied her to the laird’s chamber, where Connal, Shaw, Fletcher and Duncan were waiting.

“Please don’t throw me off the island,” she said, curtseying politely to the laird. “I just gave up a chance to avenge myself. It was very difficult, and I’m still not sure if it was the right choice, but I’m not changing my mind. A woodland goddess is going to look after my dad, so I can stay, if you’ll let me. ”

Connal’s expression turned puzzled. “We’ve no intention of sending you away, my lady. Indeed, we wish consult with you on the matter of the former Cait Sith.”

“Former?” She glanced at her lover, who nodded. “I know the hybrids were healed by that explosion of light last night. It’s why the men found all the dead sharks in the stone forest.”

“Aye, and they found more, my love. If I may show her, my lord?” When Connal nodded Duncan took her hand in his, and led her out into the passage.

“Was this just an excuse to get me alone?” Nicole asked as he halted at the watch tower landing, and folded her into his arms. “You could have just called me to the infirmary.”

“Over the winter I’m training a village lad that Lady Valerie deems clever and eager to learn the healing arts,” he told her as he kissed her brow, her cheeks and then her lips. “’Twill give me more time with my lady wife.”

She looked up at him. Since the night of the attack his hair had lost its silver-blue streaks, making him appear like a younger version of himself. Like her he would never age, and they would be together for a very long time.

“I haven’t said I’ll marry you,” she chided, although her heart wasn’t in it. “I’m waiting for a proper proposal. With a ring that doesn’t belong to your brother’s first wife,” she added.

Duncan took her up the stairs to the battlements, where he took hold of her hand and removed the silver ring, which he placed on the wall. He then went down on one knee as he took out another ring, small and made of plain gold.

“I love you, my sweet, brave Nicole,” he said. “Shall you do me a great honor and accept me as your husband?”

“I shall, my wonderful love.” She smiled as he slid the ring onto her finger, and then stepped into his arms and met his lips with hers.

They kissed forever in that moment, and when he finally lifted his head and turned to pick up Lady Joana’s ring from the wall, a seagull came and snatched it away.

“Don’t worry,” she told him as the bird sailed off over the water, into which it dropped the glittering ring. “It will find its way to another woman in trouble who needs to be saved. I’m sure of it.”

“There are other ladies who need our help, I fear.” He tucked her arm through his. “Come down to the storage rooms, and I’ll show you.”

Once they climbed down to the big rooms under the watch tower where Valerie had kept their vassals safe during the attack, Nicole saw that a group of the shifters had set up a primitive nursery, and were caring for dozens of small infants.

“Where did all these children come– Oh, no.” When she looked at Duncan he nodded. “So the enchantment didn’t just change the Cait Sith. It changed the hybrids’ offspring, too?”

“Aye. ’Twould seem the bairns all kept close by their máthairs.”

Her gaze swept across the small cots, makeshift cribs, and tiny mattresses. “What are they?”

“Halfling, we reckon. Likely Woodland Fae halflings, as the Cait Sith became, after we triggered the final enchantment. We shallnae ken until they grow a bit more.” He hesitated before he said, “They’re no’ all. ’Tis another hundred or so in the stronghold being looked after by our maids and the former shifters. ’Tis something else about these bairns you should ken.”

Fiacail came over with a plump, bright-eyed baby cuddled against her. “Mistress Fairburn, what think you of our daughters?”

“They’re female?” All of them?” Nicole asked, and when Duncan nodded she pressed her lips together until she was sure she wouldn’t laugh. “Okay, then in about twenty years we’ll have a lot of very eligible immortal young ladies on the island. I think the clan and the Selseus can handle that, don’t you? ”

Amusement warmed his dark eyes. “Aye, my lady.”

THE END

· · · · ·

Another book awaits you in Immortal Highlander Clan McKeran (Tasgall Book 1) .

For a sneak peek, turn the page.