Page 81 of The Winter Laird

Nioclas’s stomach dropped. “What do you mean left the castle?”

“She’s gone. Many people told me she left with Odhran for the village, about an hour ago, and no one has seen her since.”

Nioclas slammed his fists onto the table, causing the inkwell to tip onto a stack of parchment. “Just Odhran? Did the gatekeeper let her out?”

“He’s dead,” Donovan said.

Nioclas swore again. Battle cries floated up to the chamber, and he grabbed his sword. “Burke came for Brianagh—secure the stairs!” Nioclas called to Donovan as he and Aidan ran from the room. They charged down the steps, directly into a full-fledged attack. Releasing a battle cry, they jumped into the fray, Nioclas shouting orders as he fought to get through the great hall.

He had to find Brianagh before Burke did, but if he knew his sire, he probably already had her.

“Kildare, put down your sword!” Nioclas called out, spying the laird near the front door, clearly waiting for him. “You’re losing your men in a wasted battle!”

“Never!” Kildare spat. “You’ve ruined my daughter! Our honor is lost!”

If he wasn’t so busy fending off two Kildares bent on killing him, Nioclas would’ve shaken his head. He’d seen men go to war for less, but he felt compelled to yell, “I didn’t ruin your daughter. She will make a perfectly good wife to someone else. I offered you alliance—wasn’t that enough?”

“How can we ally with one who would steal his own sire’s bride while being promised to another?” Kildare sneered as Nioclas finished off both men with a clean swipe across their bellies.

“My sire has no bride.”

“Oh, he does. The O’Rourke lass, MacWilliam—you stole her from his bedroom!”

Nioclas’s eyes narrowed. “You are a fool, Kildare. I offered you alliance, and you chose to listen to a murderer instead. ’Tis truly a bad decision…and I rescued her from his oubliette. Which,” he said as he crossed blades with the man, “is a far less dangerous place than his bed.”

“When I am laird of your people,” Kildare said as he leapt backward to avoid Nioclas’s lethal swing, “I will ensure they know what a treacherous man you are!”

“Treachery?” Nioclas barked out a laugh. “If you need to know about treachery, look no further than my sire. Pray tell, where is he while your men die all around you?”

“Rescuing his bride from the likes of you,” Kildare replied smugly.

Nioclas felt his first true fear since he held a sword to his father’s throat twenty-two years ago.

“I do not want to kill you,” Nioclas warned, “but you’ve put my wife into danger. I suggest you pull your men out of my castle and go home with your tails between your legs.”

Kildare narrowed his eyes. “We stay until I can carry your head back to put on my spike.”

Nioclas smiled grimly and with renewed purpose. “Not the right answer.”

* * *

Hours later,Donovan met Nioclas in the stables. Both were covered in blood. Wearily, they looked out over the bailey. Bodies lay strewn about the courtyard, as they did in the great hall. They were lucky that only a dozen MacWilliams were lost. Kildare and Nioclas’s sire did not realize how prepared his men were to jump into battle.

With Kildare dead, there was only one soul left that needed dispatching to avenge his clansmen’s deaths and his wife’s kidnapping. Nioclas wiped his sword on the dirt.

“Where do you think he took her?” Donovan asked, resting his head against one of the stalls.

“What I’m about to tell you goes no farther than this building,” Nioclas said, “and I tell you because I trust you more than any other, save my brother.” He took a deep breath. “Brianagh is the O’Rourke legacy—she’s from the future. She and O’Malley lived there until the day she was thrown into my sire’s dungeon. I have proof of it, but I cannot show you. You must trust my word. According to O’Malley, Brianagh can move time, although he’s not sure if she knows that. What she knows is that her children will have the ability, and that I’m the fated one to give her those children. They traveled here using an ancient structure in the east—and that is where Burke laid in wait for them. He knew where to find her—I don’t know how. I believe he’ll try to take her back there, then try to get her to move time to return to a time when he could easily kill me.”

Donovan was staring at Nioclas as though he’d lost his mind. “Nioclas, did you take a blow to your head?”

Nioclas closed his eyes. “I wish I did,” he replied quietly. “But nay. I did not.”

“A structure,” Donovan echoed. “In the east.”

Nioclas shot him a glare. “Yes, Maguire. In the east.”

“You think she’s the one!” Disbelief was written all over Donovan’s face. “The key to the O’Rourke legacy?”

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