Page 4 of Beloved Enemy
As Autumn scrambled out of the way and to her feet, Reid gripped Marcus’s hand firmly, pulling him to his feet and notreleasing his hand straight away. He stood eye to eye with Marcus.
“What the bluidy hell is happening?”
Breathlessly, Marcus replied, “I dinna ken. But Reid, Idoken her...somehow.” And then strangely, and with a sudden urgency, he added, “If anything should happen to me, today or at any time—when it does, I need ye to assure that Balla Àrd survives. Petition the king,” he instructed fiercely. “Take Balla Àrd for the Nicholsons.”
Only made more befuddled, Reid stared at him as if he’d spoken in tongues.
“She has cast a spell on ye,” Reid accused.
“She has nae,” Marcus said, stepping to the side, but not displacing Reid’s hand, being very weak. “Nae a spell of the black magic ilk. But I canna leave her, nae can I have her taken away.”
Reid walked him outside the door. And because he did not give any command to detain Autumn, she followed, hovering about at Marcus’s right side. Turning to his captain, Tavish, who made to follow, Reid shook his head.
The bailey was empty. The trial would draw a crowd—or would have—but it was scheduled to take place tomorrow, not today. Thus, no crowd gathered or waited in Kingswood’s courtyard. It was supremely quiet, almost eerily so.
Ten feet outside the door, Marcus bent over, putting his hands on his knees, more breathless still.
The woman, Autumn laid her hand gently upon his back, her face masked with tender concern.
Just as Marcus straightened himself and drew a full breath, Autumn dropped her hand and turned away from both men, staring off into the distance before tipping her face to the sky.
“Autumn?” Marcus questioned.
Reid consulted the sky as well, where storm clouds gathered.
The woman spun around, her face alive with panic.
“It’s happening again, Marcus,” she moaned. The briefly bright orbs of her gray eyes now darkened into a haunting, ashen hue. It seemed the weight of the world had settled there, in her eyes, and her darting frantic glances betrayed a rising turmoil within.
“Whatis happening?” Marcus ground out.
Reid felt it, what had wrought the renewed panic in the woman, the ominous shift in the air that seemed to crackle with an unseen energy. It was as if the atmosphere itself had thickened, heavy with a dark, sinister tension.
“They’re going to take me away again,” Autumn cried. She threw her arms around Marcus’s neck and wept against his ear. “I can’t lose you again. Marcus, I love you.”
“I will nae let them,” Marcus vowed. He wrapped one arm around her waist while he drew his sword with the other. “I will nae let ye go.”
Reid drew his sword as well. He had faced down charging armies twice the size of his own, stood against foes with nothing but sheer will and determination, and never once had he felt this way. A chill ran down his spine, and a deep-seated alarm gripped his heart, unlike anything he had ever experienced.
Pivoting with Autumn in his arms, Marcus spun in circles to find and meet the threat. Likewise, Reid pivoted, considering every direction, though nothing was seen.
An unseen force struck Reid with devastating power, throwing him onto his back. His sword was torn from his grasp as if wrenched away by an invisible hand.
He lifted his forearm over his brow, the defensive motion mechanical.
But nothing happened. He was not touched, not struck or slain.
When he lowered his arm, the sky was cloudless, and the air was no longer encumbered by an unnatural weight.
And Marcus and the woman Autumn were nowhere to be found.
Chapter One
She sat miserably, taking stock of her life.
Somewhere, somehow, she’d veered off track.
Forget her normal existence, her ho-hum life, lonely and lackluster despite a number of very nice friends—married friends mostly, who hung out often but as happy couples, making Charlotte feel like the proverbial third-wheel, or fifth or seventh on some occasions.
