Page 55 of Awoken
Ross grasped it and passed the weapon to Leanna, before he pulled out the quiver of arrows from beneath the woman’s body and looped it over Leanna’s shoulder.
Their gazes fused for an instant, and then he flashed her a hard smile.
“Time to put yer skills to use, m’eudail.”
My darling.
The endearment cut through the horror of the attack, just for an instant, and then Ross was swinging away and raising his sword to fend off another of MacKinnon’s men.
They would know him, Leanna realized, for until a day ago he’d been Captain of The Dunan Guard.
And yet Ross didn’t hesitate to bring the man down, slicing him across the neck. The warrior crumpled to the dirt, blood pumping from the wound, his body convulsing.
Leanna’s heart started to pound at the sight, and she swallowed down bile.
Ross moved back from the fallen warrior, his attention shifting around them. “The fighting’s too thick here,” he observed. “We need to find another way out.” He glanced Leanna’s way. “Draw an arrow and follow me.”
With trembling fingers, Leanna did as bid.
She suddenly wished she hadn’t boasted to him of her skill with a bow. It was true that she’d spent most of the last two years training, and that she had a good aim. But that was when she was calm and focused.
Not when she felt sick with fear.
Nonetheless, she wasn’t going to admit such to Ross. He needed her support, and she would have to give it.
Leanna notched the arrow into the longbow and hurried after Ross, retracing their footsteps toward the center of the village.
And when they returned there, they discovered chaos.
The fighting from the east had shifted in, and Craeg was now facing the MacKinnon warriors on the edge of the clearing that marked the heart of the settlement.
Upon spying the fighting, Ross breathed a curse.
As they’d expected, things were going ill for the outlaws.
“We should keep going,” Leanna whispered. She glanced south, at the steep wooded hillside that backed onto the village. Surely there would be fewer MacKinnon men up there. If they ran now, no one would see.
Ross glanced over his shoulder, following the direction of her gaze.
She could see he was torn. He wanted to run, but something prevented him.
Spitting out another curse, he shook his head. “Not yet … ye stay here and try to pick off as many of The Dunan Guard as ye can with yer bow.” He managed a harsh smile then. “Be careful of yer aim though.”
With that, Ross turned and strode off toward the skirmish.
Panic grasped Leanna by the throat as she watched him go.
What’s he doing?
They needed to flee, but instead he’d decided to join the outlaws. Stepping up to Craeg’s side, Ross swung his sword at a huge MacKinnon warrior who bore down upon them.
Terror welled within Leanna.
Mother Mary, we’re all doomed.
Leanna gulped in a breath, and then another, in an effort to quell the fear that now pumped through her.
Part of her just wanted to turn on her heel and run—and yet she didn’t. She couldn’t abandon Ross, not when he was acting so bravely.
