Page 72 of Beyond Dreams

Kayla had taken Holly’s hand and now held it tight.

“Duncan has come, is my guess,” she said, wearing a small and hopeful smile.

“Fat chance,” Holly retorted, and then felt bad for spoiling Kayla’s wishful thinking. Still, he was the last person she wanted to see.

They advanced down the stairs, Holly taking note of the way the men stood shoulder to shoulder in the hall, rather blocking the stairs. She saw only one other person, but he was lined up with the men, an older guy, she judged, with graying hair and not quite as tall or as broad as Aedan, Michael, or Graeme.

“That’s Airril,” Kayla whispered to her. “He might be the only other person who knows our story, since he saw Cora’s witch once. He’s good.”

Holly nodded mindlessly at this, her jaw dropping when as they advanced and the men kind of parted in front of them, revealing that the tiny figure of Sidheag.

While she gaped at this, Graeme approached her.

“Something is afoot, lass,” he said. “We need to get gone.”

Holly ignored him. “You!” She raged, pulling her hand free of Kayla’s and stalking forward. Graeme caught her arm, obviously not wanting her to get too close to the witch. “This is all your fault.” Tears fell instantly. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t discount the possibility that she cried because it wasn’t Duncan who’d come for her, but the witch. “How dare you play with people’s lives the way you have!”

“Just like I said,” Cora remarked behind her, a definitiveumhmmheard in her tone.

Sidheag stepped forward, completely unruffled, seeming unconcerned with the very large and armed men standing in front of her. “You were meant to stay with the MacQuillan, lass.”

She didn’t know what all that might mean but countered with all the facts as she did know them. “No, I wasn’t. I couldn’t. First, he threw me out. And second, you said all I had to do was marry him, that I had to get out of Hewgill House to get home. And I did that, and I want to go home now, Sidheag.” She frowned then, considering the long ride she’d sat through to get to Newburn, wondering how Sidheag could have managed the trek. “How did you...get here?”

“Dinna fret about that, lass,” Sidheag said. “You need to—”

“I need to go home!” She cried.

“Witch,” Graeme growled, “I’m warning you to back up right now.”

Sidheag turned her small eyes upon Graeme, utterly unaffected by the menace of his warning. She actually moved closer, tilting her wrinkled face up to him. “You will go while we stay here. You are promised to another.”

Holly gasped and turned on Graeme, taking both his arms in hers. “You have to leave. Go, Graeme. Now. Those are almost exactly the words she said to me before she flung me back in time.”

They were interrupted by Sidheag wobbling on her feet and then darting her eyes all around, over her head.

“Who comes? Show yourself,nighean,” she commanded, her voice no longer scratchy and weak.

All the faces in the hall lifted to the timber planked ceiling overhead. The hall was alive, charged with an eerie current of electricity.

“Come now,” Sidheag encouraged sharply.

“I am here,” said another voice, clear as day.

All faces and eyes whirled around toward the new voice and another figure, standing just inside the closed door. Not standing, actually, hovering, a full foot off the ground. She was radiant, literally, complete with a soft glow of light surrounding her. Her hair and robes were long and flowing, her eyes glassy.

At the same time all the men drew their swords, all at exactly the same moment, and while they herded the women behind the, rather into a circle flanked by their broad bodies, the man called Airril grumbled, “Jesu, not ye again!” while Cora cried out, not with any joy, “Oh, my God! Samara! What are you doing here?”

“Away, witch! I’ll strike ye down ere ye take her!” Lucas roared at her.

But the newcomer, Samara, who was as lovely and young as Sidheag was not, had eyes only for Sidheag.

“Why do you play at games?” Her voice was soft, almost wispy in resonance, seeming to have its own echo.

“’Tis nae games, Samara, as well you know.”

“No longer, nae, but it was when you started it.”

“Same as you, was it nae?”

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