Beyond the Highland Myst(93)

Adam flashed a blinding smile at the Hawk. "Looks like you lost after all, pretty bird."

"Nay!" Hawk roared, lunging for the smithy and drawing his sword in one fluid sweep. The charger bucked at the Hawk's bellow and sidestepped wildly.

Rushka grabbed the Hawk's arm and cleaved his blow down so hard that the sword lodged in the earth at his feet.

Adam raised his hand.

"Nay!" Adrienne quickly restrained the smithy's hand. "You will not hurt him! No bloodshed. You prom—it's messy," she appended. "I don't like blood. It makes me ill."

Adam cocked his head and lowered his hand. "Your wish is my command, Beauty."

"Is this truly what you wish, lass?" Hawk's eyes were black and soulless.

"Yes," she said softly. Carefully.

"He is not forcing you?" Tell me, just say the word, wife, and I will kill him with my bare hands.

She shook her head and met his gaze levelly.

"Say it," Hawk gritted. "He's not forcing you?"

"He uses… no coercion against… me."

"Do you… love… him?" He hated himself when his voice broke roughly over the words. His throat was so tight he could scarcely breathe.

"I love him the way I loved Eberhard," she sighed. She smiled vapidly at Adam, who suddenly narrowed his eyes at her last words.

"Enough, Beauty." Adam captured her hand in his. "The universe awaits us and your pleasure is my command."

Hawk's heart wrenched and twisted. The damned Ever-hard. Her first love, whether he'd ever made love to her or not. He turned away before he could make a bloody massacre of the ridge singlehandedly.

When he finally returned his gaze to her, it was too late—she was gone.

The mass of hundreds on the ridge at Dalkeith-Upon-the-Sea stood numbly as both horses and riders simply vanished into the night air. One moment they were there. The next—nothing.

But a soft voice floated on the breeze. You were right about your falcons, Sidheach, came the strange last words of the woman he'd loved and who had effectively destroyed the once proud laird of Dalkeith-Upon-the-Sea.

Lydia clutched at his sleeve limply.

Rushka cursed harshly in a language no one had ever heard before.

Hawk only stared blindly into the night.




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CHAPTER 30




"where are we?" adrienne asked adam woodenly.

He was leading her mount by the reins down a dark path through a strange forest. Twisted branches wove a gnarled canopy above her head. Occasionally a ray of faint light would pierce the dense gloom and the creaking branches would glimmer like bleached bones.

No crickets. No normal noises, only the screech of flying creatures. The bracken rustled, revealing brief glimpses of dwarfed gnomes with wild faces. She shivered violently and hugged her arms around herself.

"You are in my realm."

"Who are you really, Adam Black?" Her voice broke on the simple sentence, raw and full of anguish.

For an answer, she received a mocking smile. Nothing more.

"Tell me," she demanded dully. But the dark man at her side rode in silence.

"At least tell me why."

"Why what?" He cocked a curious brow at her.

"Why did you do this to me? What did I do? Why did you send me back in time and take me away again?" And break my heart and leave me dying inside?

Adam stopped their mounts, amusement lighting his dark visage. He reached out a hand to stroke her pale cheek and she shuddered beneath his hand. "Oh, Beauty, is that what you think? How very self-engrossed and utterly charming you are." His laughter rolled. But it was his next words that shafted through her soul like a knife. "It had nothing to do with you, my winsome beauty. Any beautiful woman would have sufficed. But I thought you hated beautiful men. I heard you, there in your library, swearing off men, all men. Yet, it would seem I was mistaken. Or you lied, which is more likely."

"What are you saying?" she breathed faintly. Any woman would have sufficed? Her heart was laid bare and cleaved through by this man's twisted game, and he dared say so baldly that it hadn't mattered one whit who she was? A pawn? Again? Her jaw locked temporarily. I will not scream. I will not. When she was certain she could speak without raging she said coolly, "You got what you wanted. Why won't you just tell me who you are?" She had to find out more about this man to avenge herself. To avenge her husband.

"True. I did get what I wanted. The Hawk looked utterly destroyed, wouldn't you say? Crushed." Adam flicked his hand lightly over hers. "You did very well tonight, Beauty. But tell me"—his eyes searched hers intently, and she stiffened when it seemed they might penetrate into her very soul—"what did you mean about his falcons?"