Midnight's Captive(63)

“How is Laura?” Ronnie asked.

Charon didn’t look at Arran’s woman. Instead he pinned his gaze on Fallon. “Laura is no’ to be questioned until I’m done with her.”

“You think Wallace is using her?” Fallon asked, his brow furrowed in worry.

“I doona know what to think,” Charon admitted. He needed some time to collect his thoughts before he told the others too much. “I know it was her who used the magic, but she has none now. Unless she knows how to conceal it.”

Reaghan said, “If she can hide her magic, that would make her a very powerful Druid indeed.”

“Has any Druid ever been able to do that?” Camdyn asked.

Isla turned her bright blue eyes to Camdyn. “I’ve never known one who could. Not even Deirdre managed that, though I don’t know if it’s because she didn’t want to hide it or couldn’t.”

“How did Laura escape Wallace?” Phelan asked into the silence.

Charon scrubbed a hand down his face. “He said droughs were the good Druids and that Warriors were evil. I told Laura of the Druids, but nothing more. So she doesna know what to believe. It was Jason’s story, along with some of his magic that convinced her to go with him. But she didna tell me how she got away.”

“Why are you no’ still questioning her, then?” Lucan asked.

Charon glanced at his hands. He still felt her smooth skin against him, still remembered what it was like to thrust into her tight body and make her scream with pleasure.

There was more to Laura than what met the eye. He needed to earn her trust if he was going to learn anything. After working so closely with her, he’d thought he knew Laura. Apparently her secrets were as great as his own.

“I had to clear my head.”

“The night Laura was almost taken. I felt mie magic. It was brief, but I felt it,” Phelan said.

Charon looked at his friend. “I, as well. I’ve known Laura for years. I’d know if she was a Druid.”

“Would you?” Tara asked as she sat on the arm of Ramsey’s chair.

“I worked with her every day,” Charon said, holding back the anger, not at Tara, but because Tara was voicing doubts that he had already asked himself. “I’d know.”

Ramsey laid his hand atop Tara’s arm. “It’s true, love. Charon would’ve picked up on it.”

“Then how is it one minute she has magic and the next she doesn’t?” Cara asked.

Charon didn’t have an answer for Lucan’s wife. “She admitted to having magic, but she said it’s gone again.”

Ian gave a snort. “That doesna make sense.”

“It does,” Tara said defensively. “I could never count on my magic. Maybe hers is the same.”

Marcail walked to him. “Tara has a point. You said yourself you couldn’t always feel Tara’s magic, Ramsey.”

“Aye,” Charon murmured. If he could only get Laura to trust him again, she might tell him everything.

“I can help you.”

Charon looked at Marcail and the hand she hovered over his arm. Her gift was the ability to take away emotions, but in doing so she made herself ill.

“Nay. No’ only would Quinn take my head for making you sick, but it wouldna help.” He needed to work through all the emotions—as difficult as they were to piece together. All because it involved Laura.

Marcail rolled her turquoise eyes. “Quinn would understand that I did it for a friend. Besides, I think it would help. You’ve too much in that head of yours. You want to believe Laura isn’t working with Jason, but you can’t be sure.”

“I can clear that up with just a few minutes with Laura,” Reaghan said.

Charon didn’t turn away the glass of whisky placed in his hand by Hayden. He drained it in one swallow. It was filled again immediately.

The Dreagan whisky slid smoothly down his throat and spread warmth as it landed in his stomach. It dulled the ache that had gripped his chest like iron manacles since the moment he knew Jason had Laura.

But the unanswered questions, and the tormented look in Laura’s pale green eyes kept him on edge. It wasn’t just the anguish he read on her face, it was a bone-deep betrayal that distressed her. Who, exactly, had betrayed her?

He wanted to hand Laura over to the Druids so his mind wouldn’t be jumbled anymore. Let them sort out the answers in just a few brief moments. But before Laura was his lover, she had been his friend. She deserved more. Especially from him.

“Magic was used in her flat,” Ramsey said. “I noticed it when we found Laura unconscious, but I assumed she’d been the one to use it. Perhaps it was no’ her.”