“No’ as long as Quinn is alive,” Galen answered.
“How is this possible?”
For the next fifteen minutes, she listened to the story of Rome and the Warriors’ creation. She learned of mies and droughs, and MacLeod Castle. She found out it was a shield of magic surrounding the castle that allowed Aiden to grow up, and then stop aging while he was within the shield.
“So he’ll age if he’s not in the shield,” Britt said.
Quinn nodded. “His mother and I have been verra protective of him. It was his idea to find out why the drough blood reacted the way it does to Warriors, and why another Warrior’s blood can combat the drough blood.”
Britt pulled out the slide of blood she had been testing. “This is Warrior blood, then? One touch of the drough blood, and it destroyed the red and white blood cells.”
“Aye, that’s my blood,” Quinn answered.
Britt set aside the slide and motioned for Galen. He went to her without question, and didn’t so much as flinch when she pricked his finger. Several drops of his blood landed to mix with Quinn’s.
She then hurried to put the slide under the microscope. “Oh, shit,” she mumbled.
Britt looked up from the microscope at Galen and Quinn. “Now that I know what’s really going on, I know what I need to do.”
“We can no’ stay here,” Galen said. “It’ll be only a matter of time before Wallace finds us.”
A ghost of a grin showed on Quinn’s face as he grabbed his phone. “I’ve got an idea.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Charon watched Laura carefully as he paused in his telling of the story. He had waited for her to turn from him, or tell him to stop. But she just returned his look.
“How long were you in Deirdre’s dungeons?”
“Too damn long,” he said, and turned his head to the side. “Time no longer seemed to matter as I had to fight every second of every day from letting Ranmond take over. Hearing him demand blood and death in my head constantly. It would’ve been so easy to give in.”
He expected her to be repulsed by his words. When she met his gaze, he continued. “Deirdre liked to use the threat of harming a Warrior’s family to get him to align with her. When I refused, she tortured me until I forgot the man I was. I let Ranmond take over for just a moment, but it was during that small space in time that she put my father in the dungeon with me.”
“Oh, God,” Laura murmured.
Charon sighed, but even after so many centuries, the pain of what he had done was still with him. “When I once more got control from Ranmond, I opened my eyes to discover I had killed my father. Deirdre threatened to toss in other members of my family if I didna spy for her.”
“Did you?”
“Aye. The thought of killing another member of my family, whether they were my immediate family or, years later, extended family, I couldna imagine it. So, I spied on Quinn, Ian, Duncan, and Arran for her. But I didna tell her everything.”
“You would’ve been strong enough not to kill anyone she put with you.”
“Was I?” he asked softly. “I’m no’ so sure. I have control of Ranmond now, but the droughs always seem to know what to do so that I lose that control.”
“You’re here with the MacLeods now. They’ve forgiven you.”
Charon shrugged. “Perhaps. I have no’ forgiven myself though.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell me who you really were?”
“I kept all of this from you no’ because you’re a woman, but because I didna believe you a Druid.”
“Others in Ferness know what you are.”
He wished it otherwise, but the situation had been out of his control. “Aye. When Deirdre sent her wyrran, I had no choice but to defend the village.”
“Where is Deirdre now?”
“Dead. As is Declan Wallace, the man responsible for bringing Deidre forward in time.”
Laura tucked her feet beneath her. “If Deirdre was such a powerful drough, how was she defeated?”
“She underestimated us. Declan did the same, but we assumed Jason would be like Declan. He’s no’. Jason has a different strategy altogether.”
“Can Jason be defeated?”
Charon wanted to say yes, but he didn’t want to lie to Laura. She deserved the truth. “We’ll keep fighting him until he is dead.”
“What happens to me now?”
He’d spent too much time locked in a dungeon to ever want to place anyone he cared about in such a situation. But he wasn’t convinced Laura wasn’t working with Jason.
“Tell me what happened to your magic,” he urged.