Chapter Twenty-Nine
SHE BLINKED, TRYINGto make sense of what was happening. Everything crashed down around her. She heard roars through the rain, then Aidan’s grunt before his weight vanished. Terrified, she yanked a blanket around her, scrambling back as he and another man rolled, and battled, dragging the shredded tent with them.
“Run,”Aidan roared into her mind.“Save yourself!”
Like hell, she would.
Searching in darkness only illuminated by flashes of lightning, she located his satchel and yanked out his dagger. Scrambling after the men, she found the enemy with a blade to Aidan's throat. What should she do? Was she prepared to kill someone? What if they were possessed? Yet she refused to let Aidan die, so that was that. Shewoulduse this dagger if she had to.
Thankfully, before she could do anything, the warrior slumped down, passed out cold, under the influence of Aidan’s magic.
“Are ye all right, lass?” Aidan chanted them into clothing and scanned her quickly, worried. “Are ye hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.” She peered through the rain at the havoc around them. “We need to get to David.”
“Aye,” he agreed, nodding at Tiernan when he and Julie joined them.
“I didnae sense the bastards coming,” Tiernan spat.
“Because they were already here.” Julie frowned at one of the enemy warriors battling his own comrade. “Those are Robert’s men fighting each other.”
“Can you make them vanish before they’re killed?” Aidan asked Chloe.
“I can try,” she replied, not sure how she’d done it the first time. All she knew was she'd wanted to keep them safe. She didn’t want innocent men dying. So she thought that as strongly as she could, hoping it worked.
Moments later, rather than running off or vanishing into thin air, the possessed man closest to them, suddenly stopped short, confused. Before his opponent made another move, she yelled, “Wait!” allowing the formerly possessed warrior time to throw down his blade and back away.
The same thing happened all around them as the fighting quieted.
Dim daybreak filtered through the woodland, and Julie eyed the sky, no doubt looking at her ley-lines.
“The Disinherited are fleeing via the lines,” she murmured, reminding them that the lines were darker where evil was present. She grinned at Chloe. “You did it. They fled even faster this time.”
“Which means you have grown stronger, lass,” Aidan said, clearly proud of her. “Because of that, so have I.”
There was no missing the relief on his face, and she didn’t blame him. His powers really were an integral part of who he was. Something she understood better and better the more they connected. It was one thing for him to tell her about it, but another thing to actually feel it. It was so very much a part of him, body and soul. She couldn't imagine feeling it wane or losing it altogether. How devastating that would be.
“What the bloody hell,” the earl roared. “What evil is this?”
Though Donald was angry and wanted someone to blame, in the end, he couldn't do much. Far too many of Robert’s men, not to mention his own, had been under a spell. All claimed they had no idea what had overcome them. To prove their fealty, every last man swore their undying allegiance to the true King David II right then and there, most on bended knee.
As it happened, David had ended up being protected by Cray, who hadn’t killed the man who went after the king but left him maimed. David was rattled but okay, more in awe of Cray than anything else. But then he was pretty intimidating. Especially when riled up.
While she knew he traveled somewhere in the war party, they hadn’t seen Cray the day before, and she’d hoped they would. She wanted to apologize face to face.
“Cray’s not joining us, is he?” she asked Aidan a while later as they once again ate breakfast without his cousin.
“Best to give him time, lass,” he replied. “Let him come to terms with things and gather his thoughts.”
“Will he, though?” She frowned. “Come to terms with things?”
“He has no choice,” Tiernan said. “But aye, I dinnae doubt he will forgive you, Chloe.”
“Or at least pretend to,” she murmured, knowing full well Cray could hold a grudge as readily as Aidan. At least when it came to betrayal.
Though Tiernan and Julie spoke with him on occasion, she and Aidan didn’t see Cray the remainder of the journey. From what she heard, while they traveled closer to David, often dining with him, Cray stayed to the rear.
“I’m surprised Donald let him travel back there the whole time,” she mentioned as she and Aidan sought out a place to bathe after setting up their tent in Dupplin Moor. “I was under the impression he wanted to keep all of you toward the front, so he didn’t lose track of his newfound warriors.”
