“Yer silence speaks volumes, lass.” Maria said. “So I was right. A time traveler... Fascinating.” She leaned forward suddenly. “Tell me. Was it Irene MacAskill that brought ye here?”
Anna could barely keep her footing. Her fingertips turned white as she gripped the bedpost tighter, her knuckles standing out in stark relief against her pale skin. Maria knew. She knew about time travel and Irene MacAskill.
“No,” Anna finally managed to croak out. “I’ve no idea what you mean.”
“Really?” Maria quirked an eyebrow, reclining back into the seat and studying Anna with an intense, hawk-like gaze. The pleasantness that adorned her face earlier was now replaced with cold determination. “Lying doesnae suit ye,” she said. “It only makes things more difficult.”
Anna’s throat was so dry she had to swallow a few times before she could speak again. “What do you want from me?”
“Ah, now we are getting to the important questions. What do I want from ye, Anna? I want dominion. I want power over time. I want finally, to destroy the Seelie Fae and their precious Order of the Osprey. And ye, Anna, are the key to giving me all three.”
Anna’s legs could not hold her anymore. She sank onto the end of the bed, feeling like she was drowning. She realized now why Lady Maria had reminded her of Irene MacAskill when she’d first met her even though the two women looked nothing alike.
“Oh God,” she breathed, looking at Maria. “You’re not human, are you?”
“No,” Maria agreed with a smile. “I’m of the Unseelie Fae. Ye might have heard of us.”
Oh yes, she’d heard of them. Emeric had told her what these Unseelie were—Fae who hated human kind and wanted to lord dominion over humanity. But that image didn’t fit with this demure, elegant looking woman before her right now. She’d only half-believed him, struggling to accept that these Fae were not just something out of a fairystory. Now she knew the truth. They weren’t a child’s fairy story. They were a nightmare.
“I won’t give you anything,” she said, trying to make her voice steady.
“Not me directly,” Maria agreed with an amiable nod. “But ye will marry my grandson and give him children and it isthemI am really interested in.” She leaned forward and her eyes flashed. “I dinna have the ability to manipulate time the way Irene MacAskill does. Nor does my grandson. But we both have power, as ye have seen. Combine that power with the blood of a time traveler and it becomes something different, something exceptional. Yer children will have power over time itself. And they will be my key to finally gaining dominion for my people.”
Anna stared at her, aghast. The woman was crazy.
Maria smiled. “Oh dinna look so glum. Ye should be excited! After all, it’s yer wedding day! I will leave ye to prepare.”
With that, she swept out of the room, leaving Anna doubled over, feeling sick to her stomach.
ANNA SAT STRAIGHT-BACKEDin the chair, refusing to eat. She felt like prey surrounded by predators. Why did they insist on this charade? Why did they try to pretend she was anything but a prisoner?
She was sitting at a round polished table in a circular room in one of the keep’s many towers. The room was kitted out like a private dining room, with a thick rug covering the flagstone floor and intricately carved wooden panelingcovering the walls. The view through the windows was spectacular, giving a panoramic view of the landscape rolling away to the horizon, but the windows were too narrow to escape through. Besides, she was several levels up with only the unforgiving ground below.
Her dining companions carried on as though nothing was amiss, as if this was just some family dinner to celebrate an auspicious occasion. They were unhinged, the lot of them.
Laird Alexander and Lady Maria sat opposite her at the table. It was set with platters of fine delicacies: various meats in gravy, tender-cooked vegetables, rich sauces and crusty breads. Her captors partook of the dishes and chatted amiably as they ate, discussing the harvest, the guard rota, the latest gossip from the royal court, anything and everything, as though completely oblivious to Anna sitting rigid and silent amongst them.
But they werenotoblivious to her, no matter the act they tried to put on. Every now and then, Maria’s eyes would flick to Anna, and despite her fear of the woman, she met her eyes each time, determined not to look away. She would be damned if she would show weakness in front of these snakes.
“Not eating, Anna?” Lady Maria said. She took a sip from her crystal goblet and gestured at the food with it. “Ye should try the pheasant. It’s exquisite.”
“Not hungry,” Anna growled, glaring at the woman.
“Tut tut. Ye need to keep up yer strength. After all, ye will need it later for the consummation.”
Anna glanced to the fourth member of their little party. Duncan MacDonald slumped in the chair next to Anna, looking decidedly reluctant to be there. He’d said not aword, eaten not a thing, and seemed determined to get as drunk as possible. He was obviously looking forward to this ‘wedding’ about as much as she was.
“Not hungry,” Anna grated. “And I’m not going to need my strength for later because this wedding isnothappening. For the last time. I. Am. Not. Marrying. Him. Understand?”
Maria merely rolled her eyes as though this was all very tiresome.
Laird Alexander snorted. “Let her have her little fantasies. She’ll discover the truth soon enough.”
And with that, they went back to eating and chatting as though they had not a care in the world. Anna ground her teeth. The way the laird behaved it was clear he was under his mother-in-law’s control. Did he know the truth? Did he know she was a Fae and not a human at all? She suspected he did.
She tried to think back to what Emeric had told her about MacDonald family politics. Maria was the mother of Alexander’s wife, Duncan’s mother. It was only after she had died that Maria had come to live with her son-in-law and grandson. What had Emeric said? That there were rumors Maria and her daughter did not get along. If that was true, could some of his mother’s animosity towards his grandmother have rubbed off on Duncan? Could she somehow use that to her advantage?
She glanced at him, slumped in his chair and staring at the goblet in his hand. Did he know what his grandmother was? Anna wasn’t sure. It was clear he was not happy about this forced marriage and he was also a reluctant participant in this farcical family dinner. He’d been kind to her duringthe games and she’d sort of...liked him. And yet he’d broken into her room at his grandmother’s behest and stolen her phone. Could she trust him? She doubted it, but her list of allies was growing very thin indeed.
