Page 36 of Her Highland Destiny

He didn’t know why he did it, but he took her clasped hand and set it over his heart. “Take my life,” he said, muttering as though in prayer. “And give it to her who is worthy.”

Her fingers fell limp over his own and her form flickered.

“Take it,” he cried.

A bone-searing pain bolted through him, as though his soul were being sucked from his body. He jolted forward with the force of it. It pulled at him, suckling the life from his body and funneling it into Cassandra through their joined hands.

“Stop.” Her voice was weak, but it was the most beautiful sound in all the world.

“Live, Cassandra,” he said through gritted teeth. “Live.”

“Not without you.” She jerked her hand from his.

Energy sparked between them with streaks of magic stretching between their fingers like ribbons of lightning. She gasped for breath and then gave a soft laugh. “You saved me, Fergus.”

He shook his head. “Nay, lass. It’s ye who saved me.”

She ran a weak hand through his hair. “You were killing yourself.”

“I was giving ye life.” He stared down at her, unable to take his gaze from the soft curls of dark hair falling about her fair face. Her lips were as lush and red as they’d ever been, her pale blue eyes bright with unshed tears. “I love ye, Cassandra.”

She blinked, but a tear escaped the corner of her eye. “And I you, Fergus. I think I have since the day I met you.”

“And I ye.” He smiled to himself at the memory. “Since the first time I saw ye in the apple orchard in a vision.” He eyed the blood at the side of her gown where it stood bright against the pale lavender. “We must leave from here. Can ye walk?”

She nodded, but still winced as she rose. Her gaze immediately fell on the king and she lifted her beautiful gaze to Fergus in question. “We are free?”

He smiled, the first carefree smile he could remember in far too long. “Aye,” he answered. “We are free.”

“But at what cost?” she fingered his hair.

He frowned with confusion.

“You have a strip of white that was not there before. I worry…” She pursed her lips. “I worry what you have sacrificed in saving me.”

“I would have sacrificed it all,” he vowed.

She smiled sadly. “I know.”

She closed her eyes briefly and waved a hand. The vines sucked deep into the cracks within the floor and the fissures sealed upon themselves. Save the dead king crumpled in the corner, it was as though none of it had ever happened.

Cassandra’s brow furrowed and a wild wind billowed outside, rattling doors and windows. Thunder shuddered overhead and the roar of a sleeting rainstorm immediately followed.

She opened her eyes and smiled. “A little chaos to aid in our escape while you clear the memories of those who saw us.”

He shook his head, but she nodded. “You can. I saw it.” She linked her fingers with his. “Or rather we can together.”

They clasped hands and breathed as one. They expanded their minds in unison, threading it through the whole of Edinburgh, locating and plucking their images from the minds of all who saw them until they never existed in the memory of the people.

“What of him?” Cassandra asked when they were done, indicating the king with her mind.

“There is much family strife.” Fergus stared at the limp form of the king who had threatened him for the whole of a decade. “Let them think it was his uncle who killed him.”

She nodded and allowed Fergus to offer her the support of his body as he led her to a back room where he knew there to be an unseen exit. Her movements were slow, her breathing labored. While her presence no longer flickered with the threat of death, she was still not recovered.

“I’m well enough,” she argued and then stumbled.

He caught her before she fell. His hand had splayed over her slender stomach by accident. A heartbeat thundered against his palm. He jerked his hand back in wonder.