Page 135 of A Courage of the Chosen

“What’s the matter?” she coos. “Don’t want me to play with the little light wielder?”

A low, heavy sound rumbles from deep within Callahan’s chest, and his knife pushes harder against Rach’s neck.

“Stop, Cal.” I grab his forearm but there’s no reaction to my touch. He just stares at her.

Brodie tackles Callahan with an arm around his waist, slamming him to the ground. “You won’t touch her.”

The guards grab Rach before she tries to make a run for it, and there’s a scuffle where they barely manage to subdue her.

Callahan shrugs Brodie off, and when they get to their feet, shoves him in the chest. “She’s fucking Dorche! She’ll kill all of us without even thinking twice about it!”

“You’d give up on her that easily?” Brodie roars. “That’s your sister. My everything! If you lay one finger on her, brother or not, I’ll fucking end you.”

Callahan squares up to him. “She’s going to end us anyway. There’s nothing to be done.”

It’s Kerr all over again. Only this hurts a whole lot fucking more.

“Cal, you don’t mean that,” I breathe, shocked he’d jump straight to killing his own sister like this.

He turns to me. “I’ve seen this unfold too many times. I know what comes next, and I won’t watch her suffer like that.”

“I never took you for a coward, Callahan,” Brodie scoffs. “You weren’t so quick to give up on Elsie when Tavish took her.”

Callahan’s body goes deathly still, his jaw feathering. Brodie’s retort landed exactly where it was meant to.

“That was different.”

“Was it?” Brodie grins, but it’s not one I’ve ever seen on him. It’s cruel and mocking, and if something isn’t done, there’ll be more blood spilled today.

I step between them, a hand on each of their chests, where their hearts thump into my palms recklessly.

“Enough.” I force them apart. “We’ll knock her out, take her home, and find a way to save her.”

Callahan looks down at me, and beneath his anger I see the hurt. I can taste the absolute heartbreak he’s hiding.

“She’s gone.”

“We’ll find a way,” I promise.

For the life of me, I hope this is one promise I can keep. One vow I won’t have to break. Because a world without Rachel in it is one I can’t contemplate. Ever. But especially when we’re exposed, and need to get her some place safe.

Tavish could come back with his entire army.

“Get the horses,” I instruct the guards, sending bands of mist to replace their hands on Rach’s arms. I’m relieved to see that the guard whose child is due has survived today. I bind her ankles for good measure, and reinforce it with light to keep her secured.

“Burn Raghnall’s body.” I give this command to Brodie.

He doesn’t move. In fact, he presses himself into my hand with more force, as though he’s preparing to make good on his threats.

I fully insert myself between the two men who have fought side by side for decades, grabbing Brodie’s face and forcing him to look at me. “I assume you’ll want to watch that fucker burn as much as I do.”

It’s the only thing that gets through to him. He snatches out of my grip, and quickly begins throwing bits of wood carelessly onto Raghnall’s decapitated body.

There’ll be no pyre for him, and there certainly won’t be any softly spoken words to usher him into the next life. I hope Hell finds him, and he suffers until the end of time.

Callahan has gone back to staring at Rachel where she’s trying to pry my magic away from her body. Knowing what comes next, the urge to shelter him from as much of it as possible is swift and intense. “Look away, Cal,” I instruct, less forcefully than the demand I issued to Brodie. “You don’t need to see this.”

“I do.” In those two fractured little words, everything he’s not telling Brodie, everything he’s hiding beneath his stoic mask, is left open.