Awaken the Highland Warrior

to approve all major disasters and diseases, and he didn’t tolerate his demons messing with his plans, or each other. The good book some humans embraced had that part right. Demons came to steal, kill, and destroy. From humans, not other demons. Fortunately the Dark One often got caught up in his plans and didn’t realize the level of competition in his ranks.

Tristol swaggered about the room, stopping to pick up a particularly nice chalice Druan had taken from a dead king.

What was he doing here? Druan knew Tristol was the one killing the minions. Grog had spotted him near the chapel before twelve of Druan’s best guards were slaughtered. Grog alone had returned, with only a shoulder wound.

“I should have listened to the warrior instead of your lies,” Tristol said. “You betrayed me. You betrayed us all, even the master, but I’ll have my revenge.” He fondled the chalice and then replaced it. “I know a secret about your warrior.”

Druan tensed. “What secret?” So Tristol did know about the time vault? Had he watched Faelan being buried? “Did you take my time vault?”

“You’ve lost it?” Tristol grinned, and Druan was shocked that even he felt the pull of Tristol’s smile. “The Dark One has requested my presence. Should I tell him about your woes?” Still grinning, Tristol swirled into a black cloud and vanished.

“You won’t stop me,” Druan yelled to the empty room, but he felt a growing sense of panic. He remembered an apparition of the warrior and the glowing room he’d seen decades earlier. He’d hoped it was some kind of sorcery on Tristol’s part, but now he wondered if he’d been searching for something that wasn’t there. Had Tristol stolen Druan’s warrior?

***

The gray branches reached out like bony arms, pleading with her to hurry. Whispers filled the air, desperate, as a mist rose from the graves, winding around her legs. She tried to run, dragging one weighted foot, then the other, but the crypt seemed farther away with each step. A large shadow appeared in the doorway then slunk into view. Gray skin and yellow eyes. An evil hiss rolled past sharp teeth, and long talons held up the metal disk. The hiss became a laugh as the specters pulled her down. She clawed at the ground, frantic, lurching forward with one final scream.

Chapter 27

“Are you okay?” a nasal voice asked beside her. Bree opened her eyes to curious faces. She was on a plane. The other passengers were staring, even the toddler in front of her, eyes round as her mouth, her orange lollipop stuck to the back of the seat. “Are you okay?” Bree heard again, and she looked at the man seated next to her.

“I’m sorry.” She pulled her hand back from his arm and saw the white half-moon prints in his skin. “Nightmares… I have nightmares.” She unbuckled her seat belt and climbed over him, ignoring the flight attendant hurrying toward her. She stumbled down the aisle, past the one passenger who wasn’t gawking. He sat taller than everyone else, head buried in a newspaper, but it didn’t disguise his handsome profile.

The young warrior who’d smiled so politely in the meeting.

Faelan had sent someone to make sure she left. Bree collapsed on the toilet seat before her legs dropped out from under her. The creature in her dream was similar to the one Faelan had destroyed in the chapel, but this face, she’d seen as a child. It was the face she’d sketched. She closed her eyes and remembered hiding under the covers, her face buried in Emmy’s fur, as she clutched the cross on her father’s necklace.

It wasn’t working. The monster was here. It wasn’t a dream. She could feel him. Smell him. She squeezed her eyes tight, gripped the necklace harder, and saw a soft glow like the one she’d seen in the crypt, the one from the shiny man. She peeked out from underneath the blanket. The monster was still there, but he looked different. Afraid. He stared at something behind her.

Bree glanced over her shoulder. A man stood there, his face and body shadowed, but he wasn’t the shiny man. He spoke, but she didn’t understand the words. Then he turned, and she recognized his eyes, the ones she’d seen in the crypt. Her protector’s eyes. Feeling braver now that he was here, she gripped the cross and held it out toward the monster, who was still staring at the man in shock. “Get out, now! Leave, and don’t come back!”

The monster jerked as if she’d kicked him. He vanished, like a ghost on Scooby- Doo. It worked. Bree looked around, but she was alone. She fell asleep comforted by the soft glow. When she woke to leave for Daddy’s funeral, the magical light was gone, and she thought it must have been another dream.

It wasn’t. A real monster had sat by her bed, which explained the drawings and the nightmares she’d blocked, how she knew what the thing in the chapel looked like before she’d clearly seen it. Faelan was right. None of this was a coincidence. She was meant to wake Faelan, not Sorcha. There was some satisfaction in that. It was her destiny to help Faelan save the world, whether he liked it or not. Afterwards, she’d walk away with her pride intact, even if her heart wasn’t. The shiny man hadn’t said he’d send someone to marry her, only to protect her, and Faelan had done that. It would take time to wrap her head around how he’d been in her dreams when he was still buried in the crypt and who the shiny man was. A figment of her imagination? Her father’s ghost? She welcomed the mystery. It would distract her from the pain.

Bree stood and splashed water on her face. First she had to get off this plane, and she had to lose Conall. An hour later, Bree peeked around the door of the ladies’ room in the Atlanta airport. The young warrior had his hair pulled back, a baseball cap on his head, trying to blend in with a group of college students. He was too striking to blend.

How was she going to get rid of him? He might be young, but he was a warrior. She needed a distraction. Bree spotted a young woman washing her hands. Attractive, endowed with more curves than clothing. Bree plastered on a smile she hoped conveyed sisterhood. “Could I ask a favor?”

The girl looked up and smiled. “Sure.”

Bree led her to the doorway. “See that man over there? Tall, with the baseball cap?”

“That hottie the girls are staring… oops—”

“Hey, he’s just a friend. You’re welcome to him.” The fringe benefit couldn’t hurt.

“What is he? A soldier?”

“Sort of. Anyway, it’s his birthday, and I want to get him a present before our flight. Do you think you could uh, distract him while I slip by?”