keep a tight rein on his desire.
Once he was cooled, Lucan moved to one of the boulders. He lay back, his skin touching the warm rock. A thread of smoke drifted through the sky from the village where the MacClures had burned the bodies of their clan. Lucan threw an arm over his eyes against the bright sun. He couldn’t stay long, but he would take what little time he had to himself.
After half an hour, Lucan rose and pulled on his clothes. When he walked into the castle he found Quinn had butchered the deer and was roasting some meat in one of the ovens. Lucan’s mouth watered as his stomach growled.
He grabbed an oatcake and strode into the great hall where, predictably, Fallon lay on the bench, his wine bottle in his hand.
“Where have you been?” Fallon asked through half-open lids.
Lucan slid onto the other bench. “Working.”
“On what?”
“Cara needed a dagger that would fit her hand.”
Fallon raised himself on his elbows and peered at Lucan over the table. “Is that so?”
“Aye.”
After a moment Fallon sat up and rested his forearms on the table. “Are you still angry with me?”
Lucan knew he referred to Cara falling. “Nay. You had gone up there to get her. She needs to know most of the castle isn’t safe. One wrong step and she could die.”
“I tried to tell her.”
He patted Fallon’s arm. “She’ll learn.”
Quinn walked into the hall from the bailey and kicked the door shut behind him. “I suppose you’re talking about Cara.”
“You don’t have to say her name like it sours your stomach,” Lucan said.
Quinn twisted his lips in a wry smile. “I don’t. She helped me clean the deer. Said she needed something to do.”
“That’s good. Where is she now?”
“I don’t know,” Quinn said. “The last time I saw her she was going down to the sea to wash the blood off her hands.”
Lucan frowned. “I was just at the beach. She wasn’t there.”
“That was hours ago.”
“Then where is she?”
“Easy, Lucan,” Fallon said. “I’m sure she’s around somewhere. She has nowhere else to go.”
Lucan took a deep breath to calm the prickles of fear that raced through him. Then he caught a look at Quinn deep in thought. “What is it?”
Quinn’s gaze jerked to his. “I didna think anything of it at the time, just thought she was talking as most women do.”
“Quinn,” Fallon growled.
“She said she needed to get away. That everyone around her died, and she didn’t want us to follow the same fate,” Quinn said. “I told her that was foolish because we were immortal.”
Lucan gripped the table until his knuckles turned white. He heard the wood begin to splinter, but he didn’t care. “What did she say after that?”
“Nothing. She went down to the beach.”
Lucan jumped from the table and raced up the stairs to Cara’s chamber. When he didn’t find her in there, he started shouting her name.
A moment later Quinn and Fallon were calling for her as well. After fifteen minutes when they hadn’t found her, Lucan knew she was gone. He met his brothers back in the great hall.
“I’m going after her,” he declared.
Quinn shook his head. “That’s not wise. Deirdre could attack tonight.”
“She could. She could also send Warriors. I promised Cara I would protect her.”
“She obviously doesn’t want your protection if she’s left,” Fallon said. “Think about that.”
Lucan heard his brothers, but he wasn’t going to spend time arguing. “I’m going after her. Either you can help me, therefore getting me home faster, or you can hinder me. Your choice.”
Fallon and Quinn shared a look before Quinn said, “All right. What do you want us to do?”
“I need to find which way she has gone.”
Fallon walked to the castle door. “I don’t imagine she’ll have gone to the village, but I’ll head there to look.”
“I’ll take the cliffs where you saved her,” Quinn said.
Lucan’s chest tightened in frustration. “I’ll go to the beach and see if I can find anything.”
But no matter how hard Lucan searched, he found nothing of Cara. He was climbing the path back to the castle when Quinn and Fallon came into view.
“Nothing?” Lucan asked.
“Nothing,” they replied in unison.
Cara couldn’t have just disappeared.
“Did she try to swim, you think?” Quinn asked.
Lucan glanced at the water over his shoulder and shook his head. “Nay, I don’t think so.”
His foot slipped and he grabbed a larger rock that protruded from the ground to hold him. That’s when he saw the spot of grass that had been stepped on.
“What did you find?” Quinn asked.
Lucan shrugged and moved the tall grass out of the way. A smile pulled at his lips when he caught sight of more trampled grass.
“This path hasn’t been used in a while,” Fallon said. “We used to use it to go hunting bird eggs.”
“It’s also the way Cara went,” Lucan said. He looked at his brothers. “We’ll be back tonight.”
“If she wants to come back.”
Lucan glared at Fallon. “She’s not thinking straight. Once I talk to her, she’ll come back.”
Quinn crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s not a child, Lucan. She’s a grown woman.”
“Who needs us. We don’t know what Deirdre has planned for her.”
“So you want to keep her locked away just as Deirdre kept us?” Fallon asked. “Think, Lucan. You cannot make her return.”
Lucan hated that they were right. He wanted Cara with him, even if having her near was the cruelest torture imaginable. “All right. I just want to find her and make sure she’s safe. If she doesn’t want to return, I won’t make her.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Quinn asked.
“Nay. Stay here in case we’re attacked.”
Lucan turned away and started down the path at a jog. The urge to run full out, the ground falling behind him, and find Cara was strong. So strong he didn’t want his brothers to see it.
But once the castle was out of sight, Lucan stretched his legs into a run. With his heart pounding in his chest and his mind racing with possibilities, he pushed himself harder.
Every once in a while he would stop and track Cara. He knew as soon as she headed away from the coast that she was going to the forest.
There was nothing that was going to stop him from finding her now.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cara stopped to rest against one of the tall pines of the forest. She looked behind her, her gaze scanning the
