Untamed Highlander

you bring him food, maybe? Or blankets? Is that what you consider sparing him?”

Hayden and Ramsey stood at the same time as Broc. Hayden wasn’t sure if he should try and stop Broc or Isla from attacking the other, because at the rate things were going, someone was going to give into their rage.

“I brought him food and blankets,” Isla said. “I took his tortures when I could, even angered Deirdre myself on many occasions so she would take her rage out on me instead of him. I was the one who released him during the MacLeods’ attack.”

Hayden was taken aback by her words. Would she never cease to shock him? She did things that continually contradicted her ways as a drough. Maybe she did have control over the evil.

“Why did you tell us all of this?” Hayden asked. “Where is Phelan now?”

Her face was weary as she briefly closed her eyes. “I don’t know where he is. I freed him and told him to run. I told him if he ever needed anything to find the MacLeods, that they could be trusted.”

“Do you think he believed you?”

“I doubt it. There is one more thing. Phelan’s blood was special. It could heal anyone of anything. Deirdre drank his blood regularly to strengthen herself and her powers.” She turned and left the castle before they could ask more.

Hayden wanted to go after her. He was supposed to be following her, after all. But there had been something so heartbreaking, so raw in her voice at the end that he’d been unable to chase after her just yet.

Once the door closed behind her, Broc threw his goblet across the hall and cursed. “I could have helped him. If I’d gotten to him before Isla, I could have brought him here.”

“Nay,” Hayden said. “He doesna trust anyone, and won’t for some time. Nothing you said could have changed that.”

“I agree,” Ramsey added. “Phelan may be lost to all of us now. He might not have turned to Deirdre’s side, but her evil warped him, I’m sure.”

Quinn leaned his hands on Fallon’s chair and shook his head. “To be kept separated from everyone and everything. I cannot imagine the loneliness. He’s out in a world he knows nothing about. He needs us.”

“You’ll never find him,” Hayden said.

Broc lifted a brow in defiance. “I can find him.”

“And we will,” Quinn said. “First, we make sure Dunmore and the wyrran do not find any Druids.”

Ramsey rubbed his hands together, his gray eyes crinkling in the corners. “Ah, a battle. I’m ready for one.”

Hayden was more than ready, but he knew he’d be left behind. This time. Soon enough the battle would come to MacLeod Castle, and he’d unleash every ounce of his hate and wrath onto Deirdre.

Quinn pushed off the chair. “I need to talk to my brothers. How long do you need before you can leave again, Broc?”

“I can leave now,” he answered.

Ramsey chuckled and slapped him on the back. “Aren’t we all ready to leave immediately?”

“Rest,” Quinn said. “You’ll leave soon enough.”

Hayden glanced at Quinn before he left the castle in search of Isla. She wasn’t difficult to find. There were no other small black-haired Druids around.

He stood back and watched as she helped bring out the wreckage from the cottages. Though she didn’t have the strength of a Warrior, she worked just as hard.

After a few moments, Hayden followed her into a cottage.

“Why did you tell us about Phelan?”

She paused as she lifted some debris in her arms. “I’m the reason he was in the mountain.”

“Nay. Deirdre was the cause.”

Isla blew out a breath. “I’m as much to blame, Hayden. I could have refused. I know the chance I took in telling all of you, but I had to. Phelan needs to be found. He needs to know there are good people in the world.”

Everything he thought he knew about Isla because she was drough was slowly but surely being erased. He might not ever get past the fact she had turned drough, but he could appreciate that she wanted to make up for a past deed.

“I know what you think of me,” she said as she tossed the pieces of broken wood out of the doorway.

Hayden raised a brow. “Didn’t we already go through this? You cannot read my mind.”

“Maybe not,” she said. She bent and began picking up more broken wood. “But I know the anger and revulsion Broc so freely showed me was in you as well.”

“I willna deny it. I feel for any man or woman being brought to Cairn Toul. Knowing it was just a small lad, it sickens me.”

She had her back to him, but he saw the droop her in shoulders just the same. “You cannot think worse of me than I think of myself.”

Hayden wanted to hate her, wanted to feel anything other than the attraction and lust that consumed him. But each time he was with her, every time she spoke, he learned more about her that cracked the mold he had fitted her with.

She, like them, was fighting Deirdre, only Isla was doing it in another way. Whereas Hayden and the other Warriors were freely battling her, Isla was trying to correct the deeds Deirdre forced on her.

Hayden sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, Deirdre did force Isla. If he had been in her place, he was sure he would have made many of the same choices she had.

“What will you do when Broc does find Phelan?” Hayden asked.

Isla wiped the sweat from her forehead before she retrieved more wood and tossed it outside. “I want to see that he finds a place he can call home. I’m hoping that will be MacLeod Castle.”

“You think he will forgive you?”

She snorted and tried to lift a heavy piece of wood. Hayden took it from her and easily threw it in the pile outside the cottage.

Isla dusted her hands and shook her head. “I’m not a fool. Phelan has promised to kill me, and for what I did to him, he has every right.”

Hayden didn’t like the urge that welled up inside him to protect her. He didn’t say anything as she moved onto the next cottage.

He stepped out of the cottage and found her working next to Larena. Hayden would get nothing more out of Isla for the moment. He could work while he digested the information she had given him.

Hayden had previously decided which cottage he wanted for his own. It had sustained the most damage, but it was set apart from the others. Isolated, just as he was. And for good reason.

Trees were already being cut and readied for when they began to rebuild for the second time. It would only be a few days before the first cottage went up.

Hayden worked tirelessly as he moved from cottage to cottage. There was nothing any of them could do until an attack came. Until then, they would ready the village.

Hours later with the sun high above them, Hayden realized Isla was no longer in the village. He lifted the water skin to his lips and let the fresh liquid flow down his throat.

The breeze from the sea helped to cool him, but nothing like a dip in the water would.

“We’re done with the cleaning,” Duncan said as he exited one of the cottages. “Three sustained minimal damage, five cottages needs structural work, and the rest need to be rebuilt.”

Hayden nodded. “Good. Check with Lucan to see if we have what we need to either rebuild or work on the ones with structural damage. I know Fallon wants as many of these readied as we can get.”

“Does he expect more Warriors?” Ian asked, and came to stand beside his twin.

Hayden was always amazed that they could look exactly alike. If their hair was cut alike, he’d never tell them apart. “Fallon likes to be prepared. If Galen and Logan find these Druids and convince them to return, they will sleep in the castle while we take the cottages.”

Camdyn held out his hand and Hayden tossed him the water skin. “I’ll sleep anywhere.”

“We have slept anywhere,” Ian said with a chuckle. “This rocky ground will be softer than the Pit.”

Hayden had never seen the Pit in Deirdre’s mountain, but he’d heard enough about it to know most never