very far when both Ian and Duncan’s heads popped out of the water.
“What are you doing?” Hayden demanded.
“Fishing,” Duncan said with a roll of his eyes.
Ian shook his head, a wry smile on his lips. “What do you think we’re doing, Hayden.”
“You’ll get yourself killed.” Hayden didn’t mind risking his own life, but no one else should.
Duncan moved to Hayden’s left and put his hands on the boat. “We are all of us family. This is what families do.”
Hayden was too speechless to do more than follow as the twins began to push the small vessel. They hadn’t gone very far when Deirdre’s lightning struck Hayden.
He cursed, his body frozen for several moments as her black magic ran through him. It left his entire body feeling as if he was roasting over a fire, not to mention he feared his head might explode.
“Hayden?” Ian called.
“I’m all right,” Hayden bit out. His pain was nothing compared to what Deirdre was doing to Isla. “Keep pushing.”
A moment later the lightning hit the boat, sending them flying backward. Hayden heard Isla cry out, the sound tearing at his soul. It was all he needed to spur him faster.
“Hurry,” he called to the twins.
Hayden couldn’t remember ever swimming so fast. Even with the continued lightning strikes in and around the boat, Hayden never stopped. He couldn’t. Isla needed him. He ignored the pain of the lightning and focused everything on getting Isla to the others.
It wasn’t until Broc and the others came to the boat that Hayden realized he had reached shore. He pushed Ian out of the way and looked in the boat to see Isla on her side, her arms over her head while her body shuddered in agony.
“Isla,” he whispered and lifted her in his arms.
She struggled against him, weak though it was. “Nay, Hayden. I need to stay away. Leave me be. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You cannot hurt me.”
She turned her tear-streaked face to him, her gaze filled with such remorse that it broke his heart. “But I have,” she said and shook again. “God forgive me, but I have. I knew you looked familiar, but it wasn’t until tonight that I remembered.”
“Stop,” Hayden said. He didn’t want her to say anything else. “It doesn’t matter.”
She cried harder, the tears raining down her cheeks. “It does.”
“Hayden,” Broc yelled. “The lightning is striking us. We need to get away.”
Isla pushed at Hayden’s chest, her face wreathed in anguish. “Let me go.”
“Nay,” he said. “Fight this. Fight her, Isla. I know you can.”
She shook her head. “I’m not strong enough. Let me go.”
“I willna.”
Her lips thinned, and he knew she was about to tell him her great secret. Before he could stop her she said, “I’m the
He shut his eyes as her words sank into his mind. He expected to feel anger, betrayal, and even want her death. Instead, all he wanted to do was care for her, to protect her and cherish her. The past was over, his family long dead, and he had killed many
Yet somehow, he wasn’t surprised to find it was her. It saddened him, but he knew she had been under Deirdre’s control. It wasn’t Isla’s fault anymore than it had been any of the
“Hayden,” she said and put her head against his chest.
She was giving up. His beautiful, brave, courageous Isla was giving up. He couldn’t allow her to do that. She had to know he would stand beside her, that he would shout to the world that she was his.
Before he could utter a word the lightning struck them. Hayden would have taken all the pain onto himself if he could have. It killed him to hear Isla scream, her body wracked with convulsions.
“You willna have her!” Hayden shouted to the sky. “Isla is no longer yours to command!”
Isla suddenly went limp in his arms. He knew the more Deirdre used her black magic the more Isla’s magic waned. Hayden knelt half on the beach, half in the water with Isla in his arms, silently praying that she lived.
He shook her gently until her eyes opened and focused on him. “I’m here to help you fight her,” he said. “I will stand by you no matter what. I was an utter fool before. It wasn’t until I awoke to find you gone that I realized how desperately I need you in my life.”
“Shh,” Isla said and placed a finger over his lips. “It’s all right. I’m not afraid to die. If you cannot take my head, one of the others will. Deirdre wants me to kill all of you, and I cannot hold her off much longer. I thought I was stronger, but I’m not.”
“Nay!” he bellowed. “No one is going to kill you. I willna let them. You are mine, Isla. I need you. I love you.”
As soon as he’d said the words he knew they were true, had always been true. Without Isla, he was nothing.
Isla couldn’t have heard Hayden correctly. Her expression must have told him as much because he smiled and stroked her face with his hand.
“I love you,” he said again, his eyes portraying the truth for her to see. “You’re a powerful Druid, Isla. I know you can defeat Deirdre. Live. Live for me. Live for us.”
She had claimed to have nothing to live for, but Hayden had just given her the best reason of all. Hope blossomed in her heart and spread its healing through her body.
Lightning hit the beach near them and out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the Warriors fall to his knees. Deirdre’s power was growing each time she struck someone, especially Isla. It was as if Deirdre was feeding off Isla’s magic and pain. And maybe she was.
Could Isla do as Hayden asked and fight? Did she dare try? She knew she had to do it for him.
Just as she was about to rise lightning struck her again. The pain was unbearable. Her body boiled, her blood thickened and slowed in her veins. She could hardly move her arms and legs, and always there was Deirdre’s voice commanding her to kill, waiting for Isla to grow weak enough that Deirdre could take over.
And then Hayden’s lips pressed to Isla’s.
Isla wrapped her arms around him and held on as if her life depended upon it — because it did. She felt the water lapping at her feet. She called to her magic and let the water feed it, grow it, until it swarmed around her.
“Kill them all!” Deirdre’s voice shouted in her head. “You cannot win, and the longer you fight me the more you will suffer, the more they will suffer.”
Fear tried to take hold of Isla, but she concentrated on her magic, on the feel of its purity and influence, and Hayden’s love. It grew and grew and grew until Isla felt the power of her magic.
That’s when she used her magic and shoved at Deirdre in her head. To Isla’s surprise, she felt Deirdre’s hold on her wane a sliver. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Isla did it again and again, each time gaining more ground on Deirdre.
Hayden never lifted his lips from hers. He kept her locked against his chest, giving her all of him that she needed. And Isla refused to let him down.
She kept shoving at Deirdre until at last there was a loud snapping sound in Isla’s head. A scream tore from her lips and her body stiffened as her head fell back.
Isla could feel Deirdre trying to maintain her power, but whatever Isla had done worked. There just needed one more bout of magic to break Deirdre’s hold forever.
Isla turned her head to Hayden and looked into his black eyes. “I love you.”
She heard Deirdre scream’s of rage, her threat of death, and then she was gone.
The only sounds to break the silence were the waves and someone cursing. Isla couldn’t stop shaking. She’d thought for sure her life was over.
She’d wanted to rejoice at hearing Hayden’s voice, but with Deirdre commanding her to kill everyone at the castle, Isla hadn’t wanted him near her for fear she would break under Deirdre’s magic and kill him.
