“We can have children,” Gwynn whispered so the conversation was just between them while others talked around them.
Logan smiled. “That we can, love. Do you want to spend eternity in the castle?”
“Who knows what the next hundred years will bring? We take it one day at a time. As I’ve told you countless times, as long as I’m with you, I can face anything.”
“And the battles?”
She scrunched up her face. “I’ll always worry about you in battle, but you’re a Warrior. Then there’s Britt’s new serum. We’ll get through anything.”
“I can no’ lose you, Gwynn.”
“You won’t.”
Logan swallowed and glanced at the table. “Wallace went after Laura and captured her. He’ll come for you and the other Druids as well.”
“Are you forgetting that Laura was able to get away, and if she hadn’t been able to do it, Charon would have gotten her? I’ve no doubt you would come for me.”
“I’d walk through Hell itself to find you.”
Logan had never thought he’d feel so strongly about anyone. Gwynn’s answering smile filled him with peace and happiness. She had changed his life. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her.
“We are stronger together.” Fallon’s voice carried through the hall. “Remember that. Wallace will try to divide us.”
Logan’s mind began to spin with ways they could protect the castle. “He’ll come here.”
“And I’ll make sure there isn’t a place on MacLeod land he can touch without letting me know,” Isla stated.
Fallon nodded. “Good. The castle itself has been spelled many times with protection, but let’s get on that again.”
“Right away,” Reaghan said.
Quinn looked at Ian. “We need to get Charon and Laura here quickly.”
“Let’s no’ forget Phelan and his Druid,” Ramsey called out.
Fallon pointed to Ian. “Call Charon. Do whatever it takes to get him here. If he and Laura willna come willingly, I’ll go get them myself.”
Ian smiled wryly. “You doona know Charon at all if you think you can do that. He protects Ferness as you protect all of us here. Charon will stay to ensure none of the town is harmed because he wasna there to fight Wallace.”
“He’s right,” Dani said. “We need to inform Charon and let him and Laura make their own decisions.”
Tara lifted her hand in the air. “Laura is still learning her magic, so maybe some of us should go and strengthen the spells in Ferness again.”
“I agree,” Cara said. “We need to set alarms and spells for protection. There are too many innocents there for us not to do something.”
Larena cleared her throat and slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “I’ll let Malcolm know the plan and see what he wants to do.”
“What about Phelan and his Druid?” Arran asked.
Logan caught Fallon’s gaze. “Charon should probably talk to him, but Charon is busy with his own problems. I’ll give it a shot talking to Phelan.”
“Good luck with that,” Camdyn said sarcastically.
Logan ignored Camdyn. Phelan wasn’t the most agreeable Warrior, but then again, few had had such a life as Phelan. Logan looked at Isla and saw Hayden whispering something in her ear.
Isla wanted Phelan’s forgiveness for her part in his terrible life. Logan wasn’t so sure Isla would ever get it. In the four hundred years since Isla had freed him from Cairn Toul Mountain, Phelan hadn’t wanted any part of the castle or their little family.
“What are you thinking?” Gwynn asked.
Logan looked into his wife’s amazing violet eyes and grinned. “Phelan has a Druid with him.”
“Ah, you think he might have found his mate.”
“It’s possible. It’s happened to each of us.”
“Did Charon say how long Phelan had been with the Druid?”
Logan shook his head. “Nor did Phelan share her name. He’s being secretive.”
“Because Phelan wants her to himself,” Gwynn said with a sly grin.
“As I want you.”
Gwynn laughed as Fallon bade them to begin preparations. Logan watched her leave with the other Druids to being the spells. Already he was counting down the hours until she was in his bed.
CHAPTER
NINE
Phelan watched Aisley pick at her sandwich. He hadn’t had a response to her declaration then, and certainly didn’t now.
“If you could do anything, what would it be?” Phelan asked.
She lifted her gaze to him and simply stared. “What?”
“It’s a simple question,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. “If you’re too afraid to answer then doona.”
“I’m not afraid.”
Phelan inwardly smiled. It was so easy to rile her. He shouldn’t get such satisfaction out of it, but anything was better than the melancholy he’d been witness to.
“Well,” he prompted when Aisley continued to sit there.
She licked her lips and looked over his shoulder, a faraway look coming into her eyes. Her midnight locks hung half in her face, but wherever she’d gone made her happy as evidenced by the small curve of her lips upward.
“I always wanted to be a dancer. My mum put me in classes when I was six. There’s always been something about music that allows me to express myself as nothing else can.”
Phelan could hear the longing in her voice, and a place in his chest began to ache for her. “Why didna you continue dancing? I’ve seen you. You come alive with the music.”
She blinked and focused back on him. The small smile vanished. “I thought I wanted something else.”
“What?”
“You’re certainly pushy,” she replied testily and reached for her soda.
Phelan moved his finished plate away. “I’m curious about you. More so because it appears as if dancing was your life. What changed?”
“A boy,” she said. The forced smile that followed was as hollow as her eyes. “I was in love, you see. I did whatever he wanted.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Good question. One my parents asked frequently.”
“Was there an answer?”
She shook her head. “I knew I cared for him more than he cared for me, but I was sure it was love. When my parents wouldn’t stop haggling us, he told me we should move in together. And we did.”
“How did that go?”
“It was everything I thought it would be aside from the run-down place we were able to afford. That lasted all of five months. Then he began to use the money that was supposed to go to rent, food, and bills on alcohol and cigarettes.”
Phelan slowly leaned back in his chair. He had a feeling the story was going to end badly.
Aisley tore off a piece of turkey from her sandwich and popped it into her mouth. “We had gotten notice from the landlord that we were to be evicted unless we came up with the three months’ rent we owed on the flat. He promised me he’d have the money that evening when he came home from work.”
