Midnight's Temptation

Charon cleared his throat and glanced at Laura. “I do, but I doona think you want to hear it.”

“Just tell me.”

“You’ve heard all of us speak of how we feel the magic of our mates differently than others.”

Phelan could well imagine the horrified expression on his face. “You think Aisley is my mate?”

“It would explain why you didn’t know she was drough,” Laura answered.

Phelan snorted angrily. “It could be magic she used on me.”

“I don’t think so.” Laura sat beside Phelan. “You were too angry, and rightly so, while Aisley spoke to notice the pain she was going through. She could’ve walked away. She could’ve let me or Charon tell you what she was. Instead, she did. I believe her when she said she was going to tell you.”

Phelan couldn’t wrap his mind around all of it. “It makes sense now why she didna want to leave Skye. She knew I’d find out.”

“Nay,” Charon said. “She knew she was going to tell you. She expected to die.”

“You believe her, too?” Phelan asked as he got to his feet to pace the room.

Charon nodded. “I do. Whatever her motivations for getting close to you, she wasna going to keep her secret. I could see it in her eyes.”

Phelan stopped and dropped his head back to look at the ceiling. “I didna give her a choice. She was in an accident when I felt Wallace’s magic that first time. I was following her. I put her on my bike and drove her to my cabin.”

“Your instinct was to protect her, and I don’t think you were wrong there,” Laura said.

Phelan looked at her and frowned. “What do you mean?”

“It’s as I was telling Charon yesterday. Wallace doubted Aisley’s loyalty. He threatened her with something.”

“He cut her,” Phelan said. “Left a nasty scar on her left side. I’ll bet my immortality it was Wallace. She never said, but it makes sense.”

“So maybe she’s innocent.”

Charon walked to sit beside his wife. “Or maybe she isna. Wallace is devious. Who knows what his plan is for any of us?”

“You think it includes Aisley?” Laura asked.

“Without a doubt.”

Phelan wanted to argue in defense of Aisley, but he couldn’t find the words. It didn’t matter what Laura told him that Wallace had done to Aisley.

The simple matter that she and Wallace were linked by blood sealed her fate. She’d been right in thinking he would kill her. He should have.

He would.

Whenever he saw her again.

Phelan squeezed his eyes closed when he felt a spike of fear in her magic. His first instinct was to run to her. It was only by sheer will alone that he remained rooted to his spot.

He was only able to breathe again when her magic faded completely. It had diminished steadily but quickly. Had she stolen a car and left Inverness?

The idea that she might be dead was one he couldn’t even contemplate. Phelan focused on where she might have gone. Anything to stop the awful emptiness that filled his chest like the deepest winter.

He didn’t want to think about Aisley or her treachery. Zelfor bellowed for vengeance deep in Phelan’s mind. Battle was what he needed. Blood and death coating his hands and the ground. That would stop the desolation he felt.

“Wallace attacked her on Skye,” he said to fill the silence. “I thought he was after me at the time.”

“Was he after her?” Charon asked.

Phelan shook his head. “Nay. I think it was a ploy to get me to feel deeper for her.”

“Wait,” Laura said. “Aisley mentioned fighting Jason herself.”

Phelan snorted. “Doona believe it. Wallace is around. I think it’s time we found him.” 

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

“We need to call Fallon,” Charon said.

Phelan knew he would eventually have to go to the castle, but he wasn’t ready. Looking at Isla would only make him think of Aisley.

For all of them, it was better if he stayed away for the time being.

“I need to do something other than sit around a damned hall talking. I need to find Wallace.”

Laura began to pick up Aisley’s clothes and neatly fold them before putting them in her duffle. “You don’t even know where to find Wallace. You’ve been looking for months.”

“Have I?” he asked sarcastically. “I’m no’ so sure I was. I was more concerned with Aisley. She led me on a merry chase while Wallace did whatever he did.”

Charon leaned his hands back on the bed. “Broc has been trying to locate Wallace since the battle. Wallace hasna been anywhere to be found. You and Malcolm searched for months. Even Fallon, Lucan, and Quinn snuck out of the castle at night to search. No one has found anything. I doona believe Wallace was here.”

“Where has he been then?”

“That I doona know. You and I left Cairn Toul and never looked back. I snapped Deirdre’s neck with my own hands. She was dead. Her body was destroyed, but no’ her essence. She was able to come back. I think Wallace has done the same thing.”

Laura walked out of the bathroom with Aisley’s toiletry bag. “I really don’t like hearing that. Will Jason be the same or different if he comes back?”

“That’s a big if,” Phelan said. “We doona know if Wallace died.”

“On Skye, tell me what happened when Aisley was attacked,” Charon urged.

Phelan hated the way his friend was watching him as if he were looking for any cracks in his armor. “It was similar to what happened when I was following her. I felt a wave of drough magic. It was unmistakably Wallace’s.”

“Wait,” Laura said. “Back up and tell us about the first time you felt Wallace.”

“I did.” Phelan raked a hand through his hair and briefly squeezed his eyes shut. “I’d been following Aisley for weeks. It’s true what she said. I kissed her at a club. I knew she was a Druid, but I didna sense black magic about her. I kissed her, she asked me what I was doing, and then ran off. I trailed her after that hoping to get close to her.”

He paused, hating himself for being duped. Again. And by another drough. “She was on her way out of Scotland when I felt Wallace. I was several cars behind her. Her car swerved and she was hit by the car behind her.”

“She swerved?” Laura asked.

Phelan struggled to find any measure of patience. “Aye.”

“Why did she swerve? Was there a car in front of her?”

“Nay.”

Charon sat up and turned his head to his wife. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking Jason may have been trying to get to Aisley. She maybe felt him and it surprised her enough that she jerked the wheel of her car.”

Phelan bit back a smirk. He wasn’t sure why Laura was trying to find the good in Aisley. There was no good. A drough was evil to the core of its black soul. They could wield magic with barely a thought and make people do anything they wanted.

Charon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “What happened after the wreck?”

“I knew it was Wallace, and I feared he might come for her because of me,” Phelan explained. “So I put her