Midnight's Temptation

that rose from the ground and aimed right at the MacLeods.

Phelan spotted blood on the knives and knew it was drough blood. The brothers got out of the way of the knives and magic and scrambled back into the forest. Only then did Phelan drop the imagery. Wallace let loose several more blasts of magic in the trees that came too close to hitting the Warriors.

If Phelan didn’t do something, Wallace would get lucky and manage to hit one of his friends. Phelan got to his feet. Before he could jump in front of Wallace, lightning zapped through the forest and zinged one of the women holding Aiden.

*   *   *

Aisley waited for the lightning to strike her. Instead, it was only one of Jason’s newest recruits that fell to the ground, her lifeless body smoking from the zap.

Her knees were locked, which was the only thing keeping Aisley upright and still instead of running to Gillian. Out of the corner of her eye, Aisley saw Aiden elbow the other woman. She was older, and he was able to gain an advantage, even with the drough’s magic.

She wanted to see if Aiden got loose, but Aisley’s attention couldn’t be diverted from Gillian who was still beside Jason as he continued to blast his magic in the trees.

Aisley screamed Gillian’s name when the lightning came again and struck steps from her. When Gillian started to run to her, Jason grabbed Gillian’s arm to keep her with him.

“No,” Aisley said. She wouldn’t stand by and watch her daughter be put in danger.

Balls of fire, more lightning, and even water shaped like a spear hurdled into the small clearing coming closer and closer to Jason.

The teenager was taken out by a water spear to his chest. Jason paid him no heed. It was as if the droughs Jason had recruited meant nothing to him.

Her magic welled within her. She could use it against Phelan and the others. If she did, it would prove to Jason she was allied with him.

It would give her Gillian. She could rock her daughter to sleep at night, teach her about magic, life, and boys.

The world spun as Aisley’s ears rang and she found herself on her stomach on the ground, pine needles sticking into her cheek. By the smell of burnt earth, it seemed she had almost been struck by lightning.

It was the sound of Gillian screaming for her that had Aisley moving. She bit her lip and tasted blood when she moved her hands beneath her to push herself up.

The wounds on her back gushed blood. She had already been weak from lack of food and the torture. The more blood she lost, the weaker she became. How could she help Gillian then?

Aisley grew dizzy when she put pressure on her injured hands to steady her. Slowly she moved her legs so that her knees were underneath her.

She blinked and focused on her fingers. That’s when she saw the dark trail of blood that ran down her arm and over her hand to pool on the ground.

“Mummy!”

Aisley tried to send magic to Gillian to bring her, but Jason was too powerful. Even with his concentration on the Warriors, Aisley couldn’t get to him.

*   *   *

Phelan saw the blood running down Aisley’s arm. But what sent a shock through him was the child screaming for her. It couldn’t be possible though. Aisley’s daughter had died when she was just hours old.

“That’s the other magic I feel,” Phelan said as it all began to make sense.

He expected Aisley to run to her daughter, but it was taking her an obscene amount of time just to climb to her feet. Had Malcolm’s hit hurt her more than he realized?

Phelan started to go to her when he remembered who she was—what she was. Instead, he turned his attention to helping Aiden get free of the drough holding him.

It was almost too easy. Aiden had already caught her off guard, and it took little effort on Phelan’s part by altering the drough’s perception of the world for Aiden to get away.

Instead of disappearing into the forest as Phelan expected him to do, Aiden went to Aisley.

Phelan turned away from the scene and focused once more on Wallace. His fellow Warriors weren’t putting the full force of their powers into the attack because Wallace held the toddler.

If they were going to get anywhere, Phelan would have to remove the child from Wallace. Maybe then he could get off a clear shot at Wallace, ending it all.

Or would it end it?

There would still be Aisley. 

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Aisley yelped in pain when a large hand gripped her upper arm painfully and yanked her to her feet. The blood ran quicker down her arm. She lifted her head to find Aiden’s angry green gaze directed at her. “If you’re going to kill me, do it.”

His forehead creased in a frown. “Kill you?”

“I begged Phelan to do it. Did he send you?”

“I want to know why you lied to Wallace.”

She weakly tried to pull away. Now that she was standing she could get to Gillian. “I didn’t know anything. He wouldn’t have believed that, however. I had to tell him something.”

“You knew what we were working on. You were part of the attack on Britt in Edinburgh.”

Aisley’s shallow breathing still didn’t combat the pain of her ribs. “Jason knew she was helping you. That’s all the incentive he needed to want her dead. Now, if you aren’t going to kill me, then let me get to my daughter.”

“She’s no’ real.”

Aisley shook her head, not caring how it pulled the torn muscles in her back. “She is. He brought her back.”

“I can see her, but she’s no’ real. He’s using it to get to you. Help us, Aisley.”

“You don’t understand.”

He gave her arm a squeeze. “Tell me you doona love Phelan.”

“I … I can’t.”

“Then help us. Get your daughter so we can fight Wallace.”

Aisley pulled her arm out of his grasp. “Get to your family before Wallace sees you.”

“If he finds out you let me go, he’ll kill you.”

“I’m dead anyway. I’ve known it for months now.”

A muscle twitched in Aiden’s jaw. “Does the surname Murray mean anything to you in regards to the selmyr?”

Aisley blinked, not able to hide her surprise. It was only thanks to her mother’s obsessive hobby of learning their family tree that Aisley knew her great-great grandmother’s maiden name had been Murray.

“You do,” Aiden said.

Aisley gave him a push. “Get away while you can.”

“The selmyr have been spotted close. They’ll be coming,” he said before he faded into the dark of the forest.

She turned back to Jason when Gillian screamed. Part of her daughter’s hair was burned from a fireball. As long as he kept Gillian with him, the Warriors wouldn’t attack as they should.

Damn Jason for putting her child at risk.

Aisley closed her eyes and called to every last bit of magic she had within her. It pulsed and grew until she could feel it swirl around her.

Then she opened her eyes and held out her arms to Gillian. “Come,” she said at the same instant she directed magic at Jason’s back.