Page 70 of Dark Rival

Malcolm hesitated. “Royce has never spoken of his wife. T’was long ago.”

Allie bit her lip. “Am I a fool to hope he’ll ever love me that way?”

Malcolm clasped her shoulder. “Lass, heed me. Royce was a boy of three an’ twenty when he wed. He be a man over eight hundred years old now. Why do ye care about the past?”

Allie pulled away and hugged herself. He’d been so young! She hadn’t realized. “Royce loved me in the future. Maybe he can’t love me right now, but there’s a connection, and it’s not just sex.”

Malcolm flushed.

“He cares. He’s proved it—once or twice.” She wiped her eyes. “What happened to his wife? Malcolm, please.”

Malcolm caved. “A great deamhan seized her, tortured her, raped her—for days, maybe weeks, I dinna ken. Royce finally rescued her—an’ handed her to another man, breaking their marriage. Most Masters live alone, Lady Allie. There be a reason the Code requires it. Royce gave up his wife to protect her.”

“Oh gods,” Allie whispered. “Poor Royce.” She sat abruptly, wanting to cry for him. “You have Claire!”

“Aye, an’ I love her greatly. But she’s the daughter of a great Master.”

“I’m Elasaid’s daughter!” Allie cried.

Malcolm sighed. “Lass, I be young, just eight an’ twenty. T’was easy for me to give over to Claire. I dinna ken if Royce loved Brigdhe or if he cared as any husband should. But I dinna think he will ever allow himself to be too fond of any woman again. Are ye certain that in the future he said he loved ye?”

Allie looked up. She was about to say, “Hell yeah,” but she stopped. The realization was dreadful. Royce had never said those three words, not even with his last dying breath.

Malcolm looked at her with pity. “I dinna think my uncle capable of the love ye want, lass. He’s hard, aye, but he’s older now—an’ tired.”

And that, Allie thought, explained why he’d wanted to die.

CHAPTER TEN

“DO YE WISH TO GO inside?” Malcolm asked, his tone kind.

Allie was about to refuse. She wanted to sit and think about Royce and his past—and about the present and their future. But before she could even smile at him, a terrible foreboding fell over her.

Dark power.

Allie sat up, alarmed. She had never felt such a huge and impending sense of evil before.

“Lady Allie?”

Allie was on her feet. She didn’t look at Malcolm. Evil was coming, like the black clouds blown in before a terrific storm, but this was a cloud of death. The demon or demons had stunning reserves of power. For one moment, Allie was unmoving.

“What happens?” Malcolm asked sharply.

Allie glanced at him and saw that he was alarmed. “There is evil coming. Give me a moment.”

“I sense nothing!” he said swiftly.

Allie turned away from him, focusing entirely on the approaching darkness, the foreshadowing of destruction and death. Dark and malignant, steadfast and intent…the shadows were marching…like men, overland…from the north. Allie finally realized what was coming and she cried out.

She faced Malcolm. “Thirty or forty demons are approaching! But they are not alone. Malcolm, I am certain hundreds of humans are with them—all of them possessed, all with demonic power. And there are animals, too.”

Malcolm’s eyes widened. “A demonic army attacks Dunroch?”

Allie nodded, aghast. “They’re coming from the north—and if my senses work in this time the way they do at home, you have a half an hour to prepare.”

Malcolm had already turned away, shouting to the watch on the small gatehouse tower, and bells began ringing. The entire compound broke into frenzied activity. Allie had been confronting and fighting demons her entire life, but very rarely had she ever run into a gang of them—and then, she’d wisely fled. Usually they perpetrated their crimes of pleasure and death solo.

Men appeared on the walls dragging large, man-size bows into defensive positions; others began rushing up to the ramparts, while fires were started in her ward and elsewhere. Allie came to her senses—the castle was preparing for an attack, and she had to help. She ran through the gatehouse after Malcolm and into the inner ward.