Page 95 of Dark Rival

Allie tensed. “It was my fault. You know—Adam and Eve, the whole bad woman thing.”

“Ye need rest. I’m hoping ye’ll be fine in a few hours.” He clasped her shoulder and gestured toward a small bungalow. “Ye can take my bed.”

Allie expected Royce to go ballistic, but he stood there, his face perfectly impassive, not uttering a word. “It really was entirely my fault and I am not going anywhere without Royce.” She shook his hand off.

MacNeil’s expression hardened. “Yer mother was nay so difficult.”

Allie shrugged.

MacNeil looked at Royce. “The Queen is on her way to Carrick.”

Royce started. “Yer sure?”

“Seoc arrived last night—he encountered her retinue on the highway.”

Allie looked back and forth between both men. “The Queen—as in the Queen of Scotland?”

MacNeil glanced at her. “Aye.” Then he said, “Royce needs to return to Carrick. Ye will stay here.”

Allie was in disbelief.

“Aye,” Royce said grimly.

“I’m going with you!” Allie retorted.

MacNeil firmly grasped her shoulder. “Ye canna be hurt again.”

She wrested free. “No one has hurt me. And certainly not Royce!”

Royce looked at her, his face so tight now, it might have been made of plaster. “MacNeil is right. I compromised yer power. T’was not my right. Ye’ll be safe here. Yer Fate is here, Ailios.”

Allie was furious. She stepped closer to Royce, facing MacNeil. “You do not control me. You do not own me and you cannot order me around! Where Royce goes, I go.”

“One night like last night an’ ye will turn yer back on the gods an’ Fate?”

Allie tensed in dismay. “It is about more than one night and you know it.”

“Aye, I ken ye love him deeply. Did ye not take vows—the same vow as yer mother did? Can ye turn yer back on any pure creature, human or beast, if in need?” MacNeil asked seriously. “Are ye not sworn to heal those who suffer? Can ye heal a broken bird now?”

She didn’t know what she could or could not do, and the lack of power was frightening. “I have never turned my back on suffering, and I never will,” she finally said.

MacNeil nodded, satisfied. “Then he leaves an’ ye stay.”

“No!” A terrible alarm filled her. “You don’t get it. I need Royce with me when I heal. He can guard me while I heal, MacNeil! And I swear, we will never cross the line in bed again!” She was panicking.

“There’s hundreds o’ Masters to guard ye,” MacNeil said bluntly. “I will summon Aidan to do so.”

Allie felt Royce’s heart rate surge. She turned and looked at him in despair. But he said, “Aidan will defend ye. I approve of the choice.”

This can’t be happening, Allie thought. “Why are you agreeing to this?”

His color rose. “I dinna ken what might happen the next time I bed ye.”

“What does that mean?” she gasped.

“He means he doesna ken what he will do when he canna think at all,” MacNeil said bluntly.

Royce didn’t trust himself. “I trust you,” she said. She stared and he stared back. “I have always trusted you. I always will.”