Page 55 of Highlander’s Bride

Strong arms caught her from behind, and the stench of male sweat, blood, and bad breath invaded her senses. Then the man dragged her away, Raghnall’s panicked face receding into the distance.

Chapter 27

God’s blood, they got Bryanna! Raghnall pushed the man he’d killed aside as he hurried towards the place where Bryanna had just stood.

Before he could chase after her, she managed to wiggle out of the man’s arms. She backed away from him and the other enemy warriors. Then, cornered and panicking, she climbed up onto a crenel.

Working with his elbows, Raghnall pushed men away to get to her… But in the heat of the ongoing battle, a warrior was pushed against the wall, knocking into her.

She gasped, and for a moment she waved her arms, trying to grab on to something. The skirt of her burgundy dress flapped in the air… Then she was gone into the vastness of air behind the wall.

“Aaaaaaahhhhh!” Raghnall roared.

The door in the middle of his chest that had been sealed for years dissolved. In its place there was a dark, bloody gap.

And out of that gap, things burst forth. The horror, the guilt, the terror of the worst thing that had ever happened to him in his life. Something irreversible, something that had rent the deepest cracks in his being…a wound that would never heal.

The loss of someone who, despite his best efforts to keep her away, had become the matter of his very soul.

“Naaeee!” On numb legs, he rushed towards the wall. He pushed someone aside, avoiding the swoosh of blades and thuds of fists around him.

He looked down into the swarming warriors below, expecting to see her body sprawled and broken.

But somehow she yet lived… Bryanna had landed in the midst of the men waiting to climb the ropes and two men were dragging her down from there. Given that the inner wall wasn’t as tall as the outer wall of Eilean Donan, the fall wasn’t as high as it would have been had it happened out there.

“She’s a Mackenzie, looks like a noble lady, nae a milkmaid or a servant!” yelled someone below. “Lady Euphemia told us to bring every Mackenzie we could get our hands on. She wants hostages.”

Aye, Euphemia must want to exact her vengeance upon Angus by bringing pain to everyone he loved. She must especially want to get to Rogene and Angus’s unborn child.

Raghnall itched desperately to get to Bryanna, to tear the enemy throats out like a wolf and take her back to safety.

But he still had Seoc to think about. Helplessly, he was watching the kicking, screaming Bryanna being dragged somewhere… Someone tugged him, and he looked down.

Seoc, his eyebrows drawn together, eyes big. “Where is she? The nice lady?”

Raghnall’s eyes watered. This was just like then… The woman was gone, and only he and the lad remained. He felt the edge of mad despair like he was standing on top of a cliff, nothing but blackness and chaos beneath.

This was what he had been so terrified of all these years, and even before Mòrag. To lose people he loved.

It would be so easy, to let himself fall apart, let the madness take him. Let the chaos win.

Or take the easy way out. Death was everywhere around him, yearning to take his life. Engage one of the enemy and not duck. Let the blade bite deep. Hang his head and let the sword do what it was supposed to do.

Only, this wasn’t the end, and Bryanna was still alive. The battle hadn’t been lost yet.

And Raghnall could do what he’d learned to do best when he was one of the reivers.

Deceive and kill.

Wary of the enemy around them, he sank to his knees and looked straight into Seoc’s eyes. “Ye must promise me something, lad. I canna worry both about ye and about her. So if ye want to help her, please, for the love of God, go and hide in the safety of the keep. Can ye promise me that?”

Seoc’s eyes watered. “I only wanted to help. I saved yer life.”

“Ye did. And now ’tis time to save hers. Promise me. A warrior’s promise, aye?”

Seoc nodded, solemn and serious. “Aye.”

Raghnall nodded and they proceeded down the stairs to the inner bailey. As he watched Seoc run into the tower, Raghnall felt bad leaving his sword brothers to fight without him, but he had to discuss his plan with Angus.