Page 25 of Katie's Highlander (Highland Protector 3)
“Not important.” Katie stood, stretched a bit, then moved to his other side and retrieved the bottle. Screw sober. She’d compromise by drinking while standing and stop when she couldn’t maintain her balance anymore. “So…from what exactly do you protect the Heartstone?”
“Evil.” Ramsay held out his hand to her. “Please sit ye down. When ye stand, I fear ye’ll run away at any moment before I’ve made ye truly understand.”
“I don’t run from anything.”Usually. Although, in this case, I’m probably gonna walk away really fast.Katie studied him a bit longer then plunked back down on the log. She handed the whisky bottle back to him with a slow shake of her head. “How do I get myself into shit like this?”
Ramsay snorted out a laugh. “How often have ye married an ancient Highland warrior and discovered yerself to be a part of protecting humanity against evil?”
Squinting one eye against the increased throbbing in her head, Katie turned and peered at Ramsay. The more he talked, the weirder this shit got. “Could you please define ‘evil’? I mean…are we talking demons and dragons or…what?”
Ramsay leaned forward, propped his forearms atop his knees, and stared out into the dark woods as he spoke. “First—I have a question for ye. ’Twas asked to me, when I was but a lad and I feel it might help ye understand the way of things.”
Katie didn’t say a word, just looked at him and waited, doing her level best to remain calm and not allow either the pounding in her head or the unbelievability of the situation to force her to unleash an unreasonable rant about druids and goddesses and sealing wax and cabbages and kings.
I have lost my fucking mind—I’m quoting “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”Inwardly, she rolled her eyes and shook her head.I promised to hear him out. I’m a dumbass to do it, but I will hear him out.
Ramsay turned and looked at her, his dark stern expression washing away all her inner dialogue. “How would ye feel if there was nothing at all in yer life to look forward to—no hopes, no dreams, no future where ye’d be any different or any better than ye are right at this verra minute? How would ye feel if ye discovered that all that remained for ye to do was to live out yer days, each and every one of them filled with the same drudgery, until ye reached the day ye were destined to die?”
Katie frowned, a strong aversion, a surge ofoh, hell nofilling her. “Heartbroken.” Then she shook her head. “But, I’d fix that. I’d throw myself into my work, keep busy. I’d make life different.” She threw up a hand. “Hell…I’d discover something.”
Ramsay interrupted her. “Nay, lass. Ye wouldna have the drive nor the desire t’do so. Ye’d be a prisoner of the dark hopelessness of everything around ye. There’d be no new discoveries. No new worlds. No intriguing new concepts. All there would be is sameness. Every day. No urgency to improve or change. For all intents and purposes, ye’d be interested in nothing more than existing. No one would care about anything. No music. No art. No inventions. We’d all be nothin’ more than sheep in a field—except we wouldna even be interested in breeding nor findin’ the sweetest grass. We’d all just exist on this earth and then we’d die. Plain and simple.”
Katie couldn’t imagine such a life, such an existence. “The human race would die out in a matter of years. Failure to evolve results in extinction.”
“And that is why we protect the Heartstone.”
“What has the Heartstone got to do with it?”
“The Heartstone ensures that humanity’s urge to thrive, evolve, hope, and dream remains strong and true. The Heartstone protects humanity’s survival. The Heartstone ensures goodness and love survive the cruelties already running rampant in this world. ’Tis the energy—the beating heart of humanity’s collective soul.”
“And you and your brothers keep it from falling into the wrong hands? Keep some fatalistic dystopian fanatic from destroying it to destroy humanity?” How could all that Ramsay said be true? How could any of this be real?
“Aye.” Ramsay scrubbed a hand over his eyes then raked it back across his hair. “And the goddesses warned us that should the Heartstone fall into the hands of evil, the results could be even worse than the complete destruction of humanity. The blessed stone could be drained of its benevolence and filled with such darkness that it would only power and reinforce the perpetuation of hate and cruelty in this world. Humanity would survive for a while but it wouldna be a pleasant existence.”
“The world has enough hatred and darkness in it.” The words nearly caught in her throat. How many civilizations had her father shown her that had failed—many because of greed and hatred.I hope like hell that all this is nothing more than myth.
“And now ye ken the truth of it—a great deal of the truth, anyway.”
Katie slowly shook her head and rubbed the inside corners of her eyes.I’ve heard enough. I can’t take anymore.“I need some me time. I’m going for a walk.”
“I’ll walk wi’ ye.” Ramsay quickly stood and held out his hand. “…to ensure we keep to the path.”
“Screw the fucking path!” Katie shooed him back with a jerk of one hand. “I need to walk—alone. Okay?”
And I’m not keeping to the damn path. I’m taking my ass to town.Heartsick or not, possibly love lost or not, she just couldn’t do…this. She’d be fine. In time, she’d look back on all this and…no, she doubted that she’d ever laugh but at least, eventually, maybe she wouldn’t feel like crawling into a hole and giving in to a good cry over what could’ve been arealrelationship with an intriguing man. If only…
Chapter 10
She was runnin’. He knew it as surely as he knew his own name. That and the fact that he could hear her whisky-induced stumbling through the thick blanket of leaves and twigs covering the forest floor.
Keep to the path.Both Emrys and Dwyn had warned him.
“Aye, but neither of them has e’er met a woman as stubborn or worth chasin’ as Katie.” Ramsay fetched his spear from the ground beside Dubh and sadly gave the horse an affectionate pat. “I may ne’er see ye again, lad. Ye ken where the keep is—if I’m no’ back by sunup, hie ye homeward.”
Dubh grumbled and bounced his dark head up and down, then swished his long tail. The horse understood.
Ramsay stood still, listening to the telltale signs the woods were willing to share. Uneasiness washed across him as the unmistakable sounds of Katie stumbling through the leaves came clearly from the east.
“Damn woman. Of all directions ye could choose.” East. Where the sun ne’er sets, and legends ne’er die. He rolled his shoulders and resettled his grasp on the spear. “East it is.” He’d only veered a few yards from the path when he first noticed the change. He immediately stopped, remaining motionless as he listened for Katie. The woods around him had become silent as a tomb.
