“I mentioned the details to my father while we were at the cabin, but I haven’t heard back if he’s had any visions surrounding them yet. Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll call him and check in.” Cell phone in hand, she wandered underneath the tree, rested back against the trunk and jabbed in Dad’s number. Iain watched her as he trained, his golden gaze firm on hers.
“Isla.” Dad’s voice reverberated down the line. “How are things?”
“Hey, Dad. Things are good. We’re back at Ivanson Castle and I just met Iain’s mother. I have a question.” The breeze rose and the leaves on the elm tree rustled. One drifted free and swirled toward her. She plucked it out of the air and fingered the golden-tinged leaf.
“One moment. Let me find a quiet place to speak to you.” His footsteps echoed down the line. A door closed then the familiar sound of his black leather chair creaked as it welcomed his weight.
“Are you in your solar?”
“I am. Shoot me your question.”
“It’s about Finlay and Kirk’s search for their mates. Have you seen anything yet? Do you have even an inkling about what’s going on?”
“Iain and his brothers have one of the strongest bonds I’ve ever seen between siblings, and regarding their mates, it shall be you and not me who ultimately guides them in the right direction.” He cleared his throat. “Isla, there’s something I must say before it becomes too late.”
“Too late for what?”
“You mustn’t fight the pull.”
“Have you been talking to Daniel?”
“I must warn you. You’ll soon be gone and I’ll have no way of reaching you for some time. Just know that I love you and we’ll see each other again soon. It’s time for the ‘power of three’ to be—”
“Dad?” Her phone beeped and she tapped it, her connection with him gone. Stupid signal.
She called his number, the wind rising and whipping her hair about her face.
Across the bailey, Iain sheathed his sword and sprinted toward her. He yelled something to his brothers over his shoulder and something lashed at her and tore her merged link with him away. A mist rose and lights shimmered all around. It was as if the stars themselves had escaped the sky and blazed above.
Clutching her belly, she fell away into a dark abyss. “No!” Her scream reverberated through the dense fog, ringing in her own ears.
Chapter 10
Thunder boomed and lightning slashed within the pitch black. The wind shoved and twirled Isla around. She searched frantically for her link to Iain but got nothing. Dad had said he’d have no way of reaching her until she returned. Heart pounding, she screamed for her mate. “Iain!”
Hands grabbed at her, hauled her up against a hard male body. “I’ve got you.”
She shoved her hair out of her face and stared into her man’s beautiful golden eyes then sank into his mind and clung to him. “What’s happening?”
“All I saw was a tunnel of wind churning around you then you were gone. I dived into the vortex that sucked you away.”
Finlay and Kirk flew toward them and each one clasped Iain’s arms. They surrounded her, covering her back and keeping her in the middle of the three of them.
“Are you all right?” Finlay yelled over the rush of wind to her.
“I am now you’re all here. Dad said I’d soon be gone and he’d have no way of reaching me until I returned. He said it’s time for the ‘power of three’ to be unveiled, or at least he almost got that all out.”
“Hey, we’re slowing down.” Kirk stared through the dark, dense fog. Lights once again flickered then an unearthly force sucked them apart and they plummeted into the frigid depths of a loch. Icy water closed over her head and she kicked upward through the murkiness and broke the surface. White-capped waves, lit a silvery hue by the moon high above, broke over her.
She gulped in great drafts of air as Finlay and Kirk surfaced. “Iain, I’m on the surface.”
“Almost there. Don’t move.”
Dizziness overwhelmed her and she grabbed her head. Everything went dark and wavered before her eyes. “Need you, now.”
Iain emerged from the loch’s dark depths in a fizz of bubbles. Waves sloshed into Isla and she slumped forward into Finlay. His brother seized her waist and held her up.
“Isla!” He powered toward her, hauled her into his arms and lifted one hand to her mouth. Her breath whispered gently in and out and warmed his palm. “She’s breathing. I need to get her to land.”
“We appear to be close.” Finlay pointed over Iain’s shoulder. “Behind you.”
Across the choppy moonlight waves, a castle rose like a sentinel in the dark, its massive gray stone turrets and towering walls topped with battlements and guardsmen roaming the ramparts. From the multitude of square windows, candlelight flickered as it did in the days of old. “Where the hell are we?”
“We’re certainly no longer at Ivanson Castle.” Kirk treaded water next to him. “There’re so many birlinns moored in the bay. Boats haven’t been made like that in a very long time.”
At least half a dozen birlinns were roped to the sea-gate landing and bobbed with the incoming tide.
Isla moaned and stirred in his arms. “Iain?”