The witch Jinty snarled, thrashing against the magic chains which held her, as she spit in Morna’s direction.
I threw a quick glance to Cooper who had yet to see us. I expected him to look afraid; instead, he looked fascinated. I wanted to run toward him but refrained, not wishing to interrupt the witch’s confrontation.
“Ye can twist yerself about in these chains all day, curse me under yer breath all ye wish, but I am more powerful than ye will ever be, lass. Ye will die today, but take comfort that ye willna suffer. Ye can thank the boy for that. I will snap yer neck with the flick of me wrist before I toss ye into the flames.”
“Do it.” Jinty’s words were raspy and hideous, the hatred in her eyes enough to chill me through. “But with me last breath, I damn ye and all yer…”
She was given no chance to finish her curse. Before her last words, there was a terrible crack, and the witch’s head fell limp against her shoulder. The chains that held her body vanished, and she fell back into the flames, disappearing before all of our eyes.
Morna turned away from the flames and walked toward Cooper as we watched. She spoke to him gently. “Are ye alright, lad? I dinna mean to scare ye, but the lass was mad if she thought I’d let her curse me family at the end.”
Cooper nodded, giving her a brief grin before his eyes finally shifted in our direction. As he ran toward me, Morna turned and addressed Eoghanan as if she’d known we’d been there all along.
“Eoghanan, for God’s sake, release Grace. Jinty is gone now. Ye doona mean to keep her from hugging her son, do ye?”
“How are ye here, Morna?”
“Ach,” Morna waved a dismissing hand toward the pillar of smoke. “Cooper sent for me.”
Eoghanan released me, and I charged Cooper who wrapped his arms around me but pulled away as I clung to him. “What’s the matter with you, Mom? Did you not have a good time on your honeymoon?”
“What? Cooper, are you joking? You were just kidnapped, and you think I’m upset because I didn’t have a good time on my honeymoon?”
“But Mom…” he pulled back as far as he could in my vice-like hold on him. “I wasn’t kidnapped. Not but for a minute, and I knew Morna was coming for me anyway so I just didn’t worry too much.”
“You didn’t worry.” The tone of my voice seemd to be frightening him more than anything else had so I struggled to pull it into one of some normalcy. “Cooper, you worry about everything.”
“I didn’t because of the red rock, Mom.” He said it so plainly, as if I were the fool for not knowing what he meant.
Morna’s spoke as she waved us all near to her. “Shall we return the three of ye to McMillan Castle? And Cooper,” she reached out to pat his shoulder, “I think it might be best if ye allow me to explain.”
Chapter 45
Whether it was really Cooper’s red rock or just Morna’s uncanny ability to know everything that went on with her family, no matter the century, no one cared. We all realized how unusual it was for her to make a travel herself—having not done so since she’d left her own time as a young girl.
She’d not only arrived in time to save Cooper, but to provide a remedy for Jeffrey, and to gift Mitsy with a, while not painless birth, certainly a more pleasant one. After the chaotic and emotionally draining afternoon, all was returned to right within the castle by evening.
Mitsy and Baodan welcomed their beautiful and ridiculously chunky baby boy, Rodric McMillan, at sundown. For the first time in his life, Cooper was out for the count before supper. His little adventure with the horrific witch, Jinty, had been far more traumatic on his parents and stepfather than it had been on him.
I sat on the edge of Cooper and Jeffrey’s bed watching them both sleep when Eoghanan appeared in the doorway, his hand extended toward me.
“Come to bed, lass. I doona think either of them shall open an eye until morning.”
I stood and, after kissing Cooper on the forehead, joined Eoghanan, taking his hand as we walked to our bedchamber. When we reached the doorway, I turned to stop him, gathering his face in my hands as I kissed him gently.
“My entire life, there have been only two men that I loved so much I couldn’t measure it, couldn’t get a grasp on how much they meant to me, couldn’t fathom what my life would look like without them. Now…there are three. You are the person I didn’t even know I wanted but needed so desperately. One day, I want to make two dozen more Coopers with you.”
He ran his thumb along my brow, kissing me gently on the top of my head as he gathered me in his arms and carried me inside. “I want nothing more than that, Grace. But, lass, mayhap we doona start tonight.”
I laughed as he lay me on top of the bed, nodding in agreement as we crawled beneath the covers in unison. For the first time in a week, we lay in each other’s arms and slept like rocks.
It defined perfection.
Epilogue
Two Weeks Later