“Six…,” she said, and then lost her ability to talk.
Arran shrugged. “There’s a story as to how we were leapfrogged through time, but that is going to have to wait. You didna know you were a Druid. How then did you know how to use your magic?”
“I didn’t,” she said with a shrug. “At least, I didn’t do it on purpose at first. I just thought I was lucky. Then I realized that I could hear the artifacts singing to me. And only I could hear their song.”
“Pete doesna know?”
“No. No one but you. I love what I do, Arran. I know it’s wrong how I come about the relics, but I have to find them.”
“There’s nothing wrong with what you do, Ronnie. Each Druid has a special gift of magic to use. You’ve chosen to use yours in your work, and you doona harm anyone in the process.”
“Until today,” she whispered.
“Why did you open the box?”
Ronnie shrugged. “It’s what I came down here to do, but then I changed my mind. I was going to take the box to my tent and open it later. But the overpowering urge to open it took me. I couldn’t stop myself. By the way, I think you need to add those creatures’ blood to your list of things that can hurt you.”
She could feel his eyes on her, his white eyes. Gone was the golden gaze she’d come to enjoy so much. As if he were reading her mind, his white skin faded away. His claws disappeared, the fangs vanished, and his golden eyes returned.
“We need to look at everything in this chamber.” He walked to the nearest item and inspected it. That’s when it dawned on her he was looking for something.
“You came to this dig for a reason.”
Arran’s head slowly lifted, and he looked at her. “Aye. There is a spell I’m looking for. This spell will bind our gods once more and allow the Warriors who are married to live normal, mortal lives. They doona wish to bring children into this world while they’re immortal.”
“Saffron and Camdyn did.”
“And that was an accident. The Druids at the castle have been preventing pregnancy, but somehow with Saffron and Camdyn, the spell didna work.”
“Druids? At the castle?” she repeated.
He winced. “Ah … aye. There are Druids.”
“And you think I’m one?”
“I know you’re one. As a Warrior, I feel magic. Yours, Ronnie, is
mie
magic,” he said, and turned to face her. “Help us. Help me find the spell. It was taken in one of three shipments from Edinburgh hundreds of years ago. Two of the shipments, one by land and one by sea, made it to London. The third shipment went by land on the most difficult route. We believe this dig is part of the shipment.”
“Shipment of what?”
“Magical items.”
After the monsters she’d just seen and learning about Arran, she didn’t hesitate to believe him. And after what she’d just released into the world, she needed to do something to make things right. “What am I looking for?”
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Arran shrugged. “I’ve no idea. It could be anything. At one time it was a scroll, but it had since been changed.”
“That’s not a lot to go on.”
“I know,” he said, and picked up a dagger. “It’s all we have.”
“Don’t you need light?” Ronnie asked, and reached for her flashlight.
He inspected the hilt when he found knotwork. “Nay. I can see as well in the dark as in the light. Anything that looks suspicious, let me know. This involves magic, so it could be anything.”
“Not anything, surely. I mean, it’s a spell that was on a scroll. It’s not like it could magically become dirt or something.”
Arran set aside the dagger once he was sure the knotwork on the hilt and blade were not the scroll. “Larena, who is our only female Warrior, has a ring. Inside the ring is a list of all the families who had a Warrior step forward so long ago. With just a few words, that list disappears into the stone on Larena’s ring.”
“Well. Now that I know,” Ronnie said, and went back to looking.
Arran smiled and moved to the next object. It was a scroll. He cautiously touched the edges to see how it had barely begun to be affected by time. It couldn’t be that easy, to find the spell on a scroll.
Could it?
He gently took it in his hands and unrolled it. With a sigh, he closed his eyes. It was a spell—but not the one he needed.
After he carefully rolled up the scroll, Arran returned it to its spot and stood there. The spell on the scroll could be harmless. Or it could change everything.
“None of these artifacts can see the light of day.”
“Why?” Ronnie asked as she picked at a small rock and put it in the beam of her flashlight.
“Each one of them is magical in some way. Some hold magic, like the box, and some
are
magic, like the scroll I just found that has a spell. There are still Druids out there, both good and bad, and it would be better for everyone if no one knew of these items.”
Ronnie walked to him and touched his arm. “What about those pieces that did reach London. Where are they?”
“Carefully guarded.”
“How would you know?” she asked with a chuckle.
Arran ran a hand over his chin. “Larena’s power as a Warrior is to become invisible. She saw for herself just what was under lock and key in the royal palace in London.”
“Shit.”
“Larena’s power has come in handy on many occasions. She helped us defeat Declan and free another Druid, she found Saffron originally, and—”
“Wait. Found Saffron?” Ronnie asked. “What do you mean?”
“It’s no’ my story to tell, but I’ll say Declan kidnapped Saffron and kept her locked in a dungeon below his house.”
Ronnie shook her head in surprise. “Dear God. Why would he want Saffron?”
He hesitated, unsure of how much to tell her since it was Saffron’s story.
“Or is she a Druid you spoke about?” Ronnie asked. Her eyes widened when he didn’t deny it. “Saffron is a Druid? What was it about her that Declan wanted?”
“Declan was a
drough,
Ronnie. Saffron is a
mie,
but she’s also a Seer.”
Ronnie shrugged and asked, “What does that mean exactly?”
“Seers are the ones who see bits of the future. Saffron will get glimpses of people’s futures. Sometimes events will change those visions, and sometimes they willna. There have been a few instances when we’ve been able to help those involved if we knew them.”
Ronnie rubbed at her cheek that was smudged with dirt. “I can’t believe Warriors are out there, and that I’m a Druid. A Druid! What else is there?”
“These new creatures now, and to be honest, there probably is more.”
“I don’t know whether to be excited or frightened.”
“Probably a wee bit of both.” He moved to the next item and saw Ronnie staring at the box she’d opened.
Arran walked around her and grabbed it. It was completely smooth, with no markings on it anywhere.
“There’s nothing,” Ronnie said.
“Aye, there is. I can feel the magic. I knew as soon as I arrived at your dig that magic was here. The problem is that I can no’ do magic, so this will take a Druid who knows what to look for to look at it and tell me what’s being hidden.”
Ronnie turned around and put the light on the object behind her. “It’s another scroll.”
Arran set aside the box and reached for the scroll. He unrolled it to find a manifest of items taken from Edinburgh. He let out a whoop and smiled at her.
“You found the manifest. Now all we need to do is locate every item on here.”
“How can you read that?” she asked with a frown as she rose up on her tiptoes to see.
He shrugged. “It’s Gaelic. I can read it. Now, let’s begin.”
“Gaelic. I read a little, but badly. I found a stone before I opened the box. It appeared to have a prophecy.”
A muscle ticced in his jaw. “Show me.”
Ronnie took him to the broken tablet and watched him study it. For long moments, silence reigned and she grew uncomfortable. Arran, as usual, was calm and to the point, but she knew just what she had done.
She had nearly killed the both of them by releasing the creatures from the box. Her magic, which had always been used to dig up harmless relics, had been used for evil. For those beasts were evil. She didn’t have to be a Warrior to know that.
It oozed from them, choking her with the foulness of it. And now they were out in the world. They had to be stopped.
“This is a prophecy,” Arran said as he ran a finger down one broken side of the stone tablet. “One that was put into words long, long ago.”
“What does it say?”
He met her gaze. “Why do you want to know?”
She was about to tell him she didn’t know when she paused and knew she owed him the truth. “I can’t explain it, but I think it’s about me.”
“It says, ‘The one with untapped magic / Will free those trapped by the magic-wielders / She will unknowingly bring about destruction and death.’”
“I got most of that. What does it mean?”
“It would be difficult to know without the rest.”
Ronnie grabbed hold of the table to keep herself steady. “There’s more?”
“Aye. It’s along the sides.”
“What does it say?”
The female Druid will be the bringer of doom
Only to be ended by a man-god.
The new darkness will join forces with the Druid
And it will be the end of all.
“Tell me that’s not about me,” she asked.
Arran took her hand. “It could be about anyone.”
“Let’s see. I’m a Druid who had untapped magic, and I released those creatures who had been locked away. If that doesn’t tell you it’s about me, then I don’t know what does.”
“Easy, Ronnie,” he said softly.
And to her amazement, the fear that had its iron grip on her lessened. She knew with him by her side, she’d be able to face anything. He was a Warrior. Immortal and powerful.
And she, apparently, was a Druid.
Arran released her long enough to take a picture of the tablet and send it to someone through his phone. He pulled her away from the tablet.
“Who is the ‘new darkness’?”
His eyes grew hard at her words. “I’ve a feeling we’re going to find out verra soon. We’d thought to have defeated them, but I’ve long had a belief there was something out there waiting to make its move.”
“Like what?”
“Someone like Deirdre or Declan. A
drough,
Ronnie. It’s been my viewpoint that this new ‘darkness’ was amassing itself and waiting for the right move. We’ve no idea who it could be.”
“And I just helped it, didn’t I?”
He turned to her, halting her. “Nay. If that prophecy is about you, then we’ll deal with it.”
“You don’t have to spell it out for me, Arran. I get that it’ll be you, or another Warrior, who will have to kill me before I can do more harm.”
He grabbed her arms and pulled her to him. Instantly her body came alive. He drew in a ragged breath and forced his gaze up from her mouth.
“Then let’s find out who this new darkness is.”
She nodded and didn’t pull away when he tugged her head onto his chest. Ronnie leaned on him, with not just her body, but her troubles as well. It was as if he took the weight of her problems onto his very wide shoulders, giving her a boost.
“Come. Let’s see what else we can find,” he urged.
Ronnie didn’t want to leave the safety and comfort of his hold, but she steadied herself and squared her shoulders. There was a spell to find, monsters to kill, and a prophecy to stop. The time for wallowing in pity or guilt was over.
For the next hour, they meticulously went through and matched every item on the list save one.
“Why is just the one gone?” Ronnie asked.
“Verra good question. I’ve a feeling it’s exactly what I’m looking for, too. It says on the manifest that it’s a necklace. There are long sections of knotwork connected together and then to the chains of the necklace. There appears to be more, but whoever wrote this didna finish the sentence.”
Arran rolled the parchment and sighed. “Bloody hell.”
“What do we do?”
“I doona think we can destroy these items, but neither can they be allowed to sit in a museum or chance being stolen. I need to get them out of here.”
Ronnie blocked his way when he started to walk off and shone her flashlight on his face. “How do I know you aren’t doing all this just to get the relics?”
He grinned and pulled out his iPhone from his back pocket. The screen was cracked, but it still worked. “Call Saffron.”
Ronnie took his phone and looked deep into his golden eyes. Would she be able to tell a lie from the truth? Especially when she wanted Arran so desperately? And she did want him, even after seeing what he’d become.
She’d been afraid, but that fear hadn’t lasted. He’d had plenty of opportunities to kill her if that’s what he wanted. Instead, he’d saved her.
Trust had been an issue with her since Max, but there was going to have to be a time in her life when she did trust once more. She might get it wrong again, as she had with Max, or she might get it right.
She unlocked the phone and found Saffron’s number. While the phone rang, she resumed staring at Arran. By the third ring, there was a feminine hello.
“Arran?” Saffron asked over the phone when Ronnie didn’t immediately answer.
“No, it’s Ronnie.”
“Did something happen to Arran?” Saffron asked quickly, her voice low and urgent.
Ronnie cleared her throat. “No, he’s standing right here. He wanted me to call you to ask about … Well, I need to know if he was sent to take what we found.”
There was a moment of silence and then a click as the phone was put on speaker, and Ronnie could hear a man’s voice. She’d never met Camdyn, but she’d heard he could be a difficult man to take at times.
“What has Arran told you?” Saffron asked.
Arran jerked his chin and took the phone from Ronnie so he could put it on speaker. At her questioning look, he grinned and said, “Enhanced senses are part of the package.”
Ronnie should’ve guessed.
“Saffron, she knows what I am. She also knows about you and the other Druids.”
“Why?” was Saffron’s only response.
Arran licked his lips and gave a slight shake of his head to Ronnie. “There’s been a wee problem. I’m going to need to talk to Fallon, so Camdyn, get your arse to the castle. It’s going to take all the Warriors.”