Grace Unchained - Phoenix Throne Book Five Read online

  Jamie sauntered out of the cottage into the village. At least someone in this place was happy to see him. He came to his great-aunt’s house after Grace left. He knew the old lady would make him welcome and put his mind at rest.

  Now that he left her house, the misgiving he felt earlier came back. Grace. She was the last of Carmen’s companions. Now he knew where she was, but he found himself stuck with a completely different problem.

  First of all, she was married. Second, she could go back and forth to her own country at will. Offering to take her back to Urlu to join her companions made no sense. She had no need for Urlu or the Cameron brothers or their life.

  He did his best to shrug her out of his mind. He would probably never see her again. She would go home to her husband. She would forget all about this. If she ever came back to the village, Jamie would be long gone.

  He headed down the village toward his Uncle Jock’s house. Jock would welcome him, too. Jamie always liked his solid, sensible uncle and his sons Malcolm and Daniel. He couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces when Jamie showed up. They would never believe the Cameron brothers not only survived their terrible flight, but won themselves a kingdom into the bargain.

  He passed the planter and wound his way through the houses heading for the dell when the thunder of pounding horse hooves attracted his attention. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see a mounted rider tear through the village.

  Horse and rider flashed past Jamie’s nose. He recognized the rider in a split second. It was Albert Munro, Ewan’s younger brother. He bent low over his mount’s neck and lashed the poor animal back and forth with the leather reins. The horse flattened its ears against its head. It foamed at the bit and sweat lathered around its shoulders from the effort of running.

  Albert hung onto the creature’s mane with his other hand. The horse wore no saddle, and Albert kept his seat with leg power alone. In an instant, horse and rider vanished down the dell to the river.

  Jamie stood still and stared. In all his life, he never saw anyone ride through this village so fast. No one moved fast around here. Life lumbered along at an easy pace. Spring followed winter. Harvest followed sowing. What could be so urgent to make Albert ride like that?

  Jamie went on his way toward Jock’s house, but his mind wouldn’t rest. Malcolm and Daniel standing by the ford, Albert riding hellbent for leather, Grace sitting on the planter like she just dropped out of the sky—none of it made sense. Somehow, all these elements related to each other, but he couldn’t figure out how.

  He spotted Jock’s house, but before he could get near it, a bunch of men appeared. They marched straight past him to the planter, where they stopped. Jamie knew every one of them, and they didn’t look sideways at him.

  They were Keith Wright and his three brothers, Tom, Bruce, and Fraser, along with Merrick Cameron, Morris Caldwell, Craig Hall, and Russell Henderson. Rapid conversation ran back and forth between them. They all buckled on their weapons while they pointed in different directions.

  In front of Jamie’s eyes, they broke up and went off in two groups. Keith and his brothers headed down to the opposite end of the village while the other four turned up the brae into the mountains.

  Jamie stared at the scene playing out in front of his eyes. Now he knew for certain something was going on. He made up his mind to go down to the ford and question Malcolm and Daniel. He turned around when a well-built lady came to his uncle Jock’s door. She surveyed him up and down. “Weel! Jamie Cameron as I live and breathe.”

  He grinned. “Top o’ the mornin’ tae ye, Auntie Ganny. I see ye’re as weel as when I left ye. Is Jock in?”

  “He’s away up the brae. I dinnae ken when he’ll return, either. He’s gone in search o’ Piper, and ye ken what that means. He could be gone a wee while, tae say the least.”

  Jamie gasped. “Piper! What on Earth is afoot, Auntie, wi’ Malcolm and Daniel guardin’ the ford, and the Wrights on guard at t’other end o’ the village, and the other lads up the mountain loaded wi’ weapons, and now Jock gone in search o’ Piper?”

  Ganny nodded. None of that surprised her. “Aye. It’s a muckle bother we mun’ deal tae, and no mistake. But come alaing inside and tell me what ye’re aboot. Where are yer brothers? How do ye come tae be away home withoot ’em?”

  Jamie broke away. “I cinnae stop, Auntie. I mun’ down tae the ford to see the lads. I mun’ find out what this is aboot.”

  “I’ll tell ye what it’s aboot,” Ganny replied. “It’s the McLeans o’er the loch. They attacked us, and they’re threatenin’ all our land wi’ their war-talk. They already invaded Ballachulish and wiped out a hundred defenseless women and children. It’s ainly a matter o’ time afore they wind up ’ere, and Jock’s no takin’ any chances. He ordered a guard o’er the whole village, and now he’s gone tae roust Piper tae help us. It’s the ainly way.”

  Jamie staggered under the blow. “The McLeans! It cinnae be.”

  Ganny nodded. “Aye. It’s true. We ha’e seen ’em ourselves wi’ Lachlan McLean at their head. They ha’e been through our land from the loch in all their horses and weapons. Jock doesnae speak it abroad, but we’ll no stand against ’em when they come. We ha’e no the men nor the steel, and that’s the truth.”

  “What does he want wi’ Piper?” Jamie asked. “Does he want the wizard tae use magic tae stop ’em?”

  “Stop ’em!” Ganny snorted. “No wizard can stop ’em. They’re usin’ magic their own selves. If Piper can deal tae the McLeans’ magic, he’s more a wizard than I e’er knew him.”

  Jamie stared at her with his mouth open. The McLeans—attacking here, after all that talk from Lachlan about their Clans being friends and living in peace? It couldn’t be, and yet here were Jamie’s own people, arming for war against impending assault.

  Whatever magic the McLeans used in this war must have impressed Ganny a lot. Piper might not be the most powerful wizard on the coast. He certainly couldn’t compare with the likes of Ross or Hazel, but he must have something the Camerons could use.

  Lachlan McLean—that traitorous dog! The Camerons never should have trusted him. Jamie and his family should have laid waste the Isle of Mull before they ever turned their backs on him. They should have left Lachlan and his miserable Clan to fight the vampires on their own. Fergus lost his sight helping Lachlan, and for what?

  Jamie spun on his heel and strode down to the ford. Whatever was going on here, he had to find out. He had to defend his Clan from those miserable McLeans. He would take his revenge on them for betraying him, and Fergus, and Callum and…well, all of them. He would leave Lachlan’s body a smoking pile of ash on the ground before he ever trusted that man again.

  Chapter 5

  Grace sat up, put her feet on the floor, and sighed. “Well, I guess we better go take a look.”

  Mike caught her arm. “Don’t go out there, sweetie. Stay here with me.”

  “I have to go,” she told him. “I can’t live here with you pretending it doesn’t exist. If it never happened and I imagined the whole thing, I have to know. I have to settle this thing in my mind once and for all before I go any further.”

  He sighed and collapsed back on the bed. “I thought you would say something like that.”

  “Don’t you want to see?” she asked. “Don’t you want to know if this is real? You would never be able to trust me again if you didn’t go look for yourself.”

  “I know,” he replied. “I just don’t want you to go out there. I have a bad feeling about this. I feel like something really bad is about to happen and we’ll never be able to go back to the way it was before. I don’t know why. I know it’s stupid, but there’s something scary out there.”

  She eyed him closer. He certainly never acted like this before. He never once admitted in his life he was afraid of anything. Then again, he’d never faced anything that could scare him. He’d always made sure he never got anywhere near anything even slightly out of the ordinary.
/>   She never considered him a coward for that, and she wouldn’t start now. So he retreated into a world of safety and comfort out of fear of the unknown. That was nothing she hadn’t done herself. That’s what attracted them to each other in the first place.

  She bent down and kissed him. “It’s gonna be okay. I’ve been through these doorways before. It’s perfectly safe. Nothing will happen. I’ll take you to the village. You’ll see what I’ve seen, and then we’ll come back. We’ll have a nice lunch, and we’ll talk about what we’re going to do next. Okay?”

  He raised his eyes to her face. He nodded, but a hint of uncertainty still nagged his features. He didn’t want to go out there. Something really was bothering him. All the bluster and big talk from last night had vaporized in the morning light.

  She got out of bed and put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and her hiking boots. She slipped into her leather jacket. She wanted to be prepared for that strange world on the other side. She didn’t want to face it again in a suit and pantyhose. She wished she could take a pocketknife, but she didn’t have one.

  What kind of ninny was she? She’d never owned a pocketknife in her life. She never wanted to be prepared for anything, and the one time something actually happened to her, she wasn’t prepared.

  She finished getting dressed before Mike got his shoes on. He dragged himself through every step of the process. He stuck his feet into his tennis shoes and buttoned his jeans. “All right. I guess we better get this over with.”

  She couldn’t smile at him. Far from going into this like some kind of weekend adventure, she faced the next few hours like she was on her way to a war zone. For the first time, she sensed the foreboding he mentioned. This was no walk in the park. This was serious business.

  She couldn’t back down now, though. She had to face this. She had to face herself and confront the truth. Whatever waited for her out there on the hillside above Finlay Park, it was her. It was her destiny and her truth. It was her new life in all its madness and glory.

  She walked out of the house, and Mike followed her to the park. She hiked the hill behind the Aviary. She couldn’t remember where she turned off last time, but it didn’t matter. She could find the doorway anywhere.

  She went right instead of left this time. She plunged into the dim forest. Mike didn’t like it at all, but he never made a sound. He followed in the trail she blazed through the thicket. He breathed just as hard as she did when she finally stopped. “Where is it?”

  She didn’t answer. She scanned her surroundings for a likely shadow. When she saw the one she wanted, she started forward. Mike grabbed her arm. “Hold on a second.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “I thought you agreed we would do this.”

  “What are you going to do?” he asked.

  She pointed to the shadow. “I’m going through the doorway. I never went through it with another person before, but if you hold my hand, you should be fine. We just walk through, and there we are.”

  He hesitated. “There’s nothing there. It’s just a shadow. How do you open the doorway?”

  “I don’t have the foggiest idea,” she admitted. “I just walk into it, and it opens. It always works that way.”

  “How does it do that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of magic. Maybe Hazel’s spell created these doorways, and I can just open them whenever I want. I don’t know. I just do it.”

  He frowned at the shadow like it wanted to grab him and eat him. “I don’t know about this. I don’t like it.”

  “I have an idea,” she replied. “Why don’t I go through? Then you can see how it works. I’ll go through and then I’ll come back. You’ll see it really is a portal to…something. When I come back, you can decide if you want to try it yourself.”

  “No!” he snapped. “If you’re going through, I’m going with you. I want to see where you’ve been going and what you’ve been doing.”

  She held out her hand. “Do you want to hold my hand, just in case?”

  “No,” he grumbled. “If you can go straight through, so can I. Let’s go.”

  She shrugged, and they set off for the shadow, side by side. Grace concentrated her eyes on it, and when they got to the spot, it flashed open. Grace and Mike stepped through into the dell.

  “See?” she replied.

  He looked around him with a calm expression on his face. He didn’t seem to register the change. “Okay. I see.”

  She grabbed his hand. “Come on. I’ll show you the village. Then you’ll understand.”

  The two set off down the dell. The sun shone on the trees lining the stream bed. The place never looked more beautiful. Grace’s heart overflowed with love.

  She longed to share this with him, but he only frowned on all the little details she adored. His attitude threw a wet blanket over her enthusiasm. Maybe she made a mistake bringing him here.

  They passed down the dell to where the hollow dropped down to the village. Grace swept her hand over the view. “See? Isn’t it amazing?”

  Before Mike could answer, a horse exploded out of the trees near the stream. A young man clung bareback to the horse’s neck. He whipped the horse hard and charged up the glen and into the village. He shouted at the top of his voice, but Grace couldn’t make out the words.

  “What’s going on?” Mike asked.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “Let’s go down to the river and see what’s happening.”

  She turned around when the strangest sight she’d ever seen unfolded before her eyes. A head bobbed above the trees—no, it was four heads. They looked like human heads, but enormous and extremely ugly. Bulbous noses drooped from the warty faces. Heavy brows obscured the tiny black eyes, and tufts of hair stuck out from their bald heads.

  The heads were ten times the size of a normal human head, and they wobbled above the treetops. The ground shook underfoot from deep, heavy footsteps coming closer.

  Mike spun around fast. “What the…?”

  Grace jumped. “Come on! Let’s get out of here.”

  She grabbed his sleeve and tried to pull him back the way they came, but he wouldn’t move. He stood still and stared at those things coming closer. In front of their shocked eyes, the things broke out of the trees. Huge people taller than the tallest tree lumbered up the river bank into the open field.

  Grace’s jaw hit the ground. She blinked, but she couldn’t get her mind to comprehend what she was seeing. Traveling back and forth in time to some forgotten corner of Scotland was one thing. This was something so far beyond the realm of possibility she couldn’t believe it was real.

  The giants tromped down the field on a bee line for the village. They carried enormous clubs over their shoulders. They scanned the ground with their beady eyes. Their lower jaws protruded to show their teeth over their upper lips. They couldn’t have looked more stupid if they were drawn in a cartoon.

  Screaming and shouting echoed through the village behind Grace’s back. Men rushed to the scene. A few of them ran toward the giants and threw spears at them. The giants swung their clubs off their shoulders. They seized their weapons by the handles and pounded them down on top of their puny adversaries.

  One man leapt clear just in time and retreated to the village. Another fell victim to the first smashing blow of the club. The giants never changed their expression or quickened their steady tread. They stomped down the dell and spread out in a line on their way to the village.

  More men charged into the field, but they couldn’t face these giants with swords or even axes. After they threw their spears, they had no choice but to flee. Women and children ran for the hills. A few old men herded them away from the village.

  The men held a hasty conference on the hilltop above the hollow. They stood only a few feet away from Grace and Mike, but they paid the strangers no attention. They talked so fast Grace couldn’t understand what they said. She understood their terror, though. Anyone could see they were petrified out of their wi
ts.

  The giants came closer. All at once, Grace realized she and Mike stood directly in their path. The giants fixed their eyes on the tiny people in their way, and they couldn’t fail to see Grace and Mike.

  Grace snatched Mike’s hand. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”

  This time, he didn’t resist. She dodged to her left. She had the idea she would skirt around the giants and make for the trees along the stream. She could find a shadow there to transport them back to where they belonged.

  She sent up a silent prayer that the doorway wouldn’t fail her now. If she made it back to her house and her job in one piece, she would never come to this God-forsaken country again. She would never have anything to do with Hazel or magic or anything unknown for as long as she lived.

  She ran, and Mike followed on her heels. She cast a glance over her shoulder to make sure she’d left the giants behind. Her blood ran cold at what she saw. The giant on the far end of the line, the one nearest her, turned aside from his friends and followed her. He leveled his club at the two fugitives and gave chase.

  Grace’s brain screamed. This couldn’t be happening. How was she supposed to concentrate on opening the doorway with that thing on her tail? She had to get out of here, and fast.

  She put on speed. Mike never missed a step. He ran at her side. They raced up the dell into the open field, but the giant could move a lot faster than they could without even breaking a sweat. It came up behind them and raised its club.

  The giant brought his club down on top of them. Only his own stupidity made him miss. Grace and Mike ran clear of the spot the instant it hit the ground. The deafening impact of the first blow scared Grace out of her wits. She screamed and bolted to her right.

  She zigzagged right and left so fast she couldn’t think. Only one thought dominated her mind. She had to get out of here. She had to find some leafy shadow and get through it, back to the world that made sense.

  The trees bordering the river rose in front of her eyes. She dove into them and charged down the bank toward the ford. She leapt across the stepping stones and veered into the densest undergrowth. She had to put some distance between herself and the giants. She couldn’t open the doorway on the run. She had to calm herself first. She always did before.