Chapter 25

 

 

Grace’s arms collapsed at her side. The gun fell out of her hands and landed on the duffel bag. It made a clunking sound when it hit the rocket launcher and the grenade launcher. She gasped for breath, and her back hunched.

Jamie staggered over to her. “Lassie! Are ye awright?”

“I’m okay,” she panted. “You don’t look so good, though.”

“What did ye do?” He looked down at the duffel bag. “What…what is all this?”

“That?” She gave the bloated duffel bag a kick. “That’s Mike’s stash. He was a survivalist. He wanted to be prepared in case of societal collapse, so he kept this stash in his closet for years. At least it came to some use.”

“How did ye find her?” He glanced up at the mountain, and his eyes snapped open.

Grace followed his gaze to the cave mouth. Alexis was gone. “I should have known she wouldn’t stick around. I told her she could leave when it was all over. That’s how I convinced her to come. She didn’t want to stay here, and she has other places she wants to go.”

Jamie started to say something, but he shook his head instead. “I’m just glad ye found her in time.”

“Will the giants come back, now that she used magic to get rid of them? Is the curse lifted now?”

“Giants won’t come back,” he replied. “In Urlu, it took several months fer the next wave tae hit, but it’s awready goin’ on right now, o’er on Mull. Lachlan and his Clan are fightin’ those winged things. They’re up tae their ears in it and cinnae spare a mon tae leave. I hate tae think what he’s dealin’ wi’ out there right now.”

She faced him. “You can’t go out there. You can’t help him. This is his fight, not yours. You said you would stay until this was finished, and now it is. You have to go back to Urlu now. That’s your place.”

“I ken it, lassie,” he replied. “I ken it, and I’ll no ask ye tae return tae yer own world. If ye still want tae come wi’ me, I’ll be honored tae take ye.”

A wry grin spread over her face. “That’s good, ’cuz I can’t go back. I can never go back. I’m stuck here for life.”

Jamie gasped. “No! Ye cinnae….”

Grace nodded. She couldn’t stop grinning like a fool. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while.”

He gaped at her in blank incomprehension. He just couldn’t grasp that she was happy about this. Grace’s heart burst with so much happiness she couldn’t contain it. She was here. She was with him, and she wasn’t going back.

She’d never realized until this moment how unhappy she was. She’d kept one foot in each camp for so long, she got to thinking it was normal. Now she was here, and she would stay here. She couldn’t go back if she tried, and she was glad. She didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Jamie’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry, lassie. I’m sorry ye’ve lost yer home.”

“I haven’t lost my home,” she replied. “Don’t you see? Urlu is my home, and I’m going there. Come on. Let’s go.”

She snatched his hand and tried to pull him down the mountain. Jamie didn’t move, and his hand slipped out of her grasp. “I cinnae go back, lassie.”

“Why not?”

“Me wing’s munted.”

Grace frowned. “It’s what?”

“Munted,” he replied.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s gubbed. It’s goosed. It’s whacked. I cinnae fly.”

Grace’s eyes flew open. “Oh, I get it. You mean it’s broken. Why didn’t you just say so?”

He stared down at the ground. “I’ll no be gang tae Urlu any time soon unless I walk there.”

“Can you walk there? I thought it was…you know, protected by something.”

“It is,” he replied. “I dinnae like tae think how laing it’d take tae walk there, nor e’en if we could walk there.”

“What’s the alternative?” she asked. “We could stay here until it heals, but that would mean….”

“No!” he cried.

Grace spun around to stare at him. “What’s going on with you?”

He glanced around with wild eyes. He lowered his voice to a murmur. “I dinnae want ’em tae ken…about me.”

“Don’t you think they already saw you?” she asked. “You were all over the sky.”

“I dinnae ken. I dinnae want tae find out.”

“So what are you going to do?” she asked. “Do you want to go off somewhere alone until it heals.”

He grumbled under his breath. “I’d like tae.”

She took his arm. “That’s silly. Come on. Let’s go back to the village. I’m sure there’s somewhere you can stay. We can stay at Dick Ralston’s house if we have to. They don’t have to know the real reason why. You can just tell them you want to spend a little more time in your old hometown.”

“I suppose.”

She urged him forward. “Come on. We have to get down to the village—all of us. I can’t wait to show you what it’s like.”

He didn’t understand her, but he let her lead him down the mountain. On the way, they passed villagers heading back to their camp. Grace hailed them. “Come down to the village—all of you. Follow me!”

They didn’t understand, either. None of them did, but she didn’t want to spoil the surprise. In the end, a few of the fighting men tagged behind the pair. They emerged on the brae, and Grace stopped where the path twisted. “See? Look!”

The men stared down at the neat little cottages, all shining perfectly constructed in the sunshine. They exchanged a few fevered words of breathless conversation. Then they broke and ran back up to the camp.

Grace smiled at their retreating backs. They would spread the word. In a few hours, the whole populace would return to their village. They would fill it with life where death and destruction ruled before. It would become the beautiful paradise Grace remembered from her first visit here.

She turned her beaming countenance on Jamie to see his reaction. She started when she saw him scowling down on the village. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy about this? Alexis repaired it. It’s as good as new, if not better.”

He looked away. “I still cinnae go there. I ne’er belainged there. I didnae ken it afore, but I ken it now. I ne’er should ha’e come back ’ere. I can ne’er be a part o’ this village again. I belaing in Urlu and nowhere else. They’ll run from me and try tae kill me the same way they did the McLeans. They dinnae understand at all.”

Grace migrated closer to him. She wanted nothing but to be close to him and to help him through this. “It’ll be all right. There must be somewhere else we can go.”

He glanced up the brae. “There is somewhere, but I dinnae ken how we’ll stop there. There’s no hoose nor e’en a shed tae keep out the cold.”

“We can go take a look, anyway,” she replied.

He led the way back up the brae where the trees clustered thick and tall. He steered her off the main track into an old road. It ended at an iron gate with stone pillars holding it up on either side. The gate stood open, and the road extended around a curve in the distant woods.

Jamie glared at the gate. “Summat’s off.”

“What is it?” she asked. “It looks all right to me.”

He started forward. Down the road, it opened wider. The trees stood farther back to let the sunshine through. The way spread out into a wide yard surrounding an old castle.

Jamie halted there and stared up at the place. “It was destroyed,” he murmured. “The curse leveled the place until there wasnae a stone standin’ tae show where it had been.”

Grace surveyed the place. “It looks fine now. It looks perfect.”

“Aye.”

She waited, but he didn’t move. “Well, do you want to go inside? We might as well stay here.”

He nodded, but he didn’t say anything. Grace inspected him at close range. All his usual brash attitude had disappeared in the last few days. Now a pinched, careworn expression haunted his eyes. His curvy mouth didn’t smile. He barely saw anything right in front of him.

“Come inside,” she murmured. “Let me look at your wing. I’m no doctor like Sadie, but if it’s bad enough you can’t fly, we should take a look. You might need it splinted or something so it heals right.”

“I’ll ha’e tae stay a dragon fer the long haul,” he pointed out. “Ye’d no want tae…”

She smiled to herself. “I think I can handle that for your sake. Does it hurt?”

He turned his face away and compressed his lips. “It kills.”

She laid her hand against his back. “Come on. Come inside where you can rest.”

He still wouldn’t look at her, but at least he didn’t argue. He let her guide him inside, but in the end, he went by himself. He circled the castle to the back, where he opened the kitchen door.

He glared at the tiny room. Grey flagstone covered the floor. The fireplace sat cold and empty, and no herbs or food hung from the rafters like the cottages in the village. The pots hanging from the ceiling were all clean, though. The place gave Grace a comfortable air. The door looked out on the yard and across to a low stable.

Jamie let out a shaky sigh. “I’ll no fit in ’ere.”

He kept going. He passed through a different door and into a high hall where the solid wooden doors opened onto the entrance steps. Grace peered through the windows and saw the road up which they just came.

Jamie walked to the center of the hall, and there he stopped. He scowled at everything.

“Well?” Grace asked.

He nodded, but he still didn’t do anything.

Grace positioned herself in front of his face. “Come on. Let’s have a look at you.”

Quicker than thought, he erupted out of his skin. His massive chest exploded before her eyes, and the huge golden dragon filled the hall with his enormous bulk. He extended his wings, and his head whipped back to let out a terrific shriek of pain.

Grace staggered back out of the way. He thrashed to the ceiling. He clawed the air with his forelimbs, and his tail cracked through the air. No matter what he did, he couldn’t keep his wings still. He let out one tremendous screech after another.

The sound set Grace’s teeth on edge. She didn’t want to go near him when he was like this. He could crush her with one accidental stamp of his foot. This went on and on for what seemed like ages until at last the dragon collapsed on the stone floor in a heap. His wings still rustled, and one of them stuck out at an odd angle. He couldn’t fold it down.

His sides heaved, and deep groans came from inside him. Every time he tried to move his wing, he flinched. The spasms glanced down his scales and made them shimmer in the dim light.

Grace stepped forward. She raised her hand, but she hesitated to touch that seething monster. Could this really be Jamie, the man she’d grown to love?

The instant she wondered that, he shrank back into his usual form. He cowered whimpering on the floor. “I cinnae…I cinnae, lassie. It hurts….”

She crouched down next to him and stroked his forehead. “Listen to me. It looks like it’s dislocated, which means we have to put it back into joint or it will never heal. Shift back one more time, and this time, you have to lie still while I put it back. I’ve never done this before, so it’s probably gonna hurt a lot. Once we do that, you can shift back. You can stay like this while it heals up. As long as you don’t shift into your dragon form, the wing will keep still and it won’t hurt as much. Can you handle that?”

He sobbed under his breath.

She didn’t say anything. She knelt at his side and caressed him for a long time until his breathing steadied. After a while, he peeked out at her. “It hurts.”

“I know it does. We have to fix it, or it will just keep hurting. You don’t want that. Once we get it fixed, you’ll be back to flying around.”

She didn’t rush him. She let him lie there for another long time. If he was going to do this, he had to do it in his own time. He closed his eyes and lay still for so long she wondered if he might go to sleep right there on the floor. He surprised her by opening his eyes. “Awright. I’m ready.”

She stood clear, and when he shifted again, she didn’t shrink in fear. She watched him burst out of his skin and take the form of the magnificent creature she admired. He screamed worse than ever, but she saw what she had to do. She walked over to his side and touched his flank.

He snarled and bellowed in rage, but he obeyed her touch. He knelt down, and she climbed onto his back. She tiptoed down his spiked shoulder to his wing. The joint where it connected to his body had twisted around the wrong way. She studied it carefully before she decided what to do.

She sat down and straddled the joint. She laid her hands on either side of the bone, and Jamie shuddered. He went very still and quiet. Tension sizzled along his powerful body. Grace dreaded what he would do when the time came, but she couldn’t hesitate now. She seized the wing and wrenched it around. She felt the bone pop back into place.

Jamie reared back and thundered to the rafters. His piercing cries vibrated the castle. He flailed in all directions and knocked Grace to the ground. She scrambled away before he crashed down on all four legs. He roared and spat flame at the ceiling.

All of a sudden, he collapsed again, shifting back to human form. He sank into a curled ball at Grace’s feet. He drew his knees up to his chest and hid his eyes against his knees.

Grace turned away. She couldn’t see him like this. She had to find a place where he could rest until he healed on his own. She searched around until she found a large bedroom off a long passage heading down the castle’s west wing. She threw the door open.

The bedding looked as fresh as if someone changed it just yesterday. Alexis must have changed it. She’d put everything back the way it was. Grace returned to the hall and hoisted Jamie to his feet. “Come on.”

He moaned low and leaned his weight on her. He offered no resistance when she supported him down the passage, and he tumbled onto the bed. He rolled over on his side—the side opposite his injured wing. He closed his eyes and moaned until he lay still.

Grace left the room and shut the door. As long as he lay still and didn’t shift, he would be fine. His human form was the best splint for his wing. As long as he didn’t shift, he wouldn’t move it.