Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 32223 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32223 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
“Brutes,” she mutters testily. “I can’t believe you let those marauding savages stay on the very borders of your land.”
“They’re neither savages nor marauders, Darcy,” I say evenly. “Which is more than I can say for your own people.”
Her scowl deepens.
“You brought it on yourself.”
“Oh, did I? After ten years of giving you more than you ever deserved. Through all of your lies, and your scheming, and your infidelity?”
She sneers at me. “Jealous, Lachlan?”
I smile. “Hardly, my lady. Can you recall a single time when I even attempted to touch you?”
She starts to open her mouth, but I cut her off.
“No? Could it be that I’d rather have lain with a bloody corpse than you?”
Her face turns red, her lips pulling back in a sneer.
“What do you want, Darcy.”
“I believe my father has made it quite clear what—”
“I mean what are you doing here, the night before my wedding.”
Her face darkens, and her lips pull back from her teeth in a hiss.
“And how is your new bride-to-be?”
“Fine,” I say flatly, sitting across from her and steepling my hands together. “Now for the last time, what do you—”
“Oh, is she, Lachlan? Is she fine?”
I frown. “What?”
Darcy’s smile thins, her eyes cold. “Well, you’re here, with me, with your little friends right outside the door, no doubt trying to listen in on our conversation.” She laces her hands together. “So, is that backstabbing, ungrateful little bitch of a daughter of mine—”
“You will bite your tongue!” I roar, lunging to my feet, my chair falling backwards onto the floor.
Darcy flinches, but she covers it with a smirk.
“So, is she fine, Lachlan?”
I scowl. “Spit it out whatever in God’s name you came here to—”
“These young girls,” she sighs flippantly. “They can get such cold feet before something like a marriage, you know.” She smiles wickedly. “It’d be a shame if she just ran off now wouldn’t it?”
Something cold slices through me, and my blood turns to ice. Something’s off. I’m used to Darcy’s cruelness, and her little mind games, but this is feels different.
…It feels practiced.
And suddenly, dread settles over me. I growl, leaning onto the table on my fists, my teeth bared.
“What are you up to, you witch?”
She laughs flippantly.
“Me? I’m sitting in here with you. Lachlan. Perhaps it’s Iona you should be worried about.”
The cold knife in my gut twists, and my whole-body freezes.
“What have you done.”
Darcy just smiles even wider at me, and suddenly, my rage explodes.
“What have you DONE!?” I roar, flipping the table between us. But Darcy’s just laughing as the door crashes in with my friends charging into the room.
“I’ve been sitting right here, Lachlan!” she chirps, laughing away.
I whirl to see three of my guards running into the room after my friends.
“Chain her,” I snap.
Darcy’s face pales.
“Excuse me?!”
The guards grab Darcy, and I whirl to my friends.
“Let’s go, now.”
My pulse thunders as I run through my halls, my very skin crawling with dread as I crash through the doors and out onto the terrace again. And my heart stops.
There’s twenty of my guards out here, and torches being lit below in the gardens. Catriona, Una, and Rhona are in tears, and they run to us as we tumble out onto the terrace.
…I don’t see Iona.
The dread sinks into me, almost bringing me to my knees as I whirl, the entire world blurring around me. Rhona runs to Tor, Hamish scoops Una into his arms. Catriona runs to Callum, bawling into his chest before she turns and throws her arms around me.
“Dad!” She sobs as I hug her close.
“What—tell me,” I croak.
“They took her!”
Her sobbing cry sends a blade through my heart, and I stagger.
“Dad, she’s gone!” she screams. “They took her!”
Chapter 13
Lachlan
Fire burns through me, every damn muscle in my body clenched tight, and pure rage boiling inside. My friends, and my guards, and everyone is talking around me, but I’m standing there at the foot of what was our happy dinner table on the terrace. It was the place where I sat staring across the table at woman I love.
And now, she’s gone.
“Lachlan.”
I blink, numb to the world, my anger turning to pure red fire inside as my hands grip the back of the chair hard enough to almost break it in two.
“Lachlan!”
I blink again, shaking my head as I turn, the world coming back to me in a rush and whooshing sound. And suddenly, I’m back—back in the chaos of it all, with Callum shaking me.
“Are you with me?”
My eyes narrow, my jaw clenches, and I nod. “I’m here. Speak.”
Callum nods, knowing where I just went in my head, and granting me that.
“Your guards say a group of horsemen were seen fleeing the western walls of the castle. No word yet how they breeched, but an old garden gate was found—”
“Where were they headed.”
Except, I think I already know, because I’ve a feeling I know who’s behind this.