Page 135 of Enchantment of a Highlander

Saraid scrambled to her feet, her arms thrashing wildly as if fending off something.

“I see them,” she shrieked again. “They want me dead.”

The heat of the fire was dying away now, but the curtain of smoke was getting thicker. Breathing was getting more difficult.

Celia’s thoughts thinned to almost nothing. She drew in shallow breaths of tainted air. Her gaze fixed on Saraid, watching with burning eyes the form of the other woman who ran like a drunkard, her footsteps uncertain, her balance wobbly.

Foxglove.

The word emerged in Celia’s mind.

Too much would kill Saraid anyway, but for now the hallucinating effects were taking their toll.

“Get them off of me,” Saraid howled.

Her hands clawed at the air, her footsteps taking her nowhere.

“Saraid,” MacDougall’s voice was almost completely drowned out by the roar of the rain. “Saraid.” This time it was louder. This time it was edged with panic.

But he was too late.

The smoke whipped around Celia, but she saw the woman in the shrouded moonlight, and watched as Saraid pitched over the edge of the cliff.

The screaming went silent and left only the hiss of the dying fire and the overloud shush of the rain.

Everything was fading, going in and out, blending reality with thought.

Too much smoke.

So hard to breathe.

“Ye killed her.” MacDougall’s voice seeped into her thoughts, but he seemed so far away.

Keeping her eyes open took almost more than she could give, but she strained anyway. She had to see Alec one last time.

And he was there, staggering toward her.

Broken. Bleeding.

But alive.

He knocked MacDougall to the ground with a hit she did not hear. His fists repeated a rhythm against the man’s face, even though MacDougall was no longer moving.

“Don’t,” Celia said in a long exhale.

Alec stopped and turned to her with a frenzied look in his eyes. It was then she understood: it was Alec himself she was helping.

“You’re better than the darkness.” It ached so much to talk, to exist. Everything hurt. “You have enough light in you…”

Breathing was so hard with nothing substantial.

He’d gotten to his feet.

But she had to say it.

She had to try.

For him.