Page 93 of Dark Victory

It can’t be soon, Tabby thought desperately. Just thinking that made her feel selfish. But she was thinking about Macleod. She had so much to do. He needed her so much.

But Fate could be very cruel, and bad things happened to good people all the time.

The chamber’s open door slammed closed.

Tabby sat bolt upright as evil and hatred swarmed into the room.

Criosaidh had come back.

Even as she knew that the witch’s ghost was present, the evil closed in on her like quicksand. Tabby slowly stood up, everything except her adversary forgotten. Just how powerful was the ghost?

Her evil filled the room.

Tabby felt herself slip into a sea of calm. Focused as never before, she said, “Show yourself, Criosaidh.”

Nothing happened. Instead, Tabby felt the hatred growing.

She closed her eyes as several shutters began banging, casting a spell to reveal the spirit. Its anger and hatred intensified. When Tabby opened her eyes, a dark and sultry woman shimmered in the chamber, her eyes burning with hatred, so transparent that Tabby could see through her. And then she smiled.

Against the wall, Tabby tensed, preparing for a terrible onslaught. She began to put a protection spell on herself.

But Criosaidh vanished.

Stiff with tension, Tabby looked around the interior, and the shutters slammed open, a huge blast of frigid air gusting into the room.

It was so strong that Tabby was hurled across the entire chamber and against the far wall. She cried out as she was smashed against the stone, and then the energy died.

On her knees, Tabby straightened slowly, her eyes wide, every hair on her body standing on end. Even though the chamber was absolutely still, she felt the spirit’s evil and hatred gushing about her. She couldn’t see Criosaidh, but she was still present.

“Evil get out, evil be gone. My white power, keep you away,” Tabby murmured.

The energy returned with blazing force, crushing Tabby against the wall. She gasped, but focused on the spell. The force beat her there, battering her as an insane man might with a stick of wood. “Evil get out, evil be gone. My white power, keep you away!” But even as she chanted, she knew that Criosaidh’s ghost wasn’t harmless after all.

The energy shifted.

Tabby collapsed to the floor. “Evil get out, evil be gone,” Tabby cried.

And suddenly Criosaidh took form again, standing there in the center of the chamber, murderously enraged. They faced each other.

“Evil get out, evil be gone!” Tabby screamed.

She vanished and a hurricane force swept into the chamber as the shutters blew off the windows, and her pallet slammed into the wall. Tabby braced herself, but she was hurled backward, and then Criosaidh’s energy pinned her brutally to the wall.

In that moment, she thought of Macleod, and knew death would take her now if he didn’t save her.

HE WOULD NEVER LET Tabitha die in the fires of An Tùir-Tara. He would do whatever he had to in order to change her death. And damn the gods, because the knowledge of her death by fire was so familiar to him, as if he had somehow known all along that this was how she died. But if Kristin had spoken the truth, they would both be there.

She could not leave him.

It was a terribly dismal thought.

Was he coming to care for her?

Did that make him weak?

He was actually considering freeing his prisoner, but it had nothing to do with giving up his vengeance. Tabitha might be right and Criosaidh might be momentarily appeased. He saw no reason why he couldn’t protect her and fulfill his duty to the dead at the same time. Coinneach would live another day, but not for much longer after that. And returning Coinneach gave him the perfect excuse to get inside Melvaig—so he could murder Criosaidh and end this once and for all.

Where was Ruari? Hadn’t he heard him? He needed the power to leap to An Tùir-Tara, just in case he was incapable of destroying Criosaidh now.