Page 95 of Dark Lover

Aidan and Brianna followed him inside. The entry hall was dark, the floors marble, the ceilings high. “Ye came to us fer help an’ we’re here to help ye, Ian, whether ye wish it or not.”

“What’s wrong, Father?” he asked darkly. “Don’t ye have a poor child to rescue today?”

Aidan grimaced. “That isna fair.”

“Fine,” he snarled. “Now that yer such a powerful Master, ye can help me rescue Sam.”

Aidan breathed hard. “I would have rescued ye, Ian, had I known ye were alive. I thought ye were a ghost!”

Ian stormed past him, across the circular entry hall. They followed, Aidan seizing his arm from behind. “We need to pause. Can ye try to feel her, instead of running off recklessly?”

His father was right, damn him. He halted, trying to feel Sam’s power. Instead, he felt evil’s dark, intense presence. Evil was there at Carlisle, in every stone, every rafter. But he also felt God.

Ian tensed, lifting his face to the trompe-l’oeil ceiling where a battle between cherubs and beasts raged before the glowing gates of heaven, above the crimson inferno that was hell.

And the old gods were present, too. He trembled, surprised to feel them and even more surprised that he could recognize them, with no doubt as to who and what they were. He’d never felt them this way before. Evil ruled at Carlisle—but the gods had not given up.

“Maybe we should do this the old-fashioned way, Aidan,” Brie said seriously. “Room by room. It can’t take that long. We’ll start below, in the dungeons, because that’s where you saw her.”

Ian looked at his father’s wife. He had always liked her. She was soft, sweet and kind, but her gentle nature hid a fierce loyalty to her husband and her cousins. Now, she smiled encouragingly at him. “Sam is the strongest woman I know,” she added.

“Give me a moment,” he said. He focused on Sam, but he did not see her now. There were only dark shadows…

He blinked and saw Brianna and Aidan, filled with frustration. “Let’s go, before it’s too late.”

Brianna took his hand and squeezed it. He looked away from her dark, searching eyes. Did she know how devastated he was? He was doing his best to hide it.

Suddenly the room darkened. The temperature dropped radically, causing him to shiver. Black gusts swept through the huge entry hall. They were visible, dark harbingers of what was coming.

Ian froze.

The monk had so much more power now. He’d known that right away, from the moment he’d come across him looming over Sam in that vault. In spite of himself, his gut churned.

He wasn’t just afraid for Sam. He was afraid for himself.

Ian inhaled and faced the far side of the hall. The black gusts circled the room and vanished and the monk of Carlisle appeared on the threshold. Tall and blond, muscular and handsome, he’d shed the plain dark robes for crimson and gold ones. He was smiling. “What took you so long, Ian? I’ve been expecting you,” he said in his French accent. “And you brought company. The notorious Wolf of Awe?” He laughed, as if pleased. “I was wondering when I’d meet the Master that the bards sing of.”

Aidan started forward aggressively, eyes ablaze.

Ian didn’t think twice. He restrained him, seizing his arm, and he met his father’s furious stare. He wondered if Aidan knew that this man had been one of his captors. “This is my war.”

Aidan hesitated.

“Let Ian do what he has to do, Aidan,” Brianna said.

Reluctantly, Aidan stepped back, revulsion written all over his face.

Ian slowly turned to face Carlisle. “Where is she?”

“Did you bring the page of illusion?”

“If ye’ve harmed a single hair on her head, I’ll never hand it over.”

“If you want her back alive, you will give me the page now.”

He trembled and he knew there was no choice. He had no power, not when the monk had Sam. In the end, he would have to do whatever the monk wanted to get her released, including handing over the page. “Take me to her. I want to know that she’s alive and unhurt first.”

The monk slowly smiled. “Show me the page of illusion, sweet Ian. And then you can have your lover back.”