Page 98 of Dark Embrace

He jerked away, and suddenly a succinct thought crystallized in Brie’s mind. He has to be dead…he just doesn’t know it.

Aidan cried out, shocked. “What do ye mean, he has to be dead? Ian is dead. I just saw his ghost!”

Brianna blanched, and two tears slipped down her cheeks. She took his hand and he let her, too furious to care. She wet her lips and said hoarsely, “Ian doesn’t seem to know that he’s dead.”

He became still.

“It’s not that unusual, really, for a soul to be confused. It would explain why he hasn’t left this realm and why he keeps haunting you.”

Her thoughts echoed terribly in his mind while he tried to comprehend that his son believed he was still alive. “What do ye refuse to tell me?” he asked slowly. “A day ago, ye were certain he was dead. Now, yer nay certain at all. I can feel yer doubt. But he canna be alive!”

Brianna flinched. “I’m not certain of anything anymore.”

“Tell me what ye know,” he warned, trembling. He had dared to hope that Ian was alive after hearing Moray’s claims. But they had been lies, hadn’t they?

He read her thoughts again. “He wants me to bring him home?”

Brianna started to cry. “Tabby is figuring out how to send him on, Aidan.”

He stared at her in dread. His son was waiting for him to bring him home.

He seized her shoulders. “Brianna, I beg ye now, tell me the whole truth.”

She choked. “I don’t know the truth! Tabby has guides and they’re usually right. She said that he’s alive, but it’s impossible. She must be wrong!”

He cried out.

He had wanted to believe his father when Moray had first taunted him on the battlefield, and he had secretly harbored a terrible hope. But he was being haunted by his son’s ghost. His son couldn’t be alive. As Brianna had remarked, he’d be a grown man now.

His temples seemed to explode. He clasped his head, crying out. He could not go back and forth between hope and despair this way again!

This had to be another cruel trick.

“Aidan!” Brie cried, reaching for him.

He tore away from Brianna.

He could not stand this!

What if Ian were alive, somehow. What if he was awaiting a genuine rescue?

She laid her hands on his back, standing behind him. “We’ll get through this, Aidan.”

He flung her off and staggered to the small window, clutching the sill. “Leave me,” he somehow managed. “Just leave me.” He didn’t dare turn to her now.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

He realized tears were streaming down his face, but he was helpless to stop them.

Don’t you want to see Ian, my son?

But that had been a cruel trick. Somehow, Moray was behind this newest trick, as well. Perhaps Lady Tabitha was under his spell now. Perhaps Moray had the power to summon Ian’s ghost at will. Or perhaps he could possess the ghost as he had the giant and Lord Frasier.

A sick stabbing went through him. Ian was dead.

He was Ian’s father; he would know if he were alive.

But for one moment, he had dared to hope.