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Or he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

Seoc ducked and avoided the blade, but the man raised it again, ready to strike. Raghnall managed to put his claymore against the enemy’s sword just in time.

Sassenach warrior, he noted distantly. Their swords clashed together again and again, ringing. The man’s blade slashed against Raghnall’s shoulder—a scratch.

Seoc dodged in again and stabbed the man in the thigh. As the man yelled, distracted, Raghnall managed to stab him right in the eye and send him to his death down the wall.

Breathing heavily, Raghnall leaned closer to Seoc. “What did I say, lad!” he yelled. “Ye must remain in the tower.”

“Why do I have to remain in the tower when even yer own lady isna?”

“Bryanna?” Raghnall murmured as he looked around…and saw her down in the inner bailey, putting rocks into a wooden crate.

Their eyes locked, and he was immediately struck by the intensity of her fierce gaze, and that sunlight of joy and strength that he knew she radiated when she was herself.

She must have brought rocks from the underground area, he thought.

Did she manage to clear the stone?

But he couldn’t go to her because more warriors appeared from the ladders. A sword flashed right by his neck, and he barely ducked. He raised his blade. He had a child, a wife he loved to protect as well as his whole clan. A family that loved and accepted him.

He raised his sword.

Only, unlike many battles before, he didn’t chase death at the edge of a blade.

He chased life.

Chapter 26

A few minutes earlier…

Bryanna stared at the now cleared rock, the carvings dancing wildly from the jumping torch light. Raghnall had helped her so much, but at some point, she’d smelled a whiff of freshly cut grass and lavender, and after that, the work on the rocks had gone much easier.

It was as though the glue that had held them together had crumbled, and they’d become lighter.

After Raghnall had had to go to help in the battle, she’d gone on removing the smaller stones with a shovel and pushing them aside with her bare hands.

And now she could see it, still covered with dust and small rocks, but free enough for her to put her hand in the handprint…

And leave.

So why was she hesitating?

Because she’d never see Raghnall again.

And that thought brought an anguish so heavy, she couldn’t breathe. She could return here at any moment and leave now. She would just take one last look at him, make sure he was okay…and whisper her goodbye, even if from a distance.

When she stopped outside the main keep, her whole body went numb.

Men with spilled guts and bloody gashes were lying on the ground. Dead… Wounded… Clashes of swords were mixed with screams of pain. And the smell…oh God, the smell! Smoke, burned flesh, and something acrid and ironlike.

A real war.

The Mackenzies, the Ross clansmen…they were all men. And this was real—as real as a heart attack.

She had to do something to help! She couldn’t fight. But she saw people on top of the wall throwing rocks on the climbing enemy. And they needed more. She had more.

Pushing the shock into the back of her psyche as much as she could, she went back into the basement to get rocks—the rocks she’d been clearing for hours now.