Fire surged toward the ceiling, circling and lifting, engulfing Grainna.
Tara stood with her hands extended and her eyes closed. The force of the wind blew her hair back.
Duncan stood at her side and watched in awe.
A swirling vortex opened above the flames. Pitch black, the current pulled Grainna away. Her scream went with her through it and beyond, sucking the flames with her. The fiery cyclone shut the vortex as quickly as it opened, but with a defining silence.
Everything went still.
Emptied, Tara stumbled back. Duncan’s arms kept her from falling.
When her eyes opened, he was all she saw. They held to each other, assuring themselves the other was whole.
“’Tis over,” he said.
She couldn’t get close enough to him. She held him hard and refused to let go. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
He pulled back and kissed her bruised and battered lips. “Never,” he said when he moved away.
He kissed her again, long and deep. When she winced, he released her lips.
“How did you know how to banish her?”
Puzzled, Tara shook her head. “The Ancients.
Didn’t you see them?”
“Here? You saw them here?”
She nodded. “You mean you didn’t see them?”
Duncan surveyed the damaged room. “Nay, my love, I didn’t see them. No one has seen them outside of dreams.”
“Then they must have really wanted her gone, because they were here, guiding me.”
“Then it is finished.”
“For today.” Her hand went to her neck where blood still trickled. For today. She released a long sigh, stepped back and looked at the burned mark on the floor, then up at her husband. “Take us home.
Our baby is hungry.” She passed a hand over her stomach and smiled.
Outside the cottage, Duncan gathered the horses, tossed Lancaster’s still unconscious body on the back of his mount and watched after his wife who stood staring at the building that had been her prison.
It was only wood and stone, but the cottage held the essence of Grainna.
Her undying evil.
Tara raised her hands again. Branches around the building blew in, leaves covering the ground rose up and encompassed the dwelling. Vines grew at a rapid rate, twisting and turning until no sign of the cottage beneath could be seen. Within minutes the cottage was camouflaged by the underbrush. Anyone passing would only see overgrown forest and not think to stop.
Duncan helped Tara upon her horse and slowly made their way out of the forest.
She rode in silence on the way back to the Keep.
He let her have the solitude of her thoughts. His own plagued him while he reviewed everything that had happened.
When she started to laugh, he couldn’t have been more surprised.
“What do you find so entertaining?”
“Did you see her face? God that was rich. ‘I’ll be back!’” She mocked Grainna’s words. “Hah! And I thought I watched too much TV.”
“She may be back. We have no way of knowing she won’t.” Duncan’s words sobered her slightly.
“We’ll be ready if she does. Now we know what she’s capable of, she won’t be able to use the same tricks twice.”
She sent her husband the most endearing look.
“I’ve found my gift, Duncan.” Tara rested her hand over her growing child. “Grainna had better learn not to mess with Mother Nature!”
To prove her point Tara lifted her hands, the woods they traveled through parted, clearing a path for easier travel and gave them a clear view of the meadow beyond.
Epilogue
Tara’s hands wrestled with each other, neither of them won. Their squeezing and twisting wouldn’t stop. If she had to wait much longer, her fingers would most certainly be raw.
Duncan, tried his best to calm her, but it was useless.
It was Christmas Eve and when everyone in the family was about to turn in for the evening, Amber and Lora heard and felt Myra’s presence.
She had returned, and was even now on the back of a horse accompanied by Finlay, Cian and Ian bringing her home.
Lora stood beside Tara, with Amber poised and waiting.
Amber smiled in a wistful way, frequently looking up at Tara as if she had a big fat secret that was about to be revealed.
The unmistakable sound of horses’ hooves clapping on the stones of the yard could be heard over the loud thumping of her heart.
One horse moved forward and into the torch light by the door where they stood.
Myra, dressed in a skirt, not long enough for this time, but appropriate for the century from which she had returned, jumped off her horse and ran to her mother’s waiting arms.
Tears of joy sprang to Tara’s eyes as she watched their reunion. The moment Myra glanced up and into Tara’s waiting face, the joy she saw there, mixed with something else. A small cut of pain was laced in Myra’s expression.
Tara answered her with a look of concern.
Myra gave a pensive smile and a little shake of the head, as if to say, “Later, I will tell you.”
The sound of the other two horses came slowly.
Tara had to squint to see why they moved at such a snail’s pace.
Her heart beat a bit faster. She took a few steps down the stairs. Duncan held her hand so she wouldn’t slip on the newly fallen snow.
Two other riders were being helped off the horses. When Fin helped his passenger, he looked down at the obvious female form and kept his hands on her waist a fraction too long.
The woman stared at him, nodded a quick thanks, and then looked at Tara.
Tara clenched Duncan’s arm. Her breath came in small sharp clouds of forced air. “Lizzy?” she whispered in shock.
“Lizzy!” She chanted her name with every running step it took to get to her sister.
Everyone watched the women embrace, no one unaffected by the expression of love they saw between the two sisters.
Simon waited patiently for his turn, inspecting the faces of the strangers surrounding him, and then he took in the steep walls of the Keep.
Tara pulled him into a fierce hug and smothered his eleven-year-old face with embarrassing kisses.
“How? Why?” Tara asked.
Lizzy choked back a sob. Tears streamed down her face. “I made Myra promise to bring us. I had to see you safe with my own eyes.” Lizzy peeked over Tara’s shoulder to Fin. “It’s only a visit, Tara. Only a short visit.”
Fin lifted a brow, and then turned and walked away.
“You’re here now. That’s what matters.”
They hugged again, Tara unbelieving, but ever so thankful for her family’s presence. It was the best Christmas she would ever have.