Cassian (The Immortal Highland Centurions #2) - Jayne Castel Page 0,12
For many years, every memory of Lilla felt like a dirk to the heart. However, these days the sensation had changed. Now it was a dull ache—a pain that gentled with each passing year.
I’m forgetting her.
Cassian’s chest tightened then, and he inhaled sharply. Guilt. It weighed upon him whenever he admitted that three hundred years after Lilla’s death, he no longer felt the pain of her loss so keenly.
When he’d confided in Maximus, his friend had told him that the change was inevitable. Such intensity of grief couldn’t stay the same with the passing of the years. Cassian had gotten angry at the time, yet secretly he knew Maximus spoke the truth.
He wanted to hold on to Lilla forever. Yet he wasn’t able to.
The stairs led down to a stone arch—the entrance to Dunnottar’s dungeons. Greeting another set of guards there, Cassian entered the dank tunnel beyond. He and Draco walked past the cells, breathing shallowly as the stench of unwashed bodies and unemptied chamber pots greeted them.
They didn’t halt at the cells, but took the passageway at the back of the wide, vaulted tunnel. The pair passed by a small, cave-like alcove that Cassian had turned into a mithraeum. The scent of incense and the warm glow of torchlight greeted Cassian. They continued down the passage and pushed open the door to the second chamber.
A tall, lean man with close-cropped dark hair sat at a table piled high with leather volumes. He was reading by candlelight.
Maximus glanced up when they entered, his peat-dark gaze sweeping over Cassian and Draco’s faces. “How did it go?”
Cassian winced. “You missed a fiery argument.”
“So, will De Keith make the trip to Stirling?”
“He hasn’t agreed yet … but Wallace thinks he’s cracking,” Draco replied with a smirk. “William will keep pushing until he gets what he wants.”
Maximus nodded, his proud features tensing. He was keen for Cassian to lead the laird’s escort to Stirling. They’d almost worked their way through all the histories in De Keith’s library—but Stirling Castle would have more. And just maybe, one of them would have the answer they sought.
The answer to who the White Hawk and the Dragon were.
Cassian was in two minds about making such a trip. Although he shared his friend’s eagerness to get his hands on more histories, he was reluctant to leave Dunnottar with Irvine’s threat of attack looming over the fortress and what it might mean for the riddle. He didn’t want the three of them to be separated when the attack happened.
Cassian’s attention shifted to the heavy book that lay open before Maximus. “Nothing?”
A crease formed between Maximus’s dark brows, and he shook his head. His gaze remained upon Cassian then, his frown deepening. “Heather tells me you had a run in with Blair Galbraith today.”
“What’s this?” Draco turned to Cassian, his smirk fading. “You didn’t say anything earlier.”
Cassian shrugged. “I didn’t get the chance before the meeting. Galbraith cornered Aila De Keith on a stairwell.”
Draco’s mouth pursed. Like Cassian and Maximus, he wasn’t fond of Dunnottar’s smithy.
Remembering the scene on the stairwell, Cassian frowned. Aila De Keith was a sweet-natured, yet innocent, woman. After Galbraith’s departure, she’d stared up at him as if he were her brave Lancelot. The intensity in her luminous grey eyes had made Cassian uncomfortable.
“He was trying to take his revenge on me … and Heather,” Maximus spoke up once more. “It seems his cousin’s body has been discovered.”
This news didn’t surprise Cassian; he’d lied to Aila when he’d said the first thing he’d heard was the slap she’d given Galbraith in the stairwell. He’d also heard about the discovery of Cory Galbraith and his men’s bodies.
“You knew this would happen sooner or later,” Draco pointed out, his tone dry.
Maximus scowled. “Yes, but I don’t want the Galbraith laird causing problems for the De Keiths … or for us … not when we’re so close to solving the riddle.”
Cassian moved to the table, lowering himself onto the bench seat opposite Maximus. He suddenly felt bone weary—not so much physically, but in his soul. He saw that Draco wore a frown now. All three of them were desperate.
Freedom was tantalizingly close.
“Any more news from Shaw Irvine?” Maximus broke the heavy silence in the alcove that had become their study over the past month. “Is he readying for an attack?”
Cassian shook his head. As soon as they’d discovered that the Irvine laird wielded the ‘Battle Hammer’, he’d paid a man he knew well to act as their spy at Drum