with the advantage of numbers, the skellies were unstoppable.”
He rested his head in his hand and took a deep breath. “Then, quite unexpectedly, the magic around them failed. Suddenly, our broadswords could knock them inta pieces.”
The queen’s startled eyes met mine before seeking Jamie’s. “I wonder if that’s when I threw the elixir on Addie?”
Alasdair nodded gravely. “Mayhap, Yer Highness.”
Veronica turned her attention back to our friend. “Then what happened, Fergus?”
“We were having some impact against the skellies, our troops were taking over the fight so we could get the Destined out of the thick of things. Tha’s when the earth began to shake. All of a sudden, the skellies dropped their weapons and each took hold of a person.” Fergus trailed off, looking as if he were going to be sick. “Then they just disappeared.”
Jamie’s alarmed eyes briefly met mine. He refused to comprehend what Fergus was trying to say. I felt the same way. There was a short pause as each of us struggled with our own desire to remain ignorant of the awful truth.
Mackenna wrapped her arm around the queen’s shoulders. She looked around the room and then asked Fergus in a small voice, “The skellies just disappeared?”
“Aye,” he replied. “With the people they were holdin’.”
“How about the rest of the Destined?” Vee asked. Her eyes were riveted on him, willing herself to not fall apart.
“Alive.” Fergus shook his arm, flinging little drops of blood across the floor. “Several are injured. They’re frightened but they’ll live.”
“And our people?”
Something closed behind Fergus’s eyes, a shutter blocking out his feelings like any veteran soldier would do when delivering horrific news. “Several casualties,” he replied matter-of-factly. “But considering that we’re fighting a war . . . we got off easy, Your Highness.”
The flaps to the tent rustled, and I swung ’round with my sword at the ready. Fiona’s startled face saw the tip of my sword and she paused. “I’m lookin’ for Fergus,” she stated.
Lowering my weapon, I nodded and she flew across the tent and onto her husband’s lap. Fergus and Fiona kissed as I averted my eyes and moved to stand behind Mackenna, resting a hand upon her shoulder. In light of what had transpired, I needed to feel her close to me.
Jamie came to stand next to me, behind the queen. “How many people did they take?” he asked.
Fiona swiveled in Fergus’s lap, but made no move to get up. “A hundred and forty-seven Destined. Thirty-one Doonians.”
The image of Adelaide Blackmore Cadell as she’d looked with half her face in ruin and her magic faltering came back to haunt me. “She said she needed more souls.”
The queen’s face turned to look up at my brother, horror and remorse emanating from her blue eyes. “We did this,” she whispered. “We provoked Addie and she took our people.”
Jamie knelt and embraced her from behind. “This is war, love. There will be casualties.”
Beneath my touch, I could feel Mackenna bristling. I reached down to take her hand, but she evaded my grasp. “We led them across the bridge like cows to a hamburger factory. They had no idea what they were facing.” Springing to her feet, she paced away.
I followed, attempting to be the voice of reason. “They were called ta Doon same as you and Veronica. They knew there were risks.”
“How can you say that?” The pain in her eyes rent me in two. She raised a fist and struck my chest. Followed by a second strike. I offered no resistance, letting her pummel me back across the tent. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes as her blows grew in force. She broke with a sob, and I gathered her into my arms.
“I don’t get it,” she wailed. “I don’t get why the Protector doesn’t protect us. Why sometimes the Rings of Aontacht work and sometimes they don’t. If the Protector wanted, Vee and I could use the rings to turn the skellies into dust. This could all be over.”
“It’s my fault,” Veronica added in a haunted voice. “I keep doubting that we—that I can really do this. My lack of belief is causing the rings not to work.”
Alasdair cleared his throat. “Nay, lass. I mean, Your Highness. Some things need goin’ through. Tha’s simply the way life works.” Holding Mackenna, my face buried in her strawberry-scented hair, I couldn’t see Alasdair as he spoke, but his voice held an authority I’d never noticed before. “If I’ve learned anything from my millennia on earth, it’s that the