Since the instant Mackenna had broached the subject of fighting, I’d known that this moment would come. Tomorrow would confirm what I’d suspected from the start, a terrible fact that I would have rather not faced . . . that her fatal weakness was me—just as she was mine.
CHAPTER 19
Veronica
Staring into a face I never thought I’d see again, I didn’t feel the pain of Jamie’s fingers digging into my throat. It couldn’t be. My Jamie was gone. Fergus had watched him hang. No way the witch let him survive.
Fury contorted my attacker’s face and his muscles tensed to run me through. I jerked back and brought my knee up hard, but he twisted away. His lips curled in a dark smirk that was so Jamie, my legs buckled beneath me. His hand squeezed tighter on my throat, keeping me on my feet.
Everything indicated Jamie stood before me, but his actions said otherwise. Could this creature be some reincarnated nightmare Addie had devised to torture me? If so, it was working like a charm.
Cold steel pressed into my breastbone. “Where’s your magic, witch?” He shoved his face into mine and growled, “This act doesna fool me.”
Act? I had no idea what he was saying, but as his hand crushed my windpipe and he lifted me into the air, I began to beg. “Jamie, please,” I croaked. “Don’t—”
He cocked his head, his brows drawing together in confusion before he hardened his jaw and drew back his sword arm with fresh resolve. “Usin’ her voice will no’ save ye this time.”
Whoever, or whatever he was, he didn’t recognize me. Believed I was his enemy. I reached for an axe, but my vision began to fade, my fingers going numb.
A body rushed out of the darkness and tackled the Jamie-creature. I fell in a jumbled heap of tingling limbs. Gasping to pull air into my lungs, I scrambled away as Ewan smashed an unlit torch against Jamie’s arm, knocking the sword from his grip. They rolled, fists flying so fast I couldn’t tell who was winning. In that moment, I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to prevail. The Jamie clone had almost killed me, but it was still somehow, impossibly . . . Jamie.
Ewan lost the upper hand, and Jamie, straddling his waist, trapped the smaller boy on his back and locked his arms to his sides. Quick as lightning, a dagger appeared in Jamie’s hand. He raised the knife, ready to strike. But before I could choke out a scream, he froze. “Ewan?”
“Aye, ye bloody loon, and that there is her highness, Queen Veronica!” Ewan jammed a finger in my direction. Then he turned back to the large Scotsman sitting on his chest, his eyes widening as realization dawned across his face. “Laird?”
Without answering, Jamie turned to me, our gazes locking through the gloom. Could it really be him? Had Fergus misunderstood what he’d seen? My hearing dimmed and the rest of the world faded away. Without realizing it, I had crawled toward him.
“Laird!” Ewan’s voice squeaked in desperation as if he’d repeated himself more than once.
“Aye?” Jamie answered, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I’m happy ta see ye and all, but could ye have your reunion somewhere other than on my chest?”
Jamie rose and Ewan rolled away, hugging his ribs. Jamie rushed forward and dropped to his knees before me, his stare intense and questioning. Inky shadows hung under his eyes and he was thinner, but every line of his face, from his slashing brows to his dimpled chin, was Jamie’s. My throat closed and I swallowed, hard. “Is it really you?”
Slowly, as if I might shatter into a million pieces if he touched me, he raised his hand to my hair, his dark eyes turning liquid. Desperate to believe he was real, I threw my arms around him, even as doubts flooded my mind. The witch had fooled me before. She’d disguised herself as Allyson when we first arrived in Alloway, and then Emily to worm her way into my inner circle.
Was I letting it happen again?
“Yer Majesty, we’ve got company.” The urgency in Ewan’s tone brought me back to the present with a jolt. Shouts sounded in the distance, punctuated by hurried footfalls. My questions would have to wait. I fingered the teardrop-shaped bottle tucked in my pocket. The elixir was our best hope and we had to get it out of the castle.
Jamie released me. “Escape and then we’ll talk, eh?”