into open water. Missiles whizzed past our heads. Oliver screamed, a shaft protruding from his shoulder.
“Saints, Murray! Keep us steady!” Jamie dropped down next to Oliver and snapped the stick end off the arrow. “ ’Tis buried deep. Keep the head in to staunch the blood flow.”
Ewan grabbed and then fumbled the oars, one of them slipping out of its metal ring and into the lake. I sprang over the edge, reaching for the wooden pole as it floated away. I’d almost reached the tip when someone yanked me back by my shirt. I spun around, screeching, “I almost had it!”
Jamie tugged me into the middle of the boat and then pointed. “Look.”
At least twenty guards stood on the shoreline where we’d pushed into the lake, reloading their bows. At that close range they’d see us enter the water and could pick us off one at a time. But we had to try to make it to the fog. My throat tightening with fear, I gave the order, “Everyone jump in different directions, then swim under the water as long as you can. Jamie, take Oliver.” The arrows flew, smacking all around us. “Now!”
Not giving myself a second to think, I wrapped the laces of my boots around my left hand and leapt into the lake. Water enveloped me with muscle-numbing cold and I sank like a rock. My ears filled with pressure and I opened my eyes to solid black. Deaf and blind, it was like floating in deep space. Forcing down my paralyzing fear, I swam with no idea if I headed up, down, or sideways. I heard arrows slice through the water, losing speed but still lethal.
If I surfaced, the archers would have an easy target, but my lungs squeezed, already begging for air. Death by drowning or an arrow to the face—neither option sounded appealing.
And then the water lit up like dawn. As a moth drawn to a bug zapper, I swam toward the light and popped up with a gasp. Streaks of fire arched overhead. Treading water, I turned in a circle and searched for the others.
“Vee!”
I swam toward the sound of his voice. “Jamie!”
I rounded the back of the boat and met his grinning face, eyes sparking gold as more flames flew overhead. “The cavalry has arrived.”
“What?”
His free hand, the one not holding Oliver, found my arm under the water and turned me to face the source of our rescue. Like something out of a movie, two large boats floated nearby filled with men and women, shooting flame-tipped arrows at our attackers on shore. Legs braced wide, the archers streamed an almost constant barrage of missiles, lit and fed to them by a row of people seated in back. “Duck boats. They snuck across the loch under camouflage. Who else knew ye were comin’ to the castle tonight?”
“Analisa.” The brilliant girl must have planned on following us all along.
“Hurry!” Fergus’s voice boomed across the water as he loaded a bow. “We’ve got ye covered, but our arrow supply is no’ endless.”
Clearly, Fergus hadn’t spotted Jamie floating in the water beside me, or he’d be freaking out for a different reason.
Bands of light smudged my vision, like the aftereffect of fireworks as we swam through the glowing water to the waiting vessels. Ahead, Ewan pulled himself onto a boat, and hands tugged him the rest of the way out of the lake. The return fire from shore had dwindled to almost nothing. We reached the first boat and hands reached down to lift Oliver. I pushed wet hair off my face and turned to Jamie with my first genuine smile in weeks. “Are you ready to come back from the dead?”
Jamie’s eyes locked with mine, and I read something raw and intense in his gaze before he hooked a hand behind my neck and pulled me close. Our bodies sealed together as he pressed his lips to mine in a single, searing kiss. When he pulled back, I felt the heat of his words against my mouth, “I would die a thousand deaths, if it meant coming back to you.”
CHAPTER 20
Jamie
A gentle wind caressed my skin as I sat by the banked fire enjoying the sensation of being warm for the first time in ages. Freedom tasted sweet like primrose, and alive, like . . . spring. No sign of the blizzard conditions that had plagued Doon before my capture. Which meant my queen had found her strength, despite our divided nation. Despite camping in