deep inside. Balling my hands into fists, I sobbed his name. “Jaaamiiieee!”
I cried until the tears closed my throat, and I collapsed in on myself. I’d always thought if a loved one passed on, they could visit you in spirit—that God would allow it in times of need. But I didn’t feel Jamie’s spirit lingering with me. In fact, it seemed as if he himself might actually appear any minute. Like I could glance over my shoulder and he’d come sauntering up, that too-confident smirk tilting his lips. But that would never happen again.
Lifting my head, I stared across the empty chasm and at the river rushing below. Water roared and churned in angry swirls over sharp rocks, their jagged points beckoning, promising a swift death. A shudder vibrated through me. If the fall didn’t kill me, with my heavy clothing, the current would suck me under and I wouldn’t fight it.
Fight. The word echoed in my head until it morphed into the last words Jamie spoke to me. “Verranica, one of us will live to fight another day, and that must be you.” He’d then pressed his lips against my forehead. “The Protector will be with you.”
He’d wanted me to fight. Clutching the wet grass where the river spray had melted the snow, I leaned forward and peered over the edge of the ravine. Stubby trees and limestone shelves jutted out from the slope. But if I took a running leap, I could clear it. Jumping would be quick and easy . . . and horribly selfish.
Giving up was not an option. I’d always said my dad took the easy way out, the completely self-serving path, by leaving when things got hard. I refused to do the same.
I leaned back and balled my hands into fists. The Protector had chosen me. Jamie had chosen me. No matter how much it hurt, I would find a way to honor that by choosing to live, to fight, and be the queen he believed I could be. Not some cop-out Juliet who couldn’t live without her Romeo. I’d always hated that story.
Reclining back on my haunches, I took the multicolored ribbons I always carried from my pocket and tugged the purple one from the knot. When I’d researched handfasting, I’d read that the purple represented strength, honor, and sanctity.
Stretching an arm over the ravine, I held out the ribbon, the purple strand flying in the breeze as the words ripped from my chest like a vow. “I promise you, my heart.” My voice broke on a sob, but I pushed through. “By whatever means necessary, I will defeat your murderer and save our kingdom!”
The sun broke through the clouds as I released the ribbon. It floated, suspended for a moment before a gust of wind caught it, taking it up, up, up. Astonished, I watched it fly against the fall of flurries and then curl into a spiral and drop. Scrabbling on my hands and knees, I peered over the edge and searched the cliff face until I spotted the scrap of purple resting on a rock shelf.
The clouds shifted again and a ray of light glinted on an object buried in the snow beside the ribbon. Falling flat on my stomach, I strained to reach the ledge, rocks and dirt tumbling with me. Unable to see, I rifled through stones and hunks of frozen mud until something hard and cold brushed my fingertips. I scooped it up along with a handful of snow. Yanking my arm back, I sat up and fell on my backside, opening my trembling fist. Gold and crimson sparkled with flecks of ice. I gasped as tears streamed down my cheeks, and I stared in wonder at the most beautiful sight I’d ever laid eyes on—the ruby Ring of Aontacht.
Perhaps Jamie’s spirit was with me after all.
CHAPTER 4
Jamie
MacTavish, Campbell, Lockhart . . .
I recited the names of our people in my head, a trick Duncan and I had devised as kids to distract us when we were sick or in pain.
MacG—
Knuckles smashed into my nose and my head snapped back with a crack. I straightened and licked the warm fluid gushing over my lips. After days of being beaten to a bloody pulp, I’d become disturbingly accustomed to the metallic taste. I swallowed, and for the hundredth time considered why I wasn’t dead.
While I placed considerable faith in the Protector to keep me alive, the irony of escaping the gallows only to be pummeled to death by