land, it would please me.” Her heart needed someone from her old life, and she accepted Jep as her father. “We need to carry on as family, Jep. I don’t know if I can call you father yet, but mayhap ’twill be possible in the future.”
She reached for him then, and he wrapped his arms around her as if he’d been wanting to do it for some time. “Thank you for watching over me,” she whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, daughter. You have made me verra proud, and I’ll speak with Laird Grant on my own.”
They parted ways and she headed back to the keep, pleased with her decision.
She had a father who loved her, and that small gift pleased her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next morning, Alick stared into the flames of the hearth as they began to grow. He’d just come down from his chamber, not wishing to awaken Branwen. His mother was right—she needed sleep. But he couldn’t sleep because the blasted dream had returned. He thought he’d be rid of it after everything that had unfolded.
He heard the bootsteps as they came down the stairs, so he glanced over his shoulder to see who approached him.
Dyna.
“Another dream? The same old one?”
“How did you know?”
To his surprise, his grandfather descended the stairs after her.
“You cannot sleep either, Grandsire?” he asked, stepping back from the hearth and offering the older man his chair.
“I sleep better knowing all my clan are safe, but I still wonder about many things. The spectral swords. Robert the Bruce. I don’t know what is coming next.” He took the chair with a sigh, rubbing his hands together in front of the flames. “Tell me about the spectral swords. It saved us in the courtyard with John. Did you experience it again?”
“It happened in our battle with the men from Thane Castle,” Alick said.
“Tell me everything,” Grandsire said, his gaze going from one grandbairn to the other.
Alick paused, considering what to say, then settled on, “When Dyna was finally able to draw from it, it was much different than the last times.”
“How so?” he prodded.
Alick looked at his cousin to see if she’d allow him to tell the truth—and also because he was hoping she’d take the lead on the explanation. Finally, she did. “It didn’t happen until I climbed on Derric’s shoulders.”
Their grandfather just stared at this declaration, absorbing the information. “Truly? His shoulders?”
“I tried climbing onto his back, but it didn’t work. But I could feel it starting so I pushed him to help me onto his shoulders. Then it came. The lightning. The thunder.”
“Everything,” Alick said. “My hilt got warm, the blade swung easier. Grandpapa, we needed it. We were losing.”
“How many?” he asked.
“Ten and five. We had Cailean, Els, and me, plus Branwen, Sorcha, and Dyna in the trees, but ’twasn’t enough. We needed more. The power worked, and it helped us turn the tide. It didn’t tire us as it has in the past, either.”
“And no John, nor Alasdair,” he said lost in thought, clearly pondering all the possible implications of this new development. After a moment, he shook his head. “I don’t know what to make of that. The spectral swords seem to be forever changing. The Battle of Largs was easy compared to this never-ending chaos.”
“We made it. ’Tis what matters, Grandpapa.”
“True.” He glanced at his grandson as if just noticing something. “Bad dream again?”
“Does everyone know about my dreams?” Alick asked, tossing his hands in the air.
“I would guess you would have them more often now,” Dyna said. “Your life is beginning to mirror your dream.”
Alick didn’t know what to make of that. “Because my mother was missing?”
“’Tis more than that,” Dyna said, cocking her head. “You’re forgetting how the dream begins—you couldn’t find your cousins. Now, Els and Alasdair have both married. I suspect ’tis the true reason why you’ve had that dream more often.”
“What?” He stared at her, incredulous over this remark.
His grandfather arched a brow at him. “Dyna’s quite astute, as always. Now that you are married, will you choose to live here with your cousins, or will you return to Grant land to live near your parents?”
“There are three parts to that dream,” Dyna said. “Only one of them is the fear of losing your mother.”
The more he thought on it, the more he realized she was right. The first part of the dream, losing his cousins, bothered him as much as the part about losing his mother. But what was the third