The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,60

I couldn’t see the children, but I could hear them, their screams went on and on.

“Magnus,” I begged, Hold on, we need you. The soldier’s hands holding me down pressed harder.

Magnus was yanked up to his knees.

A man’s voice, “Shut the kids up, they’re too loud.”

Magnus’s voice was weak. “Nae.” His face bloodied and beaten.

I begged, “Let me go to them, please, let me comfort them. Please, they’re children.”

The hands let go of me and Isla was dropped into my arms. She clung to me piteously, screaming. “Shhhhh, shhhhhh, quiet honey, quiet.”

A man said, “Keep his son over there, he’s a bargaining tool, I think.”

I said, “No! Please!”

“What dost ye want, I will give it tae ye, name it.” Magnus was weak, his head lolling, his body hanging.

“We’re taking you to see the king of Riaghalbane. He’s been wanting a word with you.”

Magnus said, weakly, “I am the king.”

The man said, “Yep, until the day before yesterday. Now you’re overthrown.”

I called across the twenty feet separating Archie from us. “Honey, I’m right here, sweetie, right here.”

Magnus said, “I am sorry, mo reul-iuil.”

I knew he was talking to me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Archie, the man holding him. “Please don’t hurt him. Please don’t.”

This total dick with a broad smile crouched down in front of Magnus blocking my view. “All right, King Magnus, here’s what’s going to happen now. We have orders to deliver you. If you’ll go easily we’ll treat your family with the respect that—”

“M’bairn are nae a part—”

His arm was yanked back, forcefully. “Your children are a part of this. One hundred percent, no questions, right? So they’re going in the truck, because you’ll be a better person if they’re with you.”

I said, “It’s a human rights violation to use children like this. It’s an act of war, and I will have you die for it mother fucker, die, as in dead.”

He chuckled. “Ah, you’re sweet.” He stood and straightened his coat. “Load em in the truck!”

They pulled Magnus up from the ground and dragged him across the lawn.

They yanked me up and let go of Archie. He raced to me and clutched me around the waist. I held him, “It’s okay honey, it’s okay, we’re going to be fine.”

I looked across at the hotel, dark, everyone was freaking asleep. “Where are you taking us?”

“None of your business.”

He pushed me stumbling across the lawn, wet with dew and frigid cold. They shoved me into the back beside Magnus, who was lying on his side. Isla was doing that thing — shaking because she had been crying so hard, shutting down. Archie was screaming, “Da! Da!”

But Magnus was unconscious, all but lifeless. The doors were slammed shut. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Quentin again.

“Where are you?”

“Back of a van. Going to the kingdom, I think a couple of days after Magnus left.”

“Keep your phone on. I’ve got your location.”

“Yeah, of course.” I clutched my arms around my bairn and held them tight, leaning against Magnus’s shoulder, soothing the bairn, and occasionally sing-songing what I hoped sounded like I was calm. I kept a claw-like grip on my phone waiting to see what would happen next.

I had never jumped from inside something before. We had discussed it as a possibility: jumping inside a module with guards protecting us until we wakened. The trouble was it felt scary, claustrophobic. Sometimes we were slow to wake, sometimes we managed to get up faster. What would be happening outside? Without the module actually helping against the pain it didn’t seem worth the trouble.

I checked the back of the bairn’s heads, they weren’t wearing the threads; they were in the hotel room with our vessel and all our weapons. I felt Magnus’s leg for his. Nope, they had confiscated it.

Archie sobbed as the storm grew around us, buffeting and rocking the van.

“It’s okay baby, it’s okay.” I nudged Magnus’s shoulder. “Magnus? Magnus can you hear me?” No answer.

Hiding my moves from Archie I checked Magnus’s wrist for a pulse. It thrummed as it should and so I just held on there, for the solace of it, that steady thrum.

The wind rose to a roar. The van rocked frighteningly. We slid across the floor, banging painfully against the wall. I pulled Isla and Archie in-between my body and Magnus’s and held onto his shoulders, my face close to his. “Wake up Magnus. Wake up, we need you. We’re about to jump, come on, wake up.” It felt