“BLISS!” Rannick roared racing into the small clearing as Lady Faline lunged at his wife, the fog swiftly rising to consume the whole area. “BLISS!” he roared again and felt a hand on his arm. He grabbed it, disappointed to find it was Annis.
Bliss wanted to call out to her husband, but she feared Lady Faline might be too close, so she reluctantly held her tongue. Pain began to nag at her back letting her know labor was close at hand.
“MUM!” Brogan called out. “Stop this madness! I am not immortal, nor do I want to be. I want a quiet life with my wife and the bairns we will have. I will rule nothing but the clan when it is time for me to do so.”
Lady Faline let out an angry shout to her son. “You were always a disappointment!”
“SAYS A SHREW TOO CRAZY TO SEE WHAT A HORRIBLE WOMAN SHE IS!” Annis yelled, her hands stretching out in front of her as she turned away from Rannick to find her husband. A hand suddenly grabbed her wrist, and she clenched her other hand ready to throw a punch if necessary. “Brogan!” she gasped when his face appeared through the fog, and he hugged her tight.
“ENOUGH! FALINE!” Lord Balloch cried out. “STOP THIS NOW!”
“You have always been a coward, Balloch, and I will have my revenge against everyone but particularly you by taking your daughter’s life,” she cried out.
Balloch shook his head and went to Rannick’s side, spotting him through the fog. “She has completely lost her mind, Rannick, I have no daughter.”
“I need to reach Bliss before she does,” Rannick said, and a chill of fear felt as if it turned him to ice when a horrifying scream pierced the fog.
“BLISS!” Rannick shouted, fear so raw racing through him he thought it would take him to his knees.
Tears choked Annis as she clung to her husband, his arm tight around her, but she managed to cry out, “BLISS!”
The fog began to dissipate and Rannick’s heart thundered in his chest waiting for the fog to reveal what he feared… that he had lost Bliss.
All but Rannick stood in shock. He hurried to his wife, avoiding the wolf who stood over Lady Faline, her throat torn open and the wolf’s mouth bloody.
Rannick grabbed his wife in a fierce hug and kissed her, resting his brow on hers when done. “I thought I had lost you. You have to stop being brave or I will lose my mind.”
Bliss understood what he meant. “I had to save my sister, and never once did I fear you would not rescue me.”
“If it was not for the fog…” Rannick shook his head.
“I would have fought her off until you reached me,” Bliss assured him.
“There you go being brave again,” he admonished.
“Nay, there I go again trusting my husband to always be there for me,” she corrected.
“Always,” he whispered.
They both turned when they heard Annis ask, “Are you all right, Brogan.”
Rannick and Bliss looked to see Brogan and his father staring at Lady Faline from a distance, the wolf not letting them get near and Annis keeping her eyes averted with too much blood to be seen.
“Go, wolf, with my appreciation. It is done,” Bliss said gently, and the wolf walked away.
Lord Balloch approached his wife’s body, but Brogan stayed where he was, Annis keeping tight hold of his arm.
“I don’t want to remember her that way. I have far too few good memories of her to begin with,” Brogan said, turning to bury his face in his wife’s mass of fiery red curls.
“We will make wonderful memories together,” Annis assured him, tears trickling down her cheeks.
Balloch stood over his wife’s body in silence, too bewildered to speak.
“The witch!” Annis called out, the fog completely dissipated to reveal her presence.
“She is the witch?” Rannick asked, recognizing the woman standing there as the woman who had passed by their cottage.
“Verbena?” Balloch asked as if seeing a ghost.
“Aye, Balloch, it is me, and it is time you meet our daughter,” the witch said, her glance going to Bliss.
“Good Lord, I beg you do not let the witch be my mother-in-law,” Rannick whispered.
CHAPTER 34
“I am exhausted,” Annis said, leaning against her husband.
“You were not the one who gave birth,” Elysia reminded, her newborn daughter swathed in a soft blanket and tucked in the crook of her arm and Odran sitting on the bed with Elysia tucked in his arms.
“I felt like I did, it was so long and exhausting,” Annis argued.
Bliss laughed. “It took less than an hour.”
Rannick had worried the whole time, pacing the floor in the Great Hall along with Odran. He had seen the tiredness in his wife’s eyes and her steps did not have their usual brisk pace. He also knew her thoughts were heavy over the announcement the witch had made about her being her mother and Balloch her father. She had pushed all that aside, not asking one question of either of them, her only thought was to get to the keep so she could deliver Elysia’s bairn. He had been glad it hadn’t taken long. Now his wife could rest, though she wouldn’t until the witch revealed the truth of the past.