“’Tis not as if the lass is pure in any way?—”
“Ye’ll not touch her!” Lowell said. “She’s here to die tonight.”
“What will it matter if she dies a wee bit more tarnished?” Daryl Anderson cried out.
Shawna found herself closing her eyes, wincing, trying to close out other sounds in the room. There were men and women there. Those who were not in on the argument where she lay were over by the creature. Kissing it grotesquely, then turning to one another. She could hear grunts, laughter, and shrieks as the men and women groped one another in wild abandon.
How many? she wondered.
Perhaps ten or so…
Her great-uncle Lowell. Who else? Oh god, who else of her own kin would do this to her?
“We’ve little time, MacGinnis!” Fergus Anderson said angrily.
“We’ve all the time we need. They’ve not found this cavern in five years. They’ll not find it now.”
“I still say we get her fine ladyship then, before the knife plunges into her throat!” Fergus grumbled.
“Get away from her!” Lowell demanded. With a sweep of his cloak, he turned back to Shawna, blocking the others from her sight.
Lowell smiled, his face an obscure mask, and absurdly caricaturing her own. His eyes were so familiar. “Ah, Shawna! As to David Douglas. The ruddy bastard didn’t die. No matter. He will.”
“He will die…how many do you need to kill? Uncle Lowell, what are you doing, why are you doing this? I know that you’re not practicing Wicca?—”
He laughed. “The creatures of health and goodness and all the fine sciences of the earth? Nay, lass, I am not one of them.”
“Then—”
He brought his lips close to her ear to whisper. “I’ve laughed so hard! For folks do not see the difference between those gentle practitioners of the earth and those of us who have seen and recognized the true power.”
“True power?”
“Satan!” he thundered to her, looking around. Then he whispered once again. “Lucifer, the great laird of Darkness. Ah, but I find myself so well amused that we may play, rob, debauch, kill…and what strange things happen are laid at the doorstep of the Wiccans! Yet, of course, my means are twofold. I am high priest—and one by one, lass, I will manage to do away with all those who stand in my way.”
“Uncle Lowell, you can’t want to kill me.”
“Ah, Shawna, there, lass, you are sorely mistaken. I always intended you for this night, but I wanted the other girl as well, for her innocence. Still, the laird of Darkness seeks a sacrifice such as yourself, a lusty young maid, as proved, and alas, the world is fully aware of your sins of the flesh—but you are beautiful and young. Your death will bring about power you cannot begin to imagine!”
“Uncle Lowell, you don’t believe that for a moment.”
“You are going to die.”
“You’re mad.”
She, too, was mad, Shawna thought, feeling hysteria growing within her. What if a miracle occurred, and she convinced her uncle he shouldn’t kill her? She was in a cave in the earth, surrounded by his followers. She didn’t know how long she hadbeen here, and she was terrified that she couldn’t be helped. The caverns in the cliffs were endless. David’s selkie’s lair had been one such as this. These wretches had not stumbled upon David’s lair.
And he had not stumbled upon theirs.
“Of course, I’d wanted the child as well for this night in particular,” Lowell said.
Her heart quickened. “What child?”
“Now, Shawna, y’are no fool. Your child. Laird Douglas’s bastard. A child is the best sacrifice to be had. A child of five, precisely, but when you brought the boy to the castle, I knew I dared wait no longer to take him. You should have all died. Eventually, I would have got to the others. Gawain might have expired of old age. Alistair has always been reckless. Alaric might have been a bit harder to kill. Ah, Shawna! Why do you think I let you live after the fire? To bear the child, so that I could nurture the boy to the right age, lass. I let you live all the time after because I wanted you to die with your son, the last of David Douglas and Shawna MacGinnis, their offspring, all together. The land should have been mine. All of it. Douglases never cared for it right. And as for MacGinnis property, I was the youngest son, but the strongest. When you create a cult such as this one, you accrue yourself followers who will do any deed for you. And eventually, you gain all that you want. But as for tonight, well, it will not be all I wanted. Douglas stole the boy from me. And as I said, an innocent maid is quite good, but you cost me young Sabrina as well. Yet what you have cost me can be repaid with your blood, my dear. I’d hoped to slay you at the stone—that would have been fitting. But you are the MacGinnis. And you must be slain properly. There was no time at the stone. But here…well, here, the ceremony will be far more complete.”
She realized that Lowell had been a part of her life, and a part of the lives of every member of her family. They had lovedhim. He was one of them. But he’d meant to kill them all and claim both MacGinnis and Douglas land for his own. “They will be looking for me right now!”
“Perhaps. They’ll never find you.”