“I snuck past a sleeping guard into the weapons chamber,” she replied, pride in her voice.
“Ye should nae have taken such a risk,” William said, fear for her gripping him.
Esther snorted. “That is like telling the lass nae to think of the dangers to herself. All her life—”
“We need to go. Now,” he interrupted. It was true, but he also did not want to know any more personal details about Ada. They made her seem ever more real, ever more alluring.
“Aye, of course,” the woman replied, looking hurt.
Regret rippled through him, which annoyed him. Now he was having soft emotions for some woman he did not know at all? What in God’s name was wrong with him? It felt like some box that’d he’d locked away inside him had been unlatched. He mentally slammed the box shut. “Ada, I need to get the names of the other three lairds who—”
“Laird Bard, Laird Lindsey, and Laird Stone,” she said, as if she had read his thoughts.
“How did ye—”
“’Tis a gut feeling—an overwhelming, nauseating gut feeling.”
He pressed a hand to her cheek without realizing what he was doing until the deed was done. The thought that he should pull away occurred to him, but he wouldn’t. He sensed her need for reassurance, and everything in him compelled him to offer it to her. “Does it hurt ye, this feeling?”
“Nae too much.”
He wanted to cup her face in his hands and brush a gentle kiss across her lips. Instead, he allowed his palm to linger upon her soft, warm skin for a moment before pulling away and looking to Thomas. “We’ll have to split up once we get to Lannrick and Grant.”
Ada swayed beside him, and he slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her soft body against his.
“My lady!” Esther exclaimed.
Maximilian, who’d been quiet, rushed over to them. “Lady Ada, are ye all right?”
Ada shuddered, but nodded.
“Did ye get another feeling?” Thomas asked before William could.
“Aye. Someone is coming.”
William shoved Ada behind him while he drew his sword, but she stepped around him and swung to face him. Placing her hand on his chest, she looked at him, her gaze boring into him. “Ye will nae make it out of here alive if ye dunnae let me go into the woods to meet who comes. They seek me, and if I meet them, they’ll nae come to the cave, and ye can—”
“Nay,” he said flatly, the very notion of allowing her to endanger herself to protect him turning his blood to ice.
She tilted her head back, her eyes pleading. “Ye will save me because ye must do so to save the king. I ken it…here.” She placed a hand on her heart.
“I dunnae give a damn what ye ken—”
“Thomas,” she said, releasing William and turning from him. “Thomas, ye must heed me. Aid me. Ye are the only one who can stop the Steward, the only one who can get close to him and his sons, and if ye die here—”
“Go!” Thomas ordered.
William recoiled at the betrayal, and it cost him precious seconds. He reached toward Ada, but she had gotten just far enough away that his fingers only brushed her skirts as she fled. “Freya, attack!” she called as she moved.
Thomas bounded toward him, and William had every intention of knocking the man down with all the murderous rage he felt, but suddenly Freya plowed into his legs with such shocking strength that he was propelled forward into Thomas, who swept William’s legs out from under him. He landed hard on his back, all the air rushing from his lungs. For a moment, he lay stunned, listening to Hella whimper and feeling her lick his face. When he finally managed to shake off the daze, he turned his head to glimpse Ada disappearing into the woods above them with Freya fast on her heels.
