‘What use would it be if we can’t leave the circle?’
‘It means I’d at least die with a weapon in my hand, like a warrior should.’
Lachlan gave him an incredulous stare. ‘What kind of attitude is that? I havenointention of dying today, thank you.’
‘Stop bickering,’ Bryce growled over his shoulder. ‘Or I’ll shut you up myself.’
That gave Lachlan an idea. An insanely risky idea.
Shifting slowly so that Bryce wouldn’t catch the movement, he palmed a hand to his back pocket and slipped Fionn the athame knife. ‘Hope you know how to use it,’ he murmured.
Fionn sat up straight, suddenly alert and assured. Ready to fight. ‘What’s your plan?’
‘To piss him off,’ Lachlan whispered, holding onto his jittery nerves. ‘To draw him close. So he’ll make a mistake.’
‘Dangerous. I like it.’
Bryce was still moving candles around, an activity that looked like nervous agitation rather than fine-tuning. Lachlan took a breath and announced loudly, ‘I didn’t take you for a coward.’
Bryce went still, twisting slowly to face him again with a cool expression. ‘Careful, lad,’ he warned, with some semblance of his old conversational tone.
‘I’ve been around long enough to know what fear looks like. You’re afraid,’ Lachlan went on resolutely. Bryce’s jaw twitched. ‘Afraid of dying. Afraid of your sister. You say you outsmarted her but all you’ve done is run away. It’s all you’ve ever done.’
‘Fine talk for a monster who buried his head in the silt for three hundred years,’ Bryce retorted. ‘Hiding yourself, wasting away. You could have been fearsome! Owned that loch, if you chose!’
Lachlan closed his mouth, furrowing his brow. He realised something Bryce didn’t understand. Bryce thought Lachlan had led an empty life. He couldn’t comprehend the richness of a mundane existence: the extraordinary complexity of human connection to be found over an ordinary cup of tea. What had Bryce been doing, all these years?
‘You’re the one who was hiding,’ Lachlan said gravely. He stared Bryce down, acknowledging for the first time that he and Bryce held a shared experience three centuries in the making. ‘I faced myself every day. But you? You’ve lied to yourself while betraying your own family. You’ve wasted your life, fixated on only one goal. What purpose do you have, outside of extending your own pitiful existence?’
Fionn cast him a side-long glance that asked,Is this part of the plan?
Lachlan hadn’t intended to make a soul-searching speech, but it was certainly hitting a nerve for Bryce.
‘Fool,’ Bryce rasped, stepping toward the circle. ‘What greater purpose is there than attaining power?’
‘But you have none now, right?’ Lachlan cut in, a little too brightly. ‘You said you’d been cut off. Do you need Walker magic in the world just to survive? You look weak, Bryce. I think you’re dying.’
He misjudged just how badly Bryce would take it. Bryce lunged across the circle, one fist already encased in flame, and launched a cone of fire at Lachlan’s face.
Fionn pulled Lachlan down just in time. They rolled to the edge of the circle, then Fionn jumped to his feet and swiped at Bryce with the knife. Bryce wasn’t caught so off-guard this time and deflected him with another spout of fire. It singed Fionn’s hair as he dodged away.
‘Oh, shit,’ Lachlan panted as Bryce geared up for another attack. The man looked winded, but he was driven now by fury rather than reason. The edge of the circle itself erupted into flame where Fionn had backed off. He brandished the athame, which looked no match at all for Bryce’s magic.
Bryce stiffened, swivelling to look at the cave entrance. A distant roaring sound that Lachlan had barely registered was suddenly very close. It sounded like the roar of an engine—a motorbike.
Lachlan’s heart rocketed, desperately hoping even though he knew it was impossible for it to be Cam.
It practically stopped in his chest when a bright headlight flooded the cave, and in rolled a black Matchless G50 straddled by a ferocious, sexy, and above allfucking incrediblewitch.
Cam revved the engine, locking eyes with Lachlan over the flaming circle. Good god, he looked heroic as fuck and Lachlan was all here for it.
To Lachlan’s shock, he saw veins of blue fire coiling over the skin of Cam’s Scorched arm. He had his magic back? Was it safe?
Cam’s gravelly voice cut through the pressure-cooker haze. ‘This ends now, Bryce.’
Chapter Fifteen
Cam swung off the Matchless and squared up to Bryce—forcing his attention away from the circle in the middle of the cave, and his captives. The flames around Lachlan and the Minchman died down. Cam stole a quick glance over Lachlan. A bruise was blooming on his left cheekbone, but his eyes were bright with resolve and he seemed otherwise unhurt. He was remarkably composed, given that Bryce had been about to drain the life from him.
