Shoulder the Skye (Skye Druids #2)(26)
Author: Donna Grant
Filip ran a hand through his black hair. “We need to retrace his steps from the last place he was seen and check with those who saw him.”
“That would be Edie and me,” Elodie said. “We had lunch together.”
Scott kissed Elodie’s forehead. “You told me Elias had plans to remain on Skye. I think he’s still here.” He looked at Scott. “Let’s try to find his rental car.”
“On it,” Filip said and hurried from the room.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
There were people in the house—several people, in fact. Bronwyn did not like that. But when they’d offered money, she’d jumped at the opportunity before she thought things through.
She stood among the four strangers, feeling left out in her own home. It wasn’t their fault. Bronwyn had never fit in with groups. Not with Druids, not at the fancy private school her parents had sent her to, and not at the local school. It was like she had been marked to spend her life on the outside looking in from the moment of her birth.
As Elias and his friends talked amongst themselves, she rubbed her thumb over the tips of her fingers, the very ones she had used to grab Elias. It was so unlike her. Yet the despair and torment that had filled his eyes had been impossible to look away from. Or disregard.
She was well acquainted with the bleakness of desolation, the cruelty of hopelessness. Seeing those things in someone else had been like a kick in the stomach. The avalanche of emotions had nearly crushed the strong, virile man who had singlehandedly taken down Sydney and his gang.
And Bronwyn had reached for him instinctively, intuitively. The moment her fingers brushed his, he had taken hold of her as if she were the only thing keeping him standing. No one—not a single person in all her life—had ever made her feel as if she made a difference. Right then, at that very moment, she knew that she had. And she was glad that she had offered him a lifeline.
Then he’d looked at her. Just like at the co-op, she’d become lost in his eyes. He didn’t hide the apprehension and uncertainty he suffered, he didn’t try to conceal his panic or dread. He allowed her to see all of it as if they were friends. Maybe that was why she’d agreed to let him remain and had given his friends access to the manor. Though she was beginning to regret that.
Bronwyn made the mistake of trying to take a deep breath. Stabbing pain cut through her, cutting off her air. She gasped softly, not wanting to draw attention to herself. It felt like a hundred jackhammers were inside her head. As long as she didn’t bend her knee, that pain wasn’t too bad. Her ankle was beginning to throb some, but her ribs were causing the most discomfort at the moment.
No matter how she moved or stood, she couldn’t stop the agony. The more she had to take shallow breaths, the more she felt the need to take a deep one, and each time she tried, she found herself unable to breathe.
Black dots began to edge her vision. She needed to sit. She tried to take a step toward the parlor and the warmth it offered, but her knee wouldn’t hold her. She felt it give. Fear clawed through her as she reached for anything to keep her balance. More darkness crept into her vision as she felt herself falling. Bronwyn thought she heard someone call her name as the darkness took her.
Elias caught Bronwyn an instant before she hit the floor. The momentum carried them both down. He cradled her head in his hand as his knuckles hit the faded rug in the corridor. That was when he felt the heat coming off her.
“Bloody hell,” Finn said. “That was a good catch, E.”
Elias looked at his friends. “She has a fever.”
Carlyle squatted on the other side of Bronwyn and felt her head. “She’s burning up.”
“I saw her sway. I was about to suggest she sit down,” Sabryn said as she and Finn moved closer.
Elias sat up, cradling Bronwyn against him. “She needs a hospital.”
“We’ll take her,” Carlyle said.
But Elias hesitated as he recalled the night before. “I tried to get her to leave last night, but she wouldna. I doona think she can.”
“We’ve seen her in town,” Sabryn pointed out.
He turned his head to her. “I doona think she can leave for any length of time.”
Sabryn’s lips compressed briefly. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“She used blood magic last night.”
“Fekking hell,” Finn murmured in shock as he ran both hands through his thick, dark waves.
Carlyle caught Elias’s gaze. “None of that matters right now. She does. What are her injuries?”
Elias listed them, going over his ministrations. “She didna have a fever before.”
“We have to decide. Take her to a hospital or treat her here.” Sabryn shrugged. “And we have to understand that whatever choice we make might be the wrong one.”
Finn grunted something beneath his breath. Then he said to the group, “It took a lot for her to let us inside, and she barely spoke to us after. I’m not sure we take her anywhere.”
“I’d like to be the sane one here and point out that none of us is a healer,” Carlyle stated.
Elias looked at Bronwyn in his arms. He remembered her urgency the night before, demanding he bring her to the house. It had taken all her will to stay conscious so she could use her blood. He wished he had pushed harder to learn what spell she had used now. Maybe it would have allowed him to make a better decision regarding her life.
“Elias?” Sabryn called.
He blew out a breath.
“We could contact Rhona,” Finn offered.
Elias opened his mouth to agree when Sabryn said, “She’ll realize we know Bronwyn. Even if you aren’t here, she’ll make the connection and either look for you or send Frasier to find you.”
“Sorry, mate,” Carlyle said with a twist of his lips. “Every decision has consequences.”
Elias didn’t want to be responsible for such a monumental decision. But he was, and he was thankful that he was here to make it. Happy that Bronwyn wasn’t alone as she would’ve been had he left. He looked at each of his friends. “What can we do?”
Carlyle raised his brows, then turned his head and looked up at Finn.