Beauty and the Beastly Highlander by Kenna Kendrick
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Etna!”
The sound of Malina’s voice erupted in the air, forcing Etna’s gaze to search for her in the dark. She sounded so scared and so, so little, and Etna would never forgive herself if she allowed anything to happen to her.
But she was just as scared as Malina. Her heart beat fast in her chest, out of rhythm, her blood pumping in her veins with a viciousness that she had never felt before. She didn’t remember a time when she had been as scared as in that moment, her head swimming with it, her entire body shaking uncontrollably.
And though she feared for herself and her life, it was mostly Malina that she cared about. If she were to die there, then she would make her peace with it. But she could never make peace with Malina’s death.
It wasn’t long before she located her, a small, shadowy figure in the dark eclipsed by a much larger one. Etna didn’t need to see the woman to know who she was. She had heard her voice, crystal clear.
She just couldn’t understand what was happening.
“Mairi,” she said, swallowing as she tried to get her lips to move. Her mouth was dry, her lips chapped, and her tongue unable to form any words. “What are ye doin’? What is happenin’?”
Why does Mairi have Malina? Why would she ever hurt her?
Etna was a clever woman. She could put two and two together, and it didn’t take her long to see that Mairi had been behind the brigand attacks, feeding them information, though she didn’t know how she could have possibly obtained it. Through Lochlan, perhaps, who had been so smitten with her that Etna would expect him to do anything for her.
Though it seemed strange, she could understand that. Maybe she wanted money. Maybe she wanted a different life, and she thought that the brigands were her ticket out of the castle.
But that didn’t explain why she would capture Malina and hold her hostage.
Is she plannin’ to ask the Laird for gold?
Finley would give anything she asked to guarantee Malina’s safety. There was no doubt about that. And that thought gave her hope. If Mairi needed Malina to negotiate, then she wouldn’t hurt her.
The sudden flare of light blinded Etna for a moment. When her eyes adjusted to the newly-lit torches that the men were carrying, she saw that there were many more than just two. There must have been a dozen, at least, she counted, all of them standing around her and Mairi.
And then, when she looked at the other woman, she saw that she was holding a knife to Malina’s throat. The blade glinted against her fragile skin, and Malina whimpered, looking at Etna with wide, pleading eyes.
Panic burst through Etna, her entire body going rigid at the sight in front of her. How could someone be so cruel as to threaten a small child? Etna couldn’t wrap her head around it. She couldn’t believe that anyone, no matter how cruel, could do such a thing.
And she knew Mairi. She had talked to her. She had seen how she acted around Lochlan. Surely, she wasn’t a cruel woman. Etna told herself that Mairi was just desperate or perhaps too ambitious or even confused. She didn’t want to entertain the possibility that she had managed to fool everyone in the castle.
“Mairi, please . . .” Etna’s voice was barely a whisper, but she knew Mairi had heard her from the way that she laughed. She didn’t sound like herself anymore, but rather like a shadow of herself, hollow and devoid of any emotion. There was no joy behind that laugh, no humor in her tone. It was cold as ice, and it made Etna freeze on the spot.
“Mairi, please!” the other woman said, mocking Etna with a high-pitched voice. “Ye still dinna understand, do ye? I thought ye were smarter than this, Etna.”
“Na. I dinna,” Etna admitted. “How could I? Ye’re na the lass that I ken. I dinna even recognize ye anymore. What has happened to ye? Why are ye doin’ this?”
Mairi sighed, shaking her head. “There’s so much that ye dinna ken, Etna. There’s so much that na one kens, but that will change soon. See, me plan has worked perfectly. Ye werena a part of it, though, until verra recently. I suppose ye’re quite unlucky when it comes to that. Had I carried me plan out a few weeks ago, ye’d be safe noo. I wouldna have a reason to kill ye.”
Etna frowned at Mairi’s words, unable to understand a single thing that she was telling her. Why would she ever want to kill her? What had she ever done, other than show her and Lochlan support?
“Do ye truly wish to ken why I’m doin’ this?” Mairi asked, and Etna was quick to nod her head.
“Aye, I do,” she said. “I think that the least ye can do, given the circumstances, is to give me an explanation.”
“Verra weel . . . I’ll tell ye about me plan,” Mairi said. Then, she began to step closer to Etna, dragging Malina along, who stumbled in front of her as she was manhandled roughly. Etna wanted to yell at her to stop. Still, she also didn’t want to give Mairi another reason other than whatever it was she already had to kill either of them. So she remained quiet, trying to will Malina to stay calm with just her gaze, hoping that her eyes would convey what she couldn’t speak.
It’s alright. It will all be alright. Dinna be frightened.
“Me plan has been, from the verra start, to make Finley as miserable as possible,” Mairi said, much to Etna’s shock. She would have never guessed that Mairi would have such a personal motive to hurt Malina. And it also meant that she didn’t want any gold. She didn’t need Malina to be unharmed. If anything, she seemed determined to cause her as much harm as she could, and that thought terrified Etna. “I decided that I would take everythin’ away from him. Everythin’ that he holds dear. Malina, Lochlan, and noo ye.”
Could it be that Mairi is in love with Finley? Could it be that her love drove her mad?
But Etna couldn’t hear any love or even desire in her tone. All she could detect when she spoke about Finley was disgust and hatred, and so she didn’t think that there had ever been anything between them, not even a one-sided attraction from Mairi’s part.
“It’s a shame that I had to involve ye in all this,” Mairi said, though she didn’t sound very regretful. “If ye had only kept yer hatred for Finley, I wouldna have to be doin’ this noo.”
“Na one is forcin’ ye to keep me here or to kill me,” Etna pointed out. “Same for Malina. Ye’re the one who’s makin’ all the choices here, clearly.”
It surprised her, seeing Mairi seemingly be in charge of a group of brigands. But Mairi just laughed, shaking her head once more. “These men dinna answer to me,” she told Etna. “But they did agree to help me as long as I gave them useful information, and that is precisely what I did. Ye’d be surprised at how talkative Lochlan can be when I give him the right incentive.”
Poor Lochlan . . . if Finley doesna kill him, then this will.
Etna realized that Lochlan was a strong man, but he was also sweet and kind and gentle. Sensitive. He was the kind of man who would be broken by such a thing, and Etna knew immediately that he would also blame himself for everything. Even though he wasn’t the traitor, he had been the one who gave Mairi all the information she needed, and Etna knew that it would eat him up alive.
If he survived Finley’s wrath, that was. There was no telling what was happening in the castle. Though Etna hoped that someone would notice Malina’s absence sooner or later, and they would come to find her.
She had been so foolish, going out there on her own. She should have gone to Finley. First, she should have informed him about the situation and allowed him to take the lead, but when she realized that Malina could have been in danger, everything else faded apart from her instinct to protect her. Etna blamed herself for the predicament in which they both were. She should have been smarter. She should have known her own limits.
But she was never good at that in the first place.
“Ye’re makin’ na sense, Mairi,” Etna said. She noticed that Mairi liked to talk, and she decided to use it to her full advantage. As long as they talked, as long as she kept Mairi occupied, she wouldn’t hurt Malina. Perhaps Etna could even stall her long enough for Finley and his men to find them and save their lives.
And besides, she was curious to know what had driven Mairi to such extreme measures, and she was eager to give her a piece of her mind, as well.
“Why are ye doin’ all this?” Etna continued. “I dinna understand. What has Finley ever done to ye? Is it because ye think that he wouldna let ye marry Lochlan?”
Mairi laughed as though the mere notion of it was ridiculous. And Etna had to admit that perhaps it was. Why would she hurt Lochlan too if she loved him?
“I never had any intention of marryin’ Lochlan,” Mairi said. “Dinna ye see? It was all a ploy. I had to get close to him somehow, and sleepin’ with him was the easiest way to do it. Such a fool, that laddie . . . he must still think that I am truly in love with him.”
“Ye certainly did a good job at pretendin’,” Etna said, her tone dripping with bitterness. “I saw ye two with me own eyes. And it seemed to me like ye loved him. Are ye certain that ye have na warm feelings for him at all?”
“Please,” Mairi scoffed. “Do ye think that by appealin’ to my feelings, ye’ll get yerself out of this? I have news for ye, Etna. I dinna have feelings. Na anymore. Everythin’ I had . . . everythin’ I felt, Finley shattered it all. He took everythin’ away from me, and noo I will take everythin’ away from him. He doesna deserve to have anythin’ that brings him happiness. He doesna deserve a daughter or a wife or even a moment of joy, so I will take it all from him.”
Mairi sounded deranged, mad with hatred for Finley. Etna could see her fingers tightening around the handle of the knife until her knuckles turned white, its blade pressing harder against Malina’s throat and drawing another desperate whimper out of her.
“Please . . . dinna hurt Malina,” she pleaded. She would gladly trade her own life for Malina’s. She would let Mairi do as she wished with her if only she let Malina go. “She’s only a bairn, Mairi. She doesna deserve any of this. Ye can do as ye please with me. Ye can kill me right the noo, but dinna hurt her. I’m beggin’ ye . . . let her go.”
Mairi glanced at Malina, who didn’t dare move an inch from where Mairi held her. For a moment, Etna thought that she could see regret in her eyes, but whatever she had seen was quickly gone and replaced with nothingness once more. Etna had never seen such a cold, heatless stare. Mairi was so vicious that she seemed almost inhuman to her eyes, lips curling back into a snarl.
“It’s a shame, I’ll admit that,” Mairi said. “I wish I dinna have to kill the bairn. But look at her . . . she looks just like her faither. She has nothin’ of her maither, does she? She looks just like that bastard. And she loves him oh so much. Ye adore yer Dadaidh, dinna ye?”
Malina didn’t answer Mairi’s question, but Mairi didn’t seem to be looking for one. “And he adores ye,” she continued. “He would do anythin’ for ye. Nothin’ would break him like the wee one’s death.”
“How will ye live with yerself?” Etna asked, her tone suddenly just as sharp and ferocious as Mairi’s own. “How will ye live with yerself if ye kill an innocent bairn? Do ye have na decency? Do ye have na humanity left in ye?”
Mairi remained silent for a few moments as though she contemplated Etna’s question. Then, she took a deep breath, giving Etna a shrug. “I suppose I dinna,” she said, and her reply took Etna by surprise. The point of her questions had been to show Mairi that she was insane and that she couldn’t simply kill an innocent child. She hadn’t expected her to admit that she was a monster. “I wasna always like this, ye ken. I really wasna. Had things happened differently, I would have never dreamt of hurtin’ Malina. It’s somethin’ that I have thought about for a long time, and it was only recently that I decided this is the only way to get what I want.”
“And what is it that ye want?” Etna screamed, her voice already hoarse, as tears began to stream down her cheeks, her eyes burning with them. “What is it that ye want that could possibly make this behavior make sense? What is so important to ye that ye would kill a bairn to achieve it?”
Mairi remained silent for a few moments, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth. Then, when she spoke, her voice was only a whisper. “Revenge,” she said. “I’m prepared to do anythin’ it takes to get me revenge. I’ll burn the whole clan down while Finley watches if I must. I’ll burn the entire world down.”
Etna couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her shocked at how determined and driven Mairi was. The other woman’s gaze never wavered, resolve etched all over her expression.
“If I must kill Malina, then so be it,” Mairi said. “If I must kill ye and Lochlan and Arlene and everyone else, then so be it. I willna rest until Finley has lost everythin’. Until he kens that everythin’ he ever held dear is gone. An eye for an eye, right? If ye kent . . . if ye kent what he did to me . . .”
“Weel, I dinna ken,” Etna said. “So why dinna ye tell me? Explain it to me, and maybe then I’ll understand.”
It was a lie, but she didn’t know if Mairi could tell. She doubted that she would ever understand an act as despicable as threatening a mere child with death.
Once again, Etna’s gaze fell on Malina, and she tried to give her a smile to reassure her, though she was certain that it came out as a pained grimace instead. Malina was crying, too, quietly, bulbous tears streaming down her cheeks. The sight made Etna’s skin crawl, and her insides twist themselves in a knot.
Perhaps I can kill her meself. The brigands might end up killin’ me, but that doesna matter as long as Malina can escape. Mairi is strong, but I’m desperate.
Mairi looked at her then, jaw clenching as she spoke through gritted teeth. “He took away me Anna. He murdered her.”
Etna blinked in surprise a few times before she tilted her head to the side with a frown. Had Mairi been that close to Anna? How could that be? Anna had been the Lady of the clan, while Mairi had been nothing but a maid. What could have bonded them so much that Mairi was willing to do anything it took to avenge her death?
Before Etna could ask a single question, though, she heard the unmistakable sound of approaching hooves, and she smiled to herself.
It’s Finley. He has come for us. He has found us.
