Ghosts of Culloden Moor 01 - The Gathering Read online

  “Prove ourselves how?” Wyndham asked.

  “An act of valor. A single brave act.”

  Number 68 laughed and looked about him. “The rare damsel in distress doesn’t seem to be out tonight. Or would you have me go back to the battle and try harder to kill an extra government man?”

  The joke earned him only weak laughter as the lot of us still hoped for further details.

  “Ye’ll be sent away for yer quests. Each quest suited to the man.” She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Ye’ll be alive again, Cooper,” she told 68. “Blood will run through yer veins with no holes for spilling out again. With only a day or two, at most, ye’ll have to perform an heroic deed—a truly heroic deed. Only then will ye be granted yer boon. And after yer boon, ye’ll find little reason to come back to Culloden.”

  The gathering had fallen silent the moment she’d promised that life would run through our veins again.

  “We’ll feel again?”

  “Be seen again?”

  “They’ll hear us?”

  A dozen questions were shouted at once, but one silenced us all.

  “But will Charles Stuart be able to feel pain?”

  Soni flinched at the query, and though her throat moved visibly with a difficult swallow, she didn’t look away.

  “Yes.”

  With the important question asked and answered, silence settled around us. On any other day, we would have slipped back into our resting places, but I assumed other minds were reeling as mine was. And even if we had been able to clear our heads, I doubted we could have walked away due to the pulling force Soni still held over us.

  We were obliged to stay, but we wouldn’t have left for the world.

  And still, 79 sat upon the Cameron marker…

  CHAPTER SEVEN: First

  We knew the devil and his demons were out there, stalking the perimeter of our holy soil like a pack of wolves. And now, Soni was going to send us away from safe ground. So I asked her how she could expect it of us.

  “The devil will have no right to you. I swear it.”

  32 snorted and it won him a few dirty looks.

  “This is our lass,” I pointed out. “I trust her word.” Though it wasn’t strictly true. It wasn’t her word I counted on. I trusted she wouldn’t send me to Hell if that was at all within her control. But I did trust the way I’d felt the moment her father had pulled his car onto the property with a three-month-old babe inside. My trust came from the small voice in my head that had announced that this…this lassie touched my destiny.

  And now, here she stood, asking for my leap of faith.

  She sighed and smiled into my eyes—a little wink of gratitude for daring to speak up. “Well, Lachlan MacLean. Will ye be goin’ first, then?”

  Revenge.

  “Aye.” I was more ready than I realized, and a wee bit embarrassed that I’d held onto that bit of rough land as long as I had. But my steadfastness was about to be rewarded—when my knuckles introduced themselves to a certain laddie’s face for leaving us leaderless back in 1745. Just the thought of it had my anticipated blood a’ boiling.

  I stepped forward and the others moved aside, all but 32 who stayed close so he could hear what was said.

  “Ye’re a brave man, Lachlan,” she said. “Ye were brave long ago, and ye’ll be brave yet. I have great faith in ye. When ye’ve accomplished yer noble deed, I’ll come and give ye what ye most desire. But not until then. Do ye ken?”

  “Aye.” I nodded and braced myself. Nothing stirred on the road, so apparently I wouldn’t be traveling by car. “Where do I go?”

  She closed her eyes and raised her arms high. “Ye’ll see, my friend. And God go with ye.”

  The white fire, the green ring, and Soni were suddenly taken away. Or I was. I no longer felt the ground beneath my feet, no longer felt the presence of my brothers at my shoulder. But I did feel something.

  In fact, I felt everything. My heavy head upon my neck, the strain of muscle pressed against the inside of my skin. My ears grew warm with blood. A pounding heart beat rapidly in my chest. Concentrating on my belly, I felt no wound, no pain. But I dared not wiggle my fingers for fear I would awake from this wondrous dream—like a dream of flying, I wanted not to wake and find myself tethered to the ground again.

  Then suddenly, I was.

  THE END

  Watch for LACHLAN, coming in July.

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  About the Author

  L.L. Muir lives on the Utah side of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and family. She appreciates funny friends, a well-fed campfire, and rocking sleepy children.

  A disturbing number of plain M&M’s were consumed while writing this opening to the Ghost of Culloden Moor series.

  If you like her books, be a sport and leave a review. You can reach her through her website— www.llmuir.weebly.com , or on Facebook at L.L. Muir.

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