Midnight's Temptation

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Aisley felt the warm sun on her face, the light flickering even behind her closed eyelids. She opened her eyes expecting to find herself in Hell with Satan waiting with a smile to begin her torture.

Instead, she was in a forest.

She looked down to a dress of gauzy black and bare feet, but the pine needles weren’t hurting her. Aisley was growing more confused by the second.

Off to her right, a stag came bounding through the trees before he slowed to a trot and then stopped. He lifted his head and sniffed the air. The animal proceeded hesitantly before he halted again and lowered his head. When he lifted it, water dripped from his muzzle.

Aisley started toward the stag, amazed when the animal looked at her but didn’t run away. He seemed not to mind her presence.

The loch came into view with the sunlight glinting off the water that was smooth as glass. She smiled and stopped beside the stag.

“It’s so beautiful.”

The animal went back to drinking. Aisley grew bold and skimmed her hand along the stag’s back. His dark red fur was soft and bristly. With one jerk of his head he could gorge her with his antlers. Yet, she wasn’t scared.

Not about the animal, the fact she was somewhere she didn’t know, or that she was shoeless. Why was she shoeless? And why had she expected to be in Hell?

Then she remembered.

“I died.”

Her contentment burst as she thought of Phelan. All her memories of the battle returned. She recalled how gently he’d held her, how wonderful it had been to see his amazing blue-gray eyes looking at her.

It was a memory she would never let go of. Whether she was in Hell or Purgatory, she would hold onto that last memory of Phelan with all she had.

Aisley lifted her gaze and looked across the loch. Her body jerked as she caught sight of the cabin. Phelan’s cabin.

“It can’t be.”

The stag blew out a breath before he turned and walked away. Aisley didn’t follow. She stayed rooted to the spot looking at the cabin and the splash of color from the flowers Phelan had planted.

After awhile she sat, her knees huddled against her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs. She couldn’t figure out why she was there.

It had been the last place she had been happy. Maybe that’s why. Or it could be some trick of the Devil’s. She wanted to swim across the loch, but what awaited her in the dark depths of the water?

For two days she sat there staring, the sun rising and setting without anything bothering her. She didn’t get thirsty or need any kind of nourishment.

When the sky burned a brilliant red and orange from the setting sun on the second day, Aisley stood and walked into the water. Whatever happened to her, she had to try and make it to the cabin.

She dove beneath the water and swam as fast as she could across the expanse. Not once did her muscles tire. All the while she waited for something to grab her feet and yank her down. But nothing did.

Her feet touched ground on the opposite side of the loch and she walked out of the water. Aisley reached back to wring out her hair only to find it dry. Her clothes were dry as well.

“Well, I am dead,” she said to herself.

Her gaze came to rest on the cabin, and she forgot all about her dry clothes and hair. Flashes of her time while at the cottage assaulted her.

The first time Phelan had brought her to his home, the first time she saw him gardening, the first time they’d made love. The first time she realized she loved him.

She didn’t try and stop the tears. She cried for what had been, and what she had lost. She cried for her mistakes, and the one thing she’d done right, which was Phelan.

But most of all she cried because she would never know his touch again.

“Is this my torture?” she screamed.

If it was, Satan couldn’t have gotten anything that would hurt her more.

Aisley angrily wiped away her tears and stalked to the cabin. She took the stairs and threw open the door. But she couldn’t make herself go inside.

It was hard enough standing in front of the cabin. By going inside, she would relive those few glorious days she and Phelan had had as if they’d been the only two people on the face of the earth.

Darkness grew with the last light of the sun falling behind the mountains. Aisley sniffed and lifted one foot. After a deep breath, she stepped over the threshold.

She closed the door behind her and made her way to Phelan’s bedroom. Everything was as neat and tidy as the first time she saw the cabin. She smiled wryly at the times she’d seen him pick up her stuff to pile it together.

Neatness had never been something Aisley managed to obtain. Usually people got angry with her. But not Phelan. He never said a word no matter how many times he tripped over her shoes.

She walked into his bedroom and crawled onto the bed. Aisley lay on her side looking out the large window that faced the loch.

Her time might have been short at the cabin, but the memories had been the best. The mornings waking up to see the magnificent view of the loch and mountains with Phelan’s arms around her.

The evenings when they had made love and fell asleep listening to the sounds of the forest.

Aisley closed her eyes and knew nothing could make her leave the cabin now.

* * *

The flames were licking at Aisley’s feet. Phelan wasn’t sure he could stay and see her body burn. But he couldn’t leave her either.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to need him. Which was absurd because she was dead. Lifeless.

Gone.

Phelan wanted to bellow his anger at the unfairness of it all. Scream at himself for not giving her a chance. How was he going to get through eternity after losing her?

More than that, how could he live with himself for what he’d done to her? He’d turned his back on her and given Wallace the chance to hurt her. After Phelan had sworn to keep her safe.

“This isna your fault,” Charon said.

Phelan fisted his hands that hung limply at his sides. “Ah, but it is. I gave her my word, and then broke it.”

“She didna tell you who she was.”

“I knew her, Charon. I had spent days with her. I should’ve at least given her the courtesy of listening to what she had to say. It was my blind hatred of droughs and being betrayed that prevented it.”

Charon sighed and shook his head. “It’s always easy to look back at something and think what you could’ve done or said differently. But that isna how life works. We are faced with something, and we react.”

“As much as I hate droughs, why is it I’d do anything to have her back?”

“Because you love her.”

Phelan clenched his jaw as emotion swelled through him. “Aye. I love her. And I’ve lost her.”

“Take your vengeance on Wallace,” Charon said. “Make him pay.”

“I intend to,” Phelan promised, fury dripping from his words.

His chest ached and it grew difficult to breathe as the flames reached Aisley. He could barely see her now. Soon the only thing that would be left were her ashes.

* * *

Aisley woke to the sounds of whispering, of a multitude of voices, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying since they were talking over each other.

They began to fade, and she quickly rose from the bed and rushed out the back of the cabin to follow them. They led her into the woods.

Then they began to move faster until Aisley was running to try to keep up with them. She effortlessly jumped over fallen trees and gullies.

With the sunlight filtering through the trees, the birds singing, and the trees swaying in the wind, it felt as if Aisley was in a magical forest.

With her long gown gathered in her hands to help her move easily, Aisley found herself smiling the deeper into the forest she went.

She began to hum as she ran after the voices. It took her awhile to notice her humming matched that of a distant sound of drums. She stopped in her tracks, her heart pounding, because she knew those drums. They were from the ancients who had spoken to her the last time she was in the forest.

The same ancients that had helped her find the spell to contain the selmyr.

“Aisley!”

She jumped at the sound of her name from the voices. Suddenly, they surrounded her. They began to all talk at once again, growing louder and louder until she had to cover her ears.

A hand softly touched her shoulder. Aisley jerked her head around to find a woman of incandescent beauty standing before her. She had thick black hair and fawn-colored eyes. Aisley would’ve sworn she was looking in a mirror if it wasn’t for the fact the woman’s skin was several shades lighter than her own.

“Hello, Aisley,” the woman said.

Aisley’s hands dropped from her ears. “Who are you?”

“A very distant relative. I’m the one who trapped the selmyr the first time. You were amazingly brave to face them.”

“You.” Aisley paused and swallowed as she tried to wrap her head around what she was seeing and hearing. “How do you know what I did?”

The woman smiled. “We’ve been watching you. We always watch the Druids, mie and drough alike.”

“Where am I?”

The woman frowned. “I thought you knew. This is the place you brought us.”

“I brought you?” Aisley asked incredulously. “I thought I was brought here.”

“Nay, sweetling. But wherever this place is must mean a great deal for you to be here now.”

Aisley looked around and thought of Phelan. “It means everything.”

“You made a noble sacrifice in taking the magic meant to kill Phelan.”

“I’d do anything for him. I just wish I’d have met him earlier in my life. Maybe then I wouldn’t have made the wrong choices.”

“It’s those choices that led you to him. Just as his choices led him to you. To change the past would change the outcome of the future. Is that what you really want?”

Aisley shook her head. “Never. I don’t want to forget a single moment of my time with him.”

“And what of Jason?”

“He needs to die,” she said calmly. “He has an agenda that doesn’t help Druids, but hurts them. He may not be killing Druids for their magic as Deirdre did, but he’s using them just the same.”

The woman nodded sadly. “Aye, child, he is. Without Druids, the magic of the land could fade.”

“Could?”

“There are still magical beings out there. You’ve already seen one and learned of another.”

“Dragons and Fae.”

“Aye. They help to keep the magic alive. But Druids play an important factor in all of it.”

“Are those the only magical beings?” The woman merely smiled, which was all the answer Aisley would get. So she tried another question. “Why are you here?”

“You’re my descendant. It’s my right to be able to talk to you.”

“How long can I remain here before I must go to Hell?”

The woman’s face crumpled into a mask of pity. “Oh, sweetling, I thought you realized. Satan lost his hold over you.”

“What?” Aisley asked and took a step back, her words too crucial not to need to hear them again.

“You might have undergone the drough ceremony, but the moment you forfeited your own life to save another, the Devil lost his claim to your soul.”

Aisley took in a deep breath and looked around. “So I’m in—”

“Heaven,” the woman finished. “You can stay here if you wish.”

That made Aisley frown. “What do you mean I can stay here?”

The woman smiled, making her face glow. “As my descendant, you also inherited a very special gift I had, Aisley. Have you ever heard of the phoenix?”

Aisley numbly nodded her head.

“You can rise from your ashes, sweetling. It’s your choice. Remain here, away from Wallace, or return to Phelan’s side and continue fighting.”

“What if Phelan doesn’t want me?”

“Will that stop you from fighting against Wallace?”

“No.”

She gave a nod of approval. “I didn’t think so. So what will it be?”

Aisley looked around the forest before her gaze returned to her ancestor. “Will I be able to talk to you again?”

“I’ve spoken to you many times. I’m part of the ancients, and I’ll always watch over you.”

“Then I want to go back.”

“Good choice, sweetling.”

She closed the space between them and hugged her. Aisley didn’t have any family left. The one before her, an ancient, was all she had, but she wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass her by without feeling a part of something.

“Thank you,” Aisley whispered.

The woman returned her hug and squeezed her. “Follow your heart. It won’t lead you wrong. Oh, and one more thing, time moves differently here. It’s only been eight hours since you died.”

“Yet two full days have passed here.”

“I know,” she said. “Now, close your eyes and think of regenerating.”

Aisley did as she asked, and within seconds she could taste the fire in her mouth, feel the ash swirling around her. Pure, unadulterated, beautiful magic flowed through her.

The magic swirled around her mixed with fire and ash. She’d never felt so powerful or so strong. And it was just the beginning.