Highlander's Heart: A Scottish Historical Time Travel Romance (Called by a Highlander Book 3) by Mariah Stone

Author:Mariah Stone [Stone, Mariah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stone Publishing
Published: 2020-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

When the mouth shall be closed,

When the eye shall be shut,

When the breath shall cease to rattle,

When the heart shall cease to throb.

When the Judge shall take the throne,

And when the cause is fully pleaded,

O Jesu, Son of Mary, shield Thou my soul…1

The fight began. Ian’s opponent launched at him in a flash of golden hair and white flesh, with overwhelming power, like a battering ram. It took Ian all he had to not get killed. And even more, to wound his opponent. He didn’t want to kill the man. They were not enemies, not by choice. They were both victims of bad luck, forced to fight against each other.

He slashed the man’s thigh. The wound wouldn’t bring death but was enough to immobilize him.

The man fell, clutching at his leg. Ian stood above him, panting. He’d expected the gates where he’d entered to open again and for him to be allowed to go back to the barracks.

But the crowd yelled. Their voices livid, men stood and waved their arms at him, urging him to act, to do something. Ian glanced at the caliph, the man in a white robe and a white turban, the only man sitting immobile. The caliph had a satisfied half smile on his face. He raised one hand, his ringed fingers glistening with gold and jewels, and archers appeared on the roofs of the buildings that were the perimeter of the courtyard, their arrows pointed at Ian.

The caliph said something in Arabic, which, as Ian later found out, meant that only one man would leave that courtyard alive that day. And it was up to Ian who that would be.

Then the caliph made a gesture of cutting his throat with his index finger.

That was enough to understand. Ian looked down at the giant, who was trying to rise but failing. His teeth bared in a terrible, desperate grin, he waved his sword helplessly at Ian, but Ian only stepped aside.

He had to kill the giant or be killed himself.

Understanding hit him like a cold shower.

It was one thing to fight for his clan, for his family, for the people he loved, for the cause he believed in.

It was another to kill people who hadn’t done him wrong. To kill them because a man with gold and jewels on his hands told him to.

To kill them to buy his own life.

The caliph cried a word, and the archers pulled the strings of their bows back.

Ian couldn’t hesitate. It was either his life or the blond man’s.

“O Jesu, son of Mary, shield my soul,” Ian whispered and slashed the man’s neck with his sword.

The spectators erupted in cheers. Some were happy, others angry. The archers disappeared. The caliph met Ian’s glance and gave a barely noticeable nod, his face impartial and still.

Ian shook himself like a dog, shaking off the memory. He looked at Kate who eyed him with concern and compassion. The words poured out of him, painful and yet cleansing, like opening a rotting wound and cleaning it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.