Free “He had two blades,” Keenan said by Editor

sleep would rejuvenate her. She let the flow of magic die away and tucked the stone into her pocket. Serena surrendered to exhaustion as she lay down next to William’s pallet, her eyes moving involuntarily to the mountain in the corner.
    The fire snapped behind her, shooting red splashes of light across the back wall. The mountain of sleeping warrior had moved. Firelight and shadow sliced across Keenan’s face, his eyes open, unblinking, assessing. Serena’s breath hitched in her chest as the warrior stared. How long had he been watching?

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
    Keenan pushed them hard through two more nights, stopping to rest during the day. The Romany lad seemed to be stable. Serena continued to pour drinks down him. Keenan watched closely. Since he’d found her talking to trees in the clearing and seen her violet eyes in sunlight, he had tried to keep his distance. Which had been impossible, since they rode the same horse.
    She rode snug up against Keenan over the dark windy moors and through the narrow paths that lead to his homeland. Her head lay back nestled below his shoulder over his heart. She hadn’t moved, and her gentle breathing told him she had fallen asleep. His arm tightened to better support her soft body. He breathed in the scent radiating from her and stared out into the starry night as the clouds chased one another across the open sky.
    “She must be the one,” he whispered. The tightness in his chest made it hard to breathe. She was the witch in the prophecy, and he was bringing her home to his brother. As he should.
    When they reached the western Highlands, Keenan bade them sleep the rest of the night in a familiar glade of trees. They would travel the rest of the way by daylight. He purposely settled Serena across the fire from him. Distance, he needed distance to erase the feel of her soft body and alluring smell from his mind.
    Keenan woke to the sound of light footsteps on the stone strewn path next to their crude camp. Dawn was just a dim light to wash the east silhouetting the spine of a mountain range. Serena disappeared into the shadows of the trees onto the moors beyond. Perhaps she only sought some privacy. But she could get lost on the moors in the darkness or twist her ankle on the spongy peat.
    Keenan rose. William slept across from the gray remains of their small fire. Robert slept propped up against a comfortable boulder. They didn’t stir as Keenan moved noiselessly past them, past the boulder, past the copse of trees at the edge of the moor. Serena walked slowly several yards ahead of him.
    “Serena, where are ye roaming to? Ye should still be asleep,” he called loud enough that she should have heard him easily above the gentle breeze that skidded constantly across the land. She continued without slowing, without a backwards glance.
    “Serena lass, stop. Ye could fall,” he said louder, his voice sounding like a shout in the quiet so pronounced just before dawn. Still she walked. He looked behind him at the dawn edging the mountain range. She walked west, directly west. She said that she tended to sleepwalk the farther north she traveled. One of her oddities.
    In a slow jog across the spongy earth, he caught up to Serena. He stopped in front of her. She walked on. Her eyes, half open, did not register him at all. Her tangled mass of hair caught the glow of sun as it topped the edge of the world behind her. She breathed slowly, her lips parted as if she slumbered.
    “Serena.” He stood directly in her path, and she walked right into his chest. He gripped her shoulders and stooped to look into her half closed eyes. “She’s still asleep,” he murmured and shook her softly. No change. He stepped aside and Serena began to walk again.
    Stepping along her side, Keenan turned her to the left. In her sleep, Serena squared herself to the west, and continued. Keenan looked out over the vast moor, west toward the sea. What lay in the direction that pulled at her?